We Have been busy even when the weather is???

The roadside Spray program is off to a good start although the weather has not cooperated fully. Even on bad days we have dug up noxious weeds in sensitive areas such as on irrigation ditch banks. Work has progressed well through the Burnt Fork and on Sunset Bench area and we will move into the Groff area before moving to the west side for touch up in the Bear Creek area, Hobblit and following the complaints as they come in. We will also be working on Leafy Spurge and Toadflax with backpacks where found on our roadsides.
Most of our current work is with a hand line only and our new spray system will be on the road soon once we have it calibrated to the T.

Spring 2010

Hope everyONE had a good winter and spring has come quickly. The weeds are growing very well this early and of course we are gearing up to spray county roadsides. To those who are concerned about the use of herbicides, a few things to note. We are using only herbicides that are very low on the toxic scale. No 24D or related products. The only time we will use these products is when we need to spot treat with a backpack on particularly tough weeds like leafy spurge or the toadflaxes. We will also mostly handline and spot treat on the roadsides. Broadcasting will occur on large patches and roads that have a noxious weed density that requires such an application. So if your roadside has no noxious weeds, we will not spray it.

Final 2009 Updated

Hi - to the few that might still be reading this. We are in the final stages of wrapping up any spraying we might be able to do. The early part of the fall was good but October was tough. Now we are mostly in the clean up stage and may just have an opportunity to spot treat a few small areas that were on our list. Right now if the days are above 50 we may still use Milestone on mostly knapweed patches.
Have a great winter!

Update for You!

Yes, I did not keep up with the update process because I decided no one was looking. I did this on purpose to see if there would be a response and I finally got one from an unlikely source. So thanks for the request and here is a autum update.
We are in the swing of fall work which includes several raods and specialty spraying on county grounds like parks, airport, & fairgrounds.
The road list includes roads in and around Sunset bench including Logan and Pine Hollow. Popham to Willow Creek, Meridian, Orchard, Pony Palace. Eagle Watch. Eightmile and Granite Creek. Bass, Hamilton Hights and everything in between.
Ciao>

8/18/09 Update

As stated in the last post, we normally do little roadside work this time of year due to the plants are hardened off and may be flowering but not actively growing. In light of all the moisture we have had and the cooler temps, we decided to try some roadside work and monitor its effectiveness. We will still be spot treating certain noxious weed patches and not a solid broadcast. This work will take place on the west side on any road between Stevensville to Hamilton. Once it heats up this week we will be back pulling and working the river.

Update 8/6/09

Yes it has been a while since and update and in part that was intentional see if anyone who might be following this would call and complain:) Our work through July consisted of continuing hand line work on roads already listed in previous updates and more hand pulling near the river and bridge. The hot dry weather makes certain weeds very difficult to control and using herbicides can be in affective on these weeds until Fall regrowth starts to occur. Our focus though August will be to continuing to hand pull and spot treat specific weed infestations where we know it will be safe and effective.

7/7/09 update

The crews continue to work while preparing for the Floating weed pull on the 11th. Blueweed has been pulled and bagged where ever it can be found on right of ways and the contractor is working the private land side. County roadside work will continue with follow-up spot spraying on roads that were sprayed earlier such as Old Corvallis, Black, Hawker, Chistofferson, Birch Creek loop, Ricketts, Westside, Orchard, Old Darby, Sleeping Child and Little Sleeping Child. We will be working on West Fork Road which needs a lot of work on its Oxeye Daisey and field Scabious. And no Oxeye Daisy is not a native wildflower which many up and down the valley seem to believe. French Basin Road and the the other roads around Sula will also be worked on.

6/30/09

The blueweed is bad this year and is up in all the normal spots. The road crews are working the south valley roads, Rye Creek, West Fork, French Basin, and associated roads. Some broadcast will be done but mostly the handline will be used for spot treating. New invader crew will be following up on previously treated weed patches and checking out all the orange hawkweed sites.

Update 6/24/09

We will have two groups out on the roads for the rest of this week. One group will be finishing up specific problems on state highways 93 and 269. They are also doing hand line work on Fair Grounds and Grantsdale roads. The other group will continue with county roads previously listed but not yet sprayed in the areas of Willoughby south to Popham and roads intersecting Old Corvallis road.
A new area we will be concentrating on is up Pleasant view, Red crow area because of the Blueweed issues there.

Update 6/18/09

One truck down and the other is targeting roads in the NE valley. Any county road east of the the Bitterroot River and North of Middle Burnt Fork may be sprayed in the next couple of weeks. Spot treating of specific infestations will continue on many other roads and when our other truck is fixed we will be back on the roads previously listed in the south end of the valley. Our "new Invader crew will continue to work on the Grantsdale area and should be moving to the south end of the valley to work on Orange Hawkweed infestations.