All are invited to be part of the first annual community Weeds to Native Plants “Let’s Pull Together” day, on Saturday, April 16, in Mt. Shasta.

The event will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Mt. Shasta City Park with registration and breakfast snacks, thanks to Mt. Shasta Rotary. Volunteers will sign up, meet their station leaders, and head toward their weed patches at 9 a.m. Work will continue until 1 p.m., where everyone will reconvene at the park for lunch. Lucky individuals will receive prizes for their remarkable invasives, provided by Shasta Visions and Raven Tree.

“The response from the community has been immediate and fantastic,” said Mt. Shasta Area Audubon President Kerry Mauro. “The City of Mt. Shasta, Mt. Shasta Rotary, Mt. Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center, Mt. Shasta Chamber of Commerce, Gateway Neighborhood Association, Fire Safe Council, U.S. Forest Service, and Mt. Shasta Area Newspapers, have all stepped up to donate time, energy, and products to replace invasive weeds with native plants.”

The areas of concentration will include highly visible sections of the north and south entrances to the city of Mt. Shasta and the top of Washington Ave., a traditional meeting location of the Boys Scouts. For the safety of workers, lanes may be temporarily closed as they remove invasives such as Scotch broom and Dyer’s woad and replace them with native plant seeds.

All participants should be ready to get dirty and come prepared with gloves and tools such as shovels and weed removal forks. Hard working Extractigators and trucks will be used for larger, embedded plants.

“For years local schools have been addressing the weed situation in our community and this is a time for the general public to become involved. The problem is growing every day,” said Geoff Harkness, member of the Mt. Shasta City Council.

To sign up and receive more information, email invasiveweedsiskiyou@gmail.com or contact Rebeca Franco, director of the Weeds to Native Plants program at 530-605-9148.