
Turquoise gloves and weed sprayers speckle the burns site of the WhoopUp Fire. Twenty-one crew members from the Wyoming Honor Camp in Newcastle are attacking weeds growing where the WhoopUp Fire burned last July.
The fire burned 10,675 acres about ten miles southeast of Newcastle.
A group this size can accomplish 315 days worth of weed spraying in 15 days. The crews are working for no cost alongside Black Hills National Forest crew, and the Forest Service is providing the protective equipment.
"Without the help of the Conservation Camp crew we would not be able to accomplish our goal of treating invasive weeds on Elk Mountain," said Sheila French, Noxious Weed Coordinator on the Hell Canyon Ranger District of the Black Hills National Forest. "With their help, we have already treated more than 400 acres in the WhoopUp Fire area during the 2012 field season."
The Honor Camp Crew took a break from spraying weeds to help fight the Laramie Peak Fire, but now they are back to whoop up on the Canada thistle spray project.