By Paulette Epple

Sacajawea Audubon Society continued its campaign to “Knock Out Burdock” this year with over 50 volunteers devoting their time to removing burdock seed stalks and burs from our parks, trails, favorite birding hotspots, and neighborhoods. August is the month to cut burdock before the invasive, non-native plant spreads its seeds either in place, or by ‘hitchhiking’ with its prickly burs on the fur of dogs, deer, bear, or other animals. This year’s haul of plants and burs filled more than 10 truckloads! More than a TON of burs were removed from the environment! 

Police Car Moth caught in burdock bur. Photo by P. Epple

Why do we put so much effort into this project, you may ask. It’s because BURDOCK KILLS BIRDS! Not purposefully, like a Venus fly trap kills insects, but incidentally, by entangling birds in their Velcro-like burs until the birds become exhausted and die. This year’s efforts were too late for two black-capped chickadees that we found hanging dead in burdock. Burdock can even be deadly to bats and insects. This year we found a Police Car Moth -a strikingly beautiful diurnal moth- caught in a bur and dying.

Though this project started small, it has now grown to include burdock control in over 70 locations! This year’s burdock cutting efforts included: three SAS-led work parties; an impromptu neighborhood group that scoured Bozeman’s northside alleys, yards, and vacant lots for burdock, removing the plants and educating homeowners as they went; and a group that hiked up Bear Trap Canyon, cutting plants and hauling bags of burs out a full mile!

Even private landowners are joining in to banish burdock from the wild for the sake of birds and bats! For the past three years, SAS member and educator Ashley Martens has educated and led groups of people in knocking out burdock along South Cottonwood Creek at Bodhi Farms. This season, a group of wedding-goers from all over the country participated in cutting burdock as part of a carbon-offset project before the festivities. The Bodhi Farms team finished off the project, resulting in hundreds of bur-filled burdock stalks removed from the riparian corridor. 

Cutting burdock is hot, hard work and not for the faint of heart, but we had volunteers from 5 to 70+ years old helping with the effort. Thanks to these volunteers, hundreds of thousands of burdock seeds will not propagate, entangle birds, or spread by being caught in the fur of wildlife and dogs. THANK YOU—to every one of you: Jennifer Abbott, Evette Allison, John Ansley, Susan Bilo, Noah ten Broek, Gina Carolan, Dan Carty, David Cole, Cathy Costakis, Chandler Dayton, Jason Delmue, Andy Epple, Paulette Epple, Adira Groundwater (age 7), Yalda Groundwater (age 5), Lou Ann Harris, Aeryn Heidemann, Carl Hellyer, Robin Hellyer, Jeb Himsl, Rebecca Himsl, Deborah Hines, Amy Hoitsma, Peter Husby, Danielle Jones, Peggy Kimmet, Ron Kimmet, Bill Klenn, Barbara Lantz, Beth Madden, Jennifer Madgic, Adam Mahkluf, Ashley Martens, Kristine McVey, Peggy Osborne, John Parker, Anne Ready, Richard Ready, Vicki Saab, Dave Souveleski, Cathy Stamm, Emily Talago, Jamie Warshowsky, Janet Winnie, “Katherine” (whose last name we didn’t get!) and Bodhi Farms guests and employees. THE BIRDS AND OTHER WILDLIFE THANK YOU!