Control effort exacerbates invasive‐species problem

Rinella, Matthew J.; Maxwell, Bruce D.; Fay, P.; Weaver, T.; Sheley, Roger L.

doi:10.1890/07-1482.1

Cited by 137 publications

(138 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…In some instances native species of conservation concern did better in the presence of non-indigenous plants when areas remained untreated compared to areas treated with herbicide (Pearson and Callaway 2008;Rinella et al 2009;Louhaichi et al 2012;Lazaran et al 2013). Management of invasive P. australis, even when sustained, may not result in the benefits managers are seeking.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Management of invasive Phragmites australis in the Adirondacks: a cautionary tale about prospects of eradication

et al. 2017

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Invasive plant management (largely mechanical and chemical) consumes an ever-increasing portion of budgets for land management organizations, but metrics of success, other than extent of areas treated or resources expended is rarely available. Here we assess success of managing 346 populations of invasive Phragmites australis (range 0.36-4134 m 2 ; cover 37-75%) in the Adirondack Park in upstate New York, USA. We began by treating 18 patches in 2010 using herbicide; gradually adding patches treated annually or intermittently for a total of 334 by the end of the project period. We monitored each population annually and if P. australis was present mapped its spatial extent and estimated cover. We considered P. australis eradicated when live stems were absent from a site for at least three consecutive years. Our treatments reduced size and cover of P. australis populations and eradication was achieved at 104 of 294 sites. However, probability of eradicating P. australis over a 7-year project timeframe was 0.83 for the smallest patches (0.36 m 2 ), whereas at medium (45 m 2 ) and large patches ([3000 m 2 ) probability of eradication decreased to 0.26 and 0.02, respectively. Our results question efficacy of managing large P. australis populations with the goal of eradication. We urge conservation organizations to clearly articulate management objectives beyond short-term suppression of target plants and to promote accountability by providing quantitative measurements of outcomes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Management of invasive Phragmites australis in the Adirondacks: a cautionary tale about prospects of eradication

et al. 2017

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“…increasingly difficult to use because of popular sentiment. Herbicides may have negative effects on native species (Cornish and Burgin 2005;Rinella et al 2009;Rodriguez and Jacobo 2013), but in systems such as California grasslands, where exotic species exert a strong competitive effect on native survival, the net effect of herbicides is usually positive .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficacy of Exotic Control Strategies for Restoring Coastal Prairie Grasses

Holl

Howard

Brown

et al. 2014

Invasive plant sci. manag.

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Restoration in Mediterranean-climate grasslands is strongly impeded by lack of native propagules and competition with exotic grasses and forbs. We report on a study testing several methods for exotic plant control combined with planting native grasses to restore prairies in former agricultural land in coastal California. Specifically we compared tarping (shading out recently germinated seedlings with black plastic) once, tarping twice, topsoil removal, herbicide (glyphosate), and a control treatment in factorial combinations with or without wood mulch. Into each treatment we planted three native grass species (Elymus glaucus, Hordeum brachyantherum, and Stipa pulchra) and monitored plant survival and cover for three growing seasons. Survival of native grass species was high in all treatments, but was slightly lower in unmulched soil removal and control treatments in the first 2 yr. Mulching, tarping, and herbicide were all effective in reducing exotic grass cover and enhancing native grass cover for the first 2 yr, but by the third growing season cover of the plant guilds and bare ground had mostly converged, primarily because of the declining effects of the initial treatments. Mulching and tarping were both considerably more expensive than herbicide treatment. Topsoil removal was less effective in increasing native grass cover likely because soil removal altered the surface hydrology in this system. Our results show that several treatments were effective in enhancing native grass establishment, but that longer term monitoring is needed to evaluate the efficacy of restoration efforts. The most appropriate approach to controlling exotics to restore specific grassland sites will depend not only on the effectiveness, but also on relative costs and site constraints.

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“…Decreased competition with cheatgrass and increased soil water availability can cause increased establishment of annual forbs (Ducas et al 2011), and both of these conditions likely occurred in the initial years after treatment Roundy et al 2014b). Efforts to control exotic plant species often result in secondary invasion by nontarget exotic plant species (Rinella et al 2009;Larson and Larson 2010). On WY shrub and WY PJ sites, treatments that decrease woody species competition may release both cheatgrass and annual forbs and increase fine fuels if sites lack sufficient native, perennial herbaceous species to effectively compete for increased resources.…”

Section: Resistance To Cheatgrass and Other Annual Exoticsmentioning

confidence: 99%