• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Subscribe
  • Donate

WyoFile

Indepth News about Wyoming People, Places & Policy. Wyoming news.

  • Latest News
    • Education
    • Energy
    • Legislature
    • Native America
    • Natural Resources
    • People
    • Photo Friday
    • Places
    • Policy
  • Voices
    • Drake’s Take
    • Madden’s Measure
    • Guest Column
    • Studio Wyoming Review
  • Supporters
    • Membership
    • Underwriting
    • Foundations
  • COVID-19
  • Latest News
    • Education
    • Energy
    • Legislature
    • Native America
    • Natural Resources
    • People
    • Photo Friday
    • Places
    • Policy
  • Voices
    • Drake’s Take
    • Madden’s Measure
    • Guest Column
    • Studio Wyoming Review
  • Supporters
    • Membership
    • Underwriting
    • Foundations
  • COVID-19

It may be High Noon for tumbleweed

May 24, 2011 by Emilene Ostlind 2 Comments

Tweet
Share
Pin
Email
0 Shares
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Conjure up the lonesome sound of a harmonica in a dusty Western town where gunmen with jingling spurs reach for their six-shooters athigh noon. The scene would be incomplete without a few tumbleweeds rolling 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.

Emiline Ostlind

Westerners know as well as anyone 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 they end up costing the American economy an estimated $34 billion per year.

Tumbleweeds cause a unique set of problems. When they break off from their roots and tumble, they pile up against buildings and fences, creating a fire hazard. The plants can also be tricky to deal with not only because they can be huge — some wouldn’t fit in a typical dumpster — but also because they’re covered with thorns that cause painful, weltering scratches. Once the weeds get established, even the most vigorous attempts to cut, poison, burn or dig them up rarely halt their spread.

But help is on the way – maybe. Dana Berner and Bill Bruckart, researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture research center in Maryland, are studying pathogens that offer promise for suppressing the invasive tumblers.

Bio-control, which usually involves introducing a natural predator, has been tried before using insects. In the 1970s, two species of moths that bore into tumbleweed stems were released, but they failed to thrive or suppress the weeds. Introducing infectious agents for bio-control is less common: Just three foreign pathogens have ever been released to fight invasive plants in the United States. Once again, their success was limited, but researchers have higher hopes for the tumbleweed pathogens.

Dried, dead stalks of Russian thistle form tumbleweeds, which clog irrigation ditches and create other nuisances across the West. (Ruffin Prevost/WyoFile — click to enlarge)

Thirteen years ago, Berner and Bruckart traveled to tumbleweed’s homelands in Greece, Turkey and Russia to search for diseases that evolved with the plants. They brought several blight-causing fungi back to their lab and over the years have been testing whether they risk infecting any of the more than 60 other species of plants that share habitat with tumbleweed on this continent. Two passed the tests: A rust that makes the plant’s leaves shrivel and drop off and another fungus —  known as CGS for its long scientific name — that causes cankers on tumbleweed stems. The researchers have determined the fungi are host-specific and pose no threat to other species. They also conducted field studies in thecountry of origin, comparing plots of healthy tumbleweed with infected plots. In one such study in Greece, CGS killed nearly 100 percent of tumbleweed in a plot over two years.

“We can predict safety quite well,” says Bruckart. “Efficacy is hard to predict, but we have high confidence in the safety of the organism.”

Their confidence is not necessarily shared by USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Despite the years of testing and evidence in favor of the release, federal regulators have been hesitant to authorize application of the pathogens unless they’re convinced the control is crucially needed. The researchers hope public dislike of tumbleweed will bolster their case and influence regulators to allow release of the pathogens.

If the pathogens are released, researchers expect them to spread from plant to plant on their own, saving the time and expense of applying pesticides to fight tumbleweed. The pathogen won’t wipe out tumbleweed all together, but should suppress its growth, making it less invasive.

Controlling the weed would “increase the productivity and utility of millions of acres in the western U.S.,” wrote USDA researcher Lincoln Smith in a 2008 paper. Berner adds, “The CGS would be a breakthrough, I’m convinced … a darn good pathogen to control tumbleweed.”

Controlling tumbleweed is one thing; controlling its admirers may prove harder. Some home décor enthusiasts coveting an old-time ambiance have been known to pay more than $80 to order driedtumbleweeds by mail. In its campaign to “Save the Great Western Tumbleweed,” one online company promises to protecttumbleweeds “for many generations to come. For every dollar donated, Curious Country Creations will spread seeds so thattumbleweeds can continue with the history of the West.”

So even if scientists get the go-ahead to begin the formidable task of controlling tumbleweed with pathogens, this pesky plant is bound to survive. Like guns, guts, cowboy hats and glory,tumbleweeds have rolled their way into our region’s mythology.

Emilene Ostlind is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News in Paonia, Colo., where she is the magazine’s editorial fellow.

This guest column was reprinted by permission from High Country News, and is not available for free republication by Wyoming news outlets.

 


Popular Articles:


Cheney’s ‘vote of conscience’ deserves respect


Lawmakers defied mask orders at session kick-off in Capitol


A modest proposal for solving Wyoming’s budget woes


Filed Under: Columns/Blog, Columns/Blogs, Featured

Emilene Ostlind

About Emilene Ostlind

Emilene Ostlind is communications coordinator for the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming, and edits Western Confluence magazine, a publication of the UW Ruckelshaus Institute.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Josh says

    May 25, 2011 at 5:51 pm

    Work has been going on for 3 or 4 years on identifying insects that will attack Russian olives. The research right now is focusing on insects that will attack the flowers and fruits to limit it’s spread.

      Reply
    • Bart Rea says

      May 24, 2011 at 11:12 am

      Emilene: Great article. Now, if we can just find a pathogen for Russian OLIVES!

        Reply

      Leave a Reply Cancel reply

      Want to join the discussion? Fantastic, here are the ground rules:
      - Identify yourself with full name and city. WyoFile stands behind everything we publish and expects commenters to do the same.
      - No personal attacks, profanity, discriminatory language or threats. Keep it clean, civil and on topic.

      Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

      Primary Sidebar

      • Email
      • Facebook
      • Instagram
      • Twitter

      Tweets by @WyoFile

      Search WyoFile

      Become an Underwriter
      Sign Up for Free Weekly Newsletters

      Recent Comments

      • Jim Hicks on Wyoming’s fiscal challenges aren’t unique, just our failed approach
      • Damon Jensen on Jobs on the line as lawmakers resume school funding debate
      • GARY TRAUNER on Wyoming’s fiscal challenges aren’t unique, just our failed approach
      • Britney Wallesch on It’s time to value and empower the women who run Wyo’s nonprofits
      • Jean Ferguson on Jobs on the line as lawmakers resume school funding debate

      Footer

      Recent Posts By Date

      January 2021
      M T W T F S S
       123
      45678910
      11121314151617
      18192021222324
      25262728293031
      « Dec    

      From The Archives

      • About Us
      • People
      • Careers
      • Freelancing
      • Underwriting
      • How to Republish
      • Subscribe
      • Contact Us

      Copyright © 2021 by WyoFile