04/02/08 Weed bookley

Why does it seem that our plants, shrubs and trees suffer damage from winter's weather but the weeds never do. There already popping up. Just in time the Idaho Weed Awareness Campaign coordinator Roger Batt has a 115 page booklet that was produced by the Idaho Department of Agriculture and its yours, free. BATT "It has pictures of all different stages of growth. It has excellent identification of the plants, very good visual images so people can look and see what's in their backyard or on their property." Last fall 21 new species of noxious weeds were added to the list of 36 invasive plants previously discovered in the state. Batt says nine weed species have been kept at bay for now and are classified. BATT "On what's called an 'early detection of rapid response list' so as soon as anybody detects those they contact their county weed superintendent or the Idaho State Department of Agriculture and they have a team that goes out and eradicates those immediately. Those are the kinds of weeds we don't want in the state of Idaho. " You can get the booklet by calling the Idaho Noxious Weed Hotline at 1-866-IDWEEDS or go to the Internet, www.idahoweedawareness.org. Right now its costing Idaho taxpayers approximately 300 million dollars a year to help combat this problem. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott