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History of the Yellowstone County Weed
Department
Yellowstone County levied its first budget for weed, rodent and insect
control in 1939. Since this time, the weed board deals mainly with
noxious weed control and adopted it’s first weed management plan in 1994
which is on file at the Yellowstone County Weed Department.
Yellowstone County is the 23rd largest county in the state of
Montana and encompasses approximately 1,695,240 acres of land or 2,648
square miles located in the southcentral area of the state. It is
bordered on the north by Musselshell, Rosebud and Golden Valley Counties,
to the west by Stillwater and Carbon Counties, to the south by Big Horn
County and Crow Indian Reservation and to the east by Treasure County.
There are three incorporated cities in the county. They
are Billings – population 91,750; Laurel – population 6,027 and Broadview
– population 187. There are ten towns in Yellowstone County; Commanche,
Acton, Shepherd, Huntley, Worden, Ballantine, Nibbe, Pompey’s Pillar, Custer
and Hesper. Total population including rural areas is approximately
126,158 which reflects a 11.2% increase since 1990. Yellowstone County
is currently the largest county by population in the state.
Right-of-Way Statistics - Yellowstone County right-of-ways consist
of, county roads - 296 miles paved and 809 miles of gravel and approximately
600 miles of subdivision roads. State highways encompass approximately
95 miles of 4-lane interstate and 418 miles of 2-lane secondary and Frontage
Roads. Montana Rail Link and Burlington Northern/Santa Fe railways
have an active weed control program in place for 140 miles of railroad
right-of-way within the county.
Soils of Yellowstone County – Soil mapping was completed in the
1972 soil survey by the Soil Conservation Service. Razor Creek area
was digitized on G.I.S. in 1991. The rest of the county soils are
currently digitized. There are 14 major soil types out of the 166
soil types in Yellowstone County. They include:
1.) Bainville-Elso-McRae
2.) Cushamn-Bainville
3.) Worland-Bainville-Travessilla
4.) Bainville-Travessilla-Rock Land
5.) Wormser-Lavina-Razer
6.) Pierre-Lismas-Kyle
7.) Midway-Heldt
8.) Miggina-Absarokee
9.) McRai-Lohmiller-Keiser
10.) Vanada-McKinzie-Arvada
11.) Halverson
12.) Bew-Allentine
13.) Wanetta-Keiser
14.) Danvers |