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1. Planning Your Purple Loosestrife Biocontrol Program
Before you begin implementation, careful planning of your purple loosestrife biocontrol program is important. Setting biocontrol program goals, and understanding what is involved in implementing and managing a purple loosestrife biocontrol program increases the probability for success of your program. All of the following are important components of pre-program planning:
a) Assess the current status of purple loosestrife in your management area and adjacent ownerships.
- Determine how much purple loosestrife occurs in your area and develop a distribution map.
- Determine what other management strategies have been employed against purple loosestrife in your area. Determine if biocontrol is an appropriate strategy.
- Discuss your program plans with neighboring landowners/managers, or coordinated weed management areas (CWMAs).
- Consult with your agency or university biocontrol expert, cooperative weed management area, or county weed superintendent to become familiar with other purple loosestrife activities in your area, especially spraying or mowing programs that may affect a biocontrol program.
b) Define the goals of your program.
- Determine the weed management objective for your area. If you want to eradicate purple loosestrife from your area, then biocontrol is not the most effective management technique to accomplish this. However, if you simply want to reduce loosestrife cover, flowering, and seed production, and to promote the growth of native plants, then a biocontrol program may be compatible with your management objectives.
- Determine precisely how you will measure control based on your stated goals.
- Outline a long-term management strategy.
- Determine the projected lifespan of the project.
c) Decide which biocontrol agent(s) to release.
d) Establish support logistics.
- Commit resources for field equipment and supplies (if needed).
- Recruit and train personnel.
- Identify sources of biocontrol agents.
- Outline yearly activities.
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