Northern Rockies Invasive Plant Council (NRIPC)

Ken Baker: Non-native reeds are both Beauty and the Beast The common reed, Phragmites australis, is a plant of uncommon beauty, but it is causing ecological problems in the United States, Ken Baker writes.

Ventenata, a noxious w**d, spreads across the West Looking out at an expansive meadow in Oregon’s Blue Mountains, local cattleman Loren Stout sees not an idyllic landscape but an “environmental disaster.”

The SOS collection is the result of a collaborative effort designed to increase the supply of native plants available for restoring habitats damaged by wild fires, droughts, and other natural causes. The BLM has worked with dozens of partners over the years to build it up and it’s been recognized by the United Nations for its role in restoring biodiversity to landscapes. It includes seeds from more than 4,760 species, representing almost 30 percent of the native plant diversity in the United States. Seeds have been collected from 44 states, and about one fifth of them are wild relatives of major and minor crops.

ARS finds added value in seeds that restore habitats WASHINGTON -- A national collection of plant seeds, now used to restore degraded habitats, could also be tapped for other purposes, including breeding better food...

Bleached tops means bye-bye Canada thistle - Grainews Canada thistle is an invasive import from Europe. It is technically called Circium arvense, a prickly member of the Aster family. In the U.K., it’s called

W**ds that impact hunters | Brainerd Dispatch Japanese barberry, Oriental bittersweet, buckthorn, and multiflora rose: November W**d(s) of the Month

A timely article – and our hearts go out to those struggling to cope with fire and its aftermath: Cal-IPC’s Jutta Burger is quoted in PopSci’s article on the kindling properties of invasive grasses in California fires. The fire-fuel species of concern include cheatgrass, red brome, ripgut brome, and medusahead. Especially in Southern California, many coastal and inland valley hills are coated with these plants, the muted green of scrubland and chaparral receding to make way for golden-brown grasses. “In a lot of our landscapes we have a carpet of these fine fuels,” says Burger, “We didn’t have that historically.”… With two or three fires in a row happening less than fires years apart, a coastal sage scrub plant community can be replaced by invasive grasses. “The shrubs don’t really have a chance to mature and drop seeds [with more frequent fires] so the seedbank can’t allow for reestablishment… Instead, you have a conversion to a grassland through a more rapid fire cycle.”
"It's really tough to get a handle on this [fire increase] because there are so many factors," says Burger. "We are the cause of most fires, so we need to look at how can we reduce ignitions."
Read more: https://www.popsci.com/california-fires-invasive-grasses/

2020 MWCA Annual Conference MWCA 63rd Annual Conference

Get your nominations in for W**d Fighter of the Year, W**d District of the Year, and the Barb Mullen Lifetime Achievement Award by November 15th!

Officials make aerial assault on noxious w**ds

A knack for knapw**d knowledge Vivian Weigel loves science. She isn’t sure yet what area of science she wants to work in someday, although the 16 year-old Golden High School junior is considering becoming a researcher in …