Burlington resident gets to keep her milkweed
Mayor confirms that staff will redraft dated noxious weed bylaw
BURLINGTON — They say you can’t fight city hall
But you can get them to lay off your milkweed.
At least that was the experience of Burlingtonian Doreen Nicoll. She’s not into nicely manicured front lawns at her house in north Burlington near Walkers Line. She likes leaving it to nature. And nature decided to grow a section of milkweed, which is actually a good thing because they are host plants for monarch butterflies.
Monarch caterpillars lay eggs on milkweed and eat the leaves that provide nourishment for them to transform into adult butterflies. In recent years, there has been an effort by many people across the continent to preserve the plant in the wild and grow it as a way to help monarch populations.
But surprisingly, Burlington has a bylaw that lists milkweed among numerous other noxious weeds. And one of her neighbours called the city to complain.
“I came home on June 29 to a notice that was pinned to my door, that the city had been by and I had seven days to destroy
my milkweed because it was considered a weed under the city bylaw,” the high school teacher and mother of five grown children says.
“I contacted the bylaw officer. He said he was just doing his job. He explained it was still considered a weed and I would have to cut it down and destroy it.”
And if she didn’t, they city will cut down the plants and “send me a massive bill.” With that she “called up every environmentalist I know,” took her story onto social media, and eventually she got a letter from Burlington Mayor Rick Goldring saying to forget about the municipal milkweed enforcement action.
Goldring told The Spectator, “I was shocked when I heard about it. I suspect the bylaw hasn’t been reviewed for some time.”
Staff, he said, decided that as of last week “they will not be enforcing the bylaw for milkweed and they will be bringing changes to council in the fall to change the bylaw.
“It didn’t take long for us to realize that it didn’t make sense to have milkweed as a noxious weed in our bylaw. People plant milkweed to give habitat for monarch butterflies and we should be encouraging that not discouraging it.”
A spokesperson for the City of Hamilton says milkweed is not seen as a noxious weed in Hamilton and the Province of Ontario removed milkweed as a noxious weed in 2014.
As for Nicoll, she says she is pleased that the city has decided to leave her milkweed alone.
But she thinks the incident also draws attention to another problem.
“Burlington has to get with it that grass is on its way out and they should naturalize.”