Dana Coggon stabs an injection gun’s barrel into the stalk of a knotweed, pulls the trigger and gives the invasive plant a dose of blue-hued poison.

“Knotweed is a cancer on our land,” said the Kitsap County noxious weed coordinator. “Unfortunately, sometimes you have to use a little chemotherapy to get rid of cancer.”

Pulling at knotweed is futile. Hacking at it makes it worse. Mowing it spreads its growth, and digging at its roots, Coggon said, “just makes it angry.”

The aggressive Asian import has swallowed up parklands, roadsides and crept onto stream banks, where native plants and even salmon are crowded out.

The county Noxious Weed Control Board and the Kitsap Conservation District are upping the ante in their fight against knotweed with an expanded chemical spray program targeting swaths of knotweed on Bainbridge Island.

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The Bainbridge Island Police Department’s first ever deputy chief will retire a year earlier than anticipated so he and his family can move to the east side of the state.

Deputy Chief Mark Duncan will end his 30-year career in law enforcement on Tuesday when he takes a nearly two-month leave of absence before his official retirement in late November.

“We plan to move east of the mountains, and that isn’t an easy commute in the winter time,” Duncan said. “I’m retiring because we’re moving out of the area, and so I’m (leaving) a year before I normally would.”

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