Hey tweets, A great day at the Montlake Fill. Fall migration is in full
swing. Today there were numerous least and western sandpipers, a greater
yellowlegs, a dowitcher, a common snipe (resident), and two Caspian terns.
What a spectacular sight. On the loosestrife front, one fellow tweets was
kind enough to send us a check to pay for another day's rental of a
gas-powered wacker. My husband hopes to be able to wack loosestrife on
Sunday. I've been pulling regularly, plus the main pond is shrinking. So
more mud is free now for the shorebirds to use. It's great. Do pull a plant
or two or ten whenever you go. I find that if I pull up the roots and then
break the main stem near the root ball, and then turn the whole mass
upwards on the ground so the roots are exposed to the sun, the plant
actually dies. If the stems aren't broken, then sometimes the darn things
keep right on growing. Loosestrife is vigorous, I must say. But vulnerable,
too. I mean, those plants aren't going anywhere, and they're easy to spot
now that they're blooming.

I talked to Fred Hoyt of the Urban Hort today about loosestrife removal.
He's very committed to eradicating it, thank goodness. He said that beetles
have been released, though they aren't having much effect yet. He asks that
if you do conduct any major pulling or wacking, please let him know ahead
of time. His e-mail is hoyt at u.washington.edu. He welcomes any volunteers at
all, but there are some plots that he and his staff and students are
monitoring to see how well the beetles do. So he'd like us to leave those
plots alone. However, the loosestrife around the main pond is okay to pull.
Fred is also looking into other methods of control, including the
possibility of changing the nitrogen content of the mud. Connecticut has
had some good luck with that approach.

Finally, Fred said that would like to be able to hire some seasonal workers
to pull loosestrife but he has no budget for that. I wonder if any of you
think it's a good idea to take up a collection to pay for some removal? I
have no idea how much we'd have to raise, but anything is bound to help,
don't you think? Please let me know your reactions and ideas.

As much as I love the Fill, it's also painful for me to go there now and
see how much loosestrife there is. We have so little habitat left for
migratory birds, especially shorebirds, and here we have a truly miraculous
place. Yet it's troubled by invasive plants. I keep telling myself that
people made the problem, so people can fix the problem. We can. - Connie,
Seattle

csidles at mail.isomedia.com