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Show Wulo Easter weekend is a traditional tra-ditional time for families to make their first spring outing. out-ing. The weekend past was a beautiful one for families to take to the hills and desert to shake off the winter doldrums. dol-drums. And many did, despite des-pite the price of gas, which turns any outing into an expensive ex-pensive one. Unable to make our usual trek Into the desert, we did manage to talk Doc into letting let-ting us escape the confines of St. Mark's long enough to get some fresh air, and a Wendy's Hot and Juicy Hamburger. Ham-burger. After six weeks here, it was great to be out for even just a couple of hours. It certainly wasn't the same as an excursion into the desert, but then with the late storms it will probably prob-ably be Memorial Day before be-fore the desert really gets into bloom. - 0 - We've always leen amazed at the phenomlnal growth of desert flowers. Seemingly Seeming-ly nothing there when soil temperatures, moisture ana conditions are all right, the long dormant seeds germinate, germi-nate, sprout and bloom, often of-ten in the space of 24 hours. Some complete their entire life cycle In that period, while others may show their presence for longer periods. While most drive through the desert, seeing only sage, rocks and on occasion, flowers flow-ers along side the road, they miss most of the fabulous beauty. The tiny flowers that spring forth from seed trapped in the roots of sage or under the lip of a rock. That used to be our way, until Ralph Holmgren, the perennial biologist caretaker care-taker of the Deseret Experimental Experi-mental Range showed us the desert. He'd guide us through the sage, suddenly kneeling to point out a new leaf, or sprout or a flower. Resuming the walk he'd explain ex-plain the how's why's and wherefore's that provided pro-vided the necessary conditions condit-ions for each tiny plant to exist in the harsh environment. environ-ment. - 0 - Ironically, as the debate goes on over the MX system sys-tem and how to deploy it, the threat to Utah and Nevada's Ne-vada's desert valleys is not the missile itself, or nuclear war with Russia. The biggest big-gest threat is another Russian Rus-sian import, Ilalogetin. Introduced In-troduced as a ground cover many years ago, this innocu-lous innocu-lous looking weed has proven itself to tie poisonous to live -stock under certain conditions. condi-tions. Because Halogeten is not as tasty as it looks, livestock will seldom eat enough of it to kill them. Proof that It can is recorded in several instances, when whole herds of sheep were wiped out almost overnight, from eating it. In Feb. 1971 nearly 12,000 sheep died in our west desert from eating the pesky weed. Because livestock deaths are rare, and because of (Continued on Page 2) HERE'S MORE ABOUT Just Between some sentiment for it's value as a ground cover to halt erosion, little has been done to eradicate this obnixious weed. Farmers and ranchers know that it's extremely prolific pro-lific and everywhere that the delicate desert eco system is disrupted by a blade scratching the surface, a tire track, flash floods or other means, the hardy halo-geten halo-geten plant will quickly take over. Ranchers fear that construction con-struction of MX and the extensive ex-tensive roadways necessary to the race track method of deployment will open the valley val-ley floors to a takeover by halogeten for this reason, MX if it is built, must include in-clude immediate reseed-ing reseed-ing of all disturbed areas, as well as a crash program to control, if not eradicate Halogeten. - 0 -It comes as no surprise that Secretary of Interior, Cecil Andrus, announced that he will not serve another term in Carter's cabinet. , He says he will run for ( Governor of Idaho again. We doubt that Idaho voters will want him back. It's time for political rats to flee Carter's sinkingship. And you can epxect Andrus and Sec. of State Vance's resignations shortly after the national party conventions. conven-tions. If not by their own volition, by a request from President Carter. Carter Car-ter set Vance up with the U.N. vote on Israel, and will try to make him the goat for bungling international relations. rela-tions. Andrus must go if Carter expects to win any electoral votes In the public land states of the west. Assuming Carter gets the Democratic nomination, there may be more of his cabinet get the heave ho! The one talent he's shown as president, is to castigate his friends as well as his enemies. 0 -With Andrus gone, it could open the way for IPP at Salt Wash. This project has more problems at Lyndyll than Carter has peanuts. |
