Many Thanks to our Many Volunteers!

This week is National Volunteer Week and we would like to thank the many volunteers who have donated hundreds of hours of their time to rare!

On our social media feeds, we are celebrating the impacts our volunteers have, coming together to protect our natural spaces for the health and wellbeing of the environment, wildlife and our community, now and for the future!

Did you know:

• Since 2016, volunteers have helped grow over 35,000 pounds of organic produce at Springbank Farm, donated to local food banks?
• Last year, 107 individual volunteers spent 1,167 hours at Springbank Farm, supporting local food security!
• Last year, our volunteer monitors observed 7,401 individual birds across more than 150 different species? They tallied 122 survey hours and walked over 138 kilometres during those 19 weeks?
• Volunteers helped monitor butterflies, vegetation, salamanders, and soil decay, putting in 392 hours of work to gather invaluable data?
• Our solid crew of Land Stewards spent 65 hours last year monitoring rare’s trails, ensuring that they were safe to use and ecologically healthy?
• That volunteers helped our Turtle Team rescue, incubate and release our 10,000th baby turtle since our Turtle Rescue program began?
• That, thanks to volunteers, we were able to plant over 390 native plants, trees and shrubs? They also helped with the collection and propagation of nature seed, clean up our shorelines and pull invasive species!
• Volunteer days organized by corporations, organizations and school groups bring in large groups of people to take on big jobs (like helping set up the Slit Barn for our Spring Plant Sale & EcoMarket) in a short amount of time. Many hands do make light work!

These are just some of the things our volunteers have done at rare to make the world a better place. Once again, thanks go out to all our volunteers for giving so generously of their time. If you haven’t already, consider volunteering. There are many things you can do, depending on what you’re interested in, and we’re happy to see everyone who comes out!

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