Steve, you're so nice to spend the time to do this. I will ponder. I can't imagine finding enough ramial wood chips in this land of fir, larch, pine, cedar & hemlock. They cut the softwood and leave the hardwood--birch, alder, cottonwood and others. I just wanted to establish the benefits of hardwood chips.
What I was looking at wood chips for was for a special area which is parking for "The Falls," a place where you climb down stepping stones from the road level to a very turbulent rapids-like falls that goes into a pool. People often stop there and look and also fish. The edge of the parking area is a rampant common tansy bed. The Weed Supervisor has made noises about having a dump truck load of cedar chips put there. What I actually wanted to do was divide the area into at least two parts--one cedar and one ramial wood chips and watch it long term for growing something instead of tansy. I thought that the cedar area wouldn't grow anything at all and that the ramial chips would also kill the tansy, but would encourage mycorrhizal fungi and eventually grow local native forest plants, etc. This comparison might be valuable. I'm trying to teach the Weed Committee and our world here to think in terms of a forest community--plants and soil biota rather than only in terms of the "absence of 'noxious' weeds" mentality that leaves bare disturbed soil that will be even more weedy. We are going to do a weed education project with 4-H with a cash prize for the group that hands in the best weed herbarium. I'm trying to get them to have an alternate project on the soil food web. I probably wouldn't buy plant starts. I like to grow starts myself and I'm always transplanting 'weeds' from our garden to the road right-of-way, a mile and a half down the hill from our place where they have become a small native ornamental garden around a 'NO SPRAY' sign. I have $923 left in the cost-share grant this year. I have gathered native grass seeds from our meadow and looked into buying some mixed native grass seed which I would probably germinate in flats and plant out, especially since Idaho fescue is a spotty, slow germinator. Clover is a great germinator and drought survivor. In thinking about a county-wide, cost-effective IPM weed control strategy, I'm thinking about the addition of clover, microorganisms, micronutrients (on a gross scale--you can't test the soil every mile), then a very thick stand of low growing grass that won't need mowing at all and maybe sow some yarrow and Rocky Mountain penstemon seeds (They came up wild on my private right-of-way patch when I pulled out the knapweed over a long period of time. Now I have a strong stand of penstemon.) Our original vision statement said "wildflowers," but this is so hard that I'm willing to settle just for grass, but I still dream of having wildflowers that come up all season. We are testing 20% vinegar this year and had good luck with urea on hawkweed. In the fall we laid out a test plot in a thick solid knapweed stand and hand dug up all the knapweed except the little rosettes and sprayed Bruce Tainio's micronutrients from a soil test + his microorganisms (very expensive) + his enzymes, then sowed clover seeds in that. It was late, but it was warmer a much longer time than usual after that. We had some snow, then rain. I'm very interested in how this looks this spring. It should be very dramatic. Our flame weeding is done with our own weed torch which is just a metal tube with a butterfly valve at the handle hooked to a propane tank in a back pack. It set tansy back, but didn't kill it all. Your DeWitt Sunbelt Weed Barrier sounds too expensive. The newspaper under the hardwood chips sounds excellent. Steve, I'm not above digging weeds in rainy weather. We do have to get rid of the weeds. This road and the whole area is glacial till. We have wind blown laos coming off western grain fields in eastern Washington. This was a forest next to an agricultural area. There used to be a railroad in here to take logs out, long, long ago. There were only several pioneering families living here with a short road. Now it's an 8-mile road that gets more primitive the farther in you go with 300 families. At the beginning are four ranches, then a bridge over a river, a wonderful store with laundromat and showers, followed by houses close to and facing the road, then we have private roads off the feeder road and people mostly living off road, but still some on the road. One old family that owns a whole section of land on the road are pro-chemical and they sprayed 2,4-D on their right-of-way, so we are truly IPM. We have three miles where the county ditched several years ago but didn't reseed. It's just sand with a few weeds starting. It's mostly open to the sun, but the couple of miles has forest right up to the road and is shady--bare on one side and with various mixtures of moss, kinnickinnick (bearberry), native grass mixed with tansy, knapweed, hawkweed and thistle!!! At this point, I'm laughing. The climate is extremely varied from year to year. Generally, it rains a bit in the spring and everything is green till sometime in July when the rail stops and it gets in the 90s. It's in 70s 80s before that. Then there's no rain at all in August and September and it started to get cooler and rains in the fall. Then snow and cold--varying extremely in temperature and snowfall. It actually rained here this winter several times. It's snowing up a storm right now here. Well, Steve, thanks again. Any ideas you have are greatly appreciated. Thanks for the help below. (Allan, I couldn't bear to erase it. Sorry.) Right now everybody in the county just lets the weed supervisor take care of all the right-of-ways, except individual organic families who take care of their own right-of-way and our whole road project. I want more and more people to become motivated in contributing to a clean environment and take care of their own right-of-way. On the other hand, I would be satisfied if we got our weeds under control and everthing gorgeous and that got the county to try and motivate other roads to do the same. A hundredth monkey syndrome. The cost-share grant is only for control, not for research, but the Weed Supervisor says he wants test plots side-by-side with control plots that show a dramatic change so he can take pictures which will be the only thing that will communicate to the Bonner County Weed Committee and the State Committee. Just having this road weed-free would be an amazing communication. At the last Weed Committee meeting, the Farm Bureau member brought their concerns to the Committee which included spraying herbicide on the gravel pits "so we won't be spreading weed seeds when we spread gravel." The suggestions from the committee in this order were: Tordon, Escort and flame weeding. I just sent a copy of the Phillip Callahan interview to my nemesis, Randy, in hopes that he would have the intelligence (that I know he has) and the flexibility (which I doubt that he has because of cognitive dissonance) to recognize that the gravel pits could have a wealth of paramagnetic gravel and dust which would be invaluable for revitalizing used up soil. Who knows, maybe the seawater vest would cure his arthritis? I know I'm asking a lot. He will probably conclude that Phillip Callahan is a weird-o. I am thinking about how to administer the grant this season and have been wanting to blow up the 8 1/2 x 11 copy of the county plot map of our road to 11 x 17 and try to put all test plots we have and the various areas of outstanding weed, on it so I can organize this. People are willing to help if I give them specific, small, several-hour jobs to do. I desperately need to involve everybody on the road in this and it's my worst talent--yakety-yaking up and down the road. I hate knocking on doors and signs and letters don't seem to do any good. Telephone call are O.K. too. I wish I had a board. My failing, I'm sure. My Quaker mentor, Lois Wythe, who started the Panhandle Environmental League, the Farmer's Market and the Native Plant Arboretum and Society is so good at motivating people. She's an excellent speaker and organizer, but she's in her 80s now and not well, but still gives classes. Her latest organization--the Native Plant Society--has over 100 members and they are hosting a talk on GMOs by Chuck Benbrook this coming Saturday. I'd give anything to be able to motivate this road as she has motivated this county. Best, Merla Steve Diver wrote: > Hi Merla - > > Putting wood chips on a roadside for weed control? > > Well, if you have a very special roadside patch > that is just outside your farm and you plan to > landscape it for roadside beautification, then > wood chips come to mind as a mulch and for > the aesthetic look. > > But I can't imagine putting wood chips on a > roadside for weed control, in general. > > When you spread a 14 cu. yd dump truck > load, it covers so many square feet..... an > area of 20' x 50' or some such figure which > I'm not going to spend time looking up. The > point is obvious, you can't spread chips all > over the county.... mile after mile, 2 miles, > 5 miles, 20 miles, 100 miles of roadsides as > you drive across the county... can you? > > A dump truck driver may charge $100 a load to haul. > > So pretty quick wood chips are not too economical > or practical accept for specialized plantings like orchards > and vines and landscape beds and garden pathways. > > Well, the tree timmers working on electrical power lines > will dump loads of wood trimmings on your property, > by special arrangement, and that is a low cost way to > obtain this valueable material. > > For roadside weed control, in general, you can rely > on the vegetation control obtained with the Waipuna or > the Atarus. I've seen results and it is damn > remarkable to see steam / hot foam in action as > a viable alternative to herbicides. > > But steam weed control equipment is really expensive. > > If the people managing the budget are visionary and > realize the progressive nature of steam weed control and > how that fits into the big picture of vegetation management > in a county.... for roadsides, for schools, for institutions, > for parks, for athletic fields.... then they can see how > the equipment can be used for multiple purposes and > reduce the use of pesticides in the environment. > > Otherwise..... it ain't going to happen any time soon. > Besides, budgets for governments and organizations > are limited and very real; it can take multiple years to > "move" in a direction. > > Yet, if you plant the seed and provide positive > encouragement for a sustainable future, it might > just "grow on them." > > The other thing you can do is focus on establishment > of native vegetation, grass species, and ground covers > that occupy roadsides and therefore tilt the vegetation > in balance of low-growing vegetation with lower > maintenance costs in terms of mowing and "weed control." > > Idaho is a far away land, so it is not easy to visualize what > sort of weeds and vegetation and roadsides you are dealing > with. > > But when I read you stories about the weed control board, > I can tell you where to get practical and focused, from > my perspective. > > Well, if you are looking at a roadside patch like 100' > long by 10-20' wide, you can put in a geotextile mulch > and plant some perennial flowers and shrubs. Look into > the DeWitt Sunbelt Weed Barrier.... it will last 10 years > in the open sun. Yet keep in mind we are talking about > a very special roadside flower bed. It will also cost > hundreds of dollars to buy plugs of perennial flowers, > herbs, and native plants. Yet, I can guaranteee results > and the public will *love* your roadside beautification > project. It will become a multi-purpose flower bed that > provides habitat for butterflies and lizards, it will become > a seed factory for the pretty flowers and functional plants, > it will create a bioenergy field of beauty and Nature and > color and patterns and designs. A 15' x 300' roll will cost > around $250-300, to give you an idea. > > Vinegar is the other method that comes to mind. It is > relatively cheap. You can spray it on. Spray technology > is familiar to the county workers used to spraying on > herbidides. Vinegar is a natural herbicide. It works, but > it might now work on all species so it will also be an > experimental situation. The workers need to have an > open mind with a pesticide-reduction goal in mind.... and > play around with vinegar and related alternative natural > herbicides and extracts. > > Here's another tip.... before you put down wood > chips as a mulch on bare ground.... put down layers > of newsprint as a "sheet mulch." The difference > in long-term weed control is tremendous. > > But do not put wood chips on top of the geotextile > mulch, because it creates a moist organic media, a haven for > wind-borne weed seeds to germinate and send their roots > down and "peg through" the mulch and become established. > Just leave the geotextile mulch exposed to the sun, and rely > on the plants to grow out and cover the weed barrier with > foliage. > > Best wishes, > Steve Diver
