Invasive Services

Treatments

Before treating any invasive species on a site an understanding of site conditions, client goals, and anticipated timeline for success, is paramount to understand. We treat invasive species using mechanical (physically remove) and chemical (herbicide) methods. Chemical treatment of invasive species is often the fastest option, however this may be expensive and could be potentially detrimental to sensitive ecosystems. All invasive plants have their set of natural requirements (e.g., light, water, nutrients) and seasonality. In understanding these requirements, Wild Ginger Field Services will develop a dynamic, integrated approach to pest control using all available appropriate options for that specific site. As ecologists our overarching aim is an ecologically balanced site that is self sustaining with minimal management.

Adaptive Management

Adaptive management has been defined in various ways by different individuals and organizations:

“....a systematic process for continually improving management policies and practices by learning from the outcomes of operational programs. Its most effective form - ‘active’ adaptive management - employs management programs that are designed to experimentally compare selected policies or practices, by evaluating alternative hypotheses about the system being managed. (USDA, 1993)

“... ‘learning to manage by managing to learn’...” (USDA, 1993)

Wild Ginger Field Services uses adaptive management in all aspects of invasive management and treatment. The ecosystem is a living, breathing, organism, composed of many intricate moving parts. All actions applied to a site will have a reaction in the ecosystem, and we aim to learn from the outcomes and modify our subsequent actions to attain our stated goals. Ecosystem processes are often non-linear, and the outcome of such processes often shows time lags. The result is discontinuities, which can lead to surprise and uncertainty. Management must be adaptive in order to be able to respond to such uncertainties and contain elements of ‘learning by doing’.