Dear Friends of Somenos
 
We had an amazing turnout Saturday June 14th at the first annual Yellow Flag Iris removal and eradication day at the Somenos Marsh Conservation Area - a total of 33 people in all!! Our best ever volunteer gathering!
 
With effort like that we can and will eradicate the Yellow Flag Iris from the Somenos Marsh Conservation Area.
 
I am encouraged in this regard by a scientific paper that Dave Polster forwarded me today wherein they state; "Pulling or cutting I. pseudacorus plants may provide adequate control, but only if it is repeated every year for several years to weaken and eventually kill the plant." (Mandy Tu, The Nature Conservancy’s Wildland Invasive Species Team)
 
So now the tally. I went out this evening with my son and we transferred and counted the stems from one bag to a new one. We took representative samples and found an average of 3 seed pods per stem. The total stems counted in the bag was 1,000. So now the math. 1000 stems X 3 pods per stem X 40 seeds per pod (from scientific paper) X 16 bags = 1,920,000. So lets allow for a little puffing up here and round it up to 2,000,000.
 
So congratulations to all the volunteers - through your efforts we prevented two million Yellow Flag Iris seeds from entering the Somenos Marsh Conservation Area!!!!  We had help from the Treffery Creek Streamkeepers & Young Naturalists, Alison's Crew, and SMWS and other Friends of Somenos.
 
But this has to be just a start; these rascals are prolific and will require constant vigilance and sustained efforts over a period of years.

And finally, a special thanks to Dave Polster who provided his expertise and labour, without which we would not have been able to successfully undertake this initiative.

Sincerely
 
Bob