Day 295: With gas priced at $4.09/gallon, I have to make any trip out count for as much as possible these days. On my way to harvest figs yesterday, I stopped by a city park to do an invasive plant patrol. After recording 21 instances in 40 acres, I still had time left, and filled it by walking an additional mile through a wetland area for a second survey. At the second location, I found Jewelweed (above) well on its way to establishing monocultures covering at least 10,000 square feet. Both sites are administered by city governments which have understandably tight maintenance budgets, but I have to wonder: where are the volunteers who would love to engage in weed-pulling? I work with several other groups with robust volunteer programs, so am baffled by why these city governments can't get teams together. Their laxity in controlling invasive species on their properties is allowing them to spread into the community where they will be much harder to eradicate.
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