The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) plans to combat invasive species throughout the Wrangell and Petersburg districts of the Tongass National Forest.
The USFS districts recently began an environmental assessment (EA) to determine what invasive plants the agency is most concerned with and what methods it will use to fight the spread of those species on federal land.
“There is the increasing concern for invasive species all over the U.S., and Southeast Alaska is no exception to that,” said USFS Wrangell District Ranger Bob Dalrymple.
Petersburg Acting District Ranger Diana Perez said the impact of non-native species, like Japanese knotweed and reed canary grass, can be significant on the immense amount of water habitat in Southeast Alaska.
While the USFS is aware of the threat the invasive species pose as they take root throughout the Forest, Dalrymple said the problem is currently at a manageable level. The USFS should begin its efforts now, he said, before the species spread and the problem becomes too big to treat.
“I think it’s small enough to really still contain or eliminate a lot of these weeds,” Dalrymple said.
Part of the EA process is better identifying the problem and deciding what species the USFS wants to treat as opposed to “accept,” he said. For example, the environment has more or less accepted dandelions, and the USFS will not focus all its efforts on tackling that species, Dalrymple said.
The EA will also discuss what treatment techniques will be used on certain species. Possible treatments include mowing, hand pulling and the use of herbicides.
Dalrymple said, ideally, herbicidal-treatments will be used as little as possible.
“I don’t want to leap into the herbicide-use in any big way up here,” he said.
Perez agreed, but added the herbicides used by the USFS go through a rigorous analysis to determine their risk to the environment and must meet state standards. They can also be used through controlled-methods such as the “swab-and-dob” method where herbicide is applied to individual plant leaves, she said.
“It’s a tool in the big tool box of mowing, raking, covering [etc],” Perez said.
The USFS plans to hold scoping meetings this spring, Dalrymple said. A final record of decision on the project is expected early this fall with treatments beginning in 2013, he said.
An additional effort by the USFS to tackle invasive species in Southeast Alaska is a project that will help educate local communities on invasive plants and ways to prevent them from further populating on non-federal land.
The project was approved by the Wrangell-Petersburg-Kale Resource Advisory Committee (RAC) and secures funding to provide the three communities to develop their own invasive species management plans.
Some invasive plant species are being introduced throughout the forest as residents unknowingly plant them in their yard and the seeds spread elsewhere, said Shauna Hee, a botanist for the USFS Ketchikan and Wrangell districts.
This form of introduction contributes only a small percentage of the overall problem, Hee said. However, some invasive species planted on private, non-federal land pose significant risks to the communities.
For instance, Kake, which is located northwest of Wrangell and Petersburg, has the first recorded population in Alaska of giant hogweed. The non-native species grows up to six-feet tall, Hee said, and it produces toxic sap that can cause lesions on the skin or can cause blindness if it gets in a person’s eye. Hee said the USFS is unaware of how the hogweed got to Kake, only that it is growing on private property.
To help stop the spread of these non-native species, Hee said the USFS will also create a list of plants nurseries are not advised to sell to the public.
Many invasive plant species can also be found on the sides of roads, Hee said. For example, the non-native oxeye daisy — a small, white flowering plant — easily spreads because its seeds have “parachutes” on them that are carried in the wind, Hee said. When cars drive down the road, it spreads the oxeye daisy seeds, she said.
Prevalent in Wrangell and Petersburg is hawkweed — another non-native species that produces little, orange flowers. Like the oxeye daisy, hawkweed spread and form large “mats” or uniform patches on the ground where nothing else can grow, Hee said.
The USFS will help communities identify these sorts of problematic species, and how they can be treated. The RAC-approved project will pay for someone to come into Wrangell, Petersburg and Kake to give educational presentations on the threat invasive plant species pose to the natural environment, Hee said. The USFS will also aid in creating a treatment and prevention strategy the communities can follow for the next five to ten years, she said.
Once treatment has occurred, the USFS will go back into those areas once populated with invasive species and re-introduce native species, Hee said.
Overall, the RAC-approved project aims to encourage citizen participation in the fight against invasive species throughout the forest.
“So we can have this holistic approach to battling non-native plants on federal and non- federal land,” Hee said.
Perez said it’s important to focus on the spread of the invasive plant species on non-federal lands.
“It’s really the lands that are off the National Forest where a lot of the communication should be happening,” she said.
Dalrymple said he is optimistic community members in Wrangell are willing to collaborate with the USFS to stop the spread of these invasive plants. He said he has been impressed with the amount of concern the community has on the issue.
“That leads me to believe the public is aware of the issue and wants to address it in some manner,” Dalrymple said.
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