On Monday of this week, the “hard core” members of the Crippen Park Weed Warriors planted ferns and salmonberry bushes along a strip of cleared land beside the commuter parking lot in the Cove. This project is just one of many the volunteer group has tackled since being formed roughly a decade ago, and their work continues on the third Saturday of every month.
The group’s de-facto leader, Moira Greaven, says the monthly gatherings are an opportunity to work-off frustration, and a chance to talk politics. She says that they focus on Crippen Park because Metro Vancouver does not have the staff resources to fight the ongoing battle against invasive plant species, and because the staff they do have on the island, Kevin Huskinson and Rod Harding, clean up the mess the group leaves behind.
“Recently we were clearing blackberries from Miller Road, and underneath we found a patch of huckleberries that would’ve soon been choked out completely,” says Greaven. “In any case, the pile of blackberries we left behind was about 7 feet tall, and we rely on Kevin and Rod to dispose of those piles.”
In the past year, she says the group has been working to remove Daphne Laurel, English Ivy, Japanese Knotweed, Himalayan Blackberry, Lamium, Clematis vine and Purple Loostrife from Crippen Park lands.
On the subject of Purple Loostrife, councillor and environmental educator Sue Ellen Fast says the survival of the wetland ecosystem between Miller Road and Killarney Lake can be attributed to the Weed Warrior’s work.
“That whole area could’ve been infested, and if you want to know what that looks like, the area on the way to the airport near Iona Park is completely infested and is a visible sea of purple,” says Fast. “Once a tiny bit of root is there, it just keeps growing but the Weed Warriors are at it consistently, and without them all the other vegetation could be swallowed by this invasive plant. We wouldn’t see all the ducks and wildflower beauty we see there now.”
When asked whether the group’s efforts ever felt futile, Greaven and fellow weed-warrior Dee MacCarthy replied: eradication is futile, but control is the goal and that is very possible.
Anyone is welcome to join the Weed Warriors in their efforts, and the group says they would especially be interested in younger volunteers getting on board.
