Statement of Jerry Asher

Natural Resource Specialist - Bureau of Land Management

Before Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition,

and Forestry

Nampa, Idaho -- May 8, 1999

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this hearing on the scope of the noxious weed problem in the western states, its harmful impacts on natural resources and economic health, and potential solutions through cooperation and collaboration among Federal agencies, State and local governments, and private landowners.

I am Jerry Asher, the Invasive Non-Native (Weed) Outreach Leader for the Bureau of Land Management. While I have worked for the BLM for 39 years in positions ranging from wildlife biologist to district manager, my full-time job for the past seven years has been to increase awareness of the noxious weed problem. I ask that my full statement be entered into the hearing record.

State government Departments of Agriculture in eleven western states estimate that there are about 57,000,000 acres of invasive weeds on private, state and federal wildlands. These 57,000,000 acres produce uncountable millions of weed seed every year, much of which is carried to other wildlands by wind, water, wildlife, livestock, people, and equipment. Invasive weeds do not respect property boundaries, and consequently, public, private, and state wildlands are all under attack or at risk of attack from these weed seeds. Let me give you a few examples to illustrate the aggressive spread and indiscriminate nature of noxious weed infestations:

_ From just a few plants in western Idaho in 1954, rush skeletonweed now infests over four million acres as it continues to "leapfrog" to the east, now out beyond Shoshone, Idaho, and to the west into the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area in Oregon and Idaho. Severe infestations are also spreading in California, Washington and other parts of Oregon.

_ Montana had only minor populations of spotted knapweed in 1920. Today, there are about five million acres in the state, with another 29 million acres of highly susceptible land. Spotted knapweed is also expanding rapidly in Idaho, Oregon and California.

_ Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota reported about thirty-two acres of leafy spurge in 1970; now the weed dominates over 4,000 of the Park's 70,500 acres.

_ Weeds spread at a rate of about fourteen percent per year, which is an exponential doubling every five years In the absence of predators, immune system or other biological control mechanisms adapted to counteract these species, populations of some exotics (noxious weeds) have exploded.

At today's hearing, I will describe in more detail the impact of noxious weeds on wildlands. During the growing season, noxious weeds spread to an estimated 4600 acres per day on public lands managed by the BLM, National Park and Federal wildlife refuge lands, and units of the National Forest system.

When noxious weeds invade an area, the impacts to natural resources are always harmful. Forest regeneration and production are diminished, erosion increases because weeds do not hold and protect the soil the way native plants do, streams and lakes are degraded by the sediment flowing from the erosion, nesting for waterfowl and many other wildlife habitats are destroyed, and fishing, hiking, camping, and boating opportunities are reduced.

On both rangelands and forested areas, invasive plants crowd out more desirable and nutritious forage, cause soil erosion, and poison some livestock. Public land ranges and family ranches are rendered nearly useless for grazing.

Let me give you a few examples to illustrate the harmful impacts of noxious weed infestations on the public lands:

_ Native plant communities: Noxious weeds displace native plants and spread quickly into natural areas, monopolize resources, and push out native flora and fauna. A typical sequence of events is as follows: Native plant communities become infested with cheatgrass (an invasive annual grass with some forage value), which is then commonly invaded by medusahead (another invasive grass with almost no forage value), which is then frequently invaded by yellow starthistle or knapweed, which is then invaded by sulfur cinquefoil. With each step of the "downward spiral", one annual weed is replaced by another deeper rooted annual plant which is replaced by more tenacious extensively rooted perennial weeds which results in reduced site productivity and restoration becomes more difficult or impractical.

_ Wildlife habitat: Americans place a great deal of importance on the ability of public lands to provide quality wildlife habitat. Unfortunately, the proliferation of weeds is causing an ever increasing degradation of this habitat. As weed infestations become severe, diversity declines and wildlife habitat quality degenerates. Studies in Montana show that spotted knapweed invasions reduced available winter forage for elk between fifty and ninety percent. One study showed that when chukar partridge were given free access to all the medusahead caryopses (seed) they would eat, along with other dietary requirements, they suffered dramatic losses in body weight.

_ Western economic health: Noxious weeds affect us financially and reduce opportunities for public land recreation. Weeds reduce land values, causing damaging economic impacts to local communities.

_ In Montana knapweed infestations result in an estimated direct annual impact of $14,000,000 with total secondary impacts of about $42,000,000 per year which could support over 500 jobs.

_ In Grant county, Oregon, the annual economic impact of noxious weed infestation from losses in livestock grazing, was $247,000. Numerous studies and repeated landowner experiences show that weeds commonly reduce livestock carrying capacity between thirty-five and ninety percent.

_ In Klamath County, Oregon, a 1,300-acre ranch was recently abandoned due to infestations of leafy spurge, and was sold at auction for about ten percent of its pre-infestation value.

_ Weeds cause abandonment of wildland recreation sites and trails. Hunters and bird dogs are reluctant to use land infested with thistles and weeds diminish the enjoyment of recreationists along trails and near campgrounds. For example, float boaters encountering the spines of thistles and the stickery knapweeds, frequently have a difficult time finding a suitable campsite to place their tents and sleeping bags. Similarly, fishing along stream banks is often impossible because of the pain inflicted by thistles.

We will not be able to respond effectively to noxious weed infestations unless all the people who have a stake in protecting these lands work together. Local people know how to prevent and control weeds. However, cooperation is the key, and that is why cooperative weed management areas are so urgently needed in most areas. Efforts to combat invasive weeds must bring together a complex set of interests that includes private landowners, industry, and government agencies at all levels. Fortunately, we have numerous examples of cooperative efforts to control invasive plants at the local or regional level.

The BLM is actively involved in several partnership efforts toward our common goal of preventing or controlling the spread of noxious weeds.

_ Each year the Bureau contributes to "Pulling Together," a joint, cost-saving, program to promote community-based weed control.

_ A county, state and federal effort produced the "Guidelines for Coordinated Management of Noxious Weeds in the Greater Yellowstone Area," to help people initiate and implement cooperative weed management areas.

The BLM is also fortunate to have dedicated weed attackers in our ranks:

_ in 1992, yellow starthistle was discovered in the Pueblo Mountains in the BLM Burns District in Oregon and 700 plants were immediately pulled. Subsequent hand pulling has almost eradicated the infestation.

_ in 1983, Elizabeth Neese, a BLM botanist in the Vernal, Utah, BLM district, found the first known infestation of Dyer's woad on Diamond Mountain. She eradicated it by hand and Dyer's woad has not been seen in that district since.

In local watersheds (someone is responsible for every piece of land), cooperative weed management can be a reasonable and successful endeavor - especially if we remember that about ninety percent of the western public lands (outside of Alaska) are not significantly infested - yet. The BLM has joined in partnerships with other governmental agencies, State, local, and Tribal governments, and through our Resource Advisory Councils, to implement a comprehensive and effective strategy for managing invasive weeds. This "Integrated Weed Management" strategy sets out specific courses of action for site-specific responses to invasive weeds, including:

_ prevention, early detection, and eradication of early-detected

noxious weeds;

_ increasing public and government agency awareness of what noxious

weeds are and the problems they cause;

_ determining 'what is out there' through development of a

comprehensive inventory of noxious weeds on BLM-managed lands;

_ including provisions for noxious weed management in all BLM-funded

or authorized activities; and

_ determining the best methods for an integrated approach to weed management and implementing on-the-ground operations.

The Integrated Weed Management strategy emphasizes prevention, because once a weed infestation is identified, it is often already so large that containment is difficult and expensive. All of us share the responsibility of educating ourselves, our children, neighbors, and visitors about how noxious weeds are spread and the steps we each can take to reduce the chances that we will be the ones spreading the weeds.

In conclusion, the BLM is working together in partnership with State, local, and Tribal governments and with private landowners to keep relatively uninfested land from becoming seriously infested. Future generations of Americans deserve to inherit ecologically healthy and productive wildlands, not vast landscapes infested with spiney, poisonous weeds that make the public lands unfit for people or wildlife. We must be wise enough and committed enough to fully implement enough cooperative weed management areas so that noxious weed spread can be prevented or controlled.

Attachment: "The Spread of Invasive Weeds in Western Wildlands: A State of Biological Emergency," Governor's Idaho Weed Summit, May 19, 1998