Noxious Weeds and Destruction

State law requires that landowners destroy all noxious weeds on lands they own or control. Wis. Stat. § 66.0407(3). Noxious weeds located on private property must be destroyed by the person who owns, occupies, or controls the private land. The town board is responsible for destroying noxious weeds on town highways. For any other public lands, the “person having immediate charge” of those lands is responsible for noxious weed destruction, although the statute provides an exception for the DNR to choose to manage rather than destroy noxious weeds on certain DNR land.  

Under Wis. Stat. § 66.0407(1)(a), to “destroy” a noxious weed means “the complete killing of weeds or the killing of weed plants above the surface of the ground by the use of chemicals, cutting, tillage, cropping system, pasturing livestock, or any or all of these in effective combination, at a time and in a manner as will effectually prevent the weed plants from maturing to the bloom or flower stage.” The DNR website provides guidance for understanding these methods of control and determining which method will be most likely to be effective in eradicating various weed species in different environments.