Welcome to Skagit County

May 31st, 2007

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED JUNE 16 TO CLEAR SKAGIT SHORE OF INVASIVE WEED SPARTINA

Volunteers are needed on Saturday, June 16, to dig out the invasive weed Spartina at the 9th annual Skagit Spartina Dig Day.

Volunteers will gather at 10 AM at the Swinomish Casino and travel to Turner's Bay for a day of getting dirty digging out Spartina, and learning about how it got here, why it hurts the shoreline, and how we can rid the North Puget Sound of the invader.

At the end of the workday at 2 PM, volunteers will know how to identify and report Spartina and will have joined the state-wide control effort by removing the invader from our beach.

The annual event is sponsored by People For Puget Sound, the Swinomish Tribal Community, and the Skagit County Marine Resources Committee.

For more information and to register, contact Keeley O'Connell, People For Puget Sound, (360) 336-1931, koconnell@pugetsound.org. For more information about spartina, go to http://www.pugetsound.org/index/spartina.

What is Spartina?
Spartina angelica is an invasive salt-tolerant grass that was planted in the Puget Sound in the 1960's for dike stabilization and cattle feed. Unfortunately, it aggressively displaces native vegetation, disrupts shorebird and juvenile salmon foraging areas, and impacts shellfish habitat. It has adapted extremely well and now grows in nearly all of our unique shoreline habitats. At the beginning of the 2006 control season, there were approximately 350 solid acres of Spartina in Puget Sound. With diligent eradication only 10 acres of Spartina remain in Skagit County. Left untreated, Spartina could cause irreversible damage to the nearshore environment of Puget Sound. Spartina is easy to remove when it's young, but after a year or two, the roots are very deep and difficult to dig up. Trained citizens are essential to the eradication of this shoreline noxious weed.