By Ashley Stewart, Owatonna People’s Press

OWATONNA — An abundance of yellow flowers line the ditches along Highway 218 between Owatonna and Blooming Prairie, but they aren’t here to stay.

At least that’s the hope of the Steele County Cooperative Weed Management Association that was created last week by the Steele County Board of Commissioners.

Some of those yellow flowers are harmful.

“People don’t realize it, but it’s really bad,” said Dan Vermilyea, Steele County agricultural inspector. “It’s the most dangerous.”

Those yellow flowers belong to an invasive weed called wild parsnip.

“Animals can’t eat it, and people can’t touch it,” Vermilyea said. “Wild parsnip has taken over several roadways quite predominantly in Steele County.”

Vermilyea said the sap in wild parsnip causes blisters when exposed to the sun.

“[Wild parsnip] is our biggest concern because it causes serious damage to people when they’re exposed to it,” he said.

But it isn’t the association’s only concern.

In May, Vermilyea and other members of the association, including three township officials, Steele County Commissioner Bruce Kubicek and Eric Gulbransen with the Steele County Soil and Water Conservation District, met to determine the four weeds that were most concerning.

Vermilyea said those weeds include wild parsnip, leafy spurge, Queen Annes lace and Canada Thistle, which are included on Minnesota’s prohibited noxious weed list.

And the county has been working to find ways to manage those weeds.

Last year, Steele County applied for a Clean Water Legacy grant to inventory and develop control measures for invasive weeds, but the county was not selected in part due to it not having a weed management group, Vermilyea said.

The county board passed a resolution last week to create a formal group, the association, to develop a list of weeds and apply for grant funding.

The association has asked the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the Steele County Highway Department, the Minnesota Department of Transportation and several townships to complete an inventory of the invasive weeds on their property in the county by the end of August, so it has an idea of the weed presence.

“We’re primarily looking at public roads and rights of way to see how much is really in the county,” Vermilyea said. “We can’t eradicate them, but we can manage them.”

He said once the county’s invasive weed inventory is established, it will send it to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to apply for grants to address the issue.

“With that funding we would start a pilot project in two or three townships,” Vermilyea said.

Anthony Cortilet with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture said Steele County is unique.

“A lot of counties will not go above and beyond the mandate under the noxious weed law, but Steele County wants to try to do more without using a big pile of money,” he said.

But Cortilet did say that creating a weed management group would help the county greatly in obtaining funding sources, educating the public and reaching out to landowners about invasive weeds.

Vermilyea said the association’s goal is to find a way to manage these weeds so people, animals and habitats remain safe.

“We don’t want people getting injured by a weed in the county,” he said.