![WSDA Preparing For Another Year Fighting Spartina](http://townsquare.media/site/1144/files/2021/05/Spartina-Wikipedia.jpg?w=980&q=75)
WSDA Preparing For Another Year Fighting Spartina
The Washington State Department of Agriculture is preparing for another year of fighting Sprtina. This year’s treatment for Spartina starts Wednesday June 1st, and runs through November. Survey and eradication efforts of this aggressive, invasive weed, will take place in multiple areas, including Grays Harbor, Hood Canal, Willapa Bay, Puget Sound, the north and west sides of the Olympic Peninsula and at the mouth of the Columbia River.
The WSDA says this year’s work will build on the success of 2021 when Spartina was eradicated at one new site, bringing the total number of eradicated sites to 71. The Department says their Spartina eradication effort has been highly effective, reducing infestations from a high of more than 9,000 solid acres in 2003 to about two total acres this year. But, the WSDA said, significant work remains to be done. These two remaining acres are spread over 130 sites - meaning 65 percent of all tracked sites are not yet eradicated. Eradication is vital to protect Washington’s shorelines.
“Our goal is to eradicate Washington’s remaining Spartina infestations, protecting important habitat for salmon, waterfowl and shellfish,” said Chad Phillips, WSDA’s Spartina Program Coordinator. “The Spartina Eradication Program protects and restores our state’s most productive estuaries and shoreline habitats. This year, with our project cooperators, we will continue the challenging work of finding and removing the thousands of Spartina plants that remain in the Puget Sound and along Washington’s coast.”
Project partners will survey more than 60,000 acres of saltwater estuaries and hundreds of miles of shoreline. WSDA and its partners dig out small infestations by hand and treat larger sites with herbicides. Since 1995, WSDA has served as the lead state agency for Spartina eradication, facilitating the cooperation of local, state, federal and tribal governments; universities; interested groups; and private landowners. Together they located and treated over 10,000 individual Spartina plants last year.
Spartina, commonly known as cordgrass, can disrupt the ecosystems of native saltwater estuaries. If left unchecked, Spartina outcompetes native vegetation and converts ecologically healthy mudflats and estuaries into solid Spartina meadows. As a result, important habitat for salmon, forage fish, invertebrates, shorebirds and waterfowl are lost, the threat of flooding is increased, and the state’s shellfish industry is negatively impacted.
If you have a story idea for the PNW Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail gvaagen@cherrycreekmedia.com
More From PNW Ag Network
![Washington State continues quest to eradicate invasive Spartina](http://townsquare.media/site/1144/files/2024/05/attachment-WA-Spartina.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![Japanese Beetle Update: WSDA Continues Follow Up For Pasco Eradication Efforts](http://townsquare.media/site/1144/files/2024/04/attachment-WA-Japanese-Beetle-Treatment.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![Washington Invasive Species In Focus During Upcoming Awareness Week](http://townsquare.media/site/1144/files/2024/02/attachment-WA-Invasive-Species-Week.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![WSDA Targets Invasive Spongy Moth With New Eradication Plan](http://townsquare.media/site/1144/files/2024/01/attachment-WSDA-Spongy-Moth-Eradication.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![Hornet-Free Horizon: Good News in WA’s Annual Pest Hunt](http://townsquare.media/site/1144/files/2023/12/attachment-No-AGH-Found-WA.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![Invasive European Green Crab Found At Salt Creek Recreation Area](http://townsquare.media/site/1144/files/2023/11/attachment-Salt-Creek-EGC-Identified.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![Kitttitas County Washington Reports Bird Flu](http://townsquare.media/site/1144/files/2020/03/Chickens-3.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![Beetle Survey Feedback for WA State Department of Ag](http://townsquare.media/site/1144/files/2021/12/Japanese-beetle-WSDA-2.jpg?w=980&q=75)
![Idaho’s Quick Response to Quagga Mussels in the Snake](http://townsquare.media/site/1144/files/2021/05/Idaho-State-Department-of-Ag-Sign-2.jpg?w=980&q=75)