A6
LOCAL
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Invasive weed control: A hard pull goes on
Commissioners get
update on eff orts
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — Prog-
ress is being made toward
managing the invasive weed
problem in Wallowa County,
but there’s still much to be
done, said Andy Marcum,
manager of the Wallowa
County Weed Department,
who led an update on weed
management before the Wal-
lowa County Board of Com-
missioners at their Wednes-
day, Feb. 17 meeting.
Marcum told of numer-
ous areas where noxious
weeds had been eradicated
followed by reseeding, but
said those areas often take
several years to really show
results.
“A lot of successful
places that we have planted
really don’t look successful
in year 1 or 2 or 3,” he told
the commissioners.
Commissioner
Todd
Nash, who raises cattle and
has a test plot he both grazes
and has had reseeded, told of
his own experience there.
“It really wasn’t until
about fi ve years after you
seed before you really started
to see (replacement plants)
start to perpetuate their own
seed and take hold and you
could see it was well worth
it,” he said.
He asked Marcum if graz-
ing helped or hurt efforts to
replace noxious weeds.
“Once it gets established,
your grazing regime does
seem to help,” Marcum said,
adding that a rancher can’t
let it be overgrazed. “You
have to allow these seedings
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Andy Marcum, left, manager of the Wallowa County Weed Department, gives an update on
weed control eff orts in Wallowa County to the county commissioners at their Wednesday, Feb.
17, 2021, meeting. Listening are, from left, Commissioners John Hillock, Todd Nash and Susan
Roberts.
to take hold.”
He told the commission-
ers about some of his treat-
ment work last year that was
showing success on areas
such as Alder Slope, Elk
Mountain Road, Jimtown
Road out of Lostine, Sheep
Hill and others. He said there
also are some historically
organic pastures that have
been treated with the cooper-
ation of landowners.
Some of the invasive or
noxious weeds being battled
by the weed department and
its partners include meadow
hawkweed,
common
bugloss, leafy spurge, leafy
spurge, musk thistle, yellow
starthistle, medusahead rye,
plumeless thistle, yellow fl ag
iris, spotted knapweed and
rush skeletonweed.
Marcum told of proj-
ects he’s working on along
Bear Creek, the Wallowa
River, the Lostine River, Lit-
tle Sheep Hill, Tick Hill, Ant
Flat, the East Moraine of
Wallowa Lake and the upper
and lower-middle Wallowa
Valley.
This year, he said, the
weed department will survey
an additional 6,000 acres of
Tick Hill for medusahead rye
and yellow starthistle, 4,000
acres on Ant Flat for plume-
less thistle, will continue dis-
tributing weed control bro-
chures and continue weed
tours and drone demonstra-
tions, as well as webinars
with weed-control partners.
Marcum said he also
hopes to develop a small
way station at Flora Junction
along Highway 3 in northern
Wallowa County, as hunter
and recreationist traffi c from
the Lewiston area has mark-
edly increased.
Another plan is to hold
spray days in July along
the East Moraine. He said
that would take about three
days with from fi ve to 10
partners each of whom
has an ATV and backpack
sprayer, including Wal-
lowa Resources and the Tri-
County Cooperative Weed
Management Area of Baker,
Union and Wallowa coun-
ties. He said when those
spray days take place, signs
will be posted to warn peo-
ple so they can avoid it.
Kris Crowley, of Wal-
lowa Resources, also gave
an update for his agency. He
said they received a grant in
2019 to survey 100,000-plus
acres in the Grande Ronde/
Joseph Canyon area. He
said 2,008 acres have been
treated and some seeded on
the Zumwalt Prairie.
Last year, Crowley said,
3,160 acres in the county
were inventoried for weeds,
with 2,832 acres treated and
190 seeded.
Ongoing and upcom-
ing projects include work
with the Oregon Water-
shed Enhancement Board
to eliminate medusahead
rye from the Zumwalt Prai-
rie and starthistle from the
Grande Ronde area. He said
Wallowa Resources also
received a grant from the
Rocky Mountain Elk Foun-
dation to eliminate starthis-
tle along the Grande Ronde
in Washington state.
“We surveyed every-
thing we could from Troy
to Heller Bar” (on the Snake
River), Crowley said.
He added that they took
ATVs with backpack spray-
ers down on raft to get on
otherwise inaccessible bars.
“It was actually kind of
fun,” he said. “We got a lot
of treatment done there.”
Teresa Smergut, chair-
woman of the Wallowa
County
Weed
Board,
attended the meeting virtu-
ally and expressed appreci-
ation at the help the county
has received from other
agencies.
“We’ve gotten a lot of
help from our partners,” she
said.
Other partners involved
in weed control in Wallowa
County include the Nature
Conservancy, the Bureau of
Land Management, the Ore-
gon Department of Agricul-
ture, Zumwalt Prairie, Wal-
lowa-Whitman
National
Forest, several Idaho agen-
cies and several private
members.
Mark Porter, of the
ODA, told of several trou-
ble weeds.
“I have a list of 36 plants
& Skylight
Gallery
that I keep an eye on,” he
said. “Some of them are on
the state’s watchlist and oth-
ers are not on anybody’s
watchlist. They’re not native
and they’re scattered around
and doing things that we’re
trying to keep an eye on
them so they don’t get away
from us.”
When asked about bio-
logical controls by Nash,
Porter specifi cally men-
tioned Canada thistle, one
of the most prolifi c weeds in
the West.
“We spend more money
on Canada thistle across
the West than on any other
weed,” he said. “We have a
fungus that we know, from
trials in Colorado, that if
you put this in and have
some patience, you can see
patches disappear over time.
It came with Canada this-
tle, but what we didn’t know
back then was it doesn’t
move well at all. You rarely
see it out in nature, but we
do have it in the world. Once
we learned that we could
move it and put it where we
want it, it has a root patho-
gen that goes and kills the
whole clump. There’s some
effort required on our part,
but not much.”
Commissioner John Hill-
ock suggested another bio-
control, telling of a potato
farmer who tried a fungicide
that worked. He couldn’t
remember just what fungi-
cide it was, but “We ought to
do some research into that.”
Nash asked about fund-
ing the weed-control efforts
and wondered if it would be
possible to add an assess-
ment to the county’s hotel/
lodging tax for weed control.
“We’ll work on that with
our legislators,” he said.
Church
Directory
Finding books is
our specialty
CLUES ACROSS
1. Agreement
7. When doubled, a
Hawaiian fish
11. Hoover ___ (Colorado
River structure)
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sorcery
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Manning
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cleaning an ashtray?
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“popular”
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species?
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a dog?
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Thompson
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with spaces after the
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a theme hint
CLUES DOWN
1. Fanatical
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4. Thor’s father
Joseph United
Methodist Church
Grace Lutheran
Church
3rd & Lake St. • Joseph
Pastor Cherie Dearth
Phone: 541-432-3102
409 West Main - Enterprise
Worship Online at
JosephUMC.org
Enterprise
Christian Church
Lenten Service
4:00pm Feb 24 - Mar 24
Sunday Worship
at 9am
Pastor John B. King Jr
phone (message): 541-426-4633
web: gracelutheranenterprise.com
St. Patrick’s
Episcopal Church
85035 Joseph Hwy • (541) 426-3449
Parking Lot Radio Worship
9:00 & 11:00 a.m.
95.1 FM - only heard in our parking lot!
Facebook Live Broadcast @ 9:00
“Enterprise Christian Church,
Enterprise, OR”
100 NE 3rd St, Enterprise
NE 3rd & Main St
541-426-3439
Worship Service
Sunday 9:30am
“Loving God & One Another”
David Bruce, Sr. - Minister
Lostine
Presbyterian Church
Discussion Group 9:30 AM
Worship Service 11:00 AM
Childrens program during service
Blog: dancingforth.blogspot.com
5. “Anchorman: The Legend
of ___ Burgundy”
6. “Crime ___ pay”
7. Philanthropist Gates
8. On the summit of
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10. Machu Picchu builder
11. Eliminate glitches from
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35. “Mon ___!”
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40. “The Simpsons” character who
says “hi-diddly-ho”
43. Coins that cost more than seven
cents each to make
46. Mimic
47. Inherent character
48. Welcoming expression
49. Piano technician
50. He has the world at his fingertips
51. GPS suggestion
54. Hellmann’s spread, informally
55. Like good Scotch
56. Regulation
57. Superman, aka Clark ___
58. Defense org. since 1949
59. Birthright seller in Genesis
60. Mark from a paintball fight, say
63. Teachers’ org.
107 E. Main • Enterprise • 541-426-3351
www.bookloftoregon.com
Summit Church
Sundays at 9:30 am and 11 am
at the Cloverleaf Hall in Enterprise.
Masks are required - but made available at the door.
Pastor: David Pendleton
541.398.0597
Hwy 82, Lostine
www.summitchurchoregon.org
Stephen Kliewer, Minister
Cloverleaf Hall • 668 NW 1st St. • Enterprise, OR 97828
Wallowa
Assembly
of God
702 West Hwy 82
Wallowa, Oregon
541-886-8445
Sunday School • 9:am
Worship Service • 10:am
Pastor Tim Barton
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Seventh-Day Adventist
Church & School
305 Wagner (near the Cemetery)
P.O. Box N. Enterprise, OR 97828
Church 541-426-3751
School 541-426-8339
Pastor David Ballard 503-810-9886
Worship Hour
10:30 a.m. - Noon
Christ
Covenant
Christ Covenant
Church
Church
Pastor Terry Tollefson
Church Office: 541-263-0505
Family Prayer 8:30 a.m.
Sunday School 9:00 a.m.
Worship 10:00 a.m.
723 College Street, Lostine
Enterprise Community
Congregational Church
Join us at the
BIG BROWN CHURCH
Sunday Worship 11:00 am
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Thursdays, 5:30 pm
Led by Lay Pastor Archie Hook
301 NE First St. • Enterprise, OR
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