Those Pesky Invasive Plants!

Guests: Michelle Miller, Mike Pangman & Kiara Mills (Northwest Invasive Plant Council)

This episode features Michelle Miller (Executive Director), Mike Pangman (Field Operations Coordinator), and Kiara Mills (Education & Outreach Assistant) from the Northwest Invasive Plant Council. They discuss invasive plant priorities, integrated pest management, drought impacts, landowner responsibilities, rebate programs, and how communities across northwest BC can prevent the spread of invasive species.

External Links:

https://www.nwipc.org/

https://www.rdbn.bc.ca/departments/agriculture/weeds-pests

Transcript

Megan : Hi, and welcome to this issue of the Growing Opportunities Podcast. This week we are building on the information we learned in one of our previous podcasts, rural Living Land and Leases. In this previous podcast, penny Adams described invasive plant species and explained the role of the Northwest Invasive Plant Council with respect to managing invasive plants on, public and private lands throughout the regional district.

Penny has now retired from her position as the executive director of the N-W-I-P-C, so joining me today is Michelle Miller, the new executive director Mike Pangman, the North West Invasive Plant Council Field Coordinator, and Kiara Mills, the education and outreach assistant. Welcome everyone. First, let's get into a description of each of your roles within the Northwest Invasive Plant Council.

Michelle, did you wanna get us started? 

Michelle: Yeah, you betcha. a few of us are newer than others, but so my name's Michelle. I am the new executive director for the Northwest Invasive Plant Council, and I've been in this role for just about a year now. I've been learning lots, and thankfully we have a great group of people that are able to help direct us and other staff.

So it's been a big learning experience, but happy to be here and happy to help prevent the spread of invasive plants.

Mike: I'm Mike Pangman. I'm the field Operations coordinator for the Northwest Invasive Plant Council. I've been at my position since 2021, officially, and previous to that I was a contractor since 2010.

Working on contracts for the Northwest Vasa Plant Council and the Peace River area.

Kiara: My name is K i r a Mills. I started with the N-W-I-P-C last may. And I am the program assistant education Outreach Assistant currently, so I'm just helping out with education, outreach, awareness and developing our program for the summer for our region. 

Megan : Perfect. Michelle, did you wanna quickly do a recap of the organization it's mandate and how it's funded?

Michelle: Yeah, you bet. So, Not to go into too much detail, just because I know that there has been another podcast about the N-W-I-P-C, but to give a brief overview we are a nonprofit society that is operated with a board of directors and runs on a partnership model. Our operating area runs from the Alberta border all the way to the Yukon border. We have over 25 partners that we work with and across the northwest BC region and over 4,000 sites. The Northwest Invasive Plant Council will also like to acknowledge that our work spans over a vast operating area across much of Northwest bc, which also includes many traditional territories of First Nations communities.

So we are committed to respecting and collaborating with these nations in all aspects of our work. So just a really quick note on invasive plants, they are non-native species that are able to quickly establish and flourish in new areas due to their competitive ability over other vegetation.

Invasive plants have widespread negative impacts across multiple sectors influencing social, recreational, environmental, and economic aspects of society. So the N-W-I-P-C is dedicated to protecting the unique ecosystems of northwest BC from the spread of these invasive species. We work to prevent new introductions and control existing populations.

And reduce the impacts of invasive species on our natural landscapes, wildlife and communities from the Interior Valley to the coastal areas of BC.

So we have such a large area that it's important to really target what the needs of our partners are.

So we can choose the most efficient, cost effective and longest lasting treatments or combination of treatments.

Megan : So speaking of combination of treatments did you wanna talk a little bit about integrated pest management? 

Michelle: in order to address all of the needs of our partners and other land managers, we really take.

The integrated pest management approach it in all of our decision making. So this is a process for managing pests in an effective, economical and environmentally sound way. The integrated manage pest management approach can be used in all sorts of aspects, but specifically crops, livestock, pest management, and even in your home garden.

So it's based off of six elements. Starting with planning and prevention. So this is to prevent and understand your system to be able to keep these infestations from even starting.

Education plays a big role in this. Two is identifying your pests. Three is monitoring the populations. Four would be making control decisions based on your monitoring and identification. And then five is action strategies. So this is what treatments we would maybe start doing in order to combat these control decisions.

Then evaluating is the last step, which is also super important because we wanna know if what we did made a difference and help with our planning in the future. 

Megan : So Mike moving onto control methods that are used throughout the region, how are the integrated pest management principles applied during the growing season? 

Mike: Generally during field season we have for the most part. We're pretty much jumping to three or four. Depends on which method of IPM management you're using. So for me, I generally, it's prevention, as Michelle said monitoring and seeing if the pest in question is gotten bigger, smaller, if it's moving site or finding more locations than we knew about.

And then number three is where we step in mid-season is setting action thresholds. So generally for our operations, these action thresholds have generally been met, which means at this point you come into your control methods. And that's where we hit the ground running is we've accepted where we're at and we're going to implement some control methods. So generally speaking, there's only I would say there's only four of them and there's lots that blanket under 'em. So your cultural controls is something for the N-W-I-P-C and its contractors generally don't use. We find those are more for farmers like especially ag producers, like people producing, grain, hay, anything like that. Or gardens. People who have large gardens around their house or for sale greenhouses. 'cause it usually has to do with using fertilizers, planting new stuff using different soils, changing doing stuff like that. It's generally not used by the N-W-I-P-C although it is often recommended to people calling in with questions and weed specific.

As, 'cause we are generally just out there, like I said the action as threshold has been met and we're performing an action. So mechanical and physical controls are probably the biggest one. They're done on smaller infestations when we're trying to protect a an ecosystem that's sensitive, where, the only thing we can do in there.

Is maybe hand pull, dig mo we do cutting, sometimes suppression work deadheading if they're in flower or in bloom. Essentially we're doing manual control. Sometimes that's, mulching as well. And then you have your herbicide control. So a lot of people put this as a last resort.

It is I'd like to say it's not a last resort, it's just another tool in the toolbox. So often weeds specifically, and I mean there's several, but let's say Japanese not weed, all of the other efforts to stop it. Don't work. We know this. So chemical control is one, for example, where that's done.

And when you're really looking at it. The other ones is it works better on deeply rooted plants. So you'll have less site visits. It really works better herbicides for biannuals in general. 'Cause they're a little trickier to treat long term. And quite frankly, as we operate on budgets it's more cost effective when you're treating many sites.

And we literally treat thousands of sites. The use of herbicide's important to us, and the last control, generally speaking, is biocontrol. And this is what I feel at the most part, is a, generally a last resort. For example, like oxide, daisy, some toad flexes, yellow hawkweed, ones that dominate our landscape, that are threats to ecosystems, farms, animal habitat and or infrastructure. That's when the bio control comes in. They're quite costly. Usually this is performed by the ministry at a certain point where we have essentially stopped managing those species just due to the large scale spread of them. So bio control comes in at that point.

It's our last resort and hopefully we can get some that work.

Megan : And I was just gonna ask What an example of a biannual, invasive plant would be,

Mike: um, So ones that we're really going after lately is say for example, marsh plume. This. 

It is it's one that, specifically herbicides work well on, because where you see one blooming, there's usually a rosette there.

Even if you don't see it immediately in the tall grass or somewhere. So that's when herbicide is very effective for that. 'cause you're also killing the one that'll grow next year at the same time it's cost effective. 

Megan : Is Marsh plume Thistle is one of, has been one of the high priority species that's been targeted, is that correct?

Mike: Yes. 

Megan : Did you wanna talk a little bit about how invasive plants get designated as high, low and medium priority species? 

Mike: The hierarchy of the plants is usually done by groups of people. Ministries are heavily involved. Some private sectors and numerous weed committees throughout the province all have input.

But usually you can see what it does. So it'll. Out-compete is one, one way of looking at, so it'll all compete all the native flowers and plants and dominate the landscape. Or it can have an effect on wildlife. Like certain species are, for example either toxic or the animals just won't eat them.

So that is a major problem with some species in some areas. And damage to infrastructure and ecosystems is the same. Some plants are they grow so well and their roots are such a pain that they will damage public infrastructure. And Japanese knotweed is a prime example of that. 

Will crack foundations and spent and it's strong.

Michelle: It's also dependent on like our jurisdictions and our partners too, like what their priorities and needs might be to affect our that ranking system. Because sometimes in trails and parks and things like that, there might be specific nuisance plants that are invasive plants that are more of a priority in that kind of area than others or agricultural regions and things like that as well.

Megan : Yeah, I know in the past, within the RDBN, some areas in some areas low or medium priority leads have been targeted just because of the amount of traffic that goes through those sites. So in order to stop the spread of that particular patch into other areas it's one of the areas that's been treated.

Then with respect to the low priority species or the, even the medium priority, have you noticed any increase in or expansion, of those species because of the last few years of drought? 

Mike: Yes. That's a good question. As I, essentially, my job, I travel a good part of this province and my job is to look at weeds.

When you're talking droughts specifically the last few years have been very dry. Canada Thistle is the one that definitely comes to mind and it is definitely the one most, now, historically it's the most talked about. 'cause you can see it, the seeds blow in the fall, everybody's talking about it, especially farmers, ranchers.

It dominates massive parts of our landscape on the right of ways from Yukon Northwest Territories border, all the way everywhere. But we have noticed, quite frankly, large patches becoming even larger and new. Many new patches of thistle being established. Year one, you don't see very many plants.

They don't grow very tall. Year two, you can see them, they're a little taller. They're starting to clump up. And this year specifically noticed by many people, including myself those patches in between patches are large now and they don't go away. That's the crappy thing about thistle, although not being a crazy bad weed low priority for us.

We did notice the other ones. Yes, there has been notice, but they're such low priority species that they're opportunists. So south thistles on the immediate gravel shoulder of roads. They're opportunists because nothing else is trying to grow there because it's so dry. They do grow. 

But and also Hawks Beard, for example, but being a threat, no.

But Canada, this is the only low priority that's actually definitely established new property. 

Megan : Yeah, 

Mike: it's taken up a lot of space on the right of ways. 

Megan : Yeah. I think I've heard anecdotally that people have noticed that as their, like desirable forage plans have been choked out because they don't have enough moisture.

They basically are getting replaced by. Probably weed seed that were already in this oil and are just fine with the fact that they don't have enough moisture or as much moisture, I should say, and are able to germinate and seems like flourish. And then I guess too, Canada thistle has an advantage because it spreads through rhizomes, right?

Mike: And, And other species I haven't noticed is bad. So Hawkweed is one that definitely travels through rhizomes and seeds. It does both. But I haven't noticed like a big boom in Hawkweed by any means. And Common Tansy is a really deep rooted plant again, and some spotted knapweeds. So those are higher priority species.

But to say that they've had a good year or good season in the Northwest, no. I don't see any, extra growth or more speed in the growth.

Megan : Oh I suppose that's some good news. Michelle, I was thinking that we should maybe talk a little bit about the fact that the Northwest VA plant Council does have a strong mandate and does do considerable weed management throughout the region, but that it's not just down to the Northwest Invasive plant Council to do.

Control of invasives. So on private property, there is a legal requirement to control noxious weeds and even if it seems like a losing battle that that some effort should be made. And I just wondered what your thoughts were about that. 

Michelle: There are actually quite a few acts that we, we have to pay attention to and follow. But the main one being the Weed Control Act. So provincially this act, it does designate what weed, what invasive plants are considered as noxious weeds both on a regional and a provincial level.

This list hasn't. Been updated in a significant amount of time, things that's why we make it a priority to prioritize our regional plants as well and base that off of working with the province and they provide input to both. But the provincially noxious weeds it's actually.

Private property owners and government agencies are mandated by law to control these species that are listed, that occur on their property or jurisdiction. So there, there is definitely a like a push out there for people to be aware of and responsible of what weeds are. They should be really focused on getting rid of, there's also a I won't go into it, but there's a few notes on moving machinery and equipment from place to place and agriculture spec, specifically agricultural equipment, and also spot like transporting seed and fertilizer and things like that across regions. So this is all mentioned in the Weed Control Act.

There are a few other ones that are used to really emphasize. The need of awareness about what, what's getting transported from one region to another. But the one other thing I wanted to mention too was that municipal municipalities and regional districts can utilize something called the unsightly premise bylaw, which if they have it in their region, allows, the municipality or regional district to reach out to a private landowner and request that they treat their invasive plants under the Insightly premise bylaw. This isn't I, as far as I know, these things are not as well used as they could be to encourage. Maybe private landowners from actually treating these things.

And that's why I think education is so important because there are these rules in place. But for them to actually get implemented and put to action, I think the best way to to deal with this is actually people just being aware of their own invasive plants. And so we do have something called the landowner rebate program.

Where landowners that are aware of their invasives or even just have questions, they can always reach out to us. But there's an opportunity where if they fill out a form, it's not a super long form that if they have a. Contractor come and treat their invasive plants, they can actually get a rebate up to a thousand dollars um, 50% of the cost.

So f we call it the 50 50 program. But we would strongly encouraging people to utilize this as a way to help cut the cost. So we really want to help people on their own properties treat these.

'cause 

That's where everything, like we can only treat on the jurisdictions that we have the right to treat on and the funding to treat on. We really try to support private landowners from doing it on their property. 

Megan : And just to be clear, the landowner rebate program, you need to hire a contractor to spray under that program.

And that contractor, they need to have a pesticide certificate or I guess it's pesticide applicator certificate.

Michelle: Absolutely. If anybody had questions about maybe people that they could reach out to, we're going to be really working on our contractor list options for this upcoming season.

And really hoping to have a few options for people to, to connect with different contractors. And so once they've. Done that. And if they want some support with that, we can provide it. But they, they'll have the contractor come treat their plants, and then as long as they submit their forms to us by November 15th, it's first, come first, sir.

We have a, we have do, have a cap, so don't wait till the last minute to submit your rebate. But we'll process that and you can get some money back for it. Yeah. 

Megan : Perfect. So speaking of the upcoming year, did you wanna talk a little bit about the goals for 2026 for the organization? 

Michelle: Yeah, so having this been my first full year of working with the N-W-I-P-C, we've, I've been able to learn a lot and we did focus last year a huge amount on kind of that education and outreach piece and just building relationships with partners.

And I think that the goal moving forward for this year is to, again, just really focus on building those partnerships with, different jurisdictions and people, different community groups municipalities and agricultural groups all across the region to really get our. Our out there and our resources out there and just that connection piece of if somebody wants to reach out about a certain species that they aren't sure about or having troubles with, then we can really support that, that education side of things there.

We have been involved in a few different projects as well around the implementation of some boot brush stations. These are. Things that are placed at the front of like really common trails that people can use to clean their boots so they're not spreading invasive plants from one place to another.

And I think that one of our big pushes for this year, I think I mentioned it a minute ago, but is really connecting with the agricultural community. We really wanna talk to folks that are like facing the pressures of these invasive plants coming from roadsides and things coming. And they are doing their, they're they're putting in their due diligence to treat things on their side of the fence.

And so we really wanna be able to work with those kinds of people and see if we can support them that way, as well as just addressing the needs and concerns that they have because they're. One of the larger groups that are really facing the effects of invasive plant spread financially and 

Operationally. 

we want to try and shift from maybe just looking at plants to, to really. Focusing on invasive species as a whole.

So really providing that education around things that are coming, potentially coming into our region with changing climates and travel and all sorts of things.

Megan : If that ends up being something that the Northwest Invasive Plant Council takes on, does that sort of bring that organization into alignment with some of the other invasive species organizations around the province?

Michelle: Absolutely. We are just one of these invasive species groups that are across the province. There are a bunch of other organizations that have made this plant to species transition over the years. And it doesn't mean we're gonna not focus on plants and our capacity's not gonna change that way.

But it just opens up opportunities similar to all of these other groups that we, if there is something that comes in that we wanna stay on top of, that isn't a plant, it gives us that flexibility.

Megan : Okay. So maybe Kiara I'll ask you to talk a little bit about both your experience so far with the Northwest EVAs Plant Council and also some of the tools in your toolbox for education and outreach and what you have in mind for this year.

Kiara: So just a quick spotlight for our website, we did do a new website and it does have a updated database of most of the invasive plants that we see in our region. So it makes it super easy to identify a plant using the website. If it has yellow flowers, you can just search up invasive species.

That have yellow flowers, and then it will come up with a list with pictures. It also makes reporting a lot easier. So if you use our website to report any invasive plant sightings that you find that will come directly to us as opposed to using different resources like the, bc I think it's the I app. That data doesn't go directly to us. Using our website we get that data faster and then we're able to if we have the capacity, go out and treat those plants faster or we're at least aware of them quicker as well. Outreach education and outreach. The last year we focused a lot on just getting out into the communities that we're servicing. Going to farmer's markets fall fairs, really prioritizing, making connections, as Michelle said, with community organizations that are already doing environmental sustainability or preservation work in the communities and attending those events and making those connections with people. So we did a lot of tabling. And I think that's going to be a big part of this year as well, is continuing to go to those events to really foster those connections. We also talked to a lot of people at these events and so we were able to give out a lot of resources on the landowner.

Rebate program which Michelle talked about earlier. As well as our programs like Play Clean, go and Clean, drain Dry which are just ways of ways that people can be aware of how they're spreading invasives when they're doing things like outdoor recreation. And then we also are. I'm really trying to push this this year for community invasive plant pool.

So those are things that organizations, community organizations can go out and organize if they have a spot of say like common Tansy. If you, if they're able to get, I believe it's 10 volunteers, 10 adult volunteers to go in and remove those plants. They're eligible for a $250 honorarium.

So they just have to reach out to us to organize that, and then just follow up afterwards and we can get an honorarium to people. 

Megan : Nice. That sounds actually, it sounds like fun even though you're pulling weeds.

Kiara: Yeah, absolutely. Michelle and I we organized one that unfortunately just due to weather wasn't super successful in attendance, but it was quite fun to go out and just start pulling so, or deadheading, tansy.

So yeah. Yeah they're a lot of fun. 

Megan : Early on in my. Career I did work with managing invasives, and we used to pull nap weed rosettes. And if you do it enough, then pretty soon when you close your eyes, that's all you can see. 

Kiara: Oh yes, absolutely. 

Megan : So did anybody did any of you have anything you wanted to add before we close up here?

Michelle: I just wanted to mention too, our goal is protecting biodiversity. By keeping these invasive plants from spreading and one of our tools is using chemical control when appropriate and when we do this, I just wanted to ensure people that it is usually done with a backpack and very targeted treatments so that we're really only, targeting those specific invasive plants. Sometimes there are other plants mixed in and it does look like there might be a spot where things are not growing that year. But by treating those invasive plants, we're next year allowing that natural regrowth of native plants to come back in and.

If anybody has any like questions or concerns about those kinds of things, we have very strict rules about sensitive areas and things like that as well. So we're very conscious of that and we're happy to talk about it if people have questions and things like that.

Megan : No, that's a good one. Chemical control of noxious weeds is more complex than it looks like on the surface, so there's a lot of training that goes into it. And all of the herbicides that are used are specific to the area and the plants that you guys are treating. And it is important to note that it's done thoughtfully and, with the intention of just trying to remediate the site.

I'll just put it in out there as well that anytime anybody has any questions, please feel free to reach out to the Northwestern Invasive Plant Council. As Michelle mentioned you might end up talking to Mike or Kiara in your travels as well, and Mike in particular, if you have.

Questions about specific weeds on your property. You can also reach out to the regional district and you'll probably get either myself or somebody else that can also answer your questions. So there's lots of resources out there if you have questions about noxious weeds and in a particular.

Any that you see that you on your property or that you have particular concern about. I just wanted to say thank you very much to the three of you for joining me today and talking about this.

Michelle: Thank you for having us, Megan. And yeah, we're happy to connect with anybody further and we work closely with the regional district at so happy to be involved.