Troy Shantz Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner is calling on the provincial government to do more to help municipalities fight phragmites and other invasive species.
Troy Shantz
Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner is calling on the provincial government to do more to help municipalities fight phragmites and other invasive species.
“The government deserves high marks for passing a new law to combat invasive species,” Dianne Saxe said in her first annual report.
“But will it work? Most of the hard front-line work is still left to municipalities, conservation authorities and private landowners. They can’t do it all without provincial guidance, help, co-ordination or funding.”
Phragmite is a tall invasive reed that is spreading through wetlands and shorelines where it chokes out wildlife and native plants.
The most effective control method found so far is to burn and spray the grass thickets in successive years, which is labour intensive.
“If you drive any of the roads across the province, you’ll see it’s a pretty big problem,” said David Moores, Sarnia’s drainage superintendent.
Moores was featured in a recent Journal photo essay on the city’s attempt to control “phrag” in the Telfer Diversion Drain.
“I’ve put a good dent in our drains, for now,” he said. “(But) that channel would take a lot of money to fully control.”
Saxe’s report says invasive species are one of the biggest threats to Ontario’s biodiversity, yet the Ministry of Natural Resources spends very little of its budget on the problem.
Eight amphibian species are at risk of disappearing, moose populations have declined 20% in a decade and half of the province’s bat species are in steep decline, her report states.
“The government often talks the talk when it comes to conserving Ontario’s biodiversity, but that’s not enough — they need to walk the walk,” Saxe said.
