WHEREAS the spread of invasive plants threatens our ecosystems, reduces biodiversity, reduces water quality and fish habitat, destroys valuable wildlife habitat and costs the British Columbia economy millions of dollars each year in agriculture and tourism; AND WHEREAS Crown lands and provincial highways are a conduit for transporting invasive plants and their seeds and these lands have seen a dramatic decrease in provincial funding allocated to invasive plant management: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Union of BC Municipalities lobby the provincial government to provide the necessary financial resources to its ministries to increase the level of invasive plant management on provincially managed lands and right-of-ways.
Ministry of Agriculture Lands Over the past few years, fiscal 200304 through to 200607, government has significantly and progressively increased funding to invasive plant prevention and management on Crown land in the Province of British Columbia Province as compared to the proceeding several years 199607 to 200203 96972.4 million 97981.95 M 98992.15 M 99001.7 M 00011.95 M 01021.8 M 02031.76 M 03043.975 M 0405 4.3 M 05064.2 M 06075.2 M This increased funding has enabled government to respond to critical needs, intensify its management efforts in key areas, develop some effective management tools and implement innovative and strategic approaches including: -the Corrections Program, which has 7 crews from 6 corrections centres throughout British Columbia removing high priority invasive plants; -the Community Weed Pull Pilot, which has community groups in 4 regions Northwest, Peace, Cariboo and Central Kootenays hand-pulling priority invasive plants from riparian areas and other areas that cannot be treated with herbicides for a small honorarium. This creates great local awareness of the issue from participants and media reports; -significantly improved inventories in provincial parks; -development of baseline data on invasive plant distribution, management, risks and gaps for the Province; and -conducting economic and environmental impact analysis on invasive plants in the Province. Government is now turning its attention to developing and implementing a comprehensive and sustainable long-term invasive plant management strategy for the Province. Critical elements of this strategy include: -supportive policy framework; -defined performance framework; -long-term funding plan; -public educationawareness plan; -prevention, compliance and enforcement plan; -research plan; and -stakeholder communication plan. Consistent with the above intention, the Province sponsored two 3-year pilots with regional districts and local weed committees North West and East Kootenays to evaluate the efficacy of single agency delivery models for invasive plant management. A review is underway that will contribute to discussions on future steps for these pilots, and identify effective approaches for delivery.