Western%20Gulf%20Invasive%20Weed%20Issues:%20a%20regional%20perspective%20from%20the%20USDA-APHIS%20viewpoint

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Western Gulf Invasive Weed Issues a regional
perspective from the USDA-APHIS viewpoint

• Dr. C.L. Ramsey
• USDA-APHIS-PPQ-CPHST
• National Weed Management Lab
• Fort Collins, CO

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Outline

• Invasive weed issues
• APHIS-PPQ weed policies
• Invasive definitions
• Noxious Weed Control and Eradication Act
• National Weed Mgt Lab
• Biocontrol
• Chemical and cultural control
• Restoration

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Biological pollution

• Approx. 5,000 escaped plants in USA
• Florida
• 25,000 exotics
• 900 escaped or 3.6 invasive status
• Cheatgrass reduced fire cycle from 60 110 years
  to 3 5 years
• Cogongrass max. fire temp 458 C

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Cogongrass
Cogongrass infestation Harvested - July
2000 Aerial photo Oct 2003 Site prep- Velpar
ULW 4.7 lb/ac
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Cogongrass Nov. 2005
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Cogongrass Nov. 2005
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Cogongrass Nov. 2005
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Witchweed program

• Witchweed (Striga spp.) is a parasitic weed in
  corn, sorghum, and other economic crops
• ARS started eradication in 1958 in North and
  South Carolina
• APHIS - continuing eradication
• 175 200 million
• 439,781 ac. Initially infested
• 2, 626 ac. treat about 1,000 ac/yr
• Use ethylene to stimulate germination of Striga

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Texas weed programs

• Orobanche ramosa
• Blue flower 22 counties
• White flower Karnes county
• Eradication project about 20 years
• Survey for tropical soda apple
• Jasper county one ranch
• Biocontrol for giant salvinia and hydrilla

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Animal Plant Health Inspection Service - APHIS

• Mission Protect the health and value of
  American agriculture and natural resources
• Goal 1 Safeguard the health of animals, plants,
  and ecosystems in the USA
• Goal 2 Facilitate safe agricultural trade
• Goal 3 Ensure the effective and efficient
  management of programs to achieve APHIS mission

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APHIS Weed Policy Goals

• Goal 1 Exclude Noxious Weeds of quarantine pest
  significance
• Goal 2 Detect and evaluate incipient
  infestations of weeds not known to occur in the
  U.S. and detect and delimit introduced Federal
  Noxious Weeds.
• Goal 3 Control (i.e. suppress, contain, or
  eradicate) populations of high risk weeds
• Goal 4 Develop and Communicate information -
  internally and externally to promote noxious weed
  awareness and action.
• Goal 5. Provide Administrative guidance for the
  APHIS weed program

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Invasive weed lists

• Federal Noxious Weeds
• quarantine based,
• 72 terrestrial spp., 19 aquatic/wetland spp., 68
  parasitic spp.
• State lists
• Texas 30 total species
• Florida 142 total species
• NatureServ 382 species
• Plan to assess 3,500 species
• Ranked by ecological impacts, distribution,
  spread rate, and management difficulty
• Based on current status not predictive listing
• http//www.natureserve.org/getData/plantData.jsp

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Federal Noxious Weed List

• Quarantine pest definition by International Plant
  Protection Convention (IPPC, 1997)
• A pest of potential economic importance to the
  area endangered thereby and not yet present
  there, or present but not yet widely distributed
  and being officially controlled.
• Weed status - widely distributed, or long history
  (long lag phase), or uncontrolled or beyond
  control disqualifies many weeds from being listed

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Federal noxious weeds

• Aquatic and wetland weeds 19 spp.
• Melaleuca quenquinervia (paperbark tree)
• Salvinia molesta (giant salvinia)

? Parasitic weeds gt 68 spp. Cuscuta spp.
(dodders) Orobanche spp. (broomrapes)
? Terrestrial weeds 71 spp. Crupina
vulgaris (common cuprina) Solanum viarum
(tropical soda apple)
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Non-listed weeds

• Tallow tree Popcorn tree
• Purple loosestrife
• Leafy spurge
• Canada thistle
• Spotted knapweed
• Water milfoil
• Japanese knotweed
• Kudzu

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Plant Protection Act (2000)

• Prohibit importation, exportation and interstate
  tradeto prevent intro of noxious weeds
• Permits needed to transport noxious weeds
• Must quarantine biocontrol agents
• Publish a noxious weed list
• Hold, seize, quarantine, treat, destroy, or
  dispose of any plantdeemed to be a plant pest or
  noxious weed
• Use extraordinary emergency measures for new or
  not yet widely distributed weeds in the USA

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Noxious weed definitions

• Alien-exotic plants
• Intentional or accidental introduction
• Not self-replacing or self reproductive
• Naturalized
• Consistent reproduction
• Sustainable populations over several life cycles
• Invasive
• Naturalized spread gt 100 m in lt50 years or 6
  m/3 years for rhizome/stolon spreading plants
• Transformers
• Invasive plants
• Change character, condition, or nature of
  ecosystems over a substantial area

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Plant Protection Act definition

• Noxious weed (PPA 7 USC 7702)
• Any plant or plant product that can directly or
  indirectly injure or cause damage to
• Crops, livestock, poultry, other agric. interests
• Irrigation
• Navigation
• Natural resources of USA
• Public health
• The environment

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Noxious Weed Control and Eradication Act,
NWCEA(2004)

• Approved by Congress and signed by President Bush
  10/10/2004
• Under authority of Secretary of Agriculture and
  delegated to APHIS to implement
• Currently no appropriations
• 7.5 million per year for matching grants
• 7.5 million per year for agreements

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Weed Management Entity

• Is recognized by the state
• Is established for or has expertise/experience
• Controlling noxious weeds
• Increasing public knowledge and education
• May be multi-jurisdictional and multidisciplinary
• May include government representative and /or NGO
  representatives
• Private organizations
• Individuals

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Program types (2005 -2009)

• Grants
• Funding for weed management entities for control
  or eradication of noxious weeds
• Federal cost share not more than 50
• Non-fed share cash or kind
• Project accountability

• Agreements
• Funding for weed management entities for
  financial and technical assistance for the
  control or eradication of noxious weeds
• No cost share
• No project accountability
• Rapid response programs

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Proposed regulations for NWCEA

• Write up regulations and guidelines for grants
  and agreements
• Develop selection criteria for control projects
  and equipment proposals
• Establish regional panels for the selection
  process

• Selection criteria
• Severity of problem
• Likelihood project will resolve problem
• Improve USA capacity to address weed issues
• Provide comprehensive approach
• Other factors

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State noxious weed regulations

• Most western states have active noxious weed
  control at the county level
• Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas
  do not have active control programs
• www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov
• www.nationalplantboard.org

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National Weed Mgt Lab people

• Rick Zink Lab director (pathologist)
• Nada Carruthers entomologist (CA)
• Jeff Drake image analysis (NM)
• Richard Hansen entomologist
• Craig Ramsey weed scientist
• Melinda Sullivan pathologist
• Kenna Van office administrator
• Terrence Walters botanist
• Nehalem Breiter - technician

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Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

• NWML goal develop and promote all available
  weed control and management tools
• Classical biocontrol
• GMO vectors
• Legume cover crops allelopathic properties
• Herbicides
• Bioherbicides Bialophos, essential oils
• Fire
• Pathogens
• Grazing
• Cultural - mechanical

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What is biological control (aka biocontrol)?
the deliberate use of a weeds natural enemies to
reduce the weeds abundance and negative impacts
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What PPQ does in biological control projects
Labs (CPHST)

• Develop target pest lists for biocontrol
  implementation

• Support pre-release surveys for, and research
  on, classical
• biocontrol agents

• Quarantine processing of biocontrol agents

• Field release and redistribution strategies

• Mass rearing of biocontrol agents

• Development and application of pest and agent
  monitoring tools

• Economic analyses of pest and biological control
  impacts

• Collaborate in various biocontrol research
  projects

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Biocontrol sucesses

• Diffuse and spotted
• knapweeds
• Leafy spurge
• Purple loosestrife
• Dalmation toadflax
• Giant salvania

• New releases
• Tropical soda apple
• Saltcedar
• 7 northern states
• Above 37th parallel
• Enters diapause in states below Colorado

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Current biocontrol projects

• Russian knapweed
• Hoary cress
• Perennial pepperweed
• Yellow toadflax
• Japanese knotweed
• Houndstongue
• Future studies
• Cogongrass?
• Country of origin
• Related to sugar cane

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Biological control of leafy spurge (Euphorbia
esula)
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Host specificity/Selectivity

• Most time consuming - adaptability
• Primary criteria single target selectivity
• Need a herbicide or insect that kills just the
  target weed
• Herbivory
• Extensive enough to cause serious injury
• Selective enough to not cause injury to crop or
  desirable plants

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Plant pathogens

• Yellow starthistle
• Exotic pathogen Mediterranean rust fungus
  Puccinia jaceae
• Project initiated in 1978, permitted in 2003
  after 25 years
• Canada thistle best candidate for pathogen
  survey
• Tropical soda apple
• Tobacco mild green mosaic virus
• Endemic mechanically transmitted/no vector
• Hypersensitive response whole plant response
  within hours
• Plant death within days
• Cogongrass
• Bioherbicide
• Two fungi Bipolaris sacchari, Drechslera
  gigantea
• Canada thistle

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Biocontrol program

• Advantages
• Low cost over long run
• 111 benefit cost ratio
• Wide spread (regional, or national) infestations
• Public lands, low income land
• Wide spread approval or acceptance

• Disadvantages
• Long term development
• Lack of host specificity
• Crops too related to invasive weed target
• Vectors often in unstable countries
• Place of origin
• Lack of commerical incentives

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Chemical control program

• Advantages
• Low up front costs
• Systemic
• High availabiltiy
• Medium -high efficacy
• Some selectivity with directed sprays
• Private landowners
• High value lands

• Disadvantages
• Broad spectrum
• Low selectivity
• Multi-applications
• High cost long term
• No control of seedbank
• Off site impacts
• Registration too expensive

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Current issues Herbicide program

• Classic screening studies
• Type of herbicide or adjuvant
• Rate
• Timing
• Weed biology
• Weed ecology
• Restoration

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NWML cultural and chemical control

• Three studies in progress
• Herbicide and adjuvant study for cogongrass
  control
• Activated charcoal to alleviate cogongrass
  allelopathic effects on loblolly pine
• Herbicide and adjuvant study for common tansy
  control

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Weed biology

• Reliable biological mechanisms that predict
  invasiveness?
• Growth parameters
• Photosynthesis rates, water use efficiency (WUE),
  nitrogen use efficency (NUE), leaf size, leaf
  duration
• Soil parameters
• Physical soil moisture reduction
• Chemical reduction in nutrients or pH,
  allelopathic
• Reproductive parameters
• Seed production, seed longevity,

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Invasiveness test

• Microcosm tests
• Uniform conditions
• Replacement series
• Density-dependent series
• Multiple species
• Results in one growing season

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Restoration ecology

• Seed bank
• delayed dormancy
• escapes prolific seed production
• Partial rhizome control
• Perennials with large rhizome systems
• Resprouting
• Soil active herbicides
• High rates long term soil residuals
• Soil degradation
• Chemical saltcedar increases soil salinity
• Yellow starthistle reduces soil moisture
• Knapweed allelopathic root exudates

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Depleting seed banks

• Seed inhibition
• Commerical products - inhibit seed production
• Induce germination/break dormancy
• Plant growth hormones stimulate germination
• Ethylene for witchweed germination
• Sterilize soil
• Methyl bromide
• Soil active herbicides

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Improving rhizome control

• Deplete rhizome reserves
• Repeated defoliation
• Contact herbicides
• Grazing, burning, tillage
• Use controlled release herbicides
• Long term exposure
• Charcoal mixes
• Adjuvants to increase adsorption and
  translocation
• Increase photosynthesis increase sugar
  production increase sugar translocation into
  root systems

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Restoration issues

• Classical conservation grass mixes
• Long-term monitoring of successional rates
• If, or when introduced grass stage may return to
  native vegetation?
• Biocontrol with plants
• Legume cover crops
• Noninvasive, tolerant, highly competitive
• Shade intolerance - high density shade
  inhibition
• Anti-allelopathic, fast growing, evergreen

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Invasive weed websitewww.invasive.org/weeds