Nearly forty years ago when Dennis
and I bought our place in the country I began collecting seeds from a nearby
native prairie, Black Jack Prairie, to scatter in our four-acre pasture that
had been planted to brome grass. I had
always loved the Kansas prairies and wanted to restore the grasses and forbs*
to their rightful place. This project became my life’s mission.
Over the ensuing years, as I
continued my mission, the native seeds began to take hold and thrive. Gradually the
brome, starved for a more alkaline soil, has died out and the acid-loving
natives have thrived. This spring has been the pasture’s most glorious year.
Big bluestem is taking hold and towers to seven feet. There’s Indian grass and
a host of forbs – Kansas gayfeather, wild white indigo, rattlesnake master,
black-eyed Susan, butterfly weed (a milkweed), nodding milkweed, hoary vervain,
partridge pea, flowering spurge, and many others.
Little did I realize that lurking
amongst these native plants was a noxious weed, Sericea lespedeza, a native of
Asia. In 1924 the U.S. Department of Agriculture obtained seeds from Japan and introduced Sericea lespedeza in this country for use as a forage crop, hay, wildlife habitat, and erosion control.
In Kansas it was widely planted around reservoirs and along roadsides.
It was a tragic mistake, for animals
won’t eat it because of its tannic acid content and Sericea lespedeza
aggressively crowds out native plants, which cannot compete with its millions
of seeds. It has now spread to several states and was declared a noxious weed
in Kansas in 2000.
Alas, Sericea lespedeza has been in
our pasture for several years without our recognizing it for the danger that it
is. Only when I took my friend Pam out to see the glorious gayfeather display
did I learn its significance. Pam recognized it and alerted me to the
importance of eliminating it before it completely takes over the pasture. In
the photo below, the evil one is completely surrounding a single rattlesnake
master plant.
Here, it has infiltrated an patch of Kansas gayfeather.
Imagine how it feels to have one’s
mission in life threatened in this way! I had hoped to leave a native pasture
for posterity, but now its future is doubtful. There are ways to fight the
enemy, but almost all of them involve the use of herbicides, which would not
affect the native grasses but would surely kill the forbs. Moreover, we have
not used chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides on the land since we
came here. To employ herbicide now goes against our principles.
Dennis, my knight in shining armor,
has been going out every morning to cut down the larger plants before they can
flower and produce more seeds. Here’s a small part of his work, illustrated in
the tan-colored vegetation in the photo below.
I have worried over the invasion now
for more than two weeks. Anxiety keeps me awake at night and I’ve lost my
appetite. I do endless research, looking for biological controls, to little
avail. I make phone calls to agencies such as the USDA Extension Service
seeking help and advice. I’ve learned that the seeds will persist in the soil
for twenty years and that burning only encourages their germination. (We unwittingly
burned our pasture last spring.)
My heart is breaking and I blame it
all on the USDA. This is a mistake people have made over and over again – moving
flora and fauna from one ecosystem to another. Many transplants, such as our
lespedeza, flying catfish, and boa constrictors, have no natural predators in
their new environment and quickly become massive problems. It does not pay to
mess with Mother Nature and the USDA had better learn that lesson soon.
* Forbs are flowering plants that are not
grasses, sedges, or rushes. In Kansas forsbs include Kansas gayfeather,
rattlesnake master, black-eyed Susan, wild white indigo, several kinds of
milkweed, and others.
Copyright
2015 by Shirley Domer
