Farmers and the Snohomish County Noxious Weed Control Board banded together nearly 30 years ago to declare war on an invasive purple weed called Canada thistle.
After working on the problem for decades, and watching the county’s list of invasive weeds balloon to about 100, the noxious weed board voted to give up the fight against its founding weed.
They just don’t have the time or the money to tackle all of the weeds in the county, said Sonny Gohrman, Snohomish County’s noxious weed coordinator.
Besides Canada thistle, the board also removed bull thistle and some hawkweeds from the list.
“We’re giving up on the thistles,” Gohrman said. “They’re really kind of a big problem that has gotten to be more of a nuisance weed than a threat to the environment or a threat to agriculture.”
Canada thistle originally made the list because the buds got mixed up in the county’s commercial pea crops. A useful herbicide was banned by the federal government and farmers couldn’t control the thistle.
“You could lose a whole field to thistle,” Gohrman said.
There are fewer farmers concerned with Canada thistle these days, he said. Gohrman and the weed control board instead are focused on other weeds, such as tansy ragwort, which can poison cattle and horses; and knotweed and spartina, which can choke out wildlife habitat.
The group has about $220,000 to spend this year on mowing and spraying weed killer on roadside plants and teaching property owners how to control the spread of nonnative weeds. The money comes from the county and state and federal grants.
The weed board works on many weeds that farmers aren’t worried about, and funding is insufficient to tackle the growing list, said Keith Sarkisian of Arlington, president of the weed board.
The only reason the weed board gets any attention from the general public is when it points out how it helps protect the environment, Sarkisian said.
“Weeds tend to destroy our environment as we know it,” he said. “If we don’t try to control them they’ll get worse.”
There’s more state and federal money to fight weeds that damage the environment or wildlife habitat, he said.
The board struggled with the milestone decision of whether to pull weeds from the noxious weed list, Gohrman said. In the end, it was a 3-2 vote.
The County Council has final say over the list and the work plan for the noxious weed control board. The council is expected to review the board’s decision in coming weeks.
With a slightly shorter list of weeds to worry about, Gohrman said he’ll be able to focus time and money on weeds where the effort can make a difference.
Even so, their work goes unsung.
“We don’t leave behind bridges, culverts or new pavement,” he said. “We’re leaving behind something nobody sees. They don’t know. The better you do, the less you have to show for it.”
Reporter Jeff Switzer: 425-339-3452 or jswitzer@heraldnet.com.
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