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information.
Read the
magazine
story about TEAM Leafy Spurge and other ARS projects of areawide pest
management. Banding
Together to Stall Leafy Spurge By Linda McElreath November 16, 2001Say the phrase noxious
weed, and many ranchers in the western United States will mutter,
leafy spurge. After its initial appearance in this country in 1827,
this persistent invader thrived and spread, doubling its coverage every decade
for 100 years and moving into at least 36 states and Canadian provinces pretty
much unchecked. Native grasses couldnt compete with it, and animals
wouldnt graze on it. Then scientists and land managers got serious about teaming up to stall this
constant spread. Led by Agricultural
Research Service ecologist
Gerry
Anderson, cooperators from several federal agencies, land-grant
universities, state cooperative extension services, ranchers and others
embarked on an areawide containment program in 1997 that they dubbed
TEAM Leafy Spurge, for The
Ecological Areawide Management (TEAM) of Leafy Spurge. This was the first
time in the United States that an areawide effort was undertaken to stop the
spread and shrink the territory of a pernicious weed. Tactics included setting up a four-state demonstration area in which to try
strategies in different habitats over differing terrains. Field events showed
the effectiveness of various controls, used both alone and in combination,
including grazing by sheep as well as the use of herbicides and weed-consuming
flea beetles, of which more than 47 million were distributed for release. More information about this precedent-setting initiative appears in the
November issue of
Agricultural Research magazine, available on the World Wide Web. ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agricultures chief scientific research agency. Story contacts Linda R Tokarz U.S. Department of Agriculture |