This screenshot of tumbleweeds rolling along a field in north Kamloops was taken in the spring, 2024.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Lyn MacDonald
July 25, 2024 - 6:00 AM
The unique, desert-like landscapes of Kamloops would not be complete without the tumbling tumbleweeds that roll across the roads and rangelands every fall, lending a true Wild West charm to the city.
The big, dried out orbs bounce in rows across the grasslands and often pop up onto highways where they are run over by unsuspecting drivers.
For many longtime residents of Kamloops, tumbleweeds bring nostalgia and a feeling of home, but some are seeing fewer and fewer of the iconic bundles.
“There used to be tons of them, they were literally everywhere,” said Dianna West Prato. “The sagebrush grew along the tracks and dried out and were everywhere.”
As a kid in the 1970s, Prato has seen the climate change and the development grow over the decades, two factors she thinks can be attributed to the lower number of tumbleweeds.
“When I was a kid, it was more of sustained heat and the summer was a little over three months long,” she said. “We’d open the doors of the school and it was like a blast furnace. The hills used to be completely brown, there was never any green.
“Kamloops used to have a more western look because of the ranches, and there used to be more agricultural land.”
Tumbleweeds are dried out plants of several species including lambsquarters, tumbling mustard and Russian thistle, that break away from their roots and are driven by the wind like a rolling masses, spreading seeds.
Many tumbleweeds such as Russian thistle are invasives that can take over agricultural lands. Russian thistle came to the United States with Russian immigrants in 1873 who had flax seed contaminated with Russian thistle seeds, according to Treehugger.
By the end of the 1800s it had rolled on the wind or was dispersed by rail road cars into western Canada.
READ MORE: iN PHOTOS: Baby quail bring extra dose of cuteness to Okanagan landscape
Every winter the thistle plants die and the dried bush tumbles, dispersing seeds.
Whether there are in fact fewer tumbleweeds these days or not, the rolling bushes hold nostalgia for some longtime Kamloops residents.
“It seems like whatever you’re used to as a kid and teen is what your mind holds onto,” Prato said. “The tumbleweeds remind us of growing up, they make us feel like we're home.”
— This article was updated at 2:33 p.m. on Thursday, Aug.1, 2024 to correct the spelling of the subject's first name.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Shannon Ainslie or call 250-819-6089 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.
We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here.
News from © iNFOnews, 2024