Invasive species on our landscapes is a complicated issue. Boulder County utilizes many different methods of control in hopes that our native species will thrive. We utilize cultural, mechanical, biological, and chemical tools to suppress and eradicate invasive plants from our landscapes.
In the spring of 2024, the county presented a new Integrated Weed Management Plan, which outlines the ways in which we implement these different tools. One of the messages we received through public comment on this plan was the desire to reduce use of chemical tools in favor of cultural and mechanical methods.
Cultural and mechanical methods rely upon people out on the landscape doing the work. The county combined these two methods into a new pilot program that uses volunteers (a cultural tool) to remove weeds by hand (a mechanical tool) — the Weed Warriors were born!
Weed Warriors are volunteers who go out independently to mechanically remove weeds from the Walker Ranch property. County staff from the Parks & Open Space volunteer work projects and invasive plants teams train these volunteers to identify, remove, and dispose of weeds growing along the Walker Ranch Loop trail. Weed Warriors are assigned a 1-mile section of the loop trail to maintain. Each member of the team keeps data on the weeds they remove and also reports back data from two monitoring posts along their section. In this way, parks employees can track progress over the five years the pilot program is set to run.
While the Weed Warriors pilot program is in effect, there will be no chemical treatments of the Walker Ranch Loop area. Before the program started, no herbicides were used on the loop for more than a year. We will use the data Weed Warriors and our invasive plants team collect to monitor the efficacy of using only mechanical methods on the property. After the approved five-year period, we will use these data to decide if the program should be extended and if it is viable to expand the program to other properties.
Over the course of their first season, volunteers put in 608 hours treating and monitoring their trail sections for weeds. Staff conducted training sessions to familiarize the Weed Warriors with both the native plants of the area as well as the invasive plants that needed removing. Each volunteer acts as an eco-steward for their patch of Walker Ranch by removing the invasives to ensure space for native plants to thrive. These methods take time. Many of the invasive plants produce seeds that can last years if not decades. Some species are listed as control species, meaning, they will never be completely removed.
Other species are eradication species, such as List A weeds that must be completely removed from the landscape. Therefore, Walker Ranch will not be cleared of invasives after just one season of treatment. It takes an incredible amount of time and effort to make an impact. We still have much work to do, and we would love for you to join us! We cannot do this without our amazing volunteers! Learn more and apply for the program.
Next time you are hiking Walker Ranch Loop, keep an eye out for the monitoring posts along the trail and don’t be surprised if you see big trash bags of weeds at the trailhead. Rest assured that these are all signs of volunteers hard at work.
