• Introduction
• Evaluating the potential for natural recovery
  • Burn severity & plant survival
  • Noxious weed cover & survival
• Revegetating with competitive plants
  • When revegetation is necessary
  • Formulating a Seed Mix
  • Things to consider
• Establishing competitive plants
• Managing competitive plants
• Integrated Weed Management
• Preventing noxious weeds
• Eradicating small weed patches
• Managing large weed infestations
  • Mechanical control
  • Chemical control
    • Timing & placement
  • Cultural control
  • Biological control
• Monitoring & Evaluation
• Developing a burned-area IWM plan
• Summary
• Sources and Credits
• Additional Resources
• Interactive Exercises

Rangeland Weed Management - Managing large infestations through cultural control

Cultural Control

Cultural control methods promote the growth and competitiveness of desired plants by establishing or properly managing a healthy plant community. This can provide resource competition with weeds and provide relative weed-resistance to future invaders. Cultural control methods include revegetation, proper management of desired plants (see “Managing competitive plants") and grazing. Revegetation is an essential IWM plan component when the desired vegetation cover is inadequate to fill available niches within an infestation. As management efforts eradicate individual weeds from an infestation, the desired plants typically cannot fill every open niche.

As a result, the target weed (or another weed species) fills these niches and the infestation isn’t improved despite costly and time-consuming management. Successful infestation management steadily replaces vacant weed sites with desired vegetation. Such replacements can eventually shift the competitive balance from the infestation to the desired plants. Effective niche occupation and the eventual reestablishment of a healthy plant community made up of an array of aggressive, quick-establishing species can minimize reinvasion.