Blog & News

You CAN Make A Difference! (archive)

Published on Wednesday November 5, 2014

Authored by PEIISC

This week, our PEI National Park representative offers some words of encouragement!

Don’t give up, you can make a difference….

Working with invasive plant species can often seem daunting. I wanted to share these photos as encouragement for those trying to eliminate or control the invasion of some species.

In PEI National Park we have five invasive species we are working very hard at controlling. One of these is Japanese Knotweed (Fallopia japonica or Polygonum cuspidatum). These photos are taken at one site in Greenwich; the control methods we use are cutting and tarping.

The japanese knotweed is persistent; growing through the tarp and spreading out from the edges but it does seem weakened with the effort. All the areas with knotweed are covered with tarp in early July and throughout the season sites are visited to recut anything that has come through the tarp.The species is certainly not eradicated and the work will be ongoing but we feel progress is being made.

– Linda Thomas, PEIISC Member and Resource Conservation Technician at PEI National Park

Attached images:

This is what was cut from the site in 2012 after tarping.

And this is what was cut in 2014 after tarping. You CAN make a difference!