Ninepipe National Wildlife Refuge (below) and surrounding 

 Ninepipe WMA provide some of western Montana's best waterfowl 

 nesting habitat. Lesser scaup (left) are among several duck 

 species that benefit from vegetation management. 



^rm 



W STEVE SHERMAN 



here in the fall." he says. "I can't 

 be spra\ ing for weeds then. It 

 would detract from the great 

 bird hunting they e.xpect." 



In his 10-plus years at 

 Ninepipe. Grant has established 

 a balance between managing 

 waterfowl habitat and managing 

 noxious weeds. "Weed control 

 isn't an event — it's a process." 

 he says. E\en when he's out 

 working the irrigation ditches to 

 help maintain the wetlands' water 

 levels. Grant is pulling weeds, cleaning 

 out ditches, and watching for new- 

 noxious weeds that ma\ be making 

 their first appearance here. 



"Managing weeds is similar to 

 managing wildlife." Grant continues. 

 "Both ignore boundaries — political, 

 geographic, ownership — you name it." 

 That qualit\ is what brought attention 

 to Ninepipe in mS."?. At that time a 

 serious weed problem existed. One 

 hundred acres al a stretch were covered 

 w iih blooms. For weeks in May what 

 looked like deep blankets of snow were 

 actualh fields of a weed called 

 w hitetop. Late-summer blizzards of 

 Canada thistledow n slowed traffic on 

 the highwa\ when the w ind came up. 



FWP was trying to manage, but 

 quickly learned noxious weeds are a 

 force to be reckoned with. They spread 

 exponentialK and. without some use of 

 herbicides, success was limited. 



CHUCK HANEY 



Ninepipe WMA was becoming the 

 poster child for noxious weed lost 

 causes — irate neighbors complained 

 that weeds from FWP lands were 

 infesting adjacent public and pn\ate 

 land. The 1983 Legislature criticized 

 management of the site as ineffective 

 and in violation of the stale's weed 

 control laws. 



Grant didn't take on management of 

 Ninepipe until 1990. but he knows its 

 history well. Some of the weed control 

 tools he uses .so deftly today weren't 

 used before 1990 or were overu.sed. 

 FWP learned the hard way. he sa\ s. 

 recounting how in 198.^ the Bureau of 

 Indian Affairs fire crews and FWP 

 personnel burned 1 .400 acres of dense 

 nesting co\er at once. The burning did 

 rejuvenate the grass and it was one of 

 the early, dramatic steps in the turn- 

 around at Ninepipe. "But the folks in 

 the \alle> weren't happ> about the 

 destruction of that much habitat and the 



smoke it created." he says. 



Today. Grant uses burning as a tool, 

 but onh in March and under very 

 controlled circumstances. Montana 

 Department of Natural Resources and 

 Conservation fire crews do the burning 

 while teaching wildland fire control 

 techniques to volunteer firefighters 

 Irom a four-couni\ area. These care- 

 fullx controlled fires promote desirable 

 \ egetation aivJ make weeds easier to 

 locate and treat. 



"".A big change at Ninepipe o\er the 

 last \5 years or so is that we've built a 

 network of people who care about 

 weeds and care about helping each 

 other fight them. " Grant tells me as he 

 drives east toward the Mission Range. 

 Ninepipe' s informal weed network 

 includes land managers representing the 

 National Wildlife Refuge, the National ^ 

 Bison Range, the Flathead Indian 

 Rcscrv ation. the Lake Couniv Weed 

 Disinct. and nearby private landowners. 



8 .'iEPTCMBERnKTOBER .1W1 MOSTANA OUTDOORS 



