Talk on Invasive Grasses Well Attended

A large crowd attended the program at the Raymond Plank Center at Ucross on Friday, August 9, presented by Northeast Wyoming Invasive Grasses Working Group. The NEWIGWG is made up of several partners who are working to control the spread of invasive annual grasses that are unpalatable to livestock, crowd out perennial grasses, add to the fire danger during the summer.

Jaycie Arndt, University of Wyoming, talked about some of the problems that one invasive grass, Ventenata, caused for the native grasses.

She had several slides, handouts and scrapbook pages with the grasses attached to help to identify the various grasses; cheatgrass, Japanese Brome, Medusahead, Ventenata and bulbous bluegrass. The displays showed the seeds, the stalks and the seed heads.

She mentioned that some areas have been overrun with the grass,

Arndt talked about some of the ways to help to control the grasses, how to apply the herbicides and when to apply them for maximum control of the grass.

Walker Billings of the Sheridan County Weed and Pest, talked about the cost and the cost share that the weed and pest will do with landowners. The preferred way to spray the herbicide is via helicopter, which can be expensive, but there are grants and programs available to help to defray the cost the landowners.

He also talked about prevention, which is the first step in helping to control the spread of the grasses.

After the talk, the attendees convoyed out to a local landowner who has a small amount of ventenata on his land, so everyone could see the grass in the field to help them identify it on their property.

For more information contact your local weed and pest, the university of Wyoming, or the Natural Resources Conservation Services.

Or go to www.invasivegrasses.com, or Northeast Wyoming Invasive Grass Working Group.