Weed alliance hopes to rid area of certain plants

By Elizabeth Gabriel

(Updated: Friday, May 02, 2008, 2:44 PM)

Focus is on yellow starthistle and Spanish, French and Scotch broom bushes

Judy Johnson is a killer. It's something she's proud of, has fun doing, and she loves teaching others how to kill, too.

Her victims are foreigners who come to the Mountain Area, like what they find, and settle in. In some cases they settle in so well they take over from the natives and drive them from their ancestral homes. And they can wait until the least spark and explode in balls of fire.

At the top of her hit list right now are yellow starthistle and Spanish, French and Scotch broom bushes.

Johnson is part of the Sierra-San Joaquin Noxious Weed Alliance, which works to keep invasive, non-native plants from degrading the natural resources and agriculture of Mariposa, Madera and Fresno counties.

In addition to educating people about noxious weeds, the group runs eradication programs and maps the progress of the invaders.

Starthistle

The yellow starthistle has been around for ages. It came over from the drier parts of the Mediterranean. It's got a lust for life that's unbeatable here. It kills other plants in two ways. It contains allelopathic chemicals that it secretes into the soil to inhibit the growth of or kill other nearby plants.

The thistle, which can be as short as 4 inches or as tall as 5 feet -- it's also a shape shifter -- can put down a water-sucking 6-foot tap root that can rob its neighbors of needed moisture.

"This plant will take over," she said. "It poisons soil for anything else."

At the beginning of its cycle, about now, its rosette of foliage looks something like gray-green, deeply lobed dandelion leaves. It will send up a stem that branches out or just keeps going up like a tree. It can even creep along the ground. The top part has smooth-edged leaves that appear to ripple down the stalk.

The flower, about a half-inch wide, is bright yellow and has nasty spikes from 1 to 2 inches long.

Johnson said it's OK for forage before the spikes set up, but most animals avoid it after they do. If horses eat enough of it, they can die of "chewing disease." A poison in the plant causes the fatal nervous-system disease.

The plant left the Mediterranean and made its way to Chile, then came to the States in alfalfa seed in the mid-1800s, states the alliance's field guide to invasive non-native weeds. It didn't waste any time establishing itself. According the the alliance, in 1958, California had 1 million acres of starthistle; by 2000, it had infested more than 12 million acres.

"It's perfect for our climate," Johnson said.

One plant can send out 100,000 seeds -- which can stay viable for three years. The plants are not at all fussy about soil, light or temperature, although they prefer disturbed soil -- that means anywhere there has been roadside maintenance, construction or fire. The seeds are carried by wind and animals, but also on shoes, or clothing or equipment that's been in an infested area. When utility trucks are out in the field they can easily pick up the seeds and spread them around.

Starthistle germinates in the fall rains then pop up in the spring..

"You need to know something about the plants to hit them when it gets them," Johnson said.

The key is to kill before they set seeds, or you just spread them aroundJ.

Hand pulling works. The plants can even go on the compost pile -- if there are no flowers. Otherwise, bag them up in heavy-duty plastics.

Mowing or weed whacking can work, but must be done when no more than 2 percent to 5 percent of the spiny heads are showing flowers. But if you do those procedures too early, the plants resprout and produce more seed.

The bright spot in all this is that Johnson, through the Coarsegold Resource Conservation District, has grant money available to help with eradication. If you think you have starthistle on your land, she will come out and inspect your property and fill you in on the grant program. Call her at (559) 642-3310.

The brooms

Spanish, French and Scotch brooms are undeniably nice to look at. They're big bushes with pretty yellow flowers. You see more and more of them at Bass Lake. That worries Johnson.

"The first one came to the lake in 1958 as a landscape shrub," Johnson said. "It spread throughout Willow Cove. The seeds look like pea pods (the plant is a legume) and they float on the wind. They're all the way to North Fork now."

The brooms burn as if they were soaked in gasoline, Johnson said.

With the housing density at the lake, and the abundance of brooms between the homes, if fire ever gets started, there could be disaster.

Johnson and friends are having a Broom Bash at the Lake on two Saturdays: May 10 and May 17 from 8 a.m. to noon. Volunteers will get together and go to homes to pull the bushes out.

"We have organized a volunteer effort where interested property owners can learn how to effectively remove broom and get some help in the process," Johnson said.

There is even a special tool called a broom wrench that helps wrest the roots from the soil.

The volunteer gangs will pull up the plants and haul them to another location to be burned.

"They're so dangerous, we won't burn them," Johnson said. "We take them to the Forest Service office in North Fork."

For that reason, she warned against homeowners cutting them and throwing them on burn piles. They're so flammable they can get out of hand.

If property owners want to cut down their brooms, they should leave a good trunk behind so the tools can pull them up.

"The first rule of weed control is if you can't get it out with the tool you have, don't ruin it for the next tool," Johnson said.

She is a volunteer and gives her time for the fight against non-native plants.

"I see these noxious plants as a disease," Johnson said. "I'm a nurse in my other life, so I say the best thing to do is to have early detection and rapid intervention."

Noxious weed programs

Contact Judy Johnson,

(559) 642-3310

Pamphlets and books available

Grants available for identification and removal of yellow starthistle.

Volunteers needed to help remove Spanish, French and Scotch broom bushes at Bass Lake 8 a.m. to noon May 10 and 17. Tools supplied. Meet at Pines Village Park.

Contact Johnson or Joanna at

(559) 877-2218, Ext. 3150 for more information.