Yakima County Noxious Weed Board
The Yakima County Noxious Weed Board is authorized to hire employees, assign duties, offer suggestions, and develop a program to comply with county policy and state weed laws.
Mission Statement
The Weed Board administrates under the authority of the Washington State Revised Code, RCW, Chapter 17:10, wherein, the Board is authorized to develop a weed abatement program within Yakima County. The Weed Board has hired a staff and developed a weed control program wherein specific “Noxious Weeds” are located, mapped and controlled within the guidelines of the adopted County weed control policy.
Some weed species are declared “Noxious” within the state and classified as Class A, Class B, Class B designate and Class C.
The Noxious Weed problem in Yakima County may be classified into three sectors: agriculture, transportation/utility, and incorporated municipals.
The Agricultural sector, because of its size, would hold the largest acreage percentage, by far, and hence have the largest population of noxious weeds and related weed problems. However, this is only partly true due to the very nature of farming and range production which demands good weed control. With this in mind, the other two sectors must be considered and managed within our overall objectives.
Our objective is to exercise some form of control over all problem weeds within Yakima County and respond to all citizen complaints. Our response may be expressed in the form of a written notice, complaint letters or a telephone call to a landowner. However, major emphasis will be placed on those weeds that are classified as “Noxious” and require mandatory control.
Our goal is to provide professional, as well as technical assistance to the landowners of this county by helping landowners to understand the nature of their particular weed problem, weed growth habits and offer control suggestions. In many cases, landowners simply need a specific plant properly identified. Weed identification is a service we offer. The Weed Board’s principal goal is to prevent the spread of noxious weeds and obtain acreage reduction where situations allow.