Wed, 18 Aug 2004

Fighting Purple Loosestrife

Well, OK. Purple loosestrife is a serious problem: it was choking lakes in Minnesota when we lived there at an alarming rate, and nothing seemed to even so much as slow it down. But fighting fire with fire can be a dangerous sport, and note well the last comment from Tim Smith, a wetlands scientist at the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management:

"From what we know, there's no downside," Smith said.

An invasive species is an invasive species: and we've been getting lots of trouble from them of late. Once this genie's out of the bottle, there is no effective way to put it back. We'd better hope that Mr. Smith was correct.

They burned it, mowed it, sprayed it and flooded it. But nothing killed the purple loosestrife weed, which has become a regional plague, until officials at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge set a European beetle loose on it.

(link) [MSNBC]

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