Expanding Weed Control Efforts To Administrative Fine System – “No Thanks”
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
The Nevada Department of Agriculture has brought forth a proposal for dealing with noxious weeds, receiving introduction for the legislative proposal through the Nevada Legislative Committee On Public Lands. SB 110 seeks to give the Nevada Department of Agriculture the ability to expand their regulatory reach on noxious weeds, through the establishment of a schedule of Administrative fines, to assist landowners in being motivated to comply with state noxious weed laws.
During testimony on the bill before the Senate Natural Resources Committee, the arguments in favor of the legislation suggested that having authority to levy administrative fines would be useful in addressing noxious weed control – without the heavy hand of “Big Brother” using the full abatement authority the Department of Agriculture already has.
This authority, when it’s carried out taking the approach of declaring the property with noxious weeds a “public nuisance”, (NRS 555.110) grants the Department the ability to go on the land, treat the noxious weeds (that the property owner or occupant wouldn’t) and either be paid by the property owner or implement a lien on the property as a means of collection.
Somehow, it doesn’t seem like the prospects of administrative fines (up to $1,000) makes any less of a “Big Brother” impression than the potential of a lien on your property…which by the way, has only happened once since 2000 (according to the report to the committee). In that particular case, the full abatement process also seems to have worked as intended with weeds being treated and payments being received to remove the lien.
It also seems that landowners who get noticed by the Department, are already complying with the instructions to treat the noxious weeds.
If the current process isn’t broken or hasn’t been demonstrated to not be working – why does having a system in place for administrative fines accomplish anything that needs to be done?
Hopefully, you’ll also see this as a logical approach and make contact with the Senate Natural Resources Committee to offer them your input on how un-necessary SB 110 is. Committee Chairman is Senator David Parks…his e-mail address is dparks@sen.state.nv.us.
The Nevada Department of Agriculture has brought forth a proposal for dealing with noxious weeds, receiving introduction for the legislative proposal through the Nevada Legislative Committee On Public Lands. SB 110 seeks to give the Nevada Department of Agriculture the ability to expand their regulatory reach on noxious weeds, through the establishment of a schedule of Administrative fines, to assist landowners in being motivated to comply with state noxious weed laws.
During testimony on the bill before the Senate Natural Resources Committee, the arguments in favor of the legislation suggested that having authority to levy administrative fines would be useful in addressing noxious weed control – without the heavy hand of “Big Brother” using the full abatement authority the Department of Agriculture already has.
This authority, when it’s carried out taking the approach of declaring the property with noxious weeds a “public nuisance”, (NRS 555.110) grants the Department the ability to go on the land, treat the noxious weeds (that the property owner or occupant wouldn’t) and either be paid by the property owner or implement a lien on the property as a means of collection.
Somehow, it doesn’t seem like the prospects of administrative fines (up to $1,000) makes any less of a “Big Brother” impression than the potential of a lien on your property…which by the way, has only happened once since 2000 (according to the report to the committee). In that particular case, the full abatement process also seems to have worked as intended with weeds being treated and payments being received to remove the lien.
It also seems that landowners who get noticed by the Department, are already complying with the instructions to treat the noxious weeds.
If the current process isn’t broken or hasn’t been demonstrated to not be working – why does having a system in place for administrative fines accomplish anything that needs to be done?
Hopefully, you’ll also see this as a logical approach and make contact with the Senate Natural Resources Committee to offer them your input on how un-necessary SB 110 is. Committee Chairman is Senator David Parks…his e-mail address is dparks@sen.state.nv.us.
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