Invasive plant species have been damaging ecosystems since people have been sailing around the world. Often, removal and restoration projects are overrun again by the same plants they tried to eradicate after only a season or two. But what if there was a way we could build restored ecosystems with the resilience to keep invasive species in check? A way we could create healthy, diverse plant communities that can include these species? In this proposal for ƛ̓éxətəm Regional Park, we aim to develop a planting strategy which can successfully keep populations of invasive species from overrunning a site.
Initially, we will use the site as a living laboratory to test the success of several different plant communities. As these plots grow and mature, we will translate what we are learning from the test plots to the larger site. Eventually, this intervention will have transformed a site which is currently a near-monoculture of invasive species into a more biodiverse habitat in which the invasive species are controlled by robust communities of native plants. The old field habitat which has formed there is valuable for many of our non-human neighbours, and increasing the diversity of habitat available will only increase its value in the local ecosystems, as well as providing valuable spaces for neighbouring communities to harvest, gather, and celebrate the gifts healthy ecosystems can give us.