WSDA Blog

Date: Thursday, May 30, 2024

Author: Karla Salp

Tracy Shirek honored for nearly 30 years with Spongy Moth Program

A little rain and wind could not stop the WSDA Pest Program from holding its “Golden Trap Ceremony” this week to celebrate 50 years of keeping Washington free of spongy moths and to honor the work that hundreds of people have contributed to the program over the last half century. Of course, when you are trying to squeeze the ceremony in during spongy moth eradication and before trapping for the season starts, options for rescheduling are very limited. The program, TVW, and several other supporters braved the weather to celebrate the occasion.

 

Agency leadership honors Pest Program

Gathered under a large maple tree on the Capital grounds, Sven Spichiger, WSDA Pest Program Manager, welcomed those in attendance, recounting his memories of first encountering spongy moth in Pennsylvania in the 1990s. He recalled driving down the road when suddenly, all the green was gone — he later figured out — due to a spongy moth outbreak. 

Jason Ferrante, Interim Deputy Director, was the keynote speaker. He emphasized the federal, state, and local partnerships that make this important work possible. Ferrante also described in detail the hard work that the Pest Program does to keep spongy moth from establishing in the state and even gave a pop quiz about the history of spongy moth in Washington, awarding prizes to those who knew the correct answers.



Seasonal staff are golden

The highlight of the event came when Spongy Moth Program supervisor Tracy Shirek was honored for her longtime dedication to the Pest Program and hung the golden trap to commemorate WSDA’s fiftieth year of keeping spongy moth at bay.

Shirek has worked as a seasonal employee at WSDA for a remarkable 30 years. She joins the staff each spring and leaves each fall, helping every year to impart her extensive wisdom about controlling spongy moth to new generations of trappers and supervisors. As Ferrante began to speak about Tracy and the work she has done for the agency for the past three decades, the expression on Tracy’s face made it clear just how much her work here at WSDA has meant to her.

Seasonal staff are critical to our success here at WSDA. Without them, much of the work we are responsible for simply wouldn’t be possible to accomplish. Like Tracy Shirek, our seasonal staff are dedicated to the work — work that in Shirek’s own words “has a purpose.”

All Washingtonians benefit from the Pest Program’s spongy moth work. Because of their unflagging dedication, we get to continue to enjoy our forests, parks, and trees that make Washington “The Evergreen State.”

If you were unable to attend the Golden Trap Ceremony, we invite you to take a few minutes to watch the TVW recording.