Purple loosestrife grows among the cattails at Connaught Pond. - PHOTO BY SAMANTHA JOHNSON, SPECIAL TO THE NEWS
The list of noxious weeds in Medicine Hat is long and many are a common sight, such as Canada Thistle, Bindweed, and Creeping Bell Flower, which are found in most landscapes across the city.
Patricia Dirk, integrated pest management foreman with the City of Medicine Hat, explained that many of the noxious weeds are Eurasian in origin and were either purposely brought over or arrived in the ballast of ships.
Baby’s breath (Gypsophila paniculate) is one such weed the city has been working to eradicate for years. There are a couple patches in Kin Coulee Park up on the slope of the hill outside the mown grass area. It has been an ongoing project for several years. It is mostly concentrated, like many of the noxious weeds, in the environmental reserves. One of the issues with Baby’s Breath is its large taproot that can reach up to four metres in depth, sucking up any available water and leaving very little or none for the native plants.
The next big project for Dirk and her team is purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) at Connaught Pond, which is a prohibited noxious weed. It is growing along the cattails at the backside of the pond, one not easily visible from College Drive. Digging it up was labour intensive due to the heaviness of the sludge. Whipping it doesn’t eradicate the plant, although prevents it spreading if done before flowers bloom.
The next step will be to use a chemical application, which will require a special use approval due to the proximity to water.
“It won’t be a quick project, but we’ll will keep working on it,” said Dirk. “We’ve tried other avenues, and this is what we are going for.” The County of Wainwright has successfully used chemicals on purple loosestrife and Medicine Hat will follow their example for Connaught Pond.
Gerry Ehlert of Grasslands Naturalists (http://grasslands-naturalists.org), one of the volunteers working on the Common Buckthorn problem at Police Point Park, said there are about 75 regulated invasive species in Alberta. Ehlert works with his volunteer partner, John Slater, the City of Medicine Hat, SEAWA and the Interpretive Program at Police Point to help prevent and control invasives.
“Invasive species management is very challenging,” explained Ehlert via email. “It is a long term, integrated pest management issue that we all need to work together to address and control. Invasive species know no boundaries and left unchecked may continue to increase and cause serious damage (environmentally, economically, and socially). Present controlled invasive species may increase in the future, and new invasive species (animals, plants, and diseases) may invade Southern Alberta. Therefore, keeping a good monitoring and control program is essential.”
Working together with the public is key to controlling invasive species.
“Property owners can greatly help to control the establishment and spread of invasive species in the city. For example, homeowners learning to identify and control invasive species in their home yards (garden, boulevard, and back alley), such as Creeping Bell Flower, Downy Brome, and Russian Olive,” said Ehlert.Â
The Interpretive Centre is holding an Invasive Species workshop on July 30. The workshop will also cover identifying native plants because, as Ehlert points out, if the public can’t differentiate between an invasive and native species, sometimes they end up taking out the native ones.
All invasive species should be double bagged and put into the grey waste bin. Putting them in the green bin or composting them in your own yard will only help to spread them.
Phone the Medicine Hat Interpretive Program at 403-529-6225 for more information. There are two workshops taking place on July 30 and both have spaces open. One from 9:30-11 a.m. and the second from 12-1:30 p.m. Gerry Ehlert and Cathy Linowski from Grasslands Naturalists will be running the workshop alongside Ian Langill, assistant chief interpreter at Police Point Park.
