Today, 17 volunteers gathered at the Douglas Fir Teaching Garden for our monthly Invasive Pull (and bonus planting!)
After a nice welcome stretch we headed down the Red Alder Trail, Champlain Heights Trails. After having several days of rain, the sun graced us with its bright beams, shining through the trees.
Volunteers chose whether they wished to help pull invasive plants or plant native species. Free the Fern Executive Director, Grace Nombrado led the “pulling” contingent, while Free the Fern board director, Connie Harvey, led the “planting” contingent.
The City of Vancouver Green Streets Program had kindly donated 97 native plants to us. These plants included Western swordfern, nodding onion, kinnikinnick, blanketflower, selfheal, and Coastal strawberry. We planted half of them in our pollinator garden and the other half on the west side of the Red Alder Trail, adjacent to the Cartier Place housing complex.
Our “pulling” volunteers focused on removing invasive English ivy, which was spreading as a ground cover and choking out the local shrubs. They also helped with emoving two large English holly shrubs, several Himalayan blackberry canes and many armfulls of lamium. In total we removed 960 L of invasive plants!
Thank you to our wonderful volunteers for your amazing effort: Annette, Connie G, Connie H, Do, Eloise, Erin, Gary, Grace, Greg, Jeannine, Jennifer, Julia, Kenny, Liam, Moira, Robin, and Tod.