Since 1990, the budget and staff of the Environmental Ministry of the British Columbia Government has been reduced by something like 92%. As a result, no one is there to deal with the zombies.
Skeleton Weed (Foreground). Pure Zombie.
These shoots of concentrated evil are present in 2 areas of the Okanagan: north of town, and up the hill from my house. Both are in the City of Vernon. The zombies have been here for less than a decade. They can be stopped. Someone has to do the real work.
The civic government is planning a sports field, one penny at a time. The provincial government has no time, energy, desire, funds or personnel to deal with the death of its rangelands, or any other part of its environment. Meanwhile, we are in the midst of a provincial election that exists on TV only, as such performances usually do. Out in the world, as a result, it’s rather a skeleton election: one party got us into this mess, another also got us into this mess, another has offered a candidate from a city 6 hours away, who has not even come here to pull a single weed, and then there’s a guy who says, “Vote for the other guy.” And he’s the “Independent!” Sheesh. Meanwhile, I vote, like this:
Skeleton Weed Meets Its Match
One zombie at a time.
Tally for today: 253. That’s 530 year to date.
Categories: Agriculture, Grasslands, invasive species, Urban Okanagan, weeds
Okanagan Okanogan 
you should run on just that platform, daily eradication of weeds, in fields, in government, but your work would never end
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Or you!
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toadflax, knapweed, i have pulled them for years, but i cannot turn it around by myself…
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If you were to come up this way, I’m sure you’d find some weevils. Now’s the time. The adult weevils lay their eggs on the roots later. The larvae munch on the roots, then come up about a week ago as tiny beetles and munch on the leaves until there’s nothing much left. Very impressive.
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For sure. Darned stuff is everywhere. The thing about skeleton weed, though, is so far it’s only in Vernon, and only in a few spots. It could have been eliminated a couple years ago, really easily, but it’s still completely do-able. Knapweed…the day for that would have been in 1968, or something like that. I remember when it came to town. We need to tackle the skeleton weed together, as you suggest. However, I’m making a personal start. And it’s great for getting the political frustrations out of one’s system. I stopped pulling knapweed around here when I saw the weevils doing a better job. I’m waiting to see how they do. Well, OK, knapweed in new locales, that’s still fair game, as the weevils aren’t at that altitude yet.
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In Penticton, around the KVR, towards nararmata, ther;s all kinds of it, no sign of weevils, that i can tell, when do they emerge?
just healthy big stands…
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The weevils are out now. They are not native. They were introduced. I think by the Ministry of Environment, as an experiment. Apparently they have worked wonders in Montana.
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