As Alaskans debated legalizing pot in the recent election, Chugach State Park was already reeling from too many hits of bad weed.
A year after the completion of a new parking area at the Glen Alps trailhead, at least 10 species of invasive weeds have sprouted from compost spread by a subcontractor, Signature Land Services.
An invasive weed is a non-native plant brought into an area by humans that adversely affects natural environments or causes economic losses. Economic losses and costs to control invasive weeds in the United States total more than $34 billion a year, according to an estimate made a decade ago. That figure is almost certainly higher now. www.protectyourwaters.net/news/data/EconomicCosts_invasives.pdf
The most common weeds found in the new parking area were shepherd's purse, common lambsquarters, prostrate knotweed, and scentless false mayweed. Hempnettle, birdsrape mustard, pineapple weed, red clover, and alsike clover were also present.
The latest outbreak seems to have stemmed from the inability to find a source of weed-free compost in the Anchorage area and subsequent confusion or obfuscation on the part of private contractors, which was facilitated by the state's inability to enforce its contract.
A broken process
The Glen Alps fiasco follows on the heels of similar events last year. Reseeded soil at both the new Eklutna Lake ranger station and the revamped Bird Creek campground sprouted at least 20 species of invasive weeds last summer. The plants were most likely transported in the topsoil or mulch, which came from a variety of sites in Anchorage, as well as on root wads of transplanted Lutz spruce trees. www.adn.com/article/20130929/chugach-state-park-pays-landscaping-gets-truckloads-invasive-weeds
Unlike those two projects, the disturbed ground surrounding the Glen Alps parking lot wasn't reseeded. According to Division of Parks project manager Rys Miranda, the design and construction section's project engineer and landscape architect hoped to keep the area as natural as possible due to concerns raised by wildflower enthusiasts. Instead of reseeding the disturbed area, seven-foot-square chunks of the native alpine tundra were stored on site, then reconfigured in a checkerboard pattern. Compost was added in between the clumps. Because the state wanted to avoid introducing invasive weeds, the contractor was required to use a "weed-free organic matter."
The primary contractor, ANCOR, subcontracted the landscaping to Signature Land Services. The owner, Tim Schrage, says the compost they used was certified by the U.S. Composting Council's Seal of Testing Assurance. However, that certification doesn't cover weeds. compostingcouncil.org/seal-of-testing-assurance/
Sarah Mobley, the Division of Parks project engineer, says there is no certified source for weed-free soil or compost in Alaska.
Two years after the compost was spread, it's unclear if the weeds came with the composted material or found their way into the compost from some other source. However, because most of the invasive species in the expanded parking area are not found in the original parking lot nearby, their seeds were probably in the compost or on the contractor's machinery.
Mobley said she received a verbal assurance from Signature Land Services, through ANCOR, that the compost was weed-free. She also inspected the pile of compost at a storage yard near the corner of Old Seward Highway and Huffman Road.
Mobley didn't say so, but the inspection appears to have been pro forma. She was told the organic matter came from several locations in the Anchorage Bowl, so it may have been full of seeds before it was stockpiled. The area surrounding the compost storage yard is overrun with a variety of invasive weeds. Mobley says she didn't notice any weeds on the compost; however, she wouldn't have been able to see seeds on a perfunctory inspection trip.
Schrage obtained the compost from Trailblazers Topsoil, which has gone out of business. The owner, Jeff Dinwiddie, was also the Glen Alps project manager for Signature Land Services. Thus, Dinwiddie is the one most likely to know whether the compost was weed-free. Unfortunately, he would not return repeated phone calls and emails, and the office assistant at Signature Land Services said she had overheard Dinwiddie say he "wasn't interested in talking to a reporter." Schrage has also become decidedly uncooperative.
No dandelions?
I searched the new parking area in vain for one of Alaska's most ubiquitous invasive weeds, the dandelion. Dandelions and other weeds found in the Anchorage area will undoubtedly colonize the exposed area. Yellow toadflax, foxtail barley, and common plantain are already lurking in the old parking area. Other noxious weeds like bird vetch, white and yellow sweetclover, and narrow-leaf hawksbeard won't be far behind.
Scientists have ranked the relative invasiveness or threat of non-native weeds in Alaska. Dandelions are considered moderately invasive. At the other end of the spectrum, white sweetclover and bird vetch are extremely invasive and difficult to eradicate once they have a toehold. aknhp.uaa.alaska.edu/botany/akepic/non-native-plant-species-list/#content
All of the weeds found in the expanded parking area are thought to be less invasive than dandelions. According to Gino Graziano, an invasive plants expert with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service, most of the weeds that have colonized Glen Alps should disappear, "but they might not if no one pulls them and/or gives some of the native plants a leg up by planting them in the bare spots." He suggested using bluejoint grass straw as a native seed source.
Tilting at windmills
Last summer my wife and I had soil delivered for raised garden beds. We didn't expect to get weed-free soil and, predictably, the dirt erupted in weeds. We can keep ahead of the chickweed, lambsquarters, and shepherd's purse in our garden, with some hope of eventually eradicating them, but who's going to weed the 700-square-mile park? The rangers don't have time to do it. Trail crews and maintenance staff can't keep up with their ever-expanding chores, much less chase weeds around the park.
Most people can't identify invasive weeds and, in my experience, most wouldn't care even if they could. I suspect most Alaskans think dandelions are a native species because we've all grown up surrounded by them. But Chugach State Park is supposed to be a natural area, not a showcase for the roadside plants of Europe.
Anchorage writer and nature buff Bill Sherwonit waxed lyrical over this very patch of Chugach State Park after a visit two years ago, on the eve of its destruction. He believed the lush meadow filled with pale-blue wild geranium, sky-blue chiming bells, yellow paintbrush, pink pyrola, and purple monkshood was as beautiful as anyplace in the park. Not any more. www.adn.com/article/paving-over-small-patch-alaska-paradise-glen-alps
And it's only one of many sites along the mountainous park's boundary that is getting high on weeds.
Rather than letting the park grow unkempt and seedy, a few professionals and small groups of dedicated volunteers have been trying to keep the lid on by attacking some of the worst outbreaks. It's been a losing battle, tilting at windmills. I salute them for their efforts.
Stop rewarding failure
Last year the contractors returned to pull weeds at Eklutna Lake and Bird Creek; however, they were only modestly successful. Both locations are still considerably weedier than they were before the work was done. They may never be the same.
Wouldn't it be far better – far less costly and labor-intensive – to avoid trucking thousands of weed seeds into the park every time a parking lot is expanded? Maybe that's just a pipe dream, a euphoric hallucination.
According to Miranda, the Glen Alps project was "closed out" last summer and it's unlikely that anyone will be held responsible for removing the weeds.
Mobley admitted that the Division of Parks is now "hyper-aware of invasives." Nevertheless, despite a crystal-clear contract the Division of Parks has been unable to enforce its weed-free specifications, and weeds have surfaced in the wake of every recent park project.
If an agency cannot enforce its contract stipulations, then they shouldn't be in the contract. And if there is no certified source of weed-free compost or soil in Alaska, then a landscaping company shouldn't bid on a project that requires using it.
Rick Sinnott is a former Alaska Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist. Email, rickjsinnott@gmail.com.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, e-mail commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com