JACKSON, Wyo. — In case you were wondering what that little helicopter was doing buzzing around High School Butte today, it is actually spraying for an invasive plant called cheatgrass.
Teton County Weed and Pest, along with other partners, are working to spray the invasive plant from Jackson to Hoback, hoping to cover nearly 7,000 acres.
Cheatgrass is a highly invasive non-native annual grass with a quick-growing life cycle giving it a competitive advantage over native vegetation. This invasive grass out-competes native forbs and grasses for water and nutrients. This significantly diminishes the quality of wildlife habitat, especially in the critical mule deer and bighorn sheep winter range.
The dried-up grass is also a huge fire hazard, sparking up most of the fire near the Wildlife Art Museum last summer.
