{"id":36262,"date":"2025-05-08T17:53:20","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T21:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=36262"},"modified":"2025-05-08T17:53:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T21:53:21","slug":"keeping-arboretum-pest-free-is-everyones-business-organization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/keeping-arboretum-pest-free-is-everyones-business-organization\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping Arboretum pest-free is everyone\u2019s business: organization"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Aurora Community Arboretum is one of Aurora\u2019s most popular, yet somehow still unsung, green spaces \u2013 but everybody needs to follow a few simple tips to keep the space all it can be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So say Arboretum officials as they work to battle invasive species \u2013 both flora and fauna \u2013 throughout the expanse, most recently reports of goldfish having been released into the Farm Pond, a prime location for the Arboretum\u2019s resident toads and frogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re waiting to see what can be done because obviously we don\u2019t want to leave them there, but we\u2019ve talked to the Conservation people and the Ministry of Natural Resources to see how they would proceed on something like this,\u201d says Arboretum Chair Irene Clement. \u201cI know people dump their goldfish, but they really shouldn\u2019t in any of our bodies of water. I think that was the first time we had an animal or a non-plant invasive, other than insects [like] the Emerald Ash Borer, which is a little different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCertainly don\u2019t bring in things like goldfish, for example. Don\u2019t bring them into the Arboretum or any pond. They are really very bad because they are so voracious and they will eat everything. Before you know it, you\u2019ve cleaned out all of the natural ecosystem there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this is the first time the Arboretum has had to deal with invasive fauna that do not fall under the insect umbrella, they are all too familiar with invasive flora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phragmites and garlic mustard are just two examples of invasive plants that have \u201cbugged\u201d volunteers who work tirelessly to keep the Aurora Community Arboretum thriving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is not much the public can do about the phragmites and buckthorn because those you need to have the proper equipment and people to take those out,\u201d Clement explains. \u201cWe\u2019re just waiting for garlic mustard to come up in maybe the next couple of weeks. We\u2019ll be seeing it grow enough that we can actually have a public event where we invite the public to come out and join us in picking it out of areas in the Arboretum.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While a date for such an effort has not been set yet, they hosted three sessions in the 2024 season to do just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce you identify it, you can see it in your own backyard and you can get rid of it there,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s not poisonous, it\u2019s not going to hurt your hands, and you can just pull it out and dispose of it properly. When people are buying plants for the spring, they should really look and make sure they\u2019re not buying something that is invasive. Take a look at what you\u2019re buying and try to buy native plants if you possibly can because they are much better for all of our insect population. Of course, insects feed all of our birds and other critters, so it\u2019s much better for the environment if you plant native plants.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it\u2019s important to be conscious of what you bring into the Arboretum, a space that supports a diverse range of ecosystems, it\u2019s also important to be conscious of what you leave behind \u2013 particularly avoiding feeding bread to waterfowl like swans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last season, Arboretum enthusiasts were thrilled when the swans who regularly call the area\u2019s large stormwater pond home, had cygnets for the first time, but this feeling was soon dampened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had four cygnets but unfortunately one of them came down with what they call angel wing syndrome, and that\u2019s usually caused by people feeding them things like bread, which is the worst thing you can feed ducks, geese and swans,\u201d says Clement. \u201cAngel wing is when the outer tip of the wing is out, instead of being flat against the body, out at a right angle. One of our cygnets last year came down with this and we tried to put up signs about don\u2019t feed the waterfowl\u2026because you\u2019re essentially giving them a death sentence by feeding them people food \u2013 and there is plenty of natural food for them. I am sure many of us fed ducks when we were young because that\u2019s what you did back then, but we know now it is really bad for them and once they get the angel wing syndrome, that\u2019s it and they\u2019re not going to be able to fly. Lucky for us, the swan was caught and was taken to a rescue where it will be looked after, but it will never fly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the Arboretum\u2019s resident goldfish, as the Arboretum and Town await word on the best approach to eradicate them, Clement hopes, perhaps somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that the area\u2019s snapping turtles help close the circle of life on this particular story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Aurora Community Arboretum is one of Aurora\u2019s most popular, yet somehow still unsung, green spaces \u2013 but everybody needs to follow a few simple tips to keep the space all it can be. So say Arboretum officials as they work to battle invasive species \u2013 both flora and fauna \u2013 throughout the expanse, most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2025-05-08-05.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9qS","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 11:33:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36264,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36262\/revisions\/36264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}