Editor,

On Saturday, April 18, Whidbey Environmental Action Network and Island County Noxious Weed Board held a Scot’s broom pulling event at Double Bluff beach. We thank the Whidbey Island Garden Tour for the grant which provided the weed wrenching tools.

A fair amount of broom was pulled, but there’s a lot more to go. The largest plant was attacked with a chain saw because there was no way a weed wrench could have gotten it. The stem had a diameter of about 4 inches and we counted 14 rings. This was a very well established plant. We took home a round as evidence.

We also spoke with a great many beach visitors who asked questions about the tools and why we cared about Scot’s broom. There were many animated and informative discussions.

WEAN would like to thank all those who participated, and we hope next time to make a bigger event of it. We have three different brands of weed wrenches in several sizes. People are invited to compare the pros and cons of each in different situations. Even kids can get in on this, and it’s great fun for them to be able to leverage their strength with weed wrenching tools.

If anybody would like to remove broom from their own property, we’re happy to rent out the tools. Please contact us at wean@whidbey.net. The idea is to help people remove broom while saving up the minimal rental fees to buy more tools to rent to more people to eventually sweep broom off the island.

MARIANNE EDAIN

WEAN