Time to truly tackle invasives
Dear mayor and council:
Our Somenos Creek parrot’s feather invasion emergency is an alarming wake-up call for council to finally take action against this pesky species under our timely, wise environmental bylaws.
Those bylaws address critical concerns about many invasives now populating North Cowichan — and indeed across our valley — thanks to local inaction in past decades when eradication would have been far simpler and less expensive.
Paul Fletcher, of the positively proactive Somenos Marsh Wildlife Society, outlines in the July 22 Citizen cogent ways to remove parrot’s feather from Somenos Creek, and to rejuvenate our waterway’s ailing habitat for salmon and other critters.
SMWS’s clever actions must be mightily embraced by council now to pluck parrot’s feather from our vital ecosystem.
Foot dragging, studies and debate is how giant bullfrogs and other stubborn invasives gained permanent footholds here, depriving local folks and tourists full enjoyment of our natural habitat.
Parrot’s feather aside, council now has a solid eco-mandate to hire and maintain wardens and teams year-round to rid our environment of a list of invasives.
That insidiously unwelcome flora and fauna is tanking tourism, dunking property values, and strangling our natural species.
All that is needed is council’s will to act now and help SMWS on behalf of our threatened ecosystems.
Yours in ecology,
Peter W. Rusland
North Cowichan
