User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
I have decided to my project on my own private property, located in Southbank, British Columbia, Canada. Southbank is a small remote rural area, about 24 km from Burns Lake, BC. There you will reach the ferry terminal of the Francois Forester that crosses Francois Lake to Southbank. Francois Lake is the 2nd largest natural lake in British Columbia. Our property is on the first street bordering the lake (we are on the upper side of the street, so our land does not sit directly on the lake shore). For the purpose of this study I have split the 30 acres into 2 separate sections to study and observe.To make things simple, I divided the property in half. The first 15 acres (Section 1) is the home front. It is mostly grass land and was select logged around 10 years ago. To break down section 1 there is around 1 acre of mature birch and aspen stand, 3 acres cleared (home, yard, etc.), 5 acres new immature growth (aspen, birch, cottonwood), and the remaining 6 acres is grassland. The second section is a mature mixed forest stand (birch, pine, spruce). 1/4 of the back property is made up of a steep gully. The entire property is on around a 30% slope. The first site visit was May 25, 2019, spring/summer time. The temperature was around 20 degrees Celsius, at 1015. It was sunny with a slight breeze. I began to notice the abundance of young Giant Hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum). Giant Hogweed (also known as cow parsnip), is a prennial plant and often grows around roadsides, ditches, and streams. It is an invasive plant and is know to commonly invade old fields and native habitats (woodlots). Their seeds remain viable in the soil for 15 years and each plant can produce up to 120000 winged seeds, which helps them travel long distances in the wind and streams. Once I obtained this information I began to thing of 1.) How does Giant Hogweed impact the environment (Natural Resource Impacts)? 2.) Pre-Cautions? How does it affect human health? and 3.) How do we prevent further growth as well as safe removal and management?
Below are photos of the site, both section 1 and 2.
References: http://www.invadingspecies.com/giant-hogweed/
