A plant does not care where one piece of land ends and another begins. That is the problem facing conservation crews across Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. Japanese knotweed has spread along riverbanks in and around Olympic National Park, crowding out native vegetation. Now several groups are working together to keep the invasive plant from damaging important salmon habitat.
The effort brings the National Park Service, the Quileute Tribe and Clallam County together. Their partnership has continued for more than a decade across boundaries that mean little to a spreading plant. The goal is straightforward, though the work is not. They want to remove knotweed while protecting waterways used by coho salmon.
