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What is a Weed Management Area?
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 CDFA and WMAs statewide by visiting the CDFA website.
Why is it important to control invasive plants?
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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