Starting in 2018, the Canadian Council on Invasive Species (CCIS) received a grant from the EcoAction Community Funding Program, through Environment and Climate Change Canada, to partner with the Invasive Species Council of BC (ISC BC) and the Saskatchewan Invasive Species Council (SISC) to work with local partners in both provinces and adopt aquatic habitats to remove aquatic invasive species, resulting in restored shoreline and wetland areas.
These resources and their descriptions are listed below. The overall objective of the project is to improve water quality and restore key shorelines, wetlands threat of invasive species across Canada. Providing behaviour change prompts and reminders to recreationalists, business owners and other groups can help to prevent the spread of invasive species in our waterways. A number of key resources have been developed through the development of an Invasive-Wise Marinas program which aims to promote positive actions by marina owners and their clients to preventing the spread of aquatic invasive species.
Invasive-Wise Marina Resources:
- National Marina Factsheet – Provides an overview of the Marina-Wise program, how marina owners can participate and Best Management Practices for Marinas including Clean Drain Dry actions.
- Marina Sign – Enables marina owners to be recognized by their clients and other groups for participating in the Invasive-Wise Marina’s program and to promote other groups to participate.
- Marina Poster with Species – Recognizes marina businesses as Invasive-Wise Marinas and additionally promote awareness by providing a list of invasive species to be aware of and to prevent from spreading into waterways.
- Decal – An easy way for Marina’s to be recognized for their participation in the program and to prompt other groups to participate. This decal can be placed anywhere – cash registers, watercrafts, water bottles, doorways, windows, etc.
- Bilingual Fish Ruler Sticker – An excellent reminder to prompt anglers to Clean Drain Dry their watercrafts. This resource also functions as a fish ruler to measure the “catch of the day” and keep anglers honest!
- Pledge Form – To engage marina businesses across Canada to commit to promoting aquatic invasive species awareness and preventative actions, namely to promote customers to Clean Drain Dry watercrafts and gear.
Find these resources on the Invasive-Wise Marina’s webpage: www.invasivewisemarinas.ca
This EcoAction Community Funding Program will officially wrap up at the end of March 2021, however the CCIS and partners will continue to implement these resources to promote invasive species prevention actions to protect the long-term health and quality of waterways and shorelines across Canada!
Remember to continue to spread the word to others about aquatic invasive species and how they can help:
1. Learn what they look like and report them. By learning what they look like and reporting their sightings, you are contributing to their early detection, resulting in action to prevent their further spread. If we learn of where these species are before they get a foot hold, we may be able to stop them. To learn about the species in your province or territory, along with the reporting system to use, go HERE.
2. Prevent their spread. If you like to go outside, bike, fish, boat, kayak etc. you might be spreading invasive species without even knowing it. Be sure to clean off and check your gear for invasive plants and animals before moving to a new location. To learn more about this, visit our website HERE.
3.Tackle them. We worked with ISC BC and SISC to create an “Adopt an Aquatic Area Toolkit”. The purpose of the toolkit is to assist other stakeholder groups in protecting our precious aquatic habitats by effectively addressing aquatic invasive species issues. The toolkit is a step-by-step guide on how to adopt and aquatic area impacted by invasive species and how to restore and manage it. Find the toolkit HERE.
