Another noxious weed pulling effort on Candy Mountain is planned for this coming Wednesday. Yellow Star Thistle is in full bloom and starting to set seed. The volunteer crews are trying to prevent any seed formation and dispersal this year. The hot temperatures are maturing the Star Thistle faster than the weeding crews can remove it all. We could use additional crew members for a while longer!

Today Sunday, we reached a little milestone!! We finally weeded our way around the hill enough to cross over the dirt road going up the hill from West Richland. For those volunteers who have been “stranded” for weeks pulling Yellow Star Thistle on the slope just below the first big switchback on the trail, it will seem like a triumph!

The Star Thistle patches will now become more separated and we are seeing more isolated plants or small groups of plants. The work now for the crews will involve more walking and searching on the rest of the Candy Mountain Preserve and less giant patches to pull. AND, crews will need to revisit the areas of heavy infestation that were already weeded because many new plants are now showing themselves and blooming. We will also need to walk over the areas that were spot sprayed earlier this spring. We are finding plants that were missed by the spray and others that got the tops burned out but still producing seed on the lower branches.

SO, in summary —– we are feeling optimistic about the noxious weed control progress made to date (thank you volunteers), but recognize that considerable hand work is still involved to finish the project for this summer. We plan to survey the Candy Mt. Preserve later this Fall and decide if any spraying is warranted.

Attention: John Covey of the Fun, Fit and Over Fifty Club will be managing the crew on Wednesday. He is encouraging FFOF Club members to join us for the coming weeding sessions on Wednesday August 15th and Sunday August 19th. Several members have been constant “weed warriors” already and we would welcome a new contingent to join the effort. John’s contact info is: [email protected] and 509 375-1062 hm. and 509 851-5196 cell.

When: Wednesday August 15th, 2018

Meet at: Candy Mountain Trail-head parking lot, off Dallas Rd. on PR 669 Rd. Address is 71004 E. 669 PR N.E.

Time: 7:00 – 10:00 am, but feel free to join us for any other time-frame that fits your schedule. John Covey will meet volunteers arriving at 7 am in the parking lot.

Duties: Hand pulling Yellow Star Thistle plants ranging in size from small single plants to larger branched plants, both already blooming and developing seed — along with the dreaded spikes. We will bag and remove all plants at this stage of development.

Tools & Clothing: Bring good strong gloves! Long sleeved shirts and long pants are recommended. The thorny spikes just beneath the blooms are making their appearance on most of the plants, so puncture and scratch protection is helpful. Generally, just pulling the plants has proven to be the most practical method of removal.

Work location: Approx. 3/4 mile up the trail on the north slope, facing West Richland. If you don’t meet up with the group in the parking lot, hike on up and look for us down-slope or on around the hill to the NW from the first big switchback-turn on the trail. You will be looking down on the West Richland water storage tank. Terrain is sloped and uneven — sturdy boots recommended.

Please forward this notice to anyone else you think might be interested. For those who might not be experts at knowing the difference between noxious weeds and native plants, we will give guidance.

Reply to [email protected] so we have an idea who to be looking for, or just show up with your gloves, sun protection, drinking water, snacks and find us. Since we are working some distance from the trail-head and are constantly moving along, having a small back-pack or fanny-pack is useful to carry your “stuff”. If you have some plastic grocery bags, bring them along for the blooming plants and we will have larger garbage bags to collect in. See you on the mountain in the cool morning air!