Invasive Plants Association of Wisconsin
The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) released a Commentary, Biofuel Feedstocks: The Risk of Future Invasions, as part of the joint annual meetings of the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America, and the Soil Science Society of America in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Nov. 5, 2007. The concern raised is that several of the candidate biofuel feedstock species being considered for commercial production in the United States are invasive pests in other regions where they have been introduced. Therefore, the objectives of this Commentary are to describe the potential risk of dedicated lignocellulose biofuel species becoming weedy or invasive, and to provide a process to quantify and, subsequently, minimize this risk.
Critical questions this Commentary will address include the following:
Breeding and genetic engineering for enhanced environmental tolerance, increased harvestable biomass production, and enhanced energy conservation through fermentation may have unexpected ecological "consequences outside the agronomic framework,"says Task Force Chair Dr. Joseph M. DiTomaso, Extension Non-Crop Weed Ecologist, University of California, Davis. "The potential societal benefits of a biologically based energy crop supply are great, but the introduction and development of biofuel crops should be conducted to minimize the risk of these proposed feedstock species escaping cultivation and causing economic or environmental damage."
The full text of Biofuel Feedstocks: The Risk of Future Invasions (CAST Commentary QTA 2007-1) is available online at the CAST website (www.cast-science.org).
This topic is similar to the symposium that will occur during the Weed Sci. Soc. of America meeting in Chicago on Feb. 4-7: "Invasive plant species and the new bioeconomy."
by Tom Brock 7/20/07
At present it is listed in only a few
counties. Unfortunately, one of these is Dane County, and at Pleasant Valley Conservancy we now have quite a bit of it. We have been hand pulling for the past two weeks.
It seems to favor savanna, open woods, or woodland edges. In this way
its habitat is similar to garlic mustard. According to research by
Carol and Jerry Baskin in Kentucky, it is a winter annual. The seeds
germinate in the fall of the year they are formed, grow to form
ground-hugging plants, and then continue the following year to finish
their life cycle. Before flowering, the plants are not only hard to see, but the stems are weak, making them difficult to pull. Right now is the time to pull them.
Hedge parsley has become a major problem for us in the past few years, and we are budgeting more effort on it. So far, we have been able to control it by hand pulling.
The UW Herbarium web site has some good photos. Keep an eye out for it in your neck of the woods!
Search for registered pesticide products, the companies that sell and use pesticides and the people that apply them.
Guide to Identification and the Impacts and Control of Common North American Species
By Sylvan Kaufman and Wallace Kaufman
This easy-to-use, wide ranging guide to invasive plants in
More information on invasive plants and the authors can be found online at www.invasiveplantgu
Data-driven weed phenology tool that
draws some different graphs from Jerry Doll's emergence/flowering data.
Now it extrapolates to new locations (using Hopkins' Law) and, by
request, draws multi-species Gantt charts.
A new and easy to remember URL... http://weedometer.
Educators - there is a link on the intro/explanatory page to download a
spreadsheet which, from an input city, computes the Hopkins Deviation to
36,000 other US cities.
The Michigan State University IPM Program has three new IPM scouting field guides produced through NC IPM funding and state Project GREEEN:
1) A Pocket Guide for IPM Scouting in Herbaceous Perennials by Jan Byrne (MSU) and Raymond A. Cloyd (KSU).
2) An IPM Pocket Guide for Weed Identification in Nurseries and Landscapes by Steven A. Gower (MSU) and Robert J. Richardson (NCSU).
3) An IPM Pocket Guide for Weed Identification in Christmas trees by Steven A. Gower (MSU) and Robert J. Richardson (NCSU).
Ordering information is posted at this address (Call 517-353-6740 to get a discount for purchasing 10 or more):
http://ipm.msu. edu/pdf/pocketGuidesLandsc07. pdf
weed curriculum for grades K-12 is now online. So if you know any educators who might want to use this, or if you need information for your organization's education/outreach activities, check it out! http://www.weedinvasion.org/weeds/weed_home.php
The Nature Conservancy, Sping 2007
Starting this spring, shoppers at Meijer, a Midwestern chain of home and garden centers, can purchase for their yards regionally native plants such as purple coneflower, red bud and silver maple.
In a groundbreaking partnership, The Nature Conservancy helped Meijer select 119 trees, shrubs and perennials that will carry a new"Recommended Non-Invasive" tag, along with the Conservancy's logo. The stores will also remove two invasives from their inventories: the Norway maple and Lombardy poplar.
The application of livestock grazing to suppress unwanted plants has been around for centuries. Today, targeted grazing by livestock is being rediscovered and honed as an amiable and effective tool to address contemporary vegetation management challenges, like controlling invasive exotic weeds, reducing fire risk in the wildland- urban interface, and finding chemical-free ways to control weeds in organic agriculture. A new handbook was released in December that outlines the basics of applying targeted grazing for vegetation management. This handbook includes 18 chapters and represents a compilation of the latest research on harnessing livestock to graze targeted vegetation in ways that improve the function and appearance of a wide variety of landscapes. The handbook was create through funding from the National Sheep Industry Association and the American Sheep Industry Association (ASI). The handbook is available on-line at: http://www.cnr.
http://www.yubanet.
Screening for Invasive Species Could Save U.S. Billions
By: Union of Concerned Scientists
Published: Dec 19, 2006 at 07:18
A new study shows that screening for potentially harmful foreign plant species before they are imported is more economically beneficial than fighting them after they take root in new areas. Because the United States has no screening program for invasive species, the study focuses on Australia and finds that their prevention efforts pay for themselves with reduced economic damage in just over ten years and result in up to $1.8 billion in savings over 50 years.
See the link above for the full article text.
The Roundup Myth from WildOnes an opinion by Maryann Whitman
... It has become abundantly evident that something other than pure manpower and brute pulling force is necessary to control these interlopers. We do need to control them for the sake of a large number of natives that are being displaced by these plants, and ecosystems that are being disrupted. In order to gain control of these culprits we may need to consider the thoughtful and careful use of herbicides. ...
Congress passes bill for research on eradicating invasive plants
By The Raton Range staff
RATON, New Mexico (STPNS) -- The U.S. Senate last week gave final approval to legislation developed by New Mexico Sens. Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman and Rep. Steve Pearce to establish a federal program to find the best means of eradicating salt cedar and Russian olive vegetation . nonnative plant species that have overtaken most western riparian areas.
New interface for the Global Invasive Species Database (GISD) http://www.issg.
An article in New Scientist (11 March 2006, vol 189, No. 2542, p. 52, also published in Biological Conservation 121:207) described a study conducted by in Australia showing that Velcro closures on outdoor gear are a major source of seed dispersal. This is of course ironic, as the invention of Velcro was based on seed adaptations for animal-mediated dispersal. But it's something all of us should be aware of, as we all wear field gear with Velcro!
New Garlic Mustard flyer from Wild Ones (PDF)
New research on Buckthorn Control
Oliver Pergams and Jim Norton and recently did a study to determine the best way to kill buckthorn. The study was just published in the Natural Areas Journal, and the following is a link to the paper:
http://home.
U.S. invasive species assessments on NatureServe Explorer website: http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/
You'll find assessments for a total 452 non-native plants of the U.S., searchable by name, location, invasive impact rank (I-Rank), or a combination of these criteria. Additional assessments will be available in the fall.
The assessments are the result of applying a systematic protocol (Morse et al. 2004) to determine the degree of impact an individual non-native species has on the native plants, animals, and ecosystems of the United States. Our hope is that these objective and transparent assessments will build consensus and galvanize action.
Invasive Plant Suppresses the Growth of Native Tree Seedlings by Disrupting Belowground Mutualisms
The impact of exotic species on native organisms is widely acknowledged, but poorly understood. Very few studies have empirically investigated how invading plants may alter delicate ecological interactions among resident species in the invaded range. We present novel evidence that antifungal phytochemistry of the invasive plant, Alliaria petiolata, a European invader of North American forests, suppresses native plant growth by disrupting mutualistic associations between native canopy tree seedlings and belowground arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Our results elucidate an indirect mechanism by which invasive plants can impact native flora, and may help explain how this plant successfully invades relatively undisturbed forest habitat. More ...
Invasive Exotic Plant Management Tutorial (Pennsylvania, USA)
The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has recently made available a new tool for land managers dealing with invasive plant problems. The "Invasive Exotic Plant (IEP) Management Tutorial for Natural Lands Managers: A Comprehensive Tool for Addressing Your IEP Needs" is designed as a "one-stop-shop" for users and includes information available on the world-wide web and other forms of media. The information has been organized in a standard format for easy access. Users are provided with sufficient background information on the specific IEP problem that they face along with guidance in the form of a standard management approach so that they can more effectively apply the information to their specific problem. The tutorial was developed with support from the Mid-Atlantic Exotic Pest Plant Council and the DCNR-Wild Resource Conservation Fund and can be found on-line at http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/invasivetutorial/index.htm or www.ma-eppc.org
The Changing Flora of the New York Metropolitan Region
We statistically analyzed 100 years of herbarium specimen data for woody plants in the New York metropolitan region in order to measure the floristic changes of this area. Change index values were computed for 224 of the region’s 556 woody species to provide a specific measure of whether these species are expanding, contracting, or stable. The results show that, in general, nonnative invasive species are spreading rapidly in the region, while native species are in slight decline.
The First Video of a Series on Invasive Species Prevention Best Management Practices: January 2006, the USDA Forest Service, in partnership with the Department of Transportation Federal Highways Administration, the US Fish and Wildlife Service National Wildlife Refuge System, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and others have produced and released the first video of a series on invasive species prevention best management practices. This video targets road maintenance personnel and equipment operators and is called, "Dangerous Travelers — Controlling Invasive Plants Along America’s Roadways". This video is available on DVD or via the internet. The website to view the 26-minute program is
http://www.fs.fed.us/invasivespecies/news.shtml. For additional information, please contact Mike Ielmini, the National Invasive Species Program Coordinator at the USDA Forest Service at (202) 205-1049
TNC’s Weed Information Management System (WIMS)
Reed Canary Grass Management Table - on the Reed Canary Grass page
The Missouri Department of Conservation and the NRCS in that state have developed a web page with photos of seeds, seedlings, juvenile and adult plants of some of the species used in prairie plantings: http://mdc.mo.gov/grownative/plantID/
Wildflower seed mixes include some wicked bloomers
The seed packets have labels with romantic-sounding names such as meadow mixture and wedding wildflowers, while others tout backyard biodiversity and make reference to Earth Day. When growing 19 such packets of wildflower mixes, however, University of Washington researchers found that each contained from three to 13 invasive species and eight had seeds for plants considered noxious weeds in at least one U.S. state or Canadian province. ...
Aquatic Invasives Education Handbook
Includes a compilation of information on statewide programs, resources, contacts, case studies, and action strategies, along with a resource CD filled with articles, fact sheets, presentations, etc. It also provides some suggested approaches for designing successful local education efforts. The handbook was designed to serve as a resource for those who might be interested in taking on this issue but don’t know where to begin, or for individuals working in communities statewide who might be called upon to provide support. The entire handbook and accompanying resource CD contents are available online under "Resources" at: www.uwex.edu/erc/invasives.htm
For those who work with Ailanthus altissima (tree-of-heaven), please read this letter that describes the medical conditions likely brought on by exposure to the sap. Also attached is the fact sheet that Jil Swearingen and Phil Pannill wrote about Ailanthus. This very rapidly growing tree has been primarily an urban weed in S. WI to date, but it is rapidly invading forests further east and south and should be considered a serious potential (or existing) invasive in deciduous forests.
GARLIC MUSTARD DISPOSAL
Having trouble getting your garlic mustard bags picked up?? WDNR staff just sent a letter to all landfills and waste haulers to tell them to go ahead and pick up bags of garlic mustard and send them to the landfill. Currently putting yardwaste in landfills is illegal, but an exemption is being made for garlic mustard and other invasive plants that might survive composting. Just label the bags as "Invasive Plants - Approved by WDNR for landfilling". If your bags still aren't picked up, contact your local DNR Waste Management office.
Invasive weeds should go to the landfill or yard waste composting facility
"Fire as a Tool for Controlling Nonnative Invasive Plants," a comprehensive literature review of prescribed burning and weeds (332 KB pdf file).
Due to the high volume of interest in the February Special Issue of Frontiers, "Visions for an ecologically sustainable future", ESA has decided to make the entire issue available online to the public.
As you are pulling ground ivy out of your woodland, perennial beds and vegetable gardens, keep your eyes open for this rust and send in any samples to Cornell.
Check this link--Cornell looking for help on a new pathogen that may be attacking ground ivy!
http://www.css.cornell.edu/WeedEco/creepingcharlie.htm
Instructions for sending in plant samples and information about the rust fungus (Puccinia glechomatis) are on the site.
After three years' work, our book "Invasive Plants of Asian Origin Established in the United States and Their Natural Enemies Volume 1" was published by USDA Forest Service FHTET at Morgantown, WV at the end of 2004. It contains summaries of existing information on 40 species of plants found in Asia that were introduced either purposefully or accidentally into the United States. All of these species have established populations in the United States and many are designated as invasive. It also includes lists of natural enemies in their native range. .
Also included are maps of US distribution for all plant species. This book is intended to serve as a resource for regulatory and plant protection agencies worldwide.
You may contact Ms. Yun Wu to get a copy:
Yun Wu
Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team USDA Forest Service, 180 Canfield St.
Morgantown, WV 26505
Email: ywu@fs.fed.us
INVASIVE PLANT REPORTING AND PREVENTION PROJECT