Invasive plant has local officials preparing for battle
Medicine Hat and Cypress County could face major problems if an insidious aquatic invasive weed called Phragmites gets a firm hold along local waterways this summer.
The county and city have confirmed discovery of one patch of Phragmites, a rush-like plant which grows to 15 feet high and completely takes over river eco-systems with a matlike thickness. They also feel it is probable more patches will be discovered once the Ross Creek watershed can be investigated more thoroughly later this spring.
Local officials were shocked by discovery of the weed, which was found by accident in February by an unidentified MHC student doing a report for school. MHC instructors advanced their concerns to Cypress County, which immediately went down to investigate and discovered the invasive plant along a tributary stream leading into the Ross Creek.
“We found one patch,” confirms Jason Storch, agricultural supervisor for Cypress County, “But we soon realized the patch was actually in the city of Medicine Hat’s boundaries.”
Cypress County informed the city of the discovery, but Storch feels it’s highly likely more patches will be found on county lands as well. His weed eradication team will be scouting for more of the stuff, and dealing with any patches it might find.
Dave Genio, city superintendent of parks, says his staff will be doing the same in the city. At the same time, control experts will be working closely with Alberta Environment to come up with a strategy to deal with the patch already found.
“Some of the control methods we could entertain using are cutting, pulling and spraying,” explains Genio. “We don’t know the extent we can do in terms of control until we identify where the weed is, and what methods of control we would be permitted to use based on that. We won’t 100 per cent know the extent of this until we can get down into that area and investigate.”
Genio says the city takes this problem seriously and will be monitoring it closely. In the meantime, Genio asks river and creek hiking enthusiasts to keep their eyes open for the plant, which might appear quite pretty while masking an insidious nature.
“We do continuous monitoring of the weeds throughout the city, and we utilize Cypress County, or even local residents who might have knowledge of these weeds, to inform us if they happen to see anything out there. We are definitely concerned in this case and want people to keep their eyes open,” he says.