Noxious Weed Act & Rule
Key takeaways from the Colorado Noxious Weed Act
Title 35, Article 5.5, Colorado Noxious Weed Act & the Rule Pertaining to the Administration and Enforcement of the Colorado Noxious Weed Act.
- Landowners are responsible for management. All public and private landowners in Colorado have a legal duty to control noxious weeds on their property to prevent them from causing damage to neighboring lands.
- Counties and municipalities have authority. Local governments are empowered to create and enforce their own noxious weed management plans. These local plans can be more restrictive than state law, allowing them to address unique local weed problems and enforce compliance.
- Weeds are categorized by required management. The Colorado Department of Agriculture classifies noxious weeds into different lists (A, B, and C) based on their distribution and the required control efforts, ranging from mandatory eradication for rare species to recommended suppression for widespread ones.
Noxious Weed Management Strategies
List B County Management plans can be found here. (To see a county's data, click on its individual tab at the bottom of the spreadsheet.)
Here are the key terms used to describe different management strategies:
- Eradication means completely eliminating a noxious weed species in a specific area by preventing it from reproducing until its seed bank is gone.
- Elimination is the first step of eradication, where all existing plants of a specified noxious weed are destroyed. This is followed by continued efforts to remove new growth until the seed bank is depleted.
- Containment involves creating a managed buffer zone to prevent a noxious weed from spreading from infested areas (where suppression is used) into uninfested areas (where eradication is the goal).
- Suppression means using various management techniques to reduce the growth, spread, and negative effects of noxious weeds in an infested area.
What's the Difference?
Federal Noxious Weed List
The federal noxious weed list, managed by the USDA, includes non-native species that threaten the U.S. It focuses on preventing new introductions by controlling the transport of these plants across state and international borders.
State Noxious Weed List
Each state maintains a noxious weed list tailored to its specific ecological and agricultural needs. These lists, often broader than the federal one, require landowners to control certain weeds and categorize them by management strategies ike eradication or suppression.
Local Noxious Weed List
Local noxious weed lists are created by counties and cities to address specific weed problems in their area. These lists are the most restrictive and local governments are responsible for enforcing weed management on all public and private land within their jurisdiction.