Aerial spurge tour
Survey shows little of noxious weed in Ward CountyBy MARVIN BAKER, Staff Writer mbaker@minotdailynews.com
POSTED: June 20, 2008
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Crops across Ward CountyWard County cropland from south to north shows obvious differences in growth.
In the southeastern part of the county, most of the crops appear lush and green and many of the pastures appear just as healthy.
Some of the prairie potholes that had dried up this spring because of drought conditions have been replenished because of ample moisture during the month of June. Others have water in them, but continue to have extended shorelines because of depleted moisture.
The cropland was examined during a Ward County flight in which leafy spurge pockets were being sought.
In the northwestern part of the county, it’s a different picture. Some of the crops are up and some aren’t. Much of the residue from last year’s crops can still be seen from the air. On the other hand, one canola field between Carpio and Berthold was in bloom.
Some fields in the northwest were drenched on Wednesday from locally heavy rain. Several fields south of Tolley were inundated with water late Thursday morning.
The shoreline along Des Lacs Lake shows the stress of a drought that began in July 2007 and ended about the middle of May. Extra shoreline is obvious as the lake passes into Burke County and it slowly diminishes as the lake meanders toward the international boundary.
Numerous cattle were seen grazing the hillsides all across the county. There was a fear in April and early May among county extension agents that cattle might have had to be retained in feedlots since there was no grass for them to graze. But the approximate seven inches of rain since mid-May changed that outlook drastically.
– Marvin Baker
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With a county atlas in hand to mark trouble spots, Ward County Weed Control Officer Derrill Fick took to the sky scouting for a noxious weed he thought would be more prominent.
Fick said this is normally the time of the year in which leafy spurge is blooming so is generally easy to spot with its tall, slender plant and pale yellow flower.
But Fick had to look close to find pockets of the noxious weed that was introduced into the United States circa 1897 and had spread to all of North Dakota’s 53 counties by 1997.
There were the usual spurs, draws and ridgelines along the Des Lacs River and Souris River valleys that should have had patches of yellow, but turned up little if any spurge.
The mining spoils area south of Sawyer was checked and again, no leafy spurge. Numerous pastures, tilled fields and road ditches were also analyzed during the three-hour flight. Fick isn’t sure how many acres are affected this year.
“We dropped 5 million bugs out here by airplane,” Fick said of the spoils area. “This used to be totally infested in here and you can see it is now well managed.”
The only leafy spurge infestation on Thursday’s flight, it appears, is between Sawyer and Benedict on some pasture land.
Fick knew the spurge was there but wanted to see it from the air to analyze how widespread it is. It’s a fairly large patch, according to Fick, but isn’t out of control.
“Other places, from Minot to the Burke County line, appear to be well managed and spots a few feet in diameter are all that can be found.
As pilot Jerome Behm flew his plane over the intersection west of Burlington where U.S. Highways 2 and 52 meet, Fick said that concentrated area in the county was so bad in the summer of 2000, cattle refused to graze there.
Fick said he took a Chicago Tribune reporter and photographer out on those hillsides that summer for an interview and he recalls leafy spurge so thick, it was like a planted field at least knee deep. It was the same summer Fick bombarded the area with flea beetles.
On Thursday, no leafy spurge could be seen, at least by air.
“I wonder if the plants are just coming up,” Fick said. “I know what I’ll be doing this afternoon, digging up roots to see what kind of damage the bugs are doing.”
The U.S. 2 & 52 intersection, which is about 10 miles east of Berthold, had one of the worst leafy spurge infestations in the nation and was often considered an ideal spot for biological control because the terrain is extremely difficult to cover with a mechanical sprayer.
Fick said it’s very apparent the flea beetles are doing their work and are managing the spurge in a way that nature intended.
As a matter of fact, he said the control and the infestations are cyclical. It just so happens that Ward County is in a cycle in which the flea beetles must be hungry. They have all but wiped out the noxious weed that has fallen behind Canada thistle as the state’s most noxious weed.
But Fick said that is on a statewide level. He still thinks leafy spurge is the most prominent weed in Ward County, even though very little was found on Thursday’s route.
