Tumbleweeds move from Pueblo County to El Paso County

Residents in the southern El Paso County town of Hanover are literally buried in tumbleweeds that began arriving late last week.

Fred Hardman and Ron Uldrikson, who have been next-door neighbors on Loop Road for 25 years, said the latest tumbleweeds are far more numerous than they were last year when wet weather fueled an unusually high growth.

“It’s terrible,” Uldrikson said. “We have (tumbleweeds piled) 20 feet high. I was at work when they came in, and my wife called me.”

“People say it’s impressive, and it is,” Hardman said. “It’s awesome what mother nature can do, that’s for sure.”

Tumbleweeds are piled higher than the roofs of several homes. The bouncing bushes fill yards, pastures and ditches; they also clog fence lines on top of remnants of last year’s weeds, and cover parts of several roads.

Hardman and Uldrikson are using their farm equipment to move tumbleweeds, compact them and crush them. The two neighbors said they also have permission to burn the tumbleweeds on their properties.

After clearing away some tumbleweeds, Hardman was able to see his front door and reclaim his lawn furniture for the first time in nearly a week.

Both men took time from their jobs to remove the tumbleweeds.

“I can see it taking a month to get them all,” Hardman said.

The neighbors believe that overgrazing of pasture land created more space for tumbleweeds to grow, and that unusually wet weather the past year has fueled the growth.

“Cattle like them when they’re green but not when they’re dry,” Hardman said. “There aren’t as many cattle to eat the green tumbleweeds.”

Max Kirschbaum of El Paso County Public Works said the county has begun using its tumbleweed machine to mulch them in roadside ditches.

“It doesn’t seem as though there are as many as last year yet,” he said. “But we have it earlier than we did last year, so we can tackle them while they’re light and dry, before they get compacted. We’ll use it every day that we’re not plowing snow.”

Large amounts of new tumbleweeds appeared in an area of Pueblo County last week.

Tumbleweeds are an enduring symbol of the west but not even native to the region. It’s believed that the plant, also known as Russian thistle, was brought here in grains and seeds imported from Russia in the 1870s.