Preventing the Spread of Invasive Species

Wednesday morning, the M.D. of Foothills hosted an invasive species workshop at the Ramada in High River.

Kelly Cooley with CoolPro Solutions taught the session, and says it's important to manage for what you want, not what you don't want.

"If you're a farmer, a rancher, you want to be managing for the crops or the rangeland that you want to do well, and with an eye to controlling and preventing the non-native invasive species from growing."

Cooley says, scentless camomile and toadflax are some of the top weeds M.D. of Foothills residents are battling with.

"Basically Jeff Porter from the M.D. of Foothills, the Agricultural Fieldman, or Bree Webb, Assistant Agricultural Fieldman would be the people to contact. They can give you an idea of how to do a good and effective job of preventing them from being a problem, and controlling them if you do have them on your properties."

He says, it's also important for the urban population to educate themselves on what invasive species are.

"Just because something looks good as a plant, doesn't mean it is good for the environment. So, educating yourself about what plants are invasive or not is very important. The Alberta Invasive Species Council is a great resource. You can look at their website and see the plants that you can use that are non-invasive, and stay away from the ones that definitely are."

Cooley says, a lot of invasive species in Alberta come from ornamental plants.

Another message Cooley wanted people to take home with them was the ethics of Play, Clean, Go or Work, Clean, Go.

"What that talks about is if you are going out to play in the back country, or working on a construction site, make sure you clean you equipment and yourself, your gear, before you go into a site and after you come out of a site. That prevents invasives from traveling from one site to another."

He says, Play, Clean, Go is an initiative started in 2012.

"The Canada Council of Invasive Species and the Alberta Invasive Species Council are heading up the role out of that program in Alberta and nationally. That process is just getting going in terms of rolling that out on a national scale."

Cooley says, it's a message that resonates with everyone in Canada.

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