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