Transitway path weeds to be trimmed

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This article was published 06/07/2021 (1912 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The city says it will cut back weedy grass foxtails growing alongside the walking path along the Southwest Transitway.

However, it asks Winnipeg residents to be patient with the rest of the weeds near the dedicated rapid bus roadway, as they help the natural grass grow underneath.

Jeff Malcovish regularly bikes and walks along the transitway and didn’t mince words when describing the look of tall, unkempt weeds and foxtails creeping into long stretches of the public path.

“I just think it’s basically ugly,” he said.

“Normally, the city would come jump all over you if you let your weeds and grass grow that tall, but they label it as sort of a nature corridor, as an excuse so now they don’t have to maintain it.”

It would be just an eyesore if the weeds weren’t potentially dangerous to pets, Malcovish said, as he worries for dogs being walked along the pathway. The sharp seeds of foxtails can penetrate skin, or enter the nose, eyes or ears and cause a serious, perhaps deadly, infection.

“It gets full of weeds, including foxtails, which are harmful to pets. And there are tons of people that go walking down the transitway with their pets,” Malcovish said Tuesday.

Last year, landscaping along the sides of the south Winnipeg transitway began. It’s now in the second year of a two-to-three-year process of establishing natural tall grass.

That process includes the existence of weeds, said Jesse Crowder, project manager for Winnipeg Transit.

“That is a tough process, it takes a couple years to establish… Obviously, that’s been a struggle so far with the drought and the extreme heat and the weather we’ve had, so we’re trying to be flexible there,” he said.

The weeds need to stick around for now because they help establish the grasses growing underneath, Crowder said, in part because of the lack of precipitation. The weeds protect the grass from the heat, and when it does rain, it helps keep the water close to the grass.

Once the grasses have been established, within the next year or so, it will be cut more often and more closely maintained, Crowder said.

“If we were to go out and cut everything down to nothing and leave just the little bit of grass growth that’s there, it would essentially die in the heat and the drought,” he said.

Crowder said the foxtails adjacent to the pathway will be cut back this week to ensure residents’ furry friends aren’t put in danger.

“We are going to try to take care of that,” he said.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_