This is a winning article of a writing contest among teams in the 2014
Bronze Program
A Single Action Can Lead to Extraordinary
Changes
by Jason Choi, Jody Jin, Jeffery Lam, Rachel Man, Joshua Xu, and
Ryan Zou.
Bronze Team A, VISION YOUTH
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| Group photo after the lunch break |
If you so happened to take a stroll at Littles Road Park on the morning
of July 12, 2014, you probably would have passed by a group of young visioneers
and their counsellors diligently pulling out dogweed and removing snails from
leaves. This group of youth dedicated their Saturday morning to help rid the
park of invasive species. Littles Road Park is known for its natural beauty and
lush vegetation. However, invasive species are beginning to populate and damage
this natural habitat. Young trees are dying from being strangled by the
dogweed, and their leaves are home to the snails.
Now, you are probably thinking that this could never impact you, right?
So what if the dogweed and snails destroy the plants? It’s not your problem,
it’ll never harm you..
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| Everybody is working hard |
Actually that’s wrong, it can. As we all know, vegetation produces
oxygen and takes in carbon dioxide, which is beneficial to both plants and
animals, including humans. If the dogweed strangles the trees, it will impact
us and the entire ecosystem. The trees provide shelter to animals that make
their homes in the park, and if destroyed, the animals will be unable to
survive and this will be instrumental to the endangerment and extinction of
biodiversity. This problem is also something that the Littles Road Park, along
with Rouge Valley Conservation Park, is doing their best to protect. Therefore,
invasive species can create a huge environmental detriment on Littles Road
Park.
So what can we do to help? Maybe you can’t come to Littles Road Park
and help dig out the dogweed and the snails; but you CAN change your own
actions that impact the environment. These environmental changes, spreading
from local problems to international issues, from something as small as
invasive species to something as large as global warming, have emerged over the
years since technology has improved and humans’ need for space began to expand
rapidly. We had the power to start this revolutionary change, and now we have
the power to save Earth’s environment as we learn to accommodate with the
plants and animals. It all starts with one single voice deciding to be
eco-friendly, and it has the ability to grow, and to move into an organization
that works to save what little natural beauty we have left.
The Rouge Valley Conservation Park will soon become a national park for
everyone to spend their spare time and enjoy the beauty of nature. The Friends
of the Rouge Watershed are campaigning to add this beautiful patch of nature
into the care of the government, as it resides right on the edge of the
proposed area. If you would like to know more about and contribute to this
cause, you can visit http://www.rougepark.ca or contact Friends of
the Rouge Watershed.
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| The removed Dog Weeds by Visioneers |
The Friends of the Rouge Watershed organized and led this great and
wonderful event for these youth. After all, the youth of today are the future
of tomorrow. So let’s start changing the world today.
