[APWG] NEWS: Dirt Road Maintenance Spreads Invasive Plants

[Robert Layton Beyfuss]

As a long time dirt road resident, I am painfully aware of how effectively our local highway departments spread weeds with their graders, mowers, bulldozers, backhoes and even snow plows. It does not have to be this way. Every highway department has steam cleaners for their equipment that could be used far more often than they are now. Unfortunately, when it comes to invasive plants they are clueless and no one seems to care at all. Instead of focusing efforts on educating local or even county highway departments about the issues, here in NY we spend $1,000,000 a year on a 16 member swat team to travel all over this very large state on impossible eradication efforts for one single species of invasive plant. Imagine if local highway workers were trained to recognize 10 or even 5 invasive plants and remove them manually when there are only a few present along the road, Imagine the impact if local groups, who clean up roadside garbage on a regular basis, were also taught to recognize and remove invasive weeds before they become established. For a million dollars I could train every highway department in the entire state. 
Sadly, as long as invasion biology headlines focus on "Waging war on invasive plant species" as Olivia's previous post headlined, the money will go to eradication and not education. The corporate herbicide manufacturers and their lobbyists seem to like it that way.
    

-----Original Message-----
From: apwg-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org [mailto:apwg-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org] On Behalf Of Olivia Kwong
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2011 9:27 AM
To: apwg at lists.plantconservation.org
Subject: [APWG] NEWS: Dirt Road Maintenance Spreads Invasive Plants

http://news.discovery.com/earth/dirt-roads-graders-invasive-plants-110809.html

Dirt Road Maintenance Spreads Invasive Plants
Road graders push seeds around and contribute to the spread of invasive 
plant species, research shows.
By Emily Sohn
Tue Aug 9, 2011 02:30 PM ET

Routine roadwork on rural roads may be aiding the rapid spread of invasive 
species, found a new study.

Road graders used in the study sometimes carried seeds more than 200 times 
farther than the seeds can spread on their own. The findings suggest that, 
for the sake of the environment, maintenance crews might want to consider 
altering the timing or techniques they use to keep dirt and gravel roads 
in shape.

See the link above for the full article text.


_______________________________________________
PCA's Alien Plant Working Group mailing list
APWG at lists.plantconservation.org
http://lists.plantconservation.org/mailman/listinfo/apwg_lists.plantconservation.org

Disclaimer
Any requests, advice or opinions posted to this list reflect ONLY the opinion of the individual posting the message.