Seeking Applications for Noxious Weed Management Grants

The Colorado Department of Agriculture is now accepting applications for 2017 Noxious Weed Management grants. This year the Department plans to award more than $755,000 in grant funds to organizations and associations for projects that focus on controlling the state's designated noxious weeds.

CDA's Steve Ryder shares more about how the grant funds are distributed.

Ryder: "First we do prioritize the List A species — that are really rare and haven't gotten a foothold in this state yet. We find all of those sites and make sure we are on top of those. Whatever entity is involved — it is usually counties sometimes municipality — we make sure they have enough funding to hire a seasonal or two or provide the equipment they need to stay on top of these really small little areas. Second of all, we want to fund projects that have a pretty broad scope too — that include more of our List Bs — which are probably more familiar to people. These are the knapweeds, the thistles and leafy spurge — these that are a problem on rangelands and sometimes also in crops too. We can't fund all of them but we try and focus on really the projects where the local entities can provide some matching funds and we also have a number of entities that will partner with them, that can be other state agencies like Parks and Wildlife or State Land Board."

Applications are due by January 20th.