Sagebrush – Solutions

ambience Western Meadow; Sheep

Knapweed, leafy spurge — just a few of the exotic weeds that have invaded the plains of the western United States. Our native animals don’t feed on these plants, so they’re crowding out an entire ecosystem. But scientists may have found a way to control them. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

“In Montana, they have some huge expanses, now, of these exotic plant species that have moved quite rapidly into that state. 20 years ago, we didn’t have any. Now, we’ve got hundreds of thousands of acres of infested lands.”

Steven Seefeldt is a rangeland scientist with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service. To help control foreign weeds, they brought in some help from overseas.

“Some of the things that we’re looking at at the US Sheep Experiment Station is using an animal that comes from Europe to control these weeds that come from Europe. They grew up together. They evolved together, let’s say, and what we’ve found is sheep are quite good at eating these exotic plants. And so, what we’re trying to do at the Sheep Experiment Station is to develop strategic grazing strategies where you know when the plant is most palatable, when the sheep will like it more than they will like other things. And so, we try and target the sheep where we have an area of an infestation that hasn’t gone to seed yet this year. It’s at a point where it’s very susceptible to grazing. And at the time that we’re grazing, most of our native plants have already dried down for the year, and so, we’re not causing any damage to those. And so, for each particular weed species we’re trying to find that particular time when our sheep are going to do the best at reducing their biomass, at the same time not cause very much damage to the native plants.”

Pulse of the Planet is made possible by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.

Sagebrush - Solutions

Scientists may have found a way to control an invasion of non-native plants in the mid-west.

Air Date:07/23/2013

Scientist:

Transcript:

Sagebrush - Solutions

ambience Western Meadow; Sheep

Knapweed, leafy spurge -- just a few of the exotic weeds that have invaded the plains of the western United States. Our native animals don't feed on these plants, so they're crowding out an entire ecosystem. But scientists may have found a way to control them. I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

"In Montana, they have some huge expanses, now, of these exotic plant species that have moved quite rapidly into that state. 20 years ago, we didn't have any. Now, we've got hundreds of thousands of acres of infested lands."

Steven Seefeldt is a rangeland scientist with the USDA's Agricultural Research Service. To help control foreign weeds, they brought in some help from overseas.

"Some of the things that we're looking at at the US Sheep Experiment Station is using an animal that comes from Europe to control these weeds that come from Europe. They grew up together. They evolved together, let's say, and what we've found is sheep are quite good at eating these exotic plants. And so, what we're trying to do at the Sheep Experiment Station is to develop strategic grazing strategies where you know when the plant is most palatable, when the sheep will like it more than they will like other things. And so, we try and target the sheep where we have an area of an infestation that hasn't gone to seed yet this year. It's at a point where it's very susceptible to grazing. And at the time that we're grazing, most of our native plants have already dried down for the year, and so, we're not causing any damage to those. And so, for each particular weed species we're trying to find that particular time when our sheep are going to do the best at reducing their biomass, at the same time not cause very much damage to the native plants."

Pulse of the Planet is made possible by the National Science Foundation. I'm Jim Metzner.