I and_ u se Planning A Zoning - cont'd . 



Where do SWCDs fit into the picture of 

 Tand use planning? What do districts have to 

 offer? 



SWCDs are a natural resource planning 

 agency and have been doing land use planning 

 for about 30 years primarily giving assistance 

 to individuals such as fanners and ranchers 

 who are cooperators. In more recent years 

 planning assistance has been requested by 

 land occupiers other than agriculture, 

 particularly to cities and towns, city- 

 county planning boards, and groups. Over 

 the years districts, with the technical as- 

 sistance of SCS and other agencies, have 

 accumulated soils data, water data, vegetative, 

 and recreational and other data valuable to 

 individuals, groups and agencies in making 

 land use decisions. 



SWCDs each have developed long range 

 plans or programs describing the land and 

 related resources and olans and potential for 

 development. District supervisors are el- 

 ected by land occupiers and where cities and 

 towns are included usually consist of 5 

 rural and 2 municipal resident supervisors, 

 istrict law in addition to planning 

 jthority contains provisions for land use 

 regulations. 



What more is needed? Permissive legis- 

 lation. This may be a dressing up or amend- 

 ments to present permissive laws to enable or 

 require local governments such as counties, 

 cities, districts, to join in doing compre- 

 hensive and overall planning, and to adopt 

 and enforce necessary regulations. Legis- 

 lation should also better permit appropriate 

 state agencies to assist local agencies, and 

 to exercise certain powers. Present uses 

 should be protected, the public interest 

 should be protected, natural resources should 

 be protected, to permit people to bring about 

 orderly changes. 



Districts, counties, cities, others, 

 need to get with it, to let this study 

 group know of their concerns. Maybe we have 

 enough law, and it's only a matter of doing 

 something with what we've got I 



IN MEMORI/V^ 



Conservation District people mourn the passing 

 ^t Carl Hunter former State Soil Conservation 

 ^Pwnmittee member, who died June 15 at the 



Richland County Hospital. He was 88. 



LEAFY SPURGE 

 Authur F. Shaw, Extension Agronomist 



Leafy spurge, a deep-rooted, hard to 

 kill perennial noxious week, now occupies 

 in excess of 80,000 acres of private and 

 publicly owned land in Montana. Non-cul- 

 tivated or rangeland is its primary habi- 

 tat, although a growing acreage of culti- 

 vated land or cropland is known to be in- 

 fested. Past records indicate the acreage 

 is growing at an alarming rate, and no 

 longer should individuals, corporations, 

 agencies or weed districts shove the in- 

 festations aside with the hope that they 

 will vanish. They won't — they will be back 

 next year with greater vigor and vitality. 



Grazing with sheep will reduce or hold 

 SDurge s.ands and prevent seed formation. 

 The sheep must be turned in prior to the 

 bud stage of growth and in great enough 

 numbers to graze off all spurge. Rotate 

 the grazing — this gives the spurge and 

 grass a chance to recover before grazing 

 a second or third time. This tends to 

 deplete the root reserves and hopefully 

 "starve" out the root system, 



A combination of treatments including 

 grass resecding, or fertilization, grazing 

 and the use of chemicals is probably the 

 only real effective means of slowing down 

 the spurge threat. 



For further dotal Is ask your County 

 Agent, Weed District Supervisor or SCS 

 technician for a copy of leaflet 174, CES. 



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