The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Biocontrol agents to take out radical weeds
A discussion at a Crested Butte Town Council meeting over controlling noxious weeds in town is not normally one of the exciting highlights of any meeting. But about 20 minutes into a 40-minute discussion over the matter at last Monday’s meeting, things became interesting when town staff suggested importing bugs to eat and destroy proliferating plants like butter-and-eggs.
Town planner John Hess and town parks and recreation director Jake Jones included the suggestion in a 10-point outline on how to address the noxious weed problem that has grown in town over the last 15 years.
Number five on the list was “Use biological controls [biocontrols] for Yellow toadflax on the Kochevar Open Space.”
“Does that mean pesticides?” asked Mayor Aaron Huckstep during the sleepy discussion.
“No, it means bugs,” responded Jones, awakening the council from a mid-meeting mental break. “The town tries to limit chemical use and this is a way to actually use bugs that eat certain weeds.”
“It is a good alternative to spraying,” added Hess. “We’d test it on a smaller scale before releasing bugs on a big area.”
The cost is about $30 for each “release” and each release covers about an acre of land. According to literature accompanying the staff report, the Palisade Insectory states that while “releasing a new species of insect or mite comes with risks, the risks are small due to the years of research and testing that are now required before a new biocontrol agent is approved for release in the U.S. Newly introduced weed biocontrol agents will have been through at least ten years of extensive testing by the USDA and overseas cooperators to assure that they won’t have an impact on non-target species.”
Some of the council had concerns of swarms of insatiably hungry bugs coming in and eating any living plant in the area—not necessarily a good idea in an area renowned for colorful summer flora.
“I’d have to see the research before I would agree to this,” said Councilperson Shaun Matusewicz. “I don’t want to jeopardize the local wildflowers that we are known for. How do they know not to eat the wildflowers? It seems they are pretty close to the weed species.”
“We can get more specifics from the Insectory,” said Jones. “They said the bugs don’t eat what they aren’t supposed to.”
“It is certainly worthwhile to look into more,” said Huckstep. “But let’s make sure we maintain our designation as the Wildflower Capital of Colorado. Convince us it won’t be detrimental to our environment.”
“We’ll ask the questions and get more information,” promised Jones. “We’d start small to see how it works.”
“We don’t want to go down as the council that ruined the summer economy,” quipped Matusewicz after the meeting.
