Biodiversity Counts

In the summer of 2024, GNN’s Canada Summer Jobs interns dived into urban biodiversity by counting and categorizing caterpillars, beetles, and spiders on trees and shrubs. They teamed up with local volunteers to remove invasive species and cultivate native plants and pollinators. They also met with community members to talk about the importance of biodiversity, why it’s declining, and how growing more native plants can help.

Our project was called “Biodiversity Counts” because it does! We need insects and pollinators—and all living things—to maintain the healthy ecosystems we rely on for essentials like food, fresh water, and clean air. Climate change, the loss of native plant biodiversity, and urbanization have taken a toll. Could we help turn things around by removing invasive species and cultivating native plants and pollinators? We set out on a mission to find out!

Biodiversity Counts was organized by Lee Adamson (GNN Chair) and five of GNN’s member groups. In Parkdale–High Park, the intern was Jessie Ly, and the project supervisors were Debbie Green (PHP 4 Climate Action), Jill Marzetti and Natalija Popovic (Green 13), Ginnie Venslovaitis (Friends of South Kingsway), and Sandra Leon (Greenest City, West Neighbourhood House). In Beaches–East York, the intern was Natasha Elek, and the project supervisors were Mary Anne Lemm, Catherine Byrne, and Hastings Withers (Beach United Church).

We gratefully thanked MP Arif Virani in Parkdale–High Park and MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith in Beaches–East York for their support of the 2024 Canada Summer Jobs project.