SPOTLITE ON……Hugo Landecker

From November to May, Hugo Landecker works one-hour-a-day, seven days a week, pulling up the French broom weed that continually invades his Gerstle Park neighborhood. A shallow-rooted plant whose seeds can live in the ground for thirty to fifty years, Hugo has destroyed French broom reaching thirty feet high and five feet across, quite an obstruction in the open space around his home.

With some help from his neighborhood association and volunteers doing community service projects, Hugo and his helpers have been able to clear enough open space of French broom to now provide new paths for walkers, joggers, bicyclists and dog walkers in Gerstle Park.  But it requires constant maintenance.  Using only his hands and never a pesticide, Hugo compares his volunteer work to a daily exercise regime. Starting at his home on top of the hill, he doggedly pulls up the invasive weed for one hour each day until he works up a sweat and can look back up the hill at his accomplishments.

And because of Hugo Landecker and his passion to rid his neighborhood of French broom, another San Rafael neighborhood has benefited from a devoted and hardworking volunteer.