The Friends of Uplands Park invites you to bring family and friends to help with the restoration of the Garry Oak Ecosystems in Uplands Park. Native plants will be planted where invasive plants have recently been removed. Bring gloves, shovels and dibbles. Some tools will be available and refreshments too.
Meeting Place: Uplands Park sign on Beach Drive
Time: 1 – 3:pm
Date: Sunday, October 25-2015.
Comments Off on Help Plant [and learn about] Native Plants at Uplands Park Oct 25, 2015
Posted in Uplands Park Ecological Stewardship
If you have not already seen Oak Bay’s Fall 2015 Active Living Guide, FOUP’s 2015 Fall events & programs are featured on page 86. And.. on page 1, the Mayor’s Message acknowledges the work and accomplishments of all the many FOUP volunteers. See: https://www.oakbay.ca/parks-recreation/programs/active-living-guide. PDFs attached. 3program-guide-f2015-mayors-message and 3program-guide-f2015-parks [FOUP Fall Program]
Also, the original watercolour by Briony Penn, of the Uplands Park Seasonal Wheel that highlights the new Uplands Park Kiosk, is now hanging in the lobby of Oak Bay’s Municipal Hall.
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Posted in Broom Bashing Events, FOUP Participation at Community Events, Information Kiosk, Tree Appreciation Day, Uplands Park Ecological Stewardship, Uplands Park Sign Project
Bring your friends, family, loppers, pruners and gloves to help the endangered Garry Oak Ecosystems of Uplands Park! No experience needed and tools will be provided for those in need. Refreshments.
Sunday February 15, 2015 and Sunday February 22 [1 to 4 pm]
Meet at the lower parking lot of Cattle Point
Comments Off on Uplands Park – February 2015 Events to Remove Carpet Burweed, Ivy & Daphne
Posted in Ivy Removal, Uplands Park Ecological Stewardship
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Friends of Uplands Park (FOUP) Steering Committee Agenda Topics
(February 2013 Meeting)
Items on the agenda include welcoming new FOUP Steering Committee member Ben Clinton-Baker, HSP grant to Oak Bay Parks for invasive species management at Uplands Park, Uplands Park Kiosk update, GOERT partnership, carpet burweed patrol at Cattle Point, public event at Windsor Park Pavilion April 16, 2013 (7:00pm) on the Heritage of Uplands Park, Uplands Park Spring 2013 Celebration on May 5, Spring 2013 Nature programs in Uplands Park.
If you are interested in being on the Friends of Uplands Park Steering Committee please contact Margaret Lidkea or Kathleen Matthews.
Kathleen Matthews and Margaret Lidkea
Co-chairs of FOUP
(NOTE: January 2013 meeting rescheduled to February 2013)
The front page article in the Dec 19th, 2012 issue of the Oak Bay News, features the work being done by the Monterey Middle School students, to remove invasive species on Anderson Hill. The article is titled Ecokeepers care for the land and can be read at http://www.oakbaynews.com/news/183987081.html. Congratualtions to MArgaret, who has been active in working with the students. The Friends if Uplands PArk has provided tools for the students and Margaret is their expert mentor and champions the work of these students. The caption under the front page photo reads:
“Monterey middle school students Quinton Wilson, left, Wyatt Geisbrecht and Jonathan Noone work mulch on Anderson Hill Park as they conduct an experiment working with the municipality’s parks department to control invasive plants. A group of approximately 21 students cleared gorse and broom in a select spot and then covered it with layers of newspaper and mulch in a technique called lasagna. The group will find out in the spring if their experiment works by keeping the unwanted plants from the sun and having the camas cover the area instead.”
Also:
“The project will continue in the spring with the help of volunteers Christina Johnson-Dean and Margaret Lidkea, as well as the district of Oak Bay, which provided the leaf mulch.”
Margaret, on behalf of the Friends of Uplands Park, has been so active in collaborating with the group of community members looking after Anderson Hill’s Garry Oak Meadows. Congratulations Margaret, and THANK YOU.
Update on volunteer activity in Uplands Park, from Margaret Lidkea:
BROOM BASH on October 20 and 21:
107 PEOPLE CUT DOWN BROOM, IVY, DAPHNE AND INVASIVE EUROPEAN ASH! Included were over 50 Girl Guides and families with 107.5 volunteer hours, 4 groups of UVic students and many concerned community members. Total volunteer hours is 225.5. See photos from Oct 2012 Broom Bash here
TREE APPRECIATION DAY on November 4
About 60 people, including 28th Girl Guides, the 1st Trefoil group, and other community people participated in the Oak Bay Parks 3rd annual Tree Appreciation Day at Uplands Park, learned how to plant trees, shrubs and acorns properly and went on a nature walk with Kathleen Matthews. The 28th Girl Guides carried and dragged the biggest Garry Oak tree sapling and planted it in the hole where the previous Girl Guide tree was planted 2 years ago. It turned out to be an English oak, so we needed to replace it. The English oak will be replanted elsewhere in Oak Bay. The girls then planted camas, nodding onion and Hooker’s onions around the base of the tree. THANK YOU 28th Guides!
Other volunteers helped with the planting of Garry Oak and Arbutus trees, Indian plum, Ocean spray, Red-flowering currant and native hawthorn bushes and native onion bulbs, camas bulbs and camas seeds in the area to the right of the new Uplands Park sign. Several invasive European elm trees were removed in that area, so it is a good practice to replant with native species asap. Next year the area on the other side of the Uplands Park sign will be the site of the Tree Appreciation Day. THANK YOU to all who participated and supported our invasive removal and restoration events.
Photo by Margaret Lidkea.
Photo by Kathleen Matthews. More photos here.
Margaret Lidkea and Kathleen Matthews, Co-Chairs FOUP
There was a great & hard working turnout for Tree Appreciation Day on Sunday November 4th, and the weather was so perfect. Oak Bay Tree Appreciation Day is an annual event, arranged and hosted by the Oak Bay Parks Department. This year, Tree Appreciation Day activities took place at Uplands Park, in collaboration with the Friends of Uplands Park, and with many community volunteers. In preparation for Tree Appreciation Day, Oak Bay Parks removed a number of Elm trees that were growing in Uplands Park, along Beach Drive, to the south of the new Uplands Park sign. Elm trees are not native to the Garry Oak Meadow ecosystem and today this area was transformed and replanted with many native plants. We planted Garry Oaks, Indian Plum, Mock Orange, Ocean Spray, Arbutus, our native Hawthorn, and many bulbs associated with Garry Oak Meadows. Mayor Jensen opened the event and Councillors’ Herbert and Kirby, along with members of Oak Bay Rotary, the Community Association of Oak Bay, the Oak Bay Green Committee, the Girl Guides, the new Oak Bay Environment Committee, and many others who were just out for a walk, all pitched in to help with the digging and the planting. Here are some photos:
Friends of Uplands Park - The First Six Years (2010 - 2015) 
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