Local gardeners should check their flowerbeds this week for illegal aliens.
Alberta’s new Weed Control Act came into force on June 16. The act lists 75 plants that are now considered invasive weeds by the province, meaning they must be controlled or destroyed on sight.
The act was supposed to be proclaimed on May 1, says Paul Laflamme, head of pest surveillance with Alberta Agriculture, but was pushed back when Norman Kwon stepped down as lieutenant governor.
The act streamlines a number of current laws to help inspectors control weeds. The old legislation used to have a category called “nuisance” weeds, Laflamme says as an example, which included pests such as dandelions. The list was effectively useless since the weeds were already so widespread.
New to the law are 46 prohibited noxious weeds the province wants eliminated. These are weeds that aren’t yet established in Alberta, Laflamme says, “but they are more or less knocking on our doorstep.” Also new is an expanded list of 29 noxious weeds — plants that are in Alberta and could cause trouble if they spread.
The new noxious list includes many common garden plants, notes St. Albert arborist Kevin Veenstra. Dame’s rocket — known for its fragrant clusters of four-petal purple or white blossoms — is often found in floral mixes. Baby’s breath can be found in bouquets.
“All the plants on that list are invasive in nature,” Laflamme says. “They spread and spread and spread.”
Alberta Agriculture will post an online identification guide for invasive weeds in the coming weeks, he says, and has sent guides to local weed inspectors. Anyone who spots a suspected invasive weed patch should call their local agricultural fieldman or public works department for advice.
Visit the Alberta Invasive Plants Council at www.invasiveplants.ab.ca for more on the act.
An Edmonton church has invited people to come hear one of Alberta’s top glaciologists speak about the future of water.
The Garneau United Church of Edmonton is holding a forum on water and glaciers Thursday. Speaking is Martin Sharp, a glaciologist at the University of Alberta with more than three decades of experience in his field.
Glaciers are on the decline throughout the world, Sharp says. Just four of the 1,400 glaciers in the Yukon have grown in the last 50 years and about 300 have disappeared. Those glaciers are important sources of river water during the summer, he notes, which could spell trouble for irrigators.
It’s also resurrected some pollutants. Researchers have noticed long-banned chemicals such as DDT reappearing in fish near glacial headwaters as the pollutants melt out of the ice. “It’s sort of a second wave of pollution.”
Alberta glaciers started their decline around 1976, Sharp says. “There was this big change in ocean circulation and ocean temperature distribution in the north Pacific,” he says, part of a centuries-long cycle that shifts snowfall away from Alberta and towards Alaska. That, combined with natural and human-induced warming, caused glaciers to melt faster than they could grow.
Sea levels will likely rise by about half a metre in the next century because of glacier melt, says Sharp — high enough to displace millions. “If a lot of this is due to burning fossil fuels, we have to start thinking of better ways to do things.”
The talk runs from 7 to 9 p.m. at 1148-84 Ave. Admission is $10 or $5 for students. For details, call 780-439-2501.
