Tansy Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea) on Feb 28, 2017
Submitter does not have a specimen
EDRR Status: Local expert notified
Description of specimen
Thousands and thousands of tansy ragwort plants on the county right of way and ditches in the Damascus area of Clackamas County.
Commentary
Expert Reviewer
Samuel Leininger
Clackamas Soil and Water Conservation District
4-County Cooperative Weed Management Area
Columbia Gorge Cooperative Weed Management Area
Thank you for contacting the Oregon Invasive Species Hotline. It is great to see local landowners like yourself taking an active role in improving invasive species management in our area.
I greatly appreciate your concern about tansy ragwort and its impact to our community, and I thank you for taking the time to report this infestation. As you know, tansy ragwort is a toxic species that poses a significant threat to livestock, and it is important to control this invasive weed, especially when it occurs near hay and livestock production.
We share your concerns about the need for management of tansy ragwort, particularly in right-of-way situations. I have had several discussion with the Clackamas County Roads Department about this issue, and I have been told by them, that roadside areas are to be maintained by the adjacent landowner and that right-of-way vegetation in these areas are only controlled to maintain the roadbed itself and line-of-sight concerns. So on county maintained Right-of-ways, adjacent landowners should take an active role in management.
We have prepared a Best Management Practices document for tansy ragwort (http://weedwise.conservationdistrict.org/weeds/tansy-ragwort). I encourage you to look it over and if you have any questions about management, please feel free to contact me directly.
That said, state highways like 224 and 212 are actually managed by the Oregon Department of Transportation, not Clackamas County. ODOT requests that landowners do not actively work in these highway right-of-way due to safety concerns. As such, I have taken the liberty to forward your report to ODOT's State Integrated Vegetation Management Coordinator for consideration (https://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/OOM/Pages/CW.aspx#Vegetation_Management).
So with any luck, ODOT will be able to help address your concerns before the tansy ragwort has a chance to set seed and redistribute into adjacent fields.
Once again thank you for submitting your report to the hotline. I wish you all the best in your efforts.
Sincerely,
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
Samuel Leininger
March 1, 2017, 1:11 a.m.