State Lands Specialist

The State of Washington is one of the largest landholders in King County, with over 1600 parcels of publicly managed lands. In an effort to increase our focus of weed control on state owned lands, a full time Weed Specialist position was created in 2002, with the responsibility of identifying and coordinating the efforts of weed control on State lands.

One of the largest challenges in working with State agencies has been identifying the appropriate contact people responsible for coordinating and controlling noxious weeds on State lands. Maintaining existing relationships with State agency contacts as well as developing new contacts are important goals.

New roadside surveys were conducted in 2002 to identify the distribution of noxious weeds on state lands. The results of those surveys include:

• Washington State Department of Transportation: 330 miles of State highways were surveyed in 2002. The Washington State Department of Transportation achieved voluntary compliance on 67% of all roadsides. 40% of the total sites on State highways were at risk of going to seed and were included in Notices of Violation (NOV). Noxious weed seed production was imminent along 13 miles of I-90 and I-405, which resulted in Enforcement action during late July through early August 2002.
• Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife: 28 new surveys
• Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife: An inventory of public access sites and wildlife recreation areas revealed 60% of all 34 public access sites were infested with noxious weeds, specifically purple loosestrife and tansy ragwort. During the course of the surveys 7 sites were controlled by Program staff.
• Washington State Parks: Surveys of 11 State Parks in 2002 showed that 70% of State Parks were infested with priority noxious weed species. 3 infestations were controlled in a joint effort between State Parks and the Noxious Weed Program in 2002.