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This is the Connection. A dirty free hub podcast connecting gravel cyclists to where they ride through short stories about culture, history, people, places in lands.

Martha Brabeck has worked on habitat conservation issues in Idaho’s Sagebrush step ecosystem since 2010. For agencies such as Idaho Fish and Game, the Buru of Land Management and the US Geological Survey, she’s currently employed as an ecologist for the City of Boise’s Parks in Recreation Department.

So thanks for joining us today, Martha. I appreciate you jumping on.

this is a topic I’ve been wanting to do for so long, so I’m glad you’re just as excited. but to kick it off, like what is a, go ahead. You wanna tell us a little bit about that?

So goat headss are invasive species that came from Eurasia or the Mediterranean here to North America. And what they do is they can form monocultures and monocultures mean that there’s no biodiversity.

There’s only one plant and many invasive plants form monocultures. However, invasive is a different designation than noxious, although they’re often synonymous. Obnoxious weed means that there is funding that is available from the federal government. that funnels down to the Idaho State Department of Agriculture, whatever state you’re in, and then it eventually funnels down to ADA County Noxious Weed Control, which is the county that I live in, and ADA County Noxious weed control helps landowners.

Remove invasive species that are noxious weeds on their properties. And so goat heads, thankfully in Ada County are noxious weeds as well as invasive plants, but they have that noxious weed designation, meaning that if you see a goat head, you can actually Google, noxious weed control in your county, file a complaint, and then you can get support from ADA County noxious weed control on how to treat that invasive species and or noxious wheat.

But they’ll only do noxious weeds. Noxious weeds is a, it’s a designation that is, that comes down from the state. Like I said, we’re very lucky that here in southwest Idaho, goat heads are noxious weeds, so we do have support in treating them when we see them. So does that mean like not everyone has the capacity to treating these then, if it’s not considered noxious?

Yeah, well it’s, it’s actually pretty interesting. So invasive species impact ecosystems across the board. A great example is Cheatgrass. Like I said previously, cheatgrass is one of the most invasive species in the entire world. It covers the grape basin. Desert increases fire frequency, it reduces biodiversity.

It’s really bad for the ecosystem. However, cheatgrass is everywhere. And so if it was designated as a noxious weed by the Idaho State Department of Agriculture, essentially the Idaho State Department of Agricultural would go bankrupt trying to treat cheap grass across Southwest Idaho. noxious weed designations are thoughtful because there has to be an ability to do treatments to reduce these invasive species.

So invasive species should be treated when they’re seen. They, what they do is they really impact wildlife habitat reduced by diversity. They impact clean water, things like that. But invasive species like sheet grass, aren’t gonna, you’re not gonna receive support from your local county.

Cheating, cheat grass, but you will for goat heads. And I think, the first step in dealing with invasive species, and this is a much broader conversation, you gotta learn to identify the plant properly. And learn about maybe your local ecosystem and invasive species that are impacting your local ecosystem.

And then learn how to identify those plants and that will really help people on their way. But goat heads thankfully are really easy to identify. Yeah, actually that brings to a good point. When can we actually expect them? Goat heads are an annual plant, meaning they have a lifecycle where they live and die in one year, and then they re spread by seed.

A single goat head plant can form up to 5,000 seeds. And like I mentioned, that each of these seeds breaks into different nutlets in each of those nutlets have a seed in them. A goat head plant can have up to 10,000 seeds on it. it’s crazy. Yeah, it’s crazy. There are a lot of seeds that, an annual plant, like a goat head produces typically here in southwest Idaho.

We’ll see goat heads start germinating in May. We’ve seen it even in April. As the climate changes in this temperatures become more variable, essentially goat heads will germinate after there is after it’s gotten hot. And then there’s a summer precipitation event. That water in the soil will trigger those goat heads to germinate, and that’s when you start seeing seedlings.

So starting in May, sometimes even April, we’ll start to see goat head seedlings. Like I mentioned, goat heads are annual plants. So if you see a tiny goat head seedling, you can kill it immediately. You can just pluck it out of the ground and you need to do nothing else. And so that’s the cool thing about goat headss is I really do think that with.

Everybody collectively if everybody collaboratively pulled goat heads together, we could eradicate them because they are not perennial. They live and die in one year. If we remove all the seeds from the seed bank, then there’s no seeds that can germinate. Starting in May, you’ll start to see those little tiny goat head seedlings, and then they start forming flowers towards the end of May and June.

And the flowers are a bright yellow color. And then once the flowers are formed, those will form the seeds which have the goat head. On them. And once a flower has formed a seed, when you pull that plant, if you were to pull it, you have to throw it in the trash can because that seed can fall and go someplace else or get in somebody else’s white tire.

That’s wild how their whole system works to survive. Yeah, it’s, sometimes you have to tip your hat to invasive species like goat headss because they have such amazing. Reproductive sophistication that they can travel really far and they produce so many seeds, they’re trying really hard to be invasive.

What pre-read steps do you recommend that we would take before going on a ride with Go Headss? We normally call Go Heads out in a lot of our ride guides. So do you have any recommendations to helping with that? Yeah So goat heads really like disturbance, which is often on the sides of trails.

And so there’ll be a lot of goat heads along the sides of trails, and especially if you’ve called it out beforehand, you know they’re there. And if you’re gonna ride in an area with goat heads, my number one recommendation would be to ride tubeless. A tubeless tire can withstand many punctures from a goat head, however, a tire with a tube, you get one that punctures the tube and then you’re done.

And you have to be replacing your tube. And then it’s also often very challenging to get the goat head spike out of the tire itself. I often recommend that people who are gonna be riding in areas with goat heads and I like, and you don’t have tubeless tires, you need multiple tubes. But then you also need to spend a lot of time making sure that you actually removed the thorns from the tire because it’ll continue to rep puncture your tube if you just replace the tube.

So number one recommendation, although it can be financially limiting, would be to ride tubeless and have sealant in your tires. they remind me of a Chevy Chase scene where it’s like getting sticky tape or something off. Like you just, they go everywhere.

They go everywhere. And if you ride over, like a right of way. Or that’s also something maybe that I should say is that, often goat heads will be in right of ways or like at the trailhead, if you’re ever so slightly off of the parking lot surface. So if you have the capacity and the balance to say exactly on this trail surface, that would be my number one recommendation also.

Because the moment you go off trail, that’s likely when you’re gonna hit the goat heads, and then you’ll have, 45 in your tire as you roll over them once and then you might be done. What happens when I do get a goat head in my tire? Or what should I do when I get that go ahead in my tear to also not spread them?

Yeah, when you get a goat head in the, in your tire, if you’re riding tube bliss you might be able to continue on. If you’re riding with a tube, you’re likely done. But my number one recommendation for that would be remove the goat head and put it in your pocket. Put it in a bag put it someplace and throw it in a trash can so that you don’t let that goat head puncture somebody else’s tire, which it could do that anywhere.

If you put it on the trail surface or if you put it even in the parking lot, there’s a lot of potential that somebody else will roll right over it. In each of those nutlets with those two spikes on it, you know those are the seeds. So you take them with you when you go. So it’s really imperative to collect them from the bottom of your shoes to check the area around you and remove every single seed that you can possibly see.

Tie it up tightly in some sort of sack or bag or whatever you got, and then throw it in the trash can. And how do I prevent the spread of this weed? Yeah, that’s a great question. And I think that it’s really important to, number one, be able to identify the plant. If you can identify the plant that will hopefully empower you to pull it if you see it.

Goat heads, like I mentioned, are annual. If you pull the plant from the tap root, you sever the tap root below the soil surface. You effectively kill the plant. The plant cannot produce those seeds, and the plant cannot reproduce. so learn to properly identify the plant. And B, every time goat heads, like I said, make sure that they make it into the trash can.

Do not compost goat heads, although I have heard that commercial composting systems, if you have a commercial compost bin at your home, that commercial compost does get hot enough to actually kill the goat head seeds. But if you have a home compost, do not compost it because it will not get hot enough to actually in, inactivate those seeds.

And learn to identify the plant and then just feel empowered to pull it when you see it, because then you can help other cyclists and trail users and dog walkers in the area as well as the local ecosystem be, go ahead. Free. This is a bonus question, but what is a good way to pull them?

Assuming they’re got those little horns. the plant, it lies prostrate, which means like flat to the soil surface, so it spreads out like a fan around a single tap root. And so what I would recommend that you do is find the center of the plant where that tap root is, and then sever the tap root below the soil surface.

And you can do this with your hands, although I highly recommend wearing gloves, especially if there are seeds on that goat head because the seeds of the goat head will also mess up your hands if you pull it in those little punctures. So wear gloves. Remove the goat head by severing the taproot underneath the soil surface, and then carefully place that plants that no seeds fall into a plastic bag, like a heavy duty construction bag, and then tie that bag shut and throw it in a trashcan.

Thank you. That makes, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. I guess I’ve really only run into them in southwest Idaho, but I hear they’re problematic in Utah as well as Colorado. I haven’t seen them in those locations, but that’s what I’ve heard.

Yeah, we have them in central Oregon as well, which is where we’re based out of and yeah. Yeah, there’s, they’re, they can be a little gnarly out there. They really can be. And they’ll really stop your ride immediately if, yeah, if, if you go over a lot and I guess. I did mention this previously.

Another important thing is yeah, stay on the trail. We have a couple trails in Boise that if you can stay right on the trail surface, you’re gonna be okay. But the moment go off trail in any way, shape or form, you’re gonna get goat heads. And also avoid rights of way, avoid like crossing.

If you’re on a sidewalk and you’re gonna cross onto the street and you go over a little section of right of way that may be covered in goat heads and the next thing you know your ride’s over. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks again. I appreciate you taking the time to do this. Yeah, you’re welcome Kira.

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