Eurasian Watermilfoil is a big deal in northern Idaho and the Idaho Legislature threw millions of dollars at the problem this year.

GUARDIAN… I can remember 10 or 12 years ago, when an older gentleman drove up and down the greenbelt (the stretch east of town, up toward Sandy Point) on his John Deere mini-tractor, sprayer on back. I had several conversations with him; he was dispatched from the County facility at Barber Park, and his duty was to engage in JIHAD with the Mother of All Noxious Weeds – the deadly goathead. (AKA puncture-vine – the bane of bicyclists, dogs, bare-feet-walkers, etc.)

Evidently, like Vietnam before, we turned tail and ran. The goathead got the better of us. (I haven’t seen anybody spraying for years.) Hopefully the ol’ boy on his John Deere got his 72 virgins.

Exactly what danger does this “Eurasian Watermilfoil” present? If you need to send in the (taxpayer-funded) Scuba Team to even determine if it exists… I say let’s engage the REAL enemy – the goathead – one last desperate time. Because I’m guessing that more citizens’ lives are impacted in a negative way by the goathead. (Or, maybe it’s just me… my bicycle tires DO seem to attract the goatheads in an unnatural way. Or, maybe the powerful SLIME lobby has distracted the Bureau of Weeds with terrifying tales of the Eurasian Watermilfoil.)