Livermore landowners cooperate on invasive weed control

By Linda Bell
Livermore Correspondent

No matter how much mitigation you do on your own land to limit wildfire, if your neighbor does nothing, your risk becomes almost as great as his. The same holds true for weeds, which are estimated to destroy more land in America each year than wildfires, and are more costly to control.

With this in mind, the Northern Larimer County Habitat Partnership Program is entering its second year of a three-year initiative to offer landowners weed management strategies at substantial savings through a cost-share program, according to founding member Al Johnson.

Jennifer Gorek, a senior weed specialist at the Larimer County Weed District office, said 2004 ownership participation in the cost-share program represented 26,437 acres.

"It's truly a win-win proposition," Johnson said, "and we got a good start our first year. We still need to bring more landowners on board to participate though."

He said this is an ideal opportunity for neighbors to come together to coordinate weed management, mapping, chemical use and continuing oversight. The Lone Pine and Rabbit Creek drainages connect all land from upstream formation tributaries down to their confluence with the North Fork of the Poudre, he said, and water is one of the primary ways weeds spread.

Besides the NLCHPP, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Larimer County Weed District, Colorado State Land Board, U.S. Forest Service, Center for Invasive Plant Management and the Bureau of Land Management all sponsor the weed control cost-share program.

The weed species eligible for reimbursement are Canada thistle, leafy spurge, musk thistle, spotted knapweed, Russian knapweed, diffuse knapweed, yellow toadflax and Dalmatian toadflax.

Johnson said the weed initiative is a priority issue for funding by the NLCHPP, which lists it as "improvement in vegetative conditions for wildlife and livestock."

The NLCHPP is currently accepting 2005 grant applications from landowners for weed control and other issues, including water resource improvement, management for threatened or endangered species, management for chronic wasting disease, management of hunting access in areas where wildlife has overpopulated, fire management, fencing issues, big game issues, management of land use development for its impact on wildlife and agriculture, and small parcel management.

The NLCHPP, initially funded by the Colorado Division of Wildlife, is one of 19 Habitat Partnership Programs in Colorado designed to enhance and manage wildlife in a specific region.

For more information on the local cost-share program call Steve Znamenacek, district wildlife manager for Poudre Canyon and DOW representative on the HPP, at 472-6078. Information is also available at the NLCHPP web site http://nlchpp.com, by calling the Larimer County Weed District at 498-5768, or visiting the web site www.larimer.org/publicworks/weeds/enterprise.htm.