None The Nature Conservancy in Wyoming Press Releases Search All Press Releases Pam Dewell Phone: (307) 335-2133 E-mail: pdewell@tnc.org

The Nature Conservancy Helps Ranchers Fight Leafy Spurge

Clear Lake, SD—August 30, 2001—This summer The Nature Conservancy of Minnesota helped ranchers in South Dakota who own more than 20,000 acres of native pastureland battle leafy spurge by collecting spurge-eating flea beetles and releasing them on ranch land.

Staff from The Nature Conservancy, together with local ranchers and other landowners, swept through tracts of leafy spurge collecting tiny flea beetles with heavy canvas nets. The beetles were then transported to pastures and grasslands where they will spread the fight against spurge.

Leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula) looks harmless enough, but this relentlessly spreading plant from Europe overtakes prime livestock pasture, chokes out native grasses and seems impervious to conventional attempts to eliminate it. Cattle and many other grazing animals won't eat it. The United States Department of Agriculture estimates the leafy spurge plague costs ranchers in the Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming more than $144 million a year in losses.

"Sometimes agricultural interests and conservation groups like The Nature Conservancy find themselves on opposite sides of the fence on some issues," said Pete Bauman, the Conservancy's land steward for eastern South Dakota and southwestern Minnesota. "But when it comes to fighting leafy spurge, everyone is on the same side. We're hoping these beetles are the long-desired solution to the leafy spurge problem. This biocontrol program helps us find common ground with our ranching neighbors and opens the door to further discussions about protecting private land."

The flea beetles not only feed on the leaves, flowers and stems of leafy spurge but also lay their eggs at the base of the plants. In spring, the next generation of beetles begin eating the plants' roots and boring into the stems. The insects have been imported from Europe and Asia where spurge also originated. Leafy spurge first spread to the Great Plains about a hundred years ago during westward expansion. It establishes what biologists term a 'monoculture.' In other words, it often eliminates other plants in the growing area. The Conservancy has been controlling leafy spurge through chemical spot treatment for more than 15 years, trying to help native plants and animals survive in compromised grassland habitats of the northern Great Plains.

The Nature Conservancy is an international conservation organization that works to preserve plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and water they need to survive. The Minnesota Chapter has more than 22,000 members and volunteers and has been involved in the protection of nearly 400,000 acres in the state; the eastern South Dakota program is administered by the Minnesota Chapter for conservation work in the prairie coteau region of the two states.