OFA provides comments to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry regarding regulating invasive species and watercraft under Ontario’s Invasive Species Act. OFA supports adding European frogbit, yellow floating-heart and fanwort to the prohibited and restricted invasive species lists under the Invasive Species Act, 2015. Adding European frogbit, an aquatic plant, to the prohibited invasive species list would help prevent this species from becoming established in municipal drains. Yellow floating-heart, and fanwort, two other aquatic plants, also prefer to grow in slow-moving waters, such as streams, small rivers, ponds, lakes, and ditches and can establish in municipal drains. The Ministry is proposing species-specific rules for plants in addition to the general prohibitions in the Act. These additional prohibitions would help reduce the risk of those species being introduced or spread further in Ontario and therefore, OFA supports these species-specific rules.
OFA supports wild pigs being included as a restricted invasive species under the Invasive Species Act, 2015. OFA believes that the negative impacts on native wildlife, ecosystems and biodiversity warrant the development and implementation of policies and programs to curtail the growth and spread of wild pigs across Ontario. Overall, precautions should be taken to prevent the unintentional establishment or spread of invasive species.