When an infestation of rush skeleton weed (Chondrilla juncea L.) is found, land managers need to determine how long a search radius should be in order to locate other patches that may be linked by seed dispersal processes. It is expected that small patches likely derive from larger patches. To test this idea, we examined the potential influence of infestation size on rush skeleton weed dispersal using an area located across the Salmon River Canyon, Idaho. Assuming larger infestations to be older infestation sources, infestations larger than 40 ha were buffered from 1 km to 20 km. Based on the distribution of rush skeleton weed infestation sizes and previous observations of the authors , infestations under 40 ha were classified into two size classes (Small: less than 1.6 ha and Large: more than 1.6 ha). The number of infestations within each category was counted and the respective proportions calculated. The proportions of infestation were then modeled separately for each size class as a function of distance using nonlinear regression models. For small infestations, the proportion of infestation increased with increasing distance up to 12 km. A similar increasing pattern was seen for large infestations with a maximum distance estimated at 17.5 km, suggesting that large infestations require a longer search radius. Land managers need to prioritize in searching for small satellite rush skeleton weed infestations within 12 km while large infestations will require a radius of 17.5 km from the source population. Long-tailed dispersal curves suggest both the smaller and larger infestations should receive similar importance when setting priorities to manage for preventing additional dispersal.