Mesa Verde NP Invasive Exotic Plant Management Plan

This Plan and environmental assessment (EA) examines alternatives for controlling invasive exotic vegetation including the use of goats to manage weeds and the aerial application of the herbicide Plateau.


The goals of the Weed Management Plan are to:
• Preserve, protect and restore natural conditions and ecological processes by eradicating, significantly reducing, or containing populations of invasive exotic plants
• Prevent further infestations of existing and eradicated species, or new infestations of invasive exotic species that presently do not exist in the park through the implementation of fully integrated weed management plan and through increasing visitor and staff awareness through education.
• Establish protocols, decision-making tools, schedules and treatment methods for routine weed management activities.

Alternatives

Alternative I: No Action: Continuation of Current Integrated Weed Management Practices - use of mechanical, cultural, chemical, biological control, restoration techniques and prevention techniques to manage invasive plants.

Alternative II: Action alternative: Expand current Integrated Weed Management Practices to include more aggressive or innovative treatments such as the aerial spraying of herbicide and the use of animal control agents to manage weeds.

Anticipated Timelines
Internal Scoping will begin December 2005. A Draft Weed Management Plan would be ready for review by mid-summer. We would like to finalize and adopt a plan in the fall of 2006.

Document Content:

Invasive Exotic Plant Mgmt Plan   (4.6 MB, Word file) Appendices   (4.0 MB, Word file) MAP A Weed Treatment Areas   (541.2 KB, Image file) Map B Morefield Campground Weed Locations   (1.1 MB, Image file) Map C Far View Weed Locations   (873.1 KB, Image file) Map D Chapin Mesa Weed Locations   (1005.8 KB, Image file) Map E Seed Zones   (1015.3 KB, Image file) Disclaimer: Links within the above document(s) were valid as of the date published. Note: Some of the files may be in PDF format and can be viewed using the Adobe Acrobat Reader software. You may download a free copy of Acrobat Reader from Adobe Systems.