Invasive Species Removal

Invasive species (also called "non-indigenous" or "non-native") are those that adversely affect the habitats and bioregions they invade economically, environmentally, and/or ecologically. With many invasive species, once they have become established, they are tremendously difficult to eliminate. Further, some invasive species can have adverse effects on other local flora through harbouring disease or toxins.

Here on the reserve, we complete invasive species removal tasks on a weekly basis in an attempt to try and stay on top of any issues and prevent invasives spreading. For the smaller flora species we can simply cut them done or complete a controlled burn to kill them off. For the larger trees, it is not ideal to cut them down as the seeds are likely to disperse and grow. Instead, we ‘ring bark’ the tree so that it dies. By removing a ring of bark around the whole circumference of the tree trunk, water and nutrients can no longer by passed up from the roots to the rest of the tree, and so it quickly dies off. Below you can see a couple of examples of trees that we have ring barked.