Category: Invasive Plants

Kudzu: The Guest That Just Won’t Leave

by Maureen Stuart, SRS Science Delivery Group  • 
Spring is right around the corner, and in the South, “all eyes turn to kudzu as it awakes,” says James Miller, research ecologist (emeritus) for the U.S. Forest Service Insects, Diseases, and Invasive Plants unit. Introduced to United States at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, kudzu was touted as a quick-growing ornamental vine with…  More 

New Books on Forest Landscape Restoration

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
Two new books link natural and social sciences U.S. Forest Service scientists made significant contributions to two related books recently published by Springer:  Forest Landscape Restoration: Integrating Natural and Social Sciences and A Goal-Oriented Approach to Forest landscape Restoration. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) scientist John Stanturf served as lead editor on both books,…  More 

Invasive Tallow Tree Lowers Frog Egg Survival

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
  Aquatic “mesocosm” used to test effects of tallow tree litter on southern leopard frog eggs. Photo by Cory Adams. Amphibians across the world are rapidly declining. Numerous studies have addressed causes of the decline, but very few have looked at the effects of invasive plants. Dan Saenz, Southern Research Station (SRS) research wildlife biologist…  More 

Can the Kudzu Bug Stop the Vine That Ate the South?

by Sharon Dowdy, University of Georgia  • 
Southern Research Station (SRS) entomologist Jim Hanula may be the only person in the South who actually wants to keep kudzu alive. He needs healthy plots of the famous weed to monitor the effect the bean plataspid—a pest that entered Georgia some two years ago and has become known as the kudzu bug—is having on…  More 

People and Plants on the Move

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
Social Factors and Exotic Plant Invasions in the United States New USDA Forest Service research using improved data from previous studies on exotic plant species in the United States shows that social factors such as human population and time of settlement play a greater part in the spread of exotic species than the natural factors such as…  More 

Keeping Kudzu at Bay

by Scott Horn, SRS Insects, Diseases, and Invasive Plants unit  • 
Accidentally introduced insect shows promise in battle with kudzu In October 2009, Dan Suiter, an entomologist with the University of Georgia (UGA), noticed large numbers of an unidentified insect in and around kudzu fields in northeast Georgia. This turned out to be the first recorded sighting of the bean plataspid  aka “kudzu bug“ (Megacopta cribraria) in…  More 

Want to Hunt Down Invasive Plants in Your Forest? There’s an App for That!

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
SRS Announces New Invasive Plants iPhone App Southern Research Station (SRS) Director Rob Doudrick  recently announced the release of the first version of a new iPhone/iPad app designed to help southern forest land owners and managers identify and manage nonnative invasive plants in the field. This is the first ever iPhone/ipad application developed by the worlds…  More 

Removing Privet Helps Restore Native Bee Populations

by Sarah Farmer, Science Delivery Group  • 
When plants travel the world, they escape the checks and balances of their ancestral ecosystems and can multiply without bounds, competing with native plants for light, nutrients, and water. Do non-native invasive plants also disrupt native bee populations? Jim Hanula, research entomologist with the SRS Insects, Diseases and Invasive Plants unit, explored this question by comparing bee…  More 

Eucalyptus Symposium: February 22-24, Charleston, SC

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
Register now:  Symposium on the Assessment and Management of Environmental Issues Related to Eucalyptus Culture in the South Eucalyptus species are among the most widely planted tree species in the world and of increasing interest in the United States for bioenergy. In the South, non-native Eucalyptus species have the potential to produce much more bioenergy…  More 

The Future of Forest Watershed Research

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
Featured Research Article:   Vose, J.; Sun, G.; Ford, C.; et al. 2011. Forest ecohydrological research in the 21st century: what are the critical needs? Ecohydrology 4(2):146-158. Ecohydrology involves understanding the interactions among vegetation, soils, and hydrologic processes at multiple scales. The article focuses on threats to the structure and function of forested watersheds—and to…  More