The lawyer warned about fines of up to 700 thousand rubles for legal entities for a hogweed on the site

Land owners may face serious fines if they do not take measures to destroy the Sosnovsky hogweed. Sofya Lukinova, head of the Legal department of VMT Consult, told Izvestia about this on March 10.

According to her, the fight against this plant is now considered by the state as an important environmental task. Sosnovsky's hogweed is an aggressive invasive species that spreads rapidly and displaces native vegetation. In addition, the plant is dangerous to humans and animals: its juice can cause severe skin burns, especially when exposed to sunlight.

The expert explained that the legislation obliges land owners to monitor the condition of their territory and prevent dangerous plants from overgrowing.

Violations are detected within the framework of state and municipal land control. Inspectors can carry out scheduled and unscheduled inspections, including at the request of citizens or local governments. An inspection of the territory is recorded by an act of inspection, and photofixation is often used.

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If it is established that the site is overgrown with hogweed and the owner does not take measures to destroy it, a protocol on an administrative offense is drawn up. After that, the owner may be fined, the lawyer said.

The amount of sanctions depends on the status of the land owner. For citizens, the fine can range from 20 to 50 thousand rubles, for officials — from 50 to 100 thousand rubles. The most serious sanctions are provided for legal entities — from 400 to 700 thousand rubles.

At the same time, as Lukinova noted, when considering the case, circumstances may be taken into account indicating that the owner of the land took measures to combat the plant. For example, if the owner has started processing the site, has signed a work contract, or can confirm that the hogweed has appeared recently and it takes time to destroy it.

In such cases, it is possible to limit yourself to a warning or a minimum fine, since the inaction of the site owner is considered a key factor in bringing to justice.

February 5, PhD, Curator of Chemistry and Biology, Evening Natural Science School (VENSH) Ksenia Lebedeva-Georgievskaya and Yaroslav Lebedev, senior lecturer at the Department of Environmental Management at the RUDN University Institute of Ecology, warned in an interview with Izvestia about the danger of the ash-leaved maple to humans. According to him, plant pollen is a strong allergen and can cause severe manifestations of seasonal allergies, including hay fever.

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