Conservation Biology in the Boreal
HOW DOES NEWFOUNDLAND and LABRADOR COMPARE??
Memorial University’s Botanical Garden had a partnership with the Invasive Species Council of Newfoundland and Labrador. This was a non-profit group made of individuals that care about the environment and the impact of alien invasive species on the province of Newfoundland and Labrador (6).
Volunteers and groups across the province aided the council in locating invasive alien species in a program called “Eyes Across the Province,” throughout the province (6). Several provinces have developed brochures aimed at educating gardeners on the potential risk posed by popular garden ornamental plants, and how they can “jump the fence,” and become a huge problem. The Newfoundland and Labrador Invasive Species Council website does provide these suggestions to specific flora of this region to plant instead of an ornamental invasive alien species (6). The Council also provides links to other provinces such as Ontario with their Grow me instead brochure (6).
Provincial Partnerships
Funding Issues
In March of 2012, the Harper government cut funding to Canada's Invasive Alien Species Partnership Program (IASPP) (5). This is a major problem because trade is only increasing which means the risk of Canadian Provinces becoming invaded with new species is even higher (5). Invasive species have a huge costs associated with them and now that the programs are not receiving funding we can expect that the problem may get worse (5). From 2006 to 2012 the Invasive Alien Species Partnership Program helped provinces with more than 170 invasive species and delivered over 5 million dollars in funding (5). Environment Canada released a notice in April 2012 stating that in an effort to balance the budget they have cut funding to the IASPP and no funding will be available to any organizations that applied for funding for projects in the 2013 year (1).
Goals of the Council:
-Education: To highlighting the invasive species in Newfoundland and Labrador and maintaining a web-page to provide information to the public.
-Monitoring: To recognize and identify people and organizations in Newfoundland who are involved in management or control of invasive species and to help guide them in this process.
-Prevention: Identifying means of travel for invasive species, predicting when new ones may come to our province and possibly eliminating some invasive species.
-Coordination and Collaboration: This involves working with other provinces as well as other regional agencies involved with invasive species(Newfoundland and Labrador Invasive Species Council).
source: http://nlinvasives.ca/ (6)
According to Mun Botanical Garden they are still running their junior naturalist workshop which is a great educational tool for our youth (7). They are also doing a series of workshops which also present the opportunity to educate the public (7). Unfortunately, the Newfoundland and Labrador Invasive Species Council website appears to not have been updated in quite a while and there does not seem to be any news on initiatives being taken in Newfoundland and Labrador regarding invasive species in the last year or so. There did seem to be a lot of focus in 2007-2008 but it was not maintained. According to the Huffington Post, there were even more cuts to Environment Canada in 2012-2013 which seems to suggest a dim future for control of Invasive Species locally and nationally (8).
In October 2012, however, some good news was released with a Memorandum of Cooperation being signed at the launch of the Global Invasive Alien Species Information Partnership. This Partnership will support the IUCN in attempt to combat invasive alien species (9).
Purple Loosestrife
Source: Patrick Greene
Source: http://www.mun.ca/botgarden/home.php (7)
Source: http://nlinvasives.ca/ (6)
IUCN Initiatives
The IUCN's invasive species program works globally in an attempt to help aid in the fight against invasive species (9). They have done work in many countries including Africa, where they removed some of the barriers that delay the control of invasive species on the contene (9). The IUCN also does a lot of research in invasive species and how to manage them globally; they even have a detailed section on how to become involved with helping control invasive species (9). They have a document that outlines global management strategies for dealing with invasive species which can be found here.
Source: http://www.iucn.org/