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The war on weeds, especially knapweed, has seen several battles. The fifth-grade class at Target Range Elementary School is readying another one.

The students analyzed four small lots Friday that have been fenced off for future use by the insect Cyphocleonus achates, a knapweed root-boring weevil.

They counted the number of plants and weeds in each section for future reference. Two lots will serve as neutral controls with no insects; the other two will receive the insect biocontrols.

Biocontrols are biological agents, or plant-eating insects, that reduce the competitive ability of weeds. Cyphocleonus achates attacks the roots of knapweed.

Previous experiments with biocontrols have not had baseline information to compare. As a result, no one knows how effective the insects are against knapweed.

That's where the fifth-grade students are helping out. Their four plots will provide baseline information to measure the insects' impact. In return, they'll learn about bugs, pests and grubs.

The Cyphocleonus achates will be released in August and this earlier research will help monitor the insects' effect on native and nonnative species of plants, said Marijka Wessner with the Missoula County Weed District.

The site will be re-evaluated next spring, said Wessner.

The insectory is just one of the demonstration projects supported by the Ecologists, Educators and Schools Project, or ECOS. Funded by the National Science Foundation, ECOS is a partnership among the University of Montana's Division of Biological Sciences and College of Forestry and Conservation, and the Missoula County Schools Curriculum Consortium.

It is designed so that no child is left indoors as the UM graduate students, undergraduates, faculty members and area teachers and students work together.

The ECOS-Partners Program matches UM students with teachers in grades K-12. The teams develop science demonstration projects related to local ecology and conservation biology in schoolyards and nearby open spaces.

The program also will contribute to a national model of how locally based ecological research can be introduced to improve the science teaching and learning in schools and university environments.

Reporter Donna Syvertson can be reached at 523-5361 or at dsyvertson@missoulian.com

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