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Community rallies with Caledon Hills Bruce Trail Club to remove invasive species from Badlands

November 20, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By Riley Murphy

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Over two days, between the efforts of two teams, more than 77 volunteers and members Caledon Hills Bruce Trail Club (CHBTC) came together in the past week to help remove the invasive species Common Buckthorn from the Cheltenham Badlands.

CHBTC volunteer Richard Smythe organized the event in partnership with the Ontario Heritage Trust, which owns the Badlands property.

CHBTC was able to put a dent in the Common Buckthorn that appears in the area.

Their team of volunteers featured both high school students working towards their volunteer hours, youth volunteers from Progress Peel, and CHBTC volunteers.

And some might have been looking to get some family time in.

Gary Hall, Land Steward Director of the CHBTC, attended the second day of the work party with his son-in-law and grandson, Henry.

Despite the snowy conditions, he said it was a great success.

Hall explains that the Badlands are a very sensitive area, and that their trail has passed through it for many years.

“Common buckthorn is one of the most prevalent trees or shrubs on the property. And it’s highly invasive,” he explains, noting the buckthorn doesn’t have any predators, and is easy to spread.

“Once it’s there, it crowds out all of the other native species that are in the area, and not only crowds them out, but it has a chemical in its roots that discourages other plants from growing,” says Hall. “The Badlands for years and years have had an awful lot of common buckthorn.”

The teams used a tool called an extractigator, and, using the jaws at the bottom, volunteers were able to pull out the invasive species by its roots.

All summer long across various properties, Hall explained, they run these events.

“There’s hardly a week that goes by that we don’t have one or two work parties working on removing invasive species.”

Once they’re able to remove some of the invasive species, they replace them with native species.

“It’s rehabilitating a property and getting rid of the bad stuff and planting good stuff,” says Hall. “This will be a forever process just to keep on top of things.”

Hall says that students often join them at these work parties to get involved and complete their volunteer hours, including his grandson.

“It was just a really wonderful experience working with my grandson, and he didn’t even want to go home. He wanted to just keep going,” he says. “He wants to come back and keep volunteering, even beyond his 40 hours.”

Hall notes that it wasn’t just his family; everyone at the event was having a great time.

“We believe in what we’re doing, and it’s a good team-building exercise.”

He shares that, through their club, there are various land stewards, all responsible for their own properties and marking invasive species, as well as various professional staff at the conservancy, different clubs, and volunteers who all work together throughout the season to make this possible.

Hall says the season will soon come to an end in November, and then they’ll start plans to do it all again next year.

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