Landowners combat weeds and love their grass

By Ellen Nelson
North Fork Weed Co-op

The North Fork Weed Co-op is a group of landowners in the watershed of North Fork of the Cache la Poudre River who care about preventing the spread of noxious and invasive weeds.

Members include large ranches, small acreage owners and public land management agencies like the U.S. Forest Service and the Larimer County Weed District. This unique group gathered recently at the Livermore Community Hall to share a friendly potluck dinner, discuss their experiences managing weeds and learn how to "love their grass."

After dinner, Kit and Lori Nielsen talked about battling cheatgrass on their acreage in Bonner Peak Ranch. The Nielsens purchased their property in 1996, and observed changes over the years based on rainfall, grazing and management techniques. Some years, cheatgrass was winning, and other years, native grasses dominated.

But, one day in 2007, Kit "snapped." The cheatgrass in his socks finally drove him over the edge. He began mowing and bagging cheatgrass; he took nine truckloads of cheatgrass clippings to the dump. He learned about an herbicide, Plateau, which when applied at correct rates kills cheatgrass without harming native grasses. He rented equipment from the Larimer County Weed District and treated his property in the fall. Fall is when cheatgrass cheats the grasses, by germinating and establishing a root system that is ready to use early moisture from spring snowfalls.

The 2008 growing season brought the Nielsens a beautiful meadow with significantly less cheatgrass and healthy stands of native grasses. This effect was especially dramatic on a property line where vegetation change can be seen from across the valley.

Ernie Marx, former Larimer County Extension agent, demonstrated what it means to "Love Your Grass." He passed out stuffed animals and asked us to imagine the feelings we have for our child while holding these animals. He led us to understand that we take it for granted that we have a responsibility to provide for and nurture our animals. Most people feel distressed and uncomfortable when shown a picture of a severely emaciated horse, but when shown a severely overgrazed pasture, we assume this is normal for drought-prone Larimer County.

The key comes in understanding how grass grows. Allowing animals to graze a pasture year-round (continuous grazing) is detrimental to a plant's ability to store energy and regenerate leaves. Grass needs a rest period after being grazed (30 to 120 days minimum) to restore roots and grow more leaves.

"Love Your Grass" means never doing anything to hurt your grass. Continuous grazing hurts grass. The question to ask when considering turning livestock out to graze is not "Does my horse want to graze?" but rather, "Is my grass ready to be grazed?"

The North Fork Weed Co-op provides education and assistance to landowners (including homeowner associations) on management of noxious weeds and pasture establishment and maintenance. Members receive newsletters and have access to a range/pasture seed cost-share program, site assessments, management recommendations, mapping, plant identification and most-current weed management practices.

The co-op works with Colorado State University to establish research and demonstration sites and to conduct educational tours. For more information, call 218-6369 or visit the web site www.northforkweedcoop.org.