Submitted by Nigel Peck

For anyone interested in keeping in great physical shape and also helping to improve a local park as well as the environment – have we got an opportunity for you.

We need your help!  Nature Vancouver and local volunteers have worked for the last nine weeks to clear an area of shoreline in New Brighton Park from hundreds of invasive Himalayan Blackberry bushes. This is in preparation to plant the area with native grasses, pollinator friendly perennial flowers, shrubs and roses which will enhance the park, promoting a more diverse habitat for birds, butterflies, bees & other insects.

If you would like to have great no-cost two-hour workouts through pickaxe blackberry root digging over the next couple months in a lovely little park, working with great people, please come and help. 

This is the 2nd stage of this part of the New Brighton Restoration Project. The first stage was to cut hundreds of blackberry clusters to about a foot high. 

We now need your help is to dig out as much of each root system while leaving as much of the surface vegetation in place. Once this is done, planting of native flora starts in April or May. 

For family and friends wishing an easier way to help, we can offer the pulling out small Himalayan Blackberry, Scotch Broom and Bull Thistle just sprouting – while you ‘go at it’ at the blackberry clusters.

The NB restoration project is a collaboration between Nature Vancouver, the Vancouver Park Board & the Port of Vancouver.

This project is volunteer driven and fueled by word of mouth. So come, help us & get some great conditioning in the process. For more info email: nigel@naturevancouver.ca   

Happy digging!