Tumbleweed battle

The war against tumbleweeds seems never ending.

People are using wood chippers, pitchforks anything to get rid of the pesky plant.

A group of volunteers say they filled two dumpsters the size of a semi-truck at the Cuchares Ranch neighborhood over the weekend, but that didn’t get the job done.

El Paso County said tumbleweeds have been a significant problem for more than five month, but it has a problem solver.

“Sometimes the best you can do is learn from others. Crowley County implemented and modified a machine called a forage cutter,” El Paso County Operations Manager Max Kirschbaum said.

The machine grinds up tumbleweeds and turns them into dust, but money could be a problem.

The cutter costs about $250,000. The county wants to buy one for less than $50,000.

Even though the machine could be a quick solution to the tumbleweeds, the county still needs help from a higher power.

“At some point, we have to get help from Mother Nature to either blow the tumbleweeds along, or to eventually make them more brittle and break, which can diminish the problem,” Kirschbaum said.

Kirschbaum said tumbleweeds are still going to be a problem going into the summer.