More spurge purging

Last week, as you recall, I was sick. I was recovering, and I had every intention of going to work on Monday. But I did not sleep well Sunday night, and I had a headache. When I got up on Monday, my headache and my poor sleep meant that working sounded absolutely terrible.

But on Tuesday I was back at work. It might have been better for my physical well-being to stay home, but it was better for my mental well-being to be at work. I hate doing nothing all day!

I always like it when it snows in May, so I was glad to see snow on May 1. Will that be our last snow until November?

But since I was still recovering, it wasn't a very eventful week. I didn't want to be running again, so I took the opportunity to purge more spurge from the trails. Yesterday I went to the Chukar Loop, a more remote section that nevertheless has some spurge. I thought I might make more of a dent here. And I think I did! These pictures aren't the exact same spot, but they show some improvement. Before:

 After:

The plants on the flat part were difficult to pull out, and mostly I was pulling stems off the main root. But when they were growing on the slope, they were a lot easier to pull, and I managed to get most of the roots. Hooray!

Personally, I think goatheads are worse than spurge, but I think spurge is worse for the environment. Goatheads tend to grow where nothing else is growing, but spurge takes over. It was disheartening to see it growing among my favorite wildflowers, including arrowleaf balsamroot, vetch, and western waterleaf.

Perhaps I wasn't extremely responsible in purging it, because I just left the uprooted plants along the trail. If I took containers, they would fill up too quickly, and plastic is bad for the environment anyway. With some of the plants, I was so happy to pull them up that I threw them away in triumph, and they landed in trees.

I am paying for it today, with some mild rashes on my wrists, which were not always protected from these nefarious plants' milky substance.

Unfortunately, I doubt my little efforts will have much of an effect, but at least I'm trying to do something about the problem. It is not enough to simply gripe about it.