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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, July 10, 2015 | 8 Dog-strangling vines nasty but name is misleading: Oakvillegreen by Bob Mitchell Oakville Beaver Staff Volunteers spent a morning recently in an Oakville park extracting dogstrangling vines -- among other invasive plants. But don't worry pet owners, your beloved Fidos aren't in any danger. It's just the unusual name given to this plant that experts believe came from Europe and is now wreaking havoc with some forests in the town and elsewhere in southern Ontario. If anything, it's a danger to monarch butterflies, said Karen Brock, president of Since 1952 Carpet Cleaning Specialists On The Spot! Residential & commeRcial Wall to Wall FURnitURe & UPHolsteRY aRea RUGs PeRsian & oRiental Truck Mount In-Plant Service Water damage Restoration See the transformation of what we can do in relation to others! Oakvillegreen Conservation Association, which organized the cutting, snipping, grabbing and extracting along the path that runs through Langtry Park near Third Line. "It has no predators and the unfortunate thing is that it's part of the milkweed family and monarch butterflies like milkweeds to lay their eggs on, but their eggs won't develop on this vine so it lures the poor unsuspecting monarch to it," Brock said. "The dog-strangling vine wraps itself around trees and other plants and overwhelms and crowds out native plants and young trees, preventing forest regeneration. "It has fibrous roots so if you try to pull it, it encourages it to grow even more. "It's a strange name, but I don't know where it came from.... Oakvillegreen president Karen Brock holds up a piece of dog-strangling vine that she removed from Langtry Park when she and volunteers from the Ian Mark Group spent time removing invasive plants. | photo by Bob Mitchell - Oakvile Beaver Come see why we have been voted best optiCal stoRe sinCe 1994! a wide variety Of deSigner BrandS: VOTED BEST CARPET & RUG CLEANERS 15 YEARS IN A ROW! drop-off discount! 25% Oakville's experts in eye Care: Denise pala, niCky pala & mike mCGrath · armaNi · Tory Burch · Versace · ray BaN · marc JacoBs · carrera · coach · Juicy couTure AnD mOre... DIAMOND FREE 250 mL SPOTTING BOTTLE www.onthespotcleaning.ca Bronte Designer lenses: nikOn, Zeiss, essilOr CriZAl kODAk AnD mOre 905-825-4256 1446 WaLLacE Rd. OakvILLE, ON QEW Speers Wallace Family Owned & Operated Optical A Name You Can Trust! 125 Cross Avenue, Oakville www.spaceoptical.ca · 905-842-2821 (Across from Home Depot) Space "The name `dog-strangling vine' actually refers to two invasive plants native to Eurasia -- black swallowwort and pale swallowwort. They can `strangle' small plants and trees, but no dogs or other pets, although the leaves and roots may be toxic to livestock," she said. These look-alike members of the milkweed family were introduced to the northeastern North America in the mid-1800s for use in gardens. In recent years, these perennial vines have spread rapidly throughout central and southern Ontario. Employees of the Ian Martin Group, a contract engineering and IT human resource consultant firm and B Corp, which is headquartered in Oakville, spent about four hours removing invasive, non-native plants including the common buckthorn and garlic mustard in the park located adjacent to the 14 Mile Creek Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA). Common buckthorn, a small shrub introduced from Eurasia, can spread widely with the help of birds and animals that eat its fruit, Brock said. It forms dense stands under which few other plants can grow. Garlic mustard is edible and can be used to make a version of pesto. Brock said all three invasive plants threaten Ontario's biodiversity, as well as the economy, agriculture, forestry and outdoor recreational activities. "Buckthorn also doesn't have any predators and it just thrives and takes over a lot of natural areas with its tough rugged roots," Brock said. "But it also has these berries, which the birds eat, but it gives them diarrhea so it's a perfect way to spread more seeds in the forest. "Garlic mustard has been around the town for quite a while. It invades the woodlands and changes the chemistry of the soil and stops things from growing that are native here." Volunteers used Extractigators provided by Conservation Halton see Oakvillegreen's on p.17 www.oakville.ca A meeting of the Mayor's Advisory Group on Air Noise will be held on: Thursday, July 16, 2015 at 7 p.m. Oakville and Trafalgar Rooms Town Hall, 1225 Trafalgar Road Public Meeting ­ Air Noise in Oakville Residents with an interest in gaining an understanding of the causes and current industry practices surrounding this issue are encouraged to attend. If you have any accessibility needs, please contact Pamela Knight, Senior Policy Advisor at 905-845-6601, ext. 3445 (TTY: 905-338-4200) or pamela.knight@oakville.ca.