Sept. 5, 2000

By Gail Binkly
Journal Managing Editor

Like many other counties across the West, Montezuma County is struggling to fend off an influx of tenacious, super-hardy invaders known as noxious weeds.

Far from being minor nuisances that cause aesthetic problems, noxious weeds are a major economic threat to agriculture and a danger to entire ecosystems:

• Farmland invaded by Russian knapweed can lose 50 percent of its productivity, according to a booklet released by the San Juan Mountains Association.

• Five thousand acres per day of Western rangeland is being lost to invasive plants such as leafy spurge, according to the same booklet.

• Wild animals that depend on native plants may starve or be displaced when noxious weeds invade their habitat.

For instance, when purple loosestrife moves into a wetland area, it will displace half to all of the native plants while itself offering no food or habitat for native birds, according to the San Juan Mountains Association.

Spotted knapweed is believed to have cause elk in Montana to abruptly change their migration pattern, according to the Division of Wildlife, and cheat grass is being blamed for a decline in hawks and eagles at one site in Idaho where the invasive grass has destroyed habitat for ground animals.

• Many noxious weeds, including leafy spurge, yellow starthistle and Russian knapweed, are toxic to animals that feed on them or to surrounding plants.

In Colorado, noxious weeds are defined as non-native plants that harm crops, livestock, native plants, or ecosystems. The seeds are transported in numerous ways: on vehicle tires, in hay that isn’t certified weed-free, by animals, even on hikers’ clothing. Also, many weeds are escaped ornamentals, plants that grew in someone’s garden and then spread. Because these plants are in a new environment that lacks the checks and balances of their original habitat, they are able to multiply and spread.

The state has an ever-expanding list of plants declared to be noxious. Montezuma County’s own list of noxious weeds stands at 17

But the two that top the list locally, according to Ron Lanier, manager of the county weed program, are Russian knapweed and Canada thistle.

"The hardest and most toxic, worst weed we’ve got, and the most acres of it, is Russian knapweed," he said. "It’s toxic to horses — it will kill them.

"It has roots 15 to 20 feet deep. It puts a toxin in the soil that kills other plants — it actually generates its own herbicide.

"It’s just a nasty, crappy plant."

Russian knapweed, a perennial that grows in bushy clumps with small pink or lavender flowers, spreads vigorously by its roots and to a lesser degree by seed. If land is intensively cultivated and irrigated, the knapweed is thwarted somewhat, according to Lanier.

"But in this area, where so much pasture land is hobby farms and areas that aren’t farmed at all, we get a lot of it," he said.

Russian knapweed also flourishes along roadsides and in ditchbanks and vacant lots, even some within the city of Cortez, Lanier said.

It is worst north of the city along Highway 666, although there are also some bad patches in western Montezuma County on Goodman Point, he said.

Canada thistle is also a "tremendous problem," Lanier said.

A deep-rooted perennial with small, rose-purple flowers and sharp spines (the taller musk thistle, with its big purple flowers, is commonly mistaken for Canada thistle), it is reportedly one of the most economically damaging weeds in the state.

Canada thistle likes moisture, Lanier said, and outcompetes other plants for the water.

"It’s the first thing that greens up and comes out every year," Lanier said. "It will regrow from its roots after a fire."

Even worse, its roots can sprout new plants if chopped up.

"You get new residents — the first thing they want to do is plow their land," he said. "If they’ve got Canada thistle and they plow it, every one of those root pieces makes a new plant."

Dryland farmers don’t have much problem with Canada thistle, Lanier said, but when the Dolores Project was completed and created 30,000 acres of new irrigated land, the Canada thistle spread.

"It’s just exploded," he said. "There’s not a hayfield out there probably that doesn’t have a patch."

Weeds can be fought with four methods: mechanical (cutting or pulling), biological (using weeds’ natural enemies, such as certain insects), cultural (changing the environment to discourage the weeds), or chemical (applying herbicides).

Although many people balk at the use of chemicals, herbicides remain the most effective means of weed control, Lanier said.

"There’s people that don’t want you to spray any chemicals — they’re afraid of them," he said. "But sometimes it’s the best way."

Biological controls, which sound more appealing, have their limits, he said. Biological controls usually mean insects or fungi from the invasive weed’s place of origin that evolved with the plant and kept it in check.

However, biological methods require years of research to establish their safety.

"It sounds simple to go over there (the weed’s original habitat) and get that stuff and bring it here," Lanier said. "Maybe it’s an insect that kills Russian knapweed, say, but it turns out that it also eats carrots or geraniums or something else and the solution is worse than the problem."

In addition, insects that eat specific weeds can be very expensive and tend to be self-limiting; if they eat all the weeds in an area, they themselves will die out.

Compounding the difficulty of attacking noxious weeds is the number of different agencies that have to be involved. Within Montezuma County, weeds must be fought on private lands within Cortez, Mancos and Dolores as well as rural areas; on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation; along highways, where the Colorado Department of Transportation has jurisdiction; and on public lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service and BLM.

The county’s weed program has a budget of $125,000, which pays for roadside spraying of infestations; two full-time employees (Lanier and Don Morris, who does the spraying); education efforts; and a cost-share program. That program pays half the cost of chemical or biological weed controls for private landowners who want to eradicate their noxious weeds.

A citizens’ weed advisory board oversees the general management strategy.

The county has "an ongoing relationship" with the Forest Service and BLM on weed control, Lanier said. However, he said the city and county have not yet come to an understanding on the issue.

"The city’s got some major weeds problems," Lanier said. "Fully half the complaints I get are about places within the city."

Lanier said he approached city leaders about having them buy one day a week of his time to oversee a citywide weed-management program, but they weren’t interested, at least not for the present.

City Manager Hal Shepherd said city employees mow weeds in parks and along rights-of-way. On private property, management is complaint-driven, he said.

"We try to contact the owner," he said, "and if that doesn’t work out, we can cut the weeds and bill the owner." Violators also may be referred to the Cortez Police Department, Shepherd said.

He said the city is interested in working with the county, but that any new program will depend on the city’s budget. That in turn will be affected by whether Amendment 21, the tax-cut proposal, passes in November, and also on whether sales-tax revenues recover after this summer’s disastrous wildfires, Shepherd said.

At any rate, Lanier said, the county’s cost-share program and advice are offered to city-dwellers as well as rural residents.

The cost-share program, which is funded half by a grant and half by county money, has $40,000 to spread among weed-battling landowners each year. Close to $18,000 is left this year, Lanier said.

"Our point is not to hoard this money, but to give it out," he said.

Under the program, which is in its third year, owners fill out an application for up to $500 in funds.

After an inspection of the weeds on their property, if their application is approved, they then bring in their receipts for the chemicals or biological controls and are given a check in return.

"We try to keep it simple," Lanier said. "The cost-share has been real successful. We’ve gotten a lot of feedback, all positive."

Fall is a good time to fight perennial weeds, he said, because their sap is moving down into their root system, and herbicides are thus carried down into the roots too.

But, despite the success of the cost-share approach, the battle is far from won.

"I’ve been really discouraged this year," he said. "I’ve seen a lot of new infestations of knapweed and Canada thistle. "

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