Invader on the Badlands

In 1909, leafy spurge, an aggressive plant originally from Europe, appeared on the Dakota grasslands and spread into the badlands' streambeds, wooded draws, and drainages, becoming the most invasive of the more than sixty alien plants found in this national park. As it crowds out native North Dakota flora, animals that depend on those plants for food and cover, including bison, elk, and cattle, are forced to go elsewhere. Unchecked by boundaries, it carpets croplands, grazing lands, and park lands throughout the Northern Plains, part of a continent-wide biological crisis alongside kudzu in the South, purple loosestrife in New England, and Johnson-grass on the south central plains. Leafy spurge can grow three feet tall, produces milky-white sap that irritates the skin, and spreads through abundant hardy seeds from its yellow-green flowers as well as through a deep, extensive root system that sends up new plants. Growing on more than a million acres in North Dakota alone, it has the potential to double its range every ten years.

North Dakota · United States