By Paulette Epple
Nine years ago, a group of 12 dedicated Sacajawea Audubon Society volunteers began in earnest to eradicate burdock from some of our favorite trails and parks. What started in only five locations has expanded this season to 31 volunteers working in over 40 locations around the county!
Success
This year our expanding success was obvious. At two of our most beloved birding hotspots—Sourdough Nature Trail and Glen Lake Rotary Park’s wooded trails—we couldn’t find a single burdock seed stalk to cut! At the “M” trailhead, where we once hauled away 900 pounds of burdock, we found only a few seed stalks. Our burdock cutting event at the Drinking Horse Mountain Trailhead and Fish Technology Center yielded only 300 pounds of seed stalks this year rather than the 800 pounds in previous years. Our success is the result of our dedicated volunteers consistently cutting and removing all burs and seeds in August to prevent regeneration and some targeted spring herbicide treatments to reduce the overall population.
Why do we put so much effort into this project? Quite simply, 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. Unfortunately, this season our volunteers were too late for the three Pine Siskins, one Yellow Warbler, and one small bat we found hanging dead in the prickly burs. But we likely prevented many more deaths by hauling 2,740 pounds of burdock flowering stalks and burs to the landfill!
A non-avian burdock victim: a western long-eared myotis
Thank You To Our Volunteers
We want to give a huge shout out of THANKS! to our hard-working volunteers that make this project a success: Jennifer Abbott, John Ansley, John Backes, Susan Bilo, Gina Carolan, David Cole, Andy Epple, Paulette Epple, Taylor Foran, Tom Forwood, Pat Fowlie, Deborah Hines, Ava Jamison, Danielle Jones, Travis Kidd, Peggy Kimmet, Ron Kimmet, Hunter Lode, Jennifer Magic, Mary Maj, Betty Martyn, Woody Martyn, Peggy Osborne, John Parker, Anne Ready, Marlena Renwyck, Vicki Saab, August Tjernagel, Kelsi Tjernagel, Becky Ward, Kevin Ward, and everyone else who works on their own to stop the spread of burdock. THE BIRDS AND BATS THANK YOU!
The amazing volunteer burdock cutting team (L to R): Paulette Epple, John Backes, Woody Martyn, Betty Martyn, Becky Ward, Ava Jamison, Taylor Foran, John Ansley, Gina Carolan, Danielle Jones, Vicki Saab, and (kneeling) Susan Bilo.
