OPINION: City and county need to fight weed invaders
Montana is a very unique and beautiful place. We are blessed with millions of acres of tree-covered mountains, clear clean lakes, rivers, streams and breathtaking vistas of vast prairies and limitless skies. Flora and fauna abound, enough so that we can sustain filling our larders with fish, berries and game animals to help feed our families.
If you are native to Montana or a transplant, we all to some degree consider ourselves stewards of the land. We all take interest in water and forestry issues. We attend meetings concerning hunting and fishing regulations, wolf introductions, road and forestry or logging issues.
As stewards we have dropped the ball.
We have let numerous invaders creep into our state that are growing unchecked and unchallenged for the most part. Knapweed has gone from being a major problem to the point that now it is an uncontrollable disaster. There is now no area, especially here in the Flathead Valley, where this noxious weed and Canada thistle aren’t predominant. I see whole yards here in residential Evergreen that are solid knapweed.
Over the past two years I have talked to the Flathead County Weed Department. I have pinpointed several areas of infestation, sought advice and educated my neighbors. I have spent hundreds of dollars on weed sprays and shared these with others.
Several years ago Montana made a law that all landowners are equally responsible for the eradication of noxious weeds on their own property. Than they shot this law in the foot by adding a provision that the landowners had to be notified twice by letter before legal action could be pursued. Since knapweed produces up to 18,000 seeds per plant, and Canadian thistle 20,000 seeds per plant, and right now both plants are already going to seed, letters are pointless now. Next year is going to be a catastrophe of biblical proportions, as will subsequent years.
I can’t explain enough in a short letter just how serious this issue is. Hunters and their vehicles from Western Montana are not welcome or allowed on many farms and ranches located in Eastern Montana. Grain and hay crops will be banned or sanctioned. Your property value will decline if you are infested. The overall impacts are too numerous to mention, so it is incumbent that we all tackle the weeds on our own properties. The Flathead County Weed Department not only can give advice but also has spray tanks available for larger acreages.
In working with the department, I learned that the city of Kalispell was responsible for weeds in city limits. I called the city to complain of the 3-foot-tall knapweed behind a building in downtown Kalispell, and the city told me to call the county. When I called the city a week later they told me they only dealt with weeds as a fire hazard. The weeds are still there today. They have seeded out. It is apparent neither agency is working together or separately to address the enormity of this disaster, and the law has no teeth nor administration in place to enforce it.
I personally cannot attack weed patches because most all are on county, city or private property and I would be charged with trespass or destruction of property — now that would surely be rigorously pursued!
Education is the key, and I have insisted for two years now that funds from the taxes we are charged every year be used to print full page color ads in local papers showing these noxious weeds, the law concerning them and how to eradicate them.
Nemo est super legis (Nobody is above the law).
Nielsen is a resident of Kalispell