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Locations: Baxter Park and Mt Douglas Park
BAXTER PARK
The Baxter Park 'Trees for Tomorrow' event was attended by over 100 adults and children from local scout and girl guide troops and neighborhood schools. 150 native trees including Big Leaf Maple, Douglas fir, Douglas Hawthorne, Red Alder, Trembling Aspen and Garry Oak were planted in four ecosystem representative shrub beds with over 1000 corresponding native shrubs. The District of Saanich received a grant from the ministry of Community and Rural Development 'Trees for Tomorrow' program to plant 150 trees in celebration of BC's 150 Birthday as a Province.
The weather turned out to be beautiful and Minister Ida Chong and Mayor Frank Leonard mixed with the public and had a turn at planting a Big Leaf Maple tree celebrating this event. Thank you to all who turned out for this greening effort and continue to watch and help tend to these new additions to the neighbourhood.
 
You will continue to see school children from Pacific Christian and Glanford schools add 1000 additional native shrubs over the coming months and monitoring these newly planted areas for years to come. Be sure to have a look at the pictures to see if find yourself or someone else from the community."
A special thanks to all our partners for this event including:
Don Mann Excavating (Donation of excavation work), Island View Nursery (Discount on Trees and Shrubs), Pacific Forest Center (Seedlings), Thrifty Foods (Donation of food and drinks for event participants), Ministry of Community and Rural Development (Grant for 150 native trees and 1900 native shrubs), Victoria Natural History Society (Education program for schools), Significant Tree Committee (Organization of media release and delivery of food and drinks) and to all Volunteers who participated in this event planting the trees and shrubs.
MOUNT DOUGLAS PARK
About 30 volunteers and 5 Saanich Parks staff convened at Mount Douglas Park to plant trees and shrubs along Douglas Creek. More than 1000 native plants were grown at the Pacific Forestry Centre especially for this project from seed collected in the park.
Volunteers from Girl Guides, Cubs, Friends of Mount Douglas Park Society and others worked on both sides of the creek and along the upper trails to plant as many seedlings and saplings as they could.
 
As the event was winding down, an excited phone call came: salmon had been spotted in the lower reaches of the creek! The is the first sighting of salmon in Douglas Creek in three years. The return of salmon is rewarding to all those who've worked so hard over the last few years restoring more fish friendly pools and riffles to the much-maligned Douglas Creek. We hope the salmon are here to stay. The new plants will help stabilize its banks and provide shade for these fish and other wildlife.
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