There are several key points in the revegetation
process. One good point is that you should focus on having a very
good healthy plant community and not just killing the weed itself.
(2,5) Having a good healthy plant community will be able to stop
weeds much more effectively then having a non healthy plant community
(such as one that is over grazed
or has been sprayed with herbicides that kill all the forbs and leave
only
the grasses, thus an incomplete plant community). When you have a
healthy plant community it will keep away the weeds and you will not
even know its doing it. Getting rid of the weed is a good and
very successful first step, but it is not the most important. To
keep the weeds away you
are going to have to maintain a very lively and healthy plant
community. That is probably one of the best if not the best point
of revegetation. Getting rid of the weed is a secondary key
point. (2)
There are a couple ways you can go about
revegetation. One
way is transplanting, transplanting is taking another desirable plant
species
and putting it in the area to reproduce more of itself and spread
throughout
the area. (2&5) Then when it is spreading over the area it is
taking
over and also is getting rid of that noxious weed. Many people
prefer
this method over other methods because it is easier to do.
Transplants
have been very affective in the Missoula County, Montana region.
The second way you could revegetate an area is to seed it with
beneficial
plants. Seeding can be a very good method. The bad part
about
seeding is it can hard to establish the desired plants without the
weeds.
Seeding is a basic project you seed the type of plant you want to
grow
in that area. Research seed mixes, seeding methods and timing
carefully.
When you seed you want to make sure there are very few resources
available
to the weeds. When the weeds have nothing to live off of they
will
not survive. (2&5)
Making
Revegetation Stronger
One thing that helps to make your plant community
strong is to have not just one plant, but several plants. (2) You
do not just want to throw out a single punch. (3) You need
to plant as many
species of native/desirable plants as possible, and a good mix of
grasses
and forbes. (3) Contact your local extension agent about using
different
seeding methods and different seeding rates. There are also quite
a
few other methods of taking these pesky weeds out of an area. (5)
When
you combine two or more methods you have a better chance of success.
Putting
methods together will make your revegetation plan even stronger. (2,5)