"Noxious"
Weeds in Wisconsin
Jerry
Doll
Some feel
that any weed is noxious. Webster tells us that noxious means
harmful so in a general sense, all weeds are noxious. However,
the state legislature has declared only three perennial weeds as
legally noxious in Wisconsin. These are Canada thistle, field
bindweed and leafy spurge. The law is open ended in that any
other species can be declared noxious:
"...as
the governing body of any municipality or the county board of
any county by ordinance or resolution declares to be noxious
within its respective boundaries."
It appears
that we have not had a very conscientious nor consistent
application of the law. The law states that:
"the
chairman of each town, the president of each village, and the
mayor of each city, shall appoint one or more commissioners of
noxious weeds..."
Seldom is
this done. Nor is the law written in a way that makes it
practical to comply in that it states:
"Every
person shall destroy all noxious weeds on all lands which he
shall own, occupy or control. The term 'destroy' means the
complete killing of weeds or the killing of weed plants above
the surface of the ground by the use of chemicals, cutting,
tillage, cropping system, pasturing livestock, or any or all of
these in effective combination, at such time and in such manner
as will effectually prevent such plants from maturing to the
bloom or flower stage."
The fact
that we have not eradicated the three "official"
noxious weeds by passing the noxious weed law is not surprising,
nor does it mean that the law has been totally ineffective. Even
though few have been billed for not controlling these species,
the law has served to highlight their aggressive nature of
growth and difficulty of control. And hopefully it has also
served to alert those who do not have these weeds, or who only
have small areas infested, to take appropriate action to prevent
them from becoming more wide spread.
More Weed Laws
A lesser
known law that includes regulations on weeds is the
"Wisconsin Feed Law". Some feeds contain corn or
soybean screenings which are composed of cracked or immature
grains, plus weeds seeds. The feed law allows weeds to be in
commercial feed but established certain regulations that must be
followed. For example, the 1980 edition of the law states:
 the feed
label shall "clearly and permanently" indicate if more
than 0.01% of viable noxious weed seed or more than 0.25% of
other viable weed seeds (except wild buckwheat) is in the feed
noxious
weeds as defined by the feed law are:
Canada thistle
wild mustard
quackgrass
Another
dimension from which noxious weeds have been legally defined is
that of the Wisconsin Crop Improvement Association. The 1990
edition of the Wisconsin Seed Certification Standards states
that;
"Prohibited
noxious weed seeds include the seeds of Canada thistle, field
bindweed, leafy spurge and quackgrass".
These are
the same species as found in the noxious weed law with the
addition of quackgrass and this list applies to all certified
crop seeds. In addition, many the Certification Standards define
additional prohibited or restricted weeds for each crop seed or
crop seed group. The restricted weeds can be present in very
small quantities in certified seed and are defined for each crop
or crop group. For example, the prohibited weed seeds in small
grains (in addition to those mentioned) are Indian mustard, wild
mustard, wild oats, wild proso millet, wild radish, woolly
cupgrass and yellow rocket. The restricted weed seeds in small
grains are buckhorn, dodder, downy brome, giant foxtail, hoary
alyssum, oxeye daisy, perennial sowthistle and white cockle.
We see
that these lists of noxious weeds do not agree. This is not
surprising nor inappropriate. Hopefully they all serve to alert
suppliers and buyers alike of the species to be aware of that
present special problems in their fields, feed or seed.
And lastly
we have the "nuisance weeds" law. This includes
"any non-native member of the genus Lythrum (purple
loosestrife) or hybrids thereof and multiflora rose". This
law prohibits selling, distributing, or planting nuisance plants
or seeds of these species in Wisconsin.
See
also: Weed Laws in the
Wisconsin State Statutes
October
1990 |
