BroomBusters
Cut Broom in Bloom
Vancouver Island & BC Mainland's Grassroots
Scotch Broom Containment Campaign
Broombusting Communities:

Broombusting in Port Alberni

Check back for 2008 Activities!

Here's what happened in Port Alberni in 2007:
 In 2007, Port Alberni has declared June 3-9 to be Broombusting Week.  
Calling all Broombusters! The Mount Klitsa Garden Club is spearheading a second assault on hospital hill and along Redford Street. Join us during Broombusting Week or pick your own favourite broom infestation to work on.

During that week, the Regional District will allow FREE dumping of cut broom at the McCoy Lake dump and the City of Port Alberni will allow FREE drop-off of broom at its property on the south end of Anderson Avenue (across Ship Creek Road).

Use pruners, loppers, long handle clippers and for monster plants, a pruning saw. Try to cut right down to ground level or below.

Broom is a daunting, tough problem. Nobody can do it alone. Here’s our suggested strategy:
· Talk with your friends and neighbours and select a site. It doesn’t have to be the whole thing, just a beginning.
·  Clear the area of broom to the best of your ability. Celebrate your triumph!
·  Repeat next year - it will be a much smaller job.
·  In the second year, that area will contain dead broom, resprouting broom and new plants from generations of seeds. If the ground is wet, sometimes you can easily pull new plants out by the roots. Try not to disturb the soil too much when uprooting plants, as you don’t want to bring deeply buried seeds to the surface. Recut the broom again when it goes into bloom. Mowing just makes your work harder.
·  Repeat as needed in subsequent years
·  Expand the cut each year, and watch the broom free areas grow.

Disposal of the Cut Broom
This year, Broombusting Week is June 3-9, 2007. During that week, the City of Port Alberni will allow residents to dump cut broom FREE OF CHARGE at its property on the south end of Anderson Avenue across Ship Creek Road from 4-6 pm (or by arrangement – call Heather 723-3551).

The Regional District Dump on McCoy Lake Road will also allow FREE dumping of cut broom during their regular hours in Broombusting Week.

Remember that among its other noxious qualities, broom is very flammable, so if possible you want to remove the broom. The City will dispose of the cut plants properly by chipping and burning. If you are cutting along the public highways, small amounts of broom can be left to decompose. After you have prearranged a stretch of road, larger amounts can be dragged beside the road, where the Ministry of Transportation will pick it up.

You can cut broom whenever you want, starting NOW.
Contact Heather Washburn at 723-3551 (or washburn “at” shaw.ca) for more information.

Adopt-A-Highway Program
We have all noticed the spread of broom along our highways in recent years.
In the Oceanside area, residents are working in partnership with the Ministry of Transportation to remove broom from beside the highways. MOT provides some support, and will cover participants under the Province’s General Liability Insurance if they wish. Most importantly, in May and June a Ministry truck will come and pick up the cut broom and chip it.
We would like to see this initiative for the highways just outside Port Alberni. YOU CAN HELP!!! We need one or more people who will select the area in need, contact newspapers and generally organize the cuts.

The Hospital Hill Before the Community Cut
"The 2006 Broom Bust at West Coast General Hospital"
"The 2006 Broom Bust at West Coast General Hospital"
by Heather Washburn

We did it! Cut the broom all the way back to the end of the hospital parking lot and to the top of the hill over to the highway!

What a valiant crew showed up Wednesday and Thursday morning with brush cutters, weed wrenches, snippers and loppers, not to mention trucks of all sizes. There were many loads taken to the dump where, incidentally, full tipping fees had to be paid. The cut plants will be chipped.

Looking at a vast field of broom stumps, one has to ask: "What next?" This broom will have to be cut again next year, or the ground cleared properly and cultivated.

June is the time to cut broom. It is at its most vulnerable, having spent energy surviving the winter and putting out new leaves, growth and blossoms in the spring. Now it would like to settle down in the summer sun and watch its seeds ripen, meanwhile storing energy for another year. By interrupting this cycle, we have taken an important first step in eradicating this over-successful plant.

But the next step is up to us all. The City, the Regional District and all the rest of us must do what we can to remove broom from our yards, our roadsides and all adjacent public and private lands. The best plan is a PLAN: watch for broom and do not let it establish itself. Failing that, only repeated hard labour will remove this scourge.