SWCA - Western Weed Coordinating Committee

State Weed Coordinators Alliances

The State Weed Coordinators Alliance (SWCA) is a partnership between western/mid-western state departments and providences to facilitate and enhance cooperation and collaboration among states to increase effective management of noxious weeds, provide a forum for intergovernmental communication between the states, federal agencies, local entities and non-governmental organizations, and support sound public policies that will further the goals of detecting, managing and, wherever possible, eradicating noxious weeds.

Objectives: The State Weed Coordinator Alliance serves as the primary entity charged with addressing regional, multi-state noxious weed issues and is composed of lead noxious weed officials of each state.

Establish and maintain effective noxious weed management between the states, and between the states and the federal land management and regulatory agencies.
Provide leadership in identifying, researching, and providing a response to regional and national policy issues.
Promote and sustain regional initiatives and projects that address regional noxious weed issues that cannot be addressed effectively by single states.
Serve as the key organization for engagement with federal agencies on issues involving noxious weeds.

Memorandum Of Understanding

Agreements: To cooperatively manage noxious weed species by preventing their introduction across the states, provide leadership in policy matters, support regional and national initiatives and projects, and engage federal agencies on noxious weed matters, the SWCA strives to:

Develop and maintain an informal Early Detection, Rapid Response multi-state framework.
Work with the federal land managers to enhance communication and share information about noxious weeds across jurisdictional and state boundaries in order to develop a coordinated regional response to noxious weed invasions.
Serve as clearinghouse for identifying, researching, and providing options to address noxious weed issues and deliver responses to the appropriate agency.
Cultivate, sustain, and support regional initiatives and projects that will contribute to effective regional noxious weed management.
Provide and maintain a forum for discussion of state-federal noxious weed issues, (e.g., Western Weed Coordinating Committee, or WWCC), and continue encouraging broad representation at such forums.
Designate a representative(s) from each state to participate in scheduled meetings of the SWCA. An annual meeting and other in-person or remote meetings shall be held as necessary to further the objectives.

SWCA MOA