CRAWFORD COUNTY, KAN. - Girard agriculture students are working overtime to keep a neighbor healthy.
Near Farlington Lake a weed called bull thistle is a problem, but an even bigger obstacle is one woman's allergies to the pesticides used to take care of it.
Kara Baker is chemically intolerant, which means the use of pesticides could be life-threatening.
"I call it my invisible enemy because I can't see it, but my body knows it's there," Baker says. "It could make me deathly sick - it can cause severe reactions."
Allowing the weeds to grow is out of the question
To control the weed problem in a nearby field, Crawford County Noxious Weed Director Ed Fields went to the root of the problem.
"It is a profuse seeder, it takes over ground and pastures real fast," says Fields. "It's seed will lay around for a long time so this method we used today is basically a control method, the same way you would use a chemical as a control method."
Fields and Girard High School's Crop and Soil Sciences class put in over 20 work hours to dig up every bull thistle they could find.
"It's kind of a tough situation for the landowner and for my type of business because I use chemicals every day, and actually love how they work," Fields says. "They do make work a lot easier."
Fields asked Baker and her husband, J.O., to join in, and to educate them on the method.
"To let them know it is an extra effort that has to be done, and if they understand the extra effort they might be more lenient to what the chemical use actually is, because there are some good chemicals that are not very harmful to the environment," explains Fields.
"It was fun today, that was OK," Kara Baker says. "I'll go for mechanical irradication out of the weeds any day, I would be willing to help. It was fine."
The method used will not irradicate the problem. It only controls seed production.
Fields is urging Kara and J.O. Baker to visit the field again in the summer and dig up weeds since the thistle is biannual and a profuse seeder.
By NINA CRISCUOLO
