Thank you Clean Up Green Up Participants!

Wow - a record number of more than 13,500 people signed up for this year's Community Clean Up Green Up event. That is 5,000 more than last year dedicated to clean up our beautiful City!

 We are proud of Burlingtonians!  Mountains of bags of garbage, recyclables, tires and other bulk items have been retrieved from our parks, school grounds, ravines, creeks and neighbourhoods. Thank you to everyone who participated all week long especially on the cold (and snowy) Saturday morning. City staff will be busy all week long collecting the bags and bulk items and we will post the total amount of litter and recyclables gathered from our communities on our website in a week or two.

Photo: Residents by the Hydro Corridor

Note: please allow city staff the full week to retrieve the many collections across the city. If your collection of litter has not been picked up by April 29th, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to advise us of the specific location you have piled your bags.

Lots and lots of native plants, shrubs and trees have been planted at Beachway Park thanks to a dedicated team of volunteers who braved the cold winds and even hail to get the job done. BurlingtonGreen is extremely grateful to all the volunteers as well as our project partners: Conservation Halton and the City of Burlington who collaborated to achieve this success with a grant provided by the Province of Ontario’s Great Lakes Guardian Community Fund.

Photo: Beachway Park Green Up Team

We are very grateful to this year’s event sponsors who helped to make this big city wide event possible. Thank you to our hospitality sponsors, Tim Hortons and Turtle Jack’s and our media sponsors, TV Cogeco and the Burlington Post. Please check out our event page to discover other generous sponsors, our 6 supply pick up depots and the very long list of citizens, groups, businesses and schools that  participated in this event.

Photo: A Tim Horton's prize winner!

We will be growing our photo gallery on our Green Wall of Fame over the next few weeks to showcase all the terrific community spirit out there. Everyone who participated in the clean up that sends us a photo will be entered into a draw for a chance to win Tim Horton’s gift cards and participating schools will have a chance to win one of two $250 cheques from Tim Horton's to support an eco-action school project!

ATTENTION: 2013 Clean Up Green Up Participants

Please click HERE to share your clean up results and enter for your chance to win!

GREEN UP Beachway Park participants - please click HERE to share your input about the event.

Our display of photos on the Green Wall of Fame will grow HERE.

ou can learn more about the Community Clean Up Green Up Event details, event sponsors, supply depots and participants  by clicking HERE.

Helping Local Habitat !

If you are interested in volunteering for action projects to help the planet, BurlingtonGreen strives to serve as a one stop shop linking volunteers to local opportunities with other organizations to support their valuable habitat stewardship work. Stay connected to Habitat Stewardship available in your community through our BurlingtonGreen Facebook Page, Twitter Account, Events Calendar, Helping Habitat Webpage or sign up to get e-news here.

Throughout 2012 BurlingtonGreen participated in nineteen habitat stewardship volunteer events including:

-      5 marsh planting events with the Bay Area Restoration Council (BARC);

-      4 native species plantings and/or invasive plant species removal events with the Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG);

-      Our own LaSalle Park planting & invasive species removal project as part of Community Clean Up Green Up (funded by Evergreen Canada);

-    A General Brock Park Clean Up & invasive plant removal funded by Evergreen/Molsons “Red Leaf” project;

-    And 8 native species plantings and/or stream restoration events with Trout Unlimited (TU).

Bay Area Restoration Council: After the introduction of Asian Carp into Coote’s Paradise, over 90% of the vegetation in the marsh was destroyed. Each year the BARC hosts at least five Marsh Planting events in partnership with the RBG (Royal Botanical Gardens) in an effort to restore Coote’s Paradise to its former beauty.

Out of all the volunteer opportunities each year the summer marsh plantings are one of the most fun! At many of the events you are able to wear hip-waders, travel out to different areas of Coote's Paradise (sometimes by boat) and build new shorelines out of cattails as well as filling in marshy areas with native trees and shrubs. Our volunteers loved them so much they contributed almost 50 hours of their time to the restoration efforts of Coote's Paradise.

The Royal Botanical Gardens: The RBG manages over 2700 acres of land, and each year hosts a variety of native species plantings and invasive species removal events. This year we participated in four events with the RBG, contributing over 120 volunteer hours helping restore the Long Valley and Spencer Creek Floodplains. Due to our combined efforts, we managed to plant over a thousand wild grasses and flowers, over 500 native species trees and shrubs and removed a significant amount of Invasive Species such as Common Buckthorn and Amur Honeysuckle bushes, Common Privet, Japanese Barberry, and Norway Maple.

        Trout Unlimited: 2012 marked the first year we began working with Trout Unlimited on their Bronte Creek Restoration Project. The work-events consisted of stream restoration (building wing-deflectors, removing human-made dams, clearing out litter/log jams, etc.) and native species plantings along the shoreline of Bronte Creek.

Throughout 2012, we have participated in eight events contributing almost 130 volunteer hours to TU`s restoration efforts. We assisted with the planting of over 3000 native trees and shrubs as well as the work done inside the stream itself. More information about the restoration work as well as some event photos available on their blog here.

Clean Up Green Up Community Planting: On April 20th BurlingtonGreen hosted a Native Species Tree Planting at LaSalle Park as part of our 2012 Community Clean Up Green Up annual event. We had an incredible turn-out with approximately 70 volunteers in attendance and managed to plant just over 350 trees and shrubs. After the planting had been completed we also removed approximately 20-30 full bags of Garlic Mustard 

Our volunteers participated for an average of three hours bringing our total to approximate 210 volunteer hours contributed by BG volunteers to the LaSalle Park Green Up Planting Project.

Molson Red Leaf/Evergreen Canada General Brock Park project:

On August 26, a stewardship event took place at General Brock Park funded by the Molson Red Leaf/Evergreen program. We were joined by 67 volunteers to remove 16 bags of invasive garlic mustard, 4 bags of garbage, 2 bags of recyclables and huge piles of metal fencing, wood and a mountain of brush.

We would not have been able to have had such a productive year if it was not for the help and support of dozens of volunteers, who donated their time and energy. Throughout 2012 we were able to contribute over 500 volunteer hours helping support both our own restoration projects, and the important work spearheaded by various partners.

Be sure to check out our 2012 restoration photo album on our Facebook page here, and feel free to email me, Kale Black (youth@burlingtongreen.org) if you are interested in volunteer opportunities in 2013.

BurlingtonGreen strives to "walk the talk"

BurlingtonGreen strives to "walk the talk" by....

• using clean, green energy in our office;
• printing all our outreach publications on 100 % recycled or FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)certifiedstock with vegetable inks);
• using a green hosting web service;
• hosting low environmental impact events;
  
• carpooling to meetings and events.....and more.

We also host and participate in action opportunities such as:

• Annual City Wide Community Clean-Up Green-Up  event
• Local Stewardship projects
• Event greening and eco-audits and more!

Visit our facebook page for ongoing updates of our action efforts in Burlington communities.

TAKE ACTION !

TAKE ACTION  to support a 'greener'  Burlington and a healthier planet.

Here are just some ideas to get you started:

1.   Save energy and resources by turning off items that use electricity when not in use.

2.   Use low- energy lights and appliances.

3.   Use less water by taking quick showers instead of baths and turning off the tap while brushing your teeth or shaving.

4.   Whenever you can, walk, ride a bike, or use public transportation. When you must use your car, try to carpool.

5.   When shopping avoid purchasing products with wasteful packaging and choose environment friendly products.

6.   Practice the "R"'s - reduce, reuse, repair & recycle.

7.   Eat less meat in your diet - try a complete"green" meal once a week.

8.   Naturalize your lawn and garden. Avoid use of chemicals and plant native trees, shrubs and plants.

9.   Spend time in nature. No doubt you will learn to appreciate it more and be inspired to take action to protect it.

10. Join BurlingtonGreen and support local eco-awareness, advocacy and action efforts to create a healthier city!

Here's more Sustainable Living Tips:

• Sustainable Kitchen
• Water Conservation
• Sustainable Home Care
• Energy Conservation
• Earth Friendly Gardening
• Natural Recipes for Home Care

Please visit our Contact us page to let us know of an eco event you would like us to post to promote and to attract volunteer support.

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Say NO to junk mail

A simple step that can make a difference to help the environment.....Are you tired of receiving all that unwanted mail and flyers in your mailbox each day?  Do you want to take action to protect our trees and forests?

Saying NO to receiving unwanted mail is an easy step you can do.  Follow the Red Dot Campaign tips and Canada Post's, Green your mail tips today!