ND Department of Agriculture Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JUNE 3, 2008

CANADA THISTLE NOW STATE'S NUMBER ONE WEED

BISMARCK – Canada thistle has apparently overtaken leafy spurge as North Dakota’s most widespread noxious weed.

“Slightly more than 1 million acres are infested with Canada thistle, according to reports received from North Dakota’s county and city weed boards and land managers,” said Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson. “The total for leafy spurge is about 861,000 acres.”

Johnson released the figures from the 2007 Noxious Weed Survey this week, to mark the start of Noxious Weed Awareness Month, proclaimed by Gov. John Hoeven.

The survey showed absinth wormwood in third place with 609,100 acres, field bindweed with 417,600 acres, and musk thistle with 25,400 acres. All other noxious weeds – Dalmatian toadflax, diffuse knapweed, purple loosestrife, Russian knapweed, saltcedar, spotted knapweed and yellow starthistle – have reported total infestations of less than 2,500 acres.

Johnson said the decline in leafy spurge acreage could be attributed to integrated control strategies.

“Weed control efforts in North Dakota have focused on leafy spurge for many years,” he said. “In particular, the biological control program has been very successful in reducing spurge infestations.”

Johnson said he anticipates weed control efforts will intensify and become even more effective.

“Local weed authorities are already effectively using roadside spraying, cost-share and other programs to limit and even reduce the spread of our worst weeds,” he said. “Increased use of technology, including GPS mapping, will enable these officials to target problem weeds and develop integrated strategies to control them.”

Johnson also said that a major factor in refining noxious weed acreage reporting is determining an accurate level of infestation.

“I have asked my staff to work with our county and other government agency partners to develop a measurement system that we would all use to accurately report noxious weed infestations,” he said. “We all need to be on the same page when we identify an acre of noxious weeds.”

Noxious Weed Awareness Month is a time for all North Dakotans to learn more about noxious weeds and what they can do to control these plants, according to Johnson.

“State law says that landowners and land managers must control noxious weeds on their property,” he said. “In fact, almost everyone can do something to keep noxious weeds in check.”

Johnson offered the following suggestions:

• Learn to identify noxious weeds and report occurrences of them to local weed control officials.
• Avoid traveling through weed-infested areas with ATV’s and other off-road vehicles. Clean the vehicle before leaving the riding area.
• Do not purchase or pick and transport unidentified plants – they may be noxious or invasive weeds.
• Use certified weed seed-free forage, gravel, scoria and sand.
• Johnson said noxious weeds cost North Dakota tens of millions of dollars annually in lost agricultural production and control expenses.
  

-30-

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.