The Estes Valley, Colorado: A Case Study of a Weed Management Area

Abstract

Weed Management Areas (WMAs) are an important approach for managing invasive plants. However, most WMAs are relatively recent, and little is known about how these active partnerships can be maintained over the long term. This case study of the Estes Valley WMA examined the early community support that led to the establishment of a WMA and reasons why the Estes Valley WMA did not continue as a collaborative process. The analysis uncovered four factors that were critical to the early success of the Estes Valley WMA group: community education/awareness, key participants, a community sense of responsibility, and economic/aesthetic values. The analysis also uncovered four factors explaining why the Estes Valley WMA did not continue: a lack of group structure, unclear boundary definitions, availability of funding, and decline in motivation. Residents of the Estes Valley now rely more on the county and private contractors to provide weed management services. While this approach is meeting basic weed management needs, some interviewees feel that community involvement has declined. Recommendations are given for the reestablishment of a collaborative weed management group in the Estes Valley.

Opportunities for better use of collective action theory in research and governance for invasive species management

“…For example, unclear boundaries of weed management areas represent a missed opportunity to use boundaries to inspire cooperation and solidarity (Gunderson‐Izurieta et al. ). Sometimes boundaries are presented as fuzzy (e.g., Ervin & Frisvold ) and expandable (e.g., Higgins et al.…”

“…Organizational coalition collective action included the regional rearrangement of institutions with a formal or informal meso‐level authority (Donaldson & Mudd ), as well as formal networks of government agencies and other organizational actors (Gunderson‐Izurieta et al. ; Thomsen & Caplow ) that aimed to address invasive species concerns at a regional scale. These included organizations such as Cooperative Weed Management Areas or Cooperative Invasive Species Management Areas in the United States, which were partnerships of local, state, and federal government agencies, private landowners, and various interested groups with a role in invasive species management.…”

Wild Carrot (Daucus carota) Management in the Dungeness Valley, Washington, United States: The Power of Citizen Scientists to Leverage Policy Change

“…Case studies of weed management programs assert that incorporating education and outreach increases the success of management efforts because it establishes a climate of support for weed control (Gunderson-Izurieta, Paulson, and Enloe 2008;Hershdorfer, Fernandez-Gimenez, and Howery 2007). The steering committee's approach included an education and outreach campaign initiated in 2012.…”

A vision for Weed Science in the twenty‐first century

“…2002). Variations of this approach have already been used in real‐life situations in recent years (Gunderson‐Izurieta et al . 2008; Holman et al .…”