South Dakota Noxious Weed Control Duty

When a county weed and pest board investigates suspected infested land and confirms weeds or pests are present, SDCL § 38-22-23.13 requires the board, by resolution adopted by a majority of its members, to confirm the infestation and set minimum remedial requirements for controlling it. The board mails the landowner a copy of the resolution by certified mail, along with a statement of the approximate cost of compliance and a request that the work be carried out at the owner's own expense within a designated deadline. Once the board is satisfied the requirements are met, it terminates the resolution and files the termination with the register of deeds.

Miss that deadline and SDCL § 38-22-23.14 lets the county board step in: it may perform the remedial work itself, then certifies its expenses to the county auditor. The auditor bills the landowner for the cost plus an administrative fee of $50 or ten percent of the control cost, whichever is greater. If the landowner hasn't paid by November 1 of that year, the bill grows by another ten percent and is charged as taxes against the tract, collected exactly like other property taxes and credited to the county's general fund. A landowner who instead asks the board to perform control work faces the identical fee structure under § 38-22-23.16 if payment isn't made by that same November 1 deadline.

Behind the county-level process sits a state backstop: under SDCL § 38-22-16, if a landowner fails to rid infested land of weeds or pests and the secretary of agriculture and natural resources finds the infestation menaces neighboring land or the state at large, the secretary may declare the land a public nuisance and send state personnel onto it to perform protective operations. A related provision, § 38-22-16.2, makes a landowner responsible for remedying the problems caused when an infestation spreads onto adjacent private or public land, to the extent the owner is responsible for letting it spread.

Chronic noncompliance escalates further. SDCL § 38-22-23.17 imposes a civil penalty of up to $500 on any owner, occupant, or person controlling land who is issued a board resolution under § 38-22-23.13 for three consecutive years and still fails to meet the minimum remedial requirements, and the same $500 penalty applies to an owner whose land the board has treated under § 38-22-23.14 for three straight years.

If a landowner ignores a county weed and pest board's resolution issued under SDCL § 38-22-23.13, the board performs the remedial work itself under § 38-22-23.14 and bills the owner through the county auditor for its costs plus a $50-or-10%-of-cost administrative fee, which rises another ten percent if unpaid by November 1 and is then collected as delinquent property taxes. Three consecutive years of noncompliance adds a civil penalty of up to $500 under § 38-22-23.17.