Group tries to control pervasive ‘dog-strangling vine’ in Sawmill Creek
Posted Aug 8, 2025 01:20:30 PM.
Last Updated Aug 8, 2025 01:20:36 PM.
Twice a week, a group of volunteers gathers at Sawmill Creek in Ottawa’s south end to pull out an invasive plant called dog-strangling vine.
It is technically two plants, the black swallowwort and pale swallowwort, both look-alike members of the milkweed family. They have spread rapidly throughout Ontario and can grow aggressively up to two metres high, the Ontario website reads. If left out of control, they can become patches of vine that “strangle” plants and small trees.
For the past three years, a group of residents near Sawmill Creek have been meeting to pull out the plants where the waterway meets the Rideau River to control the spread, a blog post by the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority reads.
“We could see the shoreline was overtaken with dog-strangling vine, and to have this last stretch of the creek covered en masse was really a shame,” said Suzanne Doerge, a founding member of the group connected to the Alta Vista Community Association’s Green Space Stewardship Committee, said.
The group partnered with the authority’s City Stream Watch program to receive guidance and support for the shoreline renewal project.
The conservation authority notes that the plant can wreak havoc on biodiversity, pushing out plants like milkweed, which supports monarch butterflies. This particular Ottawa creek has more dog-strangling vine than any other waterway in the city, Rosario Castanon-Escobar of RVCA said.
Because of the pervasive nature of the vine, the group of residents formed to keep it in check.
Clump by clump, volunteers with pitchforks and trowels take out the plants one at a time. Sometimes this can prove to be difficult when the vine is especially dense.
“It’s a never-ending job that requires stamina and strength,” RVCA said.
Although the group has done great work over the last several years, they are looking for more volunteers. A bonus of the work, Nancy Jackson, a member of the group, said, is the physical activity the job brings.
“On Thursday mornings, I come and get all my frustrations out on dog strangling vine,” she joked.
