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A pair of invasive plants on ‘hit list’ for region-wide strategy

Jan 25, 2017 | 10:07 AM

NANAIMO — Strength in numbers is a strategy that appears to be paying off in tackling a pair of damaging invasive plants on mid-Vancouver Island.

The Coastal Invasive Species Committee (CISC) is into its third year of a regional program to fight back against various forms of knotweed, according to executive director Rachelle McElroy.

She said the program of local governments from Nanaimo to Qualicum Beach, including the regional district, paying for the cost of removing damaging knotweed plants and most recently giant hogweed, is taking off.

“We went from six knotweed plants to 84 knotweed sites in the Nanaimo area,” she said. “We also expanded the program to include giant hogweed in 2016.”

The town of Qualicum Beach first jumped on board with the CISC in 2014, where the original six knotweed sites were dealt with, according to McElroy. She says 13 invasive sites last year were eliminated.

McElroy said their group worked with 100 mid-island property owners last year.

“Not only are these land owners giving us permission to manage those plants on their property, but they’re also becoming more aware of what invasive plants are and what the threats are to the environment, society and our economy.”

McElroy said the most prevalent invasive plant on the mid-island region is knotweed, which comes in four different species. She says the plant is popular because it’s beautiful and tall with white flowers. She notes knotweed spreads extremely easily.

McElroy said giant hogweed is a massive pre-historic plant with purple spots on the stems that can reach 11 feet tall. She notes the stem includes toxic sap activated by sunlight that can lead to third degree burns.

She notes invasive plants often negatively affect property values, as well as coming at a heavy price for local native species. McElroy said a healthy eco-system along a river with low-lying plants, trees and shrubs providing shade allowing fish to survive can be decimated by invasive plants.

“It out-competes a lot of those native plants and crowds them out,” she said. “What you had before was a very diverse eco-system, now you have a mono-culture. It often takes up a lot of space and it doesn’t provide that nutrient in the soil that is so important for other organisms to survive.”

McElroy notes that local governments on the mid-island spent about $30,000 combined toward attacking knotweed and giant hogweed. She says their local government partners understand the value of the emerging program and is confident funding will be in place region-wide this year.

For more information on invasive plants and the program to eradicate knotweed and giant hogweed locally, go here.