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Upcoming Event:

CWNA General Membership Meeting
"Save the Date" Saturday, July 17th, 11:00am-2:00pm

June 2010 "Let's Pull Together" Day

The CWNA Weed Report

An Update on Noxious Weeds--an issue critical to residents of Century West Neighborhood Association

Spotted Knapweed

Dalmatian Toadflax

"Let's Pull Together" Day

It's right around the corner: one of the most important days of the year for those interested in the preservation of Bend's indigenous flora, and the protection of its urban and agricultural environment.

What is it? A community-wide effort will occur to put a serious dent in the population of noxious weeds throughout Deschutes County. This project, which grew out of an initiative by Orchard District Neighborhood Association president Cheryl Howard several years ago, has now expanded to include all of Central Oregon, and has been recognized by the State of Oregon as one of the most effective grassroots efforts of its kind.
For more information about noxious weeds and the community wide weed eradication effort, check out

http://www.letspulltogether.com/files/LPT_2009_web.pdf

Let's Pull Together!

How important is this effort, really? Very important! Consider:

Weed-infested agricultural ground makes food more expensive. It costs a lot of money to treat productive ground for weeds that are competing with food crops for moisture and nutrients. Weeds that are not controlled lower both the yield and the quality of food crops, increasing its cost to consumers. And many noxious weeds are either unpalatable or poisonous to livestock, causing weed-infested pastures to be less productive. On top of that, farmland that is heavily infested by noxious weeds loses its market value, impacting the availability of good-quality arable ground and thus, again, raising the cost of food for consumers.
The Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the State of Oregon, and Deschutes County all spend money--the money they get from you and me in taxes--trying to eradicate and control the spread of noxious weeds on public lands, which, among other things, create ladder fuel that promote forest fires. (According to a Bend Bulletin editorial, the county alone spent $115,000 last year on weed eradication efforts.) Imagine what other things that money could be spent on, or what we could use it for ourselves, if we could get rid of most of those weeds once and for all?
Noxious weeds affect private property values. Most people know that such weeds are not easy to get rid of permanently, and once started and not controlled, they usually tend to take over ground from native plants. Now, if you were considering the purchase of property that was infested with noxious weeds, how would it impact your purchase offer? Or, would you lose interest in the property all together?
And if that isn't enough, think about the intangible value of native plants that we consider desirable but may find it difficult to put a monetary value on, that are being crowded out and overtaken by invasive noxious weeds. On top of that, many wildlife species are affected by fast-spreading invasive weeds that are less palatable and nutritious than their preferred native species.

For more information about noxious weeds and the community wide weed eradication effort, check out http://www.letspulltogether.com.

For additional information, contact:
David Light, CWNA Weed Committee Chair, dmlight@bendbroadband.com
Bill Padgham, CWNA Weed Committee, bpadgham@aol.com
Dan Sherwin, Deschutes County Weed Control, 541-322-7135

Century West Neighborhood Association

Annual Weed Pull Event

A Community-wide Weed Program, “Let’s Pull Together”

Each June, Century West Neighborhood Association participates in “Let’s Pull Together”, a tri-county noxious weed eradication
project, sponsored by the award-winning SOLV Project Oregon, an Oregon non-profit organization. The program involves neighborhood associations,
community groups, government agencies, and individual volunteers in an on-going battle against invasive and noxious weeds in Central Oregon.

The project is also designed to educate the general public about the threat that noxious weeds pose to our ecosystems. Noxious weeds are
non-native plants that have no natural enemies within our environment. They take over native vegetation leaving wildlife with little or no food and by
creating wildfire hazards. Among the most serious threats in our area are Spotted Knapweed, Diffuse Knapweed, and
Dalmation Toadflax.

Hundreds of volunteers participate in the half-day event,with many having no prior knowledge of what represents a noxious weed. A site
coordinator is assigned to each weed pull site, and often one noxious weed
specialist is available to educate volunteers. Last year, in four hours several
tons of knapweed were removed and bagged at over 17 locations throughout the
tri-county area. Also filled were three public work dump trucks, one
privately-owned dump truck, three 30-yard dumpsters, and one 15-yard dumpster.
CWNA coordinated the Skyline Sports Complex site, which drew 56 volunteers
(more than any other site in the county), producing nearly 30 bags of Spotted
Knapweed.

The state of Oregon spends more than 100 million dollars annually in the battle against noxious
weeds.

“Let’s Pull Together” began as a Bend neighborhood event in 2003, and expanded
to a county-wide program when Sisters and Redmond joined the effort in 2004.
Last year, the community of La Pine participated, and the project became a
tri-county effort with the addition of Crooked River Ranch and Prineville.

The weed pull sites throughout the area are diverse: city
and county owned easements, park, school, and irrigation district properties,
as well as private and public lands are included.

Useful links:

CWNA Weed Pull Chair: David Light dmlight@bendbroadband.com

“Let’s Pull Together” website: http://www.letspulltogether.com

“Let’s Pull Together” coordinator: Cheryl Howard, howard@bendcable.com

Deschutes County: http://www.deschutes.org
(Dan Sherwin, 322-7135)

SOLV Project Oregon: http://www.solv.org