Noxious Weed Department

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WEED & PEST

Michael Ottley
Noxious Weed Control & Invasive Species Superintendent
Email: mottley@cassia.gov

Tyson Young
Weed Technician
Email: tyoung@cassia.gov

Dena Jarolimek
Weed Control Secretary
Email: denaj@uidaho.edu

1459 Overland Ave. Rm #4
Burley ID 83318
Phone: (208) 878-4043
Fax: (208) 878-7862

The following are effective March 12, 2024:

Area of Noxious Weed Extermination.pdf

Final Notice to Comply with Order of Extermination of Noxious Weeds.pdf

Noxious Weeds: The Cancer of our Land

The spread of noxious weeds may signal the decline of entire ecological watersheds. They severely impact the beauty and widespread economic losses. Weeds are problems for urban as well as rural areas, and for private, state, and federal lands.

Noxious weeds pose a serious threat to all Idahoans and to the land we call home. Whether it is private, federal, state, city or county lands, noxious weeds do not discriminate and when unmanaged, they spread rapidly, unceasingly, and silently.

Control and management of noxious weeds in the State of Idaho requires an understanding of the problem, and that begins with their detection and identification.

Instead of a complex and diverse native plant community, noxious weeds have the ability to create a dense stand, or "monoculture". By invading and changing the native plant community, noxious weeds disrupt the web of life and adversely affect the community of animals that rely on them, including humans. Their adverse effects include: loss of hunting and fishing opportunities, reduced wildlife and landscape viewing opportunities, reduced agriculture potential, higher food prices, poisoning or injuring livestock and humans, fouling recreation opportunity’s, choking streams and waterways, creating fire hazards, crowding out beneficial native plants, etc

Noxious weeds can be aquatic or terrestrial.
Noxious weeds cause $300 million in damage and loss to Idaho lands and economy every year.
Noxious weeds cause more yield loss and add more to farmers’ production costs than insects, diseases, rodents, birds, deer, and other grazers.
It is estimated that noxious weeds are spreading at an alarming rate of 4,600 acres per day nationwide.
Noxious weeds can be prolific seed producers. Some plants can produce up to 100,000 seeds per plant per year and can stay dormant up to 60 years in the soil.
Noxious weeds can also reproduce by dense root systems in the soil that can create new stands just by displacing a small part of the root elsewhere.
Aquatic weeds can reproduce just by a fragment of the plant.
Noxious weeds can travel in unexpected ways. They can stow away on vehicles, clothes, fur, containers of grown ornamentals, wild bird seed, crop seed, animal excrement, or sold as an ornamental themselves.
Each acre of U.S. crop land contains 50 to 300 million buried weed seeds. Only 5 to 10 per cent of them germinate and emerge each year.
Weeds impact the health of people and animals. Some weeds are poisonous to the touch or if they are eaten. They can cause death, disfigurement or irreparable damage to vital organs. Some release up to a billion pollen grains per plant. Some create breeding grounds for Mosquitoes.

How can you help stop the spread of Noxious weeds?

Become more educated by learning how to identify and control noxious weeds.
Cleaning your vehicles, trailers, boats, clothes, shoes, pack animals, pets, farm equipment from farm to farm before entering or leaving a wildlife area, farm ground, park, or roads you don’t generally recreate or farm. By doing this, it can greatly reduce the spread of noxious weeds to other areas.
Buying certified weed free forage and straw for pack animals used on federal, private and state lands.
By treating noxious weeds on your property.
Reporting found infestations of noxious weeds.
By taking pictures or samples of the unknown weeds and taking them to your extension agent or noxious weed superintendent to be identified.