Next we turn to the inscrutable tumbleweed.

For those of us who don't live on a prairie, tumbleweeds might make you think of an old western.

Or the FAMOUS tumbleweed in The Big Lebowski.

But tumbleweeds are a very real menace in the western U.S.

In places like Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico, the invasive species has swallowed whole homes and blocked roads.

For more on the problem and some possible solutions, we're joined now by Sarah Gilman.

She's an editor with High Country News.