Purple Plague

Another long day at Sunkhaze. That mean Hannaford bright and early again. Yesterday we went up to control the infamous Purple Loosestrife on each side of the long dirt road within the refuge. It is a beautiful purple flowered plant of European origin, but is unfortunately invasive to all the native plants in the area. Once it its growth has taken off, its a difficult process to stop. So far it has only grounded its roots along either side of the road. If it is not controlled however, it will find its way to the wetlands and take out anything in its path. That doesn't seem so bad, does it? Having a beautiful purple flower blanketing the marshes? As a matter of fact, people actually pay money to plant the greenery around their houses. Wrong; it actually has no predators here on this continent, so unless there are people interfering its growth, it will spread at its own free will.

Trimming the Purple Loosestrife
Seed-heads

When we arrived, we met up with the Milbridge team and got right to work. They took one car up one side of the road, and we did the other. There were four people in each car, so one person would drive and the other three would jump out and snip off the flowering part of the plant and leave the rest of it. Sometimes if there was enough concentrated in one area, we would all get to work. This coming Tuesday we will be venturing back up there to spray the remainder of each plant in hopes that it will eliminate it completely, or at least reduce next year's returning amount.


It took us all day to complete the job, but with help it wasn't all that bad. The worst part about it was the mosquitoes. If any of us stood still for even a split second we would be completely covered in them. I think one even got my eyelid. It was so bad that I'm pretty sure I have bites on my bites!

The car ride home was just as bad. I've never seen more dead bugs on a dashboard. If you're wondering what the work life is of a MCINWR employee is, a prime example would be: while all the other commuters were talking on their cellphones, we were killing mosquitoes and flies that were trying to take chunks out of us.