Puncturevines produce these painful thorns.
Doug Pauly goes into action, seeking and destroying the painful weed. Photos of Doug by Niki Panek
Goathead Warrior Ridding the Valley of those thorns that puncture bike tires and wound dog paws
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By Doug Pauly
tall, white-haired guy in a camo hat walking down the street with a shovel, leather gloves and a black garbage bag makes people nervous. Except my wife. For 30 years Katie has tolerated her husband’s quirky passion as a Goathead Warrior. Smart husbands go hunting or fishing and bring home food for the table. Bring home 20 pounds of goatheads in a garbage bag? The plants are neither edible nor impressive as a mounted trophy above a fireplace. I’ve been hunting and killing goatheads (a.k.a. puncturevine) for three decades. With three kids who grew up riding bikes, clearing the goatheads in our neighborhood took less time
than constantly fixing flat tires. It is easy to hate goatheads. The razor thorns puncture bicycle tires and by easily sticking to shoe bottoms, car tires and animal paws, can quickly spread to other properties in a neighborhood. The rapidly growing vines climb onto sidewalks and through fences onto adjacent property. Scouting for goatheads is fun and challenging. Walking in the still of the morning, I scan the tangle of weeds adjacent to the street or riverfront trail for a goathead’s tell-tale vine pattern, its unique serrated leaf, the sharp spined thorn or its easiest giveaway, bright yellow five petal flowers. A flashing shovel blade slices the tap root, killing the plant instantly. A rapid, staccato like
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motion can kill 40-plus small plants per minute. Large plants, which grow over 16 feet in diameter, require strategically aiming the blade to sever the tap root without cutting attached vines or dislodging thorns. Each thorn has seeds inside that can lay viable in the ground for 5-plus years. When my blade contacts the tap root, there is a quiet pop when it slices. Next is carefully lifting the severed plant into an open garbage bag. Heavy leather gloves protect my hands. Any thorn-to-skin contact delivers an instant and painful reminder not to do it again. In contrast to analyzing complex fruit industry issues, plans and problems, the simplicity of this “seek and destroy” mission is refreshing. It touches a primal
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June 2020
instinct in me. Think Rambo carrying a shovel. The walking and upper body shovel exercise is healthy for anyone who works at a desk. Perhaps most importantly, after a few hours of clearing a neighborhood or section of the Loop Trail, I can watch young people and families bicycle past knowing they are far less likely to get a flat tire. The same with dogs who walk by without limping from a goathead thorn. It is a deeply rewarding feeling. Reducing goathead infestation levels makes a neighborhood a nicer place to live, ride a bike or walk a dog. Eliminating them “moves the needle” on the quality of life for every neighbor. I started scouting just in our neighborhood. When the Loop Trail was built in 1993, goathead
