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Cowlitz County reports 3,500 mapped weed detections in 2025, prioritizes false brome and rules update for 2026
Summary
The county's noxious-weeds coordinator told commissioners the program recorded about 3,500 mapped 'weed points' in 2025, helped 158 landowners via grants (about 62 Class A recipients), and plans rule and enforcement-procedure updates for 2026 while prioritizing false brome eradication.
COWLITZ COUNTY — Jennifer Mendoza, Cowlitz County's noxious-weeds coordinator, told the board the program collected roughly 3,500 mapped weed points in 2025 and is focusing eradication efforts on Class A species such as false brome.
Mendoza said the county's weed program is largely outreach-driven and funded through a per-parcel assessment; she described 2025 metrics including about 19 presentations, 11 community events, and an estimated outreach reach of more than 5,000 people (about 12% of county households). She said grant programs assisted 158 landowners last year (about 62 for Class A work) and that the county spent roughly $95,000 in grants with about $74,000 going to Mount St. Helens work.
On invasive priorities, Mendoza said false brome is a major focus because it invades forest understory, reduces native plants and increases fire risk; she told the board that “we're recording every separated site that we find” for Class A species to ensure containment. She also noted new state Class A listings for 2026 including delta arrowhead, water hemp and a newly detected parasitic plant, sunflower broomrape, reported by Yakama County staff.
Mendoza outlined enforcement practices and said the county focuses first on voluntary compliance through letters and postcards; last year nearly 76% of mapped reports were considered under active control and only about 10% were recorded as no control. She described improvements in the program's GIS-to-Laserfiche workflow that let inspectors generate letters faster and tie field photos and documents to parcels, reducing end-of-day processing from hours to 15–30 minutes.
Looking ahead, Mendoza said the program is preparing rule and enforcement-procedure updates under PA review with a public hearing expected in May, and that staff will continue grants, assistance programs and partnerships with WCC crews and the Columbia Land Trust. She closed by citing a success in removing Tree of Heaven host trees to reduce the risk of spotted lanternfly establishment.
What the board will do next: Commissioners asked several clarifying questions; staff will return with formal rule-change documents during the public-review process. No formal board action occurred at this meeting.
