Over the Memorial Day weekend, I was surprised and pleased to see lots of folks working on our shoreline. They turned out to be volunteers from Marin Audubon Society removing an invasive plant from our environment.
The pesky intruder is Algerian sea lavender, which can set thousands of seeds and displace indigenous plants (such as our own native sea lavender). Every May, volunteers turn out to cull the invasive plants, which can lower soil salinity if left unattended.
The leader of this intrepid team is the very aptly named Jude Stalker. She and her volunteers also picked up lots of flotsam and other trash that had drifted ashore.
Anyone interested in helping with this annual activity can contact Jude. She says, “We’re always happy to have more volunteers.”