Category: Uncategorized

With springtime in full swing in Southeast Alaska, our meadows and forest shrub-layers are greening up as new leaves sprout from twigs and blades of grass poke up from the ground. However, in certain places around Juneau, curious-looking patches of yellow stand out starkly within a sea of fresh green growth. These bright spots are infestations of reed canarygrass, an extremely aggressive invasive plant that is found throughout Juneau and elsewhere in the region. In late summer and early fall, canarygrass transfers energy from above-ground foliage to below-ground rhizomes. Come spring, this stored energy fuels the production of new stems and leaves which rise up through a dense mat of yellow thatch left behind the previous year. By early May, fresh green growth nearly obscures last year's thatch. Reed canarygrass…

An invasive plant is defined as a plant species that is non-native (or alien) to an ecosystem and whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health. The annual cost of invasive plants to the U.S. economy is estimated at $120 billion per year. Despite its remote setting, Southeast Alaska is not immune to invasion by these plants nor the economic and ecological impacts that come with them. In fact, well over 50 invasive plant species in more than 1,000 infestations have been documented in Juneau alone.   Reed canarygrass takes over a stand of fireweed near lower Jordan Creek in Juneau. SAWC is taking on two of the most invasive of these plant species – Bohemian knotweed and reed canarygrass. Knotweed…

Taiya Inlet Watershed Council hosted the Skagway Community Weed pull on July 8th.  A total of 13 volunteers pulled 237 pounds of invasive white sweetclover!