Grass and noxious weeds on a Madison Street lot between Second Avenue and Centennial have grown tall enough to reach her nose, Boulder resident Sandra Rux told the city council July 17.
If the area, which also has abandoned vehicles, were to catch fire, “it would burn half the town,” she said. “Absolutely, something has got to be done about it,” added Rux. She said she wrote a letter to the council a year ago and since then things have only gotten worse.
Lori Smith, another Boulder resident and a candidate for mayor, said a vacant lot at Third and Madison is also filled with noxious weeds. “We are asking you to enforce the weed and junk vehicle ordinances,” she said.
In response to questioning after the meeting, Mayor Gary Craft said the process for getting noxious weeds controlled within the city requires the city to notify the county weed department, something he said he would be pursuing.
A “Cooperative Noxious Weed Management Agreement” between the city and the county weed board signed in 2014 says, in part, “No noxious weeds [with the exception of Special Management Zones] shall be allowed along the line of any railway, canal, street, alley, public place, or along or upon any other type of property within the City of Boulder.”
The ordinance says it is the responsibility of landowners or tenants to control noxious weeds on their property. But what happens when a neighbor is unhappy about the weeds next door? “We encourage landowners to communicate with each other to find a solution to the problem. However, this doesn’t always work,” said Jefferson County Weed District Manager Jill Allen when contacted by the Monitor.
At the council meeting, Rux did not mention and was not asked what steps she had taken to communicate with the landowner of the property next to her. Smith said she had spoken to a neighbor and offered to mow the vacant lot of which she was complaining and was told the lot was too rocky to be mowed.
A check with the Montana Cadastral, which records land ownership, revealed the person Smith said she contacted does not own the property, which is actually two lots with different owners. Landowners can be forced to take care of their noxious weeds, but the process is not necessarily quick or easy.
Before any weed removal is imposed on a landowner, Montana’s weed management laws require the landowner to be notified of a complaint and given an opportunity to attend an inspection. If the landowner will not authorize entry on the property for an inspection, a court order can be sought. If noxious weeds are found on the property, the landowner must be given a chance to comply voluntarily with management of the weeds.
The landowner is allowed ten days to submit a weed management proposal or request a hearing to contest the finding of noncompliance. Jefferson County’s weed board does not hire out to treat private property, Allen said, but state law gives it the authority to hire a contractor to deal with weeds on private property and charge the landowner for the costs, adding a 25 percent penalty.
“I don’t want people to think that’s going to happen immediately, though, because it has to go through the entire non-compliance process before the county steps in,” said Allen. Despite those powers, the county weed department tries hard to help landowners avoid such measures. County weed officials offer property visits if requested by private landowners for their own land. On those visits identification can help landowners determine if they have what are officially noxious weeds.
Not all weeds qualify as noxious weeds that trigger the state removal regulations. Property owners can also get help formulating a weed management plan, finding services providing weed treatment, and learning how to apply herbicides properly. The county even rents out spray equipment and offers to share costs on herbicides for landowners with a weed management plan on file.
Additional information about weed management can be obtained online at jeffersoncountymt.gov/weeds.html, by contacting Jill Allen at 225-4165 or jallen@jeffersoncounty-mt.gov, or by visiting the weed department office at 111 Odyssey Lane just south of Boulder.
