Loosestrife Progress

Lots of it - as usual. The north end of the pond is now completely free of
loosestrife apart from a few rogue strands poking up out of the soil.

The gargantuan effort has cleared approx 7000 sq feet in this one area alone
and represents by far the more arduous, difficult, mind-numblingly tedious and
ultimately gratifying section to be cleared.

That only leaves the east side, a strip approx 100 feet by 40. All the plants
are pretty big along this stretch so I would expect progress to be a lots
quicker over the next couple of weeks.

We still expect to be able to finish clearing the site by the end of the month.


Publicity - avoid it if you can.

Well after all the media coverage, attendance at the Fill has DROPPED. We are
now down to only 5-6 slaves, ooops I mean dedicated, environmentally
concious, hard working individuals. I was hoping that the articles would bring
in a rush of new enthusiastic blood and had delayed publicising it. Sadly
this has not happened.

There are probably 2 main reasons:

1) Most people are heartily sick of pulling and lugging loosestrife, after
several weeks only the hard core remain. After all its a lot of effort.

2) Coverage in the "media" implied that there were a lot of people involved.
True, but only over the lifetime of the project. Peak attendance at the start
was anything up to 13 people. I think that gave a false picture and so the
impression was given that the project was well staffed and did not require any
more effort.

After the two articles I think that has only brought forward 3 new faces. Ah well.



If you can manage some time before the end of the month, come down. Even if
it is only for a hour or so, pleeease !!!

There, that didn't sound too desperate did it ?


See ya,

Stuart
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Stuart MacKay, Ravenna Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105
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