If you are interested in learning more about weeds go to the The Montana Weed Education and Awareness Campaign page. Over the past 100 years, noxious weeds have been spreading at an alarming rate. For example, spotted knapweed arrived on the west coast in 1893 on the San Juan Islands Washington. By 1920, this weed had established itself in over 24 counties in three Northwestern states, with several large infestations near Missoula, Montana. Now, spotted knapweed is established in every county in the western United States and has invaded five million acres in Montana alone.
Large infestations continue to expand, especially along waterways and major transportation routes.
Many other knapweeds, such as yellow starthisle, diffuse knapweed, Russian knapweed, and square rose knapweed have similar invasion rates throughout the western United States. Leafy spurge and many other noxious weeds are invading from the east, rather than the west. In our opinion, if these weeds continue to spread at their current rate for the next 100 years, they will dominate most western rangelands. The Montana Weed Control Association is dedicated to educate the landowners, recreationists, and visitors why the control of noxious weeds is so important to the well being of Montana. This web site's purpose is to provide the visitor with indentification information, the dangers of noxious weeds, and control recommendations.