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• What is a Weed
Management Area
• Why is it important to control invasive
weeds
• Major
Invasive Weeds in Los Angeles County
• Other
weeds of concern
• What
can you do to help?
• Download
the LA County WMA Information Pamphlet
• Children's
book on invasive weeds
• Download:"Best
Management Practices for Vegetation Management" (PDF/6.5
MB/56 Pages)
• Link to LA County Weed Management Area
• Links
| What
is a Weed Management Area? |
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Weed Management Areas (WMAs) are
local organizations that bring together landowners and
managers (private, city, county, state, and federal)
in a county, multi-county or other geographical area
to coordinate efforts and expertise against invasive
weeds.
The WMA functions under the authority
of a mutually developed Memorandum of Understanding
and is subject to statutory and regulatory weed control
requirements. In California, such groups are usually
initiated by the County Agricultural Commissioner's
Office or a federal agency employee and voluntarily
governed by a chairperson or steering committee. WMAs
are unique because they attempt to address both agricultural
weeds and wildland weeds under one local umbrella organization.
WMAs use many effective outreach
weed management methods, such as printing weed identification/control
brochures; organizing weed education events; writing
and obtaining grants; and coordinating joint demonstration
projects; weed eradication and mapping efforts.
The California Department of Food
and Agriculture (CDFA) helps to coordinate and support
WMAs. You can learn more about them and WMAs statewide
by visiting their website at http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/wma
For information about the Los
Angeles County
Weed Management area, visit their Website at lacountywma.org
| Why
is it important to control invasive weeds? |
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It is well known that some
non-native plant and animal species can become
established and out-compete native species and
actually reduce or degrade an area's natural diversity.
Non-native invasive weeds are
increasingly being recognized as some of the most
destructive and rapidly spreading of the invasive
species. Some are poisonous, others interfere
with agriculture, and still others simply become
so numerous, practically nothing else has room
left to live! |
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Invasive weeds are spreading on private
and public lands. The US Forest Service estimates that
as much as several thousand acres of public lands a
day are being lost nationwide to invasive non-native
weeds. To download a copy of a children's book about
invasive weeds, click
here.
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