While native weeds tend to be less of a problem, most of the designated noxious weeds originated in Europe, Eurasia or Asia.
The Nebraska Noxious Weed Control Act lists: Leafy Spurge, Purple Loosestrife, Saltcedar, Common Reed (Phragmites), Sericea Lespedeza, Giant Knotweed, Japanese/Bohemian Knotweed, Spotted Knapweed, Diffuse Knapweed, Canada (Creeping) Thistle, Plumeless Thistle and Musk Thistle. These weeds are aggressive and destructive to the biosphere in Knox County.
The Nebraska Department of Agriculture published “Weeds of the Great Plains.” It is available at nda.nebraska.gov for $35; or ask your local librarian for this weed identification book. It has colorful photographs with factual information.
All three natural resources districts in Knox County direct weed management inquiries to the local U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service office.
Resource conservationist Austin Baldwin in the local Bloomfield office says that the NRCS works with private landowners in an advisory role, but not financially for noxious weed control.
When it comes to noxious weeds in Knox County, Weed Superintendent Steve Banks is it.
Banks is the designated expert in Knox County. He emphasizes that he is “here to help” as he takes 20 hours of continuing education annually and collaborates with other county experts in the Northeast Weed Management Area.
Banks educates about 800 elementary students at Niobrara State Park in the Annual Outdoor Adventure.
He patrols some 1,400 road miles in his truck rigged with a boom on the front to spray chemical at the roadsides. He may also use a backpack or a drone to spray chemicals.
Banks purchases specific beetles for Purple Loosestrife as a means of biocontrol. He neither mows nor uses a tractor for noxious weeds.
Banks does ask for help. Individual landowners and township boards share responsibility for the 1,000 miles of township roads. With 30 townships, each township has an average of 33 road miles to manage for weed control.
Banks commends Morton Township (Bloomfield) for the willingness to knock out weeds and trees in the right-of-way, which is typically 33 feet from the center of the road.
Lester Ketelsen, clerk of Morton Township, says that he does what Banks tells him to do. He goes throughout the township roads and uses chemicals to spray Leafy Spurge on the roadsides. He is compensated by a small hourly wage from Morton Township.
If landowners do not take care of the right-of-way for township roads, the political subdivision may budget the cost of controlling noxious weeds.
Leafy Spurge is difficult for farmers and cattle ranchers to control because it has deep roots, and it comes out early when people are busy.
By mid-May, the yellow-green leafy flower matured across Knox County. It has a milky latex in the leaves and stems. While considered toxic to cattle, Leafy Spurge is edible to sheep and goats.
The use of livestock such as sheep and goats for biocontrol of noxious weeds in a county predominantly grazed by cattle is called co-grazing.
Out of Hartington, Ben Beckman, associate livestock systems Extension educator for Knox County, says that co-grazing cattle with goats on a one-to-one ratio often will not reduce the grass for cattle.
Out west in North Platte, Randy Saner, beef Extension educator for Lincoln, Logan and McPherson counties, says to start sheep and goats on Leafy Spurge and other noxious weeds before they start to seed.
Sheep prefer forbs which are broadleaves, and goats prefer woody plants like Buckbrush and Sumac. Goats browse for eastern red cedar better during the wintertime.
While predators are a big challenge for sheep, adequate fencing is a main challenge for goats. Cattle fencing requires about four wires, sheep fencing needs about six wires and goat fencing needs about eight wires. Alternatively, herders are employed in the western part of the state.
Red cedars are native and not on the noxious weed list. Even though they require aggressive management, general manager Wade Ellwanger of the Lower Niobrara NRD in Butte still prefers red cedars planted in rows of two for soil conservation.
Forester Chris Wood with the Nebraska Forest Service out of the Lower Elkhorn NRD in Norfolk considers trees such as Siberian Elm, Honeylocust and Buckthorn as invasive.
Wood works with a program called the Wildland Urban Interface to thin out red cedars enough to prevent canopy fires.
Other native weeds that are not on the noxious weed list but may be eligible for costshare management with NRCS include Smooth Sumac and Buckbrush.
Baldwin would arrange for a site visit to consider methods of control such as continuous mowing and shredding, prescribed burning and mid-June herbicide spraying.
K.M. Burkhardt, Verdigre
