CWMA
The North Fork John Day Cooperative Weed Management Area (CWMA) is working to find solutions to noxious weed problems across our watershed. Weed infestations threaten wildlife and fisheries habitat, as well as agricultural productivity by contributing to soil erosion, decreased water quality and reduced forage production.
Middle Fork John Day Uplands
The North Fork John Day CWMA brings together private and public land managers, along with other conservation partners, to work collaboratively on weed management issues and concerns throughout the watershed. By coordinating efforts across property boundaries and sharing resources, we are striving for a broader impact on noxious weeds than might result from individual efforts. Participation is voluntary, non-obligatory, and does not keep individual participants from working separately on weed projects or partnering with other groups.
CWMA partners are using several control techniques in a well-planned, locally coordinated effort to address the negative effects of weeds on the both the economy and the ecology of our watershed. Meetings are held twice a year in Long Creek. Dates and times are announced in the North Fork Currents newsletter (published quarterly) and on this website.
CWMA Projects
The North Fork John Day Watershed Council (NFJDWC) has undertaken several projects and partnered with other CMWA members working towards the control of noxious weeds.
Fox/Cottonwood Leafy Spurge Project
This project involves a multi-year effort to combat leafy spurge on over 2,700 acres of private lands within a 300 foot buffer along both sides of Fox and Cottonwood Creeks. The project site starts at the confluence of Cottonwood Creek into the North Fork John Day River near Monument and extends 41 miles upstream into Fox Valley just past where Fox Creek crosses Highway 395.
Leafy spurge infestation
in Cottonwood Creek area
Leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula) is one of the West's most invasive and difficult to control noxious weeds. It reproduces both from seed and vegetative rootstalks, some of which can grow over 15 feet deep. Like all spurges, it is considered toxic to cattle and has the ability to diminish rangeland carrying capacity up to 75 percent. It is highly adaptable to a variety of sites, and the ability of its seeds to float and germinate on the surface of water makes spread and establishment along riparian areas especially problematic. Leafy spurge was first noted in Fox Valley approximately 30 years ago and, despite landowners’ efforts to control it, has now spread down the length of Fox/Cottonwood Creek and onto the riparian areas of the North Fork John Day River.
Leafy Spurge survey site
The Fox/Cottonwood Leafy Spurge Project calls for three years of treatment, using both chemical and biological control methods, and four years of monitoring. Surveying and mapping of the creek was completed in the spring of 2010 by the NFJDWC. Information about the extent and patterns of leafy spurge infestations was collected, and monitoring plots were established prior to the summer chemical and biological treatments implemented by Grant Weed Control (GWC).
Leafy Spurge treatment
along Cottonwood Creek
The intent of this comprehensive approach is to allow landowners to gain control of this extremely aggressive invader. Because the seed remains viable in the soil for at least eight years, landowners will be consulted on developing long-term management plans to help prevent major re-infestations in the future.
Funding for this project comes from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB) and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR). North Fork CWMA partners include the NFJDWC, GWC, CTUIR, Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife, and over 25 private landowners.
North Fork John Day River Leafy Spurge Treatment
Funding provided by CWMA partner, the Umatilla National Forest-North Fork John Day Ranger District, allowed for an additional 5 acres of leafy spurge to be surveyed and treated during the spring/summer of 2010. This was a separate, unconnected site from the Fox/Cottonwood leafy spurge project. It is located along the North Fork John Day river River approximately 8 river miles upstream from the confluence of the Middle Fork John Day River. The NFJDWC conducted the surveying and mapping of weed locations and contracted with CWMA partner, Kelly Morris, a local rancher and licensed commercial applicator to conduct the herbicide treatments.
Whitetop Treatment
Whitetop infestation near Long Creek
The North Fork CWMA recently completed surveys and treatments of whitetop infestations at sites in Long Creek and Fox Valleys. Funding was provided by the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) as part of an ongoing effort to prevent the plant from becoming more widespread in our area.
Yellow Starthistle
Yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis) is an annual rangeland weed from the Mediterranean. It has sharp spines that surround the flower heads making infestations unsuitable for livestock grazing, wildlife habitat, or recreation. Starthistle is toxic to horses causing “chewing disease,” a chronic, potentially fatal neurological disorder.
It became established in California during the mid-1800s, and by the early 1900s it had reached the Pacific Northwest with reports of it in an alfalfa field near Walla Walla. It first appeared in Oregon around 1933 in Deschutes County. Unfortunately there are now sites in Grant County.
The NFJDWC is working with other CWMA partners to develop treatment plans and will apply for funding this fall to treat small infestations in the Ritter area before this plant can become more widespread.