Isolated pockets of wild oats in northern Idaho already show resistance to one. That's been a major research focus. Wild oats in Idaho. At Twin Falls, UI weed specialist Don Morishita also lists wild oats as a major threat to crops. A College of Agriculture weed initiative seeks to stop the drain weeds pose to farm finances, particularly when tough markets slice margins paper thin.
Rangeland faces the same destructive threats from weeds.
Yellow starthistle gets the pick as one of the worst weeds from both northern and southwestern Idaho. Thill names starthistle because it blankets prime grazing areas. Rush skeletonweed has already spread rapidly across southern Idaho rangelands, exploding from a 40-acre patch first spotted near Banks in 1963 to cover some 4.5 million acres. Thill would add spotted knapweed and meadow hawkweed for the north. With the knapweeds, Morishita believes educating people to spot the invaders on private and public lands will help cut their spread.