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MEDIA RELEASE: BLPA EcoBlitz-TD Tree Days – October 20, 2019

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Burnaby Lake Park Association Working with TD for an EcoBlitz-TD Tree Days Event

The Burnaby Lake Park Association (BLPA) is excited to announce they are doing their part to mitigate the effects of climate change. They are working with TD to deliver another TD Tree Days event during the annual EcoBlitz, stewardship activities happening across the Metro Vancouver Regional Parks system this month. EcoBlitz events allow community volunteers to actively participate in preserving, restoring, and protecting the natural environment in regional parks, which develops respect, appreciation and enjoyment of the park’s natural attributes.

This year’s TD Tree Days event will take place on Sunday, October 20, 2019, 9:00 am to 12:00 pm at the Lenson Field restoration site, located at the south east end of Burnaby Lake Regional Park near Cariboo Dam.  Since 2018, the BLPA with support from Metro Vancouver Regional Parks staff, has held 12 work parties at the Lenson Field restoration site with over 280 volunteers from Burnaby and neighbouring communities. These hard working volunteers have put in over 760 hours removing over 1600 kilograms (3500 pounds) of invasive species which include English ivy, Himalayan blackberry, and Himalayan balsam. These non-native organisms can alter habitats and often displace native vegetation through competition for water, nutrients, and space.

“Restoring the Lenson Field site has focused on improving the terrestrial ecosystem health. The first step is removing invasive plants. Once established, these non-native species have many negative impacts including creating monocultures which threaten biodiversity and also reduce productivity of soil and water quality,” says Irene Lau, BLPA Chair. “Replanting these areas with a diverse range of native species is better for the native birds and wildlife, and helps the ecosystem to become more resilient to future changes.”

The BLPA has worked with TD to plant 15 different native species on this site. In 2018, they put 400 of these in the ground. This year, over 90 volunteers will plant over 550 of these native trees, shrubs and plants. They include recognisable varieties such as Vine Maples and Sword Ferns. However, the plants are also chosen for characteristics that are valuable in restoration projects such as the Salmonberry. Not only are its blooms one of the first signs of spring, it grows into dense thickets to provide habitat, provide a food source and its deep roots and suckering habits help prevent erosion by holding soil intact.

This event is one of 158 TD Tree Days events taking place across North America this fall. TD Tree Days invests in the health of our urban tree canopies, and offers TD employees, their families, and our community partners, a fun, easy and rewarding way to help green the communities in which they live and work.

Launched in 2010, TD Tree Days is the bank’s flagship volunteer program, bringing together more than 70,000 volunteers in Canada, the US, and the UK to help plant over 394,000 trees. As part of the bank’s corporate citizenship platform, The Ready Commitment, the program is contributing to a new target of planting 1 million trees by 2030. Each season, thousands of volunteers come together to help create a more vibrant planet and sustainable tomorrow.

The Burnaby Lake Park Association was founded in 1972* and has been an active volunteer organization leading stewardship activities that preserve, restore, and protect Burnaby Lake Regional Park’s ecological integrity. They connect people with nature through habitat restoration and enhancement, wildlife monitoring, education and outreach in the community. Its Weedbusters group which started in 2004 was one of the first invasive species removal programs in Metro Vancouver. The BLPA is an advocate for environmentally responsible management of Burnaby Lake Regional Park to ensure it is a legacy for future generations.

To find out more or get directions, please visit www.BurnabyLakePark.ca or contact
Irene Lau, Chair
irene@burnabylakepark.ca

* Founded as the Burnaby Outdoor Education Association

Burnaby Lake Park Association Working with TD for an EcoBlitz-TD Tree Days Event.pdf

DATE:    Sunday, October 20, 2019
TIME:    9:00 am to 12:00 pm
PLACE:  Park at 9157 Avalon Avenue, off Cariboo Road, and follow the signs to Lenson Field

The Lenson Field/Meadow Restoration Site located at the south east end of Burnaby Lake Regional Park near Cariboo Dam. Click here for directions to get to the Burnaby Lake EcoBlitz-TD Tree Days.

BLPA Trail Maps-LensonField

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 Native Species Planted

  1. Acer circinatum – Vine Maple
  2. Acer macrophyllum – Big-leaf Maple
  3. Athyrium filix-femina – Lady Fern
  4. Holodiscus discolor – Oceanspray
  5. Lonicera ciliosa – Western Honeysuckle
  6. Mahonia nervosa – Dull Oregon Grape
  7. Osmaronia cerasiformis – Indian Plum
  8. Philadelphus lewisii – Mock Orange
  9. Polystichum munitum – Sword Fern
  10. Ribes sanguineum – Red-flowering Currant
  11. Rosa nutkana – Nootka’s Rose
  12. Rubus parviflorus – Thimbleberry
  13. Rubus spectabilis – Salmonberry
  14. Sambucus racemosa – Red Elderberry
  15. Tellima grandiflora – Fringecup

The Conservation of Sandhill Cranes in BC

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You’re Invited!

Join us at our Annual General Meeting when we will have guest speaker, Myles Lamont, present about The Conservation of Sandhill Cranes in BC. For more information and to RSVP, click here to visit the Guest Speaker page.

Hope to see you there!

Fall Parksfest Keynote Videos

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Did you attend the Fall Parksfest Keynote in November 2018?

You can view the videos of the presentation by Wade Davis, Professor of Anthropology, UBC  here:

THE SACRED HEADWATERS: THE FIGHT TO SAVE THE STIKINE, SKEENA AND NASS

In a rugged knot of mountains in northern BC lies a spectacular valley known to the First Nations as the Sacred Headwaters. There, three of Canada’s most important salmon rivers – the Stikine, Skeena and Nass – are born in remarkably close proximity. Now against the wishes of many First Nations, the province of BC has opened the Sacred Headwaters to industrial development. For ten years Tahltan men women and children, along with local non native trappers, guides and writers have stood up for the land, and in a remarkable grassroots victory in 2012, Shell Canada withdrew from the valley. The struggle continues and will continue until the entire Sacred Headwaters is protected. The resounding message of the people is that no amount of gold, copper or coal can compensate for the sacrifice of a place that could be the Sacred Headwaters of all North Americans and indeed all peoples of the world.

WADE DAVIS

Wade Davis is a writer, photographer, and filmmaker whose work has taken him from the Amazon to Tibet, Africa to Australia, Polynesia to the Arctic. Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society from 1999 to 2013, he is currently Professor of Anthropology and the BC Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia. Author of 22 books, including One River, The Wayfinders and Into the Silence, winner of the 2012 Samuel Johnson prize, the top nonfiction prize in the English language, he holds degrees in anthropology and biology and received his Ph.D. in ethnobotany, all from Harvard University. His many film credits include Light at the Edge of the World, an eight-hour documentary series written and produced for the NGS.

Davis, one of 20 Honorary Members of the Explorers Club, is the recipient of 11 honorary degrees, as well as the 2009 Gold Medal from the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, the 2011 Explorers Medal, the 2012 David Fairchild Medal for botanical exploration, the 2015 Centennial Medal of Harvard University, the 2017 Roy Chapman Andrews Society’s Distinguished Explorer Award, the 2017 Sir Christopher Ondaatje Medal for Exploration, and the 2018 Mungo Park Medal from the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. In 2016, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada. In 2018 he became an Honorary Citizen of Colombia.