To the editor:

It was fun to read about the recent Scotch broom parade with its quirky Island history.

There is more news related to Scotch broom on Bainbridge that deserves community celebration: Since January more than 500 volunteers have participated in Scotch broom removal work parties with Let’s Pull Together – an initiative of Sustainable Bainbridge focused on Scotch broom control. Work parties have taken place on school campuses, at parks, on farmland, at the ferry terminal and as a neighborhood broom debris haul.

Scotch broom is an aggressive invasive weed in Western Washington, where it can out-compete native plants to create impenetrable monocultures.

Many thanks to the volunteers from the Bainbridge Ometepe Sister Island Association, Bainbridge Island Rowing, Camp Siberia, Woodward Middle School eighth-grade science classes, the Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network and Boy Scout Troop 1564. These groups removed tens of thousands of square feet of Scotch broom in support of healthy island ecosystems.

Let’s Pull Together supports Islanders in controlling Scotch broom on Bainbridge. We can all do our part to gain control of this ubiquitous weed. Landowners can learn more at http://www.sustainablebainbridge.org/lets-pull-together.aspx.

The Scotch broom parade will really break big news when parade organizers have to travel off-island to find some Scotch broom to adorn their impromptu queen! Together we can actually make this happen.

BARB TRAFTON

Coordinator, Let’s Pull Together-Bainbridge Scotch Broom Control of Sustainable Bainbridge