Story Photos
 Photo Daily News file Workers from the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge run tests last summer on a machine that they hope will win the battle against spartina, a invasive grass taking over the bay's mud flats. |
Death knell for Willapa weed?
Monday, March 3, 2003 7:05 AM PST
By Eric Apalategui
Printable version
E-mail this articleWith more money and more collaboration, this may be the year the tide turns on spartina plants elbowing out Willapa Bay's wildlife.
Agencies working on the problem expect to kill 3,000 acres of spartina this year, starting in south bay and working northward. That would be five times more acreage than has been cleared in any other year.
President Bush last week approved $1 million for the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge's spartina control program. The state Department of Agriculture is pitching in another $600,000.
There has never been so much money in the fight. Nor have there been so much weed-killing technology, so much research data and so many partners working together.
"We might actually do this year what hasn't been done: Put spartina on its heels," said Charlie Stenvall, the refuge's manager. Stenvall got most of the federal funding he wanted but figures he still needs similar amounts in each of the next five years to eradicate the weed.
A mapping project in 2002 showed that all the spartina carpets more than 10,000 of the shallow bay's 70,000 acres.
Last summer, the refuge rolled out a precision sprayer that uses infrared and Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to identify and spray herbicide on individual plants. While testing the new equipment last year, the refuge sprayed 600 acres -- doing each acre faster and with less expensive herbicide than ever before.
Spraying with glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, will expand fivefold this year if there are no legal challenges or other glitches. Kim Patten, a Washington State University associate professor of horticulture, also hopes to increase testing of imazapyr, the chemical in herbicides such as Arsenal.
While the refuge and other partners pinned their programs on sometimes-controversial herbicides, the state Department of Agriculture brought a Kansas company to Willapa to test a souped-up mower mounted to an air boat. Unlike the spray system, the mowing plan met with wide skepticism from other spartina experts.
"By and large," said Stenvall, one of the critics, "mowing has been an utter failure."
Agriculture is abandoning mowing, at least for now, and joined forces with the refuge, two universities, oyster growers and other organizations working on spartina eradication. In the past, some partners did their own thing.
"It's a big enough problem that we need to work on it together," said Bill Brookreson, the agriculture department's deputy director. He and others said cooperation among the organizations has never been so high.
Besides spraying, the refuge will continue wintertime tilling and University of Washington researchers will continue studying Prokelisia marginata, an insect that eats spartina.
Spartina, a native plant on the East Coast, rooted in Willapa Bay a century ago. Scientists believe the grasses adapted to the bay, where it has no natural enemies. In recent decades, its expansion has accelerated.
"Probably the single biggest threat to Washington's environment is invasive species," said Brookreson, an "old weed warrior" who graduated from Kelso High School in 1964. "Spartina's a good example of that. It has such tremendous potential for environmental harm."
Historically, Willapa Bay's open flats set a buffet table for birds and other wildlife, and they also support the region's shellfish industry. But birds that flocked to open areas avoid dense grasses, which cover the food and hide predators.
A few days ago, Stenvall examined spartina his crews sprayed last summer. Where the herbicide had plenty of drying time, the grasses died off. Elsewhere, spartina shoots are beginning to emerge.
On the same outing, Stenvall noticed something else encouraging. In the distance, he could see shorebirds -- western sandpipers or dunlins -- feeding among the dead spartina plants.
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