Lake County ranching family hopes this is their last cleanup effort for tumbleweeds

The Speckert family, ranchers who approached the Polson City Commission on April 6 about the havoc-causing tumble mustard weeds coming from a nearby property, hope this is the last massive pile they have to burn so they can get back to ranching.  

Susie Speckert, along with her husband, Jim Cockriel, and her brother, Steve, operate a 400-acre ranch off Montana 35 just east of Polson. Within the last six months, a string of wind events have tumbled vast numbers of weeds onto their property.  

During the April commission meeting, they described the “daunting task” of removing the weeds from their fields, sprinklers, equipment and fences, an effort that came with a big price tag. The time spent removing they now calculate to around 500 hours.  

The non-native invasive weeds are crossing the highway from a neighboring property owned by Mission Ridge LLC, based in Idaho. The weed can be toxic to cattle and can drop over a million seeds per plant.  

The Mission Ridge property owner intends to develop the parcel and had asked that it be annexed into the city limits in early 2025, despite neighbors' opposition to development on rich farmland. According to previous Leader reporting the land was in county jurisdiction before it was annexed and leased to a crop farmer. With crops on the field, the Speckerts reported that the weeds were under control.  

Normally, this type of issue would have been addressed by the Lake County Weed District office, and a citation would have been issued much more quickly, Steve said at the April meeting. But after learning that the land had been annexed, the Speckerts contacted the city and filed a formal complaint on Jan. 22, just five days after a major storm propelled weeds onto their property.  

Due to the hours, time and havoc on their ranch, along with the high fire danger of these weeds, Steve explained that they contacted their attorney to send a letter to the property owner and filed a formal complaint with Lake County District Court, asking the owner to mitigate the weeds or legal action would be taken.  

Steve said during this April meeting that they can’t make significant alterations to their 150-cow-calf operations. The weeds can persist in the soil for up to 10 years and can’t be sprayed without killing the alfalfa fields.  

The week before the Speckerts spoke to the commission, City Manager Ed Meece — who has since taken a new job out of state — said they sent letters to the property owner and another nearby property owner, whose land was part of the original tract.  

After the letters were issued, the Speckerts said a local farmer is back to leasing the property, and the weed problem is going away. However, Steve said their concern is the months it took the city to send the letter to the property owner. 

Meece explained during the April meeting that the issue wasn’t taken care of sooner because the city lacks a code enforcement officer. Brad Ekstrom was brought on temporarily and moved forward with the issue as soon as he was hired. The Speckerts said Ekstrom has been very helpful.  

Ekstrom said in an interview with the Leader that a letter was sent to the property owner on March 30, and he hasn’t sent another letter because the property owner has made impressive efforts to mitigate the weeds and communicate.  

Now, after hours and hours of cleaning up the tumble weeds that can range from one to five feet in height and width, the Speckerts burned their 10th and hopefully last pile on Tuesday, May 12. The pile spanned 40 by 60 feet and reached about six or seven feet high and were the same size as many piles they had burned before.  

The Speckerts said they tried to haul weeds off to the dump in great, big 2,000-pound bags, but it didn’t work well, was time-consuming and overwhelming. This spurred them to burn the piles instead.   

While they burned during wetter conditions earlier this year, the increasing fire danger led them to reach out to the Polson Fire Department. Susie explained that she originally asked them to help coordinate a cleanup effort of the weeds on the exterior fence because the land surrounding them is a county road and a state highway.  

Susie said that the department didn’t have the resources to help with a cleanup, but they saw the pile and offered to help with burning. She was glad they helped out because she was worried about the fire spreading.  

Susie said the pile burned last Tuesday was the fourth pile the department burned, and she said she can’t thank the Polson Fire Department enough for being “the nicest guys ever.” Steve added that they couldn’t have gotten rid of the weeds without them. 

    City of Polson firefighter volunteers came to assist the Speckert’s in burning the 40-by-60-foot pile of tumble mustard weeds on Wednesday, May 14. (Emily Messer/Leader)  Fire Lt. Taylor Hayes, along with firefighters Seth Schliep and Casen Elmore, watched the burn and ensured it was extinguished before leaving the Speckert ranch on Wednesday, May 14. (Emily Messer/Leader)

 The flames are hot and tall from the tumble mustard weeds, which is why the Speckert’s asked the City of Polson Fire Department to help ensure the fire doesn’t spread. (Emily Messer/Leader)