Экоактивисты очистили парк Полсон от агрессивных ирисов в Верноне

Caring for Vernon Creek: Environmentalists tackle invasive irises in Polson Park Published 8:00 pm Wednesday, August 26, 2026 The Yellow Flag Iris is in fact a red flag among environmentalists, who recently gathered in Vernon to curb the spread of this stubborn invasive plant species. The Youth Climate Corps joined Kevin McCarty, climate action specialist for the City of Vernon, Larissa Price, the city’s manager of park projects and community initiatives, and Hallie Barker, program coordinator with the Invasive Species Council of BC, for a morning of fieldwork along Vernon Creek in Polson Park with North Okanagan Watershed Stewards (NOWS). On top of some water quality testing, the group took action against the Yellow Flag Iris, one of the region’s most persistent wetland invaders. People may have admired the tall yellow blooms lining local creeks without a second thought. That’s the trouble with Yellow Flag Iris; it’s easy to mistake them for the well-behaved garden irises found in flower beds across the Okanagan. But while garden irises stay put in well-drained soil, Yellow Flag Iris is a wetland opportunist. It spreads through underground rhizomes and by releasing hundreds of buoyant seeds that ride the current downstream, colonizing new stretches of shoreline with every flood pulse. Left unchecked, dense stands crowd out the native cattails, sedges, and rushes that fish, amphibians, birds, and insects depend on. Thick root mats trap sediment and can even alter how water moves through a wetland. It’s a slow, quiet kind of ecological displacement, which is exactly why it needs people willing to notice it and take action. Teaching young people to recognize invasive species early builds vigilance, said NOWS environmental educator Kim Fulton. “Maybe more important, is giving children a feeling of hope and agency in being able to do something positive for the environment,” Fulton added. The group set to work using the benthic matting technique, which controls invasive plants by smothering them rather than using chemicals. Heavy-duty matting is laid directly over an identified patch of Yellow Flag Iris, covering the plant at its base. By blocking out sunlight and cutting off oxygen exchange at the root and rhizome level, the mat starves the plant of what it needs to keep growing and spreading. For wetland invaders like Yellow Flag Iris, where digging up rhizomes can actually help fragments spread, it’s one of the most effective tools available, especially when a patch is caught early and still small. In stopping the spread of the invasive irises, the group promoted the spread of knowledge between people young and old. “That kind of transfer of practical skill paired with long-term relationship to a place is how stewardship gets carried forward rather than started over each generation,” Fulton said. “It’s also a small, concrete answer to a broader question worth sitting with: what does it take to keep a local stream resilient not just this year, but for the residents, fish, and wildlife who’ll depend on it decades from now, and what’s your part in that?” Youth Climate Corps BC is a program that trains and mentors young adults in climate action and land-based work, pairing hands-on field experience with mentorship from local organizations doing meaningful environmental work in the region. NOWS, a subcommittee of the North Okanagan Naturalist Club, has been building community momentum by recruiting volunteers for regular deadheading events.