WEST GLACIER - A group of volunteer scientists gathered in Glacier National Park Tuesday, July 18, 2023, to learn about invasive plant species that are causing harm to native plants and wildlife.
Dozens of volunteers gathered in West Glacier to learn about invasive plant species, five in particular, causing havoc across Northwest Montana.
“They have those invasive characteristics that make them very adaptable to changes," said Glacier National Park Vegetation Program Manger Dawn LaFleur.
LaFleur led the discussion focusing on invasive plants, Oxeye Daisy, Houndstongue, St. Johnswort, Yellow Toadflax and Spotted Knapweed.
One Spotted Knapweed plant can produce up to 30,000 seeds.
“It’s allelopathic, it produces a chemical from its roots that kills anything that’s not just like it around there, so when you get confronted with that 30,000 seeds it’s like oh my goodness, but if we didn’t do anything just imagine how many more seeds would be out there on the landscapes,” said LaFleur.
LaFleur said these invasive plants can be devastating to the natural ecosystem, wiping out entire fields of native plants, creating a dangerous ripple effect.
“Non-native invasive plants don’t provide any forage value or food value to our wildlife, so it can displace wildlife, if you have a field of spotted knapweed, the wildlife’s going to move someplace else to find food.”
Cary Scheiderer — who was one of dozens of volunteers attending the event — was encouraged by the enthusiastic response from her fellow Montanan’s.
“The park is huge and the more hands the merrier, so I think it’s really great to have this many trained up, and hopefully they will keep doing events like this and the people who are doing this can tell their friends about it and share the information that they’ve learned, and it will really have an impact,” added Scheiderer.
LaFleur said educating the public about the dangers of invasive plants is a key first step toward protecting Montana’s natural beauty.
“So that they can be part of the solution, because we can’t be everywhere all over the park or even all over the state, so the more people we have that know the word, that can spread the word out there, to be able to help educate others is just going to only be helpful in terms of trying to keep these non-native invasives at bay.”
The event was made possible thanks to a partnership between The Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center and Glacier National Park.
