Thank you for your interest in reporting a weed sighting! Your help in locating these species is very much appreciated.

Note: the information below applies only to King County residents. If you are elsewhere in Washington State, find your county's weed board here: Washington Weed Boards A-Z. If you live outside of Washington, contact your local department of natural resources to see if you have any local programs that deal with noxious weeds.

If you are looking for our “report-a-weed” form or “King County Connect” app, we are sorry to inform you that these programs have been discontinued due to a lack of capacity from staffing shortages. Your reports are still incredibly important to us and we ask that you read further to learn about our new (temporary) weed reporting system.

How you report will depend on if the weed is required for control in King County. Our team of specialists is dedicated to the control of regulated noxious weeds. While we do not generally have the ability to work on non-regulated weeds, we are happy to help you formulate a control strategy for the weeds on your property.

The first step of reporting is to identify your weed! If you’re having trouble identifying your weed, see the “Plant ID Help” section below.

Once you know the name of your weed, you can find out if its regulated or not on its weed detail page or by finding it on this year’s weed list.

All weeds can be documented and reported in iNaturalist (see “iNaturalist” section below for more info). This option is best if you are not seeking assistance from the program in controlling the weeds on your property or for weeds not on your property. We receive all reports of listed weeds within King County’s boundaries and respond to priority regulated weeds. This tool also shares its information with EDDMapS so that it can be made accessible to everyone including scientists, researchers, land managers, land owners, foresters, farmers, parks, etc.

Regulated Weeds

• Please notify us if you see a regulated weed growing in King County. Our program staff can provide the property owner or appropriate public agency with site-specific advice on how best to remove it. We map all known locations of regulated noxious weeds in order to help us and others locate new infestations in time to control them.
• To report: email noxious.weeds@kingcounty.gov with a photo and location description if possible.

Non-Regulated Weeds

• If the weed is on your property and you are interested in creating a weed management plan: contact us by email at noxious.weeds@kingcounty.gov or by phone at 206-477-WEED (206-477-9333), or visit our home page for more resources.
• If the weed is NOT on your property: we unfortunately do not have the authority or ability to follow up on these reports. If you know the landowner, please have them follow the step above. You are welcome to contact us to discuss these infestations, but please know that we do not have the resources to control the weeds ourselves nor do we have the authority to contact private landowners about non-regulated weeds. If the weeds are on public property and posing a safety risk or any other serious issue, we suggest contacting the property’s land manager: King County Parcel Viewer.

Plant ID Help

Identifying your weed is the most important step to a helpful report. There are many ways to get started! Here's just a couple our specialists prefer.

Using characteristics about the weed for Washington weeds: use the Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board’s “identify a weed” form: link to form

Using your phone camera for all plants (and living organisms) : use the phone app “seek” by iNaturalist to ID using AI technology with your camera or a photo: link to seek info and app

• See next section about how this helps us track weeds!

If the options above do not suit your needs, you are welcome to send us a photo of your weed with a general description of where its growing and any other information that may be helpful, but recommend giving these options a try! Email: noxious.weeds@kingcounty.gov.

iNaturalist

iNaturalist is a joint initiative by the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society. iNat allows you to identify, record, and share your observations in nature, weeds included! When you “observe” a listed weed within King County, it automatically gets added to our project which you can find here: King County Noxious Weeds and Monitor List · iNaturalist. We regularly check the observations and are notified when a regulated weed is found. The observations are further shared to the EDDMapS project.

First, you will need to make an account with iNaturalist. In order to contribute to the project page, you will need to turn on your location or manually pin point the location where the weed was found.

There are two ways to make observations:

1. Using the “seek” by iNaturalist mobile app mentioned in the section above: link to seek info and app
1. You give less details about the sighting and cannot make any notes
2. App can help you ID plants live or via photo (requires mobile device, no computers).
2. Using the “iNaturalist” mobile app or website: 
   A Community for Naturalists · iNaturalist
1. You can input details about the site, day, species, etc.
2. App or website can help you narrow down your plant to a list of species based on the photo you provide
3. You can join and explore our project page and many others
4. Community forums allow you to connect with other naturalists

Thank you for helping us locate weeds in King County!

No matter how you do it, we are grateful for your help. 

Keep up to date with the latest weed news by following us on Instagram @kingcountyweeds

 If you have any further questions, please contact our office by email at noxious.weeds@kingcounty.gov or by phone at 206-477-WEED (206-477-9333), or visit our home page for more resources.

Related information

• Agriculture in King County, Washington
• Northwest yard and garden
• Animals, plants and habitat

Related agencies

• Dept. of Natural Resources and Parks
• Water and Land Resources Division

Program offices are located at 201 S. Jackson St., Suite 600, Seattle, WA 98104. To contact staff, see the Noxious Weed Control Program Directory, send an email, or call 206-477-WEED (206-477-9333).