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.
