The Lower Mainland Green Team (LMGT) has hit a milestone.

As a group of 30 volunteers – assisted by Metro Vancouver Parks staffers – prepared to pull invasive ivy species from Tynehead Regional Park this weekend, they were informed that more than 1,000 people had signed up to the environmental group's website.

"I worried in the beginning when I first started the group that people were joining in droves because the Lower Mainland Green Team was a novelty," says LMGT founder Lyda Salatian.

"Fast forward a little over a year later – we hit 1,000 volunteers last Saturday (June 2); a week later we're at 1,023."

There have been dozens of LMGT cleanups in parks in the region since March 2011.

Events are organized at http://www.meetup.com/The-Lower-Mainland-Green-Team/

"It's not a fad," says Salatian. "This is real. People are genuinely interested in taking care of the environment. They just needed a nudge in the right direction."