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Green Team removes ‘31 bathtubs’ worth of invasive plants from White Rock’s Ruth Johnson Park

Lower Mainland environmental stewards plan to return to White Rock twice more this summer
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The Lower Mainland Green Team and students from Bayridge Elementary spent Tuesday at White Rock’s Ruth Johnson Park, where they removed invasive plants. (Lower Mainland Green Team photo)

The Lower Mainland Green Team was at it again in Ruth Johnson Park this week, this time bringing students from Bayridge Elementary along as the group aimed to clear invasive plants from the White Rock green space.

In total, 77 students in Grades 5-7 help Green Team volunteers with the project on Tuesday – work that included removing five cubic metres of invasive Smallflower Touch-Me-Not plants; in an email to Peace Arch News, Green Team program manager Ashton Kerr noted that the volume of plants removed was enough to fill 31 bathtubs.

Smallflower Touch-Me-Nots, Kerr added, “surface around this time of year and had taken over Ruth Johnson Park.” A small amount of ivy was also removed Tuesday, she added.

As well, before the group set to work Tuesday – which was also National Indigenous Peoples Day – they took a moment to acknowledge the occasion, as well as note that, in Kerr’s words, “we are extremely grateful to be able to run our program on the lands of Indigenous peoples across the Lower Mainland, including those of the Semiahmoo First Nation.

“There are many things that we all can do to contribute to reconciliation, and removing invasive plants so that native plants can thrive is a small way we can do so while also experiencing the mental and physical health benefits of being in nature,” she said, adding that “we all have a responsibility to take care of the environment, especially in times of environmental degradation and climate change.”

The Lower Mainland Green Team will be back in White Rock – and both Ruth Johnson Park and on West Beach – twice more this summer, in both July and August.



editorial@peacearchnews.com

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