{"id":1838,"date":"2017-10-10T15:25:29","date_gmt":"2017-10-10T15:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mbgecologicalrestoration.wordpress.com\/?p=1838"},"modified":"2017-10-10T15:25:29","modified_gmt":"2017-10-10T15:25:29","slug":"microstegium-population-distribution-and-control-along-brush-creek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/microstegium-population-distribution-and-control-along-brush-creek\/","title":{"rendered":"Microstegium population distribution (and control) along Brush Creek"},"content":{"rendered":"

Restoration specialist, Mike Saxton, describes his observations on the distribution of invasive Japanese stiltgrass along a creek running through Shaw Nature Reserve.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Map_Mike\"<\/p>\n

Brush Creek (blue) runs eastward through Shaw Nature Reserve in Gray Summit, Missouri. Gray Summit Road is in the upper right.<\/p>\n

July 28, 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yesterday, Adam and I put in to Brush Creek at the Old Gray Summit Rd. bridge and headed upstream spraying\u00a0Microstegium vimenium<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(Japanese stiltgrass). This was the second time through this area this year and I made this sweep solo 3 times last season. My first outing last season, I used 3 gallons of herbicide before I finished the first wetland cell\u2026this year it\u2019s been much, much lighter. Last year, with only 1 person spraying, I was hard pressed to leave the creek bed because there was so much to spray directly along the accessible banks. And in our first outing this season, Catherine and I stayed completely within in the creek, rarely going up on the banks.<\/p>\n

However, yesterday Adam and I abandoned the creek bed and went crashing through the brushy banks, finding more\u00a0Microstegium<\/em>\u00a0than I had anticipated. What was interesting was that pockets of stiltgrass followed a predictable pattern of distribution. In many areas, one creek bank will be severely down cut, perhaps 15 ft sheer banks, while the opposite bank is tapered with a more gradual slope. This is where you find the\u00a0Microstegium<\/em>. I posit that floodwaters do not over-top the high bank but rush over the lower bank depositing sediment and seed. Almost without fail, the lower bank, if totally brushy, would have scatted\u00a0Microstegium<\/em>. However, if the lower bank was open or had open pockets of sunlight, those pockets would be dense thickets of stiltgrass. We observed a nearly 1-to-1 correlation between bank height and stiltgrass presence\/absence and open sunlit patches having dense patches of stiltgrass on the lower banks.<\/p>\n

I was covering a roughly 20 ft swath out from the bank edge before it dropped into the creek bed.\u00a0\u00a0I did go further from the creek a number of times but wasn\u2019t finding much (if any) the further I got from the creek.<\/p>\n

Management considerations<\/strong><\/p>\n

Based on these observations, I believe that our current strategy of managing downstream from the \u201chead waters\u201d is prudent. Based on the diminished population this year and because the species has a 5-year seed viability, we should continue to see diminishing populations if we continue to be methodical and thorough with our management.<\/p>\n

We repeatedly found dense patches of\u00a0Microstegium<\/em>\u00a0in high light availability openings\/tree fall gaps. This suggests to me that if we open up the brush creek corridor with forestry mowing\/brush cutting, the increased light levels and soil disturbance might cause a spike in\u00a0Microstegium<\/em>\u00a0populations.\u00a0\u00a0While the brush creek corridor isn\u2019t priority #1, I know we\u2019ll get there some day. Before we aggressively start clearing brush in this area, I\u2019d like to have 3-5 years of aggressive\u00a0Microstegium<\/em>\u00a0management under our belts. We have observed diminished populations in the wildflower garden, along Paw Paw Creek, and along Brush creek with just one year of management. Coupled this with a short seed viability\u2026and we might have a winning strategy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"JSG-min\"
Large patch of Japanese stiltgrass (Microstegium vimenium<\/em>) along Brush Creek at Shaw Nature Reserve.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Restoration specialist, Mike Saxton, describes his observations on the distribution of Japanese stiltgrass.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26,31],"tags":[163,463,479,574],"class_list":["post-1838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-missouri","category-shaw-nature-reserve","tag-brush-creek","tag-invasive-species","tag-japanese-stiltgrass","tag-microstegium-vimenium"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nher.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/1fc301e4-92de-4171-962b-394fb4d0ed1a.jpg?fit=1136%2C852&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}