Research reveals pairing herbicides with prescribed burning improves downy brome management

Downy brome is an annual winter grass invading thousands and thousands of acres of western rangelands and wildlands. It emerges early within the spring whereas native perennials are nonetheless dormant and creates dense mats of litter because it dies again on the finish of its rising season. As a consequence, it may well outcompete native vegetation and improve each the frequency and severity of wildfires.

Scientists writing within the journal Invasive Plant Science and Management describe a multiyear research that explored the advantages of pairing prescribed burning with the residual herbicide indaziflam—a confirmed software for restoring websites which were degraded by invasive winter annual grasses. The workforce utilized indaziflam alone and together with different herbicides to each burned and unburned websites.

The research confirmed that pairing burning with indaziflam therapies supplied higher management than both methodology used alone. Burning eliminated downy brome litter and stimulated native species, whereas the herbicide impeded emergence of latest downy brome seedlings from the soil seedbank.

“Following the burning with indaziflam provided longer-term benefits,” says Rachel Seedorf, a member of the analysis workforce. “It helped to maintain and improve plant community diversity while providing multiyear downy brome control.”

One additional advantage of the mixture remedy: Removing downy brome litter by means of prescribed burning meant decrease indaziflam charges could possibly be used since extra of the herbicide reached the soil.

Researchers additionally discovered that combining indaziflam with a selective, postemergence herbicide may assist land managers lengthen the applying window. Combining indaziflam with imazapic or rimsulfuron supplied a wider software window than combining indaziflam with glyphosate. In addition, making use of a selective, post-emergence herbicide with larger charges of indaziflam was proven to be an efficient possibility for controlling downy brome in arid websites the place litter hadn’t been burned.