- Re-posted by: Gale Perez
From the Western IPM Center e-newsletter for Feb. 2020
New Risk Assessments Just Posted for Invasive Weeds
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service recently posted Weed Risk Assessments for a dozen new weeds of concern.
Eleven of the 12 are already documented in the West.
The purpose of the assessments is to evaluate the...
- Author: Gale Perez
I just read Ben Faber's blog post titled "Weed ID in Your Hands" from the Topics in Subtropics blog. Ben mentions,
"Who says you can't know all those wild things growing in the field you didn't put there? Here's a chance to learn what they are for cheap. UC Publications is having a book sale and they are a deal until February 14."
These are the lowest prices I've seen for these...
- Author: Travis M Bean
New research published in PNAS (Fusco et al 2019) highlights the role of invasive grasses in creating new wildfire regimes at not just local but regional scales. Weed scientists are familiar with the concept of the grass-fire cycle (D'Antonio and Vitousek 1992): exotic grass invasions promote hotter or more frequent fires, which in turn facilitates more extensive grass invasion, causing more fires, etc. Perhaps now is the right time to better educate non-scientists about this critical concept as wildfires take up more of the public's...
- Author: Rebecca Ozeran
Many factors make weed management on federal public lands an interesting challenge.
In September I was invited to join one of the Sierra National Forest Rangeland Management Specialists to explore a medusahead infestation in one of the grazing allotments she manages. The infested meadow used to be a homestead, though the only obvious reminder is the cluster of still-productive apple trees in the middle of an otherwise grass-dominated site. Pines and other conifers border the meadow, and a forest road divides the meadow into two parts. The portion uphill of the road is steeper and has more trees interspersed with the herbaceous vegetation, while the downhill portion is a more expansive, gentler sloping meadow. Due to the...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
- Re-posted by: Gale Perez
From the ANR News Blog on Sept. 19, 2019
The USDA has announced it will allow the release of a weevil (Ceratapion basicorne) in the United States to help control yellow starthistle, an invasive weed found in 40 of the lower 48 states, reported Capital Public Radio. The weevils will initially be released in California.
Ceratapion basicorne is native to Eurasia, the same area where yellow starthistle originated. Yellow starthistle is thought to have been introduced into California from Chile during the Gold Rush. The weed readily took hold in California...
