To Save Sagebrush, Researchers Unleash the Power of Sheep

Researchers in Idaho have found a way to use sheep to rid vast swathes of public grazing sagebrush lands of invasive weeds.

The weeds, spotted knapweed (Centaurea maculosa) and leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula), are native to Europe. They were introduced to the United States in the 1800s and now infest much of the northern U.S.

'Those plants come from where the sheep come from, if you want to think about it that way,' said Steven Seefeldt, a researcher with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service in Fairbanks, Alaska.