[Partners-IMCWMA] Russian river riparian weed survey

[Tara Athan]

A survey was conducted yesterday of the Russian along the reach from 
Hopland to Squaw Rock. There is good news and bad news.
Good news- we observed NO red sesbania, other than the original 
population in the Caltrans ditch along 175.
Bad news- we observed LOTS of water primrose, 46 individual patches, 
ranging in size from 1m to 30m.

Conclusion: Red sesbania is a viable eradication target, Water primrose 
is not.

Suggestion:
1. we request funding for follow-up treatment of the Red sesbania patch 
(it will be treated this season), with a 1:1 match from in-kind 
contributions
 >  Caltrans (mowing the blackberry around the sesbania to give access),
 > Mendo Co. Ag (herbicide treatment)
 > volunteer surveyors to check for outliers in the riparian area.
Additional general matching funds from WMA activities, such as meeting 
attendance, will help boost the match ratio.
I don't have an exact figure yet for the funds required for this, but I 
estimate it to be less than $5000 per year.

2. we should consider a project to address water primrose from a 
"top-down" approach, as a regional collaboration that augments the 
control programs of the Sonoma County Water Agency and Laguna de Santa 
Rosa.  I am trying to get information from those projects now.

Tara

-- 
Tara Athan
Coordinator, Inland Mendocino Cooperative Weed Management Area
coord at imcwma.org
707-485-1198
PO Box 415
Redwood Valley, CA 95470