Worrisome Weeds

Managing weeds can sometimes feel overwhelming. But a little knowledge can make the job easier. Learn what noxious weeds are, what to look for on your property, weed management, and tips for fall yard clean-up with Emilie Justen, Minnesota Department of Agriculture Noxious Weed Coordinator, and Bob Dunning, Stearns County Ag Inspector.

Smarty Plants is a podcast of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Visit www.mda.state.mn.us/plants-insects/smarty-plants for more episodes. Look for a new episode of Smarty Plants every month.

Transcript

Eidan Silver: 0:20

Hello and welcome to Smarty Plants, a Minnesota Department of Agriculture podcast informing citizens about invasive species that affect our environment and agricultural systems. My name is Eidan Silver and I will be your host as we begin a series on cleaning up your outdoor spaces in the fall. It's no secret that maintaining outdoor spaces is an important part of being a good neighbor. Whether you're rocking a tiny patio, a yard for the kids to play in, or a whole farm with crops to look after, outdoor spaces can be amazing sources of joy or pain depending on how you manage them. Fall is a great time to take inventory of your property in preparation for winter. It can also be a great time to protect your space from invasive species, especially noxious weeds. The next two episodes of Smarty Plants will be about how to properly enjoy your outdoor spaces in the fall. Fortunately for me, here to walk us through the ins and outs are two very knowledgeable plant experts, Emilie Justen and Bob Dunning. I'm so happy to have you both here. Emilie grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin and always preferred the outside chores to the inside chores. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin Madison with a bachelor of science in horticulture. She worked retail and wholesale nursery trade before receiving her master's in horticulture from Iowa State University. And since then, she's worked for the Minnesota department of agriculture for over 10 years on invasive species and noxious weeds. She enjoys helping people identify plants and figure out how to manage problematic plants. Welcome Emilie. We're so happy to have you with us today.

Emilie Justen: 1:37

Thank you. I'm happy to be here.

Eidan Silver: 1:38

And our second guest is Bob Dunning. Bob has worked with Stearns County for the past 24 years. He spent the first 13 doing highway maintenance and the last 11 as the county's agricultural inspector. In his free time, he enjoys fishing, ATVing, snowmobiling, and everything else outdoors. And he has one eye looking for invasive plants wherever he may be. I love that. It's good to know someone's looking out for us. Thank you so much for joining us, Bob. Thank you as well.

Bob Dunning: 2:00

Glad to be here too.

Eidan Silver: 2:02

My first question is, are there any invasive species in the room with us right now? Do I need to be worried?

Bob Dunning: 2:07

Not that I can currently see.

Eidan Silver: 2:09

Okay, good. That's a good start then. Why don't we start from the beginning? So you're both noxious weed specialists, and that word jumps out to me. I don't really like weeds already. So is that word noxious added in there just to make me like them even less? Or what exactly is the difference between a weed and a noxious weed?

Bob Dunning: 2:26

Uh, a noxious weed is a, is a plant that the, um, The state has deemed to be harmful or detrimental to livestock, humans, the environment. The state decides which plants should be deemed noxious and they put them on a noxious weed list.

Eidan Silver: 2:47

So it's a legal definition?

Bob Dunning: 2:49

It's a legal definition. Only the state. Uh, determines which plants are termed noxious. Um, a weed, however, is just a plant growing anywhere that you don't want it to be. It could be, uh, it could be a blade of grass in your vegetable garden, um, to a thistle in your front yard.

Eidan Silver: 3:14

So I've also heard people talk about like non native weeds or invasive weeds. Are those different from noxious weeds then?

Bob Dunning: 3:19

Um, yeah. Um, non native weeds are, invasive weeds can be either native or non native. The term invasive weed really means that it's a plant that, um, strives, um, reproduces and persists in the environment, uh, sometimes spreading and, and becoming problematic.

Eidan Silver: 3:42

Got it. So noxious weeds are like a level up from unregulated weeds.

Bob Dunning: 3:47

Exactly. Okay.

Eidan Silver: 3:49

Um, so who decides which weeds then get put on this, this noxious weeds list and how do they decide that?

Emilie Justen: 3:56

So the Minnesota Department of Agriculture has a noxious weed advisory committee that is um, Both in statute and also membership goes through the Secretary of State's office.

Eidan Silver: 4:09

Um, is there any impact to me when a noxious weed gets put on that list? Or what actually happens after the weed gets on that list?

Bob Dunning: 4:18

A landowner would only be affected by the noxious weed list if one of the plants which is listed is growing on their property. If someone finds one of those plants growing on their property then they have to comply with what the list determines is Minnesota law.

Eidan Silver: 4:37

Gotcha. Okay. So it can have an impact on you and your property if that weed is found, right? It definitely can. Okay. Okay. Well, I'm really appreciative of the expertise you guys are bringing in. I'm trying very hard to resist calling you smarty plants. Um, I think the chances I talk about going into the weeds or making some other very bad puns are, are high in the near future, but, um, as we start to get into what exactly the relationship is between noxious weeds and fall cleanup, um, I'd love to know more about your backgrounds and, uh, what, what exactly it is that you do to facilitate noxious weed management. Um, so Emilie, why don't we start with you? What, what exactly does a noxious weed specialist do?

Emilie Justen: 5:16

Okay. Um, so at the Department of Ag, our noxious weeds specialist staff verify reports that come in on noxious weeds by going out into the field to look at them in person. Uh, and then there's also mapping. of noxious weeds that we do. We also have a weed biocontrol program for a few species on the noxious weed list. And the biocontrol agents are insects for all of the, the weeds. Uh, and so, um, we have staff people that can go out and collect insects and move them to other locations if there's, uh, a need for that. Um, they also work with county ag inspectors on weed biocontrol. Following up on other management. Uh, we do trainings for counties and townships, um, on what the noxious weed law is and plant identification and a lot of weed management too, for different entities.

Eidan Silver: 6:29

Okay. So, so like Bob said, the noxious weed list, maybe it doesn't matter to me unless I find a noxious weed and a noxious weed specialist like you helps me figure out, is there actually a noxious weed in my yard and if I do find one. You're the one who comes out and checks to make sure I'm right, and you help me manage it if I am right, that it is there. Is that correct?

Emilie Justen: 6:48

Yes, that's a really good summary. Thanks.

Eidan Silver: 6:50

Okay. Well, and what does that management look like? Weed management is kind of an abstract thing. I think of like just pulling it up by the roots, but is there more to it than that?

Emilie Justen: 6:58

Yeah, that's one method. Uh, hand pulling can be a management strategy. Uh, it really depends on the situation. Um, there are Quite a few tools now that we have. I mentioned if biocontrol is one tool. Hand pulling, in some cases tilling an area can manage weeds. We have herbicides that can be used as well depending on the situation. And fire sometimes. Oh, sometimes if there's, there's woody species like buckthorn, people have tried using what are called forestry mowers to, to kind of mow them down and come back later and do other treatments to them too.

Bob Dunning: 7:50

And when you, when we're talking about herbicides, there's, there's many, many ways to apply herbicides. We tried to do it, as best we can without impacting the environment too much. There's, if it's a woody plant, it could be, uh, cut and spray just to stump and not affect other, um, beneficial vegetation in the area. Um, there's very, there's many options.

Eidan Silver: 8:22

That's great. Well, I hope that that gives some hope to homeowners who find weeds. Uh, there, there are many things you can do. You can burn them, you can pull them out, you can apply herbicides. Um, and it's helpful to have, have you, Emilie, as an expert to help them through that process. It does, however, sound like you're, you're identifying the weed. You're, uh, managing the weed. It sounds like you kind of cover all, all corners of that process. Bob, is there any work left for you as a county ag inspector? What do you do in your role?

Bob Dunning: 8:47

There is some work left.

Eidan Silver: 8:49

Okay, good.

Bob Dunning: 8:50

Um, a county ag inspector is essentially, um, responsible for enforcing the Minnesota noxious weed law within their respective counties. So there's 87 counties, there's 80 some agricultural inspectors that the Ag, Ag inspector, um, is the lead enforcement or the lead contact for citizens within their county relating to noxious weeds in any form or facet. Ag inspectors will train, local weed inspectors, which are, um, city and county officials who, um, also oversee their respective entities. Uh, say, say there's a specific township, a local weed inspector in a township would survey their entire township at a certain time of the year looking for weeds and then notify landowners or. land managers, uh, if any issues are found and give them a specific time frame to, um, comply in managing that. Should they not, should the landowner not comply or not, uh, work on the weed issue, then the local weed inspector would come back to the county ag inspector who then takes that a little further.

Eidan Silver: 10:22

And are you referring to enforcement of

Bob Dunning: 10:24

Correct.

Eidan Silver: 10:24

Okay. Okay. Okay, so, so, you get to be the fun guy if you're the local weed inspector, and maybe you have to be a little bit of a stick, uh, when, when you're the county ag inspector, right?

Bob Dunning: 10:35

Correct. That, yes.

Eidan Silver: 10:37

Okay, well, so to bring this back a little bit to the property owner standpoint, um, if I am hoping to take care of my property in the fall, and I'm thinking about, you know, raking my leaves, maybe cleaning my gutters, pruning trees, cutting back perennials, there's a lot to consider, right? So What exactly is the importance of putting noxious weeds on my radar? Why should I go to your trainings to be able to identify them, for example? Or, um, what other steps could I be taking to make sure that I'm properly disposing of my noxious weeds? Um, why, why is that so important?

Emilie Justen: 11:09

When you have noxious weeds or invasive plants that are really widespread, either in an area of the state or across the state broadly, that contributes to a number of problems. Uh, there are, there can be in some cases structural erosion problems. There can be things that create almost like monocultures, like areas where there's just buckthorn in under stories. That's all that's growing. Um, so there's also, there's also more evidence showing that. Those kinds of invasive species that create a, a layer, like a, a monoculture, um, create, can create really good habitat for some things that we don't want, like black, black lAged ticks, or deer ticks, as they're also known, uh, and those kinds of habitats increase the humidity of the layer at the ground level, where ticks, uh, will reproduce and live, um, and so there's a lot more, when there's a lot more of those black lAged ticks, there's a lot more Lyme's disease and other diseases that those ticks carry. So, so that's a concern for public health as well, uh, with some of these invasive plants that we've been noticing. And then, as far as enforcement, uh, if, if we didn't have the noxious weed law, I think, um, I guess it's speculation, but I think the, the state as a whole would be environmentally in a, in a worse place, uh, because we wouldn't, we wouldn't have the kind of compliance that we have now with the noxious weed law, where in most cases, if somebody finds out they have a noxious weed that has to be managed, they'll, they'll, um, Make an effort to, to manage it or remove it or something before it gets to the point where they can't do anything at all about it. Bob, do you agree with that?

Bob Dunning: 13:33

I do. I, I would say when it comes to fall cleanup, uh, of a person's yard, um, one of the very important thing is to have them understand what plants are growing in and near their yards. Uh, there, there are 57 weeds on the noxious, Minnesota noxious weed list. I wouldn't expect everyone to know every plant, but generally speaking, if you look at plants and it looks like it's not right, um, it's definitely worth checking out because the majority of the time it's not right. And once you learn, if you have, uh, A noxious weed, um, you can proceed, uh, correctly through the law and say you're cleaning up your yard. Um, there are laws about transporting noxious weeds and proper disposal. I believe there are disposal sites across the state. Um, maybe Emilie could allude better to that.

Emilie Justen: 14:50

Sure. There, there, like Bob was saying, know what you have in your yard. Uh. It's good to check with your city or your county to see if there is a designated disposal site in your area. Not every city has a site for buckthorn disposal. Um, but it's worth checking with your municipal disposal area sites to see if they do take, if they do take noxious weeds as part of their yard waste. Or have an area for, set aside for noxious weeds. One thing we're definitely trying to avoid is spreading invasive plants and weeds across the state, uh, by transporting them in, uh, not the greatest manner.

Eidan Silver: 15:44

Yeah, I wanna, I wanna highlight a couple things of what you just said. The first one is your point about how it can be intimidating to try to memorize 57 different weeds that are on the noxious weed list. But it's a lot less intimidating to just know what couple plants are in your yard. And, and if those plants are suddenly getting brothers and sisters that they didn't have the day before, that's a problem. So, that's a good point if you are a, someone who owns property and you're not sure that you can actually learn how to identify all of the noxious weeds. You don't need to. You just need to identify the plants that you do want to be in your yard. And I also, I thought it was a good point, Emilie, um, that you made about public health, and, um, and also about transporting the weeds, because I think it's so easy to assume that if there's a noxious weed in your yard, it's not a big deal, because it's one weed, and it's one yard, um, And to be unaware that there could be a chain reaction from that to the point where, like you said, you can create a monoculture and you can have disease, uh, and, and an uptick in other invasive pests because of that. So, um, it's really, I think, sounds like it's important to remember that it's not just you. And by, say, managing your weeds properly or, uh, not transporting them improperly, like you said, Bob, um, you can prevent a lot of future problems, not just within your ecosystem, but also within the people in your community, your family, and, and, uh, your friends, right?

Bob Dunning: 17:01

Right.

Eidan Silver: 17:02

Um, so, and then a follow up question to that would be, uh, if, if we are recognizing the importance of weed management, uh, and, and following the noxious weed law, is there something about fall, uh, specifically in that season as we, uh, transition to winter that you need to worry about or specific weeds, for example, that listeners should look out for in the fall, um, or ways that the, the strategies for weed management differ in the fall season compared to other seasons?

Emilie Justen: 17:31

When you think about cleaning up. Yards in the fall. Uh, a lot of plants are already in seed at that time. Um, and so you want to be careful when you're cleaning up so that you're not spreading any seeds of any weeds that you might have in your yard. And like we've been saying and have said multiple times, you want to know what you have. And plant identification is a really, is really the first step in any kind of weed management program. Um, so you want to be careful you're not spreading seeds of any noxious weeds. Uh, there can be sometimes some diseases, plant diseases that are harbored in leaf matter. Uh, so, um, you want to be careful about disposing leaves that might have some diseases. plant diseases in them. And then it's also a good time to think about the life cycle of plants too. Biennial plants are really, in the fall, are a really good time to do a, a treatment or pull them or try to dig them out sometimes too, in the case of wild parsnip.

Eidan Silver: 18:53

And could you just define what biennial plants are really quick?

Emilie Justen: 18:57

Yeah. A biennial plant is a plant that, produces seed and then a seed will germinate in the fall and then the next the following season or maybe in two summers it'll after it's grown for example wild parsnip puts in puts down a big tap root and sometimes it takes a couple of years for it to grow a big enough tap root that it can put a flower stalk up and that's how it reproduces by flowering and then those seeds will germinate again in that fall and then keep going year after year.

Eidan Silver: 19:36

Awesome. So then fall is a good time to take care of those plants specifically then? Right. Yeah. Fall for biennial.

Bob Dunning: 19:44

Also perennial plants are easily managed in the fall of the year. A perennial plant will push all its energy up in the spring. to, to fully leaf out, um, produce flowers, seeds and so on. And then once it's gone through that cycle, it takes off. It takes all its energy and puts everything back to the root to, to make it survive, help it survive the winter. And if you're treating or working on a perennial plant in the fall, all the energy going to the root, you say you, you spray with herbicide in the fall, it carries that chemical down to the root system and it's much more, um, vulnerable at that point.

Eidan Silver: 20:35

Okay, so, uh, now say, say that you're a farmer or you're a homeowner and there's nothing that you hate more than watching those pesky weeds pop up in the spring, and you really want to be, uh, managing those weeds yourself. Maybe you took Emilie's course or maybe you, Um, took an inventory of all the plants you had in your yard and you realize that there's one that doesn't quite look right. Um, what exactly do homeowners need to know about proper noxious weed management so if they want to take matters into their own hands and clean up those weeds themselves, they're doing so in a way that's in compliance with the noxious weed law.

Bob Dunning: 21:08

First they should reach out to an expert.

Eidan Silver: 21:11

Okay.

Bob Dunning: 21:11

Such as a county ag inspector or a state weed specialist, um, for management advice. Also folks living in a, a rural area might reach out to an agronomist at their local cooperative who are also very knowledgeable about plants and managing, um, weed issues.

Eidan Silver: 21:36

Okay. Okay. Okay. Well, I think a running theme of this has been that it can be intimidating to try to manage your weeds And you both as noxious weed experts provide opportunities for People who want to manage their weeds to be empowered in doing so and you provide a resource for them to reach out to like you Just said Bob if they are confused about how to do so Um, but it's, it's still a very complex process. And so I think a good question to end on might be, uh, if you could give someone one single biggest piece of advice, uh, or, or a couple pieces of advice for managing their weeds, if they're, they just, they want to, it's simplified as much as possible, um, what would, what would that piece or pieces of advice be?

Bob Dunning: 22:24

I would say generally speaking, um, once a, A weed issue is discovered. It's probably been there for a certain amount of time. Um, and might, there might be a seed bank below. Um, managing weeds is, it's never a process of one and done. Um, it takes time, sometimes years to, uh, to get things, uh, under control. Um, and I would say the biggest piece of advice is to be persistent.

Eidan Silver: 23:01

Takes dedication.

Bob Dunning: 23:02

It does. And effort.

Emilie Justen: 23:08

And I can add on to that too. Um, I do get a lot of calls from people, homeowners who might be overwhelmed when they find out they have a noxious weed. For example, like we were talking in the beginning, the word noxious a heavy word, an alarming word. Um, and if they find something that's, that's uh, that's They have like, like a knotweed that they then look up to find that it can grow through foundations, it can grow through pavement. It's very, it's a very alarming species to discover that you might have in your yard. Um, and so that can all be pretty overwhelming. And so my big piece of advice to people is if you are feeling overwhelmed, try to break the knot. Break your plan or try to come up with a plan and break it down into small manageable pieces. Uh, you don't always have to do everything at once, um, and if you have multiple acres of something, uh, also becomes overwhelming. Um, again, break it down into smaller pieces. If you can work on things on your own, try to just do small bits at a time so that it's not, you know, Too much and too overwhelming and like Bob said it takes time to take these something like a knotweed that's a perennial will take years to kill, uh, even with persistence. Um, and that's, that's what everybody is dealing with at the same time though, too, that you're not alone with all any of that. And it does take time and persistence to, to manage a lot of these plants.

Eidan Silver: 25:04

So. So break it down so that the tasks seem a little bit easier. Don't be afraid to put in the effort and definitely don't be afraid to call in the experts, right?

Emilie Justen: 25:13

Right.

Eidan Silver: 25:14

Alright, well that should be a great note to end on. Bob and Emilie, thank you both so much for your time. It has been an absolute pleasure talking to you today. This has been Smarty Plants, a podcast from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Our producer is Brittany Raveill, our editor is Larry Schumacher, and I have been your host, Eidan Silver. If you think you've found a noxious weed on your property, shoot an email to Emilie at noxiousweeds. mda. At State mn us, you can learn more about noxious weeds and other invasive species that affect our environment@www.mda.state.mn us slash plants dash insects, where you can also find a list of county ag inspectors where you head to our website. We'll be working on the next episode of Smarty Plants. See you there.