PORT TOWNSEND — County commissioners have adopted a new fee ordinance that will raise more than $150,000 to fund the county Noxious Weed Control Board’s abatement program.
The fee assessment — set at $4 per parcel plus 30 cents per acre — will take effect Dec. 1.
The control board coordinates management of noxious weeds to prevent, control or mitigate their spread in order to protect human health, livestock, wildlife, native habitat and ecosystem function.
About $150,668 will be generated annually through the newly established fee. The rate will not be influenced by inflation rates.
Property classified as forest land — defined by state law as being used solely for the planting, growing and harvesting of trees — will be assessed at the rate of 40 cents per parcel and 3 cents per acre.
Lands not subject to the noxious weed assessments include federal and tribal trust lands, mineral rights, standalone tideland parcels and/or tideland acreage, and standalone water parcels and/or water acreage. All others are subject to the fee.
Fund board activities
Money generated by the fee will be placed in the Jefferson County Noxious Weed Control Fund and will only be used to support control board activities, according to the ordinance.
County Commissioners Phil Johnson and David Sullivan voted in favor of the ordinance during their regular meeting Monday morning after a public hearing.
Commissioner Kathleen Kler was out of town during the meeting.
County commissioners previously found a need for noxious weed control within Jefferson County, along with a need to find sustainable funding for such activities, Sullivan said Monday.
Weeds “are a problem,” he said. “We have had a lot of volunteers working on it and have for a long time. This will help support them with some staff support and hopefully help make them much more effective.”
The control board’s work consists largely of removing noxious weeds along roadsides by mechanical means and spraying herbicides, according to Sullivan.
The program has been funded in the past through the county’s general fund, but “we are just at that point where budgets are tight [and] we need to take advantage of what tools the state does give us to fund things locally” such as levying an assessment fee.
Securing a permanent revenue stream outside the general fund is especially important at a time when federal and state funding sources are uncertain, he said.
“The uncertainty that local governments face from the state and federal government are daunting,” he said.
Abatement
Controlling noxious weed growth along county roads has the extra effect of preventing their spread onto private properties, Sullivan said.
“All the roads provide pathways to private property, and the issue in terms of taking care of it on our roadways is to not have them spread to private lands,” Sullivan said.
And, the county’s weed control efforts may lead to the use of less herbicides, Sullivan said.
“People on private property, we don’t control how much herbicide they use, and so that can be a problem just for water quality and other environmental concerns,” he said.
“The hope is that by controlling weeds through using just a little bit of herbicide in some cases — but mostly through mechanical means — you can prevent the spread to private property, because it can have a huge economic” impact, he said.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
