Project Overview
Annual Reports
Information Products
Commodities
Practices
- Education and Training: networking, participatory research
- Farm Business Management: budgets/cost and returns
- Natural Resources/Environment: wildlife
- Pest Management: biological control, prevention
- Sustainable Communities: partnerships, analysis of personal/family life, social psychological indicators
Proposal abstract:
Invasive weeds have overtaken millions of acres of Western rangelands, yet vast tracts of land remain weed free. To protect these high quality rangelands, this Western SARE Professional + Producer grant aims to develop Weed Prevention Areas, or WPAs, that work as local early detection and response mechanisms to stop weed spread. The project will develop a 200,000-acre WPA in Garfield County, Mont., involving 14 weed-free ranches. This pilot project will educate stakeholders about identifying weeds, the importance of early intervention, the impacts of failure and the long-term benefits of prevention stewardship. The project will attempt to interrupt pathways of weed dispersal, especially where humans are the vector, and develop a systematic early detection and response strategy by frequently sampling probable sites of invasion. Eric Miller, Garfield County extension agent and project coordinator, notes that producers can play a vital role in curbing invasive weeds because their broad knowledge of rangelands means they are often the first to detect an invader.