This edition of The LIRA Times tallies volunteer removal of invasive Algerian sea lavender (Limonium ramosissimum, a.k.a. LIRA) from several sites along the East Bay shoreline for calendar year 2023 and the first six months of 2024. This update also includes counts for a new site alongside East and West Stege marshes on either side of the Bay Trail, where we started working in the second half of 2023. We started all of this work as an alternative to proposed herbicide use in a sensitive area along the Albany-Richmond bayshore.
Our updated tally reflects the removal of 887,645 LIRA plants from eight sites along Richmond shorelines since August 2019. We’re beginning to realize that we may not reach one million plants removed—with 887,645 removed, we are running out of LIRA!
At each of the first six sites, we’re observing an increase in the population of native California sea lavender (Limonium californicum). We’ve also seen a considerable expansion of other native marsh plants, including pickleweed (Salicornia pacifica), alkali heath (Frankenia salina), marsh jaumea (Jaumea carnosa), salt grass (Distichlis spicata), sticky sand spurry (Spergularia macrotheca), and coastal gumweed (Grindelia stricta). The new and successful carpeting of these sites, in particular Marina Bay and the Riprap Jetty, by native low-growing brackish-marsh plants makes it more difficult to spot young LIRA. We time a minimum of one work party at each of these sites to match the initial blooming of LIRA, which flowers earlier than California sea lavender and blooms in an attention-getting bright purple.
without competition from LIRA. Photo ©Tom Kelly.
We’d like to extend our sincere thanks to Janet Gawthrop, who examined and identified two additional California native plants at our sites. One is goose tongue or seaside plantain (Plantago maritima), and the other is seascale (Atriplex leucophylla).
Right: Native seascale (Atriplex leucophylla). Photo ©Jane Kelly.
While LIRA counts are declining, trash counts are not. Since our last report in July 2023, volunteers collected another 112 large garbage bags full of trash, bringing the trash bag total since August 2019 to 626. We’ve also continued to remove mattresses, tires, plastic pipes, metal contraptions, and with special thanks to volunteer Rob Kirby, a lot of wood construction debris.
During the period August 2019 through June 2024, volunteers pulled out a grand total of 1,057 garbage bags of Russian thistle (Salsola soda). This invasive plant is also getting harder to find, and we can see how its previous terrain is being taken over by growing numbers of California native marsh plants.
In the second half of 2023 and the first half of 2024, we encountered many butterflies, moths, chrysalids, dragonflies, other insects, and even two snakes. In October 2023 we spotted a Pacific gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer) at the edge of Hoffman Marsh, and in June 2024 we came across a garter snake (genus Thamnophis) in the pickleweed at the stretch of East Stege Marsh alongside the Bay Trail. We also observed four Canada geese (Branta canadensis) nesting at the Riprap Jetty and one mother goose nesting on an elevated area of West Stege Marsh. We avoid working in those areas until the goslings are fledged and on their way.
Photo ©Jane Kelly.
Will we ever see an end to LIRA in these sites? Probably not. We’ll always miss a few, and it seems likely that seeds of all kinds float on the Bay and marsh, so there’s always the possibility of re-infestation if we stop scanning for the plants. What it does tell us, however, is that applying pesticides once or twice to combat non-native plant invaders is pointless. What is required to “control” invasive plants is consistent follow-up to remove new plants. Over time, native plants fill in the spaces in soil that has not been treated with herbicides, reducing the space for invasives. We rarely find LIRA or Russian thistle in dense native plant communities, but we do see them thrive in areas where few other plants exist. And, of course, an additional benefit of not using pesticides in these marsh areas is that the wildlife face one less threat to their already perilous existence.
—Jane and Tom Kelly, Greens at Work
August 2024
