After a multi-decade struggle by volunteers and city officials, knotweed has reared its head at Gee Creek once again in 2026.
"In 2009, Gee Creek was choked with Japanese knotweed from Pioneer Street to North Main Avenue. Most of the removal was a volunteer effort," Paul Snoey, an 80-year-old veteran volunteer at Ridgefield's Abrams Park, wrote in an email to The Reflector.
Japanese knotweed can be recognized by its hollow, purple-tinged stems and late summer sprays of white-green flowers.
Because it spreads via fragmentation, knotweed must be injected or sprayed with herbicide in order to kill the root system.
Once the plant is fully dead and brittle, it can be removed. This is the method Snoey and other volunteers used to treat knotweed from 2009 until 2016.
In 2016, things changed for the volunteers, many of whom tended the land for years.
"The city wanted us to have an applicator's license … So we worked with somebody else from the Watershed Alliance and somebody from Fish and Wildlife, under their auspices to spray," said Tevis Laspa, a longtime Gee Creek volunteer.
Laspa said the arrangement continued until the city of Ridgefield began exclusively allowing city contractors to work on the land.
Now, knotweed grows within dense thickets of overgrown blackberry, complicating its removal.
The 2025 shuttering of the Watershed Alliance has been a blow to Ridgefield's management of the Gee Creek banks, according to Ridgefield Public Works Director Ryan Thambert.
But the city hasn't given up on the knotweed invasion.
"Ridgefield Public Works has put together (a request for proposals) for knotweed management," Thambert wrote in an email. "We will have a contract in place and a contractor on board within the next month. Once the contractor is selected, work will begin to control the weeds along the creek over the next 12 months and beyond. We do recognize that it is late in the 2026 season, and we are committed to doing more next year …The city of Ridgefield shares Mr. Snoey’s goal of a healthy creek that is weed-free and lined by native plants and trees. We are grateful for the many hours and many years’ worth of work that volunteers, such as Paul Snoey, have put into the management of Gee Creek."
After the 2009 knotweed removal, "Hundreds of trees were planted," Snoey wrote. "Some of the cottonwoods planted in 2010 and later are nearly 100 feet tall and are keeping Gee Creek cool and shaded."
Today, many of the trees and shrubs planted in 2023 also remain, and native flora such as distinctive horsetail ferns grow abundantly in the park.
Snoey is a lifelong nature lover.
He has known since 2002 that he planned to care for the creek during his retirement.
"I've always been fond of Gee Creek … and I take a lot of pleasure in what I've done, knowing I've made a difference," he said. "Even doing physical labor, I find it to be a joyful experience."
