INVASIVE PLANT CONTROL / MANAGEMENT

Invasive Plant Management is plant and site specific. Knowing what plant you are dealing with and the site characteristics will determine strategies used to control and manage the infected area.

What is an invasive plant?

The Invasive Plant Council of BC defines the term “invasive plant” as any invasive alien plant species that has the potential to pose undesirable or detrimental impacts on humans, animals or ecosystems. Invasive plants have the capacity to establish quickly and easily on both disturbed and un-disturbed sites, and can cause widespread negative economic, social, and environmental impacts. Many invasive plants have been introduced to British Columbia without their natural predators and pathogens that would otherwise keep their populations in check in their countries of origin.

Invasive plants can out-compete our native, crop, and forage plant species for essential resources such as nutrients, sunlight, and water. Invasive plants have no natural predators in these new environments giving them a great competitive advantage against desirable vegetation.

Second to habitat loss, invasive species have been identified as the most significant threat to biodiversity.

For more information on invasive plants in our area please visit the Coastal Invasive Plant Committtee at www.coastalinvasiveplants.com