Many times a major part of any eco-logical restoration project is the elimination of the invasive exotic species that are on the site to start with.  Many years of poor land management has caused what were once fertile prairies to be degraded into fields of exotic weeds.  One piece of property that we have been working on has a particularly nasty invasive thistle ( Silybum marianum ) growing in a patch that is about thirty acres.

We have been working over the past couple of years to get rid of this pesky invader from the Mediterranean.   So far we have been able to reduce the infestation to about four acres, which is a vast improvement over the thirty acres that were originally taken over.  We’ve been monitoring the site to make sure that we are able to go in at the proper time to increase the effectiveness of our control measures.  

So far, we have used several different techniques in battling this particular weed and are starting to see very good results from the actions that we have taken so far.  I will probably take at least two more years to completely eradicate this weed from the area and there is always a the threat of it returning if there is any major soil disturbance, which will expose more seeds from the seed bank of thistle that is in the soil.

Hopefully, that won’t be the case.  It is amazing to me that any one would let an invasive plant like that even get going on their property.  The problem started there with probably one or two plants that cropped up in the cattle pen, which is now no longer in use.  From its genesis in a cow turd this weed spread down the hill from the pen to cover up the field below.  One or two quick chops of a hoe in the beginning would have saved years of work and expense.  

The really scary thing is that this invasive plant is sometime used as a herbal medicine so any old idiot can buy seeds on-line and create their own ecological disaster, if they aren’t careful about what they are doing.