Joe McWilliams
Lakeside Leader

The CN right of way left and right of the Main St. crossing in Slave Lake is a kind of showcase for noxious weeds. One person who has been noticing it is Joe Winkler.

“Why doesn’t the town do something about it?” he says.

Winkler says when he had his farm just east of town, he got regular visits from the M.D. weed inspector, advising him he had to deal with his sow thistles, or else. Now he sees it rampant in the middle of town.

Also present in abundance at the Main St. railway cross is common tansy, which the Province of Alberta considers a noxious weed. It’s an invasive, not even native to North America.

The easy answer to Winkler’s question is that the town doesn’t own the property. CN does, and CN is notoriously slow to respond to requests to do anything on its property. Add to that the fact the town doesn’t seem to have a dedicated weed person these days, and the chances of stopping the spread of these invasive plants don’t look very good.

Kendra Kozdroski, the M.D. of Lesser Slave River Agricultural Fieldman, says the M.D. tries to work with CN on the weed issue, and CN has a multi-year plan in place to spray along their tracks.

“We have seen them out spraying throughout our municipality this year,” she says.