Carbondale eBoard recommends trustees adopt integrated weed management plan

The Carbondale Environmental Board on March 20 reviewed a draft of the Carbondale Integrated Weed Management Plan and voted to recommend that the Board of Trustees adopt it.

Eric (Parks and Recreation Director) summarized the plan and described it as “in draft form right now,” walking the board through techniques the town uses park by park, the reliance on temporary labor for targeted manual extraction and seed-head cuts, and pilot tests the parks department will run this year.

The plan groups treatments by park and emphasizes nonchemical techniques. Eric said the town has increased temporary staffing in recent years to perform focused manual removal before seed set, and that volunteers and school groups (including last year’s Rams Day) provide recurring support. He described Riverfront Park as an experimental site where native plantings with above-ground irrigation were established; after initial soil disturbance the site experienced heavy weed growth and will require ongoing maintenance while the natives establish.

Eric also described specific tools the department uses: steam machines in garden spaces, burn-down herbicides that remove leaf wax to let solar desiccation work, a rust fungus biocontrol for Canada thistle being propagated for the Nature Park, periodic controlled burning when weather and staffing allow, and trials of a fertilizer product called Nutrafix. “We’re gonna test a couple plots this year,” Eric said, adding the town will run four roughly 40-by-40-foot test plots in different park types (nature park, turf park, and open space).

The presentation discussed goats as a possible biological control in pockets where their grazing and fertilizing effects would be managed closely; Eric cautioned that goats require oversight and can leave areas heavily disturbed and thus need follow-up reseeding or soil work.

After discussion and board questions about timing for the Nutrafix trials and about outreach and volunteer opportunities, board member Sarah Jane moved that the eBoard recommend approval of the Carbondale Integrated Weed Management Plan to the Board of Trustees. The motion received a second and the board voted in favor; the board chair will forward the recommendation to trustees for their upcoming meeting.

The plan will next go to the Board of Trustees for final action; the eBoard’s recommendation and the plan’s attachments (per-park spreadsheets and technique summaries) will accompany that referral.