Associate Professor of KamSU linked the spread of hogweed in Kamchatka with the development of tourism

Associate Professor of KamSU linked the spread of hogweed in Kamchatka with the development of tourism

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Due to the development of a network of tourist routes, Sosnovsky’s hogweed is actively spreading across the territory of Kamchatka, an alien invasive species captures more and more areas and reduces the diversity of plants on the peninsula, Kommersant was told at Kamchatka State University. Vitus Bering.

“The situation is deteriorating and will continue to deteriorate due to the development of a network of tourist routes: hogweed spreads very well in the tread of automobile tires,” said Elizaveta Devyatova, Dean of the Faculty of Natural and Technical Sciences of KamSU, Associate Professor of the Department of Biology and Earth Sciences. According to her, in the last century in Kamchatka, a dangerous species grew only in the vicinity of the village of Sosnovka, where it was brought about 30 years ago to be tested as a silage crop in the experimental fields of the Kamchatka Agricultural Experimental Station. But since 2000, the hogweed “went to conquer new territories.”

Scientists note that the plant is distributed mainly along the roads. The first thickets of hogweed appeared in one of the microdistricts of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in 2010. Then thickets of the plant were found in the Paratunka resort area. And in 2020, as a result of the active development of tourism in the region, Sosnovsky’s hogweed reached the central regions of the peninsula.

According to Elizaveta Devyatova, dangerous cow parsnip reduces the recreational value of the territories. “The flora of Kamchatka itself is poor, no one can compete with hogweed, and it also reduces the diversity of plants,” the dean said. “To solve the problem, it is necessary to make changes to the legal framework. To combat hogweed, both mechanical methods (mowing, digging, cutting inflorescences) and chemical methods are used. We don’t mow it on purpose at all, other measures are not provided for.”

Read about how scientists propose to use hogweed in the publication “Kommersant” “Cow-parsnip against cancer”.

Guzel Latypova, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky

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