MANAGEMENT OF INVASIVE PLANTS IN THE WESTERN USA
  • Defining the Problem
    • What is a Weed? >
      • Federal Definitions of Noxious Weeds
    • Costs of invasive plants
    • Human Factor
    • Challenges of Invasive Plants
    • Wildfires in the Western USA >
      • Forest Fires: Structure
      • Bark Beetles & Forest Ecosystems
      • Rangeland Fires
    • Climate Change Impacts on Plants >
      • Climate Change: CO2, NO, UV, Ozone Impacts on Plants
      • Climate Change Impacts on Crops
      • Climate Change Impacts on C4 Plants
      • Climate Change Impacts on Rangeland
    • What are we doing?
  • Focus of this Project
    • Why Western States? >
      • Audience for these reports
    • History: Are we doomed to repeat it? >
      • Dust Bowl Re-visited >
        • China: Past & Present
        • UN Biodiversity Report
    • Policy vs. Practice
    • Ecosystems & Economics >
      • Reductionist Approach to science
      • Ecology & Feminism
      • Systems View of Life
      • Ecosystems Health
      • Economic Growth
      • Impact of the Petrochemical Industry
      • Interrelation of Economics & Ecology
    • Federal Agencies >
      • Federal Agencies and Invasive Species
      • History of Coordination with States
      • Challenges of Coordination between Federal Agencies
      • Collaboration or Confusion
    • Organizations to assist landowners
    • Federal Legislation on Invasive Species >
      • 1930s Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • Federal Seed Act 1939
      • 1940s-1960s Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • 1970s Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • 1980s Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • 1990s Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • 2000-2010 Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • 2011-2022 Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • Federal Bills on Invasive Species not passed
      • Executive Orders on Invasive Species
      • Federal Excise Taxes
    • State Laws and Lists of Noxious Weeds
    • My Inspirations
  • Why we need plants
    • Native Plants
    • Plant Resources
  • Invasive Success Hypotheses
    • Unified Framework
    • Role of Diversity >
      • How Ecosystems Maintain Diversity
      • Fluctuation Dependent Mechanisms
      • Competition-based coexistence mechanisms
      • Niche Differences
      • Species Richness
    • Enemy Release Hypothesis
    • Constitutive Defense Mechanisms
    • Evolution of Increased Competitive Ability
    • Role of Microbes
    • Indirect Defense Mechanisms
    • Novel weapons hypothesis
    • Evolutionary Shifts
    • Resource Allocation
    • Evolutionary Dynamics >
      • Pre-introduction evolutionary history
      • Sampling Effect
      • Founder Effect
      • Admixture, hybridization and polyploidization
      • Rapid Evolution
      • Epigenetics
      • Second Genomes
    • Role of Hybridization
    • Role of Native Plant Neighbors
    • Species Performance
    • Role of Herbivory
    • Evolutionary Reduced Competitive Ability
    • Summary Thoughts on Research
  • Historical Record
    • Regional Conferences
    • Timeline
  • Innovative Solutions
    • Agricultural Best Practices >
      • Ecologically based Successional Management
      • Perennial Crops, Intercropping, beneficial insects
      • Soil Solarization
      • Natural Farming
      • Permaculture
      • Organic Farming
      • Embedding Natural Habitats
      • Conservation Tillage
      • Crop Rotation
      • Water Use Practices
      • Tree Planting: Pros & Cons
    • Grazing Solutions >
      • Sheep and Goat Grazing
      • Cattle & Sheep Grazing
      • Cattle and Bison Grazing
      • Grazing and Revegetation
    • Rangeland Restoration >
      • Federal Goals for Rangelands
      • Novel Ecosystems
      • Prairie Restoration >
        • Prairie Restoration Workshop
        • Weed Prevention Areas
        • California grassland restoration
        • Selah: Bamberger Ranch Preserve
      • Sagebrush Steppe Restoration >
        • Low Nitrogen in Sagebrush Steppe
      • Revegetation with Native Plants
      • Dogs as detectors of noxious weeds
    • Nudges
  • Biological Control
    • Insects as Biocontrol >
      • Impacts of Biocontrol Agents on Non-Target Species
      • Indirect Impact of Biocontrol on Native Species
    • Challenges of Using Biocontrols >
      • DNA studies on Biocontrol Insects
      • Biocontrol takes time
    • Prioritization process for Biocontrol Programs
    • Evolutionary changes impact Biocontrol
    • Vertebrates as Biocontrol Agents
  • Herbicides: History and Impacts
    • Effectiveness of Herbicides in Agricultural Lands
    • Effectiveness of Herbicides in Rangelands
    • History of Use of Herbicides and Pesticides Prior to and During WWII
    • Herbicide use during and post-World War II >
      • 2,4-D Herbicide Use
      • 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T, post-World War II
    • Modern use of Herbicides >
      • Atrazine Herbicide
      • Dicamba Herbicide
      • Glyphosate Herbicide
      • Paraquat Dichloride
      • Picolinic acid family of herbicides >
        • Picloram (Tordon 22K) Herbicide
        • Triclopyr Herbicide
    • Herbicide Resistance in Invasive Plants >
      • Herbicide Resistant Crops
      • Controlling herbicide-resistant weeds in herbicide-resistant crops
      • Best Management Practices
    • Myth of the Silver Bullet
    • Myth of Eradication
    • Merging of Agrochemical Companies
    • Impacts of Pesticides on Environment and Human Health >
      • Pesticide Drift
      • Impacts of Pesticides on Biological Diversity
      • Impacts of Herbicides on Native Plants
      • Pesticide Impacts on Insects >
        • Butterflies: The Impacts of Herbicides
        • Monarch Butterflies: Impacts of Herbicides
      • Impacts of Pesticides on Wildlife >
        • Reptiles & Amphibians: Pesticide Impacts
      • Pesticide Residue in Foods
    • Funding for Research on Pesticides
    • Commentary on Herbicide Use
  • Interviews
    • Interviews Biocontrol >
      • Biocontrol Wyoming
      • Montana Biocontrol Interview Maggio
      • Montana Biocontrol Interview Breitenfeldt
    • California Interviews >
      • Robert Price
      • Doug Johnson
    • Colorado Interviews >
      • George Beck Interview
      • Scott Nissen Interview
    • Idaho Interviews >
      • Purple Sage Organic Farms in Idaho
    • Montana Interviews >
      • Jasmine Reimer Interview Montana
      • Organic Farms Montana Interviews
    • Texas Interviews
    • Washington Interviews >
      • Ray Willard
    • Wyoming Interviews >
      • Slade Franklin Interview
      • John Samson Interview
    • Wyoming Weed and Pest Districts >
      • Josh Shorb Interview
      • Slade Franklin Interview 2
      • Lars Baker Interview
      • Steve Brill Interview
      • George Hittle Interview
      • Peter Illoway Interview
      • Robert Jenn Interview
      • Sharon Johnson Interview
      • Larry Justesen Interview
      • Gale Lamb Interview
      • Stephen McNamee Interview
      • Allen Mooney Interview
      • Rob Orchard Interview
      • Robert Parsons Interview
      • Dick Sackett Interview
      • Comments by Delena
    • NRCS Interviews: Wyoming
  • Western Weed Control Conference 1940s Minutes
    • 1942 Conference
    • 1945 Conference
    • 1946 Conference
  • Who am I?
    • My Work
    • My Adventures
    • Contact Page
  • Road Logs
    • Colorado Road Logs
    • Idaho Road Logs
    • Montana Road Logs
    • New Mexico Road Logs
    • Texas Road Logs
    • Wyoming Road Logs
  • Bibliography

Sharon Johnson Interview:
​Wyoming Weed & Pest Council

Photo: Cheatgrass. © 2020 Delena Norris-Tull
​
Sharon Johnson, Wyoming, 2014 interview
 
[Video interview conducted by Becky McMillen, transcribed by Dr. Delena Norris-Tull. Reviewed & Approved by Sharon, March 18, 2020.]
 
[Sharon Johnson served as a volunteer for the Wyoming Weed and Pest Council for over 30 years.]
 
"I’ve lived in Laramie, Wyoming all my life. I became associated with the Wyoming Weed and Pest Council through working with Dr. Harold Alley at the University of Wyoming College of Agriculture, in Plant Sciences. I’ve been working with the Council for 30+ years. I’ve never worked with any of the Weed and Pest District offices.
 
I’ve worked with Harold Alley and George Hittle. I’ve never missed a Council conference meeting. I help with the first day of registration. I like the Council. They have been an awesome group of people to get to know."
 
[Becky asked: What changes have you seen in the Council conference over the years?]
 
"It’s become a younger group, with a lot more tech savvy backgrounds. But they still are grounded to agricultural issues, and how that plays out in terms of weed and pest control, not just from the spraying aspect, but also from an ecological standpoint.
 
What’s been different the last couple of years is to have participation from the offices of the various locations where the conference is held. Usually I just go and take care of the whole registration thing. But the past few years, the local office has their staff there to help out also. And I see more walk-ins from local people who want to see what the conference is all about. It’s amazing how many local people will come for a day, and then stay longer, because they find so much information from all the people that we have here to give presentations. Those people may be 'tree huggers,' but they see that there’s more to this than just going out and spraying. People are more into figuring out that, 'Oh, you’re doing more than just spraying weeds.'
 
There’s more biocontrol now, which I think is awesome.  The younger people attending are focused on, 'How do we help the agriculture of Wyoming?'
 
When I started working for Harold Alley, his staff was his staff only. Unlike other departments at the University, his staff was not pooled with other departments. He was one of the founders of the Wyoming Weed and Pest program. He helped get legislation into place. He thought it was really important.
 
He could be challenging to work for. He wanted to know that you could stand up for what you believe in, right, wrong, or indifferent. One time, he got mad at me and yelled at me because he couldn’t find something he thought I’d put away. I stood up for myself. The secretarial staff thought he’d fire me. The next day he walked in and said, 'Good morning, Sunshine. How are you?' No one ever messed with me after that. He found out what I was made of, and we worked great together.
 
One time when my dad broke his ribs, and I had to take time off to go help him with the ranch, I told Harold first, even before I told the department chair. He said, 'You take all the time you need.' I enjoyed working for him probably more than anyone else I ever worked with."
 
[Becky asked: Who are some of the other important people you have worked with?]
 
"George Hittle was pretty dynamic. Neil Humburg worked with Harold, also Al Gale. Mike McNamee worked in Agricultural Engineering at the University of Wyoming. His brothers Stan and Tom both worked as County Supervisors. Mike did a lot of summer work with Harold and his crew. Jim Fornstrom, in Agricultural Engineering, also worked with Harold. That was the engineering side of all of the harvesting. The McNamee brothers always brought their instruments to the conferences. Jim Bideler also played instruments at the conferences. They’d all sit and play. It was a lot of fun.
 
I never knew Alvah Elledge but he was very good about using the Weed and Pest laws to get landowners into compliance. He was pretty tough.
 
Everett Johnson was a rancher around Laramie. He was on the Albany County Weed and Pest Board for a number of years. He started the Everett Johnson Award, for the Weed and Pest Supervisors, for outstanding work during the year. He felt they should be recognized. It was pretty special. The Guy Haggard award recognizes people who give a little extra in support of weed and pest control. I was privileged to be the second recipient. The Archie Lauer award is awesome. Archie was very quiet but very passionate.
 
Roy Reichenbach is another quiet person that did so much behind the scenes. You hardly ever knew he was there, yet everything he did was very important. He started with Converse County, I believe. And then he was at the State Office for a period of time. He was quiet but very progressive. He helped start a number of programs, not just for spraying but also biotech.
 
Steve Miller took Harold Alley‘s place at the University. I worked with him for a while. Tom Whitson was a graduate student when I first worked with Harold Alley. Tom stayed on after he got his degree, helping with projects. Mark Ferrell came on board when I was working with Harold. They’ve all gone on off to do other things, but they all were the background of the weed and pest control program, and the plant science curricula.
 
Collaboration between the University of Wyoming and the State and County programs has always been amazing. Everyone’s putting these lovely projects together. It’s amazing how supportive everybody is. There are more women now in this area, and that’s been awesome. And there isn’t this male domination, at least I haven’t seen it, about, 'Oh, we can’t have women in this.' Yes, in the past, it was a man’s world, even in the degree programs, because weed science was out working in the field. But it has grown so much. These women that have come in have been awesome, and they work well with their male counterparts. There’s a lot of great County Supervisors now that are women. Adrianne Peterson was the first one. She retired last year, and I miss her. She was very strong and could do the work, and everybody respected her.
 
Bob Parsons from Park County just retired. Lars Baker has retired. Larry Justesen from Carbon County has retired. I met him at his first conference. He had moved from Idaho. George Hittle was great about having you travel with them, so George wouldn’t have to drive. We were on a trip one time in Carbon County and picked up Larry Justesen. They had never met. Then Larry and I got to trade-off driving.
 
Probably the biggest program I can remember was when they started the leafy spurge program. And that was my first field trip, to the leafy spurge symposium up at Crook County in Sundance. That was interesting to me, because suddenly I was out in the middle of it. And I realized just how important this could be, how important it was to work with all the agencies, not just one agency, to get to a point where things, like leafy spurge, were not devastating the countryside. Because, in the beginning, nothing would attack it, you have to do something about it. It was so interesting to have all sorts of people, including the biocontrol people, there to see this.
 
The problem-solving process has been interesting, figuring out how many entities to bring together to deal with an issue. When I finally got out in the field, at my first symposium, that’s when I understood what it takes to put together a program like this, and to gain this kind of collective resolve to an issue. It’s quite phenomenal, when you get out in the field, and you realize how many people have to be brought together. If you have private land, you have to get the landowners’ willingness to cooperate. You have to have the County, at various levels, not just from the Weed and Pest Office. You have to have a lot of other entities involved, in order to make this all come to completion.
 
Ron Vore was a graduate student at the time I started working with Harold. His family had a ranch out of Sundance. For a while, Ron was on the Wyoming Board of Agriculture. He got his PhD, and then went back to ranching. He was also somebody that was a little more broad thinking, more than just focused on getting a degree. His idea was that management is broader than just spraying weeds. Robert Jenn is 70, I think, and still going strong as Supervisor in Sheridan County. I can remember when he was an Assistant Supervisor.
 
Gale Lamb has been with Sweetwater County for a long time. Lars Baker is awesome; he has so much knowledge. He’s developed so many super programs, like biocontrol. Earl Lucas was with Fremont County, I think."
 
[Becky asked: How has your association with the weed and pest programs changed you?]
 
"Being more aware of how to put together everything, to make it work. You’ve got to be broader than just one thought process. You’ve got to look at every aspect of something. You can’t be narrow-minded about the issue.
 
It’s been a great group of people to work with."

​Links to the Wyoming County interviews:
lars baker
steve brill
george hittle
peter illoway
robert jenn
larry justeseN
gale lamb
stephen mcnamee
allen mooney
rob orchard
robert parsons
dick sackett
summary comments by Delena
Copyright: Dr. Delena Norris-Tull, July 2020. Management of Invasive Plants in the Western USA.

These webpages are always under construction. I welcome corrections and additions to any page.
​Send me an email, and I can send you the original Word format version of any page you wish to correct.
contact Dr. Norris-Tull
Bibliography
who am i?
My work
my inspirations
my adventures
  • Defining the Problem
    • What is a Weed? >
      • Federal Definitions of Noxious Weeds
    • Costs of invasive plants
    • Human Factor
    • Challenges of Invasive Plants
    • Wildfires in the Western USA >
      • Forest Fires: Structure
      • Bark Beetles & Forest Ecosystems
      • Rangeland Fires
    • Climate Change Impacts on Plants >
      • Climate Change: CO2, NO, UV, Ozone Impacts on Plants
      • Climate Change Impacts on Crops
      • Climate Change Impacts on C4 Plants
      • Climate Change Impacts on Rangeland
    • What are we doing?
  • Focus of this Project
    • Why Western States? >
      • Audience for these reports
    • History: Are we doomed to repeat it? >
      • Dust Bowl Re-visited >
        • China: Past & Present
        • UN Biodiversity Report
    • Policy vs. Practice
    • Ecosystems & Economics >
      • Reductionist Approach to science
      • Ecology & Feminism
      • Systems View of Life
      • Ecosystems Health
      • Economic Growth
      • Impact of the Petrochemical Industry
      • Interrelation of Economics & Ecology
    • Federal Agencies >
      • Federal Agencies and Invasive Species
      • History of Coordination with States
      • Challenges of Coordination between Federal Agencies
      • Collaboration or Confusion
    • Organizations to assist landowners
    • Federal Legislation on Invasive Species >
      • 1930s Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • Federal Seed Act 1939
      • 1940s-1960s Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • 1970s Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • 1980s Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • 1990s Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • 2000-2010 Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • 2011-2022 Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • Federal Bills on Invasive Species not passed
      • Executive Orders on Invasive Species
      • Federal Excise Taxes
    • State Laws and Lists of Noxious Weeds
    • My Inspirations
  • Why we need plants
    • Native Plants
    • Plant Resources
  • Invasive Success Hypotheses
    • Unified Framework
    • Role of Diversity >
      • How Ecosystems Maintain Diversity
      • Fluctuation Dependent Mechanisms
      • Competition-based coexistence mechanisms
      • Niche Differences
      • Species Richness
    • Enemy Release Hypothesis
    • Constitutive Defense Mechanisms
    • Evolution of Increased Competitive Ability
    • Role of Microbes
    • Indirect Defense Mechanisms
    • Novel weapons hypothesis
    • Evolutionary Shifts
    • Resource Allocation
    • Evolutionary Dynamics >
      • Pre-introduction evolutionary history
      • Sampling Effect
      • Founder Effect
      • Admixture, hybridization and polyploidization
      • Rapid Evolution
      • Epigenetics
      • Second Genomes
    • Role of Hybridization
    • Role of Native Plant Neighbors
    • Species Performance
    • Role of Herbivory
    • Evolutionary Reduced Competitive Ability
    • Summary Thoughts on Research
  • Historical Record
    • Regional Conferences
    • Timeline
  • Innovative Solutions
    • Agricultural Best Practices >
      • Ecologically based Successional Management
      • Perennial Crops, Intercropping, beneficial insects
      • Soil Solarization
      • Natural Farming
      • Permaculture
      • Organic Farming
      • Embedding Natural Habitats
      • Conservation Tillage
      • Crop Rotation
      • Water Use Practices
      • Tree Planting: Pros & Cons
    • Grazing Solutions >
      • Sheep and Goat Grazing
      • Cattle & Sheep Grazing
      • Cattle and Bison Grazing
      • Grazing and Revegetation
    • Rangeland Restoration >
      • Federal Goals for Rangelands
      • Novel Ecosystems
      • Prairie Restoration >
        • Prairie Restoration Workshop
        • Weed Prevention Areas
        • California grassland restoration
        • Selah: Bamberger Ranch Preserve
      • Sagebrush Steppe Restoration >
        • Low Nitrogen in Sagebrush Steppe
      • Revegetation with Native Plants
      • Dogs as detectors of noxious weeds
    • Nudges
  • Biological Control
    • Insects as Biocontrol >
      • Impacts of Biocontrol Agents on Non-Target Species
      • Indirect Impact of Biocontrol on Native Species
    • Challenges of Using Biocontrols >
      • DNA studies on Biocontrol Insects
      • Biocontrol takes time
    • Prioritization process for Biocontrol Programs
    • Evolutionary changes impact Biocontrol
    • Vertebrates as Biocontrol Agents
  • Herbicides: History and Impacts
    • Effectiveness of Herbicides in Agricultural Lands
    • Effectiveness of Herbicides in Rangelands
    • History of Use of Herbicides and Pesticides Prior to and During WWII
    • Herbicide use during and post-World War II >
      • 2,4-D Herbicide Use
      • 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T, post-World War II
    • Modern use of Herbicides >
      • Atrazine Herbicide
      • Dicamba Herbicide
      • Glyphosate Herbicide
      • Paraquat Dichloride
      • Picolinic acid family of herbicides >
        • Picloram (Tordon 22K) Herbicide
        • Triclopyr Herbicide
    • Herbicide Resistance in Invasive Plants >
      • Herbicide Resistant Crops
      • Controlling herbicide-resistant weeds in herbicide-resistant crops
      • Best Management Practices
    • Myth of the Silver Bullet
    • Myth of Eradication
    • Merging of Agrochemical Companies
    • Impacts of Pesticides on Environment and Human Health >
      • Pesticide Drift
      • Impacts of Pesticides on Biological Diversity
      • Impacts of Herbicides on Native Plants
      • Pesticide Impacts on Insects >
        • Butterflies: The Impacts of Herbicides
        • Monarch Butterflies: Impacts of Herbicides
      • Impacts of Pesticides on Wildlife >
        • Reptiles & Amphibians: Pesticide Impacts
      • Pesticide Residue in Foods
    • Funding for Research on Pesticides
    • Commentary on Herbicide Use
  • Interviews
    • Interviews Biocontrol >
      • Biocontrol Wyoming
      • Montana Biocontrol Interview Maggio
      • Montana Biocontrol Interview Breitenfeldt
    • California Interviews >
      • Robert Price
      • Doug Johnson
    • Colorado Interviews >
      • George Beck Interview
      • Scott Nissen Interview
    • Idaho Interviews >
      • Purple Sage Organic Farms in Idaho
    • Montana Interviews >
      • Jasmine Reimer Interview Montana
      • Organic Farms Montana Interviews
    • Texas Interviews
    • Washington Interviews >
      • Ray Willard
    • Wyoming Interviews >
      • Slade Franklin Interview
      • John Samson Interview
    • Wyoming Weed and Pest Districts >
      • Josh Shorb Interview
      • Slade Franklin Interview 2
      • Lars Baker Interview
      • Steve Brill Interview
      • George Hittle Interview
      • Peter Illoway Interview
      • Robert Jenn Interview
      • Sharon Johnson Interview
      • Larry Justesen Interview
      • Gale Lamb Interview
      • Stephen McNamee Interview
      • Allen Mooney Interview
      • Rob Orchard Interview
      • Robert Parsons Interview
      • Dick Sackett Interview
      • Comments by Delena
    • NRCS Interviews: Wyoming
  • Western Weed Control Conference 1940s Minutes
    • 1942 Conference
    • 1945 Conference
    • 1946 Conference
  • Who am I?
    • My Work
    • My Adventures
    • Contact Page
  • Road Logs
    • Colorado Road Logs
    • Idaho Road Logs
    • Montana Road Logs
    • New Mexico Road Logs
    • Texas Road Logs
    • Wyoming Road Logs
  • Bibliography