Hannah Kuhns completed her Master of Science degree at the University of Wyoming in the fall of 2021. Her research was partially funded by YRLSP grant money. Hannah began working on a project in 2019 to quantify the impacts of sheep grazing, herbicide applications, or a combination of the two on leafy spurge seed production. In 2020 she extended her research to include an examination of the effect of various environmental variables on leafy spurge seed germination rates, as well as the potential for root fragments (such as might be eroded from a river bank during spring floods) to propagate in new downstream environments.

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Hannah's investigations into seed germination rates and root propagation have provided new insight into best management practices for the control of leafy spurge populations in riparian environments. Her work with root propagules, especially, has demonstrated the viability of a previously unconsidered vector for leafy spurge introduction in the Yampa River Basin.