markpat
By Pat
The foxtails at Douglas Preserve/former Wilcox property are just starting to put out their spikes, quite early. This means that in only a couple of weeks, all over the park, the now-green tails will come apart, harden, and become fish-hook-like barbs, dangerous to dogs’ eyes, ears, paws, and nasal and lung passages, and making the park much less usable to dog-people until 2020-21 winter rains dissolve the old seeds.
I invite interested park users to, as I do, begin taking along a foxtail-collection bag when you go for strolls or dog walks. If everybody pulls off and removes just a couple square feet of the tops, the park will be usable much longer into the year, and thousands and thousands of tops (each foxtail top has more than 100 seeds) will be kept from coming apart. Take them off the property and toss them in your brown-can garbage (not your green can; you don’t want them to go into city mulch).
This is probably a screwy idea, but are there “masks” for dogs that would let them see/smell but keep barbed plants away from their heads?
Ban assault foxtail seeds.
That’s awesome Adamvant! No more foxtail plants with a capacity for more than 10 seeds!