{"id":43752,"date":"2021-11-14T00:14:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-14T00:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/russian-olives-and-salt-cedars-to-take-a-hit-in-montezuma-county\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T09:15:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:15:31","slug":"russian-olives-and-salt-cedars-to-take-a-hit-in-montezuma-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/russian-olives-and-salt-cedars-to-take-a-hit-in-montezuma-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian olives and salt cedars to take a hit in Montezuma County"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Russian
Russian olives were first introduced to the Durango area in the 1970s and 1980s. They can out-compete native plants, like willows and cottonwoods.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

For the next five years, Montezuma County agricultural landowners can be reimbursed on a per-acre basis for the removal and restoration of land affected by Russian olives and salt cedars \u2013 also known as tamarisk \u2013 according to a press release.<\/p>\n

The Natural Resources Conservation Service will compensate landowners after the species \u2014 both known as phreatophytes for the way they use deep-rooted systems to absorb moisture from water tables \u2013 are eliminated. The Montezuma County Noxious Weed Department entered into a five-year partnership with the NRCS and Regional Conservation Partnership Program to support the eradication of the two non-native, invasive species, the release said.<\/p>\n

Both species are recorded on the Colorado Noxious Weed List B<\/a>. The plants threaten native species, strain water reserves and disturb nutrient cycling, according to the Colorado Department of Agriculture.<\/p>\n

To be considered eligible, properties must be registered with the Farm Service Agency and Environment Quality and Incentives Program, the release said.<\/p>\n

Once a property has those established farm records, landowners can fill out the Regional Conservation Partnership Program Phreatophyte Project Application, which can be accessed at bit.ly\/PhreatophyteApp or in the Cortez NRCS Field Office.<\/p>\n

Dec. 3 is the deadline for registration for 2022.<\/p>\n

After an application is submitted, land will undergo a cultural and wildlife survey to ensure no bird nests or or historical artifacts would be damaged in the removal process. The Montezuma County Noxious Weed Department will then develop a phreatophyte management plan based on tree density and number of acres needing to be serviced, the release said.<\/p>\n

Landowners will then hire a contractor to remove the invasive species and conduct follow-up sprout treatments, and can submit for reimbursement through the NRCS.<\/p>\n

Payback amount will be arranged before contractors proceed with removal services, the release said.<\/p>\n

For more information or questions, contact Bonnie Loving, Montezuma County Noxious Weed Department director, at 970-565-0580 or bloving@co.montezuma.co.us<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A county partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Service will reimburse agricultural landowners for removal and restoration <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85827,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43752\/revisions\/85827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43752"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}