Picking rocks the other day there were two I didn't want to lift. This was a good day to crank up the tractor with loader to move them. A few years ago I'd have lifted one of them, but now it seems circumspect to use a machine. The process was a bit muddy reminding of the wonderful rain over the weekend.
Cedars are not the only invasive trees, identified as invasive because they are colonizing grassland. In the early forties there was a major tree planting initiative on the Great Plains. Following the dirty thirties multi-row tree belts were planted called 'shelterbelts.' My father and his siblings planted two miles of shelterbelts. Some conservationist, not familiar with cattle, promoted planting a row of Russian Olives on the outside edge of the shelterbelt as a cattle fence. They grow dense and are very prickly. But, no row of vegetation will detour cattle.
Like Cedars, Russian Olives have berries which are eaten by birds. When the birds defecate they seed the trees, offen in grasslands. On one patch of a few acres of grass are twenty Russian Olive trees between 4 and 8 feet high. There is a huge Olive tree on the fence line that seeds the grass. The only solution is to spray them. It they are cut down they regrow from the roots.
Takk for alt,
Al
Russian Olive
No comments:
Post a Comment