Invasive Plant Focus: Russian-Thistle, Salsola tragus

Photo: Forest & Kim Starr, Starr Environmental, Bugwood.org

Photo: Mary Ellen (Mel) Harte, Bugwood.org

Russian thistle, Salsola tragus, also known as tumbleweed, is in the goosefoot family (Chenopodiaceae). Its scientific name is Salsola tragus, but it also has been known as Salsola iberica, Salsola kali, and Salsola australis. It is a summer annual native to southeastern Russia and western Siberia and was first introduced into the United States in 1873 by Russian immigrants as a contaminant in flax seed in South Dakota. After its introduction, it spread by contaminated seed, threshing crews, railroad cars (especially livestock cars), and by its windblown pattern of seed dissemination. In 1895 Russian thistle moved to the Pacific Coast in contaminated railroad cars that transported cattle to Lancaster in California’s Antelope Valley. Today it is common throughout the western United States—having invaded about 100 million acres. It is particularly well adapted to California’s climate of winter rainfall and summer drought.

Russian thistle is primarily a weed in sites where the soil has been disturbed, such as along highways and fencelines. It is also prevalent in vacant lots and other noncrop areas, in field and vegetable crops, and in poorly tended landscapes. It is rarely a problem in well-managed gardens or turfgrass.

Russian thistle is a bushy summer annual with numerous slender ascending stems that become quite woody at maturity. Stems vary from 8 to 36 inches in length and usually have reddish to purplish stripes. Seedlings have very finely dissected leaves that almost look like pine needles. Leaves of young plants are fleshy, dark green, narrow, and about 1 inch in length. Young plants are suitable for livestock forage and are sometimes grazed. As the plant matures in July through October, the older leaves become short and stiff with a sharp-pointed tip. The single, inconspicuous flowers lack petals and are borne above a pair of small spine-tipped bracts (a small modified leaf at the base of the flower) in most leaf axils (where the narrow leaves meet the stem). The bracts and spiny leaves prevent predation by herbivores as the plant nears maturity. The overall shape of the plant becomes oval to round and at maturity can attain a diameter of 18 inches to 6 feet or more under favorable soil moisture and fertility conditions. After the plant dries, the base of the stem becomes brittle and breaks off at soil level in fall and early winter. These round, spiny plants are capable of dispersing seed for miles as they tumble along in the wind. This dispersal characteristic has led to the more commonly used name of tumbleweed. (source)

Time Again for CSR Inc’s Annual Spring Job Fair!

Photo from a native seeding project after the Big Hill Fire, located 35 miles south of Bruneau, Idaho in the Owyhee desert.

Are you interested in joining the dedicated CSR Team on our mission to help “Restore the Planet, one Native Plant at a Time”? Come visit us at our upcoming Spring Job Fairs! Click on over to CSR’s “Career” page on the company website for more employment information. Application for Employment

Twin Falls, Idaho: March 1-2 at the Idaho Department of Labor (map), from 10am to 2pm each day. Hiring for Temporary Full-time Land Restoration Specialist.

Rock Springs, Wyoming: March 6-7 at the Wyoming Department of Labor (map), from 10am to 2pm each day. Hiring for WY Field Spray Technician.

Career opportunities include:

Temporary Biological/Restoration Specialist

Nursery Assistant (CO)

Land Restoration Laborer (ID, WY, NV, UT, OR)

Field Specialist (UT)

Field Spray Technician (WY)

Colorado Regional Manager (CO)

Front Office Assistant (CO)

National Invasive Species Awareness Week 2012, Focus on Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum)

Cheatgrass: photo credit

February 26th through March 3rd is National Invasive Species Awareness Week, 2012!

To answer the question, “What is an invasive species?”.  Invasive species are, according to ISDA, “harmful, non-native plants, animals, and pathogens that damage our economy and environment. They include species like white pine blister rust, zebra mussels, Asian gypsy moth, yellow star thistle, New Zealand mudsnails, cereal leaf beetle and Medusahead rye—organisms that threaten the interests of all Idahoans, from our recreational pursuits to our ability to help feed the nation.”

Although it is not currently listed on the ID Noxious Weed Watch List, Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is a top Native Plant competitor while on the road to Native Restoration. CSR also battles Russian-thistle (Salsola tragus), also known as tumbleweed. Another top competitor, mostly in Wyoming,  is Halogeton glomeratus.

Invasive Focus: Cheatgrass, Bromus tectorum:

Cheatgrass is a winter annual. As such, it is an early colonizer and specifically invades disturbed areas, especially overgrazed and burned sites. Being the winter annual it is, cheatgrass is dry during the summer and fall months, providing a large fuel load during the fire season. The presence of cheatgrass increases the fire return intervals in sagebrush steppe ecosystems until the fires become so frequent sagebrush and other native plants can’t recover. This results in the conversion of sagebrush steppe to a monoculture of invasive weeds. It is a cycle that is difficult to control once it is started.

Dry cheatgrass, nature’s kindling…

Dry cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), is one of the most easily ignitable substances on Idaho’s rangelands. It is the kindling that fuels many of our wildfires. Once ignited, cheatgrass fires travel very fast…faster than you can run!

Don’t start a cheatgrass fire…

Cheatgrass fires have been started by catalytic converters on cars, cigarette butts, welding activities, lawn mowers, bottle rockets and ricocheting bullets. If you are working or playing in cheatgrass country, be extremely careful! Always have water and a shovel near by. Do not park your car over dry cheatgrass. Properly dispose of cigarettes and matches.

Don’t let cheatgrass burn your home…

If cheatgrass is present near your home, remove it from at least the first 30 feet extending from your house and other buildings. Use a lawn mower with a mulching blade or cut it with a weed eater, rake it up, and remove it. Make sure there’s a connected garden hose with a spray nozzle in case there’s an accidental fire start.

What does cheatgrass look like?

Cheatgrass is an annual grass native to Eurasia. It can be several inches to more than 18 inches tall.  Typically, it has a nodding seed head that resembles a  shepherd’s crook. There is often a tinge of red or purple in the leaves. It is bright green in the early spring. However, it quickly dries out and turns reddish brown, and eventually straw color as the summer progresses. The seeds are notorious for getting stuck in socks and dogs’ ears. During drought years, there may be very little cheatgrass produced. During above average rainfall years, however, it grows tall and is abundant. 

(original publication: Cheatgrass is Flammable)

The Beauty of Pollination

Meeting of the INPS Loasa Chapter

The Loasa Chapter of the Idaho Native Plant Society is meeting this evening, February 16th 2012, 7pm in room #276 of the Taylor Building on the College of Southern Idaho campus in Twin Falls, Idaho. The speaker topic for the meeting is ‘Butterfly-Plant Interactions in the South Hills‘. CSR folks look forward to seeing you there!

Convergent Ladybugs, Hippodamia convergens

Ladybugs reproduce sexually. Each species of ladybug has its own pheromones for attracting a mate. When they find each other, the male grips the female from behind and holds on tight. They can copulate (stay together) for more than 2 hours at a time. Female ladybugs can store a male’s sperm for 2-3 months before laying eggs. Ladybugs tend to lay their eggs where food is abundant. (source)

These two Convergent Ladybugs, Hippodamia convergens, were photographed recently in a greenhouse in Southern Idaho.

Career Opportunities at CSR

The CSR Ruby Pipeline Restoration Crew, pictured here at the beginning of the fall 2011 upland planting project in UT and WY.

We currently have the following full-time and part-time career opportunities available at our Kimberly Idaho headquarters, Filer Idaho nursery, Rock Springs Wyoming location, Vernal Utah location, and Rifle Colorado nursery. We are always looking for professional, talented and friendly people to help us carry our current operations into the future, and offer competitive salaries and benefits.

Position requirements are specified within each posting. You must complete an Application For Employment form available from the link above and our Kimberly, Rock Springs, and Vernal offices. We welcome additional documentation such as resumes, cover letters, cv’s, and letters of reference. The Application For Employment may be scanned, mailed, or hand delivered; please submit all additional documentation via email in Microsoft Word or PDF file format.

If you would like to apply for a position not posted here, we welcome your inquiry!

Submit applications to applications@csr-inc.com or mail to the Kimberly Idaho office:

CSR, Inc. Attn: HR, 506 Center St. West, Kimberly, ID 83341.

• Temporary Biological/Restoration Specialist

• Nursery Assistant (CO)

• Field Specialist (UT)

• Field Spray Technician (WY)

• Colorado Regional Manager (CO)

Freshwater Western Ridged Mussel, Gonidea angulata

(photo credit: North West Food News)

“Love is in the air” -Shared from The Nature Conservancy

“Male mussels release sperm into the water, which females capture downstream. Larvae hatch inside the females’ shells but must then attach to a fish to grow. To lure fish, mother mussels wave appendages that look like worms, crayfish or other bait. Some emit a smell of rotting flesh to attract scavenger fish. When fish approach, the mussels shoot the larvae onto the fish.”  Read more about the TNC’s work conserving freshwater mussels.

The western ridged mussel (Gonidea angulata) is widely distributed from southern British Columbia to southern California, and can be found east to Idaho and Nevada. G. angulata inhabits cold creeks and streams from low to mid-elevations. Hardhead, Pit sculpin and Tule perch are documented fish hosts for G. angulata in northern California, although little is known about the fish species that serve as hosts for this mussel throughout other parts of its range.

G. angulata is sedentary as an adult and probably lives for 20-30 years, and thus can be an important indicator of habitat quality. G. angulata is a filter feeder that consumes plankton and other suspended solids, nutrients and contaminants from the water column. The large beds of G. angulata can improve water quality by reducing turbidity and controlling nutrient levels. Some Native American tribes historically harvested this animal and used it for food, tools and adornment.

Populations of G. angulata have likely been extirpated in central and southern California, and it has probably declined in abundance in numerous watersheds, including the Columbia and Snake River watersheds in Washington and Oregon. The western ridged mussel belongs to a monotypic genus and thus should be considered a high priority for conservation. Lack of information on the western ridged mussel’s current and historical abundance and distribution, and a lack of understanding of which host fish species it uses will impede conservation efforts. (source: Xerces Society)

A Guide to Southern Idaho’s Fresh Water Mullusks

CSR at the 2012 ProGreen Expo, Colorado

Today marks the last day of the 2012 ProGreen Expo in Denver, Colorado.

You can find CSR at booth #406 ~ just look for the balloons!

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership: Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout in Southeast Idaho

“There can be no greater issue than that of conservation in this country.”
-Theodore Roosevelt, 1912