(Photo by Abby Harrison)With funding secured and a new cheatgrass coordinator in place, county leaders are taking steps to build awareness and slow the spread of the invasive weed’s expanding range in the Gunnison Basin.
Approximately 40 community members gathered at the Fred Field Center on March 1 for a free cheatgrass treatment workshop designed to help landowners understand the impacts of the noxious weed. Although not the first of its kind, this workshop was the first event organized by Petar Simic, Gunnison County’s new cheatgrass and habitat restoration coordinator.
The event was hosted by Gunnison County in partnership with the Gunnison Conservation District and the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies. The all-day workshop covered a wide range of topics to help mitigate the spread — starting with cheatgrass identification and its ecology and moving to the options available to treat the invasive grass.
Hiring a coordinator gives Gunnison County the additional capacity it needs to continue to treat cheatgrass across agency, county and property lines. Backed by community support, and with more funding on the way, the treatment workshop was just the beginning of what’s in store for the remainder of the year, including more educational events as well as significant cross-boundary treatments in Cochetopa Canyon and on private lands.
Although the level of cheatgrass infestation with the Gunnison Basin is mild compared to other areas of the West, Simic — who was hired as a contractor in the fall of 2022 — hopes to raise more awareness within the community, while leading coordinated efforts to treat private and public lands.
The potential that cheatgrass has to take over native landscapes, such as the Gunnison Valley’s sagebrush ecosystem, is “frightening,” Simic said. He began his natural resource career in Battle Mountain, Nevada where cheatgrass has taken over thousands of acres. It has burned many times over, preventing the sagebrush from regenerating.
“It’s devastated communities, it truly has — not just ecologically but socially and economically. There's a long heritage of livestock grazing in these communities, and they can't graze these areas anymore, and people fall into hopelessness … It's important that we create these coordinated efforts here early on in the Gunnison Basin,” Simic said.
Gunnison County recently received $150,000 for treating cheatgrass solely on private land through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Simic will help distribute the funding as the snow begins to melt, putting the grant dollars toward seeding, herbicide applications and other noxious weed treatments. Simic is actively setting up consultations for the spring and summer season, working with interested landowners to develop a management plans.
While the cheatgrass treatments are free, Simic wants landowners to get engaged, whether it is by inventorying where the cheatgrass is, helping with the treatment process or monitoring the results.
After serving on the Gunnison Basin Sage-Grouse Strategic Committee, County Commissioner Liz Smith has consistently pushed for a cheatgrass coordinator.
“One of the best things that we can do for the sage-grouse habitat, but also for the health of our landscape was to address this pervasive and quickly spreading noxious weed,” Smith said. “We have an opportunity because we have not been overtaken the way that some of the other basins have.”
The coordinator position, one of the first of its kind in Colorado, is funded by pooled resources from numerous local agencies including the Bureau of Land Management, the Gunnison County Stockgrowers’ Association, the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District, Western Colorado University and Sisk-a-dee.
Gunnison County has agreed to pay for up to half of Simic’s salary and has secured enough funding to support the position for the next three years. Numerous organizations within the valley also sent in letters of support for the position.
Cheatgrass has become so pervasive in some parts of Colorado that the state has not deemed it worthwhile to try and eradicate or treat it over some of the other noxious weeds. Because of this, there really isn't any kind of structure or system that outlines how counties can coordinate treatments across multiple jurisdictions and the boundaries of private and public land, Smith said.
“It is messy,” Smith said. “And what tends to happen in the absence of this type of stakeholder or a coordinator position is that you'll have spots that are treated in isolation,” she said.
With Simic finally onboard, Smith said she believes successful treatments will continue with ongoing support from the community. With more federal funding packages on the way, she expects the momentum to pick up.
“What I love about this particular type of work is that it's not partisan,” Smith said. “There is an issue that we all see, and we are working together to address it. Whether it's the vitality of the sage-grouse or the ability to address some fire concerns, I think there's many reasons that you have so many people who are saying this is important for us to do right now.”
For more information, or to set up a consultation, email Petar Simic at happyhabitatsgunnison@gmail.com or call 248.881.6982.
(Bella Biondini can be contacted at 970.641.1414 or bella@gunnisontimes.com.)
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