PUBLIC LANDS -- As I watch the landscape turn brown during this drought, I can't help but notice the knapweed and skeleton weed look green and unscathed.  Too bad elk and deer don't thrive on noxious weeds because...

Noxious weeds gaining ground on federal lands in the Western U.S.
Federal lands agencies say 17 million acres of lands in the western United States have been taken over by noxious weeds. A regional manager for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game said that noxious invaders are more of a threat to wildlife than fires because fires provide some benefit to habitat while weeds just destroy the habitat.
--Idaho Statesman