Iron County Record | 1970-03-12 | Page 2 | Property Owners are Responsible for Control of Weed Problems

Property owners are responsible for control of weed problems People who own, control, or otherwise are in charge of land property have both a moral and a legal responsibility responsi-bility to control serious weed pest on that property. When weeds are allowed to grow uncontrolled, un-controlled, they spread to other oth-er areas by various means such as wind, water, animals, machinery and root growth. The problem becomes especially espec-ially serious with weeds that are particularly troublesome and difficult to control. Quite a number of these weeds have been declared noxious. If you do not control such weeds on your own land, you may create serious weed problems prob-lems for your neighbors. Anyone Any-one trying to practice golden rule consideration naturally will want to avoid doing such harm to others. However, lawmakers recognize recog-nize that not everyone is so considerate. Consequently, a state weed law has been enacted. en-acted. Article I. Section 4-5-1 of the law declares: "The State Board of Agriculture may designate and declare by regulation the injurious and noxious weeds of the state, and the state road commission, commis-sion, state land board and every railroad, canal, ditch and water company, and every person or corporation owning, controlling or occupying lands in this state, and every county, coun-ty, municipality, school district, dis-trict, irrigation and drainage district having supervision and control over streets, alleys, al-leys, lanes, rights, of way made or natural waterways, or other lands, shall destroy until completely eradicated all weeds declared and designated desig-nated as noxious and injurious injuri-ous by the State Board of Agriculture Ag-riculture before such weeds shall propagate or spread and whenever required by the State Board of Agriculture, the commission orand inspector." The law plainly indicates that individuals, groups, or organizations or-ganizations who have noxious weeds on land that they own, control, or occupy are expected expect-ed to control them. Those who don't are subject to the penalties pen-alties for violating the state laws and regulations. Boiled down to the basics, the moral and legal injunction injunc-tion might be stated: "Be considerate; con-siderate; take care of your own weeds; don't expect someone some-one else to control them for; you." I