Service learning: Restoration at North Acres park.

I went to  Seattle at North acres park ; our goal for the project was to separate invasive plants from native ones, primarily berries. This was necessary because the invasive berries grow out of proportion and occupy the areas that the native ones are meant to grow in. Many of the invasive berries are poisonous when consumed by humans and other Animals. Getting rid of them was a means of saving  us,animals and their habitats.


At the beginning of the project, the organizers described to us the plants to be removed ( invasive) and how they were different from the native ones that we were not suppose to remove because they were pretty similar. We began by removing the invasive berries that were wrapped around the native plants. We were told that if they are allowed to grow all the way to the top of the tree, they pull it down. We then remove the ones on the ground by uprooting the roots. It is important to get the roots to prevent the invasive plants from growing again. 
         The title of the project is "Restoration at North acres Park". It was organised by Earth Corps but our group from edcc was coordinated by Katia (ekaterina.rar@email.edcc.edu). I volunteered for 4 hours. Earth corps works to create healthy environments for nature to thrive. They bring volunteers from schools and individuals to help make their goals a reality. Our project on that day was part of the general goal of a healthy environment for us all. I spent most of the time removing the trailing black berries.
This service learning was very fulfilling for me because not only did we make the park safer for kids that might get one of those poisonous blackberries and eat but we created room for native plants to grow healthy which in turn provides healthy habitat for animals and clean oxygen for us all. All of the above mentioned things could be achieved by just few hours of service learning/ community service; just a few hours to make a massive difference in our communities.
The native and invasive berries must have evolved to have some of them poisonous while others are not, Some native to a place and others invasive. The berries that we call invasive in the pacific North West are native in other places. This made me think these different species might have emerged as a result of allopatric speciation.
Based on my experience I asked the following questions:
1-What if we all take few hours to do something to make a change?
2-How did the invasive plants get here since they are not native?
3-Is there something more I could do to make a difference?
4-If old people work tirelessly to make a difference, why won't the youths do tens times more?