To the editor:

Scotch broom flowering is just around the corner! Thanks to all of you who have removed this tremendously invasive non-native weed from your property.

We are fortunate to have the following groups working together to remove Scotch broom for our beautiful island: the Weed Warriors, Let’s Pull Together — an initiative of Sustainable Bainbridge, Noxious Weed Advisors, the Bainbridge Island Land Trust, the Student Conservation Corps and the Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation Department.

You may welcome the bright yellow blossoms of Scotch broom, but soon they will be replaced by seed pods. A mature plant can produce more than 30,000 seeds in a year, and they remain viable up to 70 years. Of all the plants listed in Washington as noxious weeds, Scotch broom is the most rambunctious!

A coalition of sponsors and generous donors support the Let’s Pull Together campaign: adults and school-age kids are out to set an example for all to follow in our fields and roadways.

With persistent effort, Scotch broom can be eliminated, and where it persists we can control its spread. Now through June is the best time, while the soil is moist and seeds have not formed, for pulling small plants and cutting the larger ones below their lowest branch.

Let’s Pull Together focuses on publicly owned land, and we continue to encourage landowners to control Scotch broom on their own property.

If you need assistance or advice please contact our coordinator for Let’s Pull Together, Emily Helgerson at 253-905-1777 or email her at stopscotchbroom@gmail.com .

This April, Let’s Pull Together and the Bainbridge Island Land Trust are partnering to help you clear Scotch broom and all invasive plant species from your yard by picking up the tab.

Any Sunday in April, dispose of your invasive plant species at the Bainbridge Disposal Transfer Station and let Let’s Pull Together and the Bainbridge Island Land Trust pay your tab!

LEN BEIL

Weed Warrior and Kitsap County Noxious Weed Advisor