Sometimes good things

Sometimes life is like removing Spanish Broom,.

Spanish Broom (Sparteum junceum) is an invasive plant that poses serious threat to ecosystem health--it's toxic (nothing eats it and it crowds out good forage for birds and animals), it's flammable (old growth is dry and thatchy, and it grows like crazy), and although it has pretty flowers for a month or so, it makes 10,000 seeds that are almost all viable for 80 years. It also has deep, woody roots that are a pain to dig out, but have to be dug up--otherwise it resprouts. To the un-knowing, they may look pretty and like a good thing, but to the trained eye they spell disaster.

So, we dig them up, wreaking no small havoc to do so. Sometimes the landscape looks worse the day after we dig up the broom plants: small craters, dislodged boulders, and we're pretty filthy too. A short time later though, the damage is erased.: the plants that belong there have begun to re-establish a healthy community, covering the areas left bare by broom removal. The colors, textures, and variety that belongs there is back. The landscape is the way it should have been.