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Getting the best of weeds

along the Rocky Mountain Front

Non-native noxious weeds such as spotted knapweed and leafy spurge have  overtaken much of western Montana. And they’re threatening to do the same on the Rocky Mountain Front, home to generations of ranch families and incomparable wildlife.  

 

“We need to address this weed problem or we won’t have the Front as we now know it,” says Sue McNeal of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

 

That sense of urgency is palpable up and down the Front these days. In the summer of 2004, up to 100 landowners, agencies, volunteers and Montana Conservation Corps mobilized to fight weeds in seven of the Front’s 11 main drainages -- from the Dearborn River in the south to the Blackfeet reservation in the north. Nearly $100,000 in in-kind labor, equipment, chemicals, beneficial insects and cash has been pledged for the project this year, including $5,000 from the Conservancy.

 

“We’re seeing increased motivation and involvement from the landowners. We all realize we have to look at the landscape on a bigger scale, without regard to property boundaries,” says Dave Hanna, the Conservancy’s Rocky Mountain Front land steward.

 

In the Dearborn drainage, about 30 landowners are working with the Conservancy, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Forest Service and the Lewis and Clark weed district on a weed management effort on the south and middle forks of the Dearborn. Last year, the group released about 100,000 flea beetles on leafy spurge, and mapped, pulled and sprayed weeds. This year, the Fish and Wildlife Service is providing cost-share funding to landowners and is bringing in the MCC volunteers to assist in the weed effort.

 

“We’ve developed a committed partnership, and landowners are putting in a lot of time on this,” says Lisa Bay, the Conservancy’s Rocky Mountain Front program associate. 

 

So is the effort making a dent in the weed problem? “Along the Dearborn, it’s still too early to tell,” says Paul Winfield, noxious weed program manager for the Helena National Forest. “But our initial treatment areas look to be successful… where we’ve treated, we’re in the 90 percent range of reducing the weed numbers.”

 

Farther north the weed problem is worse. The main and middle forks of the Teton River have extensive spurge and knapweed infestations. The Conservancy’s Dave Hanna and Mark Korte have developed an area weed management plan and are working with landowners and agencies to map, monitor, spray and biologically control infestations.

 

At Pine Butte, spurge control has been going on for more than 15 years. The strategy has involved spraying isolated patches and the perimeters of large infestations, while using flea beetles on the interiors and in riparian areas. The result has been substantial reductions in leafy spurge.

 

“It’s not just a matter of spraying weeds, then spraying some more,” says Hanna. “The goal is to manage for the plant communities we want, so that when we control the spurge or knapweed we don’t just leave that area for the weeds to recolonize, but we work to encourage desirable plant species.”

 

Over the next few years, the Conservancy will work with its partners to organize weed management to protect the wildlife habitat and agricultural lands in all 11 drainages of the Front.”