CWNA Noxious Weed Report

Let's Pull Together (pdf with event details)
Let's Pull Together Day - June 8 2013 9:00 AM
One of the most important days of the year for those interested in the preservation of Bend's indigenous flora, and the protection of its urban and agricultural environment.   What is it?  A community-wide effort will occur to put a serious dent in the population of noxious weeds throughout Deschutes County. This project, which grew out of an initiative by Orchard District Neighborhood Association president Cheryl Howard several years ago, has now expanded to include all of Central Oregon, and has been recognized by the State of Oregon as one of the most effective grassroots efforts of its kind.

  Let's Pull Together! How important is this effort, really? Very important! Consider:

• Weed-infested agricultural ground makes food more expensive. It costs a lot of money to treat productive ground for weeds that are competing with food crops for moisture and nutrients. Weeds that are not controlled lower both the yield and the quality of food crops, increasing its cost to consumers. And many noxious weeds are either unpalatable or poisonous to livestock, causing weed-infested pastures to be less productive. On top of that, farmland that is heavily infested by noxious weeds loses its market value, impacting the availability of good-quality arable ground and thus, again, raising the cost of food for consumers.
• The Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the State of Oregon, and Deschutes County all spend money--the money they get from you and me in taxes--trying to eradicate and control the spread of noxious weeds on public lands, which, among other things, create ladder fuel that promote forest fires. (According to a Bend Bulletin editorial, the county alone spent $115,000 last year on weed eradication efforts.) Imagine what other things that money could be spent on, or what we could use it for ourselves, if we could get rid of most of those weeds once and for all?
• Noxious weeds affect private property values. Most people know that such weeds are not easy to get rid of permanently, and once started and not controlled, they usually tend to take over ground from native plants. Now, if you were considering the purchase of property that was infested with noxious weeds, how would it impact your purchase offer? Or, would you lose interest in the property all together?
• And if that isn't enough, think about the intangible value of native plants that we consider desirable but may find it difficult to put a monetary value on, that are being crowded out and overtaken by invasive noxious weeds. On top of that, many wildlife species are affected by fast-spreading invasive weeds that are less palatable and nutritious than their preferred native species.

For more information about noxious weeds and the community wide weed eradication effort, check out http://www.letspulltogether.com.

For additional information, contact:
Marika Smiley, CWNA Weed Committee Head, sisubag@yahoo.com
Bill Padgham, CWNA Weed Committee, bpadgham@aol.com
Dan Sherwin, Deschutes County Weed Control, 541-322-7135

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