Or, if not love, at least a moment of connection, said organizer Aurora Roth.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really want to frame success as you got to share with a stranger, and you felt listened to and heard by a stranger,\u201d she said. \u201cSuccess isn’t necessarily you meet the love of your life\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Emily](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789703291_251_.jpeg\"\/)
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James Daggett<\/p>\n
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Alaska Public Media<\/p>\n
Emily Becker with event organizer Aurora Roth. Becker says invasive species can spread quickly, displacing native species. That\u2019s a problem because it shrinks the natural food web, and ecosystems depend on diversity for survival, Becker says.<\/p>\n
Roth said she wanted to give people the opportunity to meet in real life because, as the event invite states, \u201cDating apps suck.\u201d And that\u2019s not just the vibe in Anchorage. Kathryn Coduto researches online dating at Boston University. She said data shows<\/a> that nationwide, fewer people are paying for dating app subscriptions, and people are spending less time on the apps overall.<\/p>\n \u201cI think some people feel like using dating apps as a humiliation ritual where you’re putting yourself out there over and over,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Coduto said there\u2019s also a nationwide trend toward in-person events like singles mixers and speed dating, but they\u2019re not always quite so creative as the plant pull.<\/p>\n At Tikishla Park, Roth was quick to tell the crowd that she didn\u2019t come up with the idea. She heard<\/a> about a similar get-together in Minnesota. Although she\u2019d never even been to a singles event before, the idea immediately appealed to her. It included so many things she loves: being outdoors, doing ecology work and connecting people..<\/p>\n \u201cWe all love our trails, we love this community,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is such a fun way to spend an hour. Also dating apps are terrible, so why not combine both of them?\u201d<\/p>\n The focus on invasive species serves as sort of a filter, helping bring like-minded people together, Roth said. And when you\u2019re trying to pull trees out of the ground together, you\u2019re going to learn about people, she said.<\/p>\n James Daggett<\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n Alaska Public Media<\/p>\n Josh Hernandez and Shayna Lotino work together to cut the roots off a sapling in Tikishla Park in Anchorage’s Airport Heights neighborhood on Sept. 14, 2026.<\/p>\n \u201cIt really brings out things that you can’t know about people in a sort of a standard date sense,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In some ways, dating apps are just like invasive species, Roth said. Seeds can transfer from one place to another in a globalized world, and then take over the local and native ecology and push out local plants.<\/p>\n \u201cThese dating app corporations have come in and are pushing out our ability and our muscles to connect with each other,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why, she told participants, they would have to do the hard work of making connections themselves. The event was not a matchmaking service, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you really enjoyed a conversation with somebody, you may have to ask them for their contact information,\u201d she said. \u201cI will not be doing that for any of you.\u201d<\/p>\n James Daggett<\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n Alaska Public Media<\/p>\n People fill bags with invasive chokecherry and bird cherry saplings in Tikishla Park. Organizers say 38 people attended the Sept. 14 event.<\/p>\n Nearly 40 people made their way down the hill into the brush, garbage bags, clippers and gardening gloves. They wore sensible shoes: sneakers, hiking boots and Xtratufs. They paired off, two or three to a group, struggling with the weed pullers.<\/p>\n Bridger Reed-Lewis said he was glad to be doing service work. He came to the event hoping it would attract other community-minded people, since that\u2019s what he\u2019s looking for.<\/p>\n \u201cSomeone who’s nerdy, someone who’s an activist \u2013 I’m wearing a free Palestine shirt myself,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd someone that really cares.\u201d<\/p>\n James Daggett<\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n Alaska Public Media<\/p>\n Bridger Reed-Lewis puts fills a garbage bag at in Tikishla Park on Sept. 14, 2026.<\/p>\n Ryan Choi lives in the neighborhood and jumped right in with the weed puller.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat it’s designed to do is to clamp down at the base of the large stem and to really have a lot of leverage to be able to yank the root system out of the ground,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Choi came to the event mostly to pull invasive species. He said he was only looking for friends.<\/p>\n Hayden Vahle was filling a garbage bag with saplings. He said every few months he\u2019ll download dating apps again. Then he deletes them. He\u2019s not getting great results. But he\u2019s also not used to having to ask someone for their contact.<\/p>\n \u201cI fill this bag and I get one phone number \u2013 that’s my goal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n If not, he said, at least he\u2019s outside, getting exercise.<\/p>\n Nearby, Genevieve Mina was wrestling with a weed wrench. (Yes, the Democratic state lawmaker who\u2019s running unopposed for reelection.) It\u2019s the first time she\u2019s participated in a singles event. And while she has been meaning to come to the invasive species pulls that the Anchorage Soil and Water Conservation District hosts in her neighborhood, this feels different, she said. It takes a lot to put yourself out there. At first she wasn\u2019t sure she wanted to go, but then some other single friends agreed to come with her.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I puffed myself up, I listened to some music,\u201d Mina said.<\/p>\n![\"Josh](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789703292_473_.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789703292_27_.jpeg\"\/)
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![\"Genevieve](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789703293_216_.jpeg\"\/)
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