Bozeman Daily Chronicle recently featured an article about mapping weeds on the Madison River.
ON THE MADISON RIVER — Floating along the shoreline in his drift boat, Travis Morris pointed to a 25-yard stretch of purple flowers.
“That’s a huge infestation right there,” Morris said.
The flowers, better known as Canada thistle, look pretty. But the plant is actually a weed that takes over any ground it comes in contact with and chokes out native plants. And without those native plants, the riverbanks erode, water quality deteriorates and fish can’t reproduce.
“This river is in a spot where the weeds are here, but they can still be controlled,” said Matt Wilhelm, education director for the Livingston-based Center for Aquatic Nuisance Species.
Wilhelm and Morris, president of the Bozeman chapter of Trout Unlimited, floated the Madison on Tuesday looking for noxious weeds and recording their location with GPS coordinates.
Read the complete article on the Bozeman Chronicle website.
Tags: Berteroa incana, Canada Thistle, Cynoglossum officinale, Hoary Alyssum, Houndstongue, Madison River Montana, mapping weeds, Spotted Knapweed