"It's been a wonderful year for growing weeds, but a difficult year for controlling them."
County of Lambton Infrastructure and Development General Manager Jason Cole says they've spent extra effort in regular roadside spraying of noxious weeds and the phragmites program to try and manage them.
Cole provided an update to County Council Wednesday on the battle to combat the invasive plant.
"We've been continuing our phragmites program for the past four years and what we do is spray along the roadsides or control it through other means, some of it very obvious and some of it not so obvious, also including some cutting and things like that," says Cole. "It's been a program that we've had to ramp up since it initiated and we think we're doing a good job of controlling it but it still definitely needs effort. We still need to continue the program to make sure that it doesn't creep up and become more of a problem then it is in the county."
Cole says when the program started a student surveyed where the phragmites were located and the information was very useful to show councillors where they were having problems.
He says another student did a followup this year and they are hoping to show how they've been able to control the plant when that data is compiled.
The perennial grass is a problem in Sarnia-Lambton waterways, drains and ditches because it chokes out native plants and alters wildlife habitat. Originally transported here from Europe, it has been declared one of Canada's most invasive non-native plants.
