<== Site of the Week for 2010-04-05 ==>

Missoula County Noxious Weed District

The Missoula County Noxious Weed District has information on the battle against invasive noxious weeds in Western Montana.

The term "invasive" refers to any non-native species. Europeans were notorious for importing their favorite European plants to the new world. Invasive species usually have no natural predators and often crowd out native species.

Some beneficial plants, like wheatgrass and mullein, can have negative impact when they get introduced to an area as the native species aren't adapted to the new species. One of the most famous invasives species is the dandelion, which was intentionally imported to the Americas for food.

Starlings were imported by lovers of Shakespeare who wanted the birds of Shakespearean verse in the new world.

The term noxious refers to weeds that have extreme adverse effects. Often it refers to plants that livestock can't digest such as the native Larkspur. Rabid environmentalists would see the western European livestock as the invasive species and not the native plant.

The discussion of invasives species is an interesting topic that take into effect both the location and sentiments of the people in the discussion.

The discussion is even more interesting on the internet where people will promote a plant as native ... but fail to realize that a plant is only native to the local region.

In otherwords, weed irradication is a highly localized topic. Gardeners do well to seek local buyers and sellers of plants and should research what is native to their ecosystem and which plants should be considered invasive.