The Valencia Green Team from Boston Scientific is known for its tremendous virtue of giving back to the community.

On April 2, team members joined forces again with the Community Hiking Club to tackle the overgrown East Canyon Native Plant Garden, located at the base of East Canyon (southeast of Newhall). The walkways were so overgrown that it was hard to pass by the native roses without getting stuck.

These amazing volunteers made short work of the mess, and four hours later, the garden paths were cleaned up and the debris was removed.

Overgrown and dead trees were removed, shrubs were trimmed, roses were trimmed, and tons of weeds were removed to our compost heaps. Now, visitors can walk the garden trails without getting poked and grabbed by the vegetation.

Steve Iland, a Boston Scientific employee and a board member of the Community Hiking Club, coordinated this event after Green Team Leader Abram Opyan asked if the Community Hiking Club would like to work with the Valencia Green Team again. A big “Yes” was the answer. The Green Team worked with hiking club previously on the Dagger Flat Trail in the Angeles National Forest, where they made a big impact on the trail.

This time, the event was scheduled at the native garden that was in need of refurbishment.

The Boston Scientific Valencia Green Team has been active since 2013, and since that time they have volunteered with groups such as Tree People to plant trees in the Angeles National Forest, Heal the Bay where they cleaned up Venice Beach, Santa Clarita’s River Rally to clean and preserve the natural beauty of the Santa Clara River, and the Dagger Flat Trail where they purchased and installed a picnic table and enhanced and secured the trail edge to help make it sustainable. They also have internal Earth Day events where they concentrate on recycling and water conservation, as well as internal rideshare events where they aim to reduce mobile source emissions.

Boston Scientific is dedicated to improving the environment, and global sustainability is central to its mission. Its people strive to reduce waste, lower greenhouse gas emissions, increase recycling rates, and reduce water use. If you’d like more information, you can visit their Global Sustainability sites:

* Sustainability

* Environment

* Green Teams

Abram Opyan gallantly leads the Green Team at the Valencia facility. I would like to offer many thanks to him for continuing to organize community projects that benefit the entire community. Without his leadership, we probably would not have a Green Team looking after us.

Members of his team who contributed to the success of the native garden event included Steve Iland, Terry Ludwig, Lynne Secrest, Ken Secrest, Beno Singh and Vatche Alexan. From the Community Hiking Club, kudos go out to Becca Manness, our stewardship coordinator; Ilya Pikus, a great supporter of the club; and Iland, our scheduling master.

So, if you love nature, go take a peek at the garden and enjoy the short trail around local native species that thrive there. And think about the Valencia Green Team for all the time they spent making the garden prettier and safer for you to enjoy.

Dianne Erskine-Hellrigel is executive director of the Community Hiking Club and president of the Santa Clara River Watershed Conservancy. Contact Dianne through communityhikingclub.org or at zuliebear@aol.com.