Cisco Sonar

The Woad has Won

By Bryce Neilson, The Cisco Kid

I really, hate to write this column.  I hate to lose.  I finally have to admit that Isatis tinctoria has won. 

Here in the Bear Lake valley, the beautiful yellow flower that blooms in the spring, Dyer’s Woad, is now out of control.

Once called the “Asp of Jerusalem” has long past.  Its primary use, in ancient times and up to the 1900’s, was as a blue dye.  The Egyptians used it to dye fabric, the Romans painted their bodies with it and the Vikings used it in tattoos.  It probably originated in Asia and Siberia but was cultivated expensively throughout western Europe until indigo and synthetic dyes replaced it.  The Chinese still grow it for medicinal uses and the craft industry incorporates it for blue dye.

 

I first saw it when I was riding with my dad through Sardine Canyon over 50 years ago. He told me what it was and that it may have come from the old Baron Woolen Mills.  As an agronomist, he knew they were an invasive weed, that could become a serious problem if something wasn’t done to control them.  Of course, nobody worried about them and they started to move.  Over the years I watched them colonize Cache County and move up Logan Canyon.  Prior to 1980, I had never seen any in Bear Lake but I located a patch next to my place in Bridgerland.  Apparently, when they built the roads, them must have used a bulldozer that has soil on it that had woad seeds in it.  They are biennials that grow one year and seed the next.  The problem is that the seeds may take from one to ten years to germinate.  It took me eight years to eradicate that small patch. 

Their spread was relentless and as they started growing in subdivisions, around the shoreline of the lake and along roads, I pulled out 1000’s.  I continued my one person battle for years and there were some public attempts to slow them down like the “Bag of Woad” program.  I tried to tell people that they may be a pretty flower but they would displace many native plants.  I wasted my breath.  The recent drought has held the back but with the wet spring, every plant I saw last year now has 50 around it.

I admit defeat and have given up pulling plants as the hillsides become yellow.  The mustard plant has won.  I haven’t seen them move up Laketown Canyon yet to the south side of the county, but rest assured they eventually will be there.