On April 30th, TLC took part in the annual Highlands May Day Broom Bash, working with 11 volunteers from the Greater Victoria Green Team to clear Scotch broom from Gowlland Tod Provincial Park. Approximately 30 cubic metres of invasive species were removed from the park path, opening up a large area for native species to thrive in once more.
The Gowlland Tod Provincial Park borders TLC’s Highlands Estates Covenants, which protect 13.88 hectares of forested area containing Douglas fir, Arbutus and Western red cedar.
The annual broom clearing event is put on by the Highlands District Community Association and helps clear Scotch broom from the Highlands area by asking residents to cut the invasive species down, piling it on the roadside for later pickup by none other than the inimitable Bob McMinn, the first mayor of the District of Highlands. Thank you Bob for all your hard work in keeping the Highlands beautiful! The Scotch broom is then taken to the nearby Highlands Community Hall, where it is chipped, mixed with manure, and left to become compost for their future community garden. This is only possible as the broom was cut before it set seed, otherwise the compost would only be spreading the invasive species around! So before you go ahead and try this yourself, make sure you have cut broom before or during it’s bloom, which is before it sets seed pods.
Volunteers communed with nature while they fought back against the invasive species, including saying hello to small species like the tiny ladybug that landed on a volunteer’s shirt, the little garter snake that we found while removing Scotch broom, and the large horse that came by with its owner.
On one of the many trips up the hill to deposit the Scotch broom in a pile for later pickup, volunteers found a large bucket filled with ice and delicious juice! A fairy “broom-mother” was looking out for us! This lovely person turned out to be a nearby landowner who was immensely grateful for seeing so many volunteers help eradicate Scotch broom. This landowner had been working tirelessly all that week, removing broom and piling it on the roadside all by herself, so when she saw 14 people join the fight she wanted to give back in whatever way she could. Thank you again for the juice, Denise!
Volunteers spent five hours (minus a lunch break) clearing broom, and what a difference those five hours made – you can see for yourself in the before/after photos. While large swaths of broom can seem so daunting, and make you wonder how you’ll ever take care of it all, days like this remind you that many hands really do make for light work. The psychological aspect of working together cannot be underestimated; knowing that you’re not alone gives you more energy to keep fighting, and the more we fight the better chances we have of winning. As one invasive species expert once said to me, in response to how will we ever get rid of invasive species, “the war has been lost… but there are still battles to be won”. Fight on, fearless warriors! We will fight with you.
TLC’s next restoration event will be Satuday, May 13, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., on our Langvista Covenant near Mill Hill. Find out more at https://www.meetup.com/Greater-Victoria-Green-Team/events/237940933/
Photo credit Amanda Evans.
