Teacher, kids declare war on beach’s weed problem

A Merrifield teacher and the school’s environment club have declared war on thorny, toxic and fast-growing weeds invading the banks of the Nahoon River.

Maths literacy teacher Pauline Wetmore and her small group of young environmentalists have spent a few sessions ripping large cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium) and tumbleweed (Salsola kali) out of the fore (shoreline) dunes, but expressed concern they were spreading at an alarming rate.

“There’s been a total explosion of tumbleweed because this is its third growing season,” she said.

Wetmore, who has an honours degree in botany, said she first spotted the large cocklebur taking root between the river and the boardwalk entrance after the April 2014 floods.

“There were just a few but by January 2015 they had set seed and there were hundreds of them.”

Alarmed, Wetmore rallied the College Enviro Club and, after reporting the category 1 (totally prohibited) weed to Buffalo City Metro (BCM), she and her budding conservationists removed 6000 of the plants.

Then, earlier this year, Wetmore noticed another prickly invader making itself at home on the beach and identified it as tumbleweed.

“It is also a category 1 weed which is highly invasive and grows on the loose sand nearer to the water.”

When Daily Dispatch visited Nahoon Beach yesterday, signs that BCM was dealing with the problem were evident. About 80 large weed-filled plastic bags were heaped at the edge of the wooden walkway leading to the river.

“I was so excited when I saw a team pulling them out, but they are only removing the tumbleweed, not the large cocklebur. I think they are only clearing it for the Surfers because that is where people will run. They are so prickly they will eventually make the beach unusable.”