This upcoming Wednesday, the Helen Schuler Nature Centre invites volunteers to join in on a weed hunt during the final Invasive Weed Night of the year featuring Russian Olive.
Russian Olive trees were brought to southern Alberta as a hardy windbreak and an ornamental tree, with silvery leaves and fragrant yellow flowers. Unfortunately, they have turned out to be a real threat to the river valley ecosystem.
As part of the Nature Centre’s conservation volunteer program, there’s a component that is an invasive weed pull.
“Typically, once a month during the summer we get together and learn about one or more of the invasive weeds of the river valley and we set about some work to try to at least monitor, but ideally eradicate them from an area of the river valley,” says Chelsea Sherbut, resource development coordinator at the Nature Centre.
Next week, volunteers will return to the 3 Avenue hill, where work has been done with knapweed pulls.
“We’re going to be doing a little bit of that there to make sure there isn’t any present. Then, we’re going to learn about Russian Olive, which we haven’t talked about before,” notes Sherbut. “It’s such a pretty tree. A lot of us really love it. It’s such an iconic species in this area, but unfortunately, it is a bit of a bully in the river valley.”
The plan is to discuss what the Russian Olive does in the ecosystem and whether there’s a way to manage and contain it and still enjoy it as an ornamental. “While preventing the damage it causes to the ecosystem,” adds Sherbut.
According to Sherbut, there was a bunch of interest last month when the Nature Centre offered a presentation on invasive weeds. “We had a good turnout for that. We’re hoping to have some good interest in this. We’ve had several replies already of people that are curious and know Russian Olive, but they want to learn some more.”
For more information visit online at nature.lethbridge.ca.
