[APWG] State Highway Department Invasive Programs?

[Craig Dremann]

Dear Mark and All,

FRALAW at aol.com wrote:
> 
> Can any one suggest a state highway department who is doing a
> reasonable job at invasive control.

After measuring roadside ecological conditions along over 3,000 miles of
Western roads, perhaps State DOT roadside vegetation management programs
could be put into at least six categories:

1.) CONVERT ROADSIDE EXOTICS back to local native ecosystems--the Iowa
"Ecotype" program, that has been spending about $12 million (FY 2000
dollars) a year to do the right thing, not just manage invasive exotics,
but put the original ecosystems back in their place.  

I understand that this program is Federally funded, when the big
Transportation bills are passed every 5 years or so.

2.) REASONABLE JOB at invasive exotic plant control (and not doing the
conversion process, back to local native plants)?  

Don't know of any.  Since that work is all State funded, and not funded
by the Federal Highway system yet, even for new construction, it "goes
by the wayside" in that mowing or strip-herbicide spraying are usually
the only solutions, and unfortunately mowing usually favors other
exotics over the local native species.

3.) NEGLECTED roadsides.  That's the case of many of the arid Western
states, where the native vegetation stays low growing year-round, or
vegetation is absent like in the Mojave desert.  

However, when a new exotic comes in, there's no State DOT budget to do
anything about that new exotic, so those roadsides are like
sitting-ducks for the invasive, like the 2005-2006 Sahara mustard
invasion at http://www.ecoseeds.com/mustards.html

4.) SMALL SCALE STATE DOT-FUNDED ATTEMPTS at doing the Iowa-type
program, like Delaware and California, have been spending about 1/4
million each year for the last 10 years to do the exotic-to-local
natives along roadsides.  

There's probably other states doing this kind of roadside native
vegetation experiments, but we really need the big Federal bucks to get
anything substantial started, like $5-35 million a year per state.

5.) MAP THE EXOTICS along every State roadside.  Utah's DOT program plan
calls for mapping some of the important exotic plants along the
roadsides.  Mapped into ARCVIEW, a GIS program.

6.) INTENTIONALLY SOWN EXOTICS along roadsides.  Probably worse than
neglected roadsides, are where a perennial exotic or invasive exotic has
been sown along a roadside, usually planted during highway widening or
new construction.

The maps at http://www.ecoseeds.com/megatransect show where
Smooth brome covered 10-12% of the roadsides surveyed in Colo., Wyo.
(except for Yellowstone) and So. Dakota in 1997.

And Crested wheatgrass covered 20-25% of the roads in Wyo. (except for
Yellowstone) and in Idaho; 6-10% of the road in Nev., Utah and So.
Dakota; and 1-5% of the road in Colo.

ROADSIDE VEGETATION MEGATRANSECTS FOR ALL 48 STATES?  Wouldn't it be
interesting in the next 10 years, to get mile-by-mile roadside
megatransects done of each State, in at least the lower 48 States, to
get an idea of the ecological health of a country's roadsides?

Sincerely, Craig Dremann, Redwood City, CA  (650) 325-7333