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LETTER: Invasives overrun Mt. Douglas summit

As a longtime invasive species volunteer in Mt. Doug Park, I work alongside a small group of dedicated Pulling Together volunteers who work 52 weeks a year removing holly, ivy, daphne, blackberry, and other destructive species. And our years have had a hugely positive outcome; the “brim” of the park is now mostly clear of the worst sites.
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As a longtime invasive species volunteer in Mt. Doug Park, I work alongside a small group of dedicated Pulling Together volunteers who work 52 weeks a year removing holly, ivy, daphne, blackberry, and other destructive species. And our years have had a hugely positive outcome; the “brim” of the park is now mostly clear of the worst sites.

There is, however, one last major area that remains untouched and undisturbed by volunteers – the summit of big Mt. Doug. Unfortunately, due to lack of attention, this otherwise beautiful area has become severely infested with broom on the top and the rocky west, south and southeast sides.

Also, what is probably the most superb view in Saanich is significantly impacted by the unsightly presence of the broom. As well, the localized Garry oak groves are under constant threat from the competition of broom growing right inside their boundaries.

Due to the nature of the summit – e.g. its size, steepness, sheer volume of invasives, etc. – it would be difficult for our small band of volunteers to attack this particular area. So, it seemed somewhat reasonable to me that the Parks Department itself should accept responsibility for clearing this one last site.

So, hoping to get the ball rolling, I broached the issue with a parks manager. I was pretty open as to how such a positive outcome could actually be achieved. After making my opening spiel, I sat back to hear the response. Unfortunately, the words I heard chilled me to the bone: “No removal without replacement.”

What that meant is that they wouldn’t contemplate removal of the broom before they had developed a plan to replace the invasives with other native species. And since replacement means commitment and foresight and research and planning and funding and management and personnel, the clear meaning was: Don’t hold your breath. So I just gave up; if they don’t care, why should I care.

The really frustrating things is, several years ago, the Pulling Together Program held a very successful broom-bash just above the summit parking lot. About 40 people showed up to remove broom and it was a hugely successful day; a lot of broom was removed.

Since then, Parks has done nothing more there. The Pulling Together program is simply too understaffed, underfunded and overworked to look after so many district parks on an ongoing, organized, proactive basis. So now the previously cleared area is once again completely overgrown with broom. Yet another example of how the park suffers from a deficiency of TLC - simply cause no one cares.

And that’s just how things go in the life of Mt. Doug Park.

Dave Poje

Saanich