Invasive yellow star thistle nearly impossible to kill
More than 15 million acres of California rangeland are infested
with a spiny weed that arrived from Eurasia not long after the
’49ers did more than 150 years ago.
Invasive yellow star thistle nearly impossible to kill
More than 15 million acres of California rangeland are infested with a spiny weed that arrived from Eurasia not long after the ’49ers did more than 150 years ago.
San Benito County is now home to sweeping stands of yellow star thistle. The plant is thought to have been introduced in cattle feed. While young plants make suitable forage, once the weed produces its thorny yellow flowers, it is inedible to livestock.
Control is difficult, in part because plants produce prodigious crops of seed that germinates over a period of several years.
The federal Bureau of Land Management is preparing to conduct a controlled burn on public lands it manages in southernmost San Benito County as part of an annual program intended to control the weed.
BLM staff members plan to conduct the burn during the week of June 13 on approximately 30 acres in the Clear Creek Management Area.
Clear Creek is a remote wilderness characterized by barren serpentine slopes and scattered trees. It is popular with off-road vehicle users, hunters, rock hounds and people drawn to one of the most remote wildernesses available to the public.
According to BLM, yellow star thistle was first found near Clear Creek some 16 years ago, and since then has increased in density, displacing native plants and animals.
Clear Creek’s nutrient poor serpentine soils are host to a unique plant population, including the San Benito evening primrose, a wildflower found nowhere else in the world. It is classified as “threatened” by the federal government.
Further information on the prescribed burn is available through BLM fire mitigation specialist Mike Chiodini at 630-5029.
