Local Landcare groups on the Monaro are excited be involved in a project run by Lachlan Ingram from the University of Sydney which aims to gain better knowledge of what is driving the spread of African Lovegrass (ALG) on the Monaro and what options there are for controlling it and/or reducing the rate at which it is spreading. We hope that an outcome of the research project will be a scientifically established best practice strategy for the control of African Lovegrass.
We are calling on landholders who are able to participate in the project to provide on-ground research.
- Participants will have the option of applying three commonly applied control strategies: 1) slashing, 2) roller wiping with glyphosate, and 3) broadcast herbicide application.
- At the start of the landholder voluntary trials, we will aid participants with establishing 20 permanent 1m2 plots per paddock. Participants will fill in a short assessment of the plot including soil, rainfall, estimates of ALG abundance and arrival date on the property and more specifically the trial paddock, and then asked to take a photo of the 1m2 plots twice a year.
- We will use software to analyse ground cover and distinguish African Lovegrass from other species in the images and will develop generalised mixed models to analyse the change in cover over time depending on rainfall, soil type and livestock management.
- At the beginning of the third year, we will return to sample the paddocks to re-conduct social surveys regarding the efficacy of control trials, and recommended adaptations, and to ground-truth and survey ecologically the paddocks following two years of applying the control strategy.
To be involved please contact:
Lachlan Ingram
Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Grassland Management
Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, University of Sydney
M 0458 767677
