El Paso County Conservation Dist

07/30/2026

Noxious W**d Walk & Talk 2026
Thursday, July 30, 9:30 AM - 12:00 PM

Black Forest Regional Park, Colorado Springs

Join the El Paso County Environmental Division for the Noxious W**d Walk & Talk, an educational outdoor tour focused on protecting our local ecosystems.

Participants will learn how to identify various invasive plant species and discover effective management strategies to control their spread.

This free, interactive event is a fantastic opportunity for nature lovers and landowners alike to gain practical land stewardship skills.

*Please note: Although the RSVP deadline was July 15, registrations are still being accepted.

07/15/2026

🌱W**dy Wednesday🌿

I hope you all have been able to stay cool with the heat we’ve had this last week! For this week’s W**dy Wednesday star we are shining the spotlight on a massive, thorny giant that is hitting peak bloom across our open prairies, pastures, and roadsides right now. If you have driven past an untamed field lately, you have definitely seen this monster towering over the landscape—and it is a prime target for those official El Paso County w**d compliance notices:

Musk Thistle
(Carduus nutans)

🪻 Musk Thistle Facts

1) It is an absolute giant with a distinctive flowery bow. Musk thistle is a biennial plant that spends its first year as a flat, spiny rosette before bolting into a towering, heavily-branched stalk that can easily reach 5 to 7 feet tall. It is instantly recognizable right now by its massive, deep pink-purple flower heads (the size of a golf ball or tennis ball) that characteristically nod or droop over on their heavy, spiny stems.

2) It is a prolific seed machine. A single, robust musk thistle plant can produce up to 20,000 seeds! These seeds are equipped with a plume of fluffy, white hairs—much like a giant dandelion—allowing them to hitch a ride on our intense Colorado wind gusts and travel miles to invade new pastures, ditches, and pristine open spaces.

3) It forms an impenetrable thorny fortress. Livestock completely avoid grazing anywhere near musk thistle because its leaves and stems are armed with vicious, razor-sharp yellowish spines. Because animals won't touch it, it quickly takes over, reducing available forage and creating dense, prickly thickets that completely block livestock and local wildlife from moving through the pasture.

🌿 Why it’s a noxious w**d:

Musk thistle is designated as a List B noxious w**d in Colorado and is a high-priority enforcement target for El Paso County. It thrives in our semi-arid climate and loves disturbed soils, fire scars, and overgrazed land. Because it is much more common and aggressive in our open, sun-drenched county plains than its cousin, the Bull Thistle, letting it go to seed on your property is a surefire way to get a "w**d nasty-gram" in your mailbox.

🪏 Ways to control it:

1) Slice the crown before it turns to fluff. Because musk thistle is a biennial (living for only two years) and multiplies strictly by seed, you can successfully kill the plant mechanically right now. Take a sharp shovel and slice the taproot at least 1 to 2 inches below the ground line (the root crown). If you slice it below the crown before the flowers go to seed, the plant will not resprout.

2) Bag the heads if they are already purple. If you are chopping down a thistle that is already sporting those bright purple flower heads, do not just leave the plant laying on the ground. Musk thistle flowers have enough residual energy in the stem to finish maturing and drop viable seeds even after being chopped down! Cut the purple heads off, place them in heavy-duty trash bags, and send them to the landfill.

3) Mow with perfect timing. If you have a massive infestation, mowing can be used, but timing is everything. Mowing too early (when the plant is just bolting) will simply cause it to send up new side-branches with even more flower heads. Wait to mow until the very first terminal buds just begin to show that purple color, but well before any white fluff appears.

07/15/2026

07/08/2026

🌱W**dy Wednesday🌿

I hope you all had a good and safe 4th of July weekend, it’s time for this week’s W**dy Wednesday!

This week we are tackling a plant that almost every single person in our area has battled at some point and is probably the most hated w**d out there! It loves the intense July heat, thrives in our gravelly driveways, and is currently trailing across pastures, choking garden beds, and climbing up fence lines. It looks deceptively like a pretty, miniature morning glory, but it is actually one of the most stubborn, deep-rooted invaders on the map:

Field Bindw**d
(Convolvulus arvensis)

🌼 Field Bindw**d Facts

1) Its root system is an underground fortress. Field bindw**d is a perennial nightmare because its roots can plunge an astonishing 20 feet deep into the soil. It creates a massive, interconnected lateral network that stores years' worth of nutrient reserves. Leaving even a microscopic fragment of a root in the ground when you pull it can—and will—result in a brand new plant popping up days later.

2) It is a master of survival and patience. The seeds of this plant are armored with a hard, impermeable outer coat that protects them from the elements. A single plant can produce thousands of seeds that can lay dormant and perfectly viable in our local soil for up to 50 years, waiting for the perfect moment to sprout.

3) It is a literal strangler. Bindw**d doesn't just grow alongside other plants; it climbs them by tightly twisting its vines counter-clockwise around anything it touches—native grasses, garden crops, shrubs, or fences. It uses the other plant for structural support while simultaneously shading it out, stealing its water, and eventually strangling it.

🌿 Why it’s a noxious w**d:

Field bindw**d is designated as a List C noxious w**d in Colorado. Because it is already so thoroughly widespread, El Paso County generally won't send you an official enforcement letter for it. However, it remains a high-priority nuisance for land management. It forms massive green blankets that outcompete native forage, wraps itself into tight, destructive knots around agricultural equipment, and can reduce crop and pasture yields by more than 50% if left unchecked.

🪏 Ways to control it:

1) Never rely on a single pulling session. Hand-pulling or shallow hoeing can work for small garden patches, but you have to treat it like a war of attrition. Because the root system is so deep, pulling the top growth merely forces the plant to tap into its massive underground reserves to send up new shoots. To actually kill it mechanically, you must diligently repeat the process every 2 to 3 weeks for multiple seasons to finally starve the roots.

2) Do not rototill a bindw**d patch. If you take a rototiller to a patch of bindw**d hoping to chew it up, you are doing exactly what the plant wants. The tines will chop the extensive root system into hundreds of tiny pieces, and every single one of those fragments will sprout into a brand-new, independent clone, turning a small problem into an absolute infestation.

3) Starve it out with shade and persistence. For larger areas or garden beds, cardboard with a heavy mulch application, thick landscape fabric, or black plastic sheeting can be used to completely block out sunlight and prevent photosynthesis. Combined with a multi-year commitment to monitoring pasture boundaries, consistent management is the only way to break its hold on your land.

07/04/2026

We at the El Paso County Conservation District want to wish you all a safe and happy Independence Day! 🇺🇸

07/01/2026

🌱W**dy Wednesday🌿

Welcome to July and thank you all for tuning in to this week’s W**dy Wednesday! This week we wanted to highlight a very aggressive invader that is becoming increasingly common across open spaces, roadsides, and disturbed ground in our area. And this is a w**d that El Paso County does send out the w**d nasty-grams in the mail for:

Leafy Spurge
(Euphorbia esula)

🌼 Leafy Spurge Facts

1) Leafy spurge is incredibly difficult to eradicate because of its massive, aggressive root system. It develops a woody network of vertical and horizontal roots that can reach up to 30 feet deep and spread 15 feet wide each year. These roots are packed with nutrient reserves and thousands of adventitious buds, allowing the plant to rapidly send up new shoots if the top growth is damaged.

2) This plant has an explosive method of spreading its seeds. In mid-to-late summer, its seed capsules dry out and literally explode, audibly snapping open and forcefully catapulting seeds up to 15 feet away from the parent plant. The seeds also float, allowing them to hitch a ride and spread rapidly along our local ditches, creeks, and waterways.

3) It’s milky sap is a skin irritant to humans and is highly toxic to cattle and horses, causing severe blistering in their mouths and digestive tracts, which leads them to completely avoid grazing anywhere near it. Sheep and goats have a remarkably high tolerance to the plant's toxic sap though and can eat it with little to no issue.

🌿 Why it’s a noxious w**d:

Leafy spurge is listed as a List B noxious w**d in Colorado and is a high-priority target for active management in El Paso County. It dominates rangelands, pastures, open prairies, and disturbed soils, quickly forming dense monocultures that push out native grasses and wildflowers. Because most livestock refuse to graze near it, a heavy infestation can reduce a pasture's grazing capacity by 50% to 75%, severely damaging land value and devastating local wildlife forage.

🪏 Ways to control it:

1) Dig early and get the roots.
Small, isolated patches or young rosettes can be hand-dug, but you must dig deep to remove as much of the extensive root system as possible; leaving even a tiny fragment of root behind will result in a new plant. Always wear heavy gloves and eye protection to protect yourself from the toxic, blistering milky sap.

2) Never rely on mowing alone.
Mowing or cutting leafy spurge will not kill the plant and often backfires. Because of its massive underground energy reserves, cutting the tops off merely triggers the root buds to wake up, causing the plant to send up even denser stands of stems. Mowing should only be used to temporarily prevent seed production until a more permanent treatment can be applied.

3) Utilize biological controls and stay consistent.
Due to its deep root architecture, leafy spurge requires a multi-year commitment to manage. For larger infestations, biological control is one of the most effective long-term strategies. Sheep and goats are excellent tools for this since they have a remarkably high tolerance to the plant's toxic sap and will happily graze it. Continuous grazing for control will severely starves the w**d's root system over time. For a total biological tag-team, matching targeted grazing with approved insects like leafy spurge flea beetles can decimate a massive infestation over 3 to 5 years.

06/30/2026

Due to the dry conditions and the on going fires, El Paso County is now in Stage 2 burn restrictions again!

This is a good time to remind everybody to have a plan should you have animals that need evacuated on short notice!

Have the following ready to go:

-A trailer hooked up or parked where you will need to load your animals
-Having extra feed already loaded for up to 3 days
-Have portable water jugs full, along with an appropriate sized drinking dish for the animals you own ready to go
-Make sure you have a back up person who may be able to help you load animals in the event you are unable to be at home

These are some of the best ways to ensure you can get your animals out as fast and safely as possible!

Stage I restrictions are designed to reduce the likelihood of human-caused fires while still allowing for certain recreational and residential activities under strict safety guidelines.

06/25/2026

🛢️ We need some help from the community! ♻️

One of the programs we have offered for the community has been rain barrels that were made from upcycling 55 gallon barrels donated to us from a local company. These are barrels they received bulk food stuffs in such as syrups. This year we have had an incredibly hard time getting those from that company though, so our rain barrel program has really been at a dead stop right now.

So we would like to ask you all to help us find a direct connection with local food companies here in the El Paso County community that end up receiving these barrels in bulk for their ingredients and who might be interested in donating them to us. They do need to be barrels that held liquid food stuffs (syrups, cooking oils, etc) or something else non-chemical because these are typically used by people for their gardens.

The color of the barrels does not matter but they do need to be plastic. We are looking for help to acquire possibly 100+ of these per year though, as we also help supply these to numerous other conservation districts in the Arkansas River watershed, who offer these to their communities as well.

If you have a good connection or lead you would like to share with us, please message us here on FB or you can email that information to [email protected]

Thanks for the help!

06/24/2026

🌱W**dy Wednesday🌿

Thank you all for tuning in to this week’s W**dy Wednesday. This week we wanted to highlight a very aggressive invader that is becoming increasingly common across open spaces, roadsides, and disturbed ground in our area. And this is a w**d that El Paso County does send out the w**d nasty-grams in the mail for:

Spotted Knapw**d
(Centaurea stoebe)

🪻 Spotted Knapw**d Facts

1) Spotted knapw**d is unique because it is allopathic, meaning it actually changes the soil around it. It releases natural chemicals into the soil that suppress nearby plant growth, giving it a strong competitive advantage over native grasses and wildflowers. This process helps it form dense monocultures in infested areas.

2) This plant is an extremely prolific seed producer. A single mature plant can produce hundreds to tens of thousands of seeds per year. These seeds can remain viable in the soil for several years, creating a long-lasting seed bank that makes management difficult even after plants are removed.

3) Native to Europe, spotted knapw**d is a biennial to short-lived perennial that typically forms a low rosette in its first year before sending up upright flowering stems in later seasons that look similar to that of Canada Thistle. It develops a deep taproot and is especially well adapted to disturbed soils such as roadsides, rangelands, and burn areas, where it can quickly outcompete recovering vegetation.

🌿 Why it’s a noxious w**d:

Spotted knapw**d is listed as a List B noxious w**d in Colorado and is actively managed in El Paso County and surrounding areas. It spreads rapidly in rangelands, pastures, trails, disturbed soils and along driveways and roadways, often forming dense monocultures. Once established, it reduces forage quality for livestock and wildlife and displaces native vegetation, leading to reduced biodiversity and poorer soil stability over time.

🪏 Ways to control it:

1) Hand pull or dig the rosettes early.
The most effective control method is removing plants in the rosette stage before they flower. A shovel or w**d puller should be used to remove as much of the taproot as possible. Plants should be bagged and disposed of properly, especially if any flower buds are present.

2) Prevent flowering and seed production.
If the plant has bolted, cutting or mowing before flowers fully mature can help reduce spread. However, timing is critical: once seeds begin to form, they can still mature even after cutting. Any flowering material should be carefully collected and disposed of off-site.

3) Consistency is key.
Because of its persistent seed bank, spotted knapw**d typically requires multiple years of repeated management (2-5 years) to significantly reduce populations on a property. Combining mechanical removal with targeted herbicide treatment (when appropriate) is often the most effective long-term strategy.

06/17/2026

🌱W**dy Wednesday🌿

Thank you all for tuning in to our second week of W**dy Wednesday. This week we wanted to highlight a w**d that is starting to be pretty obvious in many properties this time of the year:

Bull Thistle
(Cirsium vulgare)

🪻Bull Thistle Facts

1) Bull thistle is unique because it is the only thistle species in Colorado that has prickly, spine-covered hairs on the top of the leaves and a soft, cottony-white texture on the underside.

2) It reproduces entirely by seed, with a single healthy plant capable of producing up to 4,000 seeds (and sometimes more in ideal conditions). These seeds feature feather-like white hairs that allow them to be easily carried long distances by the wind.

3) Native to Europe and Asia, bull thistle is a biennial plant. This means it spends its first year growing low to the ground as a leafy rosette, and its second year "bolting" upward to produce its distinct, gumdrop-shaped purple flowers.

🌿 Why it’s a noxious w**d:

It is listed as a List B noxious w**d in Colorado and is actively managed here in El Paso County. Bull thistle aggressively invades pastures, rangelands, ditch banks, and disturbed areas. It is common to see in heavy densities after major wildfires as well. Because livestock and wildlife avoid eating the painful, spiny plant, it quickly outcompetes our native grasses and wildflowers due to its height, significantly reducing the grazing capacity and health of the local ecosystem.

🪏Ways to control it:

1) Dig up the rosettes during the first year.
The absolute best time to control bull thistle is before it ever grows a tall stem. Use a sharp shovel to slice the fleshy taproot 1–2 inches below the soil surface. This prevents the plant from storing energy and successfully kills it.

2) If the plant is in it’s second year and has already bolted, cut the stalk at or below ground level before the purple flowers can mature. If you see buds or open flowers, be sure to bag and dispose of the flower heads entirely, as they can still successfully mature and drop viable seeds even after being cut from the root! The plant uses too much energy trying to bolt to make it through the following winter and it will die off before the next season.

2-3 years of diligent management of these plants is enough to see a drastic decrease in bull thistle population on a property.