Isolated
by Emily Johnson
The average commuter sees Jim McDonald’s workplace at 60 mph. Usually,
only people forced to the side of the road by vehicle trouble have time
for a better look. The medians, land trapped between I-5’s lanes,
are where McDonald works.
South of Bellingham, in a median near Lake Samish, McDonald, regional
maintenance superintendent for the Washington State Department of Transportation,
turns on his flashing yellow light and pulls his WSDOT vehicle into an
area known as the Barnes Creek turnaround. Wearing his bright orange safety
vest, he steps out into a small clearing of mowed grass.
The plants and animals in the median live in a human controlled environment
between the concrete and unending traffic. I-5’s construction isolated
the median from surrounding habitat. WSDOT manages everything in the medians
to keep roads safe and minimize impact on nearby environments.
McDonald said plants help stabilize slopes and filter and retain stormwater. WSDOT prefers to have certain native plants in medians. Those plants help WSDOT meet their goal of having self-sustaining, low-maintenance vegetation. Native plants are easier to manage than nonnative plants because they don’t spread out of control.
WSDOT prefers native plants, said Sandy Stephens, WSDOT operations and maintenance water quality policy manager, but not all native plants are suitable because of safety concerns.
"Alders are a very dangerous tree because when they get to a certain size they have a tendency of freezing and cracking," Stephens said, "and they will fall onto the highway system and can present a safety hazard to the traveling public."
Stephens said more desirable plants are smaller and low-growing.
"Salal is an excellent [example]," said Vikki Jackson, former president of the local chapter of the Washington Native Plant Society. "They don’t get to a very large size but they provide a lot of shading."
McDonald said WSDOT tries to minimize impacts on neighboring habitats and the animals that live there. At the same time, they try to discourage animals from using the medians.
"We don’t encourage deer to use the right of way but there’s not much of a good way to prevent that," McDonald said.
Anytime wildlife lives near the freeway, the animals will find their way into the right of ways sometimes, he said.
Keeping the visual corridor clear by mowing roadside vegetation is important so people and animals can see each other, McDonald said.
Red-tailed hawks are one species that has adjusted to I-5, Jackson said.
"Red-tailed hawks have found a particular niche and have flourished along the I-5 corridor feeding on the voles that live in the grasses on the side of the road," she said.
Stephens said WSDOT also controls aquatic habitats. Green reflective posts mark areas along the freeway that hired wetland biologists identified as important for fish habitats. These "fish stakes," as McDonald calls them, are posted along the freeway as part of WSDOT’s sensitive area identification program.
"(The posts) provide guidance to our maintenance crews so that they know when to apply (practices) that will eliminate and reduce impacts on streams and wetlands and water bodies," Stephens said.
Another important part of vegetation management, McDonald said, is preventing infestations of noxious weeds.
Any plant dangerous to people, animals or native plants is considered a noxious weed, said Ray Fann, 26-year member of the Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board and 1980 founder of the Whatcom County NWCB.
Fann became interested in weeds after discovering that a noxious weed called tansy ragwort had been killing his cows.
The plant with a yellow, daisy-like flower contains toxins that can shut down a horse’s or cow’s liver the same way alcohol affects a human’s liver, Fann said.
"I would say 90 percent of weed problems begin on highway right of ways," Fann said.
A common way for weeds to be spread is the transportation of agricultural materials like hay, said Laurel Shiner, Whatcom County Noxious Weed Board coordinator since 1989. Materials, including seeds, might blow off of trucks.
Another common way for weeds to spread is by getting picked up on vehicle undercarriages or on radiator grills, as well as seeds getting blown up and down the I-5 corridor from car movement.
"Weeds don’t move from place to place by themselves," Shiner said, "people move weeds, whether they know they’re doing it or not."
Knapweed, a green-grey, thistle-like plant with pink or lavender flowers, is a common weed along I-5, Shiner said.
"Knapweed is probably one of our most notorious hitchhikers," she said. "They’re a high priority along the I-5 corridor. Some of the knapweeds grow at the approximate height of most radiator grills. I think it’s some sort of weird evolution thing."
According to Washington state law, it’s the responsibility of the landowner to control noxious weeds. The law also gives local weed boards the authority to enforce weed control.
"Anybody that owns property in this county and has a noxious weed on it is destined to hear from us, whether they want to or not," Shiner said.
Shiner said the local weed board works closely with the WSDOT.
"About once a year someone from the local (weed) board comes to
help us with weed identification," McDonald said.
"They tell us about new laws, new regulations."
McDonald said WSDOT primarily uses two methods to control weeds: mechanical, involving cutting and mowing, and chemical, mainly the spraying of herbicides.
Shiner said herbicides are usually the last option considered for controlling weed populations.
"Herbicides can be a very useful tool when they’re used well," Shiner said. "If you’re going to do vegetation management you have to look at the target plant. You have to learn all its idiosyncrasies before you can really approach it well.
Herbicides can certainly be a useful part of that. They are not the only tool, though."
Shiner said many times in travel corridors, herbicides could be the best option.
"(In travel corridors) it’s economically wise to use herbicides on the right target plants at the right time of the year, so you’re not using too much and that you’re doing what you’re out there to do, and not wasting time," she said.
McDonald said the maintenance crew is trained and certified to apply herbicides using the proper methods.
For McDonald and his maintenance crew, managing vegetation is a big issue, but he said it’s interesting work. Working in the medians provides him with a close-up view on an area looked at every day but rarely noticed.
After finishing his tour of the Barnes Creek turnaround, McDonald pulls carefully back in to the rush of semi trucks and commuters. Without missing a beat, his eyes are again surveying the roadside for anything amiss in the medians.
vehicle division for Whatcom County. His crew of seven troopers is trained to recognize and control excess, whether it’s excess of weight, speed or hours worked. McCoy’s team is not restricted to probable cause and can pull over any commercial vehicle.
"My guys … can pull over a truck for the sole purpose of doing an inspection," McCoy said.
On a typical day, State Patrol Trooper Alice Collins said she contacts eight or nine truck drivers for moving violations, hours-of-service or weight violations, and oversize-load checks. Her patrol area extends throughout Whatcom, Skagit and northern Snohomish counties.
Oct. 24 was a slower-than-typical day, she said. Between 1:58 p.m. and
3:43 p.m., Collins made only three stops.
After waiting for five minutes at her preferred "fishing hole"
just south of Exit 252, Collins clocked a 5-axle, 80,000-pound semi speeding
down the hill.
"OK, we got one at 70," she said, hurriedly slamming the door of her Ford Explorer and starting the ignition. "He’s gonna get a ticket for that."
Collins wrote the trucker a $91 ticket.
"This guy was very polite," she said. "You get the ones
who yell at you. About one out of 10 give you a bad time."
After about 20 minutes, Collins’ CB radio crackled to life: Her fishing
hole had been detected.
"Hey, you got a full mountie getting ready to get on the freeway
here," a trucker said through the CB radio.
Apparently, not enough radios were set to that CB channel — Collins
pulled a second truck over at 2:21 p.m. for going 68 mph in a 60-mph zone.
Collins cautiously emerged onto the freeway as cars whizzed past her state patrol SUV, which is filled with weighing instruments, a laptop and even a printer.
After a five-minute conversation with the speedy driver, Collins decided not to issue him a citation since he was not going more than 10 mph faster than the speed limit.
Collins made her last stop of the day at 3:43 p.m. A dump truck hauling dirt caught her attention.
"I just want to check and make sure he’s not overweight," she said.
The truck actually was 600 pounds overweight, not enough to warrant a ticket, Collins decided.
Regulations on trucks’ weight exist to protect road surfaces, Collins said.
Even though the thousands of trucks traveling I-5 cause damage to the road, they are there to meet consumer demands, Geiger said.
"Without us, the country don’t move," he said. "Whatever you eat, wear — even your house — at some point, a trucker hauled it."
Geiger said he hauls "everything from tires to bananas." If consumers realized how dependent they are on the trucking industry, maybe they could curb their road rage against trucks, he said.
He said he doesn’t mind all the rules and regulations — what
irks him the most, he said, is lack of freeway courtesy.
"Just use your damn blinker," he said.
