Hi all, Today was my day to go to the Hawkweed Bio-control meeting in Coeur d'Alene. The Weed Supervisor invited me. I went in all my second-hand finery--including my red Filson jacket, my beautiful multicolored sweater (red, gold, black, white, olive green, etc.), and my Tilley hat. I entered the room and everyone had on black and gray--neutral colors. I was at a meeting of professional weed people--from the University, the BLM, DOL, Weed Supervisors from all the northern counties of Idaho. They have tested out 5 bio-controls for hawkweed from out of the country including NZ on the native hawkweeds and other plants to see if they eat them. Tests were good. So now they try to get a permit from the federal government to import these to this country. Four-color brochure on hawkweed. Three more handouts. Then comes the long harrang to raise $77,000 for the consortium--If a county gives $500, they get first-dibs on deploying the bugs.
At the end, I asked a question about changing calcium-magnesium ratio in soil to control hawkweed. The response was over my head. I have been reading Charles Walter's book on Weeds and I have no chemistry or soil chemistry background, so I have read the chapters over and over again trying to grasp the totality of nutrients, cations, CECs. Unfortuntely, most of his annotated weeds are from the midwest. How do you produce humus on a glacial till right-of-way? With some advice from HC, I will buy some bentonite clay and non-dolomitic, high calcium limestone to put on one of the test plots before I make my foray with the "compost tea" and the weed peppers. It just rained hard. The county has had our $2200 in their coffers gathering interest for a year, but I can't buy anything yet because the state hasn't released the money for this year. I have no idea and neither does anyone else I've talked to what proportion of bentonite to lime is correct. It would take at least two weeks to get a soil sample from the U of ID. I have no idea if I can dowse or not. After that meeting, I went to the Forest Service greenhouses where they grow native plants and trees and saw kinnickinnick, a beautiful groundcover, and some other native plants growing in tubes. We got the complete tour. The huge place was immaculate. The director's Filson jacket custom-made in a soft medium shade of green to match his uniform pants was new and not worn like my red one. He was very friendly and shared everything he knew that would help me. I feel intimidated--like I don't know what I am doing. Everyone I met today was very kind, but I feel less impowered. Such is my meeting with academia and government. I wonder how long it will take me to recover from this day? I thrive on our wild place. Acres of trees rooting in tubes with not a hair out of place make me feel strange. I think a lot of our rag tag operation here. I feel comfortable with a pile of pots...the untrimmed snowberry bushes. Those people have degrees in every agricultural subject under the sun. I can't even understand Cation Exchange Capacity. I love my clay animals and my little seedlings in the cold frame with the 8 year old 4-season plastic and hopefully a garden deva there among the newly uncovered French intensive beds and the snow peas and spinach with BD compost and 500 under their row cover. I've read every book I can find and now I'm going to work in our garden and on our right-of-way on the faith that somehow some good will be done. I think I'll go meditate and maybe I can fall asleep. I love you all out there just for being there and for being BD. Best, Merla
