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Better Farming Ontario magazine is published 11 times per year. After each edition is published, we share featured articles online.


Changes made to Ontario's noxious weeds list

Thursday, October 2, 2014

by SUSAN MANN

The provincial agriculture ministry is proposing to remove nine weed species from Ontario’s noxious weeds list and add nine new ones.

Thunder Bay-area farmer Allan Mol, president of the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association, says they don’t have any concerns about the changes. He’s happy to see the proposed weeds being added to the list and the ones coming off  “I don’t think are big problems.”

The current noxious weeds list has 25 weeds, says Mike Cowbrough, Ontario agriculture ministry weed management field crops program lead. The list is part of the Weed Control Act and regulation. The Act prohibits listed weeds from being grown where they have the potential to negatively affect agricultural land.    

“The whole reason we have the Act is to protect agricultural land from threats,” which are things that once they get established are really difficult to control, Cowbrough says.

The weeds suggested for removal from the list include:

  • Colt’s-foot
  • Dodder spp.
  • Johnson grass
  • Black-seeded proso millet
  • Yellow rocket
  • Cypress spurge
  • Leafy spurge
  • Russian thistle
  • Tuberous vetching.

These weeds are proposed to be removed from the list because they are no longer considered to be significant threats to agriculture or horticulture in Ontario, according to a posting on Ontario’s Environment Registry. People have until Oct. 29 to comment on the proposal.

Continuing to designate some of the weeds scheduled for removal as noxious weeds may conflict with efforts to restore and conserve habitats that support pollinator health, such as bees, the posting says. Some of the species, such as Colt’s-foot and yellow rocket, are known to attract pollinator insects.

The weeds being considered for addition to the list are:

  • Smooth bedstraw
  • Wild chervil
  • Common crupina
  • Jointed goatgrass
  • Kudzu
  • Wild parsnip
  • Serrated tussock
  • Tansy ragwort
  • Woolly cup grass.

These weeds are being added because they’ve been identified as emerging threats to the agricultural industry.

“They’re becoming more of a problem and harder to fight,” says Mol. But wild oats, a weed that has become a problem in the Thunder Bay area, didn’t make it on the list this time around.

Mol says wild oats is very hard to control because it “manages to escape any kind of spraying that we’ve done.” Despite spraying to combat the weed this year, he says they still had significant populations of it in their barley crop. The weed is very aggressive, takes over and “out competes some of the stuff we’re trying to grow.”

Mark Wales, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, says wild parsnip was one weed “everyone suggested should get on the list.”

Cowbrough says municipal weed inspectors, municipalities, farm organizations and individuals can propose changes to the list. He uses the example of the Ontario Soil and Crop's 2011 resolution to have smooth bedstraw added to the list – which it now is. "We take stakeholder feedback into consideration when coming up with the list," he says.

Cowbrough notes his general philosophy is if weeds are going to be added to the list there must be “an ability to manage them reasonably. Once you add a species there’s an expectation that it needs to be controlled if it’s affecting agricultural land.”

Similarly, to remove weed species Cowbrough says he looks to see if the species is threatening the agricultural community. BF

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