The ministry works hard to control invasive plants along our roadsides, and
we're able to do a better job, if we can get to the sites before they have spread
beyond our control.
Adopt-a-highway volunteers like yourselves know your communities and know the
stretch of highway you're working on.
With the free invasive plant training that we're going to offer you, you'll be
able to spot and report new invasive plants so we are able to respond and
control these plants before they spread out of control.
Welcome to the training everyone.
Thank you so much for coming out today.
We're really excited to have the
adopt-a-highway groups on board with invasive species management.
My name is Jennie McCaffery...I work for the Invasive
Species Council of BC and we work closely with the Ministry of
Transportation to do education programs like this one, and help you feel
comfortable and confident enough to go out and report invasive plants and maybe
even pull them.
I'm gonna start by handing out this booklet of invasive plants...otherwise
known as noxious weeds.
Take a look through here...you'll see that this is
quite an extensive list of invasive plants, and we're not asking you to be
able to identify every single one of them by the end of the day.
But what we will do is focus on maybe the top five invasive plants
that are in your area and you can get a little bit more
comfortable being able to identify them and know what to do if you do see them.
So, another resource that I've got for you is
a tip sheet, and it has some information for you on some of the impacts of invasive
plants.
Can anybody tell me what an invasive plant is?
Invasives are plants that are not native to BC.
They're the wrong plants in the wrong place...aliens brought in from somewhere
else.
They establish and spread rapidly because they've left their natural
competition behind.
They choke out local native species, over run range land, ruin
farm production, destroy fish and wildlife habitat, spoil recreational
areas and our most precious ecosystems.
Invasives hurt business, steal jobs and cost the economy millions.
Some are toxic -- extremely harmful to humans and animals.
One of the main pathways for spread of invasive plants is along roadways,
for many different reasons.
They could be on the mud in your tires, on your vehicle
somewhere, maybe on your trailer, on your boat there can be invasive species, not just
invasive plants.
So another fantastic resource that we have is on your smartphone.
We've got an app, called the Report-a-Weed app, so you
can find it on the App Store.
We've got it for iPhone and for Android, and it's a
really, really fantastic tool when you're out in the field.
If you click on it, it's got a list of all the noxious weeds.
So say we're out and we see bohemian knotweed, we
click on it, it's going to show us a photo.
We can check it out -- make sure that what we're looking at we really think is
bohemian knotweed -- and then you can take a photo of it yourself and you can report
it right through this app.
You don't have to be within cell reception.
You can upload all of your information and once
you're back in cell reception, this will go right through.
Now this goes to the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural
Resource Operations and it's all connected to our larger database.
This is one of the ways you can report.
You can also report through iApp on your computer,
and you can also report calling -- just by calling in.
Invasive plants cost a lot to manage so adopt-a-highway volunteers can really
help by keeping your eyes peeled and reporting when any invasive plant comes
up and maybe even doing some hand pulling.
If you do some hand pulling, here's what you need to know.
First, ensure you've correctly identified the plant before
pulling.
Be safe – pay attention to traffic and wear gloves.
Hand pull from the base or dig out to remove all
of the root.
Remove plants before they go to seed or carefully clip and bag seed heads
before hand pulling.
Double bag if necessary, to ensure seeds are not spread
during transport to landfills.
Ensure gloves, pants and boots are clean of
seeds or plant parts before leaving the site.
To prevent erosion, ensure hand pulling does not create large areas of disturbed soil
near water ways.
We've got these bags for you.
So they say "Invasive Plants DO NOT COMPOST" because we do not
want invasive plants going into any compost areas because that soil is
usually used again for gardens or for other landscaping, and we don't want
those invasive plants spreading throughout BC.
So this will go to the garbage dump, and you can put them just beside your
adopt-a-highway bags which are for garbage.
So please keep the garbage and the invasive plants separate.
This sign is put up to indicate to mowers -- maintenance
contractors -- where they should not mow through an area.
So you'll often see this at the beginning of a patch of invasive
species.
For example, knot weed that we do not want to be mowed down.
Mowing just encourages the growth.
I wouldn't even pick up garbage in that area because if
you do walk through that area you can get seeds, plant parts on your clothing
your boots and you could continue to spread it down the highway as well.
Some plants are extremely toxic like giant
hogweed.
Never try to remove any toxic invasive plants or any garbage around them.
If you come across any toxic invasives phone in and report them to 1-888 WeedsBC.
I live in this community so it's really important for me to be able to
give back to the community, and help the environment as well.
It's really nice to get outside with our co-workers and
friends and spend some time giving back to the community that we're all trying to
make a better place.
Thank you so much for adopting a stretch of highway and for learning how to spot
and report invasive plants.
You are making a huge difference to your community and
to communities across BC.