By Matthew Liebenberg
The 2026 GoGreen event in Swift Current received support from a large number of volunteers and local high school students had an opportunity to participate in a bioblitz to identify different plant and animal species.
The annual beautification project is organized by Stark & Marsh and Innovation Federal Credit Union in partnership with the City of Swift Current.
This year’s event took place on Sept. 18 with the participation of 76 volunteers at several project sites across the city. In addition, the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) hosted 62 local high school students at the Cave pasture just north of the city.
The event has been well supported by the local business community since its inception in 2009. Most of the volunteers are employees of participating businesses and they are joined by individuals from the community who want to support GoGreen.
According to Ashley Belon, manager of operational engagement and innovation at Stark & Marsh, around 12 businesses participated in this year’s GoGreen.
“We’ve been very fortunate with that ongoing support from the business community,” she said. “We get return businesses and we get new businesses. When you get a chance to get outside those four walls of your office with your colleagues, there’s almost nothing better.”
She noted that the City has been very supportive of GoGreen over the years and it provides the different project sites for the event.
“They save projects for us throughout the year and they’re doing all this planning and preparation,” she said. “They’re so great to work with.”
The 2026 GoGreen volunteers planted over 280 trees and shrubs across seven project sites. The largest tree and shrub planting site was located along the extension of the Chinook Parkway north of the Trans-Canada Highway, where 104 trees and 120 shrubs were plants.
Flower bed cleanup and beautification took place at an additional four project sites, while volunteers also picked up litter along the Chinook Parkway.
“It’s really a great community volunteer event,” City Parks Manager Michael Newell said. “We’re really driven by our partners at Stark & Marsh and Innovation Federal Credit Union. I have to give them credit. They really do a lot on the back end and getting the volunteers ready. This day is not happening without our volunteers that we get from them.”
He noted that the planting of so many trees and shrubs at the project site north of the Trans-Canada Highway was made possible by grant funding. The City received a grant for tree planting from the federal government and the Swift Current Creek Watershed Stewards also donated funds.
“There’s a lot of donated money and that’s why we’re able to plant trees up there and really transform that area of the parkway,” he said. “It’s going to look completely different in the next five years. The idea is to have an oasis in a city setting. That area is so close to the highway and a major shopping area. The trees will create a bit of a wind block and a visual block.”
This project site also includes the creation of a bioswale along the edge of the Swift Current Creek. GoGreen volunteers assisted to plant shrubs and some trees in this area, which will capture and filter stormwater runoff.
“The bioswale along the creek edge is designed to help filter runoff water that goes into the creek and it takes out any contaminants,” he explained.
The GoGreen initiative has made a significant impact since 2009 and it helped to plant over 4,800 trees and shrubs in Swift Current.
“It’s so important for us, because it’s a lot of bang for our buck,” Newell said. “We’re buying trees, but the City staff would not be able to plant this many trees. If we didn’t have our partners, we would be hiring a contractor to come in and do it and there’ll be an additional cost. Those volunteers are essential to getting this done and it’s greening our city.”
This is the first time that a bioblitz took place as part of GoGreen. The NCC purchased the Cave pasture in 2023. The 286 hectares is located just north of Swift Current and protects native grassland.
Ashley Sahulka, a stewardship coordinator with NCC, said it is important to have a working relationship with the City and NCC was therefore pleased to be part of GoGreen.
“We’re close neighbours and they’ve always been super cool to work with,” she said. “To have the kids out there is beneficial, not only because they do some data collection for us that gets used later in reports, but it’s nice for them to know who NCC is and to inspire the young minds to be interested in conservation and the natural world.”
These students from Swift Current Comprehensive High School are either from the environmental science or wildlife and habitat studies classes. Each group spent about an hour at Cave pasture. They explored the land in a random manner while observing the variety of plant and animal life. They then recorded information through the use of the iNaturalist app on their smartphones. “iNaturalist is pretty accurate and super helpful with identifying any sort of animals and plants,” she said. “It’s awesome to have kids out there and just to connect with the land. A lot of people don’t have access to native prairie, especially when they live in a city. They’ve maybe never seen it and they can learn about Saskatchewan’s ecology and the importance of conservation and grasslands.”
