Wildlife Refuge and Wheat Field
Sites of Weed Control Project

BOZEMAN -- The two sites couldn't be less alike. One is a marshy part of the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge in western Montana. The other is eastern Montana prairie along the Yellowstone River and beside a wheat field.

But the resources of both have been put at risk by foreign weeds, and both are part of a statewide display of alternatives in weed control.

People in Montana tend to be united in their aversion to noxious non-native plants, says Roger Sheley, the Montana State University noxious weed specialist, and these projects have united the "anti-herbicide" people and organizations and the old-time weed fighters who rely on herbicides.

One goal of the project is to let all Montanans see the effectiveness of the most current integrated and alternative weed management techniques under a variety of conditions.

You can turn off Highway 269 along the Bitterroot River near Stevensville and enter the marshy wetlands of the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge, the protected home of waterfowl and, more recently, spotted knapweed.

In an attempt to control knapweed's destruction of bird habitat, the refuge also became home this year to one of the state's first weed control demonstration projects.

One-half mile into the refuge is a fenced area encompassing 15 16-foot-square plots.

The self-guided tour explains the control methods being used in each plot. The methods range from goat grazing to burning and from herbicides to hand-pulling. There are also plots for different depths of mulch, wood chips and compost, periodic tilling and mowing.

If the treatment might help, it's being tried. Both spot treatment with vinegar and hot water sprayed from a carpet cleaner are alternatives being tried. Steam already has been used to control annuals in some urban settings and in some parts of Canada hot water is being used to combat weeds along railroad rights-of-way, according to MSU's Ravalli County Extension Agent Rob Johnson, who helped set up the wildlife refuge demonstration site.

While several of these methods are not selective in the plants they attack, the goal of the program is to try some of everything to control knapweed, Johnson says.

When Roger Sheley applied for a Montana Noxious Weed Trust Fund grant to set up these demonstration projects, he envisioned a diversity of projects that would "mimic integrated management systems in these small spots."

By integrated management, Sheley means any combination of chemical, mechanical, biological and cultural control methods that eliminate or keep in check a noxious weed.

Sheley believes that a weed containment program must acknowledge diversity, that no single control method can eliminate weeds forever. With these demonstration sites, a variety of methods can be tried together and separately. Success can be weighed in many ways, whether it is eradication or economic feasibility coupled with acceptable control.

"We have people involved who are anti-herbicide and old-time weed fighters who will use anything," Johnson notes. Johnson is working with the staff at the Lee Metcalf Refuge, the Alternative Energy Resource Organization (AERO), Friends of the Bitterroot Weed Team, Youth for Research and Education, and others on the refuge's demonstration site.

Together the groups agreed on the methods to be tried and then followed through by contributing labor needed to start and maintain what is planned to be a 10-year project. The coalition's first site tour last summer attracted many "who'd never thought of weeds as a problem before," Johnson recounts.

Touring the demonstration site in Prairie County is a little more tricky than pulling into the wildlife refuge. First you have to be sure that Dennis Teske isn't irrigating his wheat fields or you're likely to get stuck.

The Prairie County site, established in a stand of cottonwoods along the north side of the Yellowstone River, resulted from a meeting among local weed board members, county agents and ranchers/producers, all of whom wanted to try different methods to stop the spread of leafy spurge along the banks of the Yellowstone.

Teske volunteered the use of this 175-foot by 40-foot site roughly seven miles downriver from Terry.

Of the 28 plots established in the summer of 1996, 24 involve chemical applications -- a variety of combinations of chemicals applied at various phases of plant growth. Some of these are coupled with mowing, burning, fertilizing and cultivating. Four of the plots involve these activities without the chemicals.

Outside the fenced-in site, sheep graze on the weed in another test of leafy spurge control. The area is typically grazed by cattle who can't stomach the weed. The sheep may prove essential along the changing banks of the Yellowstone where large-scale chemical application is not appropriate or effective, says Mark Manoukian, MSU's Prairie County Extension agent.

Biological control sites are to be added to the project next spring.

Manoukian hasn't lugged a carpet cleaner to this site yet, but he notes the "we're using some home-recipe stuff" along with traditional methods of combating leafy spurge.

"The intent of this plot is to demonstrate several control measures to see which are more suited to long-term control of leafy spurge," Manoukian explains. Hand-tilling was added to the list when the logistics of driving 40 miles to Miles City to rent a rototiller seemed too complicated and troublesome.

"Besides, it's good aerobic exercise," jokes Manoukian.

Sheley sees the differences between these two demonstration sites as evidence of a successful program. The goal is to have roughly 20 sites spread throughout the state by 1997.

The sites will demonstrate methods to combat the weed problems unique to each area. All sites will be accessible by tour, some self-guided and some through Extension agents. All will be established for at least five years; 10 years is the target where possible.

Education is the ultimate goal. Sheley promises the demonstration sites will allow all Montanans to witness the effectiveness of the most current integrated and alternative weed management techniques under a variety of conditions.

Send questions or comments and your name, city/state/country to Carol Flaherty, MSU Communications Services, Bozeman, MT 59717 or email to carolf@montana.edu.

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