1. How many different kinds of plants do you see?
Lowers plant biodiversity and creates monocultures.
Biodiversity: We talked about that definition earlier. We have only 2 weeds growing here, not 100 spp. like that picture of the man standing in the field of flowers.
Monoculture: Does anyone know what the prefix “mono” mean? It means one. So in this picture we have two monocultures. Name the 2 monocultures.

2. Do you like to see wildflowers?
If so, you want to control noxious weeds.
Go over names of native flowers in picture again.

3. Where did weeds come from. Eurasia
Where did weeds come from? Eurasia. Does anyone now where Spotted Knapweed came from? Eastern Russia.

4. How did Weeds Get Here? Hitched a ride on immigrants and animals
Contaminated seed and hay from other countries
Escaped from ornamental plantings
Discuss ornamental plants in nurseries and how people should be very careful what they plant, especially if they live adjacent to natural areas and open land.

5. How are Weeds Spread?
Human disturbances like driving motor vehicles, hiking, biking, and pets
Natural disturbances like wind, rivers, wildlife, and low-intensity fires
Ask what weed seed is on this dog? Houndstongue. Ask what they do when they get seeds on them and discuss what they should be doing to better dispose of these seeds. Each houndstongue nutlet contains 3 seeds so when you throw them on the ground, 3 new houndstongue plants can grow.
Motor vehicles: weeds can stuck to tires and underneath.
Hiking: seeds stuck on clothes. Bikes: seeds get stuck in spokes of tires. Pets: fur.
Wind: Has anyone seen a tumble mustard blowing across the road?
Rivers: give example of leafy spurge growing along rivers, popping it’s seeds like popcorn up to 15 ft. and flowing down rivers.
Wildlife: How might wildlife spread seeds. Stuck on fur and passing thru animal.
Low intensity fires: What happens if fire occurred in a field? It creates bare soil. What will grow there on the bare ground? Fires rarely get hot enough to kill noxious weed seeds.

6. This is what houndstongue looks like when it flowers.

7. Integrated Weed Management
Use more than one method of weed control
Focus on ecology of plant community
Focuses on what you want to grow or desired vegetation
IWM is using more than one method of weed control.
In this picture we have a diverse plant community with sagebrush, grasses, etc. If you got rid of the sage in this picture, what do you think will grow there? Weeds.
Does anyone know what ecology means. It’s the relationship between organisms in a community.
You want to focus on what you want to grow. I like to see weeds die a painful death and it makes me feel good to get rid of them. But if I kill a field of weeds do you think I should just leave that field alone? What should I do w/ that field? Plant desired veg.

8. LIFE CYCLE OF NOXIOUS WEEDS
BIOLOGICAL CONTROLS
HERBICIDES
FERTILIZATION
REVEGETATION
PREVENTION
GRAZING
DESIRED
VEGETATION
BURNING
LIFE CYCLE OF NOXIOUS WEEDS
IRRIGATION
We’re spending more time helping people explore the combinations of various weed control tools. We then help them look at how these tools impact the life cycle of noxious weeds in order to achieve their desired vegetation.
Prevention is the most important tool we can use to get rid of weeds. We do that thru education and why I am here today.
Herbicides, or chemicals, are another method to get rid of weeds.
Cultural controls are shown in white and include fertilization, revegetation, and grazing. Mechanical are shown in green and include burning, irrigation, mowing, cultivation, hand pulling and mulching. Mechanical controls tend to be more labor intensive. Then there are chemical herbicides and biological controls.
Each one of these methods has it’s plusses and minuses, so we have to use as combination of these methods.
OTHER
MOWING
MULCHING
CULTIVATION
HAND PULLING

9. Biological Control Urophora affinis
This is a picture of a dead knapweed flower with an insect called a gall fly in it.
Scientists have asked, why isn’t knapweed causing a problem in Russia. Can you tell me why knapweed isn’t a problem in Russia? One reason is that it has insects that it keep it from spreading. The scientists decided to collect some insects and bring them to Montana to see if they would kill our knapweed. First they had to test the biocontrols for years before they released it into the wild. Why?
Show students gall larva in knapweed seed heads. Explain rules to students that they cannot say anything negative and if they can’t say anything good then they can say “How Interesting” or nothing at all.
Do you think that this gallfly is eating every single seed in every single knapweed? It takes only 2% of knapweed seeds to reproduce.
There is an insect that eats leafy spurge. When it eats it down, where do you think the insects go? They leave and spurge comes back. So this method of biocontrol is not perfect.
Urophora affinis

10. Herbicides
Another method for controlling weeds is using chemicals called herbicides.
There are selective and non-selective herbicides. Has anyone heard of RondUp? It is a non-selective b/c it kills everything. The herbicides that we use are selective. Why?
Do demonstration of adding food dye (represents active ingredients) to water to represent dilution. Talk about Pesticide Safety and how to integrate with other methods.
Ex. You have a field of 100% knapweed. Herbicides work well b/c knapweed has a short root. You spray it all and kill it. Now you have bare ground. What will grow there? Weeds. Replant w/ natives. Herbicides don’t kill seeds so there’s a possibility that weeds can grow there again.