Strange things in America: UP TO HERE When Tumbleweeds Attack

[mfcorey1]

This is right up there with dust storms. This is just something to explore and give you temporary escape from the horror of Donald Drumpf.


The image of a lonesome tumbleweed rolling across the plain is synonymous with the American West. But in eastern Colorado, tumbleweeds have become annual invaders, blocking roads and even burying houses. The infestations have been made worse by drought and climate change. The best way to get rid of them is heavy machinery—and the internet. Tumbleweeds sell online as home decorations for between $15 and $30.

We talked with photographer Theo Stroomer who has spent the past three tumbleweed seasons (fall to spring) documenting this peculiar menace.

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/12/tumbleweeds-attack-stroomer

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Tumbleweeds are invaders from Russia.

http://cisr.ucr.edu/russian_thistle.html

[CanonRay]

2. I smashed into a big one in Texas

And it cracked the front of my car

[hunter]

3. I grew up in Southern California

One day, after a night of Santa Ana winds, which were still blowing, a fence at school had tumbleweeds piled up against it like the pictures in the link. Some idiot lit them on fire.

OMG.

I was a pyro, but I wasn't insane. Fortunately the land on the other side of the fence was basketball courts and soccer and baseball fields. By the time sparks from the tumbleweeds had crossed the play field into a residential area, most of them had gone out.

Before air pollution laws, burning tumbleweeds on calm days was a common practice. You'd buy a burn permit and call the fire department on the day of the burn for a go or no-go.

Unfortunately, by the time the tumbleweeds were big and tumbling about, every day was a no-go.

Rolling, burning tumbleweeds quickly spread a fire.

My dad used herbicides, but only on tumbleweeds and poison oak.

[Ilsa]

4. A surreal moment in my life:

I was having my first-ever gellatto in an ice cream shop in a mostly empty strip center mall on the outskirts of a western town when I witnessed my first tumbleweed blowing across a highway. The contrast surprised me.