Masons Magnificent Photo Journal

Restoration work

I’d like to acknowledge the land that I’m on and everything it has taught me. I’ve learned almost everything that I know on these lands and thank the Esquimalt and Songhees nations for letting me live and learn on these lands.

Restoration work and learning about invasive species has been my favourite part about my Swan lake visits.

Introduced species are species that are introduced to an area instead of naturally getting there. Invasive species are a species that don't belong in an ecosystem that cause some form of harm to the area. Not all introduced species are invasive. Some species could be brought into an area and work well with the other plants. Biodiversity is important because it provides everything we need to live in a natural way. We can learn how to share space and not kill a bunch of living things from plants.

The picture above is a blackberry bush that we ripped out of the ground. I like to think of this as a symbiotic relationship between us humans and the plants that were being harmed by this blackberry bush. It is a mutualism relationship because we help the plants by removing this invasive species and the plants continue making air and other stuff for us.

My Name’s Snowberry…

Hello everybody, my name is snowberry. I’m a plant that’s found in North America. Don’t eat my berries though. It will poison you. I do have a lot of good medicinal purposes. My berries can be crushed up and used as a lotion for burns and rashes. My berries are also great for cleaning hair. My roots can be used for stomach problems if you turn them into tea.

Thank you all for listening to what I can do for your medical uses.

This is English Ivy. It is an invasive species. It’s bad for the native plants because it covers them up so they get less sunlight than they need. They’re super annoying to get rid of because if you leave a cut ivy vine it can grow from that. So to get rid of it you have to cut it carefully and fully remove it.

I'm grateful for…

• I am grateful for friends.
• I’m grateful for my family.
• I’m grateful for having food

 on my plate every day.

• I’m grateful for living in

 such a beautiful city.

• I’m grateful for getting a chance

 to be on this planet.

• I’m grateful for everything thing that’s happened

 in my life, even the bad stuff.

Restoration work is important for keeping a natural balance in nature. Without it a ton of ecosystems would be an absolute mess and a bunch of species would suffer. And it’s not even that hard to do. All you need is a bit of research and a pair of hands. And you can make a difference. So everyone reading this get out there and try restoring the natural ecosystems.