More on
the Algerian sea lavender project at Dog Beach. We’ve gotten the area of
infestation mapped. Yesterday we started a project to see the effectiveness of
differing eradication methods. We chose three methods: pulling the invasive
plants out by hand, scraping them from the landscape with garden tools, and
“solarization,” covering the plants with black plastic to deprive them of
sunlight.
Solarizing
was the easiest method, just spreading the plastic out over the sea lavender.
The other two methods took a lot more time, about 20 minutes to scrape a 6 x 6
plot and about twice as long to hand pull a plot of the same size.
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| About 75 percent cover by Algerian sea lavender |
Nonnative
and invasive species are big problem worldwide. They reduce species diversity
and can affect crop yields. The continental United States has been invaded by
more than 1,500 nonnative plants. Florida and California share the distinction
of having the most nonnatives, with each state plagued with about 1,000
unwelcome taxa from around the world.
As
you can see from the photograph, the Algerian sea lavender really takes over.
The plots we treated were about 75 percent covered with the unwelcome plant. It
pushes out native pickleweed (Salicornia virginica), as well as rare and endangered
species like grab lotus (Lotus nuttallianus). Stay tuned for updates on this project.
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| Algerian sea lavender removed by scraping |
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| A plot being solarized to kill the Algerian sea lavender |
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