Featured Topic: Yellow Bluestem: An Encroaching Invasive Grass
Speaker Biography: Ashley Hall received her B.Sc. in Rangeland Ecology and Management with a minor in Geographic Information Systems from the University of Arizona (UA) in 2009 and a M.Sc. 2011. Her thesis focused on researching nurse plant-protégé interactions between two species of Bursage and Creosote, as well as creating a vegetation map of the Mohawk Mountains and San Cristobal Valley on the Barry M. Goldwater Range. After finishing her M.S., Ashley began working for UA Cooperative Extension as a team member of the Cooperative Rangeland Monitoring Program assisting the Bureau of Land Management in establishing a vegetation monitoring protocol. Ashley worked for US Fish and Wildlife Service as the Invasive Species Coordinator for Arizona Refuges. She currently works for Gila County Cooperative Extension, focusing on Rangeland Management and Animal Science.
Presentation Description: Non-native species, like Yellow Bluestem (Bothriochloa ischaemum) negatively affect the habitats they invade in many ways including economically, environmentally, and/or ecologically. Yellow Bluestem is a perennial grass introduced to the United States from Europe and Asia in the early 1900s as a way to control erosion and as a forage species. In the past several years, this species has become an emerging invasive in Arizona. Yellow Bluestem has been shown to alter soil function and biota, suppressing the growth of native vegetation. It out-competes native species because it can grow much taller than most native grasses, and creates a sod thick formation by reproducing through underground stems. While this species was introduced in some parts of the U.S. to provide additional forage for grazing species, Yellow Bluestem is less palatable than natives and is not preferred by cattle, equine, or wildlife. Eradication of this species may require intense management efforts if a new population is not eliminated quickly.
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