NRCS looking at funding weed control in and off of Beaver Creek Park

The Havre Natural Resources Conservation Service office is proposing a targeted implementation plan for fighting noxious weeds in Beaver Creek Park and are looking for local producers and partners for the proposed program.

“It could be beneficial for the park,” Beaver Creek Park Superintendent Chad Edgar said. “I know it’s beneficial for the ranchers that we spray on the park and, in the same aspect, it helps us if they spray their property as well … . It affects us the same.”

He said NRCS is looking into a plan to get funding for private ranchers to control weeds on both their property and the park.

NRCS Soil Conservationist Kailee Calnan said the project is only in the beginning stages and possibly will not be implemented until next year or later, but NRCS needs input from the community people and organizations willing to participate and partner in the proposal.

The project would fall under the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which has been used by the NRCS for a number of years, she said. She added that the state has been moving in a new direction with conservation efforts to specifically address areas and resources concerns within a long-term plan. Specific targeted implementation plans, which will address specific issues and areas in a focused conservation effort, are part of the long-term goal.

NRCS held a meeting in April with the Hill County Conservation District Board to collect data on the biggest concerns for Hill County and developed an idea of what needs to be addressed in the long-term plan for the area, she said. The main concern that rose at the meeting was soil health on crop land, which included issues of erosion and weeds.

Last month, a producer approached NRCS to inquire if a plan, such as a cooperation between producers who graze on Beaver Creek and the NRCS, could be done, she said. Last week, the NRCS held a meeting with producers whose cattle graze on the park land to see if the idea could work. Out of that meeting, NRCS started developing a project to fund producers who use the park fighting weeds on their own land as well as the park’s.

Calnan said NRCS needs as much information as possible from producers, organizations, the park and the Hill County Weed District to write a full proposal to increase the chances to receive funding for the project.

NRCS wants to know that the Hill County NRCS office really thought the plan through and the plan has a strong science base, she said. They are also looking in the proposal for willing participants and partners who are already on board, as well as exactly where the project will be implemented and why it is needed.

“As detailed as we can get for our proposal will improve our chances of them actually approving our proposal,” she said.

NRCS has a limited amount of funds for each program in the state, dependent on the budget and the Farm Bill, and can only give a limited amount of funding to targeted implementation plans across the state. She added that the Hill County office will be competing with every other office in the state to be awarded funding for its project.

“There may be years in our office that we don’t get any proposals approved and we just don’t contract anything for a year or two,” she said, “and then we might get the proposal approved and then we have a couple of years of working with people on a specific resource concern.”

She said NRCS is still looking for input and if someone has something they want to voice about this particular project or they know of other resource concerns they can always contact the office.

“I can’t guarantee where we’ll go with it, depending on whether we think it will fit in the long-range plan,” she said.

But for any project NRCS offices propose they need to show the local interest.

“When we submit our proposals, they want to know if we have any partners we are working with that we could leverage the money that we are putting in. But maybe there are partners that are putting in money or time or something for this project as well. They want to know a good idea of how many producers we have who are willing and able.”

Beaver Creek Park is a focus area because of the large number of noxious weeds in the park, she said.

Hill County Weed District Supervisor Terry Turner said NRCS’s plan is fantastic. He added that houndstongue was out of control in Beaver Creek Park because of the lack of budget, but with the mill levy the county received and funding for the district through the 2018 Farm Bill the park and the Weed District are working to get the weeds under control, but sections of the parks — acres and acres — are still filled with weeds.

The park already has spray days, when producers spray the park for weeds, which helps the effort tremendously, he said. Last year, the county spent a total of $32,903 in the spray days and an additional $36,000 to have a helicopter spray the park, using grant money to pay for the helicopter. He added that they were able to spray a total of 119 acres with 15 to 30 producers volunteering and giving 589 man-hours of donated time.

But more can still be done, he said. Weeds travel from the park, on the cattle, to the producers property and vice versa.

“Weeds don’t stop at the borders,” he said.

He said Hill County Commission, the weed district and the park are working on new ways to fight noxious weeds, such as using bio-control — using bugs that naturally prey on weeds.

Working with the NRCS it could possibly streamline the efforts for fighting weeds on both the park and the producers property, he said.

Calnan said the best approach may be a variety of different methods to fight weeds. How the program will work, once the project is approved, is to sign contracts with each producer separately and based on the weed district’s recommendation have producers use different methods on their property to prevent weeds from spreading.

“They would each have their own contract with the government,” she said, adding that funding for each contract may be different depending on the method the producer will be using.

After the project is approved, sign up will be available for a year or two, depending on the number of interested parties, she said.

“But at this point, we need the first contact, we need to know if you’re even interested,” she said.

No contracts are available now, but interested parties should contact the NRCS office and notify the office if they are interested in the potential program, she said.

NRCS is also looking for groups to partner in the proposal, she said. They would be responsible for a variety of things depending on what the partner is interested in, such as local Scouts or other youth organizations. Any organization or group with resource concerns can contact the NRCS about becoming a potential partner. She added that NRCS is also considering approaching Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation about becoming a partner.

“It would depend on what they wanted to bring to the table, are they going to say, ‘Hey we are going to donate some man-hours to help pull or spray weeds of something’ or ‘we raised some funds and we want to contribute it to put toward weed control,’” Calnan said. “ … We are just in the very beginning stages of just, ‘Hey this is a potential project that could be done through EQIP.’”