NOXIOUS WEED CONTROL
2024 Cooperative Weed Control Program
ENROLLMENT OPEN!
Small Acreage (< 20 acres)--With your membership of $35 to the Stillwater Valley Watershed Council, and pre-payment of $120, we are offering you the following opportunities:
Large Acreage (> 20 acres)--50% Cost-share up to a maximum $1000 for treatment of weeds on or adjacent to elk habitat.
Small Acreage (< 20 acres)--With your membership of $35 to the Stillwater Valley Watershed Council, and pre-payment of $120, we are offering you the following opportunities:
- Coordinate commercial applicators (at a reduced rate) to perform chemical applications for noxious weed control;
- Cost-share chemical all expenses for first year program enrollees;
- Provide on-site weed control consultation, when requested;
- Provide an educational campaign, offering management tools necessary to successfully maintain a weed-free area.
Large Acreage (> 20 acres)--50% Cost-share up to a maximum $1000 for treatment of weeds on or adjacent to elk habitat.
Wildlife Habitat Improvement Program
Weed Treatment on USFS allotments continues through 2025
Funding will be available through October 2025 to treat noxious weeds within the Custer Gallatin National Forest. Funding from the Wildlife Habitat Improvement Program (WHIP) has enabled Forest Service allotment lessees to utilize monies to hire commercial applicators to treat weeds through the end of this year. Additionally, if any noxious weed infestations are found in the backcountry, please notify the SVWC and we will contact a commercial applicator to get the infestation treated and mapped.
Since 2020, the SVWC has partnered with MT Fish Wildlife and Parks and the US Forest Service to cooperatively treat over 450 acres of invasive species, preventing spread in the backcountry as well as throughout the entire watershed.
Funding will be available through October 2025 to treat noxious weeds within the Custer Gallatin National Forest. Funding from the Wildlife Habitat Improvement Program (WHIP) has enabled Forest Service allotment lessees to utilize monies to hire commercial applicators to treat weeds through the end of this year. Additionally, if any noxious weed infestations are found in the backcountry, please notify the SVWC and we will contact a commercial applicator to get the infestation treated and mapped.
Since 2020, the SVWC has partnered with MT Fish Wildlife and Parks and the US Forest Service to cooperatively treat over 450 acres of invasive species, preventing spread in the backcountry as well as throughout the entire watershed.
Revegetation for Noxious Weed Control
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Backpack sprayer calibration video... |
Weed Management on Small Acres in MT
Great read, don't miss this one!!!
New Invasive Species Video from MT DNRC
Here is another great link for more information about aquatic invasive species: https://www.seattleyachts.com/clean-your-boat-learn-about-invasive-species
VENTENATA ~ New Invader Found in Stillwater & Carbon Counties
Annual Biocontrol Workshop in Fishtail
On behalf of the Stillwater Valley Watershed Council (SVWC) board of directors, I would like to thank Melissa Maggio-Kassner and the MT Biocontrol Coordination Project (MBCP) for aiding in the organization and facilitation of the SVWC’s inaugural biocontrol workshop held in early July in Fishtail, MT.
The Stillwater Valley was one of the first leafy spurge biocontrol release areas in the state. Since the mid-80’s, biocontrol agents have been used extensively as one tool for invasive species management for the difficult to manage leafy spurge. However, leafy spurge continues to gain a foothold in many areas of the watershed and so in recent years there has been a focus on bolstering populations of Aphthona species, A. nigriscutis, and A. lacertosa in order to effectively use more of the tools in the weed control toolbox.
For the workshop, an informal but informative day was planned focusing on biocontrol systems in which everyone would be able to first gain more in depth knowledge about the most common biocontrol agents in MT in a classroom setting. Participants were given a background of the various agents and their target noxious weed species as well as an honest viewpoint for the pros and cons of many biological controls. Next, the afternoon session took the group to a local landowner’s property where a collection site had been established in 2012 in a pastureland draw infested with dense leafy spurge. The purpose of the field visit was to learn about collection and re-distribution techniques for populations of flea beetles and oberea. Participants found the afternoon workshop especially valuable and became experts in identifying the various biocontrol agents present in the leafy spurge population as well as witness the entire process of collecting and transporting the insects.
The accomplishments of the day were made even more successful by the participants and facilitators, from diverse backgrounds, that brought an interesting array of rangeland and weed management knowledge with them. The conversations and relationships forged provided an opportunity to evaluate various management techniques, as well as share successes and failures. We are very grateful for the MBCP and all those who participated throughout the day and hope that everyone enjoyed the day as much as we did and look forward to a successful event next year.
The Stillwater Valley was one of the first leafy spurge biocontrol release areas in the state. Since the mid-80’s, biocontrol agents have been used extensively as one tool for invasive species management for the difficult to manage leafy spurge. However, leafy spurge continues to gain a foothold in many areas of the watershed and so in recent years there has been a focus on bolstering populations of Aphthona species, A. nigriscutis, and A. lacertosa in order to effectively use more of the tools in the weed control toolbox.
For the workshop, an informal but informative day was planned focusing on biocontrol systems in which everyone would be able to first gain more in depth knowledge about the most common biocontrol agents in MT in a classroom setting. Participants were given a background of the various agents and their target noxious weed species as well as an honest viewpoint for the pros and cons of many biological controls. Next, the afternoon session took the group to a local landowner’s property where a collection site had been established in 2012 in a pastureland draw infested with dense leafy spurge. The purpose of the field visit was to learn about collection and re-distribution techniques for populations of flea beetles and oberea. Participants found the afternoon workshop especially valuable and became experts in identifying the various biocontrol agents present in the leafy spurge population as well as witness the entire process of collecting and transporting the insects.
The accomplishments of the day were made even more successful by the participants and facilitators, from diverse backgrounds, that brought an interesting array of rangeland and weed management knowledge with them. The conversations and relationships forged provided an opportunity to evaluate various management techniques, as well as share successes and failures. We are very grateful for the MBCP and all those who participated throughout the day and hope that everyone enjoyed the day as much as we did and look forward to a successful event next year.
Stillwater group makes dent in noxious weeds, seeks to expand mission
October 27, 2014 6:00 am • Story By LINDA HALSTEAD-ACHARYA, courtesy of the Billings Gazette
NYE — Foreign invaders have infiltrated the Stillwater River drainage. And residents of the area are appealing for help to combat them.
The invaders, of course, are noxious weeds that spawn thousands upon thousands of reinforcements each year. Despite the daunting scope of the task, the Stillwater Valley Watershed Council has made noticeable headway in eradicating the trespassers. Now, the group is looking for recruits to further its mission.
“We’re doing a pretty good job on the ground,” said Tim Schaff, one of the founding members of a weed management area that evolved into the Stillwater Valley Watershed Council. “Now we need to educate fishermen, hunters and ATV owners.”
Since 2007, the initial dozen or so participating landowners have grown to nearly 200 dues-paying members. Their $25 annual fee allows them a 50 percent break on hiring a commercial weed applicator to spray their weeds. Mike Lorash, current board chair for the SVWC, said the organization has been awarded more than $250,000 in grants over the years and has made great strides in combating noxious weed infestations.
“I don’t think any of us ever imagined it would become as big as it is,” he said. “It’s been neat to see how far we’ve come.”
Expanding its mission: On the heels of that success, the SVWC has expanded its efforts in both scope and area. More recently, it’s taken on water quality and timber issues. Next year, Schaff added, they hope to schedule a meeting on oil and gas development along the Beartooth Front. Likewise, the council’s reach has grown beyond the upper Stillwater River to include the entire watershed, said Lindsey Clark, coordinator for the SVWC. “Any tributary of the Stillwater,” she said, including the East and West Rosebuds, as well as Fishtail Creek.
Lorash stresses that the SVWC is not a governmental organization but a collaborative effort of multiple parties. Financial backing and boots on the ground have come from the Stillwater Mining Co., the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Absarokee and Nye Community Foundations, among others. Stillwater County, Montana’s Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the U.S. Forest Service have also played key roles.
“Now, we’re looking at collaborating with other groups with common interests,” Schaff said. “If a group comes to us, we’re here to provide the resources and to try to find funding to assist them with their projects.”
Working top-down: The success of the seven-year battle against noxious weeds might be measured in the declining rate of infestation — which plummeted from 12.9 percent in 2011 to 3.2 percent in 2013. “… it’s clear the direct impacts of this project are impressive,” Clark wrote on the SVWC website.
Landowner Noel Keogh, also a founding member of the group, describes how the council attacked the weeds via a top-down approach, working its way down the river and making sure weeds weren’t reinfesting behind. “We achieved our goal, all the way down to the Nye School,” Keogh said. “We’re now working incrementally all the way down.”
The council hopes to keep the momentum going by enlisting youth groups, sports organizations and absentee landowners who recreate in the area. They point out that ATV users, hunters and hikers often transplant seeds inadvertently. “There are so many places on an ATV to catch them,” Schaff said.
Likewise, a hiker or hunter can easily infest an unspoiled area simply by picking houndstongue off their jeans in the back country. “These are the problems,” Schaff said. “How can the rest of you out there be part of the solution?” Hitchhiking seeds: Keogh knows firsthand how quickly the weeds invade and take hold. He was a young boy in the 1960s when an old-timer pointed to a purple bloom growing in the vicinity of a chrome mine, not far from where the Stillwater Mine is now active. “I remember him telling me, ‘I don’t know what that purple stuff is, but it’s not good’,” Keogh recalled. It’s suspected now that the knapweed seeds hitch-hiked to the area on equipment hauled in from mines around Butte. Reclamation work in the 1970s only hastened the weed’s spread. “They bulldozed everywhere,” Keogh said. “They made a perfect seed bed. Soil disturbance is what it loves.”
Though spotted knapweed took root in the upper Stillwater drainage, it never blanketed the hillsides as it does in Western Montana, Keogh said. “The Bozeman pass is terrible now,” he said. “(When the knapweed is in flower) it’s got a blue hue. The critical point is to get to it before it gets to that stage.”
Battling biology: Besides knapweed, the council also combats houndstongue and leafy spurge, the latter of which is rare on the Stillwater but more prevalent in the Rosebud drainages. Yet, the council’s enemy number one remains the purple-flowered knapweed. “It’s the fastest-spreading weed here,” Schaff said. “Prolific” hardly describes how the species can send out 18,000 seeds from one plant, seeds that can virtually germinate overnight.
Knapweed is particularly opportunistic and quick to infest disturbed soils. Once it puts roots down, those roots send out toxins that kill native grasses, Keogh said. If left to flourish, knapweed will choke out desirable bunchgrasses to create a monoculture that depletes the soil of organic matter and invites erosion. “Nothing does well in a monoculture,” Keogh said.
Landowners attack the biennial twice, hitting the rosette that comes up the first year and striking the next year when it flowers and ripens with seed. “Our goal is to never let it go to seed,” Schaff said. “We spray to interrupt the growth cycle.”
The watershed council battles the plant’s biology with a number of tools, including insects and hand-pulling. The group also hires commercial sprayers that target the knapweed with a growth hormone mimicker. The “mimicker” tricks the plant into thinking it’s growing when, in fact, it’s shutting down growth, Keogh explained. “Before (with herbicide 2, 4-D) we were killing all the willows to get the knapweed,” Keogh said. “Now it doesn’t impact the willows and we can spray right up to their edge.”
Landowner buy-in: As the council broadens its attack, it recently published a report on the Stillwater River. The baseline study identifies potential problems, such as irrigation ditches, septic systems and riverbank livestock corrals, and prioritizes actions to address the health of the river. “I think it will be just as big an issue (as weeds),” Schaff said. Already, Keogh said, dozens of landowners have modified their operations to improve water quality. “This template we’ve designed can be transferred down the river,” he added. “Everybody needs to be involved to make this successful.”
NYE — Foreign invaders have infiltrated the Stillwater River drainage. And residents of the area are appealing for help to combat them.
The invaders, of course, are noxious weeds that spawn thousands upon thousands of reinforcements each year. Despite the daunting scope of the task, the Stillwater Valley Watershed Council has made noticeable headway in eradicating the trespassers. Now, the group is looking for recruits to further its mission.
“We’re doing a pretty good job on the ground,” said Tim Schaff, one of the founding members of a weed management area that evolved into the Stillwater Valley Watershed Council. “Now we need to educate fishermen, hunters and ATV owners.”
Since 2007, the initial dozen or so participating landowners have grown to nearly 200 dues-paying members. Their $25 annual fee allows them a 50 percent break on hiring a commercial weed applicator to spray their weeds. Mike Lorash, current board chair for the SVWC, said the organization has been awarded more than $250,000 in grants over the years and has made great strides in combating noxious weed infestations.
“I don’t think any of us ever imagined it would become as big as it is,” he said. “It’s been neat to see how far we’ve come.”
Expanding its mission: On the heels of that success, the SVWC has expanded its efforts in both scope and area. More recently, it’s taken on water quality and timber issues. Next year, Schaff added, they hope to schedule a meeting on oil and gas development along the Beartooth Front. Likewise, the council’s reach has grown beyond the upper Stillwater River to include the entire watershed, said Lindsey Clark, coordinator for the SVWC. “Any tributary of the Stillwater,” she said, including the East and West Rosebuds, as well as Fishtail Creek.
Lorash stresses that the SVWC is not a governmental organization but a collaborative effort of multiple parties. Financial backing and boots on the ground have come from the Stillwater Mining Co., the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Absarokee and Nye Community Foundations, among others. Stillwater County, Montana’s Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the U.S. Forest Service have also played key roles.
“Now, we’re looking at collaborating with other groups with common interests,” Schaff said. “If a group comes to us, we’re here to provide the resources and to try to find funding to assist them with their projects.”
Working top-down: The success of the seven-year battle against noxious weeds might be measured in the declining rate of infestation — which plummeted from 12.9 percent in 2011 to 3.2 percent in 2013. “… it’s clear the direct impacts of this project are impressive,” Clark wrote on the SVWC website.
Landowner Noel Keogh, also a founding member of the group, describes how the council attacked the weeds via a top-down approach, working its way down the river and making sure weeds weren’t reinfesting behind. “We achieved our goal, all the way down to the Nye School,” Keogh said. “We’re now working incrementally all the way down.”
The council hopes to keep the momentum going by enlisting youth groups, sports organizations and absentee landowners who recreate in the area. They point out that ATV users, hunters and hikers often transplant seeds inadvertently. “There are so many places on an ATV to catch them,” Schaff said.
Likewise, a hiker or hunter can easily infest an unspoiled area simply by picking houndstongue off their jeans in the back country. “These are the problems,” Schaff said. “How can the rest of you out there be part of the solution?” Hitchhiking seeds: Keogh knows firsthand how quickly the weeds invade and take hold. He was a young boy in the 1960s when an old-timer pointed to a purple bloom growing in the vicinity of a chrome mine, not far from where the Stillwater Mine is now active. “I remember him telling me, ‘I don’t know what that purple stuff is, but it’s not good’,” Keogh recalled. It’s suspected now that the knapweed seeds hitch-hiked to the area on equipment hauled in from mines around Butte. Reclamation work in the 1970s only hastened the weed’s spread. “They bulldozed everywhere,” Keogh said. “They made a perfect seed bed. Soil disturbance is what it loves.”
Though spotted knapweed took root in the upper Stillwater drainage, it never blanketed the hillsides as it does in Western Montana, Keogh said. “The Bozeman pass is terrible now,” he said. “(When the knapweed is in flower) it’s got a blue hue. The critical point is to get to it before it gets to that stage.”
Battling biology: Besides knapweed, the council also combats houndstongue and leafy spurge, the latter of which is rare on the Stillwater but more prevalent in the Rosebud drainages. Yet, the council’s enemy number one remains the purple-flowered knapweed. “It’s the fastest-spreading weed here,” Schaff said. “Prolific” hardly describes how the species can send out 18,000 seeds from one plant, seeds that can virtually germinate overnight.
Knapweed is particularly opportunistic and quick to infest disturbed soils. Once it puts roots down, those roots send out toxins that kill native grasses, Keogh said. If left to flourish, knapweed will choke out desirable bunchgrasses to create a monoculture that depletes the soil of organic matter and invites erosion. “Nothing does well in a monoculture,” Keogh said.
Landowners attack the biennial twice, hitting the rosette that comes up the first year and striking the next year when it flowers and ripens with seed. “Our goal is to never let it go to seed,” Schaff said. “We spray to interrupt the growth cycle.”
The watershed council battles the plant’s biology with a number of tools, including insects and hand-pulling. The group also hires commercial sprayers that target the knapweed with a growth hormone mimicker. The “mimicker” tricks the plant into thinking it’s growing when, in fact, it’s shutting down growth, Keogh explained. “Before (with herbicide 2, 4-D) we were killing all the willows to get the knapweed,” Keogh said. “Now it doesn’t impact the willows and we can spray right up to their edge.”
Landowner buy-in: As the council broadens its attack, it recently published a report on the Stillwater River. The baseline study identifies potential problems, such as irrigation ditches, septic systems and riverbank livestock corrals, and prioritizes actions to address the health of the river. “I think it will be just as big an issue (as weeds),” Schaff said. Already, Keogh said, dozens of landowners have modified their operations to improve water quality. “This template we’ve designed can be transferred down the river,” he added. “Everybody needs to be involved to make this successful.”