Please save the date for the 2nd annual Do No Harm workshop focusing on 'Considerations for the use of non-local species in ecological restoration'. The event will be held in Davis, CA on November 15th 2016.  For information and to register, go here: http://ucanr.edu/sites/UC_ANR_Do_No_Harm/

Topics covered: Geographical sourcing of reliable ecotypes and species; management of conservation lands and policies constraining management; biogeography and current/future climate considerations for plant material selection, including non-natives; the role of breeding system, genetic structure, and phenotypic plasticity in...

The preliminary agenda for the Aquatic Plant Management Society Annual Meeting, July 17-20 2016, has been posted on the APMS website at http://apms.org/annual-meeting/2016-annual-meeting/.

The APMS annual meeting will be held at the Amway Grand Hotel in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Meeting registration and hotel reservation information is also available at the APMS website.

Elise Gornish, Josh Davy, Travis Bean, and I are testing the use of sheep for management of late-season invasive annual grasses. This trial is taking place at five sites at the Hopland Research and Extension Center – two with barb goatgrass, two with medusahead, and one mixed.

Treatments include grazing at boot stage (32 sheep-days on 324 m²), revegetation with native spp vs forage spp, and treatment with low or high rates of glyphosate at tillering, boot stage, and heading. The main plots are 18 m x 36 m including an 18 x 18 grazing enclosure and are replicated three times at each site. All treatments are crossed, for a total of 48 subplots in each main plot.

Grazing was conducted from mid-April to...

Each of us have the entire blueprint for our bodies contained in every cell, and the same is true of plants. This information is stored in the form of an extremely long molecule known as DNA (in human cells its length is ~6 feet). Studying and understanding DNA in plants has led to many advances in weed science including; the development of herbicide- tolerant crop varieties, understanding the causes of herbicide resistance and understanding the origins and spread of weeds in our environment.

Here in California, the weed science group at UC Davis is utilizing this technology to investigate glyphosate resistance that has been detected in California populations of junglerice. Junglerice is a summer grass weed present in many...