Farm406

43 farm406 Knapweed and leafy spurge, two of Montana's most aggressive and persistent noxious weeds, first arrived in Sweet Grass County in the 1940s. A half-century later, across the broken foothills of the Absaroka Mountains south and east of Big Timber, both species were well- established. Ranchers Leo and Lois Cremer grew up in the area and were certainly acquainted with knapweed and leafy spurge. But it wasn't until they acquired a tract of neighboring rangeland that they had to confront the full scope of the problem. "It was overwhelming," Leo says. "There hadn't been any weed management. In some areas leafy spurge and knapweed were the dominant species. We stood there staring at it wondering what the heck we were going to do." Stacey Barta, in 2004, was the Sweet Grass County Noxious Weed Coordinator. She wanted to take on the area's weed problem, too. But in order to do it right, she knew the fight would have to continue for a long time – at least long enough to outlast the 8- to 10-year seed supply of knapweed. Nor would it succeed without broad participation from area landowners. A single mature knapweed plant will produce 18,000 to 24,000 seeds per year. If two neighboring landowners are actively controlling weeds and two others nearby are not, a lot of time, effort and money can be wasted. Barta saw an opportunity in 2004 when she learned the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) had a special initiative to fund long-term weed management on a watershed scale. She sat down with Chuck Roloff, District Resource Conservationist for NRCS in Big Timber, and Joe Fidel, then the NRCS Bozeman-area Resource Conservationist, to learn what she would need to submit in a grant application. The first requirement may have been the most For the Long Run: Cooperation & Trust Conquer Weeds in Sweet Grass County By Shannon Ruckman Photography By Eliza Wiley Chuck Roloff, NRCS district conservationist, monitoring grasses for rangeland health in Sweet Grass County, Big Timber, Montana.

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