This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from the USDA’s rich science and research portfolio.
Nonnative plants have hitchhiked their way into flower beds, gardens, and yards of landowners in the South for decades, invading and often harming forests and other natural areas by pushing out native plants and degrading wildlife habitat. These exotic plants often reduce forest productivity, wildlife diversity, and water quality and quantity.
The prevention and management strategies that landowners have been looking for to help control these unwanted resilient plants are now available in A Management Guide for Invasive Plants in Southern Forests recently published by the Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) . The guide provides effective control prescriptions for 56 nonnative plants and plant groups and gives homeowners, gardeners, land managers, and others information needed to achieve land rehabilitation and restoration.
Jim Miller, an emeritus SRS research ecologist based in Auburn, Ala, and one of the foremost authorities on invasive plants in the South, authored the guide with Steven Manning, president of Invasive Plant Control, Inc., and Stephen Enloe, weed management specialist at Auburn University.
You can request a free copy of the guide by sending your name and complete mailing address, along with book title, author, and publication number GTR–SRS–131 to: pubrequest@fs.fed.us, or by calling 828–257–4830. The 120-page guide is also available on the SRS Web site at www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/36915.
