[APWG] Estimated costs of weeds, written into California law

[Craig Dremann]

Dear All,

It is interesting that the law establishing our California "Weed
Management Areas" has written into the preamble of that law, an
estimated direct and indirect economic damages of weeds:

CALIFORNIA CODES
FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL CODE
SECTION 7270-7276

7270.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
   (a) The destructive impact of invasive and often poisonous noxious
weeds is profound, affecting California's cropland, rangeland,
forests, parks, and wildlands.

   (b) These pests cause enormous losses of private, state, and
federal resources through decreased land productivity, degradation of
wildlife habitat, and outright destruction of crops, livestock,
wetlands, waterways, watersheds, and recreational areas.

   (c) The estimated lost crop productivity caused by noxious weeds
is seven billion four hundred million dollars ($7,400,000,000)
nationwide, a large proportion of which is attributable to
California.  Nationally, the direct and indirect costs of controlling
noxious weeds may be as high as five billion four hundred million
dollars ($5,400,000,000) annually.

================

The establishment of the California "Weed management areas" is the legal
and financial method for the State of California to distribute money to
manage weeds on a local, usually county-by-county, level and is defined
as:

7272(b) A "weed management area" is a local organization that brings
together all interested landowners, land managers (private, city,
county, state, and federal), special districts, and the public in a
county or other geographical area for the purpose of coordinating and
combining their action and expertise to deal with their common weed
control problems.  The organization shall function under the
authority of a mutually developed memorandum of understanding and
subject to statutory and regulatory requirements.  A weed management
area may be voluntarily governed by a chairperson or a steering
committee.

The full law can be read at
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?WAISdocID=53448821026+1+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve


Sincerely,  Craig Dremann, Redwood City, CA USA (650) 325-7333