News
Los Angeles County WMA New Website Now Online Posted: November 17, 2008 With support from the LA County Agricultural
Commissioner's Office, the LA County Weed Management Area has recently developed a new website with up-to-date project and resource information. The website can be found at www.lacountywma.org. Please sign up on the WMA e-list to be notified of upcoming meetings, events, and funding opportunities.
NPS Develops Brochure for Terracina Spurge Awareness in the Coastal Areas of Los Angeles County Posted: July 27, 2008 The National Parks Service recently finished an outreach brochure to educate local residents about the growing Euphorbia terracina problem in the coastal areas of Los Angeles (and now Ventura) County. The Watershed Council assisted NPS and Palos Verdes Peninsula Land
Conservancy with the brochure layout and design. Approximately 5000 brochures will be mailed to residents living in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) of the Santa Monica Mountains. Another 5000 brochures will be distributed by NPS at events and the NPS Visitor Center in Thousand Oaks. The WeedWatch program also has a small amount on hand to distrubute to agencies and organizations for outreach events. (See our outreach page for details). Funding for this outreach program was provided through the State WMA program.
City of Oceanside Bans Three Weeds Posted: April 18, 2008 (from North County Times, Craig Tenbroeck) A City Council majority April 18th outlawed three invasive plants: arundo, tamarisk and pampas grass ---- in an effort to reduce the risk of fire and flood.
Mayor Jim Wood, Councilwoman Esther Sanchez and Councilman Rocky Chavez voted for the ban, which allows Oceanside to direct property owners to remove the problem plants. If those orders aren't followed, the city can do the work and send the property owners the bill, a city report states. (Full article here...)
Gardening and Environmental Groups Try To Weed Out Invasive Plants Posted: April 10, 2008 (from Los Angeles Times, Emily Green) WEED. We need only one syllable to differentiate friend from foe
in our gardens. Yet the word seems inadequate for a new generation of weeds -- plants that we find beautiful or delicious when we cultivate them but that have escaped into the wild to potentially catastrophic effect. No single source tells the story of the shifting definition quite so methodically as "Weeds of California and Other Western States." When UC Davis weed scientist Joseph M. DiTomaso published the two volumes in 2007, they included more than 700 specimens, just about every plant that has stung, inconvenienced or merely displeased people this side of the Rockies. There in the 1,800-plus-page rogues' gallery, many of our classiest nursery salads and ornamentals have rap sheets. Nasturtiums, weeds? Ice plant? A weed? (Full article here...)
NPS Develops Commercials for Euphorbia terracina Awareness in Santa Monica Mountains Posted: October 10, 2007 The National Parks Service recently finished a series of humorous educational videos
about the growing Euphorbia terracina problem in the Santa Monica Mountains. These short ads will be aired on local cable channels within the Los Angeles region. Funding for this outreach program was provided through the State WMA program. One of the ads can now be seen on YouTube.
Non-Native Plants May Be Banned By Council Posted: July 20, 2007 (from San Diego Union-Tribune)
ENCINITAS – Think that pampas grass adds flair to your yard? It might, but
City Councilwoman Maggie Houlihan wants to ban it and other non-native plants from all new developments in Encinitas to save the city's wildlife habitats. Invasive plants push out native species and deprive wildlife of their food and nesting places, she said. Some are fire hazards, and others are water hogs, said Councilwoman Teresa Barth, Houlihan's environmentalist ally on the council. "There is no prohibition against planting this stuff,” Houlihan said. “There are such attractive alternatives to invasive plants.” See full article here.
LA County WMA Awarded CDFA Funding Posted: December 29, 2006 As part of the Los Angeles County WMA, The Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy, the Santa Catalina Island
Conservancy, and the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area were recently awarded funding through a two-year grant from CDFA. Proposed work from the WMA will include: a) eradicating Euphorbia terracina at three locations (within Solstice Canyon and along the Palos Verdes Peninsula), b) produce an educational campaign (brochures, posters, and a TV commercial) focusing on identification of E. terracina, its negative impacts, and effective control measures, and c) completely eradicate all known populations of yellow star thistle (Centaurea solstitialis), Veldt grass (Ehrharta calycina), saltcedar (Tamarix ramosissima), and periwinkle (Vinca major) from Conservancy property (42,000 acres) on Catalina Island. New Study Shows the Economic Benefits of Preventing Invasive Species Posted: December 20, 2006 WASHINGTON – A new study shows that screening for potentially harmful foreign plant species before they are imported is more economically beneficial than fighting them after they take root in new areas. Read the full article here.