Date:  Thursday, March 27, 2008

Contact: Raymond Willard, WSDOT Landscape Architect, (360) 705-7865
             Emily Pace, WSDOT Communications, (360) 357-2716

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND – Crews will be spot-spraying an herbicide along State Route 305 to control noxious weeds next week, March 31 – April 3.

WSDOT maintenance workers will apply herbicide to young plants growing adjacent to the edge of pavement. Applications will be made from a hand-held nozzle from the cab of a spray truck, targeted directly down onto the weeds. The noxious weeds targeted are tansy ragwort and poison hemlock, two species state and county law requires be controlled.

As part of the resurfacing of SR 305 in the summer of 2006, the highway shoulders were refinished with a mixture of compost and rock and seeded with low-growing grass to minimize the need for mowing and/or spraying with herbicides.

Next week’s herbicide application on Bainbridge Island is the second treatment since the resurfacing and the only one scheduled this year. Any surviving weeds will be pulled by hand later in the spring and summer.

WSDOT uses herbicide only when absolutely necessary and in the least toxic formulations available. Crews will use the chemical metsulfuron-methyl diluted with water, only 1 to 2 ounces of the herbicide will be applied over the 14 miles of shoulder on the island. The mixture is practically non-toxic to humans, fish and animals.

This work is weather dependent.

For more information about WSDOT’s vegetation management programs, visit www.wsdot.wa.gov/maintenance/vegetation/.

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