Innovation Anthology #420:
Native plants are taking a beating in southern Alberta. That’s a conclusion one can certainly draw from the latest report from the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute.
The report establishes a benchmark for measuring biodiversity in what’s called the South Saskatchewan Planning Region.
On a scale of 0 to 100, biodiversity for native plants sits at a mere 41 percent.
Jim Herbers is the ABMI’s Director of Information.
JIM HERBERS: Vascular plants are a key indicator of the health of our ecosystems in southern Alberta First, they’re forage for our livestock. Second they provide significant habitat for wildlife. And they provide livelihoods for people involved in the timber industry. In southern Alberta in the grasslands the intactness value is 41 percent. They have a very strong relationship to human development. As human development moves in, we will typically pave a parking lot over top of it. We’ll put a plough through it and then start to plant crops. We will build houses on top of it.
According to Jim Herbers, non-native plants account for 84 of the 87 invasive species threatening biodiversity in southern Alberta.
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I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
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