Early October provided the Robson Community School Grade 6 and 7 class an opportunity to contribute to the community in a positive way.

Under the guidance of their teacher, Ms. Stienstra and a host of volunteers from the Friends of Parks and Trails, students learned about invasive plants, cooperated to improve the walking trails and learned from Dr. Peter Wood about some of the creatures and plants that live in and around Waldie Island.

“Waldie Island is so beautiful and has many interesting insects, like wolf spiders, blue herons, squirrels, wax wings, geese, yellow finches and pollinators. I can’t wait to walk the trail again,” said Leanne.

Zach stated that the burdock was “gnarly” because they were really hard to get off of clothes and hair.

Sarah Munier has been the trail leader for several years now and was in charge of the groups that learned about the problem burdock and other invasive plants can cause and how to illuminate them.

“We took giant clippers and cut out the plants and put them into a huge pile which would eventually be burned,” commented Max, “personally I loved volunteering and after winter I want to start volunteering with them; the kids had a blast!”

Zak stated that he personally enjoyed the trail building with Lawrence and Ben Redfern, because he got to shovel, wheel barrel and rake dirt onto the trails, but his least favorite was the burrs.

“I got covered from head to toe! We had a fantastic trip to Waldie Island, we did so many awesome things.”

Angela Grant, a parent volunteer, made sure kids had their hot lunches after a morning of hard work.

Rhyan added that “we helped to build trails for the whole community to enjoy”.

“Living in the Kootenays provides us with the opportunity to discover, and we are learning to make a difference where we live”, said Mackenzie.