The public is invited to join the King County Noxious Weed Control Board for King County’s annual weed list hearing, where the Board will hear public comments, review proposed weed list changes, and set the official 2018 King County Noxious Weed List. The hearing will be held on January 24, 3:30 pm at the Mercer Island Library, large conference room, 4400 88th Ave SE, Mercer Island, WA. Following the hearing, the Weed Board will hold its regular monthly meeting, which is also open to the public (see the Weed Board web page for more information). The Board welcomes public input at all meetings.
You might wonder why King County holds an annual weed list hearing, so here is some background information on the weed list process in Washington, and a sneak peak at some of the new weeds being added this year.
Washington’s Noxious Weed Law shares the job of noxious weed prioritization between the state and the county weed boards. The State Noxious Weed Control Board sets the list of noxious weeds for all of Washington, and then the county weed boards fine tune the state list based on local goals, impacts and resources (see King County Weed Board for more info on our Board).
More precisely, the state determines the Class A list that all counties must require control of, and designates certain Class B weeds for each county that they also must require property owners to control, mostly based on distribution of the species. Then the counties can select additional Class B and C weeds from the state list to regulate, or choose to educate about any listed or non-listed species that are important for that county.
Now for the sneak peak of new species. For 2018, the state added several new species that are of significant concern to King County. There are two new jewelweeds on the state list. Spotted jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) is already well-established in King County and will likely be a target for increased education and recommended control, but not required control.
The other species, small-flowered jewelweed (Impatiens parviflora), is very new to the state and only known in a couple of locations, both in King County. This new Class A noxious weed will be a high priority for King County to locate and get controlled quickly before it spreads.
The other major new noxious weed that is a serious concern for King County is European coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara). There are already several known infestations of this new Class B noxious weed in the county, at least two of which are on upper Snoqualmie River tributaries, and it appears to be spreading through flooding and soil disturbance, much like invasive knotweed does. This species will be a high priority for both detection and control due to its potential serious impact in riparian habitats. It is designated for required control by the state so it will be added to the regulated Class B list for King County.
For more information on these and other new state listed species, see the Washington State Noxious Weed Board What’s New page.
You may be wondering why the noxious weed law requires control of some noxious weeds and not others. For the most part, control is only required for noxious weeds that are still limited enough in distribution to allow for effective containment and eradication. For example, the highly dangerous Class A noxious weed giant hogweed has been reduced to only a few hundred, relatively small locations in King County, making it feasible to work towards eradication.
For species that are more widespread, but that are a high priority for county residents, control may also be required, but the goal is to reduce impact and prevent spread, and not necessarily eradicate it, since that would be very difficult and costly. For instance, the King County Noxious Weed Control Board has selected tansy ragwort for required control in King County in past years due to its impact on livestock and hay production.
For even more widespread noxious weeds, the Board encourages control through education and technical assistance. Two examples of widespread noxious weeds are English ivy and Scotch broom.
While these two introduced plants can significantly affect habitat, they are too widespread for county-wide control, so the county board instead focuses on outreach and education, encouraging control where feasible and teaching effective control methods.
For more information on the King County weed list and the Washington state noxious weed law, visit www.kingcounty.gov/weeds under “Weed Lists and Laws,” or contact Sasha Shaw.
Do you happen to have ‘environmentalists’ who protest the management of noxious weeds?
Good question. There is certainly a healthy debate about control methods in our area, and also which weeds to prioritize. But on the whole, there is a pretty strong consensus among environmentalists up here that the problems caused by noxious weeds makes it important to control them, even if it means tolerating some short term impacts for the sake of long term habitat health. At least that’s what I usually hear!
OH, I used the wrong word. I meant ‘exotic’ weeds. We have ‘environmentalists’ here who want to protect blue gum eucalyptus simply because they happen to be doing so well in areas where there were not trees before. They are less concerned with the native vegetation that lived in the grasslands, and the native specie that rely on the butterflies for pollination (that are now being neglected by the butterflies).
pirselane is a terrible weed in gardens — hard to eradicate and very persistent. should be on list of noxious weeds. Once in a community garden it takes over.
Thanks! Purslane is definitely a difficult plant to get rid of in a garden. I believe some people collect it as an edible but that it is also very persistent.