Invasive Species Inventory and Management, and Tree Planting with Conservation Halton
Conservation Halton
By Jeff Dickie, Invasive Species Technician
31 July, 2023
Invasive Inventory and Management
I recently joined the forestry team in April and hit the ground running by starting invasive species inventories of Cootes to Escarpment EcoPark System sites as part of the Cootes to Escarpment EcoPark System Ecological Corridors Pilot Program. I’ve covered a lot of ground in the past couple of months since we are hoping to have the inventories wrapped up in the next few weeks.
Most of what we are finding are the usual suspects of European Buckthorn, Dog Strangling Vine and Tartarian Honeysuckle. There were a few surprises found along the way, including species at risk like American Chestnuts and Red Mulberry found at one location.
Contract crews and Conservation Halton staff performing herbaceous spraying to manage invasive species. Photo by Hajnal Hovacs.
Contract crews have completed herbaceous spraying at Little Tract and are almost finished a large area in Grindstone Creek. Woody species have been sprayed and the area is completed at Waterdown Woods and will continue at the rest of our properties into the fall.
We had a special visit from The Weather Network and worked with their team to complete a video earlier this month on identifying Giant Hogweed, Cow parsnip and Wild parsnip. Visit this link at https://www.theweathernetwork.com to watch the full interview.
Tree Planting
Our planting team battled the rain, muck and mosquitoes during this exceptionally wet spring planting exactly 15,910 native trees and shrubs with the following breakdown:
Clappison woods - 3605 trees
Grindstone Creek - 5955 trees and 1380 shrubs
Waterdown woods - 3670 trees and 600 shrubs
Little tract - 650 trees and 50 shrubs
Stay tuned for another update in the fall!
Cosnervation Halton staff members out planting trees. Photo by Hajnal Kovacs.
Author, Jeff Dickie, plants a tree. Photo by Jeff Dickie.