By Abby Butler EBS COLUMNIST
It’s undeniable that invasive species are tough to manage. They disperse from home to home on the wind and through extensive root systems, they travel from trailhead to trailhead on dirty boots, tires, and equipment, and they enter rivers and lakes on dirty boats and fishing gear.
Preventing and treating invasive species can feel like running up Lone Peak on a sweltering day while you’re fighting a head cold—it’s an uphill battle. In past articles we’ve shared individual resources like your local county weed district, both Madison and Gallatin, and Alpenscapes’ website on promoting biodiversity at home. But for this column, we’re pivoting to take a look at the power of an informed and engaged community acting together for the betterment of their shared home and resources.
Where better to begin than at a community weed pull? Whether or not you particularly enjoy pulling weeds, ask anyone who has attended a Grow Wild weed pull in the past and you’ll be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t feel deep satisfaction showing off the biggest houndstongue they’ve ever pulled or surveying the countless trash bags now filled with noxious weeds. The Gallatin River Weed Pull is entering its 17th year and to date, 509 volunteers have pulled over 10,000 pounds of noxious weeds from public land along the Gallatin River. That’s a lot of weeds. But it’s not always about the numbers. It’s about a collective force united around a shared love of protecting the Gallatin River. Cultivating that collective force is the root of genuine progress.
Pulling weeds gives native plants a chance to establish. The Gallatin River Task Force recently completed a restoration project at Greek Creek Campground with 697 feet of bioengineered streambank and 197 native trees and shrubs planted. This wasn’t a single volunteer day effort however. It began with volunteers harvesting willows for the bioengineered streambank, building and installing beaver dam analog structures, and finally planting natives on the new streambank. Not only was a streambank and riparian habitat restored, but community members connected over their effort to protect a resource essential to Big Sky and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Digging out houndstongue or pounding posts into the ground to protect baby willows from hungry moose isn’t the only way collective action shows up. Collective action can also happen when people stay informed about their community’s challenges. Attending a wildfire preparedness talk at BASE not only protects you and your family, but gives you an opportunity to share that information with your neighbors who might not grasp the threat of wildfire season. Showing up to Big Sky Sustainability Network Organization’s recycling event with your old electronics that have been sitting abandoned in a drawer for 10 years means more than just decluttering—it’s a physical representation of support for an organization’s work in creating a more sustainable community.
Life is busy, and no one can do it all. But let this serve as a gentle reminder of how impactful an hour or two of your time can be in protecting and restoring natural resources, and fostering a culture of informed, engaged, and caring community members. Even small actions like convincing your friends to pull weeds at your campsite while dinner cooks, picking up an extra dog poop baggie on your way back to the trailhead, or telling your neighbor about an article you just read about home-hardening sparks more and more people to do the same.
Abby Butler is the conservation program manager for Grow Wild, a 501c3 nonprofit organization that works to conserve native species in the Upper Gallatin Watershed through education, habitat restoration, and collaborative land stewardship.
