UAF student battles alien invaders in Fairbanks
Published Sunday, November 23, 2008
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Stumble It!FAIRBANKS — With its delicate multiple vine-like stems, small tendrils and petite purple flowers, vicia cracca doesn’t look threatening — but it’s starting an invasion.
Commonly known as bird vetch and seen across Fairbanks, it is an invasive plant that smothers native plants. It also was by far the most common invasive plant found on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus in a three-month study conducted by senior forestry student Jessica Guritz.
Guritz spent her summer exploring the campus and tracking 14 targeted types of invasive plants at 461 sites.
The bad news is Guritz found evidence of 11 of the 14 targeted species.
The good news is the UAF trail system is three-fourths free from any invasive plant growth, she said.
All of the research Guritz did during the summer was complied into a report, which also served as her thesis.
Guritz was hired as an integrated pest management technician by Cooperative Extension Services at UAF for the project, which was funded by a USDA Forest Service grant intended to study invasive species.
The 14 plants chosen for identification came from Guritz’s work with Jeff Conn of UAF Agricultural Research Services, Tricia Wurtz from the Forest Service and Michele Hebert from Cooperative Exension, who also served as Guritz’s supervisor.
Hebert said the most common way invasive plants are transported through Alaska is by the roadway system. Motor vehicles pick up seeds and plants and carry them to new areas. This year’s warmer winter isn’t helping the problem, as plants have a better chance of surviving.
She said invasive plants also arrive at new areas in landscaping materials. The European bird cherry was brought into Interior Alaska as a yard decoration but has spread from its original plantings.
“Compared to other states, Alaska is not bad for invasive plants because we are so isolated,” Guritz said.
Guritz studied 461 distinct areas and examined them for the presence of invasive species. The areas, or “polygons,” ranged in size from .001 acres — a area with a 4-foot radius — to 10 acres. She said the wide range in polygon sizes was because roads and other factors fragmented the fields on campus. In addition to checking for the 14 species in the numerous polygons, Guritz said she had to revisit some areas to make sure she had identified the plants accurately.
Guritz said the study allowed her to explore any parts of the campus that she had never noticed before, and one of her most surprising finds was an abandoned shooting range.
“I don’t think many people know that it’s out there,” she said.
Herbert said the next step is finding ways to manage the growth of invasive species at UAF, which will not be a quick process. Mowing the vetch and other species is a possible solution for the moment, but mowing will have to be done continuously unless a system can to be set up to keep the invasive plants out in the first place.
Despite the difficulties of finding a solution, Guritz’s report will provide a good basis for future work, Herbert said.
“I just think she did an amazing job,” she said.
Contact staff writer Christi Hang at 459-7590.
Community Discussion
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That's it. Close the campus before this gets out of hand.
I found invasive poo on my grass this summer. There were two different ones. Dog poo and cat poo. The dog poo could have been pit bull, not sure. Maybe they could study this next.
Morons. These are important projects that every ecosystem on earth is increasingly faced with as a result of globalization. I supposed it would be fine with you if invasive species choked out all the preferred moose food and you had to drive to Canada for your yearly hunt. Good luck with that! This type of research is even more vital to isolated ecosystems such as Hawaii or Iceland or in broadly unregulated regions such as southeast Asia, but is no less important when carried out right here at home on our own UAF campus.
Thanks to Jessica and the others involved for endeavoring to understand our natural systems a little bit more.
I whsh the paper was able to post pictures of these pesty plants. Invasive plants create a strong hold where they arrive at - usually a place man is - and posting 'Wanted' posters so people can search and destroy them by hand is the only way to reduce the population.
This is a great study, and, a wake up call for Interior Alaska. In the past few years this research has been focused on Anchorage.
http://www.uaf.edu/ces/cnipm/vicia_cracc...
Great study! And very useful for Alaskans. The university should encourage more students to do real-life, hands-on, practical research like this.
What about the alien invaders that fly over my house every afternoon at three-forty-seven and take holographic images of me? Will somebody please listen to me about this?
TAC, we got ya covered. The alien invaders, uh, say you look really nice in those pants, but that red isn't your color.
I always heard the schools colors were from the first UAF President selecting the colors of the flowers down by the old campus farm. Previously I thought those vicia were the blue flowers he looked at. I guess the blue flowers were a different type.
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