River weed attack won't be 'clear cut'

It won't be a "clear-cut" or "bulldozer" attack if the South West Area Weed Management Area starts to control invasive species on the Republican River as it flows through Southwest Nebraska.

The board of directors will learn Monday or Tuesday if the organization is approved for a $1.3 million Nebraska Department of Agriculture grant to fund a two-year project designed to control vegetation on the Republican, improve aquatic and wildlife habitat and, ultimately, increase the amount of river water flowing into Kansas.

The grant would pay for spraying and mechanical clearing of phragmites and saltcedar, red cedar and Russian olives trees on the Republican in Dundy, Hitchcock, Red Willow and Furnas counties.

The grant would also fund mapping, debris removal, meetings and educational materials, livestock (grazing animals such as goats), project administration and the hiring of a project coordinator.

The SWWMA covers 174 miles from the west end of Harlan County dam at the "Carter" trestle bridge to the Nebraska and Colorado and Kansas state lines (on the Republican and the Arikaree rivers) in Dundy County.

"Tree removal will be a selective process," Roger Stockton said at a SWWMA meeting in McCook Thursday morning. Stockton is the director of Southwest Nebraska Resource Conser-vation and Development, Cambridge, and a member of the SWWMA board of directors. "It's not a clear-cut or a bulldozer attack. We'll leave enough (native) trees to protect the streambed from erosion and fish from the hot sunshine."

Stockton continued, "Our goal is to leave a healthy riparian system that protects the river, the soil and the wildlife."

Stockton said neither the confines of the grant nor recommended practices advocate the complete removal of vegetation. "We can't and we won't clear-cut," he said.

Many weed board members and landowners believe that hunting and wildlife habitat will improve with the removal of invasive trees and noxious weeds from the area 100 feet from the streambed (or within the river's natural flood plain) covered by the grant.

Board members discussed vegetation control on islands within the river, concluding that landowners who agree to participate in the program will determine how much vegetation they want to control on their islands. Again, however, Stockton said, the approach will not be to clear-cut the land.

Board members also discussed meetings for landowners, strongly encouraging landowners and tenants to attend the closest meeting.

The schedule is:

Monday, July 16 -- Benkelman, jury room, Dundy County courthouse, 7:30 p.m. MT.

Wednesday, July 18 -- Trenton, Hitchcock County courthouse, 7:30 p.m.

Monday, July 23 -- McCook, Heritage Senior Center, 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday, July 25 -- Arapahoe, Ella Missing Center, 7:30 p.m.

A landowner who refuses to participate can be forced, with proper legal publication and identification of the land within a weed management area, to allow coordinators on his/her land to spray/mechanically remove saltcedar and noxious weed growth.

There would be no charge to landowners for control methods used during the grant period. Maintenance of removal efforts after the grant is completed would become the landowner's responsibility.