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2008 Review

The Alberta Invasive Plants Council, together with the U.S. Federal Highway Administration, Okanogan County Noxious Weed Control Board, and North American Weed Management Association (NAWMA), hosted a very successful Weeds Across Borders Conference in Banff the final week of May.

Close to 200 people from across Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, and one person from Australia, participated in the three day gathering that featured an array of top notch speakers from the three countries and included a one-day field trip to restoration and reclamation sites in Banff National Park and the town of Canmore to break the tedium of listening to presentations. According to Bonnie Harper-Lore, a Restoration Ecologist with the Federal Highway Administration from Washington, D.C., one of the originators of the international conference, the conference featured a very strong agenda that covered an incredible amount of information on management, control, research and policy making related to invasive plants.

One of the themes was Early Detection, Rapid Response (EDRR). Presenters made it clear that such an approach doesn’t come easy. It is a key to successful prevention, as well as having economic benefits, but it requires intentional organization and leadership in a region. Other presentations included success stories about innovative approaches like sheep grazing of leafy spurge and cooperative weed management areas. There were also reports from work in widespread areas reaching from Mexico, to the Yukon, and across to the New England States. Alerts on invasive threats such as Kudzu Vine and the aquatic plants moving north towards Canada, and the impact of warming trends in accelerating this movement, were eye-openers for some Canadian participants.

In his welcoming remarks, Kevin VanTigem, Superintendent of Banff National Park, pointed out that those in attendance were talking about the future of the North American continent – what the landscape will look like for generations to come and whether it would maintain its current ecological integrity. He cautioned, however, that every now and then, as those on the front lines in the battle against invasives, they needed to step back and look at the human factors and social effects as well as the ecological considerations.

Harper-Lore says for too long those involved in weed management, research and policy making have been “talking to themselves” in their own little spheres of influence, without reference to one another. The WAB Conference provides an opportunity for those people from various jurisdictions and levels of government to get together and share information. She felt that the networking and informal information sharing in the break times was as important as the material gleaned in the presentations.

At the close of the Conference delegates signed a document to be known as The Banff Accord agreeing to ongoing cooperative and collaborative effort in weed management and invasives species control across jurisdictions, including international boundaries.

The next Conference will be in 2010 and will be held in the Eastern U.S.

Many thanks to all those who attended and presented at the conference, as well as sponsors and volunteers whose efforts were invaluable to the success of the Weeds Across Borders meeting. Special thanks to Stephen Darbyshire, Claire Wilson, Ken Allison, Anna Lyon, Sheilah Kennedy, Gail Wallin, Jodi Romyn, Bonnie Harper-Lore, Kim Nielsen, Cory Lindgren, Crystal Klym, Dianne Schoepp, Donald McLennan, Larry Walker, Michelle Aasgard, Raj Prasad, Linda Wilson, Lisa Guest, Andrew Stiles, Kim Neilsen and Heather Dempsey for assistance with the planning, registration, proceedings, field tour and many, many other aspects of running a conference of this magnitude. For a complete list of sponsors and partner agencies whose generosity allowed the Weeds Across Borders conference to be such a success, please visit http://www.invasiveplants.ab.ca/funding.htm.

Written by: Virginia Battiste, freelance writer. virginiabattiste@hotmail.com

The Alberta Invasive Plants Council sadly bid farewell to Karen Sundquist in June, 2008. Karen had served as AIPC’s Program Coordinator since 2006, maintaining the business office, representing the Council at conferences and tradeshows and working to develop education and information materials pertaining to invasive plants issues. Most recently, Karen was the organizational force behind the highly successful international Weeds Across Borders conference
held in Banff on May 27-29, 2008.

At WAB Karen received the 2008 NAWMA Appreciation Award: "Recognizing her hard work and dedication for a successful 2008 Weeds Across Borders Conference".

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WAB Proceedings

Banff, Canada