The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) is pleased to announce the launch of the Utah invasive species mitigation (ISM) dashboard, a new tool highlighting the success of the ISM Weed Control Program.
In the past three years alone, the ISM program has funded 118 projects treating over 3.3 million acres across the state through $4.7 million in funding.
“Noxious weed control is vital to protecting critical agricultural land, rangeland and wetlands,” said UDAF Commissioner Craig Buttars. “I am proud of the progress this program has made in mitigating invasive species in our state.”
Noxious weeds compete directly with beneficial native plants and can cause devastating impacts to agriculture, wildlife habitat and native ecosystems, and they can increase wildfire fuel loads to catastrophic levels. These weeds cost an estimated $26.4 billion per year in agricultural economic losses in the U.S. All of Utah’s 29 counties face challenges in controlling noxious weeds, including funding, jurisdictional hurdles and accessing difficult-to-reach terrain.
The Utah Legislature passed the Noxious Weed Act to coordinate and fund the control of noxious weeds. This effort relies on multiple management strategies and a high level of coordination using strategic partnerships between federal, state, local and private stakeholders.
ISM provides financial assistance to landowners, county weed boards, universities and other public and private agencies through competitive grant opportunities. There are currently 54 noxious weeds listed in Utah. For more information on these weeds, visit the Utah Noxious Weed List at ag.utah.gov.
UDAF has created a new website to further highlight each of these projects and provide detailed information on how they have helped protect Utah’s native plant communities and ecosystems. To learn more about these projects, visit the featured ISM projects page at ag.utah.gov by searching for “Utah Featured ISM Projects.” To view the full ISM dashboard, visit bit.ly/Utah-Noxious-Weed-Dashboards.
For more information on the ISM grant and how to apply, visit the ISM program application page at ag.utah.gov. — UDAF
