421Weed programs can take on various organizational structures. Working alongside
federal and state government entities and grassroots groups such as those described
above, most county governments maintain weed programs, and some locations have
cooperative weed management areas that encompass multiple government entities
and/or weed districts created by public vote. Hershdorfer et al. ( 2007 ) surveyed
coordinators of 53 local weed programs in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and
Utah to determine how attributes of the programs were linked to performance of
control, education, monitoring, and integrated weed management. They found that
programs that used volunteers did more monitoring but less direct control than those
that relied entirely on paid employees. Contrary to the researchers’ expectations,
more regulatory action did not translate to better control. In fact, groups that had
regulatory authority but generally refrained from punitive enforcement treated more
infestations, partly because staffs are typically small and enforcement takes time
and partly because a gentler approach seems to yield better results with private
landowners.
One potential drawback of mobilizing citizen groups in addition to government
entities is that citizen-driven collaborative efforts are more likely to address prob-
lems that are most visible to citizens. For example, Stevens and Falk ( 2009 ) have
noted that efforts to treat P. ciliare populations are concentrated in high-visibility
locations such as national parks and research areas. Such locations tend to be rela-
tively low-productivity sink habitats, while higher-productivity source locations
such as roadways or urban unmanaged sites receive relatively little attention even
though they may contribute the most to future invasions. One reason for the focus
on national parks is likely to be the continued involvement of the Sonoran Desert
Weedwackers organization which began as a partnership with Saguaro National
Park and Pima County’s Tucson Mountain Park, although other weedwackers’
groups have since emerged in the Tucson and Phoenix metropolitan areas.
14.4 Education
Education is invariably part of exotic invasive plant management strategies.
Heightened public awareness not only leads to direct participation in management
efforts (Marler et al. 2005 ) but ultimately infl uences policy, either by increasing
pressure on existing authorities to improve performance or by leading to creation of
new organizations (Hershdorfer et al. 2007 ). Public outreach is relatively low cost
and can take a variety of forms, from printed materials and electronic resources such
as websites or videos available to direct engagement of citizens in activities
(DiTomaso 2000 ). For example, Marler et al. ( 2005 ) report using a suite of educa-
tional and citizen engagement efforts in Missoula that included stewardship oppor-
tunities (Adopt-a-Switchback on a popular trail; a Prairie Keep ers program that
organized activities that included weed pulls, seed collecting, and K-12 education);
an annual “weed fair” education project drew signifi cant attention in the commu-
nity, and a Grow Native project engaged junior high school students in restoration
14 Human Dimensions of Invasive Grasses