Section 7270.

The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) The destructive impact of invasive and often poisonous noxious weeds is profound, affecting California's cropland, rangeland, forests, parks, and wildlands.

(b) These pests cause enormous losses of private, state, and federal resources through decreased land productivity, degradation of wildlife habitat, and outright destruction of crops, livestock, wetlands, waterways, watersheds, and recreational areas.

(c) The estimated lost crop productivity caused by noxious weeds is seven billion four hundred million dollars ($7,400,000,000) nationwide, a large proportion of which is attributable to California. Nationally, the direct and indirect costs of controlling noxious weeds may be as high as five billion four hundred million dollars ($5,400,000,000) annually.

(Amended by Stats. 2000, Ch. 315, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2001.)