A Landowner’s Guide to Managing and Controlling Invasive Plants in Ontario

Have you seen this yet?

A Landowner’s Guide to Managing and Controlling Invasive Plants in Ontario 

It's produced by the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters Invading Species Awareness Program, in partnership with Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Credit Valley Conservation and the Ontario Invasive Species Council, to "provide landowners with the information and guidance needed to successfully manage invasive species."

I am so pleased to see how comprehensive it is! A huge *thank you* and congratulations to all the folks who've worked on this! :)

PS: Oh My! Check this out too: Invasive Species Education & Outreach 2013 Compendium of Resources.

Ontario Introduces Provincial Legislation to Control Invasive Species

Ontario Introduces Provincial Legislation to Control Invasive Species

Oh for chrissakes, finally.

Here's the actual proposed legislation.

If it passes, I hope they would actually enforce this at nurseries who are still, unbelievably, growing and selling phragmites, oriental bittersweet, multiflora rose, autumn olive, japanese knotweed, all of which i've seen take time and resources to control in conservation areas and crown lands...  (see previous rant here.)

Ontario Invasive Plant Council: AGM & Invasive Plant Symposium

Mon-Tues, Oct 4th-5th
Ontario Invasive Plant Council
2010 AGM & Invasive Plant Symposium
London ON

The OIPC's 4th Annual General Meeting and Invasive Plant Symposium will be held in London at the Lamplighter Inn. Be sure to register early for the October 4th field trips as space is limited. The Agenda will be updated regularly as details are confirmed. Click here to Register.

Invasive sucks, but they are compelling. If you haven't heard of the OIPC before, or want to see what they've been up to lately (or even if you're still looking for reliable info and advice on Giant Hogweed and other invasive plant species), check out their site!

How do I tell the difference between the native and invasive...

1. ...Phragmites?

See "Phragmites: Common Reed - Morphological differences between native and introduced genotypes" at Cornell's Biological Control Program

2. ...native American bittersweet vine Celastrus scandens and the invasive exotic oriental bittersweet C. orbiculatus?

"Using fruit and leaf characters, the two species can be discriminated from each other. However, certain traits are more reliable for correct identification than others. Classically, the position of the fruit and flowers on the stems has been cited as the most definitive means of discriminating between the species. Oriental bittersweet has fruit and flowers located in the leaf axils along the length of the stem. American bittersweet, however, only has fruit and flowers in terminal clusters. There is also a difference in the color of the capsules surrounding the ripened fruit in the fall. Oriental bittersweet has yellow capsules, while those of American bittersweet are orange. Another difference in color is the pollen color of the male flowers. The pollen of oriental bittersweet is white while that of American bittersweet is yellow..." - American and Oriental Bittersweet Identification - the US Geological Service's Great Lakes Centre

Note: along a couple southwestern Ontario roadsides, I found both species side by side + the hybrid species of the two. So I couldn't even seed collect from the native species, because of the possibility the flowers had been cross-pollinated / its seeds would be hybrids.

3. ...native eastern Wahoo Euonymus atropurpurea vs. the invasive exotic winged burning bush E. alata, climbing euonymus E. fortunei and spindle tree E. europaea?

Unfortunately, around here, it's probably the exotic -- I haven't stumbled by the real thing yet -- still to be sure (and you have to be because there are a few out there + some native plant nurseries sell them = some one's planting them some where) the best native vs invasive euonymus ID advice I've found is on page 123 of “Growing Trees from Seed - A Practical Guide to Growing Native Trees, Vines and Shrubs" by Henry Kock with Paul Aird, John Ambrose and Gerald Waldron:

European spindle tree E. europaea [exotic]: the identification of this close relative of E. atropurpurea can only be made with certainty at flowering time. The European species has greenish white flowers in late May as compared to the maroon flowers (in June) of the native wahoo. The European spindle tree holds its leaves much longer into the fall, and the twigs tend to be thicker and more rigid than wahoo. However, due to variability in both species, the two are occasionally so similar vegetatively (including the root sprouting) that without knowledge of the flowers, the nearly identical fruit should be left alone – or the flower colour should be verified in late May.

Winged burning bush E. alata [exotic]: A dense, outward-arching bush originating in Japan. It has small orange fruits on short stems that persist into the winter. Twigs on this species are prominently four winged, a characteristic that is more diminutive on a more compact-growing horticultural cultivar but still gives this species a distinctly square-stemmed appearance.

...[Besides these] two 'ornamental' deciduous shrubs that ...have become naturalized (extensively in many places) in close proximity to older settlements and parks ...garden escapees of the evergreen-leaved Euonymus fortunei [exotic climbing euonymus aka wintercreeper] are also beginning to find their way into the wild."

Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900

Earlier this year, in an Aliens-L list serve post, Randy Westbrooks recommended "Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900" as "a ‘must read’ for anyone who works on invasive species."

So I bought it. Now, I'm nearly finished reading it, and he's right. (But what else would I expect: invasion ecology isn't just science, it's sociology and culture and story, and if you've ever talked with Randy Westbrooks or heard him speak, you know that he "gets" story.)

It's helping me understand our current invasive issues + what was, and what's still left of, our natural heritage, in ecological, biogeographical, biopolitical, historical and social contexts.

With memorable examples and well-researched historical accounts I haven't come across anywhere before.

Personally, I especially appreciated any of the historic records of natural and ethnobotanical vegetation in eastern North America at the earliest points of first European contact.

First written in 1986, with a new edition in 2004, this book reminds me of the quote: "The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones." - Joseph Joubert

If you're interested in invasion ecology and natural heritage -- or if you liked Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel" or Ronald Wright's "Stolen Continents -- you'll appreciate this one.

Japanese Barberry - you suck.

Unfortunately I had to miss the Ontario Invasive Plant Council's AGM yesterday :(

At the very least, I can mark it with this little PSA:

Some invasive plants are no one's fault: I mean, I've never met anyone who cultivates and sells DSV (ok - there are 2 idiots I haven't met who sell it online).

And then there are the exotic invasive ornamental horticultural plants that are grown, and sold and planted en masse in gardens across... the planet. Like Winged Euonymous (I cringe every time some one calls this "Burning Bush" - that's what our Eastern Wahoo is called -- pls don't be confused. I have the same complaint w/ that purple garden centre exotic thing most people call "Sand Cherry").

And this year, more than I've seen before, Japanese Barberry Berberis thunbergii was thrown at us from the ornamental gardening machine like a glittery gravel iceball to the teeth. You may have heard the noise, it sounded like a lot of 'Ooh ah - leaves come in new 'bonanzas' of 'gold' and more 'glowing' shades of 'rose' than, well, last year. A no brainer yellow & purple contrasting colour combo? Then you must buy and plant one of each!'

Piss off.

They even rebranded the common name to "Berberis" -- I imagine "Japanese Barberry" was setting off too many folks' exotic-alert alarm bells. Or maybe the old name just sounded too... not "NEW!"

Buying and gardening w/ a Berberis is like... absent-mindedly tucking in a few land mines into the yard, or setting up the birds (folks 'love' visiting their garden) to randomly drop biological weapons out of their ass on to their own habitat, indefinitely.

Last week alone I saw Berberis naturalized in 2 GTA watersheds' natural area sweet spots. And I mean sweet spots: one of those Berberis, w/ a lot of berries/seeds too (twists my tongue with "prolific" + "profligate". If it were on facebook I'd friend all its ovaries/gf's just to say "prick gave me an STD" or even "asked me to have sex w/ his dog" or anything else that might diminish its chance of reproducing. BTW: I confess: we have a running plant 'profile' joke in our house we call 'faceplant') was invading a seep (a niche I know I can't recreate and sustain) in the middle of one of our best local patches of two Gentian species. Well, one of our best patches, for now. Berberis - you suck.

Stewardship Network webcasts

A few hoice Michigan Stewardship Network webcast archives are free this week only. Just go here. Also notice that all the archived webcasts are free this weekend too.

i LOVE these!

Try one. If you like it, check out their next free monthly webcast (it's cool to 'see' some of the folks you'll recognize from Southern Ontario restoration ecology and stewardship too!). You can also sign-up online to receive notices about future webcasts. BTW: It's a great way to stay up to date with practical invasive plant management too!

*
PS: City of Toronto Stewardship volunteers: pls see this Don Watcher post about how the current city strike affects the stewardship program.

You know your yard is an asshole when...

I was helping someone design a native plant garden on their bare-ass new property. First we figured out her physiography, current and historic land use, and then tried to ID the area's historic natural heritage through historic and current records and surveys. Some times that's all it takes to figure out a site-appropriate native plant community model.

Historically her yard was likely a bottom land forest on a clay lake plain, and a riparian flood zone too. Problem was, the water had long since been drained (extensive network of channels and dikes) and the area is now high value crop land and urban residential. What do you do with that kind of clay when the water processes are gone?

Further complication: species from her historic plant community that we could still use on the site included ashes, butternut and white elm... not safe bets anymore, and other trees like sycamore and silver maple were too big for the fragmented space of her residential yard.

At that point the garden design and plant selection changed from a strict historic restoration plant community model into something called "reconciliation ecology": we were trying to figure out a unique native plant community appropriate to the realistic possibilities of that land, that would still support the area's biodiversity, natural heritage (including wildlife: native pollinators and birds), conservation and stewardship. In this particular case, it came right down to anything ethically locally sourced that would grow in her light, soil and moisture. There would be a lot of mulch involved too. BTW: we wanted to stay extra locally sourced because there are indigenous prairie species restoration projects on a sand plain that begins only one concession away / don't want to genetically swamp them with plants sourced from 500+ km's away. And the woodies would be local and Forest Gene Conservation Association (FGCA) certified, of course.

I told her "Actually, this can be some interesting and creative stuff." And then I reassured her "don't worry, your yard is not an asshole, and it's not going to be one."

However, if you ever need a graphic illustration of how quickly and dramatically someone can asshole-ize a yard with a garden, here's a fresh example.

G1 "globally endangered / imperiled" Eastern Cottonwood freshwater dunes at Long Point Ontario.

Meters away on that same beach, is this recently landscaped yard:

Because every Great Lakes bioregion G1 dunes needs a touch of Holland and Eurasia.

Look again at those two pictures, even click through to enlarge them if you want to.

[Ok, in its own right, and just to fill your soul, especially check out those sweet, sweet dunes: the logs beached from the winter's ice (seems to me they're a happy spot for Fowler's Toads); the wee young cottonwood foot dune starting up near the shore (lower lake levels in recent years, and good littoral zone nutrients: for example in the dross you could see that the smelt still run in early May, though not like they used to up to about 1980); the swale developing between that foot dune and the established mature foredunes: being a big fan of mature interdunal meadows, I can hardly wait to see what the pioneer plant species will be in that swale. I could spend a warm month here with little more than a pup tent and wake up and fall asleep amazed every day just watching all of those processes functioning and the good plants still naturally finding footholds where they should. BTW: what make the resiliency of the landscape in this picture even more impressive to me is that it's not even a restricted area, it's a public beach. But, yeah, back to point of this yard...]

Except for the few cottonwoods they kept to left of their house the place is not only difficult to recognize, it's now an entirely changed ecological function and habitat.

At first I laughed. Then I was angry. I even cried.

For all I know these are decent people, the kind you could trust with your keys, car, cat, kid and a wallet. But yup, their new yard is an asshole. Not just what's been removed and displaced, but what's been introduced: exotic artemesia a few feet away from healthy wormwords; turfgrass species feet from big bluestem and switchgrass. It's not the more popularly recognized asshole yard of the "neglected" / weedy variety, or "what people have to do to survive" or "before anyone knew better". Instead it's one of those deliberate rapid succesions from a healthy local landscape (biodiversity) to "this place could be anywhere" asshole-of-the-misguided-garden-magazine variety. The kind that take significant money, resources, inputs, effort and planning to design, "install" and maintain.

And even if that part of the dunes is "zoned" residential, that justifies nothing. In fact it would only serve to illustrate what a dumb instrument an old zoning bylaw can be.

In fact, that entire dunes area is part of the Long Point UNESCO biosphere reserve (you would have to be occupied trying to not drive over a crossing turtle to miss that sign along the causeway), and the Long Point Basin Land Trust (super accessible and knowledgable folks who publish and present practical public education) area too. Also, their closest retail nursery? Not one but TWO major native plant nurseries (Acorus and Pterophylla) with suites of affordable indigenous dunes species = folks would literally have to go out of their way to buy non-native plants. All of which makes makes me wonder what the hell does it take to appeal to reason?

It's not just that I love our great lakes ecology, and that specific area's dunes vegetation and don't want to see it invaded and destroyed by exotic horticultural species, I actually saw a Fowler's Toad there a few summers ago.

Don't want your yard to be an asshole? Go for native, even indigenous plants and seeds if you can ethically source them. For more local criteria and context, suss out your local Land Trust, Conservation Authority or municipality and what they already have for current and historic natural heritage inventories (e.g. vegetation, wildlife, physiography, hydrology) and conservation, stewardship & natural systems management initiatives and strategies. The links on the right are a starting place for that. And the process of becoming literate with your own landscape's ecology has got to be more than half the fun of having a garden.

I will never buy anything from people who sell exotic horticultural plants again.

I honestly do not know why some plants are even legal to sell and profit from.

Got this in a newsletter today. The bolding's my own.

Longer Marketing Time Increases the Risk of Naturalization by Horticultural Plants - By Stephanie Yao, Agricultural Research Service, USDA. February 24, 2009

"...Unlike previous studies on the invasiveness of horticultural plants, the research team found that the marketing period--the number of years a plant was sold--has profound influence on naturalization and invasion. Seventy percent of plants sold in Florida for 30 years or longer naturalized, according to Pemberton, indicating that length of time sold is the most important factor contributing to naturalization. Non-native plants will continue to naturalize and invade as long as they are sold ..." read more

Details of this study were recently published in the scientific journal Ecology. ARS is the principal intramural scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

*

Recently I copied some plant names from the Invasive Exotic Species Ranking for Southern Ontario and pasted them into the search field of a popular local nursery's on-line catalogue.

Almost every invasive species I looked-up was for sale.

Many are even in multiple cultivars, some up to 8 or even 14, including a few variegated leaf forms. That's a double why to me.

The species include:

• Norway maple Acer platanoides
• Tree of heaven Ailanthus altissima
• Oriental bittersweet Celastrus orbiculatus
• Japanese knotweed Polygonum cuspidatum *
  
• Common Periwinkle Vinca Minor
• White mulberry Morus alba L.
• Tatarian honeysuckle Lonicera tatarica L.
• Glossy buckthorn Rhamnus frangula
• Japanese honeysuckle Lonicera japonica
• Amur honeysuckle Lonicera maackii
• Multiflora rose Rosa multiflora
• European birch Betula pendula
• Winged Euonymus Euonymus alatus
• Autumn olive Elaeagnus umbellate
• Flowering rush Butomus umbellatus
• European frog-bit Hydrocharis morsus-ranae
• Rough manna grass Glyceria maxima
• Black alder Alnus glutinosa
• Phragmites / common reed Phragmites australis

I stopped there.

* some one near and dear actually bought one one of the Japanese Knotweeds. "Isn't it pretty? I've never even HEARD of it before!" and then she asked me to plant it for her. "I don't think that would be a good idea," i said and suggested she go in and look up that species on-line. She came back out an hour later and said "WHY would they even this sell this to me?!" "Because they know you will buy it. And they know most people have been persuaded to believe that their own connection with the natural world is so severed that they should "always ask for" and defer to professional advice, and we assume that -- because they bought expensive "certified" memberships to hort associations, or had training in well-known programs in our schools -- we can trust them not to do something this stupid.

Why are these plants even legal to sell and profit from here, when we demand that our taxes, government and non-profit resources spend time and money trying to control the exact same species?

We spend money and time on invasives: control, eradication, monitoring, impacts, public education, and on restoring and acquiring conservation lands that we must perpetually defend. But we won't out law one of their largest known sources.

I'm sick of the traditional hort and gardening industry. I haven' t been able to rationalize it for a long time, but now I can't even find reasons to tolerate it (this blog has links to a raft of alternatives, for consumers and the people who are employed by the hort industry too). I'm sick of the racket: grow easy invasive hort plants -> hype invasive plants with awards and press releases and big garden shows: charge people to read or see this hype-> sell invasive plant to client for money -> sell client unnecessary fertilizer for plant -> fertilizer mysteriously destroys soil and client must come back for more fertilizer -> watch plant grow... and spread, and cause misery -> customer must come back for weed removal advice, tools, herbicide, possibly labour, and buy more "new" award winning plants (maybe some patented plant that doesn't spread, or even seed anymore, which is about as useful as sculpture to local insects) to fill the new hole in their yard. I know that a lot of people, be as a result of education or legislation, are taking out some of the steps like salt-based fertilizers and cosmetic pesticides, or peat moss for that matter, but the rest of the cycle still remains.

And BTW I’m not trying to single-out a specific nursery. I'm sure it's the same at almost all conventional nurseries and garden centres. In fact, that particular nursery actually sells some ethically propagated native plants. Not that I will buy from them anymore, or from any nursery who will not stop selling invasives. Not a pot, a shovel, a trellis, a hose, a book, a rake, pruning tools... anything.

How can I support any business that perpetuates the spread of well-known invasive plants? Why would I spend money supporting invasive plant culture when invasives steal my natural heritage, a lot of my time, break my back and lay waste to living things and places I love?

Invasive Plants: Events and Updates

The Ontario Invasive Plant Council's 2008 Annual General Meeting is Wednesday November 5th in Barrie.

The OIPC meeting comes on the heels of the Biology and Biological Control of Established Invasive Plants in Canada Conference in Ottawa this upcoming Saturday October 18. So I expect information will trickle down from there too.

Ecosystems are not only more complex than we think, but more complex than we can think. - Frank Egler

While the results of the weevils and beetles introduced to control Purple Loosestrife are a poster child for biological control agents (which BTW means not having to use chemical control in wetlands), part of the process is of course continuing to learn from the unintended impacts of releasing these controls. For one recent example, check out Bug Girl’s recent post about “Biocontrol and unanticipated consequences”.

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world. - John Muir

Invasives Species of the Toronto Area

Where they are and how to deal with them
Tues Nov 25 2008, 7:30 PM
Presented by Paul Heydon of Grow Wild Nurseries, and Gavin Miller Head botanist for the TRCA
Part of the NANPS Winter Speaker Series

It was as a result of being a gardener that I started paying attention to invasives and natives, and observing the differences between them. It was really depressing for a long time. Once you start seeing them, you can’t stop. -Molly Boyes

The word about invasive plants is gradually getting out. Last month, CTV reported how Calgary is facing a “biological emergency” as a result of exotic plant invasion.

Also, this past summer, the CBC reported on Dog-Strangling Vine around Ottawa and nearby areas in Quebec.

However, the same stories also reported that Dog-strangling Vine “alters soil pH.”

Yikes! No it doesn't. Well, not as far anyone knows.

In response to an email from Dave Barr, Carleton University DSV researcher Naomi Cappuccino (who was interviewed for the story) replied “I haven't a clue where they got that. In fact, I tried to set them straight during the interview for TV, but that got cut. Work from Toni DiTommaso's lab at Cornell has shown that DSV has an effect on fungal communities in the soil, but as far as I know, nobody has looked at pH.”

Thank you Dave! :)

The only people I can think of who are doing any research on DSV + soil pH are Antonio Ditommaso and Lindsey Milbrath. Both are weed prof's with the Weed Ecology and Managment Lab at Cornell and neck deep in DSV research. But, they're NOT looking at whether DSV alters pH, but rather, if there are co-relations between DSV growth and populations and existing soil pH (eg click here and here too.)

One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on the land is quite invisible to laymen. - Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

My two fave invasive plants email lists are the Midwest Invasive Plant Network's listserve, and the Plant Conservation Alliance’s Alien Plant Working Group / APWG listserve. (I like the PCA's Restoration Working Group’s listserve too).

Yes, they’re both out the US, but they include Southern Ontario, and we share a lot of the same plants and issues. And, in a lot of ways they’re ahead of us too (organizing, lobbying, funding, experience, response, educational events and the number of people who are actively involved) and that makes these listserves a good place to learn.

Weeds 101 Workshop folks!

This one's for the good folks who came out to Evergreen's "Weeds 101 Workshop" at the Brick Works today.

• the main invasive plant management strategy recommended in the workshop was: "Recognize. Remove. Dispose. Remediate. Replant. Return." Read more about it here
• most of the invasive plant resources mentioned in the workshop are posted here
• Dog-Strangling Vine (DSV) merits its own post
• we also touched on High Park's experience with DSV, including glyphosate / Round-Up, as well as glyhposate laws in Toronto
  
• and how Garlic Mustard is changing our forests by reducing the mychorrizal fungi in soil.
  
• also, as stewardship co-ordinators Claire from Evergreen and Sharon Lovett from High Park mentioned, a great way to learn about invasive plants is by joining a local stewardship group in Toronto
• if you want to stay-in-the-loop about future workshops and events not only at Evergreen Brick Works but throughout our area, please check out the links under "Events, Workshops, Field Trips, Volunteering " in the right side bar
  
• In that same long list of links on the right, you can also find some good advice on how to plan a native or naturalized garden under "Native plant gardening & naturalization: how to's & plant recommendations" as well as where to buy ethically propagated under "Native plant nurseries & sources" too.

I can't thank you enough for making it out today, for caring, and for your encouragement too -- it all makes Dog-Strangling Vine and Garlic Mustard feel a little less overwhelming.

"It is not for you to complete the task, but you must begin."

Thank you again and please post any questions, info or links to pics from this afternoon in the "comments" below.

Dog-Strangling Vine

"We stand to lose our natural ecosystem, all our native plants, everywhere in the Great Lakes Basin and southern Ontario.” - Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources Ecologist Waysel Bakowsky, when asked about the threat of DSV.

Dog-Strangling Vine is a highly invasive perennial vine that dominates and destroys ecosystems.If you see this plant on your property, or your local park or community garden, the alley where you walk your dog, the parking lot at work, the playground at your kid's day care, your mother-in-laws' garden, or your neighbour's yard (with their permission of course) please remove it. ...before it looks like this:or worse, this:

photo by Stephen J. Darbyshire

"DSV" is some times understood to be two similar species (Pale Swallow-wort Cynanchum rossicum or Vincetoxicum rossicum which prefers sun, and Black Swallow-wort Cynanchum louiseae or Vincetoxicum nigrum) but, for most practical purposes it's generally referred to, and treated as, simply DSV.

DSV is invading, dominating and destroying natural areas, habitats and ecosystem functions in and near our area: oak savannah, forests, woodlands, tallgrass prairies, meadows, even alvars. DSV directly threatens to displace all of our native plants, in all of our natural areas, except wetlands (although it does grow along riparian river and stream edges). It spreads by prolific wind-dispersed seeds similar to our native milkweeds. Seeds are poly-embryonic (one seed can produce several viable embryos / plants). Plants can self-pollinate in a single day. Research has found decline in the populations and diversity of insects in old fields dominated by DSV. DSV displaces native Milkweed species, impacting pollinators who depend on them. Also, in experiments, when given the choice of both DSV and Milkweed, Monarch butterflies have been observed laying up to 1/4 of their eggs on DSV, resulting in death of those larvae. DSV is salt-tolerant and can handle a range of substrates with variable pH's from limestone to granite, and is found in gravel, clay and sandy soils. Currently there are no biological controls to keep DSV in check.

REMOVE:

How? Dig out the entire root of the plant (pulling is ineffective: roots will persist and form several plants). Its easier if you use the right tools (weed rockers don't get out all the brittle roots, and planting trowels are often dull and clumsy when used as weeding tools). In hard compacted soils, try using a sharper-edged trowel or spade. Also a "Weed Wrench" is recommended (Mary Gartshore, Pterophylla Nurseries). If you do dig out the roots (good for you!), avoid any unnecessary soil disturbance (it day lights existing seed bank in the soil and also provides a place for new invasive seeds to enter) and backfill the hole to prevent further invasion. At this point you can also either replant with the area with desired species (of course I'm recommending natives) and/or cover the area with mulch.

In infestations too large to dig out, control further spreading by cutting the plants. This will help to prevent seed pods from maturing. You will likely have to cut at least twice during the season (every year for the 1st few years), as plants continue to produce seeds from May to November. (Note: Fletcher Wildlife Garden has had some success with a single cut per year when timed around June 26.) Common tools used for cutting: garden shears (but they can be hard on the back), weed whippers and mowers. However, Fletcher Wildlife Garden has found scythes to be easier, efficient (requiring less volunteers and time) and more manouverable when trying to cut around desired plant species among the DSV. Scythes are available at Lee Valley for $112.

Larger patches can also be controlled by covering the area with tarps or landscape barrier fabrics (secured by landscape fabric stakes / pegs or coat hangers) or a thick layer of newspaper for several months, followed by the removing remaining persisting plants. Another control option is Glyphosate (aka Round-Up). Glyphosate is not a one-shot deal: Cara Webster (City of Toronto Urban Forestry) recommends 2 glyphosate applications each year for the 1st 2 years. Please see this earlier post for more information about glyphosate and DSV.

DISPOSE:

After removing or cutting DSV, DO NOT dispose of roots or seeds in your garden composter, or in a open air pile. Reproductive parts of DSV and other weeds can go into regular city yard waste collection.

REPLANT:

Replant weeded area with local native plants (e.g. for no cost: use nearby in-season seeds such as common milkweed, cup plant, grey-headed coneflower) or transplant other ethically acquired native plants (the $5 for SER-O's 2007-2008 Native Plant Resource Guide is money well spent!). Start with common native plants that are most likely to survive and become establish (one possible strategy might be to start with the more aggressive colonizing natives.) DSV appears to be more aggressive and capable of producing more seeds in sunny areas, however, it can also invade thicket (e.g sumacs, hawthorns and even dense cedars - Patricia Mohr) and shady areas (growing up to 9 feet, covering and out-competing shrubs and tree seedlings). However, it's most often it's along the forest edges and openings than dense shade areas. DSV "doesn't do well in areas of continuous dense forest" (Forester Jim Robb from Friends of the Rouge Watershed). For existing or new shade areas, plant with all successional forest layers (ground cover ->herbaceous layer -> shrub ->vine ->trees. For trees, Jim Robb recommends including fast growing early successional poplars and aspen as well as pine, alongside broad leaf hardwoods).

Along with planting in successional layers and using common locally adapted native plants appropriate for your site's conditions, two other defensive planting strategies are: planting in high density (more plants /sq M) and, planting in seasonal guilds -- the idea being continuous coverage through the warm seasons, for example: early spring = early woodland ephemerals like ginger, bloodroot, may apple; summer = woodland sunflower; autumn = zig-zag goldenrod and big-leaved aster.

Some plants seem to withstand DSV invasion better than others, possibly as a result of their allelopathic properties, including Zig-zag goldenrod (Todmorden Mills Wildflower Preserve, Sept. 2006 Newsletter), tall goldenrod (Steve Smith, Urban Forest Associates Inc.), some juglone spp. (Jim Robb), and also flowering raspberry (Fletcher Wildlife Garden), Colorado Blue Spruce (non-native but not invasive)(Gavin Miller). After planting, add a thick layer of mulch on bare ground around desired species.

To prevent DSV and other invasions: keep your healthy areas healthy (use mulch / leaf litter, do not disturb soils unnecessarily, grow plants adapted to your site conditions and region, do not use synthetic fertilizers or salts, catch and control any invasive early on), also plant and/or mulch nearby bare ground patches and disturbed areas and understorey vacancies, before they fill with invasives.

RETURN:

Continue to cut and control nearby DSV, monitor, weed, mulch and replant the area.

DSV Fact Sheets:

• Controlling Invasive Plants - City of Toronto
• Pale Swallow-wort - Fletcher Wildlife Garden
• Black Swallow-wort – Midwest Invasive Plant Network
• Black Swallow-wort and Pale Swallow-wort - Plant Conservation Alliance’s Alien Plant Working Group (PCA APWG)

Essential DSV reading:

• Gavin Miller, TRCA. Dog-strangling vine - Cynanchum rossicum (Kleopow) Borhidi: a review of distribution, ecology, and control of this invasive exotic plant. Fall 2007.
  
• Fletcher Wildlife Garden, Ottawa Ontario: Swallow-wort research (be sure to also read the “Sunday Volunteer” reports from 2006 and 2007)
• Di Tommaso, Antonio, Frances Lawlor and Stephen J. Darbyshire. 2005. The biology of invasive alien plants in Canada. 2. Cynanchum rossicum (Kleopow) Borhidi [= Vincetoxicum rossicum (Kleopow) Barbar.] and Cynanchum louiseae (L.) Kartesz & Gandhi [= Vincetoxivum nigrum (L.) Moench]. Canadian Journal of Plant Science, 85(1): 243-263.
• The Nature Conservancy’s Global Invasive Species Team (TNC Weeds) "Element Stewardship Abstracts" (or ESAs), with photographs: Pale swallow-wort, Black swallow-wort
• Cara Webster, City of Toronto Urban Forestry Restoration Challenges: The Ongoing Battle with Dog-strangling Vine Control at High Park

More info on control strategies and tools:

• T.C. Fuller & G. Douglas Barbe. “The Bradley method of Eliminating Exotic Plants from Natural Reserves", in CalEPPC News, Vol. 5, No.4, Fall 1997
• Thonas D. Brock. “The Bradley Method for Control of Invasive Plants”, The Newsletter of the Invasive Plants Association of Wisconsin, Issue 3 October 2002
  
• & thank you to folks at Todmorden Mills for directing me to those Bradley articles
• Weed Control Methods Handbook: Tools and Techniques for Use in Natural Areas Wildland Invasive Species Team – The Nature Conservancy. Includes manual methods and tools.

Get involved locally:

• volunteer on a stewardship site near you: GTA Stewardship and “Green Groups" listed by watershed
• take care of the lands (public or private) where you live
• take pictures of DSV and donate them to your local stewardship group, and use them yourself (on your own website, blog, newsletters, email lists, community garden agendas, meetings and workshops) alongside more information about DSV and what you can do about it.

Emerald Ash Borer Confirmed in Toronto

It was reported in North York, at Shepherd & the 403.

Here's a Q&A from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

It was also recently found in Norfolk County at Turkey Point too: "Norfolk County boasts about 27 per cent forest cover and 15 to 20 per cent of its trees are ash trees... (including) the rare blue ash and pumpkin ash that is only found in Norfolk County in Ontario."

Note: The Emerald Ash Borer is the insect we knew about in Essex and Kent. It is not to be confused with the Asian Long-horned beetle, which has already been in the Vaughn area of Toronto since 2003.

Don Watcher John Routh offered this analysis yesterday:

"Efforts are underway to contain the outbreak but there is little anyone can do. They are very difficult to detect. As a introduced insect it has no natural enemies and no pesticides are known to kill it. Unless a miracle fix is found, we may be looking at a permanent change to our forest."

The City of Toronto's Urban Foresty Services had already suspended planting of Ash trees, and offers more information about these and other tree pests in Toronto.

Identifying and Managing Invasive Plants - A Resource List for stewards and gardeners in Toronto and Southern Ontario

“The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to keep all the pieces.” - Aldo Leopold

"Invasive species are the second biggest threat to wildlife and plants worldwide. Habitat destruction is the first." - E.O. Wilson

And that is why I've made this list of invasive plant resources. I hope you find it useful too.

Toronto and Ontario invasive plant information:

• Ontario Invasive Plant Council recommended
• Invading Species Awareness Program - Plant Species - Ontario Federation of Hunters and Anglers recommended
• Controlling Invasive Plants - City of Toronto Urban Forestry
• Invasives Research – Fletcher Wildlife Garden, Ottawa ON recommended
• Evergreen’s Native Plant Database - advanced search (select "only invasive species") recommended
• Invasive Exotic Species Ranking for Southern Ontario, Urban Forest Associates Inc., 2002 recommended
• "Stewards in the City: a handbook for Greater Toronto stewards" Evergreen 2005 currently not available online recommended.
  
• Invasive Plants of the Toronto Islands
• Natural Invaders - Ontario Nature / FON
• Invasive plant fact sheet - Toronto Region Conservation Authority
• Ontario Terrestrial Invasive Plant Council Inaugural Meeting, October 2007: agenda & links to presentations
• Sustaining Biodiversity: a Strategic Plan for Managing Invasive Plants in Southern Ontario recommended
• Midwest Invasive Plant Network (incl. Southern ON) recommended

Invasive plant online resources & databases useful in Ontario:

• TNC Weeds Invasives and Control, Global Invasive Species, The Nature Conservancy recommended
• Global Invasive Species Database – The Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG) recommended
• USDA PLANTS Database recommended
• Vermont’s Wise on Weeds
• Invasive Plants Atlas of New England - IPANE.org
• Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources - Invasive Species
• Invasive Plants - New England Wildflower Society
  
• E*vue: Emergent Vegetation of the Urban Ecosystem
• Invasive Species Weblog
• List of Invasive Plants of Canada - RBG Burlington, Canadian Botanical Conservation Network
• Invasive Alien Species in Canada - Hinterland Who’s Who
• Invasive plants of Natural Habitats in Canada by White D.J., E. Haber and C. Keddy.1993
• The Northwoods CWMA - Northern Wisconsin
• PCA Alien Plant Working Group – U.S. Park Service

Get involved locally:

• City of Toronto Stewardship volunteering recommended
• Evergreen and Brick Works stewardship volunteering recommended
• High Park Volunteer Stewardship recommended
• Greater Toronto Area stewardship & "green" groups by watershed recommended
• Ontario Invasive Plant Council
• 10 Tips For Emerging Invasive Plant Management Groups

Choosing native plants to replant when removing invasives:

• In this blog's links list, see
• Native plant nurseries / sources
• Native plant gardens & naturalized yards: how to's & plant recommendations

• Native tree and shrub species for Toronto area & other areas in Southern Ontario - Forest Gene Conservation Association
• Evergreen’s Native Plant Database
• Native Plants recommended for Toronto - City of Toronto’s Urban Forestry
• Restoring the Don: Recommended Plants – Task Force to Bring Back the Don

Invasive plant & wildflower field guides useful in Ontario:

• Invasive Plants: A Guide to Identification, Impacts, and Control of Common North American Species – Sylvan Ramsey Kaufman, Wallace Kaufman. 2007 recommended
• Weeds of Canada and the Northern United States - France Royer, Richard Dickinson. Note: agriculture based but useful
• National Audubon Society Field Guide To North American Wildflowers: Eastern Region

Local legislation:

• City of Toronto’s Pesticide By-Law & Natural Alternatives
• Toronto Ravine and Natural Feature Protection By-law
• Ontario’s Noxious Weed legislation

More Control Methods and Research:

Note: many control methods / “removal protocols” and info about past and current research are already included in the links above.

• Weed Control Methods Handbook: Tools and Techniques for Use in Natural Areas - Wildland Invasive species Team - The Nature Conservancy recommended
• Invasive Exotic Plant Management Tutorial for Natural Lands Managers
• APWG-L Alien Plant Working Group Listserve
• T.C. Fuller & G. Douglas Barbe. The Bradley method of Eliminating Exotic Plants from Natural Reserves CalEPPC News, Vol. 5, No.4, Fall 1997 recommended
• Thonas D. Brock. The Bradley Method for Control of Invasive Plants The Newsletter of the Invasive Plants Association of Wisconsin, Issue 3 October 2002
• Current Research: The Biological Integrated Pest Management Research Unit USDA, Agricultural Research Service

About Pesticides:

• PAN DBASE- Pesticide Action Network North America
• EXTOXNET - Toxicology info briefs
• PEPSIS DBASE - Pesticide Products Information System - Pesticides Advisory Committee, Gov't of Ontario
• Ontario Pesticide Training and Certification
• City of Toronto’s Pesticide By-Law & Natural Alternatives

Updated July 2008

October 26: Carolinian Canada AGM London & Invasive Council meeting RBG Burlington

Doubled booked:

Carolinian Canada Coalition Forum
"Impacts of climate change on southwestern Ontario's unique natural features …and best management practices for an uncertain future." Followed by their AGM & Lorraine Johnson’s “Natural Treasures” book release.

and

Inaugural General Meeting of the Ontario Council on Terrestrial Invasive Plant Species
"Speaking with One Voice"
Royal Botanical Gardens Burlington Ontario