Calgary is a great example of a typical North American urban landscape, with a prominent built environment that includes an extensive network of parks and open spaces. Like many urban municipalities, Calgary must deal with strong growth pressures alongside goals that aim to conserve and protect natural habitats and biodiversity. Among the many challenges of maintaining natural habitats is the management and control of pest and invasive species.
Pest and invasive species are thought to be one of the greatest threats to biodiversity in urban environments. The management of these species is complicated and challenging from ecological, social, and economic perspectives.
As part of a complete update of their Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Plan, the City of Calgary hired Fiera Biological to do a literature review to understand recent advances in the scientific understanding of how to prevent, control, and manage invasive and pest species in urban environments. A jurisdictional review was also done to document the current state of knowledge and practices across the world as it relates to municipal government approaches to invasive and pest species management.
The results of the review were summarized in a report, along with recommendations for what our team considered to be the key scientific and governance principles for the development of an effective Integrated Pest Management policy for The City of Calgary.
