The Board of Central Kootenay Invasive Species Society (CKISS) is developing it's next strategic plan - setting our direction to 2025. We would love you to contribute your ideas through an online questionnaire (link below). It should take about 5-10 minutes to complete. Survey will close on December 5th. Your insights will be useful! Thank you very much for taking the time.
Rossland leading the way in knotweed management in the West Kootenay region.
Knotweed is a highly invasive plant that negatively impacts infrastructure and native ecosystems. The City of Rossland has adopted a bylaw (BYLAW #2637) requiring all property owners to ensure that their land is free from knotweed. In order to assist landowners with knotweed eradication, the City has offered a rebate of 50% of the cost up to a total of $400 to landowners who conduct knotweed control on their private property.
CKISS is hiring! Executive Director, application deadline November 30th, 2018.
Do you want to minimize the impacts of invasive species on the ecosystems, communities, and economy of the Central Kootenay region? Do you have extensive knowledge of natural resource management, experience leading a non-profit organization, and proven fundraising experience for on-the-ground activities? Do you possess strong communication and leadership skills? If you do, then there is an exciting opportunity for you to lead the team at CKISS!
Restoring native ecosystems at Summit Lake Provincial Park.
Over the past two years CKISS has been leading a restoration project at Summit Lake Provincial Park by removing invasive burdock and re-vegetating using native species. Learn more details about the project, see before and after photos, and discover what native species were planted by reading the full article.
This project was made possible because of the the hard work from volunteers that assisted us with burdock removal, planting and watering. A big thanks to students from Nakusp Elementary School, BC Parks staff, the CKISS board and members of the CKISS community for coming out to the park and getting your hands dirty with us! Your efforts will improve the habitat for wildlife that call the Summit Lake area home.
Give invasive species the brush off!
15 new Play, Clean Go signs are going up in our region.
The Kootenay region is blessed with an epic selection of hiking and biking trails and it’s now easier than ever for YOU to protect them. Keep your eyes open for new Play,Clean, Go trail signs and use the boot brushes the next time you hit the trails.
CKISS would like to thank B.C. Parks, the Regional District of Central Kootenay (RDCK) and the Kootenay Columbia Trail Society (KCTS) for installing the new signs. We look forward to working together to encourage trail users to arrive at trail heads with clean gear in order to protect native ecosystems against invasive species spread.
Students are combating invasive American bullfrogs & plants using citizen science.
Thanks to funding from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada(NSERC) PromoScience Program, CKISS developed a ‘Citizen Science: Frog Watching & Invasive Plant Monitoring Program'. The objective of the program is to provide teachers and students with a hands-on and interactive experience that will give them the knowledge, tools and resources they need in order to make vital contributions to invasive species early detection, monitoring and management by becoming citizen scientists.
To find out more click on the stories below that highlight field trips that took place in Rossland and Creston.
Thanks to our funders for supporting the CKISS Education Program:
Columbia Basin Trust
Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
BC Parks
Government of Canada
Operations Update
That's a wrap!
Operations field season is complete
Looking back at the summer, we are grateful to our hard-working field staff for the incredible amount and variety of work they accomplished this season. Their jobs included installing 60+ No Mow signs for knotweed management, hand-digging over a hectare of yellow flag iris in knee deep muck, checking for knapweed biocontrol insects, clearing scotch broom, and many other tasks which they managed to do with smiles and laughter throughout all kinds of weather and air quality conditions.
Now that the smoke has cleared and our summer students are back in school, the Operations Program Coordinator is busy wrapping up final field tasks with our contractors and partners before the snow flies.
Thanks to our funders for supporting the CKISS Operations Program:
BC Hydro
BC Parks
BC Wildlife Federation
Columbia Power
Regional District of Kootenay Boundary
Teck Metals Ltd.
FortisBC Inc.
Nature Conservancy of Canada
Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure
Ministry of Forest, Lands and Natural Resources Operations and Rural Development
Two Dangerous Invasive Plants Spreading in Creston Area
This season we observed an increase in two dangerous plants occurring near Creston: wild parsnip (Pastinaca sativa L.) and poison hemlock (Conium maculatum). Both species are very rare, high priority invasive plants in our area, with potential risks to human health.
If you see either of these plants, please take photos and report them using the Report-A-Weed App!
Zebra and Quagga mussels have infiltrated lakes and rivers in North America and caused an estimated $43 million in damage per year to hydropower stations, and municipal water supplies. Not to mention what they would do to your favourite swimming hole. They have been known to cover beautiful beaches in sharp shells as depicted in the photo above. Luckily they are not in B.C. and we want to keep it that way. Prevention is key! Have your boat inspected and follow Clean, Drain, Dryprotocol in order to protect our waters.
CKISS 2018 Monitoring Program Update
Next to prevention, the next best tool in our tool box is early detection and this is why CKISS has increased sampling frequency in 2018. Weekly plankton sampling for invasive mussels in the Central and West Kootenay area kicked off in June and ran until the end of October. To date, the CKISS staff have collected over 350 samples at 34 sites within 7 different high priority waterbodies in our region. All of our samples have been sent into the lab to be analyzed. We will let you know the results, fingers crossed they are negative!
Nerissa Abbott, a CKISS Invasive Species technician using a plankton net at Gyro Park in Trail to collect samples that get sent to a lab for testing. The lab will test for free-swimming microscopic mussel larvae, called veligers.
Bullfrog Action Team Update
Introduced bullfrogs have been called "wetland bullies" due to their adaptable, prolific, competitively exclusive, and predatory nature. The bullfrog action team began monitoring and eradication efforts in June and wrapped up field work at the end of October. The team caught 631 adult bullfrogs, the largest weighing in at 200 grams.
Despite these efforts, we are sad to report that bullfrog calls have been heard in new sensitive wetland habitats within the Creston Valley. This is bad news for native amphibians that call the Creston wetlands home, especially the endangered northern leopard frog
Report ALL sightings to
phone : 250-354-6333
email: kootenaybullfrog@gov.bc.ca
** when reporting sightings, please note where and when you
spotted/heard it and take a photo if possible.**
Aquatic Invasive Plant Surveys
During the 2018 field season CKISS coordinated aquatic invasive plant surveys on Whatshan, Summit, Box, Slocan, Upper Arrow, Nancy Greene and Upper Little Slocan Lakes. Mechanical control of yellow flag iris and fragrant water lily took place on Erie Lake. Nancy Green lake also saw yellow flag iris control take place. We are happy to report that for the second year in a row that no fragrant water lily has been detected at Nancy Green Lake. Yip yeah!
Thanks to our funders for supporting the CKISS Aquatic Invasive Species Program:
Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program
Columbia Basin Trust
Ministry of Forest, Lands and Natural Resources Operations and Rural Development, Habitat Stewardship Program
Ministry of Environment & Climate Change Strategy
Columbia Power
Upcoming Events
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