The Routt County Noxious Weed Program, Noxious Weed Advisory Board and Colorado State University Master Gardeners will host two educational Routt County Noxious Weed Days from 8 a.m. to noon this coming Saturday and on Sunday, June 11.

Both free mornings of education and herbicide giveaways will be offered in a drop-in format at 2300 County Shop Road in Steamboat Springs. The public events are intended to help with plant identification and noxious weed management. Residents are encouraged to bring plant specimens or photos of weeds for help with identification and questions. Citizens can also bring in hand-held or backpack weed sprayers to be calibrated.

Residents can receive up to five gallons of premixed herbicide solution for free if they also bring a clean hand-held or backpack sprayer and their own personal protection equipment, including long sleeves, long pants, shoes with socks, and hand and eye protection. The offered herbicide can be used to target whitetop and many other broadleaf weeds.

For questions, visit Co.routt.co.us/216/Weed-Program or contact Routt County Noxious Weed Supervisor Tiffany Carlson at tcarlson@co.routt.co.us. The website includes links to a 2023 Routt County Weed Management Guide and a Noxious Weed Management Pocket Guide.

The Routt County Weed Program works to control noxious and nuisance weeds on county road rights-of-way, educate the public on weed management and provide weed control in cooperation with other land management agencies.

The Routt County Weed Plan and the Colorado Noxious Weed Act require control of 15 harmful weeds, including leafy spurge, whitetop, dalmatian toadflax, yellow toadflax, houndstongue, orange hawkweed, purple loosestrife, myrtle spurge, cypress spurge, common mullein, curly dock, and four kinds of knapweed including Russian, diffuse, spotted and meadow.