People perceive weeds as the problem, and therefore perceive attacking those weeds as the solution. But in many ways weeds are more the symptom than the problem. The real problem is that our rangelands are turning to desert. Our land-use practices continue to lead to more and more bare ground between the plants. And bare ground is exactly what noxious weeds need to thrive.
Nobody is to be faulted.
For generations we've been losing the soil under our feet to erosion, as receding plant cover allows wind and water to take it away grain by grain. Our lands are turning to desert, but few people have truly noticed. In some ways we can be thankful for the noxious weeds invasion, because the onslaught changes the land so quickly that desertification becomes unmistakable. The truth is that if we deal with the problem of desertification, then the problem of noxious weeds will largely disappear on its own. How to reverse the process of desertification is a key topic of this web site.