Wyoming collaboration targets invasive grasses
Partners that span governmental boundaries and jump private-public borders hope to throw a tight noose around invasive grasses degrading Wyoming lands and halt establishment of other invasives.
A public and private funding mix would drive the Institute for Managing Annual Grasses Invading Natural Ecosystems based in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming. The effort casts a broad net to confront invasive grasses like cheatgrass, ventenata and medusahead through fundamental research, community science and creating what its originators call next generation partnerships.
“To take a truly comprehensive look at annual grass invasion, it requires much more than a few weed guys,” said Brian Mealor, director of IMAGINE and director of UW’s Sheridan Research and Extension Center.
IMAGINE partners include community colleges, multiple colleges and departments across the UW campus, and entities outside UW including the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the Wyoming weed and pest control districts.
He said next steps include forming an advisory board, discussing priority landscapes and research needs, building structure to address some of the recommendations in the Governor’s Invasive Species Initiative final report, and seeking additional funding.
The broad collaboration will increase the odds of success against invasive grasses, said Barbara Rasco, dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Rasco said the effort will take advantage of expertise in the college.
IMAGINE involves on-the-ground experts and those managing lands to create not only the science needs but the structure to best deliver new information to those who can use it, said Mealor, an associate professor in the Department of Plant Sciences in the college.
The effort would change traditional research models.
The group wants to narrow that gap to where science and practice are difficult to separate.
Rather than using many small research plots to learn what management methods work, IMAGINE would work within landscape-scale management projects to collect and analyze data at larger scales and over longer timeframes, said Mealor.
Mealor noted a diverse team will help better understand invasive grass impacts ranging from changes in soil microbial communities to landscape-scale distribution patterns to socio-economic impacts and benefits of control.
