PORT TOWNSEND — A small force of volunteer weed-pulling warriors attacked concentrations of poisonous hemlock and noxious Scotch broom last week in an effort to save native vegetation at Fort Worden State Park.
“It’s the organized pulls like this that do the most,” said Kate Burke, Fort Worden State Park manager, who was yanking fern-like poisonous hemlock, a noxious weed found in heavy concentrations around the park Friday.
“Adopt-a-Weed Patch”
The county Noxious Weed Control Board is promoting an “Adopt-a-Weed-Patch” program, encouraging county residents to form groups to pull weeds, such as the group at the park on Friday.
Poison hemlock is lethal to people and animals.
Burke and about a dozen other volunteers with the park, the Student Conservation Association, Jefferson County Weed Control Board and 1,000 Years Institute attacked the weeds with a vengeance.
English ivy, another nonnative plant that chokes out natural vegetation, also was targeted.
“We hit the poison hemlock as best as we can and spray where we can’t get ahead of it,” Burke said.
Eve Dixon, the county’s noxious-weed-control coordinator who helped organize the weed-pulling party, said Fort Worden State Park was chosen for the war on weeds because it is a significant place to Port Townsend and Jefferson County.
Poison hemlock “has to be taken seriously,” Dixon said, citing a death in Pierce County earlier this year when a man mistook the plant for another edible species.
So far this growing season, Washington Poison Center has received four calls about poison hemlock ingestion. The other three reports were from Whitman, Skagit and Thurston counties.
Dixon said those who pull hemlock should place the weeds in bags and properly dispose of them through trash pickup.
She said they should not be burned because they emit toxins into the air that are harmful.
“It’s a really nasty toxin,” she said.
Pulling most of the hemlock’s root will control it. Otherwise the plant will grow up to 8 feet high.
Jill Silver, executive director of 1,000 Years Institute, coordinated a group farther down the beach near Point Wilson Lighthouse that was concentrating on Scotch broom, which is now flowering yellow and will be throwing seeds around by August.
Silver said Scotch broom overtakes native vegetation in open areas, and its seeds can last up to 80 years.
“When the plants are mature, they can produce up to 6,000 seeds,” Silver said, who was passing out weed wrenches to volunteers, who can use them to more easily pull Scotch broom’s deep-seating taproot.
Dixon said groups who want to pull weeds can contact her a 360-379-5610, ext. 205, or e-mail noxiousweeds@co.jefferson.wa.us.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsula dailynews.com.
