What does Travis Osmond, Supervisor of the Lincoln County Weed and Pest think about in his daily battle with noxious weeds?

“I want to make my great-great grandfather proud,” he said in an interview with SVI during the Weekday Wake-up radio program. “He was sent up here to help settle this area and I wonder what he thinks about what I’m doing. Is he happy that I’m trying to keep invasive specious out of here, is he happy that I’m helping farmers increase their yield. That’s what I think about. But my job has changed. Star Valley had changed. Lincoln County has changed.”

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Unlike other surrounding states, Wyoming is still fighting the good fight when it comes to invasive weeds and plants.

“In 1964, Wyoming said there are 13 plants and three bugs that we deem so hazardous to our way of life that we do not allow them to grow,” Osmond said. “We’re now up to 20 plants but it is against the law to let them permeate your property.

An invasive species is something not native to the area and according to Osmond, there are all sorts of them either already taking hold or waiting to do so.

“I feel like we’re trying to hold back the ocean with a fishing net,” he saiid of the problem “Its hard to do it with a county budget but it’s hard to do it with a public who is increasingly uneducated about the land. Our ancestors grew up with a connection to the land and the importance the land held. Every generation we get further from that. We have a substantial amount of people who are generations removed from living off the land and they don’t understand the hard work that farmers go through. So when they see the efforts of the Weed and Pest, in their minds, we’re ruining the environment when the exact opposite is occurring.”

Osmond is referring to efforts by the Weed and Pest when they make contact with a land owner regarding the observation of an invasive species on their property.

“I’ll send out a letter because someone will let their acerage be covered with spotted knapweed,” he continued. They feel like mother nature provides what they need for their land but they don’t know what to do. So I come in and mention herbicides or grazing as a tool and they act as though I’m trying to poison them. If they would quit reading the crap that is out there that is nonsense, they could turn it around and make their land useful but they won’t get off Facebook and educate themselves.”

Osmond pointed out how spotted knapweed has killed the vast majority of food for elk in eastern Montana. He would like land owners who may be new to the area to let them help.

The Lincoln County Weed and Pest is here to support the home owner,” he said. “We are there to help. We don’t spray private property but we are happy to come to your home and help you find a way to keep your land invasive species free. It’s our responsibility to keep Wyoming beautiful the way it is. Get off Facebook, get educated and help us keep Lincoln County beautiful.”