Invasive Species Community Dialogue and Final Report

On Wednesday, September 3rd, 2025 CAFES hosted a successful in-person community dialogue event in partnership with Councillor Marty Carr on the management of invasive plant species in Ottawa, at the Jim Durrell Recreation Centre in Alta Vista. Thank you to Councillor Carr for your generous support towards this event, and thank you as well to Councillors Brockington, Menard, Hill, Johnson and Curry for your sponsorship.

This dialogue event followed Councillor Carr's staff inquiry at the February 18th, 2025 Environment and Climate Change Committee (ECCC) meeting to review the City's invasive species programming and community stewardship opportunities. Staff released a report in July 2025 outlining existing invasive species efforts, and plans to hire a new temporary staff position to focus on invasives programming, mapping and reporting, as well as community/stakeholder relationships. This item came to the September 16th ECCC meeting agenda, where CAFES gave a public delegation and presented the outcomes of the September 3rd dialogue.

To follow suit from Councillor Carr's inquiry, the dialogue event gathered community input on invasive species removal/management methods, public education, mapping and tracking, identifying species of concern, volunteer stewardship, and more. We had opening presentations, a community panel, breakout table conversations, table presentations, lunch, and networking.

Below are some of the most widely-shared ideas from the dialogue participants:

• Widespread community support for a community stewardship program that permits removal of a wide variety of invasive plant species by volunteers. This program should be insured by the city, or a waiver form should be implemented. This could be piggybacked onto another existing stewardship program such as Adopt a Park or Cleaning up the Capital.
• The application process for stewardship activities should be a one-stop experience, with a simple application form, a single contact staff person, and a standard response time on inquiries (ie. 48 hours).
• One of the major invasive species of concern that requires immediate removal efforts from the City is Phragmites australis, or the Common Reed. Other priority species include Buckthorn, DSV, Wild Parsnip, Garlic Mustard, Goutweed, Periwinkle, and others. Volunteers should be permitted to remove all species unless they are noxious/toxic or require specific chemical treatment methods.
• Public education should be increased for both City staff, City maintenance workers/contractors, and residents. Ideas included public education campaigns, city-wide posters/infographics, regular public workshops, mandatory staff trainings, more online resources, and developing municipal best-practice standards.
• Community volunteers should be leveraged by the City when it comes to creating and delivering public education, given that many residents have advanced knowledge on the topic and have offered their time and knowledge as a free service to the City.
• There are several possible mapping/tracking platforms for invasive species that can be used by residents and staff, including EDDMapS or iNaturalist.

At the September 16th ECCC meeting, Councillor Carr gave a direction to staff to consider our report as community input.

Check out our final event report below, which details all the feedback received at the dialogue. You can also see our public delegation presentation, which presented the report. Lastly, you can see the report provided by City staff in response to Councillor Carr's inquiry.

Thank you to all the event volunteers who helped out, and thank you to the participants for sharing your input!