Butte America and Weeds

It's a form of therapy: learning to accept and appreciate weeds. Like some people, weeds are disliked because they are "out of place" and do not serve others' needs. Living in Butte, Montana (aka ButteAmerica, pronounced as if it's all one word), one is often regarded as "Other" by fellow Montanans. For that reason if no other, a Buttian (or Walkervillian, in my case) should understand weeds.

This reminds me in some odd way of a short conversation while elk hunting. Because of a booming elk population, the Big Hole River watershed has become a popular hunting spot for folks from distant towns such as Helena, Missoula, and Kalispell. I mentioned this to a guy who pulled in behind my pickup at a favorite "secret" spot. I assumed that, because he knew how to get there, he was a local. My exact words were, as I recall, "Have you noticed all the riff-raff from Helena and Missoula hunting in the area this year?" His indignant reply was, after informing me that he was from Helena, "Well, that's the first time I heard anybody from Butte call anyone from somewhere else in the state 'riff-raff.'"

Well, anyway, Butte has lots of weeds. The soil was burned over by arsenic, sulfur, and heavy metals from the copper smelters a century ago. Recovery is still underway. But the barren soil became ideal habitat for hardy, introduced invasive plants such as Spotted Knapweed (Centaurea maculosa):

It's a late summer bloomer, and a favorite for bees and other pollinators. Cattle won't graze it, which is reason enough for it be a "noxious weed" in Montana culture. I don't want it in my yard, but there seems to be so much of it in the Butte surround that there's probably no getting rid of, short of "nuking" the soil with year-after-year herbicide treatments (which would wipe out everything but grass).

Of course, ranchers don't generally like native sagebrush either. A recent obituary for old Siv Seidensticker of Twin Bridge stated that burning & eradicating sagebrush was one of his favorite pursuits. Tell that to the elk and deer that depend on sagebrush for winter forage, or for the many birds that need the fragrant herb for food and nesting. Big Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) has been doing well on the Butte Hill in recent years:


Butter-and-Eggs (Linaria vulgaris) is an attractive European medicinal herb/invader. Long endemic to the eastern U.S., it has only recently become fairly common in western Montana:


Though not a weed, I include Canada Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) because it is so frequently accused of causing pollen allergies (it blooms at the same time as ragweed, but is more conspicuous and thus gets blamed) and because a giant cousin was so common in the Allegheny fields of my youth:

Similarly, Rabbitbrush (Chrysomnus nauseosus) often seems weedy because it colonizes disturbed areas so readily. The flowerheads are attractive enough, but once they set seed and puff out they will be especially pretty:

Anyone know what this is? Maybe some kind of yellow aster?

White Campion (Silene latifolia) is another European invader that we might as well learn to live with:


Hoary Alyssum (Berteroa incana)is a weed new to Butte. Like other Europeans, it really takes to the place and has went from rare to common in just a few years. It rapidly takes over anywhere that people disturb soil for a house, ditch, driveway or -- especially -- with ATVs. It produces seeds in super-abundance, so the birds & mice probably like it:


Many of the mine dumps around Butte have been successfully revegetated with grasses and are now being colonized by sage brush, other native plants, and a few weeds. The big ongoing weed invasion, however, is on land torn-up by ATV (All Terrain Vehicle or "four wheeler") use. They are a most effective soil cultivator and weed spreader. Until Butte-Silver Bow gets a handle on limiting off road ATVs, weeds are assured of a good future.