Growing Curiosity

Teaching Kids About Invasive Plants this Summer

By Emma Marshall, CGOWCA Environment Committee

Summer break is here and it’s time to send the kids out for our few warm months. While exploring this summer, consider how children may have the opportunity to discover our lovely neighborhood a bit differently. Invasive species are a local issue, and children and families can play a meaningful role in learning about and addressing these issues. Rather than focusing on policy or large-scale conversations, I am here to emphasize how trusted adults can help children connect with nature while contributing to the health of the neighborhood. A little curiosity could lead to some lasting lessons on conserving our local ecosystems.

The focus here is on conversation rather than expertise. I am here for some community-based knowledge sharing driven by my own sense of citizenship to our planet. 

Planting the Seeds of Conservation

The way to get youth involved is not to fearmonger. We don’t need to overwhelm or burden younger generations with the weight of environmental consequences. However, it is vital to acknowledge that today’s youth will inherit the consequences of making environmental decisions. Early engagement can build lifelong values, and foster a sense of environmental citizenship to our planet and its ecosystems.

This article offers some ways to engage with your kids about these issues, and suggest some hands-on learning opportunities. While every child learns differently, the hope is to strengthen community connections to ecology and biodiversity that can be passed on to future generations. Combating invasive species is a generational issue, as it will be a challenge that will be passed down to younger generations in order to create and maintain effective management strategies. Engagement inspires future policymakers, advocates, and scientists while also helping develop leadership and critical thinking skills.

Your child, grandchild, or any youth that you know can influence peers, families, and local communities. Children learn by doing, communities benefit when youth get involved, and engagement should be hopeful rather than fear-based.

Turning Summer Walks Into Nature Lessons

Our neighborhood of Orleans Wood and Convent Glen is a beautiful part of our city. Did you know that there’s a large stretch of walking and bike paths along the river in Orleans? If you didn’t, you should go check out this hidden gem. This is a wonderful place, and while exploring it, you can also notice some of the environmental challenges it faces. You may notice a number of invasive species growing along the trail, such as the Burdock and Japanese Knotweed in the photos below that were spotted on a short walk. This trail is a great place to locally explore with children and notice what’s growing here. In about 20 minutes, my younger sister and I spotted 4 different invasive species!

_{Invasive plants identified on a walking trail near Francois Dupont park. Large Japanese Knottweed plant (above) and Burdock plant (below). Photo: Emma Marshall}

Just make sure if you go on these walks not to transport any of the plants with you. Some plants, such as dog-strangling vine, can actually spread their seeds even after they’ve been removed. Get your kids to make sure they’re not bringing any fluff or burrs on their clothing as that can actually spread the species that we are trying to mitigate. Some invasive species like the burdock plant in the photo above can easily grab onto clothes and go unnoticed until it falls off in your front yard.

Backyard Introductions to Biodiversity

While you can learn a lot exploring the community, there are also things that you can do in your own backyard. Home gardens are already a staple of the summer season, and ensuring you aren’t planting invasive plants is a great way to mitigate the spread.

Tips to consider:

• Do some research into what native plants you can put in your garden, especially pollinators. Our community organization usually hosts a plant-sale once a year consisting of native plants for your gardens.
• Know what you’re getting when neighbours offer you plants for your garden. You or your neighbour may not know if it’s invasive
• Take a look around your yard, and use identification tools to find out if anything might be invasive. You can’t remove plants from city-owned parks, but you can remove things on your own property!

These tips are great for yourself, but children can absolutely participate in the identification and garden planting which open the door to talking about invasive plants. This year my sister helped me with our garden and she hit me with a barrage of curiosities. Kids want to understand the world around them, and the hands-on opportunities get their brains thinking.

Tech and Nature: Digital Tools for Identification

In an age of technology, many digital tools exist to enhance these walks or backyard scavenger hunts. For younger and older children, some apps like Seek by iNaturalist operate as free, nonprofit, and community-powered tools to help identify, track, learn, and contribute to real science. Take a picture of a plant in the app and it will identify it and give you some information on it. Your observations can become part of a global scientific record used by scientists, conservationists, and researchers worldwide.

For children, the app offers challenges and badges for plant and species identification, creating a fun game if you are looking to enhance a nature walk or find out what is growing in your yard. Using it myself, it was very easy to download and use, and I used it last year to create a map of invasive plant locations around Brewer park. With a clear photo using the app’s camera, I was able to easily identify plants such as dog-strangling vine, burdock, and buckthorn. Not only this, but my 9 year old sister came with me on a walk and was able to easily take pictures, identify, and read about the plants we were looking at.

Challenges and Considerations

Now, consider that I’m just a student who loves to write about passion topics. Yet, I have been getting pretty good with managing realistic expectations for my younger siblings.

Youth may not know much about invasive species, and all have different attention spans. Maybe they won’t remember the time you told them not to blow out that dandelion-looking plant because it’s invasive. At the same time, maybe they’ll think twice the next time they find one in their schoolyard. There’s really no way for me to know what sticks with my siblings after our talks. Learning takes time, and the invasive species issue is ongoing rather than a one-time fix.

I can also acknowledge that not every activity will work for every family. I’ve tried to keep this realistic and doable for families, but by all means adjust the conversation started in a way that works for you and your kids. The goal here is meant to spark some curiosity rather than turn summer into a pop quiz on invasive plants.

Hope for the Future

I said earlier that addressing invasive plant issues is a generational effort, as have been most environmental efforts like the century-long fight for wildlife conservation . It has taken generations of Canadians to increase awareness and create interventions on a variety of issues. The common denominator is that mass-mobilization is created out of a community that strives for a better tomorrow. Part of that better tomorrow includes children carrying on that legacy. 

Building a culture of conservation is the heart of why community organizations like this operate. Youth engagement today creates informed adults tomorrow, and small community actions can contribute to large-scale ecological improvements. Engaging youth in invasive plant issues is not only about controlling unwanted species today, it is about cultivating knowledge, skills, and commitment needed to protect ecosystems in the future.

My goal here is not to make every child in the neighborhood an invasive plant expert, but to give you some ideas to start the conversation in hopes that some children will someday share the same passion that I do about preserving local biodiversity. A walk along a trail, a few questions in the garden, or a photo taken with a nature app can spark curiosity about the world around us. If even a few young people develop a lasting interest in protecting local biodiversity, those small moments could grow into something much bigger for our community’s future.

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