2008 Woodie Awards
Public land agencies battle Japanese knotweed
Foreign weeds threaten local ecosystems
Zack Cinek
Issue date: 4/23/08 Section: Community
Out there driving the back roads along your public lands could be a weed warrior waiting to spot unwanted plants.
For Jennifer Wheeler at the Bureau of Land Management's Arcata office, ridding the land of weeds is a job.
Government agencies like the BLM, the United States Forest Service and Redwood National and State Parks wage war on weeds.
For Wheeler is part of the workforce that carries out a relentless hunt for weeds. In 2004, Wheeler said she noticed an odd, white-flowering shrub alongside a road near the Mattole River. "I didn't know what it was," she said.
After some research, Wheeler said she learned the weed was Japanese knotweed.
But this Japanese knotweed seen by Wheeler was not on BLM land. Worrisome to Wheeler was the knotweed's close proximity to BLM's jurisdiction.
From a particle of its own roots smaller than a gram, knotweed possesses the ability to grow, according to a BLM report. The report said the closest knotweed to public land was 200 feet.
"The potential for the knotweed breaking off and spreading was scaring me to death," Wheeler said. "Any fragment could be a new plant."
Knotweed spreading downstream meant knotweed in the Mattole estuary, disrupting the ecosystem.
Knotweed on someone else's property also meant knotweed the BLM couldn't remove itself.
If private landowners and a group named the Matolle Restoration Committee had not coordinated to remove knotweed, it was likely the foreign plant would have spread onto BLM's land, Wheeler said.
Knotweed at the Mattole location was injected with herbicide, Wheeler said.
Again knotweed met Wheeler in a parking lot near Manila. Roots of knotweed removed from the parking lot in 2005-2006 where about 8 feet long, Wheeler said.
Removing knotweed from the Manila location was like an archaeological dig, Wheeler said. "The roots where like my arm, braided and woven together."
Wheeler said the cost of removing the weed at Manila was about $30,000.
For Jennifer Wheeler at the Bureau of Land Management's Arcata office, ridding the land of weeds is a job.
Government agencies like the BLM, the United States Forest Service and Redwood National and State Parks wage war on weeds.
For Wheeler is part of the workforce that carries out a relentless hunt for weeds. In 2004, Wheeler said she noticed an odd, white-flowering shrub alongside a road near the Mattole River. "I didn't know what it was," she said.
After some research, Wheeler said she learned the weed was Japanese knotweed.
But this Japanese knotweed seen by Wheeler was not on BLM land. Worrisome to Wheeler was the knotweed's close proximity to BLM's jurisdiction.
From a particle of its own roots smaller than a gram, knotweed possesses the ability to grow, according to a BLM report. The report said the closest knotweed to public land was 200 feet.
"The potential for the knotweed breaking off and spreading was scaring me to death," Wheeler said. "Any fragment could be a new plant."
Knotweed spreading downstream meant knotweed in the Mattole estuary, disrupting the ecosystem.
Knotweed on someone else's property also meant knotweed the BLM couldn't remove itself.
If private landowners and a group named the Matolle Restoration Committee had not coordinated to remove knotweed, it was likely the foreign plant would have spread onto BLM's land, Wheeler said.
Knotweed at the Mattole location was injected with herbicide, Wheeler said.
Again knotweed met Wheeler in a parking lot near Manila. Roots of knotweed removed from the parking lot in 2005-2006 where about 8 feet long, Wheeler said.
Removing knotweed from the Manila location was like an archaeological dig, Wheeler said. "The roots where like my arm, braided and woven together."
Wheeler said the cost of removing the weed at Manila was about $30,000.
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