Kathryn, we can all love the earth, and we can each find our own ways to make that love active. It'll be different for all of us, as you know. Blessings!
Susan, question for you: Just last night (and yes, I mean last night--umm 2:15 am to 5:45 am Kenya time), I participated in a project hearing in which Idaho Fish & Game and our local land trust were making the case for landscape-scale treatment of cheatgrass with Rejuvra. They are arguing the herbicide is "safe" (I have the MSDS); once cheatgrass coverage has reached a certain percentage cover, there's no going back; and the landscapes facing this problem are vast. Therefore, this is a worthy treatment. I remain skeptical. I'm curious to hear your thoughts.
Talk about working late! You must be exhausted today. Re Rejuvra, it's a seed-germination inhibitor, and my experience with it in landscape-scale applications is that if you use it and re-seed with locally gathered seeds, it can be very useful. Rejuvra doesn't appear to affect native seed germination very much, and it does make a huge difference in suppressing cheatgrass. The Wyoming G&F and the Forest Service plus the county are spraying Rejuvra in the drainage where the ranch is, so we've let them spray some of the disturbed areas around the buildings where the patches are too large for hand-weeding, and I haven't seen deleterious affects yet. (It's been five years.) The bighorn sheep herd in the area (about 1,500 sheep) is actually rebounding some from the bad years of pneumonia, with better lamb survival for the past few years, so that is another cautiously positive sign. I think the most important part is timing (fall, so that it has the least suppressant affect on natives) and re-seeding with locally gathered seed.
Susan, Thank you. This js great to hear some ground truthing! I’ve seen the evidence around the recovery of animal populations with the removal of cheatgrass and replacement with native forbs, etc. Still, I wonder about other potential implications. What about any water quality impacts?
I don't know of any water-quality impacts, but I would guess that like any plant-active chemical, it shouldn't be sprayed near open water. It degrades in situ, so I suspect it's not an issue for groundwater.
Loved learning more about cheatgrass. Does fire encourage the spread of cheatgrass? The plant already seems like a cheater and it could cheat even more if it crowded out everything else after a fire. How cool to see your work from five years ago have a lasting impact today. Enjoy UNDERSTORY on your third leg of your trip.
Jill, Cheatgrass is optimized to promote fire, so the plant is the one that spreads the fire, precisely because it allows cheatgrass to take over and burn out every native species. Thousands of acres of the West have become desolate cheatgrass monocultures. It's tragic. I am looking forward to Understory, though it's a lot of people in intense doses for me. :)
She will continue to teach because her voice will continue to resonate.... I'm thinking that the next book the Terraphilia Book Club reads will be one of Joanna Macy's.
I appreciate this explanation. I didn’t know much (really anything) about cheatgrass. This has made me want to know more about the things that clearly aren’t supposed to be where we live. We are in suburbs where a number of things were planted on purpose by people who didn’t know any better. The sheer volume of “popular” invasive plants has gotten out of control, in large part because of climate change and changing weather patterns.
I've worked on other invasive plants, and the realization I've come to is that it's not so much about whether a plant is native or not, but whether it contributes to the community of the land. Many non-native plants are at least benign, but some are like the bullies on the playground: they just take, and they are capable of wrecking the whole community and trashing the landscape. Those are the ones worth putting effort into removing.
I pull cheatgrass from my garden beds almost daily but have always just thrown it in the trash. Today I bagged it. Now I’m worried I’ve done more harm not bagging it all this time. I will bag from now on. There are large swathes of it at Open Space park less than a mile from my home, not to mention the neighbors who are not good fire mitigators on many levels.
Cherie, It is important to bag cheatgrass so that the seed doesn't escape, but I suspect you haven't spread it significantly by simply throwing the plants in your trash bin. It's just better to be cautious with a plant that takes advantage of disturbed areas so readily. In the Open Space park, probably the most reasonable solution is to use a seed-germination inhibitor which can be sprayed on the large areas in the fall, to prevent the cheatgrass from germinating the next spring, and then to re-seed with native grasses and wildflowers. (Just killing the cheatgrass will leave a bare area that may be colonized by another invasive, so it's important to re-seed afterwards.)
I have been fighting and successfully removing cheatgrass for years now, here on my 40 acres in the forest. I love seeing the new grasses and plants come in the following year, where the cheatgrass has been removed. I've also learned that putting a big tarp out on cheatgrass in the spring for a couple of months, where there was a large area, has helped me kill it off completely!
Linda, Thank you for your work! And that's a good technique to use, as long as the tarping doesn't smother the soil organisms that are key to reestablishing the native grasses and wildflowers.
Yes, so far I've been lucky to see new grass, flowers, and plants come out in abundance the following year. Some of the grasses come out months after removing the tarp. 👌
Martina, I hope that life will give you chances to at least visit the West, and perhaps to return for good. These wide, arid landscapes do hold and nurture our souls! Many blessings to you.
Joyce, I get such satisfaction from the cheatgrass work. And it affords me time to be intimate with the places I love, which is a gift too. Thank you for your support!
I have been reading a book that you may have read, but if you haven't, I recommend it; It is Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden, by Camille T. Dungy, which is mainly centered in Ft. Collins, Colorado.
Also in regard to noxious grasses, I was involved in a study by one of my graduate students on Lehmann Lovegrass, which was imported from Africa to control erosion and instead greatly simplifies ecosystems in the Southwest. The best laid plans .....
We have deliberately imported so many plants that have gone wrong, from kudzu and salt cedar to buffelgrass and Lehman lovegrass. When will we learn? (rhetorical question)
Thanks for the recommendation of Camille's SOIL. I read and reviewed it when it first came out, and found it inspiring and also eye-opening. She's a poet as well, and I have one of her books of poetry at home on my shelves, but I can't think of the name of it now, and I'm worn out after a long drive and the first evening of the Understory conference!
Thank you for your loving work. Thank you for honoring Joanna Macy. Thank you for reminding us (and inspiring us) that any effort, no matter how small, makes a difference. 💚
Bless you, Jeanne, and thank you for your beautiful post honoring Joanna Macy. I think I'll turn to one of her books for the next Terraphilia Book Club book. Do you have a favorite?
And thank YOU for the inspiration to write about her, after reading your dedication to her! I've been hearing/reading about her all week in various places, and thanks to you it suddenly occurred to me to put it all together into a post. Re: her books, I've only read parts of that last one, full disclosure.
Thank you, as always, for teaching us how to love the earth!
Kathryn, we can all love the earth, and we can each find our own ways to make that love active. It'll be different for all of us, as you know. Blessings!
Susan, both fascinating and inspiring. Thank you for this beauty.
Thank you, Marlena. Blessings to you!
Susan, question for you: Just last night (and yes, I mean last night--umm 2:15 am to 5:45 am Kenya time), I participated in a project hearing in which Idaho Fish & Game and our local land trust were making the case for landscape-scale treatment of cheatgrass with Rejuvra. They are arguing the herbicide is "safe" (I have the MSDS); once cheatgrass coverage has reached a certain percentage cover, there's no going back; and the landscapes facing this problem are vast. Therefore, this is a worthy treatment. I remain skeptical. I'm curious to hear your thoughts.
Talk about working late! You must be exhausted today. Re Rejuvra, it's a seed-germination inhibitor, and my experience with it in landscape-scale applications is that if you use it and re-seed with locally gathered seeds, it can be very useful. Rejuvra doesn't appear to affect native seed germination very much, and it does make a huge difference in suppressing cheatgrass. The Wyoming G&F and the Forest Service plus the county are spraying Rejuvra in the drainage where the ranch is, so we've let them spray some of the disturbed areas around the buildings where the patches are too large for hand-weeding, and I haven't seen deleterious affects yet. (It's been five years.) The bighorn sheep herd in the area (about 1,500 sheep) is actually rebounding some from the bad years of pneumonia, with better lamb survival for the past few years, so that is another cautiously positive sign. I think the most important part is timing (fall, so that it has the least suppressant affect on natives) and re-seeding with locally gathered seed.
Susan, Thank you. This js great to hear some ground truthing! I’ve seen the evidence around the recovery of animal populations with the removal of cheatgrass and replacement with native forbs, etc. Still, I wonder about other potential implications. What about any water quality impacts?
And, yes, that was an unavoidable hearing—and fairly miserable for me! 🤣
I don't know of any water-quality impacts, but I would guess that like any plant-active chemical, it shouldn't be sprayed near open water. It degrades in situ, so I suspect it's not an issue for groundwater.
Thanks for all of this!
Loved learning more about cheatgrass. Does fire encourage the spread of cheatgrass? The plant already seems like a cheater and it could cheat even more if it crowded out everything else after a fire. How cool to see your work from five years ago have a lasting impact today. Enjoy UNDERSTORY on your third leg of your trip.
Jill, Cheatgrass is optimized to promote fire, so the plant is the one that spreads the fire, precisely because it allows cheatgrass to take over and burn out every native species. Thousands of acres of the West have become desolate cheatgrass monocultures. It's tragic. I am looking forward to Understory, though it's a lot of people in intense doses for me. :)
Aha. It creates the fire conditions it needs to spread and occupy more land. Perhaps it should have been named Colonial Grass.
That would indeed be apt. But it was the colonists doing the naming....
Thank you for such a grounded yet inspirational post…and for dedicating it to Joanna Macy, another magnificent woman.
She will continue to teach because her voice will continue to resonate.... I'm thinking that the next book the Terraphilia Book Club reads will be one of Joanna Macy's.
I appreciate this explanation. I didn’t know much (really anything) about cheatgrass. This has made me want to know more about the things that clearly aren’t supposed to be where we live. We are in suburbs where a number of things were planted on purpose by people who didn’t know any better. The sheer volume of “popular” invasive plants has gotten out of control, in large part because of climate change and changing weather patterns.
I've worked on other invasive plants, and the realization I've come to is that it's not so much about whether a plant is native or not, but whether it contributes to the community of the land. Many non-native plants are at least benign, but some are like the bullies on the playground: they just take, and they are capable of wrecking the whole community and trashing the landscape. Those are the ones worth putting effort into removing.
I pull cheatgrass from my garden beds almost daily but have always just thrown it in the trash. Today I bagged it. Now I’m worried I’ve done more harm not bagging it all this time. I will bag from now on. There are large swathes of it at Open Space park less than a mile from my home, not to mention the neighbors who are not good fire mitigators on many levels.
Cherie, It is important to bag cheatgrass so that the seed doesn't escape, but I suspect you haven't spread it significantly by simply throwing the plants in your trash bin. It's just better to be cautious with a plant that takes advantage of disturbed areas so readily. In the Open Space park, probably the most reasonable solution is to use a seed-germination inhibitor which can be sprayed on the large areas in the fall, to prevent the cheatgrass from germinating the next spring, and then to re-seed with native grasses and wildflowers. (Just killing the cheatgrass will leave a bare area that may be colonized by another invasive, so it's important to re-seed afterwards.)
I have been fighting and successfully removing cheatgrass for years now, here on my 40 acres in the forest. I love seeing the new grasses and plants come in the following year, where the cheatgrass has been removed. I've also learned that putting a big tarp out on cheatgrass in the spring for a couple of months, where there was a large area, has helped me kill it off completely!
Linda, Thank you for your work! And that's a good technique to use, as long as the tarping doesn't smother the soil organisms that are key to reestablishing the native grasses and wildflowers.
Yes, so far I've been lucky to see new grass, flowers, and plants come out in abundance the following year. Some of the grasses come out months after removing the tarp. 👌
Revegetation can take years, but the seeds and roots of the perennials are there, waiting for the conditions to be right. :)
Love this kneeling in supplication.
Thank you, Kati. It's hard work, but it does feel like a prayer for/to this numinous earth.
I’m envious. The West holds and tends my soul in a way I’ve yet to experience in Florida.
Now I know something about the causes of wildfires that I didn’t know before. Thanks for telling us about cheatgrass.
Martina, I hope that life will give you chances to at least visit the West, and perhaps to return for good. These wide, arid landscapes do hold and nurture our souls! Many blessings to you.
I can't get over that deer photo. My heart exploded!
He was just hanging out a few feet from my friends' front door, chewing his mule deer cud!
Thank you for sharing your adventure and for all of the ways you serve this planet, Susan!
Bless you, Evonne! Thank you for all you give too.
Thank you, friend! ❤️🙏
Not easy to recreate on the road, but you're doing it! Thanks for bringing us along. 🧡
Thank you for reading, Cheryl, and for your support. Blessings to you!
Thank you, thank you! You are such a giver, Susan, on your knees pulling the cheatgrass and at your computer sharing your wisdom and experience.
Joyce, I get such satisfaction from the cheatgrass work. And it affords me time to be intimate with the places I love, which is a gift too. Thank you for your support!
Thanks for you insights!
I have been reading a book that you may have read, but if you haven't, I recommend it; It is Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden, by Camille T. Dungy, which is mainly centered in Ft. Collins, Colorado.
Also in regard to noxious grasses, I was involved in a study by one of my graduate students on Lehmann Lovegrass, which was imported from Africa to control erosion and instead greatly simplifies ecosystems in the Southwest. The best laid plans .....
We have deliberately imported so many plants that have gone wrong, from kudzu and salt cedar to buffelgrass and Lehman lovegrass. When will we learn? (rhetorical question)
Thanks for the recommendation of Camille's SOIL. I read and reviewed it when it first came out, and found it inspiring and also eye-opening. She's a poet as well, and I have one of her books of poetry at home on my shelves, but I can't think of the name of it now, and I'm worn out after a long drive and the first evening of the Understory conference!
Thank you for your loving work. Thank you for honoring Joanna Macy. Thank you for reminding us (and inspiring us) that any effort, no matter how small, makes a difference. 💚
Bless you, Jeanne, and thank you for your beautiful post honoring Joanna Macy. I think I'll turn to one of her books for the next Terraphilia Book Club book. Do you have a favorite?
And thank YOU for the inspiration to write about her, after reading your dedication to her! I've been hearing/reading about her all week in various places, and thanks to you it suddenly occurred to me to put it all together into a post. Re: her books, I've only read parts of that last one, full disclosure.
Your piece about her was a treasure! I'll look through her books and see which one seems most appropriate and would be easily available.