Pulling Together for the Meadow

An urgent effort to stop Spotted Knapweed, and a BIG THANK YOU to the neighbors who showed up.

The meadow can't pull these weeds by itself. It needs its Stewards.

Thank you to today’s Stewards of the Valley, who helped eradicate the noxious Spotted Knapweed from our meadow!

Ed, Haley and Willa

Ed Heneveld spearheads this annual effort, and his daughter, Haley Dow, son-in-law, David Dow, and their daughter, Willa (3 generations!) came to help, along with Susan Lisagor, Ann, Louanne Parker, and others who joined us this morning to pull Spotted Knapweed from our Olympic Valley meadow. Every pair of hands makes a meaningful difference.

In The Weeds

Spotted Knapweed is a California A-rated noxious weed that can crowd out native plants, degrade precious meadow habitat and spread rapidly if we don’t act now. The infestation in our meadow is serious. Removing these plants before they spread their seeds is both critically important and increasingly urgent.

Today was real stewardship in action: neighbors of all ages working alongside neighbors pulling together to protect a place we all love.

But our work is far from finished.

Our next Noxious Weed Eradication Day will be:

Wednesday, August 19th / 9am

Starting again at the far east end of the Palisades Tahoe parking lot

1623 Olympic Valley Road

The Placer County Agriculture Department will provide plant-identification training, shovels, gloves and snacks. 

Why This Matters

Hand-pulling now can help reduce the infestation, and reduce the need for chemical treatments later. 

Please join us, even if you can only give an hour. Your help makes a difference.

To sign up for the Aug 19th pull, please call the Placer County Agricultural Department at (530) 889-7332.

Spread the word with the same enthusiasm as the Spotted Knapweed invades our meadow!

All photographs by Michael Kennedy (unless otherwise noted) / BlueWolfGallery.com

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I’m Michael Kennedy, a resident of Olympic Valley, CA (in photo above). I’m a photojournalist and I love it here. Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. Please share with a friend.