BELFAIR, Wash. -- Strong noxious weed on the banks of the Union River are threatening the local salmon run.

To take care of the problem the state has unleashed an unusual attack force -- offenders from the women's corrections center.

The women from the Mission Creek Corrections Center will tell you it's a jungle out there, and quite literally.

They're eradicating the tough knotweed that are choking the riverbanks and ruining the natural habitat for the summer chum making their way upstream.

To combat the tenacious growth, prisoners are injecting hundreds of hollow weed stalks with poison.

"Within like two, three weeks it'll be dead. So we'll be able to uproot it and take it out of here," said inmate Ryan Ludemann.

In past years, Ludemann was assigned to the wildfire crew in Eastern Washington, but the state Department of Natural Resources eliminated the women's team this year as a result of budget cuts.

Ludemann said battling weed is a good alternative to battling fires as she waits out her last five months of incarceration for possession of stolen property.

"Because you feel like you're actually out in the community putting back," she said. "So gets (you) out of the institution."

"To get away from the institution, learning different stuff so when I get out I can take good working skills or something," said Liza Victoria.

The 18 women taking part in the project are earning $1 per each hour worked. In addition to the experience gained, the inmates also get a professional certificate for pesticide and herbicide application.