Weed-abatement funding requested

Sponsor Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, told fellow members of Nevada's Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday there is currently no way to make land owners control weeds on private property.

He said the Department of Agriculture has the power to order the weeds sprayed and then file a lien to recover the money from the property owner. But he said no commercial weed control companies will take the job because they might have to wait several years to get paid.

AB413, he said, would create a $100,000 revolving account to pay for weed abatement on private property. The account would be reimbursed later by the property owners.

Agriculture Director Don Henderson said most property owners are willing to work with his department or local entities.

"But there are some landowners you just can't work with," he said. "They won't listen."

Dawn Rafferty, who runs the weed control operation for Henderson, said she gets letters all summer from landowners who say the property owner next door just won't do anything about the weeds.

She said the problem occurs especially with absentee owners who aren't there to see the problem.

Ed James of the Carson Subconservancy District said that defeats weed control in an area. "There may be 10 percent of people out there who just don't care," he said. "You treat everything else around it and next year you have noxious weeds back again."

Henderson said the bill would give them a base fund to force abatement by some of the worst offenders and help get the attention of others, possibly convincing them to clean up their property without having to take legal action.

"It's a powerful tool, but it's a threat. Right now, everybody knows we have weed abatement authority and almost everybody knows we don't have funding to do it."

Several other witnesses, members of some of Nevada's 28 different weed management councils, told the committee there are federal, state and local weed control efforts throughout the state but that AB413 is the missing piece because it reaches private landowners who won't abate their weed problem.