TNC Invasive Species Listserve Digest #129


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Global Invasive Species Team listserve digest #129
Tue Sep 07 2004 - 17:38:24 PDT

--CONTENTS--
1. Ehrharta species distributions (Nationwide, USA)
2. National Park System weed tracking (California and NE USA)
3. Deep-rooted sedge management information (Southeastern states, USA)
4. Gallery of Pests on-line! (North America)
5. Syringa vulgaris control (Wisconsin, USA)
6. Salvinia in Virginia (Virginia, USA)
7. Invasives meetings (Global, Planet Earth)
8. Detection alert: Cardamine impatiens (Nationwide, USA)
9. PTI 2005 Request for proposals (Nationwide, USA)
10. Weed ID cards (Nationwide, USA)
11. Literature reviews (Global, Planet Earth)

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1. Ehrharta species distributions (Nationwide, USA)
From: Mark Frey (runcator(at)yahoo.com)

I am compiling information on Ehrharta erecta (and hopefully E. calycina and
E. longifolia) and would appreciate information on its distribution.
According to hear.org, Ehrharta erecta occurs in Hawaii on Maui. The web
site at plants.usda.gov lists it throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, and
in San Diego, Los Angeles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara counties in southern
California.

Do you know of it anywhere else?

If you any other information about its ecology or control I would appreciate
that too.

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2. National Park System weed tracking (California and NE USA)
From: Jennifer Sunderland (jsunderl(at)cnr.colostate.edu)

The National Park Service Ecosystem Restoration Program is sponsoring an
initial effort in California and the northeastern United States to develop a
database of restoration techniques related to alien plant invasions. We
would like to know what techniques you are testing to restore native plant
communities after weed control, and what you have learned. Although local
information systems are the basis for local decision making, the knowledge
of practitioners only rarely reaches broad audiences through professional
research or trade journals. We intend to collect and organize this
information so that it is accessible to land managers.

Please click on http://www.nrel.colostate.edu/~jsunderl/ to respond to the
posted questions. If you
would rather relay your experiences via phone or in person please call me at
(970) 231-9069.

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3. Deep-rooted sedge management information (Southeastern states, USA)
From: Mandy Tu (imtu(at)tnc.org)

I recently witnessed several new infestations of deep-rooted sedge (Cyperus
entrerianus) at two TNC preserves and a National Wildlife Refuge in coastal
Texas. The fine preserve managers at these sites are now developing a
research project to determine best management practices for this species
(including combinations of mowing, fire and herbicide), which is apparently
present in populations from Texas to Florida. Do you have any information or
experience managing deep-rooted sedge?

To see photos, current distribution and a weed alert (from Weed
Technology) about deep-rooted sedge, click on the urls below.
http://www.invasive.org/eastern/species/10954.html
http://www.valdosta.edu/~rcarter/research/cypentr.htm

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4. Gallery of Pests on-line! (North America)
From: Barry Rice (bamrice(at)ucdavis.edu)

We are pleased as can be to announce a new "Gallery of Pests" on our web
site. You have no doubt heard about the usual "bad bugs" like gypsy moth,
hemlock woolly adelgid, sudden oak death, etc., that are damaging so many of
our forests. But it can be quite difficult to understand which are which,
and also what invaders you should be concerned about in your own forests.
Now there is a place you can go to learn about these "bad bugs" (really a
combination of various arthropods and pathogens). Faith Campbell wrote up a
series of reviews, and we have them on-line, fully illustrated, for your
edification. We even have a regional listing of these pests and pathogens,
so you can see which ones are of particular concern for you in your region.

See: http://tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/gallery.html

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5. Syringa vulgaris control (Wisconsin, USA)
From: Jay Walters (jay.walters(at)dnr.state.wi.us)

I am looking for anyone with information on controlling Lilac (Syringa
vulgaris). We have an infestation about 1 acre in size and are looking for
anyone with information on controlling this species.

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6. Salvinia in Virginia (Virginia, USA)
From: Curtis Hutto (curtis.hutto(at)dcr.virginia.gov)

I just wanted to let you all know that our botanists have discovered a
population of Salvinia molesta at a small pond in Shenandoah County,
Virginia. This is in northern VA at the northern end of the Shenandoah
Valley. The pond is small, probably less than 1/4 acre. This is the only
known population in VA to my knowledge. It is located on private land, and
we are currently in the process of acquiring permission to access the
property for control efforts. I am not sure if the population can sustain
itself over the winter, but I don't want to sit back and wait either.

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7. Invasives meetings (Global, Planet Earth)
From: Barry Rice (bamrice(at)ucdavis.edu)

A spate of Autumn invasives meetings approach. For example, California and
Connecticut will both be hosting meetings in the first week of October! For
more information on these meetings, look at our web site calendar at:
http://tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/meetings.html

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8. Detection alert: Linaria dalmatica in Alaska (Nationwide, USA)
From: Barry Rice (bamrice(at)ucdavis.edu)

NatureServe reports on a recent listserve notice that Linaria dalmatica has
been detected in Alaska by Bruce Bennett. Bruce wrote:

This summer on July 9th, I collected Linaria dalmatica from along the
shoulder of the Alaska Highway west of Watson Lake Yukon Territory along the
Rancheria River 60.14118405N -130.23077353W. I only found one plant; however
it had over wintered at this site, since there were the remains of last
year's flowering stalk. I subsequently collected this plant so hopefully
there aren't any others.

I believe this is the first record of this invasive species from north of 60
degrees although the smaller Linaria vulgaris is quite common (and
spreading) in most Yukon communities.

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9. PTI 2005 Request for proposals (Nationwide, USA)
From: Jonathan Mawdsley (jonathan.mawdsley(at)nfwf.org)

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) is pleased to announce a
Request for Proposals for the 2005 Pulling Together Initiative (PTI) grant
program. This grant program provides modest support to local community
partnerships working to control invasive and noxious weeds.

For more information about this grant program, including information about
current program priorities, instructions for applicants, and application
deadlines, please visit our website, http://www.nfwf.org/programs/pti.htm

Please note, application procedures have changed substantially from previous
years of this grant program. Applications are now being accepted through
the Foundation's online application system.
Preproposals will need to be submitted online no later than COB on October
29th, 2004. Please visit our website for more details.

If, after reviewing the web materials, you have any questions about PTI,
please feel free to contact myself or our grants administrator, Ellen
Lippincott for clarification.

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10. Weed ID cards (Nationwide, USA)
From: Mary McFadzen (mmcfadzen(at)montana.edu)

The Center for Invasive Plant Management has just produced identification
cards of four weed species to aid in your early detection efforts. The
front sides of these 4"x7" rack cards show the entire plant. The back sides
contain information on why someone should get to know this weed, how to
identify it (three characteristics of the species are identified on a
photograph), and where to report sightings (includes space to insert contact
information).

The cards, which cost $1 for 15 cards, can be viewed in a PDF and ordered on
our web page. The cards are the same four species as our weed models:
Dalmatian toadflax, leafy spurge, spotted knapweed, and yellow starthistle.

Follow the link on our home page under What's new? or go to "Products and
Publications" on the side bar.

http://www.weedcenter.org/

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11. Literature reviews (Global, Planet Earth)
From: John Randall (jarandall(at)ucdavis.edu)

Padilla, D.K. and S.L. Williams. 2004. Beyond ballast water: aquarium and
ornamental trades as a source of invasive species in aquatic systems.
Frontiers in Ecology 2(3): 131-138.

The authors found that one third of the world's worst aquatic invasive
species are aquarium or ornamental aquatic species. Over 150 species of
animals, plants and microbes (the majority of them freshwater fish), that
have invaded natural ecosystems are known to have come from aquariums and
aquatic ornamental culture. Trade in these organisms is a $25 billion
dollar worldwide business which continues to grow rapidly, and even now the
United Nations promotes ornamental fish culture and harvest as a pathway to
environmentally sustainable development. Thus, introductions of aquatic
invaders by these pathways continue to pose severe threats to aquatic
systems across the globe. The authors advocate use of economic analyses to
resolve conflicts between sustainable development projects involving
aquaculture and trade in aquatic species and the threats of release of
aquatic invaders that they pose. They also state that collaboration with
the industry will be essential for success in educating buyers and sellers,
certifying stock and preventing species from being released.

Rogers, W.E. and E. Siemann. 2004. Invasive ecotypes tolerate herbivory more
effectively than native ecotypes of Chinese tallow. Journal of Applied
Ecology 41(3): 561-570.

Siemann, E. and W.E. Rogers. 2003. Increased competitive ability of an
invasive tree may be limited by an invasive beetle. Ecological Applications
13(6): 1503-1507.

Chinese tallow trees collected in Asia, where they are native, and Chinese
tallow gathered in Texas where the species was introduced over 200 years
ago, were planted in common gardens in Texas and Hawaii. The fast-growing,
poorly-defended-against-herbivores Texas genotype grew significantly larger
than the Asian genotype in the Texas common garden where herbivory on this
species is uniformly low. In contrast, the slower growing, better-defended
Asian genotype grew significantly larger in the common garden in Hawaii
where Chinese tallow is not native but where an Asian herbivore that feeds
on it (the Chinese rose beetle, Adoretus sinicus) is common. These results
support the "evolution of increased competitive ability" hypothesis (EICA)
which proposes that invasive plants thrive in their introduced ranges
because they evolve to shift resources away from defense against herbivores,
and towards increased growth rates. Other observations and experiments have
yielded mixed results for the EICA hypotheses, providing support in some
cases and failing to do so in others. Overall this may be evidence that
some plant species such as Chinese tallow do indeed evolve to become more
competitive and so more invasive in their introduced ranges, while other
species that do not evolve increased competitive ability nonetheless become
invasive.

Rogers, W.E. and E. Siemann. 2004. Invasive ecotypes tolerate herbivory more
effectively than native ecotypes of Chinese tallow. Journal of Applied
Ecology 41(3): 561-570.

The title is summary enough for this companion to the article described
above.

Garcia-Rossi, D., N. Rank and D.R. Strong. 2003. Potential for
self-defeating biological control? Variation in herbivore vulnerability
among invasive Spartina genotypes. Ecological Applications 13(6):
1640-1649.

Populations of Atlantic saltmarsh cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) in both
Washington state's Willapa Bay and California's San Francisco Bay were
studied. Both populations are fed upon by a species of plant-hopper that
specializes in cordgrasses. The Washington Spartina population was found to
contain genotypes which varied more in their ability to resist the
planthopper than did genotypes from California. Among the Washington
population, some genotypes suffered >50% shoot death while other genotypes
suffered no loss of shoots when exposed to the plant-hopper. The authors
argue that the presence of a tolerant Spartina genotype in Washington does
not bode well for the successful biocontrol of Spartina around Willapa Bay
where the plant-hopper, Prokelisia marginata, was recently released. They
predict that the plant-hopper may at first reduce the abundance of Spartina
by rapidly building up populations on and killing the susceptible
gentotypes, but that over time the tolerant genotype will spread back into
these areas unless it is quickly controlled with herbicides and mechanical
methods.

Yandoc, C.B. R. Charudattan and D.G. Shilling. 2004. Suppression of
cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica) by a herbicidal fungus and plant
competition. Weed Science 52: 649-653.

This study indicates that cogongrass may be successfully controlled by
combining applications of the fungus Bipolaris sacchari as a bioherbicide
with competition from a desirable grass. Cogongrass suffered 64% reduction
in fresh weight and 74% reduction in numbers of rhizomes after application
of the fungal spores while the "desirable" (but non-native) competitor used
in the experiments, bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum v. saurae), suffered only
slight damage and recovered quickly. Although bahiagrass is not native to
the southeastern US where this work was carried out, it is generally
considered relatively non-aggressive, and while tenacious where it had been
planted and well-established in pastures that are now being restored to
native vegetation, it does not generally spread into native vegetation.