Theo Stroomer

When Tumbleweeds Attack I began hearing stories in 2014. Tumbleweeds were invading small western towns, piled so high that they trapped people inside their homes and blocked roads. Now they come back each winter with a vengeance, taking over entire communities on the Great Plains. The attacks are nearly impossible to fight. Russian thistle and its cousins thrive in drought. Each plant spreads tens of thousands of seeds when it tumbles. Years of dry weather, changes in agriculture and grazing, and the high winds of the west are breeding millions of tumbleweeds. These infestations reveal a grey area in our evolving relationship with the environment. They are serious, but they’re also, well… weird. Funny, even. People tend to present environmental issues as black and white, clear cut, life and death. To me, this problem is fascinating because it blurs those distinctions. Should we adapt to the tumbleweeds, coping with them every season like snow or rain? Will we introduce another organism to try and eradicate them, as the UDSA is currently considering? What is the right way to face the not-so-terrible-but-still-pretty-weird-and-significant effects of drought and climate change?