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Chloe
05-20-2015, 10:56 AM
*soapbox*

me (right) and two of my friends took part in an effort, a very wet effort, organized locally to remove false brome, an invasive plant, from some areas here locally in Oregon. Even though some of these invasive plants can look innocent enough they can cause great havoc on an ecosystem and will make it almost impossible to recover once established. This isn't the first time and it certainly won't be the last time we do this but people really need to come together across areas of the state to make a real difference. Research your own area, organize and effort, and help remove invasive plants. You'll appreciate it in the long run as will the ecosystem you are protecting.

11620

This is what false brome can look like once established. It can smother out new trees and native plants and in most case is not palatable for most animals.

11621

Anyway, just thought i'd share.

Private Pickle
05-20-2015, 10:59 AM
You remove it with a square piece of PVC?

Chloe
05-20-2015, 11:01 AM
You remove it with a square piece of PVC?

yes, and with the energy of fireflies :wink:

It just helped us measure

Private Pickle
05-20-2015, 11:02 AM
yes, and with the energy of fireflies :wink:

It just helped us measure

I hear if you rub two fireflies together you will get more fire....flies....

PolWatch
05-20-2015, 11:02 AM
We are fighting invasive water hyacinth in this area....it can take over a lake in a season

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/plants/weeds/hyacinth.html

Polecat
05-20-2015, 11:04 AM
Honeysuckle is the invader in my parts. It can't be eradicated due to the birds feeding on the late fall berries. It requires a constant vigil to keep it off of your property. Same with the mulberry. It we kill all the birds the problem would be more manageable. You in?

PolWatch
05-20-2015, 11:14 AM
Between kudzu on land & hyacinths in the waterways, the south is being taken over. Toss in a few introduced critters like boa constrictors & salt water crocs & life is interesting south of the Mason/Dixon line.

Private Pickle
05-20-2015, 11:14 AM
Honeysuckle is the invader in my parts. It can't be eradicated due to the birds feeding on the late fall berries. It requires a constant vigil to keep it off of your property. Same with the mulberry. It we kill all the birds the problem would be more manageable. You in?

Well they should be tasty with all that honeysuckle. I'm in.

Polecat
05-20-2015, 11:24 AM
Well they should be tasty with all that honeysuckle. I'm in.

Sparrow smoothie comin at ya.

Private Pickle
05-20-2015, 11:25 AM
Sparrow smoothie comin at ya.

Mmmmm sparrrroooww...

Private Pickle
05-20-2015, 11:31 AM
We have bark beetles here. They have devastated millions of acres of Rocky Mountain Forest and there is no way to stop them.

GrassrootsConservative
05-20-2015, 11:34 AM
Why do you hate plants, Chloe ?

Chloe
05-20-2015, 11:38 AM
Why do you hate plants, @Chloe (http://thepoliticalforums.com/member.php?u=565) ?

Mainly I hate how they look at you with such an annoying indifference. It really sets me off. I also find Chlorophyll to be very pretentious.

Chris
05-20-2015, 11:42 AM
Chloe, curious the process you used. If the invasive plant has been there for more than a season it would spread by seed or rhizome and superficial eradication would be only temporary.

GrassrootsConservative
05-20-2015, 11:43 AM
Mainly I hate how they look at you with such an annoying indifference. It really sets me off. I also find Chlorophyll to be very pretentious.

:D I had you mistaken for a tree hugger. Clearly that is not the case for you are a plant terrorist. Immigrant plants even.

Chris
05-20-2015, 11:43 AM
Why do you hate plants, Chloe ?

I hate weeds!!

Captain Obvious
05-20-2015, 11:47 AM
I hate weeds!!

One man's weed is another man's herb.

...wait

donttread
05-23-2015, 03:51 PM
*soapbox*

me (right) and two of my friends took part in an effort, a very wet effort, organized locally to remove false brome, an invasive plant, from some areas here locally in Oregon. Even though some of these invasive plants can look innocent enough they can cause great havoc on an ecosystem and will make it almost impossible to recover once established. This isn't the first time and it certainly won't be the last time we do this but people really need to come together across areas of the state to make a real difference. Research your own area, organize and effort, and help remove invasive plants. You'll appreciate it in the long run as will the ecosystem you are protecting.

11620

This is what false brome can look like once established. It can smother out new trees and native plants and in most case is not palatable for most animals.

11621

Anyway, just thought i'd share.

Not all the invasive species are bad . Look at the Brown Trout and the apple tree

donttread
05-23-2015, 03:53 PM
*soapbox*

me (right) and two of my friends took part in an effort, a very wet effort, organized locally to remove false brome, an invasive plant, from some areas here locally in Oregon. Even though some of these invasive plants can look innocent enough they can cause great havoc on an ecosystem and will make it almost impossible to recover once established. This isn't the first time and it certainly won't be the last time we do this but people really need to come together across areas of the state to make a real difference. Research your own area, organize and effort, and help remove invasive plants. You'll appreciate it in the long run as will the ecosystem you are protecting.

11620

This is what false brome can look like once established. It can smother out new trees and native plants and in most case is not palatable for most animals.

11621

Anyway, just thought i'd share.

Where does the invader come from?

Dr. Who
05-23-2015, 04:09 PM
In my neck of the woods it's purple loosestrife. Pretty plant that was introduced as a domestic perennial once upon a time, now gone alien invader. http://www.invasiveplants.net/plants/purpleloosestrife.htm

PattyHill
05-23-2015, 04:27 PM
Yellow Star Thistle here...

Good work, Chloe!

Redrose
05-23-2015, 08:27 PM
We have a problem weed here and most of the Southeast called kudzu. It covers everything in it's path and suffocates it. It covers hillsides, trees, rocks, wires, everything. In the winter it dies, and looks like ugly dead brown weeds.

It's almost impossible to kill or control.

11661

Private Pickle
05-23-2015, 08:46 PM
We have a problem weed here and most of the Southeast called kudzu. It covers everything in it's path and suffocates it. It covers hillsides, trees, rocks, wires, everything. In the winter it dies, and looks like ugly dead brown weeds.

It's almost impossible to kill or control.

11661

It's quite pretty actually.

Redrose
05-23-2015, 10:25 PM
It's quite pretty actually.

That was my first impression too. It is a large green leafy vine that covers all, even the ugly eye soars.
It looks pretty until you realize it is killing everything beneath it.

Common
05-23-2015, 10:40 PM
We have a problem weed here and most of the Southeast called kudzu. It covers everything in it's path and suffocates it. It covers hillsides, trees, rocks, wires, everything. In the winter it dies, and looks like ugly dead brown weeds.

It's almost impossible to kill or control.

11661

So thats what they call it, I never knew the name, I called it moss

Redrose
05-23-2015, 10:48 PM
So thats what they call it, I never knew the name, I called it moss


We had Spanish Moss in our oak trees in Florida, that stringy brown junk that hangs from the trees, creepy, eerie. I made the mistake of grabbing some out of a tree to put in a floral arrangement and it was full of chiggers. My hands were on fire with the bites.


11662

PattyHill
05-24-2015, 08:26 AM
That was my first impression too. It is a large green leafy vine that covers all, even the ugly eye soars.
It looks pretty until you realize it is killing everything beneath it.


You think they could do something with it in a Dr. Who episode....

Polecat
05-24-2015, 10:24 AM
Ironically kudzu was introduced as a biological measure to control erosion. It is a legacy of environmentalist folly.

PolWatch
05-24-2015, 10:31 AM
Ironically kudzu was introduced as a biological measure to control erosion. It is a legacy of environmentalist folly.

Kudzu reminds me of that old margarine commercial: It's not smart to mess with Mother Nature.

Chloe
05-24-2015, 01:57 PM
Chloe, curious the process you used. If the invasive plant has been there for more than a season it would spread by seed or rhizome and superficial eradication would be only temporary.

All I did was help locate and measure the growth. Others will go out there to try and eliminate it through some different processes.

Green Arrow
05-24-2015, 08:03 PM
Mainly I hate how they look at you with such an annoying indifference. It really sets me off. I also find Chlorophyll to be very pretentious.

Ahhh, too bad I didn't start my POTD four days ago. This totally would have made it.

southwest88
05-24-2015, 10:24 PM
Ironically kudzu was introduced as a biological measure to control erosion. It is a legacy of environmentalist folly.

Almost, not quite. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu

"Origin in the United States[edit (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kudzu&action=edit&section=2)]

"Kudzu was introduced to the United States as an ornamental bush and an effortless and efficient shade producer at the Philadelphia Continental Exposition in 1876. In the 1930s and '40s, the vine was rebranded as a way for farmers to stop soil erosion. Southern farmers were given about eight dollars an hour to sow topsoil with the invasive vine. The cultivation covered over one million acres of kudzu.[7] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu#cite_note-7)
...

"Uses[edit (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kudzu&action=edit&section=4)]

"Soil improvement and preservation[edit (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kudzu&action=edit&section=5)]

"Kudzu has been used as a form of erosion control (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erosion_control) and also to enhance the soil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil). As a legume (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legume), it increases the nitrogen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen) in the soil via a symbiotic relationship (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbiotic_relationship) with nitrogen-fixing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_fixation) bacteria (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteria).[8] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu#cite_note-appalachia-8) Its deep taproots (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taproot) also transfer valuable minerals (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral) from the subsoil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsoil) to the topsoil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topsoil), thereby improving the topsoil. In the deforested section of the central Amazon Basin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Basin) in Brazil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil), it has been used for improving the soil pore-space in clay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay) latosols (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latosol), thus freeing even more water (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water) for plants than in the soil prior to deforestation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation).[9] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu#cite_note-brazil-9)"

(My emphasis - details @ the URL)

So, not the result of mad environmental scientists. & of course, during Dust Bowl days, almost anything that held down topsoil would have been welcomed. (The $8/hour for sowing in the South - which explains the concentration of kudzu there - probably came in very handy @ the time, too.) Course, paying someone to thin out the kudzu back then would have been a lot cheaper too - $8/hr. to sow the stuff was a princely wage. I'm sure they were paying some sharecropper a lot less per hour to get rid of the stuff - apparently it's edible too, by humans & by animals.

Yah, before broadcasting the stuff around, we (Ag Dept, Forestry Dept., etc.) should have run field studies & made sure we could stop the stuff, if that became necessary. Wonder if anyone's done an analysis of whether kudzu could replace corn in manufacturing ethanol or one of the bioalcohols? That would be handy.

We should probably still look into its native environment - Japan - to see what keeps it in check there. I don't remember seeing Japanese landscapes overrun with the stuff. Hmmm - maybe not all that kelp is kelp - ya think? & on the plus side, once you get rid of the stuff, it's improved the soil. Sounds like an excellent multi-purpose crop - feed the people, feed the critters, improve the soil, choke out weeds (& everything else - need to work on that aspect). Sounds like it's a keeper - & also, after all this time, I don't know that we have a safe, effective, inexpensive way to clear it long term from the affected soil.

Dr. Who
05-24-2015, 10:55 PM
Almost, not quite. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu

"Origin in the United States[edit (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kudzu&action=edit&section=2)]

"Kudzu was introduced to the United States as an ornamental bush and an effortless and efficient shade producer at the Philadelphia Continental Exposition in 1876. In the 1930s and '40s, the vine was rebranded as a way for farmers to stop soil erosion. Southern farmers were given about eight dollars an hour to sow topsoil with the invasive vine. The cultivation covered over one million acres of kudzu.[7] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu#cite_note-7)
...

"Uses[edit (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kudzu&action=edit&section=4)]

"Soil improvement and preservation[edit (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kudzu&action=edit&section=5)]

"Kudzu has been used as a form of erosion control (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erosion_control) and also to enhance the soil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil). As a legume (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legume), it increases the nitrogen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen) in the soil via a symbiotic relationship (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbiotic_relationship) with nitrogen-fixing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_fixation) bacteria (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteria).[8] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu#cite_note-appalachia-8) Its deep taproots (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taproot) also transfer valuable minerals (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral) from the subsoil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsoil) to the topsoil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topsoil), thereby improving the topsoil. In the deforested section of the central Amazon Basin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Basin) in Brazil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil), it has been used for improving the soil pore-space in clay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay) latosols (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latosol), thus freeing even more water (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water) for plants than in the soil prior to deforestation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation).[9] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu#cite_note-brazil-9)"

(My emphasis - details @ the URL)

So, not the result of mad environmental scientists. & of course, during Dust Bowl days, almost anything that held down topsoil would have been welcomed. (The $8/hour for sowing in the South - which explains the concentration of kudzu there - probably came in very handy @ the time, too.) Course, paying someone to thin out the kudzu back then would have been a lot cheaper too - $8/hr. to sow the stuff was a princely wage. I'm sure they were paying some sharecropper a lot less per hour to get rid of the stuff - apparently it's edible too, by humans & by animals.

Yah, before broadcasting the stuff around, we (Ag Dept, Forestry Dept., etc.) should have run field studies & made sure we could stop the stuff, if that became necessary. Wonder if anyone's done an analysis of whether kudzu could replace corn in manufacturing ethanol or one of the bioalcohols? That would be handy.

We should probably still look into its native environment - Japan - to see what keeps it in check there. I don't remember seeing Japanese landscapes overrun with the stuff. Hmmm - maybe not all that kelp is kelp - ya think? & on the plus side, once you get rid of the stuff, it's improved the soil. Sounds like an excellent multi-purpose crop - feed the people, feed the critters, improve the soil, choke out weeds (& everything else - need to work on that aspect). Sounds like it's a keeper - & also, after all this time, I don't know that we have a safe, effective, inexpensive way to clear it long term from the affected soil.
It has a number of natural enemies in Asia, however some of those natural enemies would also go hog wild on some indigenous related species, which would just compound the problem. They are still looking for something particularly selective.

southwest88
05-24-2015, 11:54 PM
It has a number of natural enemies in Asia, however some of those natural enemies would also go hog wild on some indigenous related species, which would just compound the problem. They are still looking for something particularly selective.

Yah, if you look @ the URL I provided @ Wikipedia, in Japan apparently kudzu is food - directly, in salads, boiled down, to feed honeybees, jam, as starch, to make paper, glue, basketry, fiber, & on & on. In the US South, the stuff is used for soap, feed, fiber. Apparently we're pretty good @ knocking the stuff down - although something specific that controls/kills only the kudzu would be handy.

Ah, well, can't have everything on a kudzu (?) platter.

PolWatch
05-25-2015, 07:05 AM
Japan can have it! I've lived in areas fighting the kudzu wars and it is a horrible problem. That stuff can take down power lines....just the weight of the vines on the wires is enough to make them sag & break.