November 15, 2023 Minutes

Noxious Weed Management Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

November 15, 2023

The meeting was called to order at 7:02 pm. Board members present included: Daryl Wiest, Chuck Birkemeyer, and James Johnston. Public Works Director Curtis Hall was also present. Board members Ron Broda and Cami Hillman, along with Deputy Director Duane Naibauer, and County Commissioner Kevin Ross were absent.

There was no changes or additions to the agenda.

Chuck moved and James seconded the acceptance of the minutes.

Before the Old Business was covered, Daryl thanked Tina Booton for the effort that she puts into preparing the information for the board meetings and the July tour. James seconded the excellent educational opportunity that the tour provided. Both James and Chuck appreciate the board meeting handouts and information shared during the meetings.

Old Business

2023 Program Update

Events

  • January 24-26 Colorado Farm Show – 100 participants at the booth
  • January 25 Weed presentations at the Farm Show – 60 participants
  • May 3 Children’s Water Festival – North – 100 students
  • May 11 Municipality Training – about 40 participants
  • July 26 Weld County Fair – Creative Weeds – 8 registered; 4 participated
  • August 1 Greeley Lunch & Optimus Club – 24 participants
  • August 7-18 Purple Loosestrife
  • August 11 WGCD Annual BBQ – 15 participants stopped by
  • October Display set-up at Tigges Farm Stand
  • October 11 Children’s Water Festival – South – 100 students
  • Nov. 29 & 30 WGCD Ag Symposium Booth

Facebook Posts and Other Outreach

Facebook and Twitter: 35 posts from March 21 – Nov. 14, once a week. 10 on Public Works Operations; 25 on plants.

ReStORE posters at various businesses in the project area.

Targeted mailings for 1. Ventenata/Medusahead look-out; 2. ReStORE; 3. Hairy Willow-Herb cost-share program; 4. Hoary Cress awareness and treatment requirements.

Spraying - Down two positions all season.
Bare-ground Acres for 2023/2024:37.01 acres and 14.7 lane miles on CR 49
Handgun Acres: 32.12
Roadside Acres: 826.89 Lane Miles: 6728
Chemical Mow Acres: 26.4 Lane Miles: 10

Forest Service Accomplishments: Sprayed: 3587.25 gallons; 21.32 acres handgun treated, and 96.9 acres treated with boom = 118.22 treated acres while inspecting 727.1 acres over 64 allotments.

Special Spray Projects

CDOT – Hwy 85 north of Nunn, Hwy 392 and a small portion of Business Hwy 34
Towns – Fort Lupton.

We received the Hylio Ag210 in late October. 2.5-gallon capacity tank. Working through IT firewalls/antivirus software issues that prevent us from being able to fly the unit with the required software. Struggling with the weather limitations this time of the year. Least amount of product per acre is 5 gallons to still have good quality results. The Weed Division is going to pace the UAS unit to spray 10 gallons per acre or 2.5 gallons per ¼ acre.

Working with Fleet and a little closer to having one of the Spray trucks replaced. With any luck the bid will be going out soon and a replacement truck here by the fall of 2024. Afterwards we are looking at the ability to build the future replacement trucks. We have two other roadside trucks that will need replacement in the near future.

Landowner Specialists

Field Contacts: 5318 (checking on properties, looking at complaints, meeting with landowners, etc.)

Office Contacts: 7102 (identifying properties, letters, phone calls, follow-up, records, etc.)

Legal Notices mailed:14 Compliance: 11 (79% compliance) Enforcements: 0

Long standing problems: Atwell (T8), Nash (T2), Fischer(T3)

The board asked a few questions about these long-standing problems. T is short for township. James asked about the weeds involved and Tina said Atwell was Scotch thistle, Fischer was Russian knapweed and hoary cress and she thought Nash was also thistle. Couple of them are older and seem to have limited involvement of managing their lands. They also seem to know the system and have managed to work it in their favor. Atwell has gone radio silent. The board asked what the plans are for next year. Tina indicated that the process will have to start early and be sure that all of the I’s are dotted and T’s crossed to carry out an enforcement operation.

Mower Staff

Lane Miles: 2253.5 or approx.1126.75 miles out of 748 miles of paved roads. Target goal is 2500 lane miles/year.

Struggled with the tractors most of the summer.

Special Projects

Geisert trail, Grader Testing area, North of Fuel Island, East Davis Stockpile Site, LNG area, CR 38 Comm Tower, Peters Pit, Ashbaugh Pit, and Fiscus Pit: In process of monitoring for weeds, grass establishment and seeding this 2024 as needed.

Cost Share Funds available

Weld County: $ 10,000 Funds Left: $ 2,178.86
50% up to $400
People signed up: 31 Funds spent: $ 7,821.14
People cost-shared with: 25

West Greeley CD: $11,751.25 Funds Left: $ (162.70)
50% up to $600
People signed up: 32 Funds spent: $ 11,913.95
People cost-shared with: 29

ReStORE: $115,114.65 Funds Left: $ 92,500.24
80% up to $850 or $2800
People signed up: 30 Funds spent: $ 22,614.41
People cost-shared with: 25

Hairy Willowherb Eradication: $14,000 Funds Left: $12,500.00
85% up to $750
People signed up: 2 Funds spent: $ 1,500.00
People cost-shared with: 2

Teasel Eradication: $5,500.00 Funds Left: $5,500.00
80% up to $600
People signed up: 0 Funds spent: $ 0
People cost-shared with: 0

Lastly, Tina mentioned that she is working on the website, especially the weed piece to bring it into accessibility compliance. This has been a large undertaking with all of the handouts and information that is on the website.

Grant Projects Update

Tina provided the following updates on the existing grant projects:

ReStORE Grant: Asked to extend the grant project through 2024. Granted

Make America Beautiful with Department of Ag: As one of several partners received $80,000 for Weld County. Working with them to be able to use the money in 2025 and 2026. Same rules and area at the ReStORE project.

Department of Ag Grant: Asked to extend the Hairy Willow-Herb funds through May 2024. Granted. Returning the teasel funds.

Tina also mentioned that due to the limited interest from landowners in utilizing the grant programs, no new grant applications will be sought in 2024. The board understood and agreed.

Sunset Review status of the Pesticide Applicators Act

Approved through the legislative session. Changes are being implemented through the rule making process. Everything has gone smoothly. The Pesticide Applicators Act that goes into effect January 2024 is good for eleven years or through 2034.

New Business

  1. Advisory Board Members
    • Tina mentioned that the board has 2 openings. She encouraged the board to reach out to family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and encourage them to apply. Daryl offered to reach out to Kent Davis out of Johnstown and see if he would be interested now that he has retired.
  2. Pollinator Study Update – handout.
    • Tina indicated that the tan handout provides some educational background on the bill that was past and implemented a couple of years ago. It also includes a rough draft of the letter that CRPA submitted to the Governors office voicing our concerns with regards to PPAN involvement. Daryl mentioned that for the 40 years he was working, there was always a discussion about pollinators and impacts to them. There was continued discussion on the pollinator piece.
  3. 2024 Legislative Session Update
    • According to lobbyists on our side (CRPA – Coloradans for Responsible Pesticide Application), PPAN (People and Pollinators Action Network) lobbyist has reached out indicating that they will try to run another bill for ending preemption. No specific reasons why they don’t want the state controlling everything. Coming more from a sense of emotions. Representative Kipp and most likely Roberts and Priola will be running the bill.
    • PPAN lobbyist has asked CRPA if we would be willing to compromise. Sounds like we have 10 legislatures on our side to not end preemption. All we need is 6 to kill a bill. So not willing to compromise on much of anything unless it comes with a guarantee not to run any more bills against preemption for a long period of time (like 5 years). When it comes to testifying, CRPA shows opposition to the bills from across the state. PPAN testimony predominantly comes from Boulder area.
    • At this time, it appears that ending preemption is not a high priority for the Governor’s office. The governor has put $100,000 into a fund to offer incentives to Ag and Landscapers to not use pesticides. The 2024 legislative session starts January 10th. This emergency session is discussing property taxes and food for children during the summer. There will be a couple of new legislatures on the various committees that would hear the bills first.
      Also, on December 18 Sundari (one of the lobbyists working with CRPA) is having a tour of farms in the Boulder area for the legislatures to provide a networking opportunity before the legislative session begins.
  4. Advisory Board Questions:
    • Daryl asked if we knew which Commissioner would be attending the meetings in 2024. Curtis indicated that it would be announced in December.
  5. Announcements: Next meeting:
    • The board discussed the possible months for meetings in 2024. It was decided on March 20, July 19 with a tour watching the County’s spray drone work, and November 20.
    • Tina also mentioned that the 2024 Farm Show will be January 23-25. The morning of January 24th from 9-12 will be 3 different weed talks. Dustin will cover drones; George Beck will cover bare-ground treatments and Lisa Blecker and a co-worker will cover Endangered Species and PPE/respirators.
  6. Meeting adjourned at 7:40 pm with a motion from Chuck and a second by James.  
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