Management Practices for Weed Control in Roadway Right-of-Ways
John
Nieber, Professor
Donald Wyse, Professor, Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics
Caleb Arika, Research Associate
Funding Source
Minnesota Department of Transportation
Objectives
- Develop an annotated bibliography of previous
research on technologies (remote sensing, GPS and GIS,
videography, etc.)
for management of noxious weeds in rights-of-way
and roadside ditches, while preserving native species
- Develop
procedures for surveying and mapping the
population of noxious weeds along highways.
- Develop
and calibrate an algorithm for predicting the spatial and
temporal distributions of noxious
weeds.
- Develop a users manual for GPS/GIS system
management of weed populations in roadway
rights-of-way.
Need
or Impact
The control of weeds in roadway right-of-ways is
necessary to help preserve safe driving conditions and to
enhance the aesthetics
of the driving experience. Executive Order 13112,
(built on the National Environmental Policy Act
of 1969, the
Federal Noxious Weed Act of 1974, and the Endangered
Species Act)
directs the
agencies of the executive branch of the federal
government to work to prevent and control the introduction and
spread of invasive
species. Further, Minnesota law stipulates that
primary
noxious
weeds must be controlled on all private and public
land in the state. In addition, under the program
provisions
of Operation
Wildflower and the Surface Transportation and Uniform
Relocation Assistance Act of 1987 (STURAA), native
wildflowers are
to be
planted in America’s right-of-ways to add
natural character to the highway environment. To
establish
native plants in roadway
right-of-ways it is necessary to provide adequate
control of noxious weeds.
Project Status
Four seasons of invasive weed distributions have
been collected in Mn/DOT District 4 by sampling
45 miles
of roadway out
of a total of over 2,600 miles of roadway in
the district. The
invasive weed species of interest include leafy
spurge, Canada thistle, and poison ivy. These
have been surveyed
with aid
of GPS units. Recorded data include location
of weed patch, and
an estimate of weed patch density. The current
project was started in the summer of 2004. Surveys of
roadway rights-of-way
weed
population have been conducted in 2004 and 2005.
These surveys are being performed to test the
accuracy
of
the surveys
done in previous years, and to develop and test
an improved method
of weed population assessment. The new surveys
were done by randomly selecting 100 one-quarter mile
sections from
the
entire district (over 2,600 miles of roadway)
and collecting weed population
data from those sections. Statistical tests
were performed to compare the weed distribution numbers
found in
these subsections to those numbers found in
the 45 miles of
roadway sampled
in
the Mn/DOT survey. Weed population distributions
are being related to a number of site variables,
with
the hope of
arriving at
a model of weed population distribution. Further,
data from the 2004-05 surveys is being analyzed
and applied
to making
recommendations on minimum required sampling
intensity for efficient evaluation of extent (linear miles)
of infestation of roadside
rights-of-way.
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