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<font size=3>Wayne raises an important companion issue, the movement of
propagules on equipment.<br><br>
We recently had an experience in the Francis Marion National Forest, near
Charleston. We found a sizeable outbreak of cogongrass (<i>Imperata
cylindrica</i>). This grass is an exotic invasive of tremendous
proportions in the Gulf Coast states (see
<a href="http://www.cogongrass.org/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.cogongrass.org/</a> ).<br>
It is increasing in Georgia, and we have been on the lookout for it in SC
for several years.<br><br>
The infestation we found in the Francis Marion apparently started in a
Forest Service road ditch. For pix see
(<a href="http://everettj.people.cofc.edu/cogongrass.html" eudora="autourl">
http://everettj.people.cofc.edu/cogongrass.html</a>) The USFS contracts
with outside folks to do road maintenance, <br>
and we suspect it came from the outside on a road grader, as this is the
only infestation on the entire forest and for <br>
many miles around on private land. Our Dept of Plant Industry
has been on top of this infestation with a control program, <br>
and we are breathing a little easier.<br><br>
Bill Stringer<br><br>
William C. Stringer<br>
President-emeritus<br>
South Carolina Native Plant Society<br>
<a href="http://www.scnps.org/">www.scnps.org</a> <br><br>
PO Box 491<br>
Norris, SC 29667<br><br>
Clemson University<br>
Entomology, Soils and Plant Science<br>
864 656 3527<br>
bstrngr@clemson.edu<br><br>
<br>
<i>“Go my Sons, burn your books. Buy yourself stout shoes.
Get away to the mountains, the valleys, the shores of the seas, the
deserts, and the deepest recesses of the earth. In this way and no
other will you find true knowledge of things and their properties.”<br>
<br>
Peter Severinus, 16th. century Dane
educator
<br><br>
</i>At 06:43 PM 4/28/2010, Wayne Tyson wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">This sounds like a subject of
broad interest to this list. I, for one, would like to know more about
the details.<br><br>
The whole issue of dispersal and dispersal agents is a long one, and
isn't necessarily limited to "mineral material mishaps"
(whatever that means) alone, but can involve aspects of movement other
than such things as sand and gravel movement, such as propagules hitching
a ride on vehicles (e.g. Brassica tournefortii and countless other
species).<br><br>
While it would be a "no-brainer" to "certify"
incoming material loads, some might let their imaginations run wild. One
thought might be to certify donor sites. Many sand and gravel pits are,
however, first-rate "weed" sites, and those in drainages are
likely to contain propagules from the watersheds above them.<br>
<br>
Scale and application scenarios come to mind too, as would the functional
and economic trade-offs involved in getting to the point, which
presumably is to prevent the transmission and establishment of alien or
pestiferous organisms.<br><br>
Washing down bulldozers and other off-highway vehicles before they cut
so-called "firebreaks" or venture beyond might be an option,
but in some interpretations might also be an invitation to protest. As a
matter of actual fact, this sort of thing might be a tempest in a teapot,
a solution to a major problem, or an infinite range of possibilities in
between.<br><br>
I hope Hutten will share the study design and results with the
group.<br><br>
WT<br><br>
______________________________________________</blockquote>
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