It has a pretty yellow flower and covers the hills of some of our Walnut Creek open spaces.
But it is also a major non-native, invasive weed. When an infestation takes hold, it can "reduce wildlife habitat and foraging opportunities, displace native plants, and decrease native plant and animal diversity," according to a study cited by the UC Davis Weed and Research Information Center.
Some Walnut Creek residents are taking action to clean up an infestation of this plant in the Shell Ridge Open Space. The star thistle originated somewhere in Asian Minor and was probably introduced to the United States sometime after 1849 as a seed contaminant in Chilean-grown alfalfa seed. And, boy, did it spread.
A small group of residents, based in the Lakewood neighborhood, is starting to go up to the Shell Ridge Open Space to weed out the highly invasive Yellow Star Thistle. These residents are inviting others to come along and join their efforts to rid the open space of this "particularly brutal invader," says Phil Johnson, a locally-raised landscape contractor who is leading the group.
Johnson acknowledges that many plants growing in the wild around here are non-native, including the grasses, but Yellow Star Thistle is especially nasty, because it "doesn't play well with others."
"We have a chance to prevent it from becoming established in our open space," says Johnson, who can help volunteers identify the species and effectively remove them.
The group will probably meet up on Wednesday afternoons between 4 and 4:30 p.m. for about an hour and a half. They plan to do these "weed-ups," (as I'll call them) through the end of April. The group is putting together a Facebook page, which will have more details about volunteering (times, locations, and what, if anything you should wear or bring).
Stay tuned, eager warriors in the battle against the damn Yellow Star Thistle. When I get that Facebook link, I'll post it here.
5 comments:
How about some perspective on this?
Yellow star thistle pales in comparison to the Asian carp potentially making its way into the Great Lakes.
Duck!
Great idea and really positive action by community volunteers working together to solve a problem. Anyone who has ever tangled up with a star thistle knows that it shouldn't be here.
When we moved to Walnut Creek over 30 years ago our whole backyard was covered with yellow mustard every spring. Slowly but surely by hand pulling it out each year we eliminated it from our property.
Good work people of Lakewood! Hopefully we will be able to join you in eradication your efforts.
You can find the Facebook group at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=348581791107
The weeding group has made healthy progress on the ridge across from Indian Valley Elementary School in two sessions (90 minutes each) and will meet again next Wednesday, the 17th at 4:30pm. Check the FB page for any updates.
Die YST!
I love what this group is doing. Excellent. This is something I can see myself wandering around doing, now that I know.
Perhaps they'd be interested to know about the landfilled plastic bottle caps and lids? Most people in Walnut Creek, Lafayette, Diablo, Alamo, Danville have noooooo idea what they thought was being recycled is not - all in the fine print. Plastic #5 on the fast bus to landfill.
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