Mr Dahlgren,

I wanted to thank you for submitting this report to the Oregon Invasives hotline. It is always a pleasure to see landowners like yourself, taking an active role in preventing the spread of invasive weeds.

The situation you outline is unfortunately all to common. Given current economic conditions, there are many instances of vacant or neglected lands, where active weed management is not occurring.

Unfortunately, in terms of enforcement, there is currently no agency with the authority to require control of these noxious weeds at the county level. Clackamas County has had a weed control district in the past that mandated control of noxious weeds, but it was dissolved in 1989. As such, there is no entity with the authority to mandate control outside of a city or municipality in Clackamas county.

The Clackamas Soil and Water Conservation District's WeedWise Program can offer assistance to the landowner, but we do not have the authority to mandate control. If you are familiar with the owner please let them know that we have resources available that may help.

We are also currently preparing a series of outreach mailing to inform landowners of this issue. We will be sure to include this area in our targeted mailings.

I hope this helps to answer your questions. Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any additional questions. All the best,

Sam

______________________________________

Samuel Leininger
WeedWise Program Manager
Clackamas Soil & Water Conservation District
221 Molalla Ave. Suite 102
Oregon City, OR 97045
503-210-6006
sleininger@conservationdistrict.org
www.conservationdistrict.org
______________________________________

Samuel Leininger
July 25, 2014, 4:43 a.m.