Photo: Houndstongue, a biennial, in its first year, Southwest Montana. © 2020 Delena Norris-Tull
Rob Orchard, interview 2013
[Video interview conducted by Becky McMillen, transcribed by Dr. Delena Norris-Tull. Reviewed & approved by Jarrod Glanz & Mr. Orchard's family, Nov. 22, 2020.]
[Rob Orchard was a Board Member for the Washakie County Weed and Pest District Board for 40 years. He is deceased.]
"We run a cattle and horse ranch. We generally sell yearlings. We’ve had the ranch in the family for 100 years. We run cattle on BLM land.
Forty years ago, our County Agent, Jack, called me and said I ought to get involved with the County Weed and Pest. This got me jarred up, because I hate weeds. And I’ve enjoyed being on the Wyoming Weed and Pest Council. George Hittle was the President of the Council at that time.
We found out the only way someone could get off the Board is if they died. [Laughs]. So I have to hang on for as long as I can!
It’s been an awfully quick 40 years. I really enjoyed the people. I come to the conferences, and I’ve had a chance to get to know these guys. And it’s just been a super time. I try to put some weeds down, and I try to find them. We have a weed that’s bothering more than any of them right now, and that’s houndstongue. It’s one that kills cows, horses, anything else, in about six months. But they only eat it, in general, if they get starved down and it’s the only food there. It ruins their kidneys. The seed is carried by anything as small as a mouse, a dog, or a cow, and that’s the way it gets scattered. Houndstongue has been growing by leaps and bounds. It’s got a sticker on it, and it sticks to anything. We are fighting with the thing, that and spotted knapweed. That has little bitty seeds, but, as I understand it, the seeds will lay in the soil for 25 years. That’s the Montana state flower, so we’ll let them keep it [Note: This is a joke. Spotted knapweed is one of Montana’s most widespread weeds]. It’s such a course brush, it gets so hard, even the elk can’t eat it. It’s gotten clear back in the mountains of Montana. Jarrod Glanz is our Supervisor and he’s been good enough to fight the spotted knapweed.
When I first got on the Board, we used to meet in the County Courthouse. Now we meet at the District building. We meet the last Tuesday of every month. I’ve been President some years, and I’ve come to the Fall Conference. It’s a great bunch of guys. They wouldn’t be here if they didn’t hate the weeds."
[Becky asked: Who do you remember from when you first started?]
"Our Superintendent was Varmer Peterson. He had a little spraying rig, that he’d take out. It was a completely primitive outfit. We must have now probably $60-$80,000 In trucks and equipment. We generally have three crews spraying in the summer. And we’re doing as much as we can, but for some reason, we’ve always got weeds left over. So there’s a certain amount of job security there! [Laughs.]
We are all interested in grazing and raising livestock. And to keep them going, they need something to eat, and the weeds are taking away the nourishment, as well as the field value."
[Becky asked: Do you have less weeds now?]
"My mother said, 'Why is it that before Rob got on the Weed and Pest Council, we didn’t have near as many weeds as we do now?' So you can draw your own conclusion, whether I was planting weeds, or we’re just talking about it more, I don’t know." [Laughs.]
[Becky asked: What are the most significant changes you have seen since it all started?]
"The most significant change I’ve seen is the increase in spraying all these weeds, and recognizing what we have, from Dalmatian toadflax, to the houndstongue, to the different weeds, leafy spurge, spotted knapweed. All at once, now we’re trying to do something with the Russian olive and salt cedar. So we just, all at once, started getting more weeds."
[Becky asked: Is it because of increased awareness?]
"Yes, all at once we start recognizing them. You go through the Western weed book, and you go out and see more weeds." [He’s referring to the book, Weeds of the West.]
[Becky asked: Are your neighbors and the rest of the people in the County more aware now?]
"Yes, definitely. They are more aware. We’re going to have to get some new folks on the Board. You have to be ready to donate your time to work on the Board. Sometimes people get so busy, working or livestock or something, but they need to be jarred off-center and get on the Board, to try and help the rest of the agricultural people in the community. I don’t know that we’ll ever get rid of houndstongue, but we’re working on it, anyway. We have three or four crews, some college kids that come back in the summer, and they’re ready to go to work, and they’re sharp. And they spray a lot of weeds in the summer."
[Becky asked: Are there any pests that you deal with?]
"The State of Wyoming pretty much sprays for grasshoppers. On the deeded (private) land, the landowner has to pay for it. On the State land, the State pays for it. And the BLM sprays on their land. They’re also spraying for mosquitoes. Generally towns like Worland spray it’s own mosquitoes."
[Becky said: Jarrod Glanz said he sprays for Mormon crickets, and sugar beet leaf hoppers.]
"In Worland, we raise sugar beets almost as much as they do in Torrington. We raise a lot of sugar beets and a lot of grains, beer barley and like that. We have a lot of prairie dogs; they’re coming back like gangbusters.
The old-timers didn’t pay as much attention to weeds. Jerry Geist has been our Senator from Washakie County. He’s been a big help to us. He helped us get the leafhoppers on the State Designated list.
We are using a lot of modern chemicals, that we didn’t have when we first started. When we first started, Canada thistle was a big thing. We have to spray Canada thistle. It’s not a big thing right now. The livestock have gotten around to where they eat the buds, which has stopped a lot of the spread from the roots. But this houndstongue, and the other weeds that I’ve mentioned, those are the ones that are more important to us now.
The fire in 1987-1988, that burned around 150,000 acres, but it all turned to cheatgrass. So right now, we’re in the middle of a cheatgrass siege. We use the Plateau to spray it in the fall of the year, and that’s after we get a little bit of green growth of cheatgrass. This Plateau will kill it. And then there’s a little bit of residual (in the soil) that will catch it in the spring. Our perennials are coming back through, and they’re living with it, and it’s been a big help. I talked with the Supervisor in Natrona County, and he said, 'Yeah, our western wheat grass and stuff like that is coming through. We’re just having a great spring season down there.'
Tom Whitson and Harold Alley were both just great guys. If you had a question, Tom would help you. Tom was a big instigator in spraying tall larkspur. He and George Greet and John Greet had some test plots but they found that it was too expensive to treat larkspur. So larkspur still kills a few livestock. We sprayed an area with a helicopter, and now we just don’t have much of it."
[Becky said: Talk about some of the Weed and Pest events you remember.]
"We generally take a summer trip. With Mike Willie one year, we went up into Canada. And they’ve got some biological control up there. We tried to get some of their bugs that would get houndstongue, but they wouldn’t let us get it back across the line. It was great stuff. They had a picture of a big patch of houndstongue. Then the next picture, three years later, all they’ve got is the scattering of that houndstongue. Everybody in Washakie County wants to fight that houndstongue, but we do not get the help from the BLM and the US Forest Service that we really need. They just say, we don’t have the money.
We need to do more biological control. I’ve been disappointed; there are some guys from Switzerland that we gave $10,000 a year to, but we don’t get any results back. But this biological control, this is one of the things that we really need to do.
The County has about 50% BLM land. Most of the rest is deeded land. We have some State land."
[Becky said: Jarrod said you were Chairman of the Wyoming Weed and Pest Council for some years. Talk about that.]
"I was Vice-President of the Wyoming Council one year, and everyone knows that the Vice-President doesn’t have to do anything! So I got down to the Fall Conference that year, and Sharon said, “You’re our moderator for the Conference. Stan can’t be here, so you’ll have to do it.” It was a lot of fun. The guys in this Weed and Pest program are just a great, great bunch. Adrianne Peterson is a super lady. She’s the one that helped me so much when I had to take over the Conference."
[Becky asked: What advice do you have for the future?]
"Keep fighting weeds. We’ve got to keep our head above water. Good luck."
Links to additional Wyoming County interviews:
Rob Orchard, interview 2013
[Video interview conducted by Becky McMillen, transcribed by Dr. Delena Norris-Tull. Reviewed & approved by Jarrod Glanz & Mr. Orchard's family, Nov. 22, 2020.]
[Rob Orchard was a Board Member for the Washakie County Weed and Pest District Board for 40 years. He is deceased.]
"We run a cattle and horse ranch. We generally sell yearlings. We’ve had the ranch in the family for 100 years. We run cattle on BLM land.
Forty years ago, our County Agent, Jack, called me and said I ought to get involved with the County Weed and Pest. This got me jarred up, because I hate weeds. And I’ve enjoyed being on the Wyoming Weed and Pest Council. George Hittle was the President of the Council at that time.
We found out the only way someone could get off the Board is if they died. [Laughs]. So I have to hang on for as long as I can!
It’s been an awfully quick 40 years. I really enjoyed the people. I come to the conferences, and I’ve had a chance to get to know these guys. And it’s just been a super time. I try to put some weeds down, and I try to find them. We have a weed that’s bothering more than any of them right now, and that’s houndstongue. It’s one that kills cows, horses, anything else, in about six months. But they only eat it, in general, if they get starved down and it’s the only food there. It ruins their kidneys. The seed is carried by anything as small as a mouse, a dog, or a cow, and that’s the way it gets scattered. Houndstongue has been growing by leaps and bounds. It’s got a sticker on it, and it sticks to anything. We are fighting with the thing, that and spotted knapweed. That has little bitty seeds, but, as I understand it, the seeds will lay in the soil for 25 years. That’s the Montana state flower, so we’ll let them keep it [Note: This is a joke. Spotted knapweed is one of Montana’s most widespread weeds]. It’s such a course brush, it gets so hard, even the elk can’t eat it. It’s gotten clear back in the mountains of Montana. Jarrod Glanz is our Supervisor and he’s been good enough to fight the spotted knapweed.
When I first got on the Board, we used to meet in the County Courthouse. Now we meet at the District building. We meet the last Tuesday of every month. I’ve been President some years, and I’ve come to the Fall Conference. It’s a great bunch of guys. They wouldn’t be here if they didn’t hate the weeds."
[Becky asked: Who do you remember from when you first started?]
"Our Superintendent was Varmer Peterson. He had a little spraying rig, that he’d take out. It was a completely primitive outfit. We must have now probably $60-$80,000 In trucks and equipment. We generally have three crews spraying in the summer. And we’re doing as much as we can, but for some reason, we’ve always got weeds left over. So there’s a certain amount of job security there! [Laughs.]
We are all interested in grazing and raising livestock. And to keep them going, they need something to eat, and the weeds are taking away the nourishment, as well as the field value."
[Becky asked: Do you have less weeds now?]
"My mother said, 'Why is it that before Rob got on the Weed and Pest Council, we didn’t have near as many weeds as we do now?' So you can draw your own conclusion, whether I was planting weeds, or we’re just talking about it more, I don’t know." [Laughs.]
[Becky asked: What are the most significant changes you have seen since it all started?]
"The most significant change I’ve seen is the increase in spraying all these weeds, and recognizing what we have, from Dalmatian toadflax, to the houndstongue, to the different weeds, leafy spurge, spotted knapweed. All at once, now we’re trying to do something with the Russian olive and salt cedar. So we just, all at once, started getting more weeds."
[Becky asked: Is it because of increased awareness?]
"Yes, all at once we start recognizing them. You go through the Western weed book, and you go out and see more weeds." [He’s referring to the book, Weeds of the West.]
[Becky asked: Are your neighbors and the rest of the people in the County more aware now?]
"Yes, definitely. They are more aware. We’re going to have to get some new folks on the Board. You have to be ready to donate your time to work on the Board. Sometimes people get so busy, working or livestock or something, but they need to be jarred off-center and get on the Board, to try and help the rest of the agricultural people in the community. I don’t know that we’ll ever get rid of houndstongue, but we’re working on it, anyway. We have three or four crews, some college kids that come back in the summer, and they’re ready to go to work, and they’re sharp. And they spray a lot of weeds in the summer."
[Becky asked: Are there any pests that you deal with?]
"The State of Wyoming pretty much sprays for grasshoppers. On the deeded (private) land, the landowner has to pay for it. On the State land, the State pays for it. And the BLM sprays on their land. They’re also spraying for mosquitoes. Generally towns like Worland spray it’s own mosquitoes."
[Becky said: Jarrod Glanz said he sprays for Mormon crickets, and sugar beet leaf hoppers.]
"In Worland, we raise sugar beets almost as much as they do in Torrington. We raise a lot of sugar beets and a lot of grains, beer barley and like that. We have a lot of prairie dogs; they’re coming back like gangbusters.
The old-timers didn’t pay as much attention to weeds. Jerry Geist has been our Senator from Washakie County. He’s been a big help to us. He helped us get the leafhoppers on the State Designated list.
We are using a lot of modern chemicals, that we didn’t have when we first started. When we first started, Canada thistle was a big thing. We have to spray Canada thistle. It’s not a big thing right now. The livestock have gotten around to where they eat the buds, which has stopped a lot of the spread from the roots. But this houndstongue, and the other weeds that I’ve mentioned, those are the ones that are more important to us now.
The fire in 1987-1988, that burned around 150,000 acres, but it all turned to cheatgrass. So right now, we’re in the middle of a cheatgrass siege. We use the Plateau to spray it in the fall of the year, and that’s after we get a little bit of green growth of cheatgrass. This Plateau will kill it. And then there’s a little bit of residual (in the soil) that will catch it in the spring. Our perennials are coming back through, and they’re living with it, and it’s been a big help. I talked with the Supervisor in Natrona County, and he said, 'Yeah, our western wheat grass and stuff like that is coming through. We’re just having a great spring season down there.'
Tom Whitson and Harold Alley were both just great guys. If you had a question, Tom would help you. Tom was a big instigator in spraying tall larkspur. He and George Greet and John Greet had some test plots but they found that it was too expensive to treat larkspur. So larkspur still kills a few livestock. We sprayed an area with a helicopter, and now we just don’t have much of it."
[Becky said: Talk about some of the Weed and Pest events you remember.]
"We generally take a summer trip. With Mike Willie one year, we went up into Canada. And they’ve got some biological control up there. We tried to get some of their bugs that would get houndstongue, but they wouldn’t let us get it back across the line. It was great stuff. They had a picture of a big patch of houndstongue. Then the next picture, three years later, all they’ve got is the scattering of that houndstongue. Everybody in Washakie County wants to fight that houndstongue, but we do not get the help from the BLM and the US Forest Service that we really need. They just say, we don’t have the money.
We need to do more biological control. I’ve been disappointed; there are some guys from Switzerland that we gave $10,000 a year to, but we don’t get any results back. But this biological control, this is one of the things that we really need to do.
The County has about 50% BLM land. Most of the rest is deeded land. We have some State land."
[Becky said: Jarrod said you were Chairman of the Wyoming Weed and Pest Council for some years. Talk about that.]
"I was Vice-President of the Wyoming Council one year, and everyone knows that the Vice-President doesn’t have to do anything! So I got down to the Fall Conference that year, and Sharon said, “You’re our moderator for the Conference. Stan can’t be here, so you’ll have to do it.” It was a lot of fun. The guys in this Weed and Pest program are just a great, great bunch. Adrianne Peterson is a super lady. She’s the one that helped me so much when I had to take over the Conference."
[Becky asked: What advice do you have for the future?]
"Keep fighting weeds. We’ve got to keep our head above water. Good luck."
Links to additional Wyoming County interviews: