An Academic Resource of the Claremont Colleges
Posted in News on Apr 24th, 2014
On the April 19 Workday, a terrific group of volunteers, including students from Citrus and Mt. San Antonio College as well as community members and Claremont Colleges faculty, worked on two projects – removing Maltese Star Thistles and sampling plants in the experimental plots in the burn area. The attack on Maltese Star Thistles (Centaurea […]
Posted in News on Apr 15th, 2014
Readers of this blog will known that one of our most problematic invasive weeds is the Maltese Star Thistle (Centaurea melitensis), also called Tocalote. Usually we devote May and June workdays to removing Maltese Star Thistles, but last September’s burn seems to have given the Maltese Star Thistles a fertilizer boost, and by early April […]
Posted in News on Jun 25th, 2013
This academic year’s last two volunteer workdays on June 1 and 15 were devoted to finishing off the Maltese Star Thistles (Centaurea melitensis aka Tocalote). As previously discussed, Maltese Star Thistles are one of our most problematic invasive plants at the BFS. We’ve continued our strategy of having large infestations in open areas cleared with […]
Posted in News on May 29th, 2013
It’s now that time of year when the Italian Thistles (Carduus pycnocephalus) have gone to seed, so the volunteers have turned their attention to Maltese Star Thistles (Centaurea melitensis, aka Tocalote), which are starting to bloom. You can read about these invasive thistles and our overall Star Thistle management strategy in this post from last […]
Although the BFS volunteers collected fistfuls of thistles last week, they didn’t quite get all the ones by the toad pond and southeast corner of the wake, so they went back this past Saturday for a few thistles more. We also collected some Italian Thistles that were in the vicinity. When we thought we had […]
Posted in News on Jun 5th, 2012
In our third week of Star-thistle Wars, the BFS volunteers focused on an infestation around the ‘new’ toad pond and the areas along the trails and fire roads just southeast of pHake Lake. We removed nearly all the star-thistles in this area, and the haul made quite a mound!
Posted in News on May 27th, 2012
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…. Oops! Wrong STAR WARS. Right now, in this very galaxy, on this very planet, right here at the Bernard Field Station, the valiant BFFs of the BFS battle are battling alien invaders in the STAR-thistle WARS. The alien invader is the Maltese Star-Thistle (Centaurea melitensis) […]
“The destroyer of weeds, thistles, and thorns is a benefactor whether he soweth grain or not. —Robert Green Ingersoll Nine BFS volunteer benefactors devoted part of a beautiful April day to destroying weeds, thistle, and thorns at the BFS this past Saturday. Once again our primary targets were Italian Thistles (Carduus pycnocephalus). Plants that were […]