How To Deal With Noxious Weeds

Last week, Deborah Elliot-Shultz of the City of CS Real Estate and Lifestyle discussed with Kathy Andrews of El Paso County Hazardous waste about items that you should never toss in the garbage or put down the sink. There’s a lot of stuff, like cleaning chemicals and batters, so Kathy gave us some tips on how to take these sort of items to the facility so they can dispose of it correctly.   And it will not involve anything to do with water. Which is a good thing, not only for the environment but for you, too! Contaminated water in some parts of El Paso County has been in the news lately. And you can’t get away from hearing about polluted air, either. Take advantage of the El Paso County Hazardous Waste Facility and help take care of yourself and your neighbors.   El Paso County Hazardous Waste Facility also tracks noxious weeds in the city and educates people about noxious weeds. So what are noxious weeds? Have even heard that term?   Today, Deborah Elliott-Shultz speaks with Tina Travis and Kathy Andrews of El Paso County Hazardous Waste Facility, once again.   Think about the wild boars in Texas. People can relate to animals that are alien species, however, they have a hard time relating to plants. Noxious weeds are plants that are introduced to an area without any kind of biological controls. Which means they become super predators and eliminate our native landscaping or native wildlife vegetation.   When that happens, native animal populations are affected because their food source decreases.   How do noxious weeds affect wildlife and other plants? They can be quite poisonous, toxic, or just not edible. If a plant is not edible, animals won’t eat them and they outcompete the other plant species and grow into a monopoly, spreading quickly through pastures and ranges.   How many noxious different species that we have? We probably have about 30 species of noxious weeds here, give or take a few. There are about five to eight that are closely monitored. A while back, many were introduced as ornamental plants. When people think of noxious weeds, they think of an ugly plant that they don’t want growing, such as dandelions. However, a lot of noxious weeds, such as Myrtle spurge, were sold in garden centers and we didn’t know that they would have the effects that they do.   Why does the El Paso County Hazardous Waste Facility keep track of noxious weeds? Is it just because they’re spreading so much or because the vast majority of them are poisonous, or both?   Both. They certainly do not have to be poisonous to be on the noxious weed list, we have more native Colorado species that are very poisonous than necessarily what’s on the noxious weed list. The difference is is those native species you’re going to find a plant or two in a pasture or range land or national forest spread apart by several feet to begin. With nothing eating them, they will takeover, they will not allow anything else to grow.   How do you go about trying to control this? What area do you keep a watch on?   El Paso County Environmental Division helps the public as much as they can. However, for the most part they are only able to look for noxious weeds in unincorporated El Paso County. They can help educate, but they have no jurisdiction in the city.   On the El Paso County website, type noxious weeds into the search engine and it will bring up pictures and more information about noxious weeds. They are El Paso County’s environmental division, and that covers a lot of things, certainly noxious weeds, natural resources, environmental compliance, conservation, easements, wetlands, all those kind of things.