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Show SMD G REE EP he EAE GETTER toatl 2) MAYO paige. DDD. PLLA - ID 0 Cw nce “WASATCH COUNTY COURIER > 00d LT oy pa CT eee oH a : Sa * Rese y Pr a a = E Sa rs a Ee x : “3 x ; at := : re - 4 a s = of io. sites nee ane <5 Sa . e So SeSo . ‘ * ee = : = ss S a = : = Se eae Son Sa Pa Sa %a ne 3 o » ne a = 2 se Sat a} : BEE Se cress, : % > Ceres Suinsnaentnn Se n Sosa Po Sey ms a Sanaa Ss i aES Se eSbo ss * oe Si BS Si : as 5 pone. seen ss n Soe - 3 : : ea = : * County weed control seeks help in never-ending battle _ eaee Others, County weed showers bring some people like the Wasatch control, get gravely | ehueed. They plead that every resident be on guard for 21 wanted criminals — the number of weekds the state and county consider noxious. The weeds are killers and thieves, not only threatening to destroy back- yards but damage the ecosystem, said Dick Jones, weed supervisor. And. they can poke up unassumingly anyone’s property. ; Take HS ae | on Creek and Bench Then there’s the Weedsupervisor Wallsburg exit situation. Squarrose knapweed has seized 1,000 acres after cattle brought seeds in from the Tintic area, where the BLM, five different county organizations and several federal agencies are struggling to contain 290,000 acres : ven Spreading. | of land with only one or several species of plant, but the dynamics that result from their invasions. Accord to the BLM Web site, weeds are destructive — and nationwide — for five more reasons. First, they devastate shelter and forage for wildlife. | Second, they do not hold and pro- fight against evil flower power by noti_ fying him of weeds they see. So erosion increases, causing sediThough the weeds usually cannot ment in streams that hurt fish popula- ° be eliminated, he said, they can be tions and water quality.. “controlled, especially if discovered Third, they are often less resistant early on. 22 offfi icials fe or ignoring their % at i yah: ks HANNAH ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER | £ PROVO, Utah (AP = a After fe being . nvicted of bigamy, a man with five wives and 29 children lashed out early Saturday at Utah officials, accusing them of forgetting their Mormon heritage. ‘Tom Green, 52, was found guilty on four counts of bigamy and one count of failing to pay child support in the country’s first major polygamy case in nearly five decades. Green faces up to 25 years in prison and $25,000 in a at his June 27 sentencing. Green, visibly angry after the convic- tion that came just before midnight Friday, called Utah officials “spineless.” Alluding to the fact that many in Utah, including the prosecutor, Juab County Attorney David Leavitt, have polygamist ancestors, Green said: “I think the leaders in Utah have turned their back on their heritage.” A jury of five women and three men deliberated for about three hours © before deciding on what is considered a test case for polygamy. Both sides have said the case could open the door to future prosecutions. “Bigamy is against the law in Utah, and ifI have a provable-case, I have a duty to prosecute it,” Leavitt said. Green, who says his lifestyle is a God-given choice, lives in a remote stretch of Utah desert with his chil-— dren and wives, some of whom were as young as 14 when he married them. As spectators in the courtroom strained to hear the jury’s verdict, some of Green’s family members were crying. Three wives and seven children were in the courtroom. “He’s guilty of spending his entire - life living for his family. ... It's just not right,” said his fifth wife, Hannah det Green, crying as she spoke to reporters after the verdict. - Polygamy arrived in Utah in the ~to wildfire than are native plants. h ert tag € | of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints set- tled in the state. Mormon leaders pe believed the practice was required by God because some Old Testament prophets took multiple wives. With federal pressure mounting, the church in 1890 disavowed polygamy. Although Utah banned plural marriage in its constitution in order to become a state, it has no specific antipolygamy law on the books. So prosecutors convinced the jury that Green | was married to one woman and cohabited with the others. — Green’s lawyer, John Bucher vowed to appeal. He said the ruling “will likely drive other polygamists — estimated at 30,000 throughout the West — further underground. “T's going to put a squelch on First Amendment rights and the practice of these people’s religion,” he said. In their closing arguments, prose- — cutors said Green had a scheme to marry several young women, and he let nothing stand in his way. _ “Tom Green will use and bilk and abuse the laws of this state when it suits his purposes,” said Leavitt, the . brother of Gov. Mike Leavitt. “And when he doesn’t want the laws to apply to him ... then there’s not a hair thin enough that he won’t split to try to justify his position.” Leavitt also focused on Green’s tel-. evision appearances, in which he defended his lifestyle. ~ “He confessed to a crime on talk show after talk show after talk show,” Leavitt said. “But what happens when _he comes in and talks to eight people who have authority over story changes.” him? The But Bucher argued the state was going after Green because he embar_ rassed Utah in the national media. “He shot his mouth off, he proclaimed to the world rather than hide as the rest of them do, he stuck out like a sore thumb,” Bucher said. And every notification helps, he Fourth, weeds reduce land values, __ said. causing damaging economic impacts “At least we know then that we got to communities, especially ranching a problem and can work on it,” he said. ) , 7 = 654-7177 | _ CHARLESTON 1 = | | Charleston Town Hall = ad = Ver ‘ fi oct mY e sctgnn th Nakarerddet is ie ai eae 63 2 1840s, when members of The Church t SR ’ $ 7 a | i ormon WOLFSON. | _ identification booklets in his office. He hopes residents will join the tect the soil the way native plants do. 8) cai ry “I can’t be to Sie ees out in the county,” Jones said. “There’s places you might go if you’re camping or riding or fishing that you might see that I wouldn’t know.” On top of organizing field trips and publishing educational articles, Jones strives to increase community lookout by offering free-to-the-public weed noxious plants, leaving vast stretches pundit lashes ‘nity support. weeds is not only in their obliterating - Polygamist Found — Guilty Of Bigamy - Green distributed,” he said. ” The danger of noxious CA May flowers, and farming areas. And fifth, iced are generally thorny tified early on, the weed department all they can do is battle to keep it from : and scratchy and grow in dense patchcan monitor their growth and keep the exploding, he said. es, which makes hiking or other recremonsters from spreading, he said. _ Soldier Hollow has leafy spurge. ation activities difficult if not impossible. Still, Jones and his crew Jordanelle Dam has yellow Thus, maintenance of recreational facilstay alert, because they ities becomes expensive. starthistle. Local gravel -“There’s no know weeds’ power to - pits used for road construcJones said some locals have lost finnapalm. way they "Il ever tion have musk thistle and gers after developing inoperable “Tf they start spreading ~ other weeds. tumors caused by pulling toxic weeds. from there out in through control it.” “Every time they build a Though he and other Wasatch them oaks and that you’ll road, even though they County weed controllers tout numer-. never get the tops of ‘em,” | spray ‘em (with antiweed ous awards for their work, they cannot Jones said. DICK JONES chemical), these seeds get — keep weeds in check without commuit,” Jones said. Like most infestations, Because the weeds there were iden- MEETINGS hen April “There’s no way they'll ever control Creek areas, for instance. 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