LEPS fells pesky invader
Japanese knotweed is spreading in Langley, but environmentalists are trying to contain it
Nicolas Walser hacked at Japanese knotweed with a machete recently as LEPS worked to clear it from a local property.
Photograph by: Matthew Claxton , Langley Advance
A Langley Township landowner was pleased to receive some help ridding her home of an invasive plant.
Georgette Lafreniere has long disliked the big stands of weeds that cover a good portion of her sloping backyard near 232nd Street south of Fraser Highway.
She and her family have chopped them down a few times, and burned them, but the plants always returned. Lafreniere thought they were just a nuisance until a neighbour tipped her off to their name.
"We thought it was bamboo," Lafreniere said. But the plants are Japanese knotweed, which has similar stalks.
Knotweed, however, is a menace to human buildings and roads. It has been known to spring up through cracks in cement or asphalt, and it can crack foundations if it gets in the wrong place.
Once her neighbour had identified it, Lafreniere called the Township, who sent her to its invasive species experts.
On Oct. 18, a team of Langley Environmental Partners Society (LEPS) workers arrived at Lafreniere's property and hacked down all the knotweed they could find with machetes.
Lisa Dreves of LEPS explained that it will make it easier to use an herbicide to control or eliminate the weed in the future, and less chemical will have to be used once the grunt work is done.
Nicolas Walser hacked at Japanese knotweed with a machete recently as LEPS worked to clear it from a local property.
Photograph by: Matthew Claxton , Langley Advance
