Several years ago, mom gave me a sweatshirt advertising Hooker, Oklahoma, as the Tumbleweed Capital of the world. After a recent drive across the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandle, I’m certain Hooker is not the only center point of Russian thistle abundance. Winds that day blew an average of 40 mph so we saw droves of prickly Russian immigrants racing pell-mell across three states. Fence lines trapped enough to fuel miles of potential prairie fire. Clearly, this transplant’s adjusted well to arid western soils.

These herbaceous invaders adapted to the Great Plains environment better than many homo sapien immigrants who hit American shores during the same era. The tumbleweed’s human counterparts often left for easier pickings that included more moisture and less wind. This forb, however, took root and multiplied like creatures mentioned in biblical plagues. It prefers disturbed soil—so farmers breaking virgin grassland and then abandoning their efforts unintentionally supported the hardy newcomer. Aridity doesn’t hurt them, and winds strong enough to deform trees and make flags fly at 90 degree angles guarantees each plant sows its 250,000 seeds.

Think of that–one plant produces several hundred thousand potential offspring. Scientists have documented how many actually take root, mature, and reproduce. By the 1890s, researchers reported the first of these Ukrainian hitchhikers arrived in Scotland, South Dakota, in the 1870s. Before 1900, the government assigned U.S. botanist Lyster Hoxey Dewey to investigate this curse to western agriculturists. Dewey, wrote, “The rapidity with which the Russian thistle has spread, both in infesting new territory and in thoroughly covering that already infested, far exceeds that of any weed known in America.” According to writer Doug Main, the only two states that don’t have tumbleweeds are Alaska and Florida. That’s a record-breaking invasion!

The day I drove across the Panhandle, herds of rolling thistles bounded over barbwire fences, surging across roads. This dark force made me think of millions of roaming bison 150 years ago. Due to sheer size, these mammals halted train travel. The tumbling seed-sowers I encountered didn’t halt traffic, but they slowed it.

Due to wind speeds, thorny orbs, small and large, rocketed across flat grasslands. I was glad to travel protected in a vehicle and not afoot like pastured cattle or wild critters. A thistle scouring of this magnitude would leave a being picking stickers for weeks. Unfortunately, these dried plants came in numbers so enormous I couldn’t avoid whacking one after another and dragged several beneath my vehicle until friction shattered and scattered them.

While I smacked some, others slammed into the sides of my Toyota hard enough I felt vibrations through the steering wheel. I’d like to think these collisions halted their seed dispersion, but that’s a vain wish. In fact, I’ve probably introduced Oklahoma thistle DNA to Kansas varieties.

Hookerites may disagree, but that sweatshirt’s claim to fame limits the scope of this invasive plant. The entire Great Plains is the Tumbleweed Capital of America.

Native Kansan Karen Madorin is a local writer and retired teacher who loves sharing stories about places, people, critters, plants, food, and history of the High Plains.

It is a treat to eat out at a favorite restaurant or community event. Consumers expect the food to be safe. It is up to the food handlers to provide the safest meal possible.

Preparing food for the public, whether at a volunteer group fund-raiser or at a restaurant, often means dealing with larger quantities of food than those used at home. With larger amounts of food, different food practices and special attention to detail become critical.

A Servsafe food handler short course for food service employees and volunteer groups will be held on Tuesday, April 11, from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. at the Ellis County Extension Office, 601 Main Street in Hays. The cost is $10.00 per person and includes the Servsafe Food Handler Guide, a nationally-recognized food safety training resource, plus training materials and refreshments. Linda Beech, County Extension Agent and trained Servsafe instructor, will be the presenter.

Register and pay fees soon to reserve your seat at the training.

The class covers basic food safety principles, personal hygiene, preventing cross-contamination, food allergens, time and temperature controls, cleaning and sanitation. This course would be appropriate for commercial food service employees, dietary staff at nursing homes, hospitals and schools, and volunteer groups who serve concession stands, church dinners, community meals or fund-raisers. The class does not include an exam and does not provide national certification, however, a certificate of attendance will be provided to each participant.

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that each year one in six Americans gets sick from a foodborne illness. On average, 48 million people get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3000 people die from something they eat every year. Foodborne illness is highly under-reported, and outbreaks do happen in Kansas.

The economic impact of foodborne illness is staggering. The CDC estimates that foodborne illness costs $15.5 billion annually, which includes factors such as direct medical costs, lost wages, time lost, and pain and suffering. That makes the average cost of one foodborne illness incident about $77,000. Proper food safety is important to reduce illness, but also to protect the reputation and reduce costs and legal repercussions for those who serve food to the public.

Plan now to attend the upcoming Servsafe food handler training. Register and pay fees at the Ellis County Extension Office to ensure adequate training materials and class supplies. Drop-ins cannot be accommodated for this class. Enrollment is considered complete when fees are paid. A minimum attendance is required to hold this class.

Obtain a registration form at www.ellis.ksu.edu/health-nutrition in the right box under “Upcoming Events.” For more information, call the Ellis County Extension Office, 785-628-9430.

Linda K. Beech is Ellis County Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.

Bird watching has never much appealed to me. Don’t get me wrong, I love birds as much as the next outdoorsman, especially hawks and owls. I would be content to spend the rest of my life in the woods at dusk listening to the soft, soothing hoots of great horned owls and the soulful, staccato cries of barred owls pierce the darkness.

I could watch forever the effortless soaring of a hawk high overhead as it searches the ground for a snack with eyes like spotting scopes. I can spend hours fantasizing that I’m riding along on the immense outstretched wings of a vulture as it glides high on the Kansas winds. But bird watching per say doesn’t sound like my bag.

For those of you who know me, picture this; me clad in some natty outfit complete with stylish headgear, a bird book and note pad under my arm, a pair of high-dollar binoculars around my neck and a couple-thousand dollar camera on a tripod in front of me. First of all, I’d have one of my “bull-in-a-china-closet” moments and knock over the tripod, dumping the couple-thousand dollar camera into the dirt, then the stylish headgear would blow away as I bent over to rescue the camera, banging the high-dollar binoculars into the ground in the process, and then……well you get the picture. Bird watching for me would better consist of crawling into a tumble-down old barn to observe a mother turkey vulture on her nest (which both Joyce and I have done.)

All joking aside, now that I have managed to completely tick-off every legitimate bird watcher in the state, real authentic bird watchers have my utmost respect. I know they dress nothing like I described, and most can probably tell a warbler from a waxwing with a mere glance. Well Kansas bird watchers, listen up! The 2017 Wings and Wetlands Birding Festival will be April 28 -29 at Great Bend, KS, headquartered at the Best Western Angus Inn Courtyard there in Great Bend. Just outside Great Bend are two of the best birding spots in the Central Flyway; Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area and Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira are both wetlands of international importance that provide a stopover resting spot for thousands of birds on their north and south migration routes. The festival dates coincide with the peak of the annual shorebird migration, and approximately 180 species of birds have been documented during most previous festivals.

Curtis Wolf, site manager of the Kansas Wetlands Education Center (KWEC) says “The main focus of the festival is getting participants out on field trips with experienced guides to find as many bird species as we can. We are excited to be able to bring a diverse crowd of birders into the area to experience our wetlands and our communities.”

Besides the wetlands birding trips, participants in this year’s 2 day festival can attend a shorebird identification workshop, a presentation by renowned birder and photographer Bob Gress, attend night birding and prairie chicken lek tours, and see other area attractions along the Wetlands and the Wildlife National Scenic Byway. If you’d like more information on this event contact the KWEC at 1 -877-243-9268.

Maybe I should give proper bird watching a chance; I might find I was good at it and even liked it. I’m afraid though that the rest of the group might take exception to my dressing in full camo with my 46 dollar Fuji camera from Walmart mounted on a garage sale tripod, all the while carrying my 12 gauge strapped on my back in case the errant snow goose flew overhead and gave me a chance to shoot it down to take home for the freezer; especially when I began carelessly knocking over everyone else’s tripods and cameras. Continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors!

Steve Gilliland, Inman, can be contacted by email at [email protected].