• Noxious weeds interfere with an area's ecological balance.Cannabis image by Pablo Peyrol?3n from Fotolia.com
  
  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service defines noxious weeds as plants that hinder environmental management goals for a specific area and interfere with the area's ecological balance. Noxious weeds are invasive, non-native and aggressive in their growth. Each state in the United States has varying laws that define and regulate noxious weeds. Pennsylvania's Department of Agriculture oversees the noxious weed control committee and noxious weed control list.
  
  

Creation of the Noxious Weed Control Committee

• According to Pennsylvania law, the Noxious Weed Control Committee is comprised of the Secretary of Environmental Resources, the Secretary of Agriculture, the chairmen of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committees in the Senate and the House of Representatives, the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Secretary of Agriculture, who serves as committee chairman.
  
  

Noxious Weed List

• Pennsylvania's Noxious Weed Control Committee has identified 13 weeds as noxious. These weeds are bull thistle (cirsium vulgare), Canada thistle (cirsium arvense), giant hogweed (heracleum mantegazzianum), goatsrue (galega officinalis), jimsonweed (datura stramonium), Johnson grass (sorghum halepense), kudzu-vine (pueraria lobata), marijuana (cannabis sativa), mile-a-minute (polygonum perfoliatum), multiflora rose (rosa multiflora), musk thistle (caduus nutans), purple loosestrife (lythrum salicaria) and shattercane (sorghum bicolor).
  
  

Violation

• The sale, planting or transportation of any weed that is deemed noxious violates the Noxious Weed Control Law. However, the law has an exception if the secretary has allowed such action for specific experimental or horticultural use.
  
  

Control Orders

• Landowners are required to execute control measures if noxious weeds are growing on their property. The Secretary of Agriculture will issue a written warning to a landowner, who has seven days from receipt of the order to contest it, at which time a hearing will be scheduled to review the case. If uncontested after seven days, the order is considered final. The landowner must comply with a final order within 30 days.
  
  

Failure to Comply

• Failure to comply with a final order results in the municipality official's action to control or destroy the noxious weed on the landowner's property. The municipality reserves the right to recover any related costs or expenses from the landowner.
  
  

Penalties

• Not complying with a final order results in penalties. A non-compliant landowner is deemed guilty of a summary offense. If the landowner interferes with municipality authorities during the removal of the noxious weed, he is deemed guilty of a third-degree misdemeanor. A summary offense and a third-degree misdemeanor are punishable by a fine and possible jail time.