Blue Weed Blitz volunteers find their roots

Youngest participant with a big root: Walker Anderson
C. Davis photos

Chris Davis, Pincher Creek Voice

Approximately 80 volunteers gathered at Mountain Meadows Ranch southwest of Pincher Creek on Saturday, July 13 to participate in the 11th annual Blue Weed Blitz.


Hosted by the Pincher Creek Watershed Group, a volunteer organization, the Blue Weed Blitz is a day-long effort to eliminate as much of the noxious invasive plant from the banks of the Pincher Creek as possible.  The Watershed Group's mission statement is  “to work together, as a community to improve the health of the creek”.

Blue Weed Blitzers

Volunteers divided into smaller groups and fanned out to cover as much area as possible, starting the day in relatively cool conditions which got significantly hotter as the day progressed.  At about 5:30 pm they reconvened at the Mountain Meadows Ranch to compare their results and to dine on a roast beef dinner.  Tony Bruder prepared the beef, others brought the trimmings.  Brad Bustard acted as MC for a brief and light-hearted ceremony during which various awards and prizes were handed out.

Rowan Hancock

"There were 240 bags of blueweed picked today," said Bustard.  "Thanks for coming out and thanks for your efforts and your help in terms of the health of the watershed."  Participant Kelly Cooley estimated about 240,000,000 million seeds were removed from the ecosytem."

"A quarter of a billion worth of seeds!" said Bustard . That's a lot of seeds that kids like Duke and Walker Anderson won't have to pick when they're older."

"Everybody who showed up today was pretty determined.  You picked a weekend out of your summer to come out and pick a noxious weed."

Pulling weeds is tiring work!

Bustard thanked Shell Waterton, the MD of Pincher Creek, the Town of Pincher Creek, Oldman Watershed Council, Alberta Conservation Association, Nature Conservancy of Canada, Waterton Park, and Alberta Parks and Recreation for their support.  

Walker Anderson was the youngest weed killer at this year's event. 

Hans and Karin Buhrmann with Brad Bustard

Hans and Karin Buhrmann were the hosts for the event and also the oldest weed killers.

Above and below: Rob and Brad show off the biggest catch of the day

The biggest root of the day was found east of town by Michelle Spencer and Kristin Burman.

Michelle Spencer and Kristin Buhrman

Major prizes for Bill Thorpe

Bill Thorpe went home with two rewards.  "We found an original Blueweed Blitz participant," said Bustard, displaying a dishevelled baseball cap.  He said Thorpe was  "Charged with doing a
DNA analysis to find out who this was."  Thorpe's other reward was a well preserved vehicle bumper found during the blitz.

Members of Team Oczkowski

"The biggest award of the evening is the Bent Back Award," announced Brad Bustard.  "This is certified SRM material free, so it's good for BSE.  There's no brains involved on that."  The award went to the Oczkowski team.

Team Pazdernick travelled all the way from Coaldale to participate, but were eliminated for the "farthest away" award on a technicality,  so the official winners were the Waterton Crew.

The Harriett Crew worked on one weed for half and hour.

Watch for the Blue Weed Blitz to return for its 12th year in 2014.   We're rooting for you.

The subtle technique of  Chef Tony Bruder