Chris Fife and Walt Harrison hold brush loppers and a bottle of liquid herbicide. Behind them, Mount St. Helens rises as the most prominent landmark in the background, glowing white-capped in the mid-June sun. They have shown up along with nearly 15 other volunteers to help the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) battle invasive Scotch broom on the Mount St. Helens Wildlife Area near Toutle, Wash. Removing Scotch broom helps improve habitat for the 500 elk that winter on the wildlife area by making room for native plants that create better forage.

The combined volunteer power from RMEF and WDFW’s volunteer program works in pairs. One person cuts, and the other, wearing protective gloves, daubs herbicide to knock back the weeds and keep them from returning. The project spans several acres of small rolling hills on the mudflow that resulted from the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption.

The two-day annual project has been going on for more than 10 years, put together by WDFW and coordinated by powerhouse RMEF volunteer couple Rodger and Ramona Wallace, who also cook and organize potluck dinners for the volunteers.

“Mona and I first got started with the U.S. Forest Service on the Mount St. Helens Monument and then made the connection with the WDFW, and it just blossomed and grew from there,” says Rodger.

Fife and Harrison both chose to join this project because they enjoy meeting good people, giving back and seeing the results of their efforts.

“This gets me out of the house away from the electronic leash,” says Harrison. “There’s fresh air and good friends. And year after year you come back through here and you can see … the Scotch broom is gone … and that’s helping everybody.”

The volunteers worked with Zach Breitenstein, Mason Rozgowski and Aaron Schomus, WDFW staff for the wildlife area, and Cowlitz County and Lewis County weed district personnel to remove the weeds. They also tackled a bonus project, forming an assembly line to roll out metal woven wire and create cages to place around tiny saplings, which will deter browsing until they become more mature.

Schomus, WDFW natural resource technician, says that the volunteers help immensely to amplify the amount of work the staff can get done.

“Having this good group of guys and girls out here helping us makes a lot of improvement on the wildlife area, and we can keep down these noxious weeds.”