A person owning or possessing real estate in Indiana shall destroy detrimental plants by cutting or mowing and, if necessary, by plowing, cultivating, or smothering, or by the use of chemicals in the bud stage of growth or earlier, to prevent those detrimental plants from maturing on any such real estate.

If the township trustee determines after investigating the property or by visual inspection without entering the property that a person has detrimental plants growing on real estate in the township that have not been destroyed, the trustee of the township in which the real estate is located shall notify, in writing, the owner or person in possession of the real estate to destroy the detrimental plants within five (5) days after the notice is given.

If the detrimental plants are not destroyed within five (5) days after notice is given, the trustee shall cause the detrimental plants to be destroyed in a manner seeming most practical to the trustee within three (3) additional days. The trustee may hire a person to destroy the detrimental plants. The trustee or the person employed to destroy the detrimental plants may enter upon the real estate where the detrimental plants are growing to destroy the detrimental plants, and are not civilly or criminally liable for damage to crops, livestock, or other property occurring while carrying out such work, except for gross negligence or willful or wanton destruction.

If the county has established a county weed control board, the township trustee may notify the county weed control board of the real estate containing detrimental plants, and the board shall either assume jurisdiction to control the detrimental plants or decline jurisdiction and refer the matter back to the township trustee. The county weed control board shall notify the township trustee of the board's decision.

Indiana Code: IC 15-3-4