Enclosed for your use and reference is a copy of the Colville National Forest Weed Prevention Guidelines.  There is potentially no greater threat to the environmental system we manage than that of noxious weeds.  As a Forest, we need to do a better job in the prevention and control of noxious weeds, and I consider it to be every employee's responsibility to help curb the spread on noxious weeds.  I expect each of you to become familiar with this guide and do your part in helping to address the threat of noxious weeds.  Everyone has a role to play and everyone can contribute toward making our fight against noxious weeds successful.  It's every employee's responsibility to:

·    Learn to recognize noxious weeds and report their locations to either the Forest Noxious Weed Program Manager (John Ridlington) or the appropriate Unit contacts ( Ellen Picard, D1/2; Jim Nash, D4; or Teresa Catlin, D3/5).  See sections 1 and 8 of the guidelines for further information.

·    Guard against the introduction and spread of noxious weed seed by taking personal responsibility to insure that their  vehicles, clothing, and equipment are "weed free".  See section 3 of the guidelines for further information.

·    Insure that projects you are involved in consider and address the potential to spread noxious weeds, and that weed prevention measures are incorporated into project design and implementation..  See sections 4-7 of the guidelines for further information.

Whether planning a new project or implementing a task, addressing the potential spread of noxious weeds is always a priority job.

In developing these guidelines, several of the comments we received were concerned with designating areas of responsibility (for both accountability and financial purposes).  As I stated above, I consider noxious weed prevention to be every employee's responsibility.  Mitigation measures incorporated into projects to address and prevent noxious weed spread or introductions are part of the overall project and costs will be absorbed by the appropriate fund codes.  We need to accept that noxious weed prevention measures are now part of the cost of "doing business" and get on with the job at hand.   Section 2 of the guidelines was developed to make us all address the "what if" questions.  If the cost of preventing and/or treating noxious weeds resulting from the project is too high, then we need to either revise the project or not do the project at all.  

I am very serious about the need to be more aggressive in our efforts to prevent the spread of noxious weeds and am certain that you will be just as serious in doing your part to implement these guidelines.

/s/ Robert L. Vaught

ROBERT L. VAUGHT

Forest Supervisor

Enclosure