False-brome Working Group Meeting Notes

November 19, 2002

Siuslaw National Forest, Corvallis, Oregon

Compiled by Thomas Kaye, Institute for Applied Ecology (please make direct comments to and blame errors/omissions on him at kayet@peak.org)

•In attendance:

Cindy McCain, Siuslaw/Willamette NF

Tom Forney, ODA

Nancy Wogen, Eugene BLM

Debbie Johnson, OSU College Forests

Tom Kaye, Institute for Applied Ecology

Matt Blakeley-Smith, Institute for Applied Ecology

Fred Pfund, Starker Forests, Inc.

Jenny Lippert, Willamette NF

Bruce Newhouse, Native Plant Society of Oregon

Wes Messinger, USACE Willamette Valley

Greg Fitzpatrick, TNC

Bruce Taylor, Defenders of Wildlife

Glenn Miller, ODA

Norm Johnson, OSU College of Forestry

•Major objectives of meeting and group

Define the problem of false-brome on public and private lands.

Elevate the issue of false-brome to major land managers and policy makers.

Use the case of false brome to elevate the issue of invasive species in general.

Provide convincing documentation of the threats of this and other invasive species to natural resources.

Help public and private entities deal with this species on lands they manage - provide them with concrete information on what to do about it.

Background on false-brome

•False-brome appears to be a super-weed. We are currently witnessing its population explosion in Oregon, and possibly North America.

•The species is extremely aggressive, and is capable of invading and dominating a wide range of habitats, from forests with closed canopies to open meadows.

•Well-established populations false-brome can completely replace native (and other non-native) vegetation. The species can achieve greater than 90% coverage of the ground surface.

•Biology, life history, seed biology

perennial grass, very competitive

reproduces by local growth of plant clumps, and local and long-distance dispersal of seeds.

•Seeds spread passively adjacent to parent plant, and actively by animals, e.g.,

deer, small mammals(?)

humans

-during recreation.

-forest management actions, including seeds on equipment.

Habitats

•Wide elevation range: 200-3500 feet confirmed

•Aspects: mixed

•Moisture regimes: appears to prefer warmer/drier sites, but present in riparian areas and full potential to invade wetter habitats is unknown

•Vegetation types: closed forest canopy (85% canopy closer?) to open meadows, including riparian areas.

Distribution in North America

•There appear to be three epicenters of invasion, all in Oregon

OSU Research Forest and surrounding areas (Corvallis, Kings Valley, McMinnville, etc).

Cascade foothills west of Springfield

Rogue River, Josephine County

•Not known in adjacent states, yet, but expected in Washington and California soon, probably others as well.

Impacts on natural resources

•Reduction or elimination of native vegetation in wildlands

•Damage to threatened and endangered species populations

Confirmed damage to Kincaid's lupine (Lupinus sulphureus ssp. kincaidii) and Fender's blue butterfly

Documented interactions with wayside aster (Aster vialis), tall bugbane (Cimicifuga elata), California swordfern (Polystichum californicum).

Potential and expected impacts on several other species, including Columbia white-tailed deer, Willamette daisy (Erigeron decumbens), shaggy horkelia (Horkelia congesta), white-top aster (Aster curtus), and many others.

•Damage and impediment to restoration of oak savanna.

•Alteration of riparian vegetation, including inhibition of tree seedling establishment and growth, loss of shade to riparian systems, loss of long-term materials that provide habitat-structure for fish in streams, loss of habitat for birds

•Reduction of habitat quality for wildlife

•Altered fire regimes

May increase fine fuels for carrying hotter fires more quickly, especially in late season burns and in well-established false-brome stands that have accumulated heavy thatch build-up.

May reduce the ability of habitats to carry fire, especially for early- and mid-season fires and where the species has not accumulated much thatch (due to the tendency of this grass to remain green at least through the summer)

•Inhibition of forest regeneration

Reduced tree seedling establishment and growth through

-competition for resources.

-false-brome thatch build-up may favor large populations of voles and mice that damage seedlings of trees and other species).

Current and ongoing research

•Surveys on BLM Eugene District lands, primarily east and south of Springfield to document the extent of the species on these federal lands.

•Experimental controls measures

Herbicide experiments on Starker Forest lands (butterfly meadows) to compare effectiveness of various herbicides and seasons of application, as well as document the effects of these treatments on endangered species that occupy this habitat (e.g., Kincaid's lupine, Fender's blue butterfly)

Super-heated foam (Waipuna machine) effects on roadside populations of false-brome

Use of tilling, mulching, and seeding with natives as methods of controlling re-invasion of false-brome after road closures.

Current treatments in use at various sites

•Herbicide appears to be effective (Starker Forest has experience controlling the species in clearcut to promote forest tree seedling establishment).

•Hand pulling/grubbing may work on a small scale

•The species appears to be fire tolerant, but burning could reduce plant area making spot-spraying or hand-pulling more effective.

Information needs

•Comprehensive survey

Assemble existing information on the distribution of false-brome into a single data base and map

Conduct a comprehensive landscape-level survey to document the extent of the species in Oregon with precise geographic information. Do this through cooperative surveys among land managers using the same methodology and intensity in all areas so the resulting data are compatible.

•Identify and evaluate available control measures

Chemical/herbicide methods

Non-herbicide methods

-super-heated foam (Waipuna machine), especially useful on roadsides.

-biocontrol agents.

-fire, mowing, mulching, tilling, seeding with natives, in various combinations.

Combined approaches (e.g., burning followed by spot-herbicide application to increase effectiveness, and reduce herbicide use and non-target impacts).

•Document effects on wildlife and other biological interactions

Putative low forage value of false-brome for large mammals (deer, elk)

Changes in wildlife utilization of habitat

Changes in small mammal populations

Impacts to invertebrates by presence of false-brome and loss of plant species diversity

Impacts on herps

Impacts on song-birds

Impacts on soil fauna

Impacts on mycorrhizal fungi

•Evaluate changes in fire regimes

Compilation of existing information, if any.

Conduct study to measure the impacts of various levels of false-brome. abundance on fire behavior and impacts.

•Conduct a study or studies on the effects of false-brome on forest regeneration. Such studies have implications for long-term and large-scale impacts of false-brome on federal lands on which herbicide use is limited on prohibited.

Impacts on commercial tree plantation establishment and growth.

Interactions of false-brome with small mammals that damage tree seedlings.

Competitive interactions of false-brome with forest trees and effects on understory biodiversity.

•Increase information on basic biology of false-brome

Seed bank dynamics, seed longevity, seed dormancy, etc.

Seed dispersal rates

•Determine and/or document the habitat requirements and limits of false brome

Abitlity of the species to spread in western Oregon

Ability of the species to spread to eastern Oregon, identification of habitats most vulnerable.

Will it invade range-lands?

•Determine the response of false-brome to various disturbances, and the importance of the pre-disturbance abundance of the species to this response.

Recommendations

•Implement research and cooperative activities to fill the information needs outlined above. Use research capacity of OSU and UO?

•Outreach!

Create a brochure on false-brome identification, threats, and recommended actions.

Tie in to weed management zone in Willamette Basin

Contact weed management specialists and land managers in area known to be infested to confirm they are aware of t he problem.

Create a web site with information on false-brome with a downloadable brochure. Have the web site name be something like www.falsebrome.org.

Increase awareness of weed specialists and land managers east of the Cascades, especially Klamath area and Wallowa County.

Increase awareness of weed specialists and land managers in Douglas County, which may be the most likely high-vulnerability area that the species will invade soon.

•Publicize and implement immediate control measures on public and private lands, such as:

Control of large populations

Reduce spread

-control infestations along roadsides

-clean equipment when leaving an infested area

-control post-disturbance outbreaks (e.g., after timber harvest, implement plans to spray or control any outbreaks)

-Include clauses in forest harvest and management contracts that specify cleaning of equipment that enters false-brome infested areas.