Non-native plants threaten Montana

Gretchen von Rittberg

As spring and the weed season approach I would like to make people aware of what I consider to be an extremely serious threat to both native and cultivated plant environments. Its common name is cheatgrass. Its seeds are the ones which get stuck in your socks. And it is invading Montana.

It is an alien annual grass from Eurasia. It can germinate from the fall until spring depending on the conditions. (It is already growing nicely in the Flathead Valley.) It establishes itself rapidly in early spring robbing later native species of available water and nutrients. It usually dies out in mid-June producing lots of seeds which are viable for 2-3 years.

My friends and I had been diligently fighting spotted knapweed, leafy spurge and other noxious weeds. We did not know what cheatgrass was and what it could do until it had established itself on our properties. Then we realized that it was slowly but surely crowding out the native plants and creeping its way into other previously weed free areas.

We sought advice from Flathead County Weed Control office but they had no clear strategy to offer. So we have been trying to figure out one for ourselves. If we had known earlier what cheatgrass is we would have been able to confront the problem before it got out of hand. We decided that the least we could do was to help other people protect themselves by getting cheatgrass information out to the public.

On August 6, 2007 we presented our case before the Flathead County Weed/Parks/Recreation & Building Maintenance Board. We asked the board to put cheat grass on the noxious weed list. Their response was: there is really no effective way to control it. If the board were to make it a noxious weed, that would mean they would require the public to control an uncontrollable plant. They added that public information was not possible for lack of funding.

(Cheatgrass is on the noxious weed list in Colorado. Colorado State University Extension has excellent information on cheatgrass: http://www.ext.colostate.edu/PUBS/natres/06310.html)

On Nov. 27, 2007 an article titled ?Knapweed Researcher Sees Work Paying Off? appeared in The Missoulian. The article describes how after over 30 years researchers? work has made a difference and significantly reduced the knapweed population in Montana. But the article ended on a sour note. ?And now, researchers have noted that another invasive weed, cheatgrass, often replaces the dying knapweed. Cheatgrass has its own issues. The weed can outcompete other native plants because it takes advantage of early spring moisture and is often finished growing before other plants even get started. Cheatgrass also cures early in the season and makes a fine fuel for wildfire.?

So cheatgrass is a fire hazard as well? On July 28, 2007 NPR?s ?All Things Considered? broadcast ?Safe Zone Method for Wildfires Questioned?. They reported that new research is showing that invasive plant species, cheatgrass among them, are taking over in fire breaks. When dry it is highly flammable and explodes practically like gasoline.

Then in a Feb. 3, 2008 article in The Missoulian titled ?Researchers Analyze Retardant Use? it is reported that a study ?raises the possibility that the red slurry, while helping to slow a wildfire?s advance, could ultimately worsen grassland fires by promoting the growth of cheatgrass, one of the most flammable invasive weeds in the West.?

It seems to me that cheatgrass poses a double threat and in light of last year?s terrible fire season and the continuing drought, a threat we cannot afford to simply ignore. I realize that most Montana agencies dealing with matters such as cheatgrass are underfunded, understaffed and overworked. I think it is time for the state to provide funding for research on this subject. In the mean time there surely must be some organization or agency in the state which could print out fliers on cheatgrass which could be laid out in public buildings throughout Montana. Even if there is no simple solution Montanans deserve to be informed.