County
Ada To Battle Insurgents
June 28, 2006 
Weeds have taken on the status of “insurgents” in the eyes of the government. Grants of taxpayer money–$44,000 to Ada County–have been made available at all levels and you can expect to see how it is spent in the next couple of days.
We have professional government people to study, identify, and control weeds. Not ALL weeds, but noxious weeds. Don’t look for any help getting the morning glories out of your tomato patch however.
The Al Queda of weeds this year is Eurasian Watermilfoil. There are public service announcements (or paid ads?) about it and Thursday there will be a media event at Silver Lake–the private pond at Lake Harbor off State Street.
Ada County and the Idaho Department of Agriculture will be on hand along with scuba divers who will check out bottom of the lake in search of these weapons of mass destruction. A boat will be provided for the TV crews, so you can figure on plenty of press coverage–especially when they can get a boat ride on a hot summer day.
Ada spokesman Rich Wright explained the county connection to the GUARDIAN thusly:
“The reason Ada County is connected is because by law, Idaho property owners are responsible for noxious weed control on their property — in this case, Eurasian Watermilfoil. As a County Weed Control Department, we are charged with helping and facilitating property owner’s needs in areas of weed control. In cases where a property owner ignores their weed control responsibility, the county is directed to step in and remedy the situation. If the county fails to do that, the state can step in, prescribe the control measures and then send the bill to the county. We would then have to turn around and collect from the property owner.”
To insure more advertising-free Boise Guardian news, please consider financial support.
Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Jun 28, 2006, 2:12 pm
Your taxpayer dollars – hard at work.
GUARDIAN… I can remember 10 or 12 years ago, when an older gentleman drove up and down the greenbelt (the stretch east of town, up toward Sandy Point) on his John Deere mini-tractor, sprayer on back. I had several conversations with him; he was dispatched from the County facility at Barber Park, and his duty was to engage in JIHAD with the Mother of All Noxious Weeds – the deadly goathead. (AKA puncture-vine – the bane of bicyclists, dogs, bare-feet-walkers, etc.)
Evidently, like Vietnam before, we turned tail and ran. The goathead got the better of us. (I haven’t seen anybody spraying for years.) Hopefully the ol’ boy on his John Deere got his 72 virgins.
Exactly what danger does this “Eurasian Watermilfoil” present? If you need to send in the (taxpayer-funded) Scuba Team to even determine if it exists… I say let’s engage the REAL enemy – the goathead – one last desperate time. Because I’m guessing that more citizens’ lives are impacted in a negative way by the goathead. (Or, maybe it’s just me… my bicycle tires DO seem to attract the goatheads in an unnatural way. Or, maybe the powerful SLIME lobby has distracted the Bureau of Weeds with terrifying tales of the Eurasian Watermilfoil.)
Jun 28, 2006, 4:54 pm
I hope Ada County can follow up on the public announcement and get on those weeds growing along the bike path starting at the eastern end of the Warm Springs Golf Course. That’s where the bike path leaves city responsiblity and becomes the county’s jurisdiction, and man, the weeds are tall and thick from there along the way around the mesa.
Eurasian Watermilfoil is a big deal in northern Idaho and the Idaho Legislature threw millions of dollars at the problem this year.