GARFIELD COUNTY, CO – Garfield County is considering a proposed ordinance that enforces the management of noxious weeds on real properties in unincorporated areas of the county. Garfield County Noxious Weed ordinance 2023-2 pinpoints non-compliant landowners with large infestations of weeds and gives Garfield County Vegetation Management another tool to try and mitigate the problem. The ordinance allows staff to work with adjacent landowners to identify properties with infestations of noxious weeds that may be spreading across their boundaries. Current enforcement strategies in the county’s noxious weed management plan are adopted from the Colorado Noxious Weed Act and have been

Garfield County and the Bookcliff, Mount Sopris, and South Side Conservation districts are once again offering landowners financial assistance for controlling noxious weeds and trees on their properties. Cost-sharing is available for all state of Colorado listed noxious weeds and watch list species, including Russian olive, tamarisk, and Siberian elm trees. Landowners are advised to prepare for weed treatments in early spring. White top and biennial thistles are the first noxious weeds to appear and can be difficult to spot before flowering, at which time it is too late for many treatments. Applications for the Noxious Weed Cost-Share program are

Garfield County Vegetation Management is pleased to announce that, for the fourth year in a row, photograph entries are being accepted for the annual “Noxious Weeds of Garfield County” calendar photo contest. Winning photos may receive up to $300 and will be featured in the 2024 calendar. Last year, a combined total of $1,400 was awarded to three winners for their submissions for the 2023 calendar. Photo entries are not limited to noxious weeds, but can also include wildlife, livestock, weed mitigation efforts, native habitats, biocontrol, natural landscapes, agricultural settings, and more. You can submit as many photos as you

The Garfield County Vegetation Management Department is seeking images related to noxious weeds for its annual calendar. Winning photos may receive up to $300 and will be featured in the 2023 calendar. Photos of noxious weeds, weed removal, and mitigation efforts, biocontrol, native habitats and agricultural settings, and wildlife will all be considered. Submission guidelines • Photos must be at least 10×13 inches, and at a resolution of 300 dpi • Photographers must be a resident of Garfield County, and include name and contact info with submissions • Submissions must detail when and where the photograph was taken • Submissions

The Garfield County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) currently seeks volunteers to serve on the county’s Noxious Weed Advisory Board. This board provides advice to the Board of County Commissioners pertaining to the county’s responsibilities under the Colorado Noxious Weed Act.

Applications are available for 2021 Noxious Weed Cost Share program Garfield County and the Bookcliff, Mount Sopris, and South Side Conservation districts are once again offering landowners financial assistance for controlling noxious weeds and trees on their properties. Cost-sharing is available for all state of Colorado listed noxious weeds and watch list species, including Russian olive, tamarisk, and Siberian elm trees. Landowners are advised to prepare for weed treatments in early spring. White top and biennial thistles are the first noxious weeds to appear and can be difficult to spot before flowering, at which time it is too late for

The Board of County Commissioners seeks volunteers to serve on the county’s Noxious Weed Advisory Board. This board provides advice to the Board of County Commissioners pertaining to the county’s responsibilities under the Colorado Noxious Weed Act. Please apply by December 10. Continue reading Garfield County Noxious Weed Advisory Board opening

The fall is a great time to treat noxious weeds and Garfield County Vegetation Management is encouraging landowners to do so during the cooler months ahead. Through the Garfield County and Bookcliff, South Side and Mount Sopris Conservation Districts’ noxious weed cost-share program, landowners may receive financial assistance with efforts to control noxious weeds on their properties.

Residents asked to beware of mysterious seed packets Local residents have been receiving strange seeds from China in the mail PRESS RELEASE 7.30.20 Garfield County Vegetation management is asking the public to be aware of strange seed packages that have popped up in mailboxes in all 50 states in recent days. The seeds are unsolicited and appear to originate from China. The Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) has reported numerous calls from Coloradans that have received the seed packets, which are unidentified and could potentially contain invasive plants, introduce diseases to local plants or harm livestock and animals. Read more

Garfield County is searching for volunteers to fill four vacancies on its Noxious Weed Advisory Board for three-year terms. Three seats are open to landowners with more than 40 acres in unincorporated Garfield County, and one to a representative from the city of Rifle. The noxious weed board meets quarterly and advises the Board of County Commissioners on all matters related to noxious weeds, including mitigation in Garfield County. Letters of interest must be received by Garfield County Vegetation Management Program Coordinator Sarah LaRose by 5 p.m. on June 11. Call (970) 945-1377, ext. 4315, with questions.

Garfield County’s annual program to rid invasive noxious weeds is underway and participants can earn vouchers through June 4 toward landscaping or garden plants at the Mountain Valley Greenhouse in Glenwood Springs. Garfield County Vegetation Management’s Purge the Spurge and Sock the Rocket campaign urges citizens to mitigate Myrtle and Cypress spurge, and Dame’s rocket from their properties. Continue reading Purge the Spurge through June 4

The 2020 Garfield County pesticide applicator workshop takes place March 18 at the fairgrounds in Rifle. Preregistration is required by March 12, and the workshop costs $45. The training covers private applicator license and continuing education credits for current cardholders and commercial applicators

GARFIELD COUNTY, CO – The sixth-annual “Purge the Spurge” event is now underway through June 30, and this year aims to “Sock the Rocket,” by targeting another noxious weed in Garfield County, the Dame’s rocket. Garfield County residents are urged to pull the three highly invasive noxious weeds – Myrtle and Cypress spurge and Dame’s rocket. Garfield County Vegetation Management has included Dame’s rocket, a highly invasive plant that is spreading throughout the county. All three are noxious weeds originally imported as ornamental garden plants. They readily escape the confines of the garden or lawn and invade areas of native

While a warm, wet spring has meant abundant growth of flowers in gardens and wildflowers in the high country, it has also led to an explosive growth of noxious weeds. In particular, invasive thistles – Scotch, musk, plumeless, bull and Canada – have proliferated in Garfield County. Many of the biennial thistles – Scotch, musk, plumeless, and bull – have already flowered and are well on the way to seeding out or have already done so. Once the biennials start to seed out, they have completed their life cycle and spraying at this point is ineffective. For flowering biennial thistles,

Late summer presents an increased incidence of mosquitoes in Garfield County, creating an increased risk of West Nile Virus. The strongest concentrations of the type of mosquitoes that may carry the virus have been found in the Grand Valley area of Garfield County in recent weeks. This is because that region is warmer and at a lower altitude than the rest of the county, and Mesa and Delta counties have experienced an increase in West Nile occurrences in mosquitoes. West Nile Virus is carried by certain infected birds and transmitted to people by bites from mosquitoes that have fed on

More than 45 volunteers showed up Saturday, October 15 to remove Tamarisk and Russian Olive trees in Rifle. Volunteers cut Tamarisk and Russian Olive trees to the stumps, and then stacked the slash into piles that were later shredded into chips and sent to the landfill. Applicators followed with a herbicide treatment to the cut stumps designed to stop the weed’s regrowth. Garfield County Vegetation Manager Steve Anthony says he was very happy with the turnout, “Next time you are in the rest area take a look at the areas south of the Colorado River and you will notice that

Work is wrapping up soon for a summer of projects the Garfield County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) hired young people to work on locally. The projects involved train maintenance, trail rehabilitation and controlling of invasive plant species in trail areas. The BOCC spent $45,000 to hire the group of young people through a program called the Western Colorado Conservation Corps (WCCC). WCCC provides young men and women ages 14-25 with the opportunity to work and learn in an outside setting on local conservation projects. Employees of WCCC will be given the tools necessary for the successful completion of high

In an effort to find another tool in the box on Garfield County’s most invasive noxious weed, Russian knapweed, the county vegetation management team, in cooperation with the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s Insectary in Palisade, released 100 gall midges to work on the knapweed. The release site was on County Airport property along Mamm Creek and took place in late May. This new agent is Jaapiella ivannikovi. It was first released in North America in 2009 in Fremont County, Wyoming. Last year the Insectary successfully reared and raised the Fremont offspring in their facility in Palisade. Jaapiella is a gall