Local kids pull

Almost 100 school children participated in a “weed pull” at Kokanee Creek Park this week. Children in grades one through six from Redfish School helped the park by pulling spotted knapweed, an aggressive invasive species.

Organized by the Friends of West Kootenay Parks, the Kokanee Creek Interpretive Centre, and the Central Kootenay Invasive Plant Committee, this program kicked off with a play in the theatre on “bully plants” and how they can take over our environment. Students enjoyed watching their peers act out characters like “Lucy Loosestrife” and “Nathan Knapweed” to learn how they arrive to Canada and impact our ecosystems.

“It was great to see so many smiling faces in our centre” says Nancie Dohan, long-time park interpreter at Kokanee Creek Park. “It is important for both visitors and residents to understand the issues of invasive plants so they can do their part to control spread.”

Invasive plants, including spotted knapweed, scotch broom, purple loosestrife, and orange hawkweed, are introduced to Canada without the natural predators that keep them under control in their homeland. Since local animals rarely eat these plants, there is nothing to keep them from spreading, so they can form dense monocultures and take over habitat from native plants and animals.

“Invasive plants are a growing problem in the Central Kootenay” says Juliet Craig, Coordinator of the Central Kootenay Invasive Plant Committee. “They can impact both our ecosystems and economy so getting people motivated to do something about it is just wonderful.”

Armed with gloves and plastic bags, the students swarmed the beaches of the park to pull spotted knapweed. Over 20 bags of plants were pulled, reducing both the number of plants growing in the park, and the number of seeds that will be produced this year.

“They kids had so much fun” says Ursula Lowrey of Friends of West Kootenay Parks. “It was a great event both to educate our local children, and to help clean up our park.”

For more information on the “Communities Pulling Together” program, see www.kootenayweeds.com/pulling.

Added on June 18th, 2007 - Return to Special Features