Kansas Noxious Weed Control Duty

K.S.A. 2-1314(a) puts the duty in plain terms: 'It shall be the duty of persons to control the spread of and to eradicate all species of plants declared to be noxious weeds on all lands owned or supervised by them and to use such official methods for the control and eradication...as are approved and adopted by the secretary.' The Kansas Department of Agriculture's secretary declares which species qualify, and once declared, a plant is noxious in every county statewide. Subsection (b) currently lists twelve species by name -- kudzu, field bindweed, Russian knapweed, hoary cress, Canada thistle, quackgrass, leafy spurge, bur ragweed, pignut, musk thistle, Johnson grass, and sericea lespedeza -- and Section 2-1314(d) lets individual county commissions add local species with the secretary's approval.

Enforcement sits with the board of county commissioners under K.S.A. 2-1316, which employs a county (or city or township) weed supervisor to carry it out; cities and townships can take over enforcement inside their own boundaries by agreement. Under K.S.A. 2-1331, when a supervisor finds infested land, the owner gets either a general notice published in the official county newspaper by April 1 (good through the following March 31) or an individual mailed notice, spelling out the required control methods and a deadline. If a follow-up inspection finds unsatisfactory progress after that deadline, the supervisor can escalate to a certified-mail legal notice under rules the secretary adopts.

When the county itself does the work -- entering land under a contract or agreement to apply control methods -- K.S.A. 2-1320 turns the unpaid cost of labor, material, and equipment into a lien: the county must send an itemized bill, and if it isn't paid within 30 days, a 10% penalty is added and the whole balance becomes a lien on the real estate, collected with delinquent-tax interest and filed with the register of deeds; an unpaid lien becomes due in full whenever the property is sold or transferred. Separately, K.S.A. 2-1323 makes any violation of the noxious weed act a class C nonperson misdemeanor, punishable on conviction by a fine of $100 per day of noncompliance, up to $1,500. A landowner who disputes a treatment charge can file a protest with the board of county commissioners within 10 days under K.S.A. 2-1321, then appeal an adverse ruling to district court within 30 days.

K.S.A. 2-1323 makes failing to control a declared noxious weed a class C nonperson misdemeanor, carrying a fine of $100 per day of noncompliance up to a $1,500 cap. If the county performs the control work itself under contract, K.S.A. 2-1320 bills the owner for the actual labor and material cost; an account still unpaid after 30 days gets a 10% penalty added and becomes a lien on the real estate, collected with delinquent-tax interest and due in full on any sale or transfer.