The article quotes two MWCA members Paul Wick, MWCA President & Teton County Weed Coordinator, and Tonda Moon, Montana Department of Ag Weed Specialist & a member of the MWCA Integrated Weed Management Committee .  The article follows:

Survey: More money needed to fight noxious weeds
Rocky Mountain Front land managers say $1.1M spent to fight noxious weeds, more needed

Matt Volz, Associated Press Writer, On Thursday July 8, 2010, 12:19 pm EDT

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Land managers along the Rocky Mountain Front spent an estimated $1.1 million last year to fight noxious weeds, and most believe that more is needed to control the spread, according to a survey released Wednesday.

The survey questioned 10 different federal, state, local and non-governmental agencies that manage land on or near some 2 million acres where the Rocky Mountains meet the Great Plains.

It was commissioned by The Wilderness Society on behalf of the Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front, a group promoting a plan to protect more than 300,000 acres in the region.

The agencies that responded said they spent about $840,000 combined last year to manage spotted knapweed, leafy spurge and other noxious weeds. The survey’s author, economist Joe Kerkvliet of The Wilderness Society, estimated $230,000 was spent on top of that.

“We wanted to quantify, get a better estimate on just how much money they do spend,” Kerkvliet told reporters Wednesday.

Nine of the 10 agencies said their budgets fell short of allowing them to do all they could to control the spread of the weeds. Most said they’d need a budget increase of about 50 percent to accomplish their goals, according to the survey.    Read the rest of the article here.