1st Annual Weed Pull-Whitefish River Trail

Velvet, Karen & Jake scoping out weed literature before setting out to pull some big ones.

Weed education



On Saturday, June 9th, the Weed Advisory Committee joined together with a few other dedication community members to "pull together" along the the River Trail. We were successful in pulling piles of knapweed, houndstongue, thistles, gigantic burdock, and dame's rocket just to name a few of the top invasive plants on the noxious weed list. These efforts will prevent many thousands of weed seeds from proliferating more native plant environments and surrounding areas along the trail system. Great job everyone!

Weed Pull Email to Committee

Hi everyone~

How 'bout them weeds out there? Dame's Rocket are in full bloom in force, and the knapweed is growing strong in many places. One of the worst knapweed infestations I've seen is along Edgewood near our meeting place on Saturday at the overflow parking area of City Beach.

Several years ago this was the location of a volunteer based native planting project, that was done with the help of volunteers. Unfortunately, (Dan, correct me if I'm wrong) as a result of lack of irrigation, hydro-seeding or should I say hydro-weeding, poor subsoil, and overall lack of resources to deal with these shortfalls along the way, we have ourselves a very healthy population of knapweed. Let's think about how the City can innovate in dealing with this area...Jason, maybe you have some ideas and solutions already. Let us know what you think about it. Thanks.

Also, along the BNSF Loop...it is apparent where the railroad sprayed. Thanks to Jan and Dick for working with the contractor on that. In many places it looks like the plants were weakened, but will definitely make a come back to produce flowers. There were a few places that were not sprayed that we ought to get to Saturday. Example: Bindweed patch by the "pond" along southside of tracks on the fence.

Sounds like a good time to get together and have a 1st Annual Weed Pull. Christine Hensleigh volunteered to write a press release for us---I just sent her the details so it will be in this weeks Pilot.

Dan--we had talked about using some funds for National Trails Day to supply garbage bags, refreshments (drinks), and potentially vinegar for Saturday...is that still a go? I'm willing to go pick up needed supplies. Let me know.

Okay then---hope to see you all on Saturday at 9 am! How about we gather at 8:30 to get our ducks in a row?

Thanks,

Jen

May 16th Committee Meeting

May 16th Weeds Meeting

Present:

Kathy Kint, Member
Jan Metzmaker, Member
Dick Solberg, Member
Jen Elden, Committee Chair
Dan Keyes, Parks Director
Jason Loveless, Parks Maintenance Director
Doug Schuck, BNSF Trainmaster
Amy Chadwick, Riparian Ecologist


Railroad Spray Schedule Update:

Tuesday at May 22nd at 8 am. Meet at Doug’s Office 2cd Floor. Parks Department will sign trailheads. Jan and Dick will represent the committee and document.
Test plots will be identified by Jan & Dick. Doug has go ahead to build shed. Committee will identify tools for Community Tool Shed.

Kiddie Park Spraying and Signage:

Jason: wrote letter of response: time limit of spraying: Baker Street done by 7:30 -9 am. Noone had come into park until after spraying was complete. Signs were posted.

No rules or regulations on the types of chemicals the City uses. No specs on the requirements for signs. Committee requests amendment to signage: add time spraying is to occur.

Soroptomist Park Update:

-Weed Pull successful with 20 plus neighbors present. Dandelions were pulled throughout park.
-Thank you in Newspaper (To do)
-Discussion of Corn Meal Gluten and Quotes

The total park space in our test plot is almost an acre, or roughly 43,000
sq.ft. Park of that area is a playground area that has gravel and
concrete for a picnic area. I have read that about 50# of Corn Gluten
Meal will treat approximately 2,500 sq. ft. Looks like we would require
about 800 pounds for one application if we were to cover the entire park.
For two applications, (spring and fall), that would be almost one ton of
Corn Gluten Meal.

Price per bag is $20.00 and freight is $656.00 for 2 pallets (80 bags). Let
me know as we are doing a production run on Tuesday or Wednesday.
20# CGM per 1,000 sf
approximately 15-55# bags for one application for entire Soroptomist Park.
$1600 for 80 bags of Turf Maize CGM...
4,400# of CGM
Total cost of product with shipment = $2,256.
Each bag with shipping costs $28.20.
Retail local prices=5# for $11.95 ($2.39 per pound) which would equal $131.45 for 55# quantity.
Wholesale prices = .36 per pound approximately a buck cheaper per pound.

Email Jason numbers on CGM. Dan and Jason will look at numbers for test plots & cost with labor:

Review and Approval of MOU draft points:
not covered in meeting...follow up with email to committee

Organize for Weed Pull on June 9th:
not covered in meeting...follow up via email (or blog! :)

I did invite Tris Hoffman with the Forest Service to do an introduction at the Weed Pull to volunteers.

Critical Areas:

Amy Chadwick attend to speak briefly about observations of policies. Language wasn’t specific on native requirements for vegetative requirements with riparian areas. It would be good to have the Planning Department have rules on site specific revegetation requirements. Need for more specific for buffers around streams.

List of most desirable natives and list of prohibitive species could be included. Within a site specific scenario.

**Reseeding with grass seed mixes problematic.

Amy brought request to committee about WAC helping with conservation easement weed pull.

Meeting adjourned at 4:30 pm.

Welcome

Hi team~

I'm putting together an online source for our commitee in an attempt to have data centrally accessible and to keep us more organized. This is new to me, so bear with me.

Jen