<HTML><HEAD><META charset=US-ASCII http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"></HEAD>
<BODY style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">
<DIV>M<IMG SRC="cid:X.MA1.1084537129@aol.com" height=320 width=480 border=0 ID="MA1.1084537129" DATASIZE="132342"> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><IMG SRC="cid:X.MA2.1084537129@aol.com" height=320 width=480 border=0 ID="MA2.1084537129" DATASIZE="136693"> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><IMG SRC="cid:X.MA3.1084537129@aol.com" height=320 width=480 border=0 ID="MA3.1084537129" DATASIZE="107171"> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The above photos were taken at Crummies Creek Tree Farm in Calhoun County West Virginia in early May 2004. The first two photos are of Japanese stiltgrass seedlings from seed produced during the 2003 season that are growing onto a rotted log. The plants can be seen on the log and the brown strands are the remains of last years' plants.....this is the very beginning of an invasion deep in the woods.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The photo with the dime was taken 5 days after the stiltgrass emerged. The stiltgrass area in the dime photo was infested for the first time in 2003....In mid winter 2004, a grass fire went through the area when the thatch from 2003 was burned....this pring, in this burned area, there was an average germination of 125 Microstegium plants per square inch.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Try to grow ginseng, Goldenseal or even trees in the face of such an invasion!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>This invasion of central WV by Japanese stiltgrass is out of control and has yet to be "officially" identified as a major threat to West Virginia's forests and will likely manifest itself and become evident on several hundred thousand acres of woodland in the 2004 growing season.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Russ Richardson </DIV></BODY></HTML>