SALT LAKE CITY — Christina Hesley’s daughter once had a bad reaction to myrtle spurge.
“My daughter was playing with a friend in a neighbor's yard and she just broke out in a hive-type rash pretty immediately,” she said. “When we see it, we just don't touch it. We have it even in our yard, and you just see it all over the neighborhood, and then you definitely see it all over the trails.”
The Division of Wildlife Resources describes the invasive plant as a dangerous, noxious weed that outcompetes our native plants and degrades wildlife habitats.
“It was planted as kind of an ornamental plant in a lot of homeowners’ yards here in Utah, but since then, unfortunately, it has spread into some of our wild lands and it's become harmful for our environment,” said DWR spokeswoman Faith Heaton Jolley.
In 2021, the DWR made a first attempt at getting rid of the myrtle spurge.
“We were, like, physically pulling these weeds out by hand digging them up,” said Heaton Jolley. “But because the seeds persist in the soil for, like, eight years, the areas that we had pulled, the next year would just grow back.”
This year, they started spraying the spurge with Roundup.
“The herbicides that we are actually using in this treatment allow for quick absorption into the plants and not the surrounding environment,” said Heaton Jolley.
The DWR started spraying in Parleys Canyon, then expanded to Millcreek Canyon. They plan to wrap everything up by June.
“I would just hope that they've been doing enough research to know that it wouldn't impact, like, the amazing sage we have in these hills, or, like, the scrub oak and things like that,” said Hesley.
Heaton Jolley says the herbicides the DWR is using are safe.
“We've been using these type of chemical treatments in different parts of Utah for a long time and we haven't seen any negative impacts to the environment and also to our native wildlife in those areas,” she said.
Hesley says it’s unfortunate that the agency has to fix a problem Utahns created.
“We have got to change our ways with this land,” she said. “We have to be one with it. Instead of trying to have it adapt to us, we need to adapt to it.”
