Mission Statement

To protect Summit County’s natural resources from invasive non-native noxious weeds through the innovative use of partnership building, cooperative projects, education and environmentally sound control practices.

Control Measures

Biological control- Defined as the use of native or non-native organisms which have proven to negatively impact noxious weeds while not harming native flora or fauna.

Mechanical control- Defined as the physical removal of propagative parts of noxious weeds to slow the spread of that specie.

Chemical control- Define as using a synthetic or naturally occurring plant growth hormone or herbicide, in an environmentally sensitive manner to elicit harm on noxious weeds while minimizing the harm to native plants.

Cultural control- Defined as using water, nutrients or revegetation to allow the native plant system to defend itself against invasion from noxious weeds.

Program Summary

Summit County’s Noxious Weed Program controls noxious weeds as adopted by the BOCC per resolution and as required by state statute on all County ROW’s and properties controlled by the county defined as “native areas.” The program also is responsible for working with all other jurisdictions with in the county, be they municipal, state or federal holdings to insure that proper treatment of noxious weed populations are occurring. The program also strives to educate individual landholders, community groups, other jurisdictional staff and decision makers through out the county on the importance of noxious weed control. This education is in the form of one on one consultations, educational programs for the public, educational programs for staff, media education and meetings with decision makers through out the county.