ND Department of Agriculture Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE APRIL 2, 2008

TRAINING SET ON WEED MAPPING DEVICES

BISMARCK – Workshops have been scheduled in April and May to train North Dakota county and city weed control officials in the installation and use of multi-event dataloggers for mapping weed infestations.

“This new, state-of-the-art equipment gives weed control officials the ability to gather detailed mapping information and quickly transmit it with a minimum of technical expertise,” said Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson. “Accurate mapping of treated and non-treated weed infestations is crucial to controlling noxious weeds.”

The datalogger is a device that automatically transfers information from a global positioning device to a computer, which in turn generates maps and reports.

The training sessions are scheduled 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (local time) on the following dates and locations:

• Wednesday, April 30 – Holiday Inn Riverside, 2200 Burdick East, Minot.


• Thursday, May 1 – Gladstone Inn Suites, 111 Second St. NE, Jamestown.


• Friday, May 2 – Quality Inn, 71 W. Museum Drive, Dickinson.

The workshops will be conducted by Jim Hansen, mapping specialist for the North Dakota Department of Agriculture (NDDA), and Vince and Kathy Thomas, Billings, MT, owners of Montana Ag Plastic, manufacturers of the dataloggers and associated software.

The dataloggers and laptop computers were provided to each participating county through an NDDA grant. In exchange, participating weed boards must supply their mapping data to NDDA at the end of the 2008 and 2009 weed control seasons.  Fifty counties and the city of Devils Lake are participating in the mapping program. The North Dakota Association of Counties Resource Group assists the program with supplying and servicing the laptop computers.

North Dakota currently has 12 noxious weed species that infest more than 3.5 million acres (2006).

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MEDIA: For more information, please call Ted Quanrud at (701) 328-2233 or tquanrud@nd.gov or Patrice Lahlum at (701) 239-7210 or plahlum@nd.gov.