It may be high noon for West's tumbleweed - The Denver Post: "Conjure up the lonesome sound of a harmonica in a dusty Western town where gunmen with jingling spurs reach for their six-shooters at high noon. A few tumbleweeds roll past. But here's the truth: Tumbleweed doesn't belong on the Western plains.
An exotic also known as Russian thistle, it was accidentally imported to the United States from Russia 140 years ago in a shipment of flax seeds. Tumbleweed has since spread across 100 million acres, mostly in the arid Western states, where it displaces crops and native plants, triggers allergies, spreads wildfire, dries out soil and smacks into vehicles when it blows across highways.
Westerners know the damage that invasive weeds can wreak on crops and rangeland. Exotic plants out- compete natives and commercial crops because they sprout earlier in the spring, spread quicker, thrive on wildfire and withstand drought — and end up costing the American economy some $34 billion per year."
No comments:
Post a Comment