Growers, biologists debate invasive plant list

Ask a local nursery owner to list the commonly grown invasive plants that ought to be banned in Encinitas, and he or she will probably mention no more than a trio of really bad guys.

But people who remove non-native species locally say the troublemakers number in the dozens.

Conflict over how aggressive a plant must be before it's considered an unwanted pest has pushed to the forefront in Encinitas because of a draft invasive plant list put together by a city-sponsored citizen committee.

The list mentions nearly 90 undesirable species, ranging in size from giant palm trees to annual bedding plants.

That list and a proposed invasive plant policy were scheduled for discussion at the Aug. 24 City Council meeting, but new City Manager Gus Vina announced instead that he wanted to hold off on debate for a month so he could take time to review the document.

Area growers say they hope the city gives the list a very hard pruning.

"We don't grow any of the plants on that invasive plant list, but as a gardener myself, I think the city is going overboard on the list," said Janet Kister, an Encinitas resident who owns Sunlet Nursery in Fallbrook.

She mentions sweet alyssum, a common nursery bedding plant that grows just a few inches tall, as one that has no place on the city's list.

Other growers say oleander, a drought-tolerant shrub, and the blue-flowering, "Pride of Madeira" echium are top items to cross off the list.

The city's draft policy says plants from other lands become "invasive when they are so successful in this foreign environment that they displace native plants and adversely affect wildlife habitat, water quality, recreation, and biological diversity by crowding out native species."

The list was created using local plant-growth observations, plus information from the California Invasive Plant Council, the American Society of Landscape Architects, and the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council, citizen committee members said last week.

"We don't want to be taking away plants that are bread and butter (for the local nursery industry)," committee member Doug Gibson of the San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy said. "(But) we're sort of speaking for the areas that have been hit really hard .... we lose a significant amount of habitat ... due to invasive plants."

The proposed city policy would require Encinitas to actively combat unwanted non-native invaders in its open-space areas, gradually remove them from city parkland, and ban developers from planting them around new housing projects.

Homeowners who have some of these species of ill repute wouldn't have to yank them out unless they seek city permission for a large structural addition to their home or other major changes to their property, the draft policy states.

The proposed policy also mentions that the state spends $85 million a year to fight unwanted, non-native plants, particularly ones that invade waterways and the riparian areas that surround them.

Efforts to control non-native plants in north coastal San Diego County have totaled $4.5 million over a five-year period, the report states.