Parks Canada is finishing up its invasive plant picking season with a record number of plants removed from areas around Jasper. 

This year, Parks was focusing on two pesky foreign plants – yellow clematis and Russian thistle. Both plants can decrease vegetation that is native to Jasper.

Recent work has yielded 71 bags of clematis, which accounts for 569 kg for a day-and-a-half of work on July 9. This took place in Jasper’s industrial park, where the plant’s seeds are easily spread to other areas due to traffic. 

“It’s kind of a starting point for a lot of businesses,” said Amy Hayden, a vegetation specialist who has spent the summer on an internship with Parks. 

Russian thistle has spread amongst the sand dunes along the banks of the Athabasca River. 

“Russian thistle is fairly new to the park,” Hayden said. “(It) really likes sandy, gravelly areas.”

Thistle can break off and turn into a tumble weed. Because the sand dunes are not normally vegetated, the thistle has a lot of area to take over and can spread quickly. Parks removed 45 bags, which amounted to 615 kg of the thistle with the help of 12 volunteers and staff on Aug. 13.

Clematis, however, has little preference when it comes to a preferred destination. 

“Clematis really likes to grow everywhere,” Hayden said. 

Yellow clematis is a non-native species of plant that is vine-like with a yellow flower that can spread quickly and eventually choke out native species. The plants are particularly common in rocky areas where they can grow between rocks, making it harder to pull them out root and all. Older plants have woody vines, while newer ones are a reddish-tinged plant. Yellow clematis does have a nice yellow flower, but Hayden said there is a native type of clematis – blue clematis – that is popular with gardeners. 

Businesses in the industrial park allowed Parks to gain access to their property to pull out the plants to prevent the further spread of clematis. 

“We really want to thank all of our volunteers and the businesses in Jasper,” Hayden said. 

She explained that the invasive plants get here a variety of ways, but the most common is on transport trucks and vehicles. The seeds fly off vehicles as they travel through and an infestation can then begin. Another way is by using wildflower seeds that are not native to the area. Hayden recommends when purchasing these seed packets, to make sure they are for the particular area you are growing in. Choosing mountain wildflowers instead of prairie ones can help stop the spread of plants that are not native to this area. 

Now that the season is over, Hayden suggests home and business owners pull the plants out themselves and throw them away. Clematis has gone to seed at this time of year, so it isn’t a great time to be disrupting the plants. The seeds can detach and spread. Russian thistle is still viable to be removed. 

“It’s a good time to pick Russian thistle right now,” she said. 

Over the summer season, Hayden said they have surpassed last year’s totals for the amount of plants they removed. 

“We’re impressed with our crew,” she said. “It’s looking like we had a very good year.”

There are still a few pickings yet to take place, but Hayden said they have so far destroyed 1,680 kg of plants. Other plants Parks is targeting include Canada thistle and mustard. 

“It’s been a really great season and we’ve had a lot of people help us,” Hayden said. 

Anyone with questions on invasive plants can contact Parks with questions or search for the Invasive Plant Council of Alberta. Hayden said Parks uses a different classification system than Alberta, but the plants to look out for and destroy are generally the same.