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As part of an interdisciplinary team focused on the control of medusahead (Taeniatherum canput-medusae), we undertook exploratory research to characterize the attitudes and perceptions of stakeholders living or working in the vicinity of the small communities of Paradise and Avon in southern Cache County, Utah. Methods included inventory of land-ownership patterns as well as conducting five focus groups and 25 phone interviews. Over 70 people participated who represented a wide array of landowners as well as local, state, and federal organizations. After synthesizing the results we found that affirmative answers to three key questions are central to successful medusahead control here. First, is medusahead viewed as a priority problem by a critical mass of landowners? Second, are there affordable and reliable control methods available? And third, is there a leadership entity that “owns” the problem and helps keep stakeholders on task, at least until the tide is turned? While we wish that the answer to each question was an unqualified “yes,” the reality is very mixed. The good news is that a small minority of larger landowners agree that medusahead is an important threat. Because these people own most of the land, this cadre could provide an excellent bulwark against weed invasion. However, lack of research-based, low-risk control methods, as well as elusive or inconsistent community leadership, greatly undermines this situation.  Successful medusahead control must therefore include prominent attention to tackling both the human and technical dimensions of the problem.