The Hay Reservoir project entails treating approximately 3000 acres for Russian knapweed and salt cedar invasion. Treatment would consist of the ground application of herbicide to control these noxious weeds in the area. There is also whitetop, Canada thistle, black henbane, halogeton, and Swainson’s pea. This area is important to deer, elk, antelope, and many other wildlife species. This project will directly reduce water wastage, erosion, and sedimentation into Hay Reservoir, located in the Great Divide Basin. It will also benefit Red Creek and Hay Reservoir proper, native vegetation, and the wildlife which use the water in this drainage. This area has also failed Standards for Healthy Rangelands due to the invasive plant infestations. The project is designed to help achieve Standards for Healthy Rangelands. This work is part of implementing Standards for Healthy Rangelands Guidelines. Work would be sub-contracted out to ensure treatments are accomplished in a timely manner. Lack of funding in the past has led to this area being left out of the treatment program. Funding would go toward labor and chemical to treat this area over the course of five years. The site would then be able to be controlled with minimal time and cost input. Once started, however, the project would need to be continued over the five year duration to ensure reinvasions do not occur. This project is estimated to take 5 years to complete, accomplishing approximately 600 acres treated per year. In addition, maintenance applications of past treatments will be conducted. This control effort is supported by the Jolly Ranch, Sweetwater County Weed and Pest District, the local Natural Resource Conservation District, recreationists, industry, and other members of the general public. This office works directly with the Weed & Pest District and landowner to treat weeds on BLM lands in conjunction with treatments on adjacent private and State lands. Sweetwater county and the Jolly Ranch have agreed to donate herbicides associated with the treatment.
This project was started in 2008. Sweetwater County Weed and Pest District donated the chemical for the entire project, and a truck mounted sprayer with the operator to treat the road sides in the project area. The Landowner paid for the labor to treat their private and State lands within the project area, and the BLM RFO paid for the labor to treat the BLM lands.
2009 Update: We reported 600 acres treated with half done in July and the remainder in September. Ocular monitoring of last years' treatments showed 70 to 80 percent kill rate. Our monitoring also discovered a new location of a sensitive species, Rorippa calycina. We anticipate needing another $10k to maintain the treatments, monitor, and complete inventory upstream.
2010 Update: 600 acres were treated in September. Most areas previously treated received spot treatments only due to the large reduction in Russian knapweed density. The saltcedar is gone, the Swainson’s Pea has been reduced by half, and the whitetop has been reduced some. A different treatment window will need to be used to remove a larger portion of the whitetop in the future. The native grasses are responding very well in the treated areas. Backpack sprayers were used to get weeds in areas inaccessible by truck mounted sprayers or four-wheelers. The landowner also treated their block-private lands.
2011 Update: 300 acres were treated in 2011. 150 acres monitored. Project was completed in September.