Science You Can Use
- Cogongrass infests a southern pine stand. Photo by Chris Evans, courtesy of Bugwood.org
Many landowners are continuously plagued by unidentifiable annoying weeds and grasses. Some of these are nonnative invasive plant species that have arrived without the natural predators and diseases that keep native plants in natural balance.
Nonnative plants have hitchhiked their way into flower beds, gardens, and yards of landowners in the South for decades, invading and often harming forests and other natural areas by pushing out native plants and degrading wildlife habitat. These exotic plants often reduce forest productivity, wildlife diversity, and water quality and quantity.
Landowners can find the prevention and management strategies they need to help control these unwanted plants in A Management Guide for Invasive Plants in Southern Forests published by the Southern Research Station (SRS) in 2010. The guide provides effective control prescriptions for 56 nonnative plants and plant groups and gives homeowners, gardeners, land managers, and others information needed to restore and rehabilitate their lands.
Now the information included in the guide is also available as an application for iPhones, iPods, and iPads called Invasive Plants in Southern Forests.
Jim Miller, emeritus SRS research ecologist based in Auburn, AL, and one of the foremost authorities on invasive plants in the South, authored the guide with Steven Manning, president of Invasive Plant Control, Inc., and Stephen Enloe, weed management specialist at Auburn University.
You can request a free copy of the guide by sending your name and complete mailing address, along with book title, author, and publication number GTR–SRS–131 to: pubrequest@fs.fed.us, or by calling 828–257–4830. – Teresa Jackson
