RCWD Spraying Schedule & Activites

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

2010-05-26T06:41:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-19T07:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-11-05T08:33:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-09-29T06:01:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-18T12:47:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-06T06:44:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-08T06:08:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-30T06:28:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-24T07:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-18T05:48:00.000-07:00

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.

Update 6/16/09

2009-06-17T06:45:00.000-07:00

Due to the large number of roadside noxious weed complaints across the valley, this is fair warning that we could be anywhere at anytime spot treating these sites. Trying to accomplish this in an efficient manner, we cannot always timely post our spraying spots. We apologize to those of you who insist to know our whereabouts.
We have completed broadcast spraying of old Corvallis road and will followup with some spot treating. We will also be spraying Fairground Rd, Black Ln, Hawker, and Christofferson. We will also be trying to catch up on all the back logged roads we listed to spray and have not yet like those roads on the west side of Hamilton.
On a side note, for those of you who insist on stopping on the road to give us a piece of your mind, try not to block traffic or endanger yourself or other in the process. Any of you who want to have a DISCUSSION on what and how we do our job, please pull off the road in a safe spot. I will am willing to talk with you. If you just want to just vent on what you really know nothing about, will still on the road, don't expect me to waste my time with a response. Sorry to be crass but some of you who have stopped us or yelled to us are ridiculous and are endangering the safety of others.

Update 6/8/09

2009-06-08T13:40:00.000-07:00

The crew will divert from from the road side to spot treating specific weed infestation on the roadside namely Leafy Spurge, Dalmation Toadflax and Blueweed. These sites are all over the valley. This will be followed by retuning to the roads listed in the previous update.

Update 6/1/09

2009-06-01T06:29:00.000-07:00

We will be working on spraying the following roads and weather (wind) permits this week. Old Corvallis Rd, Westside Rd, Rickettes Rd, and all roads that intersect these roads. We will also be spraying Willoughby, Sunset, Groff, McIntyre N. Birch Creek with special attention to any roadside Dalmation Toadflax. We will also be hand pulling and shoveling noxious weed around sensitive areas around bridge abutments near water and in gravel pits.

Update 5/18/09

2009-05-18T14:10:00.000-07:00

We will be shifting gears some due to changes in the priority of certain roads. Illinois Bench is still slotted to be treated but then our attention will shift to Golf Course (including Fairway and Country Club), Duus Tammany Shoshone Hatchery and Foley. We will also be removing Salt Cedar trees around Hamilton and Corvallis. Of course we will be continuing work on the Common Bugloss in the Grantsdale area.
Thanks for looking and let us know if you are checking on this Blog occasionally.

Update 5/12/09

2009-05-12T13:37:00.000-07:00

We are a week behind do to weather and our seasonal employees could not start on the 4th as anticipated. They will be worth it however, for they are conscientious and safe applicators. So if the weather coops, we will work the roads listed previously this week yet after a little more practice spraying just blue water (without Herbicide). Thanks

2009 Spray Season is gearing up

2009-04-14T07:34:00.000-07:00

Time to activate this blog site for the 2009 weed management activities. Most of the time we only post where and when we will be spraying herbicide because that is only thing some of you want to know. We also perform other non-herbicide work but we won't highlight most of that here.

A few things we do want to let you know is that we doing more roadside spot spraying as opposed to total broadcast in areas it is justified. This means less herbicide is being sprayed. Although we will also broadcast where we see it is necessary and there will be many areas which total broadcast will be performed.

We also want to let you know that we have made a conscious effort to use only herbicides with a "caution" label for much of our normal roadside spraying. Particular weed problems may require use of more harsh products and in those events it is almost always spot spraying. Please read the herbicide article on our other blog at http://rcweedsnews.blogspot.com/ for more information.

The first week of May we will be training a new seasonal spray crew so our equipment will be out and about in the area of the weed district office. On May 7th and 8th we will work on actual spraying of the roadside using herbicide on any of the following roads - Stevi Airport, Illinois Bench, Squires, Hollibaugh, Moiese, and Leese Ln. Please call 777-5842 with any questions.

Off Season

2008-12-10T10:32:00.000-08:00

As you may have guessed, our direct weed control activities are finished for the winter season and we are in the process writing grants, catching up with paperwork, planning for next season and maybe taking a little vacation time. I will not write any more posts on this blog until April sometime as we begin to get ready for weed control season again. So check here again in the spring. And THANKS!

Wrapping it up. 11/10/08

2008-11-10T14:03:00.001-08:00

We have had very good Fall spraying conditions which have lasted into November and we have tried to take advantage of it. Now with the forecast of rain all week we will be only trying to cut down a few more Salt Ceders and clean up our spray equipment. If you see our trucks on the road spraying, that will only be water or blue dyed water. No more herbicide will be sprayed from the trucks this season.

10/16/08 Update Finishing up the season!

2008-10-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

The weather has slowed spraying activities but as we get a few more day of temperatures in the upper 50's into the 60's and its not raining or too windy, we will continue to treat some roadsides. Potential roads over the next couple of weeks are; Victor X-ing, Ambrose Creek, 3-Mile, Store Ln, Fletcher, Illinois Bench, Hoover, Sunnyside Cemetery, Stevi Airport, and any smaller county roads in this area. We are trying to concentrate on roads we can closely monitor for late fall applications of Milestone. Milestone is a relatively new herbicide that is incredibly safe both on the environment and mammals when used according to the label. It is also doing a great job of killing many noxious weeds and keeping them at bay.

We will also be continuing to spot treat Common Bugloss and Common Yellow Toadflax as weather permits.

The picture is of Japanese Knotweed a newly listed State Noxious Weed. We treated 48 sites this year mostly on private land and most of the landowners were happy to get rid of it. See our other Blog for more information on this plant at http://rcweedsnews.blogspot.com/

10/2/08 update

2008-10-02T06:45:00.000-07:00

We will be spot treating with our ATV along the following roads over the next week or longer as the weather continues to allow. Westside Road and all roads accessed, Sleeping Child and Little Sleeping Child, Old Darby road and all county roads that access from it.

10/1/08 A change in plans for today.

2008-10-01T06:19:00.000-07:00

Today the truck will broadcast spray in the Grantsdale area - Cutoff, Blood, Cooper and also try to get up to Ponderosa and sleeping child areas. We should be back to the previous plan next week.

9/29/08 Update

2008-09-29T07:17:00.000-07:00

We will be working in the areas of Old Darby Road for the first part of this week spot treating with the ATV.

9/24/08 Update

2008-09-24T07:16:00.000-07:00

The roads we will focus on for the rest of the season will be the area from Popham lane south to Skalkaho on the east side and the area west of Hamilton from Mill Creek south to Gold creek.
We are also doing spot treatment work on Yellow Toadflax on county roads and the state highways. There will also be some followup spot treating in and around Corvallis, Old Corvallis road, and in the Darby, Conner and West Fork areas.

Update 9/8/08

2008-09-08T07:03:00.000-07:00

We have been working feverishly on the river puling flowering Blueweed and spraying rosettes and we are close to meeting our goals for the Bitterroot river. Starting today and and particularly next week, we will transition back to roadsides. Today the trucks will be working on the Bonanza lands roads, Golf Course, Grantsdale area, N & S Shoshone, and Fairgrounds. We will also be doing touch-up work along roads east of Corvallis from Popham to Hamilton Heights. The recent rains are making the fall spray season promising for good weed control. We appreciate all the verbal support people gave us on our river Blueweed work as they passed by or stopped to talk to us on the river. Thanks

August 19th 2008 update

2008-08-19T06:18:00.000-07:00

We are still moving forward on the Bitterroot River Corridor. The crew has hand pulled over 50 bags of Blueweed from gravel bars between Woodside and Stevensville. Thus far only hand pulling has taken place, but soon a follow up aquatic Glyphosate treatment will take place on the thousand of rosettes on these infested gravel bar sites. We have gone well beyond our legal responsibilities for using herbicide on the river. We will not be spraying in the water but we have the permit and the product to do so. We're just being extra cautious and this is the only way to battle all the young plants.

July 23rd Update

2008-07-23T06:41:00.000-07:00

We are switching our efforts to hand pulling on the Bitterrooot river corridor and preparing for the Weed tour with other counties and State officials and the floating weed pull taking place on August 2nd. We will also be doing some touch up spot spraying on some roads in the Stevensville area such as Burnt Fork, Logan, Wildfowl, Airport, and in town.

July 15, 2008 update

2008-07-15T05:38:00.000-07:00

Our crews will continue work in the West Fork area this week on the roadsides of Hughes Creek, Nez Perce, and West Fork Roads. There will be hand line work behind the guard rails along the lake so please take extra caution when you see our signs. We will also be working on Orange Hawkweed in and around Lost Trial Hot Springs through a special grant we received for new invaders.

July 10th Update

2008-07-09T11:37:00.000-07:00

Our spraying and hand pulling activities will switch Thursday to the south end of the valley. We will meet up with Beaverhead and Lemhi Counties at the top of Lost Trial Pass, discuss our common weed problems and work down our respective sides. We will be hand pulling flowering Blueweed ans spot treating rosettes. We will also be spraying Camp Creek Rd., Andy Vogt Rd., Grouse Butte, Rye Creek, Hughes creek and the West Fork Rd. Any other county roads in this area may also be sprayed if warranted.

July 7th Update

2008-07-07T05:55:00.000-07:00

We will be working in the towns of Stevensville and Victor this week with the ATV and spot spraying weeds along the streets. We are also going to work on the West Fork Road mostly above the dam at Painted Rocks, Hughes Creek and Nez Perce. On the 10th we will be working in coordination with Beaverhead and Lemhi Counties on the top of Lost Trail Pass and working on isolated infestations down the Ravalli County side.

July 1st 2008 Update

2008-07-01T07:07:00.000-07:00

We will working today in and around the Corvallis area to Hamilton Heights Road.

6/30/08 Update

2008-06-30T07:53:00.000-07:00

This week we will be working roads on the west side between Stevensville though the Victor area. We will also be be working along the streets of Stevensville and Victor. When we are in the towns, we will only use our ATV and spot spraying with our hand line. We will continue to work on roadside Dalmatian Toadflax from South Sunset Bench on south to Popham lane.

Update 6/27/08

2008-06-27T08:29:00.000-07:00

We have been side tracked a bit " putting out fires" the last week or so and will be getting back on the roads today. We will be working the Sunset Bench area and McIntyre road then we will be moving to the west side next week. We have found more Blueweed in the west Victor area so we hope everyone is looking for it and letting us know if found.

Update 6/20/08

2008-06-20T06:50:00.000-07:00

The spray crew will begin to spot treat Leafy Spurge along county and state right of ways today. These area are scatted all over the valley. Also the weed district is not spraying Leafy Spurge on any private land. We did allocate funding for this in the past but landowners need to take over its management on their land. The weed district has tried to give land many landowners a good faith start on their leafy spurge management but never intended to take full responsibility for it. For the landowners that have leafy spurge on your land, work together with your neighbors and contract with a commercial applicator to work no the spurge as a whole and the cost should be fairly reasonable per landowner.

Update 6/18/08

2008-06-18T06:11:00.000-07:00

The spray truck will be moving to the South burnt fork and Sunset bench area in the next couple of days and will still continue some work on Victor Crossing. We will also begin to work in the town of Stevensville just spot treating along town roads. Also thanks to a couple of passerby on Victor Crossing that gestured to us as they passed that we were #1; we appreciate it!

Update 6/17/08

2008-06-16T14:58:00.000-07:00

We will be working our way south to the Stevensville area with the spray truck . Here are some of the roads we will be on ; Lone Rock School, Wheelbarrow Creek, N. Sunset, N. Burnt Fork, South Burnt Fork, Cash Nichols, and Meyer lane. These are the main target roads BUT, if we see any weed infestation along other roads in this area we will spray them. Also we will put some more work into Victor Crossing.

Victor Crossing Work

2008-06-12T08:09:00.000-07:00

Today and scattered days in the future, we will be doing some spraying and hand pulling of Houndstounge and Dalmation Toadflax and other weeds along Victor Crossing. This will be occurring sporadically over the next several weeks as time and weather stop us from proceeding on roadsides from Florence to Stevensville.

Progress on State Highway's

2008-06-11T07:18:00.000-07:00

Bitterroot Spraying has made some progress on the Eastside hwy south of Stevensville but the weather continues to play havoc with all spraying. The also report that there has been needless close calls with traffic on the road with drivers trying to pass when there is oncoming traffic and traveling to fast in the spray zones. Please be aware of the roadside work and pass with caution. No one needs to get hurt out there.
Work will continue on the Eastside Hwy and Hwy 93 until the end of June or it is done, which ever comes first.

State Highway work to begin.

2008-06-08T07:58:00.000-07:00

Section of State highway 93, Eastside highway, Woodside cutoff, and Bell crossing are slated to start this week weather depending. Bitterroot Spraying Services has been contracted by the county to do the work on MDT roads. They will be starting on hwy 93 in the Hamilton area. Please watch for the signs and SLOW DOWN when approaching any road side work. Also be extra careful when passing. There are needless close calls every year. We will keep you updated as the work progresses.

Update 6/6/08

2008-06-05T12:10:00.000-07:00

We have started spraying the county roads in Florence and will continue through next week. In the residential areas, we are only spot treating where noxious weed exist. So if they don't exist along your road we won't spray it. We will be moving south towards Stevensville on the East side soon and we will also be spot spraying in the town of Stevensville for the first time in cooperation with the town of Stevensville. Our special assignment man, Clay, has been treating Common Bugloss in the Grantsdale area and will continue along with treating Japanese Knotweed in the southern half of the valley. Thanks to all the people in the Grantsdale area who have allowed us to search and treat there properties for for the nasty Bugloss.

+May 20th Update

2008-05-19T14:25:00.000-07:00

This week and into next week we will continue working on Dalmatian Toadflax but we will also broadening our scope. We have a new summer employee who will begin to work on the Grantsdale area Common Bugloss starting on the 20th. This employees name is Clay Samples and will be our "first strike" man for our high priority weeds around the county. We will also be working on the runways of both Hamilton and Stevensville airports. Roadside are coming soon and we will start in and around to town of Florence hopefully next week. If you have any questions, please call 777-5842

Update May 8th

2008-05-08T06:55:00.000-07:00

This week and the first part of next week May 12th, we will be spraying Dalmatian Toadflax on some private ground in the Birch Creek and Baily lane area. We will also be spot spraying Common Bugloss in and around the Grantsdale area. We should be on some roadsides later that week. Stay tuned for which roads those will be!

Roadside Burning & Restoration Project

2008-04-30T06:50:00.001-07:00

We completed a burning project along the Eastside Hwy last week which will hopefully become roadside restoration project with the help of Victor and Darby schools. We will be spraying this section with 'Round Up' soon. One thing to note is during our burning we set up 2 sets of signs and we would like to thank all of you who slowed down when passing. There were several however that did not and should be ashamed of their carelessness and disrespect for the safety of others. Please remember to slow down anytime you see a caution sign for anyone working along a highway.

4/24/08 UPDATE

2008-04-23T14:28:00.000-07:00

4/24/08
In the next couple of weeks we will be calibrating our spraying equipment and training the crew. During this time we will ONLY be spraying WATER with blue dye in it. NO HERBICIDE. Most of this work will take place around the weed district building on Stevi Airport Road but we will also be training on some of the roads in the area of 3-mile, Ambrose, Burnt Fork Illinois Bench, and the Airport Road. Again we will only be spraying blue dyed water during this training time. If you encounter our road signs "Spray Crew ahead" please slow down and pass us carefully. We will let you know when and where our weed control will start.

Foiled by the weather

2008-04-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

The cold, wet weather we have been experiencing is delaying the growth of the weeds and our ability to get out and treat them. The spray equipment will remain inactive until we get some better weather. Keep checking back for updates!

Keep Up With Current Weed Contol Activites

2008-04-10T07:57:00.000-07:00

This is a new site Ravalli County Weed District has set up to post the most current weed control activities. The posts will include which roads (areas) and dates we will be spraying. This will be updated every time we move to a new area or change our activities. So keep this site bookmarked and check back often.