Most days, Randy Rasa can be found somewhere along the 13 miles of the Lehigh Portland Trail system equipped with a hand saw and clippers.
A website developer by trade, Rasa has also become a tree surgeon and botany hobbyist in the six years he?s lived in Iola.
Under cloudy but balmy skies on Thursday afternoon, Rasa gave this reporter a glimpse of his work along the trails nestled in between Elm Creek and Elks Lake south of town.
For someone so mild-mannered, Rasa harbors a distinct distaste for the invasive trees, bushes and plants that have overwhelmed the area that years ago were open grasslands.
Rasa has a self-appointed goal of carving out oases of grasslands among the wooded acres.
He targets cedars and honeysuckle, poison ivy and trumpet vines.
?But the honeysuckle smells so good!? I say, to which he sighs, pointing out large twisted ropes of Japanese honeysuckle that are choking the life out of neighboring trees and plants. The forest is covered with green canopies of the aggressive vine.
Randy Rasa squirts some herbicide to prevent the honeysuckle from returning.
Methodically, Rasa clips the vine at its base and then sprays it with the herbicide Tordon.
?If you don?t apply the herbicide, then the honeysuckle will come back even stronger,? he said.
Shoots from a clump of Chinese privet also fall victim to Rasa?s sharp eyes as he pulls them by the root. The plant, once prized by Chinese martial artists for their suitability to convert into arrows and darts, is another example of an invasive plant overwhelming our forests.
Rasa is just grateful the dreaded kudzu has not made its way this far north.
