Noxious Weed Fund
Colorado's Noxious Weed Fund set up to control invasive plants that threaten agricultural cropland and rangelands, cause soil erosion and create a fire hazard.Steve Ryder, State Weed Coordinator for the Colorado Department of Agriculture says since 2015 the legislature has added about 700 thousand dollars yearly to the Noxious Weed Fund. He tells Colorado AG Today the agency has completed its 2019 funding of more than $735,000 in one year grants to counties, municipalities, conservation districts across the state.
"We've got the Upper Arkansas Cooperative Weed Management Area. Those are folks from Lake and Chaffee County all the way to down to Pueblo County and down to Trinidad. There are 6 or 7 entities usually of counties and conservation districts in that partnership. They've organized themselves really well. They get a substantial grant mainly because they cover a huge area."
He says they can only fund about 60 -percent of the requests made each year. Counties, conservation districts and non profits can request funding each fall with the final decision on awards made over the winter.