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Gardeners Warned About Planting Weeds
Thursday May 12, 3:42 am ET
By Curt Woodward, Associated Press Writer
FARM SCENE: Gardeners Warned About Accidentally Planting Noxious Weeds in Yard


BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- Gardeners shopping for a new shrub or flowering plant should make sure they don't accidentally purchase a noxious weed from a nursery, state agriculture officials said.
The warning comes after two merchants in the last week unwittingly sold noxious weeds, highlighting the need for consumers to check out a plant's origins before buying, according to the state Agriculture Department.

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"Unless you actually identify the plant by the scientific name, it's very hard to tell," said Rachel Seifert-Spilde, a state noxious weed specialist. "A lot of these have three, four or five common names."

North Dakota lists a dozen plants as noxious weeds, meaning they are difficult to control, spread easily and can harm crops, livestock or other property. Several of the weeds originally were ornamental plants, and some occasionally are still available for commercial sale.

The Agriculture Department has stepped up efforts to educate gardeners about those weeds, Seifert-Spilde said.

"It's been more concentrated in the past few years because our newer noxious listed weeds -- saltcedar and loosestrife -- are really popular ornamental plants," she said.

The merchants had saltcedar and yellow toadflax for sale but weren't aware the plants are noxious weeds, said Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson. They were asked to get rid of the plants, he said.

County weed control agents and nursery owners also are working with state and federal officials to develop an educational brochure that alerts green thumbs to the dangers of noxious weeds.

North Dakota noxious weeds: http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/invasiveweeds/invasweedlist.htm

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ordered the killing of a pack of endangered Mexican gray wolves that has been preying on livestock in the Gila National Forest.

The Francisco pack has killed four animals in the past several weeks. Officials with the agency's wolf reintroduction program said field teams attempted to haze the wolves using noisemakers and rubber bullets following the first attack.

"Despite our best efforts these wolves continued to kill livestock and that is unacceptable," Southwest regional director H. Dale Hall said Wednesday.

The recent killings by the Francisco pack, coupled with the presence of the two-member Ring pack, have heightened concern among ranchers in southwest New Mexico. Cattle in the Gila are calving, and both mothers and calves are particularly vulnerable to wolf attacks.

Fish and Wildlife began a release program in March 1998 to re-establish wild populations of Mexican gray wolves in Arizona and New Mexico after the species had been hunted to the brink of extinction in the early 1900s. There are now about 50 wolves in the wild.

The reintroduction program encompass 4.4 million acres of the Gila and Apache Sitgreaves national forests and the 1.6 million-acre White Mountain Apache reservation.





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