ISC is now HRC!
As you probably know, GaLTT’s Invasive Species Committee has covered a lot of ground over the years pulling, cutting, slashing, and removing invasive plant species. But the committee increasingly does more than just ‘slash and dash’. Though simply removing invasive plants can often be enough to allow native species to recover, it is sometimes necessary to do more than that to help re-establish native vegetation and improve wildlife habitat. This is what we have been doing in Drumbeg Provincial Park, where for the past five years we have not only worked to remove Scotch broom from the former Garry oak meadow but are progressively replanting the area with ecologically appropriate native plant species. Similarly, after reclaiming part of Queequeg community park from invasive daphne in 2021, we then replanted it with native shrubs, which are now flourishing there. So to better reflect the fact that invasive plant management is just part of the larger project of native habitat restoration, we are officially changing our name from the Invasive Species Committee (ISC) to the Habitat Restoration Committee (HRC).
As the HRC, we hope to expand our work with both BC Parks and RDN Parks staff on various proactive habitat restoration projects. At the same time, we will continue to organise volunteer work parties in locations where invasive plant removal is itself sufficient to allow native species to recover unaided. In conjunction with the Community Engagement Committee we will continue to encourage Gabriolans to help manage roadside invasives in their own neighbourhoods. In the coming weeks we will be updating our portion of the GaLTT website to reflect all these changes and will also reorganise the information provided there to incorporate the ‘Eradicate, Contain, Control’ approach we adopted in our 2025 Invasive Plants pamphlet. Finally, although changing our committee name means we will launch a new email address, we still encourage Gabriolans to email us at invasives@galtt.ca to report invasive plant locations, or to ask for advice on plant removal or disposal.
