Farm and Ranch | Weed tour surveys county weed population

On Sept. 6, the Skyline Cooperative Weed Management Area held an annual weed tour.
This year the group started at the Emery County Weed Department in Castle Dale. Dennis Worwood the USU extension agent for Emery County welcomed the group and described the planned tour to observe the areas of selected noxious weeds. He also provided a Noxious Weed Field Guide for Utah published by Utah State University Extension Department.
He introduced Ryan Young the new Utah State University Extension Agent for Carbon County who is an entomologist.
The tour stopped at the Russian Olive test plot area along Bott Lane in Castle Dale and then onto Ferron to see the following weeds: velvet leaf, puncture vine, jointed goat grass, spotted knapweed, leafy spurge and much discussion about how to kill Russian olive regrowth.
Worwood displayed a 2.5 foot weed in a water pitcher called “velvet leaf” which he found in his backyard. These are commonly found in the fields around Green River. It looks almost like a wild squash or melon plant. A herbicide like Roundup will kill this plant. The seeds are carried by birds and animals.
Ron Patterson displayed a Leafy Spurge plant and said it had been found south of Orangeville near the first sprinkler pivot. This weed is not a big problem in Emery County but in Wyoming and Montana it is. There you will see whole hillsides covered in yellow with this weed.
In a field of alfalfa the mowing and the plant competition helps control the Leafy Spurge plant however in a pasture or raw range it can become a problem. The roots from this plant can be 30 feet long. Leafy Spurge has a strong root system that is hard to kill. When the seedpods break open they can throw seeds 20 feet. Leafy Spurge is poisonous to cattle and horses. But sheep will graze leafy spurge and help control it.
Along Bott Lane the group stopped to observe where last year in the fall a cut stump treatment of large Russian olive trees had taken place. Worwood identified each stump with a number as he wanted to observe if the cut stump treatment killed root suckers. Here the root suckers were shallow. Part of this plot was treated with Glyphosate and part was cut and left untreated. The untreated part by August of this year had regrowth that was 7 feet tall and dense. The average untreated stump produced 46 sprouts. “We cut the regrowth and treated a third of them with Glyphosate mixed 50-50 with water and a third of them we used Garlon and diesel. Both herbicide treatments killed the Russian olive regrowth.
“One option is to mow the Russian olive regrowth and then treat the little stubs of regrowth with herbicide. Some of the regrowth near treated stumps showed some herbicide damage. At the base of each Russian olive tree is a cluster of buds that are ready to regrow if not treated” said Worwood.
He pointed out that If you spray the herbicide on the top of the tree it won’t kill the buds at the base of the tree. It’s best to start spraying herbicide at the base of the tree and work up.
In the cut stump treatment spray herbicide on the top of the stump and down the sides of the stump.
Worwood observed that a root must be shallow or exposed for the root suckers to form and regrow.
Corey Worwood gave a report about the puncture vine. It can start producing seeds within about two weeks after sprouting. Most herbicides will kill the puncture vine also frost kills puncture vine. If you walk on the puncture vine you will carry the seed to other locations on your shoes. The first frost will kill the puncture vine plant. The plant likes heat and usually grows in June, July and August until the first frost in September when it dies. The puncture vine tolerates very dry conditions and poor soil. The puncture vine’s spiny fruit can penetrate skin, bicycle tires and thin vehicle tires. It can cause injury to grazing animals. Puncture vine can be observed growing beside the cement walkways at the Ferron rodeo arena.
Roger Barton, a Ferron Canal Company board member and a resource coordinator with the Utah Department of Agriculture, gave a brief side trip and an overview of the Millsite Dam project. The Millsite Dam was first built in 1971. The dam is in really good shape Roger said. This dam became classified as a high hazard dam because of the location of Ferron City close to the dam. For many years sediment has been filling the dam and reducing the amount of water available for culinary and irrigation. A sediment and rehabilitation committee was formed to get funds for the removal of that sediment and raise the height of the dam. The rock boulders on the face of this earthen dam were all removed and will be replaced as the last phase of this construction project.
Approximately 14 wells are being drilled near the base of the dam to remove water from under the dam in preparation for building a stability berm. The berm will start from 35 feet down and 100 feet out from the dam face. This will help hold the dam in the case of an earthquake.
There are 3,600 acre-feet of sediment in the dam. That sediment has been building over the past 46 years. “We asked the government agencies for assistance to get back the water that we have lost due to the sediment filling up the dam. Nielson Construction will raise the dam four feet and Ferron will get back about 1,500 acre feet of water storage. Each year the Millsite reservoir gets about 74 acre-feet of sediment coming into the dam from the mountains. The water running off of the mountains flows into Ferron Creek and into the Millsite Dam,” said Barton.
The old spillway is being removed and the new spillway under construction will handle up to 32,000 ft. of water per second or more than twice as much water as the old spillway.
This has been a great reservoir over the years for the community. This reservoir has a history of filling nine out of every 10 years.
Barton pointed out a Hydro suction dredge would be used when the reservoir is filling to remove the sediment flowing into the dam. This dredge will float on the lake and be placed at the mouth of the stream. The Hydro suction dredge will collect the sediment that is coming into the dam and send that sediment over a pipe to the spillway back into the Ferron Creek. The dredge has garden tiller like paddles designed to go down 18 feet and stir up the sediment so the dredge can pull in sediment with the water and send that mixture down the long floating pipe along the bottom of the dam to the spillway. This dredge can be used to maintain the dam and prevent it from re-filling with sediment.
After viewing the Millsite dam construction project. The weed tour group traveled to Mike Ralphs property to view how he has eradicated the Russian Olive. His next-door neighbor also had the Russian Olive trees removed but did not control the regrowth and now has a pasture with an abundance of Russian Olive trees growing.
The group observed the Russian Olive control plots on Ralph’s place in Ferron. Ralphs provided a report on how much chemical he used over four years to eradicate the regrowth of Russian Olives.
He used 57 gallons of Garlon herbicide in a backpack to kill the regrowth of Russian olives on his property during the year 2014. In 2015 he used 30 gallons of Garlon herbicide to kill Russian Olive regrowth and in 2016 he used 12 gallons to kill Russian Olive regrowth in 2017 he used less than 3 gallons of herbicide to kill the remaining Russian Olive regrowth. He treated the Russian olives with herbicide in July and September of each year.
The group observed Ralphs fields from a hilltop. The fields appear to have good pastureland for his Angus cattle in and around the cottonwood trees along Ferron Creek. No Russian Olives were seen to be growing in his pastures.
Worwood said, there are three patches of joint goat grass in Emery County wheat fields, one in Ferron and two in Clawson. The seeds are almost impossible to separate from wheat as they are of a similar size.
Corey Worwood then led the weed tour group to where the Russian Olive’s were killed in 2013 and said the regrowth here is from the roots. He recently used the herbicide called Capstone to kill the regrowth. Corey said a mixture of Garlon and Milestone herbicides appears to be most effective. The herbicide Roundup has also been found to be effective. For best results spray the base of the Russian Olive tree moving up to the top of the Russian Olive spraying two sides. For best results the basil bark treatment should be accomplished after all the leaves are gone in October or November.
Dennis Worwood reported he had accomplished a basil bark treatment of some regrowth near Castle Dale with one-part Garlon and four parts diesel and had a 100 percent reduction in Russian Olive regrowth.
He pointed out that where the Russian olives trees have been pulled out of the ground. The regrowth is coming from the roots left in the ground.
Tour participants came from the Bureau of Land Management, the US Forest Service, Carbon County weed department, Emery County Weed department, the Emery County Water Conservancy District, Utah State University Extension Department and Emery County Commissioner Paul Cowley.