Recently a friend of mine partipated in an unusual collecting trip to Moses
Lake/Winchester Wastelands area. Instead of collecting plant species or bird
sightings, she collected tiny beetles[4-5mm in length], members of the genus
"Galerucella". Two species were introduced to this area [and the US] in
1992. The beetles are unusual in several aspects, most importantly to those
of us interested in preserving streams & wetlands is the fact that they
consume Purple Loosestrife [Lythrum salicaria] and only Purple Loosestrife
in mass quantities! The plant was probably introduced as seeds in European
soil used as ship ballast in the early 1800's. It has infested 35,000 acres
in the Potholes/Moses Lake area alone. If you've sat along Edmonds Way
[SR104], waiting for a ferry, you've probably seen its attractive lavender
colored blooms amongst tha cattails along both sides of the road,; quietly
choking out our native vegetation in the Edmonds Marsh. The State Noxious
Weed Control Board co-ordinated the three day collecting effort with various
city, county and park agents and the Bureau of Reclamation which manages the
area. Boats were used to maneuver through the shallow waterways up to the
banks that held the defoliated remnants of the Purple Loosestrife. Just two
years ago, the loosestrife was 8' tall and extended 50' from the bank into
the wetland for thousands of acres. Now, in much of that area, there's just
dry, brown stalks and a few stunted living plants--th anks to the appetite
of the beetles. The effort to introduce them to many more heavily infested
areas in the state began last year. Now they are happily munching away on
the loosestrife in the Edmonds Marsh.

For more info. contact Bridget Simon, Wa. State Noxious Weed Control Board:
E-mail bsimon at agr.wa.gov Ph. [253] 872-2318 [compiled by Bonnie Storm with
thxs.]






Regarding the discussion a while back on pulling loosestrife at the fill,
those efforts a while back (whether or not successful, I'm not even going
to touch that one with a 20 foot pole) are in need of something being done
again. I went done to the main pond last night before the WOS meeting and
the loosestrife on the mudflat is growing rapidly and is probably a foot
tall in some places. So a crew of pullers or a crew of sprayers might need
to get down there.

Scott Downes
sdownes at u.washington.edu
Seattle WA

"Birds don't read bird books. (That's why they are seen doing things they
are not supposed to do)." -Mary Wood