Backpack sprayers to attack noxious weeds

The in basket: Before Michael Ball triggered my inquiry into the lack of action by our county noxious program against Scotch broom (see the previous Road Warrior column), I got this from county.

“The Kitsap County Noxious weed control program is conducting on-going noxious weed control
throughout Kitsap County from June through September to control various noxious weeds. Some of the targeted species will include tansy, poison hemlock, hogweed, chervil, purple loosestrife, knotweed and
other state-listed noxious weeds (per WAC 16.750).
Staff is using aquatic formulations of Glyphosate,Triclopyr, and some select treatments of lmazapyr. All treatments conducted by County Noxious Weed Staff will be targeted treatments using backpack sprayers. Any areas of high foot traffic will be posted with information indicating the product used and the acceptable time for re-entry to an area.

“If you have any questions please contact the County Noxious Weed Control Program Coordinator at Dcoggon@co.kitsap.wa.us. Follow our progress on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/kitsap.weeds.”

I asked if the areas to be done are shown online anywhere and whether they are mostly along roads and highways.

Dana Coggon told me last year’s locations are shown on maps available online, but not this year’s. And, yes, she said, they were mostly along roads.

Giant hogweed, milk thistle, egg leaf spurge and European hawkweed are the top four priorities. The full list (Internet gibberish alert!! Mind-boggling online addresses ahead!! Prepare to cut and paste) can be seen at https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B90kMS7xeHAIUkludmtJRjBSNG8/edit?pli=1.

The reasons the plants are problems are shown at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0At0kMS7xeHAIdHFCUmlVUmRGNUN6ZlFyQkx2QVlHSmc#gid=0.

Maps of 2012 work are at https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B90kMS7xeHAIQ2hRQXRIU3VpRTQ&usp=sharing.

And that Facebook page listed above has some fairly lively discussions.