What is the Salt Lake Weed Control Program doing about noxious weeds throughout the county?
Salt Lake County utilizes Integrated Weed Management (IWM)* to control noxious weed infestations on county owned and county maintained properties. IWM is based on the knowledge that by using the most appropriate tool from the toolbox the weed manager will be more effective in weed management than by using a single tool.
Salt Lake County has also initiated a program to survey and map noxious weeds, respond to weed complaints, track known infestations from year to year, and provide educational opportunities to the community. Once an infestation is identified, the landowner is contacted and given a variety of options to most effectively manage the infestation. These options include manual or physical; cultural; and chemical control methods. The infestations are then tracked from year to year and monitored for additional infestations. Most noxious weed sites are controlled voluntarily.
The weed control program controls only a handful of sites, and as authorized by the state law, non-compliant landowners are then billed for the cost of control plus any administrative fees associated with the infestation.
*Integrated Weed Management (IWM) is multidisciplinary, ecological approach to weed management using education; prevention; physical or mechanical methods; biological control agents; herbicide methods; and other general land management practices.
IWM uses the most appropriate methods to meet the given weed control objectives over a given time frame, often multiple years.
Other program aspects that are coordinated with this decision-making approach include surveying, mapping, monitoring and restoration.
