{"id":17647,"date":"2019-08-16T09:53:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-16T15:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/news\/county-preserves-ecosystem-with-noxious-weed-care\/"},"modified":"2019-08-16T09:53:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T15:53:00","slug":"county-preserves-ecosystem-with-noxious-weed-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/county-preserves-ecosystem-with-noxious-weed-care\/","title":{"rendered":"County preserves ecosystem with noxious weed care"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
A bumblebee pollinates the flower of a Canada thistle, classified as a noxious weed by the state, in Granby. Noxious weeds threaten native species by taking resources, such as pollinators.<\/strong>
McKenna Harford \/ mharford@skyhinews.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

With its sunny tangerine petals and small blooms, orange hawkweed looks like a harmless flower, but it\u2019s actually one of the top threats to native plant species in Grand County.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Amy Sidener and her team at Grand County Natural Resources come in. From May to October, the department controls and eradicates certain plant species the state classifies as noxious weeds.<\/p>\n

This week, the office is focusing its efforts around the Granby Airport, the Granby Landfill, along US Highway 40 between Granby and Tabernash and County Roads 73, 731, 5, 6, 627 and the Pole Creek area.<\/p>\n

\u201cTypically we try to get on every county road that\u2019s maintained and get all the highway, but the reality this year is we\u2019re not going to be able to do that so we\u2019re triaging and trying to hit the worst looking places,\u201d Sidener said.<\/p>\n

As a county department, Sidener said they are responsible for maintaining all county roads and property, as well as Colorado Department of Transportation rights of way. The department also partners with the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and Colorado Parks and Wildlife to maintain their properties in Grand County when needed.<\/p>\n

The legally required work of handling noxious weeds in Grand County is typically done using herbicides, specifically Milestone and Telar XP. Sidener emphasized that these herbicides are low toxicity products that target the specific noxious weeds they are handling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not broad-spectrum, they don\u2019t kill everything, they\u2019re targeting what we\u2019re treating,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are spot-spraying, so that\u2019s how we apply the products on the sides of the roads. We\u2019re not boom spraying, we\u2019re not aerial spraying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike the weed-killer Roundup, the herbicides Grand County uses don\u2019t contain the potentially cancer-causing agent glyphosate. She added that a few ounces of the chemicals are mixed with 80 gallons of water before it\u2019s sprayed and noted the herbicides don\u2019t linger in the environment.<\/p>\n

The department is also careful to abide by the herbicides\u2019 labels, which provide specific instructions on how and where to use them, as well as safety precautions. Sidener said they don\u2019t use restricted use products.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be careful and we\u2019re using the safest herbicides that we know of,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

However, some Grand County residents would prefer herbicides not be used at all. Carol Sidofsky, a Fraser resident and one of the founders of Grand Countians Against Spraying Poisons, said she worries about the impact the herbicides could have on residents\u2019 health.<\/p>\n

She would rather the county use non-chemical methods, such as pulling or goats.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Sidener said they don\u2019t have enough capacity to use more time-consuming methods, like pulling, on all of the weeds in the county and that it\u2019s not effective for all plants.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the most part we\u2019re using herbicide because we don\u2019t have time to do anything else,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd depending on the species, mechanical is not very effective. With orange hawkweed, it\u2019s a root spreader, \u2026 so when you pull it, you break off pieces and it leaves 10 more.\u201d<\/p>\n

The department does rely on manual methods when weeds are found too close to water to be sprayed or if they are in a sensitive location, Sidener said.<\/p>\n

When it comes to residents\u2019 concerns, Sidener understands, but is required to handle the weeds if they are on county property. She suggested that anyone who doesn\u2019t want herbicide sprayed on or near their property is welcome to take care of the weeds using manual methods.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would love it if people put us out of work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Overall, whether the noxious weeds are pulled, eaten or sprayed, the importance is to protect the native species in the headwaters community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we have an overrun of noxious weeds, they are using up all the pollinators and not allowing the native species to be pollinated,\u201d Sidener said. \u201cWe should be responsible land owners.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bumblebee pollinates the flower of a Canada thistle, classified as a noxious weed by the state, in Granby. Noxious weeds threaten native species by taking resources, such as pollinators.McKenna Harford \/ mharford@skyhinews.com With its sunny tangerine petals and small blooms, orange hawkweed looks like a harmless flower, but it\u2019s actually one of the top […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-13 19:23:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17647\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}