Weed Warriors

Earlier this week, several teams worked with the Sacramento Weed Warriors to help remove invasive plant species from the California ecosystem. On this particular day, we were fighting a species known as red sesbania, an ornamental plant originally from South America. It has flourished to such an extent that it blocks access to the water and is choking out native species. It's a beautiful plant with feathery leaves and red blooms, but it has become a real threat to biodiversity; looking down the waterway, all you could see was red sesbania densely crowding the waterline. It is poisonous to humans and animals, and the shade it creates prevents the usual grasses and rushes that naturally inhabit the area from growing.







Using an assortment of tools, we cut down these plants and managed to remove about 27,000 square feet worth of red sesbania from the shores of Dry Creek in Sacramento. The task was especially difficult because the plants multiply using dried seed pods, which easily fell to the ground and broke open. It was a real chore to try to handle the plants so delicately to prevent further proliferation. There were also lots of burrs and other spiky weeds and grasses that made things more challenging. The cut plants were brought to a Dumpster, where we chopped and compacted the branches for disposal. In the end, we collected about 8,000 pounds worth of invasive organic material.