False-brome:

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False-brome A threat to forest and prairie
ecosystems
Debbie Johnson Institute for Applied
Ecology debbie_at_appliedeco.org
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• False-brome can
• Replace native vegetation through competition for
  water, nutrients and light
• Displace associated species
• Contribute directly to the decline of threatened
  and endangered species
• Alter wildfire behavior
• Diminish recreational values or alter access

Taylors checkerspot butterfly
Photo by Dana Ross
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False-brome Distribution in Oregon
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OSU McDonald-Dunn Forest
closed canopy forest
meadow
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Priority Species McDonald Forest
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False-brome Management Plan Components

• Survey Design
• Forest-wide on permanent transects (repeat of
  1993 survey method)
• Containment
• Reduce the amount of seed leaving the forest
• Reduce the amount of false-brome in seed when
  logging occurs
• Reduce the amount of seeds spread by
  recreationists
• Reduce the amount of seeds spread by staff
• Control
• Treat post-harvest for three years in clearcut
  units
• Eliminate isolated populations
• Eliminate populations in and around special
  ecological areas
• Education
• Expand on Oak Creek kiosk interpretation add
  boot-washer
• Interpret road and trailside treatment project
• Hold periodic field trips

See Invasive Plant Management Plan for full text
at www.cof.orst.edu/cf/forests/mcdonald/plan
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Restoration Principles

• 1. Eliminate small populations using the most
  effective control technique known.
• Focus control on the protection of special
  ecological areas and satellite populations
  initially, rather than the advancing front of the
  source population.
• Educate staff, students, contractors, and
  recreationists .

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Soap Creek
80 acres
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www.appliedeco.org/reports
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• Enemy release hypothesis is supported for
  pathogens, but not for insects as herbivory is
  higher in the invaded range
• Seed pathogens control B. sylvaticum population
  growth rates in native range
• Rapid evolution has occurred in resistance and
  water use efficiency
• B. sylvaticum is a poor competitor in the sun,
  but in the shade it outcompetes E. glaucus, S.
  arundinaceus, D. californica.
• Results from the lab of B. Roy, UO

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Resources
False-brome Working Group Website www.appliedeco.o
rg/invasive-species-resources/FBWG Middle Fork
Willamette Watershed Council Invasive Plant
Species Working Group http//www.mfwwc.org/nativep
lants.html
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Training Lambs to be Weed-eaters

• Experiments on the efficiency of Ovis airies for
  use in the biological control of Brachypodium
  sylvaticum- a non-native bunchgrass
• Ryan Scholz-
• Junior Animal Sciences/ Bioresource Research
• Dr. Howard Meyers-
• Professor OSU Dept. Animal Sciences
• Dr. Deborah Clark-
• Sr. Instructor OSU Biology Program

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Ryan Scholz