A decoration gone wrong got the boot from a Prince George greenspace this weekend as a group of volunteers worked to rehabilitate the Hudson Bay Slough.
As part of TD Tree Days, volunteers removed bagfuls of common tansy, an aromatic plant with yellow, button-shaped flowers and filled the field near 20th Avenue and Queensway with 125 new birch, sumac and aspen trees.
"They're essentially ornamentals gone bad," said Claire Watkins, City of Prince George integrated pest management coordinator.
As a neighbour to a sensitive fish habitat, the rehabbing the planting site was an important project, explained Watkins. The tansy can be toxic to livestock and choke out native plants, since the aggressive species is foreign to the area.
"We're educating people and teaching them about invasive plants and how to spot them for us," she said.
TD Tree Days is a national program created to engage Toronto Dominion bank employees in environment issues. With 83 tree-planting events across the country, about 28,000 plants have been put in the ground this year, said TD Friends of the Environment Foundation coordinator Darrell Randahl.
Since 1990, $280,000 in environmental projects has been invested into Prince George by TD and their clients, Randahl said.
Watkins said she was pleased with the turnout for the Saturday morning event, which saw TD employee volunteers, Mayor Dan Rogers and Coun. Debora Munoz, as well as representatives from groups such as the Invasive Plant Council.
New Prince George resident Iuliana Spac joined in after seeing the tree-planting event advertised on Facebook. The environmental science graduate said she was eager to participate.
"If I see something with trees and plants, I'm like, 'OK,'" Spac said, as she prepared to plant her first two plants. "If I get 10 [trees in the ground], I'll be happy."
