Noxious weed list agreed upon by weed commissioner, supervisors

The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors has approved a resolution allowing for the destruction of noxious weeds once weather permits.
At the supervisors meeting April 12, the board met with Damien Bond, the county’s roadside manager, who also performs the duties of the weed commissioner.
Bond said that in order to begin the process of weed removal for 2022, Iowa Code required the approval of a noxious weed resolution.
“It’s a similar resolution to the one that we’ve used in the past, and outlines the 28 noxious weeds in the county earmarked for removal, and gives control dates, and the measures I can take to control the weed issues should the landowners fail to comply,” Bond said.
As per the resolution, the grower must make reasonable effort to control noxious weeds using an appropriate combination of cultural, mechanical, or herbicidal practice resulting in the destruction of the plants. In a case where cultural and herbicidal methods have not destroyed the weeds, mechanical destruction of the plants to prevent reseeding must be done.
• Buckthorn, Buckthorn Plantain, Canada Thistle, Horse Nettle, Leafy Spurge, Multiflora Rose, Poison Hemlock, Puncture Vine, Smooth Dock, Wild Carrot, Wild Mustard, Quackgrass, Field Bindweed, Shattercane, Musk Thistle, Sour Dock, and Palmer Amaranth must all be removed by herbicides, or mechanically, by May 10.
• Bull Thistle, Velvetleaf, Cocklebur, Perennial Peppergrass, Purple Loosestrife, Red Sorrel, Russian Knapweed, Tall Thistle, Common Sunflower, Teasel, and Perennial Sowthistle have a removal date by Aug. 15.
According to the resolution, If the owner or person in control of any real estate fails to exercise all reasonable efforts to comply with foregoing orders, the weed commissioner may cause this to be done and the expense of said work including costs of serving notice and other costs, if any, to be taxed against the land of the owners thereof, and/or levy a fine of $10/day for a period of up to 10 days.
Supervisor Randy Cooper asked if the resolution needed to include the removal of Sumac among the list of noxious weeds in the county. Bond said there was no need to add it at this time, as any Sumac in the county was not the harmful variety.
“I don’t think there will be a need to add it to the list, I know that in some of the southern states there’s a Poison Sumac variety, but I’ve seen no evidence of it being present here in the county or in the state of Iowa,” commented Bond.
The supervisors approved the resolution for the destruction of noxious weeds as presented.
In other business, the supervisors:
• Approved the recorder’s report of fees for March, in the amount of $25,482.
• Approved a tax transfer from rural services basic to secondary roads for March, in the amount of $320,904.
• Approved a tax transfer from general basic to secondary roads for March, in the amount of $21,609.
• Approved the treasurer’s ending fund balance for March, in the amount of $17,835,861.