PORT ANGELES — Herbicides may be used to eradicate certain noxious weeds and invasive roadside plants in Clallam County.
The three commissioners will hold a public hearing Tuesday on a proposed ordinance that would update a 1990 resolution that banned Roundup and other types of herbicides along the county’s 500-mile road system.
Presently, noxious weeds and aggressive, non-native plants are mowed by the road department or pulled from the ground by inmate work crews.
That works for certain species, but the method has proven ineffective against wild carrot and other invasive plants, County Engineer Ross Tyler has said.
Officials stressed Monday that the proposed ordinance to allow herbicides would not result in immediate spraying.
A work plan must first be developed by the road department, Noxious Weed Coordinator Cathy Lucero and the Noxious Weed Control Board, a five-member regulatory panel.
The work plan would be updated annually to comply with state regulations.
“That means that we don’t just let this gather dust on the counter,” Lucero told commissioners in their Monday work session.
“It means every year we get feedback from the public.”
The public hearing on the ordinance that would initiate the work plan will begin shortly after 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in Room 160 at the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St.
Clallam County’s 25-year-old ban on herbicides has become a barrier for the road department to comply with state requirements, Lucero said.
Mowing, she added, is causing some noxious weeds to spread faster than they normally would.
“We’ve hit a wall as to what can be done with those tools,” Lucero said.
“The old resolution doesn’t acknowledge that times have changed, best management practices have changed. There’s new things out there that we can do: targeted, more selective things.”
The ordinance covers noxious weeds and other non-native, invasive species on a county specific list of plants. It does not cover run-of-the-mill weeds like dandelions.
“It is not an ordinary, garden variety, the whole world, sky-is-the-limit kind of thing,” Lucero said of the ordinance.
“It really is not about allowing broadcast spray, because there’s no point in broadcast spray. It’s not about keeping the trees out of the right-of-way. It’s not about keeping the grass out of the ditches.”
The limited use of herbicides along county roads could help prevent the spread of noxious weeds onto private property.
“Noxious weeds don’t respect jurisdictional boundaries,” Lucero said.
The spread of wild carrot could damage valuable crops in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley, Tyler has said.
“This just puts one more tool back in the toolshed.” Tyler told commissioners.
“Then it makes sense for the weed board and us to invest the money, which is time, in developing the plan.”
Commissioner Mike Chapman said the work plan should come before the ordinance.
“You’re asking me, as one commissioner, to give you authority without telling the public how you’re going to exercise that authority,” Chapman told Tyler and Lucero.
“I want to delay it until I see a plan.”
“I think the public needs to see ‘Oh, you’re only talking about X and B and Y, not Z,” Chapman added.
“They don’t know that. They just read ‘Herbicide spraying is now going to be allowed in some form.’ It scares the hell out of people. And honestly, it scares me, too.”
Chapman said he would be comfortable with “some measure of herbicides, potentially, on some plants that just can’t be eradicated.”
“But I’m not comfortable, as one commissioner, just giving blanket authority,” he said.
Said Board Chairman Jim McEntire: “I think we can come up with a plan of action tomorrow, post hearing, that gets us to the point where the public is with the program, as it were.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
