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 Santa Barbara County
Weed Management Area

 
Strategic Plan
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ATTACHMENT B
Program Description and Strategic Plan
 
I. INTRODUCTION AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Harmful non-native plants threaten biological diversity and reduce the value of cropland, rangeland, parks and wildlife habitat. The Santa Barbara County Weed Management Area (SBCWMA) is a multi-agency coalition concerned with the invasion of farms, rangeland, and native plant and animal habitat by non-native weeds. The SBCWMA will conduct exotic weed control projects and coordinate and educate members towards the common goal of reducing the impact of harmful non-native weeds and enhancing the viability of agricultural, horticultural and native ecosystems in Santa Barbara County.

MISSION STATEMENT
The mission of the Santa Barbara County Weed Management Area (SBCWMA) is to increase the quantity and quality of noxious exotic weed management efforts in Santa Barbara County by conducting noxious exotic weed control projects and by coordinating the activities of those County stakeholders and resource managers interested in stemming the tide of environmental degradation and agricultural incursion by noxious exotic weeds.

Coordination. The SBCWMA will coordinate member agencies by convening planning and informational meetings, by increasing communication, and by developing and adhering to this strategic plan and memorandum of understanding (Attachment A). A website will keep members and the public updated on program and project status.

Education and Public Relations. The SBCWMA will increase awareness of harmful non-native weeds through a public relations campaign that will conduct public and industry seminars, agency staff training, and media outreach. This awareness is intended to increase the efficiency of non-native weed management and public support of SBCWMA projects and other non-native weed management efforts in Santa Barbara County.

Knowledge. The SBCWMA will survey for target weeds to determine the feasibility of, and assist in the development of strategies for management. Data will be compiled into a geographic information system to assist in the inventory of target species and evaluation of project success.

Project Implementation. Non-native weeds will be managed by the implementation of specific projects. Special emphasis will be placed on the early detection, exclusion, eradication, containment, and suppression of harmful non-native weeds identified as target species by the SBCWMA membership.

GOAL
The goal of the SBCWMA is to significantly reduce the impact of harmful non-native weeds in Santa Barbara County in order to:
  • increase rangeland and cropland values
  • decrease agricultural production costs
  • maintain the health of native plant communities
  • increase the aesthetic and recreational value of park land and natural areas
  • decrease road, park, garden and watershed maintenance costs
  • reduce fire hazard and fire control costs
  • reduce flood hazard and soil erosion.
II GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Integrated Weed Management. The fundamental concepts of integrated pest management (IPM), or in this case, integrated weed management (IWM), will govern the selection of control methods used in weed control projects conducted by the SBCWMA. IWM uses a multidisciplinary approach to minimize the impact of control actions on the non-target environment and public health. This strategic plan embodies the IWM concept for the SBCWMA by its integration and use of education, exclusion, biological, physical, cultural and chemical methods to control weeds. Toxicity, persistence, selectivity, and efficacy will be considerations in herbicide selection or rejection, with the goal of minimized impact on the non-target environment and public health.

Consensus The structure of the SBCWMA will be governed by the will of the membership. The Area will design and select projects based on the membership's consensus and a project's compliance with the strategic plan. At the present time (winter 2001), the co-chairs from the Agricultural Commissioner's Office and the Santa Barbara Chapter of the Audubon Society have provided the primary leadership and direction for the SBCWMA. Decisions have been made by the co-chairs and approved by informal consensus of the membership. The co-chairs will continue to seek the membership's opinion and consensus on all major decisions and direction. Attendance in meetings and participation in discussions, email or otherwise, are informally used to determine the consensus. Should the membership or co-chairs demand a more formal structure, one will be designed upon that demand. Membership standing shall be determined by acceptance of the Memorandum of Understanding (Attachment A)

III. PRIORITIES
The priority of the SBCWMA is the control of harmful non-native weeds that do or may impact agricultural lands, rangeland, parklands, native habitat, urban areas, and residential areas in Santa Barbara County. While all harmful non-native weeds are a concern, limited funds require that the SBCWMA focus its attention to a few identified target species or habitats.

Target weeds should be selected on their degree of conformity with one or more of the following characteristics:
  • high rating by the California Dept of Food and Agriculture (CDFA)
  • high rating by California Exotic Pest Plant Council (CalEPPC)
  • listing as a Federally Noxious Weed (APHIS)
  • other competent determination of high pest potential
  • an incipient infestation, of limited distribution, adventive
  • if a large infestation, then limited to a specific region and absent or rare in the rest of the County
  • high pest potential - dominant even in country of origin, high fertility, high dispersal rate, persistent roots or seed bank, multiple reproductive modes, etc.
  • possesses additional pestiferous characteristics - poisonous, allelopathic, spiny, creates impenetrable monoculture stands, resource greedy, causes plant community type conversion, or alters fire regime or watershed hydrology
  • poses an imminent threat to a high value resource

The distribution of a species and the threat it may pose to an agricultural sector or native ecosystem should be a factor in its selection as an SBCWMA priority weed.

The following weeds have been identified by the membership as weeds of significance that deserve priority attention. The list is not necessarily exclusive, and inclusion of a weed on this list does not mandate that a project must be designed for the species. However, inclusion of a species on this list increases the likelihood that a project will be designed for a species. The list of target weeds will be evaluated annually.
 The Target Weeds:

 CDFA

 CalEPPC

 Federal
 Pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana)  

 A-1
  
 Jubata grass (Cortaderia jubata)  

 A-1
  
 Yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis)

 C

 A-1
  
 Giant reed (Arundo donax)  

 A-1
  

Area prioritization. In some situations, a defined area may deserve specific protection from infestation by exotic weeds. The function of an area proposed for protection will influence the prioritization. This includes properties with high recreational value, highly valued plant or animal communities, land that is uninfested, or geographically or politically isolated, and land that serves as a soil or seed source. This prioritization may be helpful where an exotic weed is widespread, but a particular habitat or geographic area may be deserving of protection. In such cases, a control project may be designed to protect a specific habitat or geographic area.

IV. PROGRAM ELEMENTS
A. EDUCATION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
The general public and even land resource managers may not be fully aware of the issue of invasive species and exotic weeds. Whether a plant is a weed is a subjective characterization. Education is necessary to define a weed and coalesce public opinion on the importance of exotic weed management. Education will increase the quality and quantity of, and support for exotic weed control efforts. The SBCWMA will serve to coordinate education and public relation efforts.

Various groups, including the SBCWMA membership, the membership's staff, the horticulture and agriculture sector, the environmental community and the general public will be targeted for education and outreach. A public relations effort will be provided for the general public and the environmental community to increase acceptance of and support for SBCWMA control projects. Technical education and training will be provided for the SBCWMA membership staff and volunteers to increase the quality and quantity of weed control projects and to assist in the identification of exotic weed problems.

Action Plan: The SBCWMA will use the following techniques to accomplish its educational goals:

Public Seminars. The SBCWMA will conduct one or more seminars, annually, open to the public, to increase awareness and technical competency in the community on the topic of exotic weed identification, biology, and management. Seminars will be in the form of a workshop, lecture, field tour, or laboratory.

Speakers Bureau. The SBCWMA will have speakers available for community group, governmental group, and the membership's departmental field staff and management meetings. SBCWMA members will be encouraged to indicate their area of expertise and announce their availability as speakers. Departmental field staff and management meetings may be especially crucial to the SBCWMA's goals. The field staff of the SBCWMA membership is the staff that is working in the field and would be most instrumental in the identification of incipient infestations and preventing the spread of exotic weeds. The managers would be instrumental in implementing the policies to assist in accomplishing the SBCWMA's goals.

Brochures. The SBCWMA will produce and distribute one or more brochures, annually, to support its education and outreach goals.
SBCWMA Meetings. Guest speakers will be invited to SBCWMA meetings to increase the technical expertise of the membership in exotic weed taxonomy, biology, management, regulations and other relevant topics.

Media Outreach. SBCWMA members with literary talent will be encouraged to become spokespersons and to write news articles and news releases on exotic weed issues for the local media.

Green Academy Internships. The Green Academy is an educational, school to careers, program at Santa Barbara High School. The SBCWMA will provide internship opportunities to Green Academy students.

Website. A website maintained by the Santa Barbara County Agricultural Commissioner's Office is available at http://www.countyofsb.org/agcomm/wma.htm. The website will be regularly updated with meeting schedules and news.

Yahoo! Group. A Yahoo! Group website has been created to allow members to discuss issues, and share photos, links, files, and databases over the internet. The website is available at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sbcwma.

B. PREVENTION
Weed populations increase rapidly with time when they are in a new, hospitable environment. Costs of control increase greatly with the size of the population. Preventing a pest from becoming established in an area avoids all associated losses and costs for control of that pest, into the indefinite future. The components of prevention commonly include exclusion, detection, and eradication.

Exclusion includes all activities to keep an exotic, invasive species from crossing the border of a region. In California, exclusion is a government regulatory program that depends on border inspections at the national or state level, and on inspections of incoming shipments at the county level. Additionally, at the local level, it often depends heavily on appeals to the public to use caution in activities that can intentionally or unintentionally move species.

Detection and eradication of early infestations deal with weeds that have bypassed the exclusion system. Detection includes all activities to find new infestations of weeds that were previously unknown in a region.

Eradication includes all activities to completely remove a species or a particular infestation.

Action Plan. Exclusion, detection and eradication, at the federal, state, and county levels, is conducted by the government - APHIS, CDFA, and the CAC . The general public can contribute by practicing phytosanitary techniques, reporting outlying and incipient infestations of exotic weeds, and supporting eradication and management projects. The SBCWMA will use the following techniques to accomplish its prevention goals.

Outreach. Individuals and businesses that move or use plant materials, soil, and other products that may spread weeds will be requested to implement phytosanitary techniques and not use exotic weeds in landscapes. Construction, road maintenance, equestrian groups, fire suppression agencies, agriculture, tourism, and the nursery and landscape trade will be specifically targeted. The techniques include inspection of incoming shipments, use and creation of weed-free seed, hay, feed grain, forage, mulch, and soil; modified grazing practices; appropriate handling of weed-contaminated construction spoils; appropriate landscape plant selection; and appropriate handling of contaminated equipment.

The SBCWMA will reach out to natural history, botanical, horticultural, recreational and agricultural special interest groups through its Education and Public Relations Program. The SBCWMA will provide speakers to these groups with the goal of increasing the numbers of people who will report incipient infestations to the SBCWMA.

Exclusion. At the local level, the Santa Barbara County Agricultural Commissioner's Office administers a phytosanitary regulatory program. The Agricultural Commissioner's Office inspects incoming plant and seed shipments and certifies plant and seed exports. With the assistance of the CDFA, the SBCWMA will re-emphasize the exclusion and detection of exotic weeds with Agricultural Commissioner's Office staff by conducting training sessions for Agricultural Commissioner staff on the biology and identification of exotic weeds.

Detection. The SBCWMA will initiate, encourage and coordinate early detection of new invasive non-native plant infestations in Santa Barbara County. Detecting the presence of new species in the county, as well as the spread of known species to new locations is essential to successful exotic weed control in the county.

Eradication. The CDFA and the Agricultural Commissioner's Office cooperatively work to eradicate infestations of CDFA "A" rated weeds in Santa Barbara County. The SBCWMA will coordinate with the CDFA on current eradication projects to ensure that the CDFA continues to devote appropriate resources to Santa Barbara County.

C. MAPPING AND EVALUATION.
A confident knowledge of the presence, density and distribution of weeds is required for a successful strategic and long-term approach to exotic weed control. Mapping will be used to select and evaluate control projects. The choice of control objective - prevention, eradication, suppression, or containment - and control techniques will depend on the distribution of the weed in the county. Funding is limited. Resources must be allocated in a highly strategic fashion. Infestations, which are pioneers in an otherwise uninfested area, should be prioritized for aggressive eradication, whereas cooperative control projects in heavily infested areas need to have clear long-term justifications.

The resolution required to map a species will be determined by its density and distribution. Outlying, pioneer, leading edge and incipient infestations will need to be finely defined to determine the success of eradication and regional protection projects. At selected sites where treatments may be conducted, density of the local infestation, pre and post treatment will be recorded.

The Santa Barbara County Agricultural Commissioner's Office and the County of Santa Barbara has implemented a geographic information system. Sophisticated mapping systems can be maintained on a computer based geographic information system (GIS). Map points can be recorded with a geographic positioning system (GPS).

Photographs and visual surveys will also be used to document project success and monitor weed populations.

Action Plan. The SBCWMA will use the following strategies to reach its mapping and evaluation goals.

GIS/GPS Technicians. The Agricultural Commissioner's Office has implemented the County of Santa Barbara's GIS within the department. The Agricultural Commissioner's Office possesses the computer network, GIS/GPS software, and GPS devices to create sophisticated maps of weed locations. The Agricultural Commissioner's Office will develop staff competency in the use of GIS/GPS.

Mapping Projects. The SBCWMA will conduct ad hoc mapping projects and specific mapping projects in concert with its management and eradication projects. GPS, visual surveys and photography will be utilized as appropriate.

Data Sharing. The SBCWMA will share its data and maps with its membership, and encourage the membership to share data. The SBCWMA will encourage the development of standard protocols for data sharing.

D. EXOTIC WEED CONTROL
The SBCWMA will conduct control projects to detect, eradicate, suppress, or contain exotic weed infestations. The control strategy will be guided by the ultimate goal of a project. Considerations include the density and distribution of the target weed, the effectiveness and economics of control, land use, regulatory restrictions, land owner involvement, government agency cooperation and public sentiment.

The considerations influence the control objective - eradication, suppression or containment. A control project may have one or more objectives as part of its project plan.

Eradication is a type of control objective aimed at eliminating all individuals of a particular species within a specified area. This objective is the goal when the weed is of considerable economic and environmental concern and the infested area is small.

Suppression is a weed management objective aimed at reducing the current infestation density but not necessarily reducing the total area or boundary of the infestation. This applies to many widely distributed, high-density weeds where eradication is not feasible.

Containment is a weed management objective aimed to prevent infestation expansion and spread and may be conducted with or without any attempt to reduce infestation density. This objective is an alternative to eradication or suppression. Containment focuses on halting spread until suppression or eradication can be implemented.

The control project objective is obtained by implementation of specific techniques, including herbicide use, physical control, cultural control, and biological control. The techniques vary in their ability to complete a control objective. For example, biological control may be used for containment and suppression, but may not be effective for eradication

Project goals typically extend beyond a project's immediate time frame. Particularly hardy weeds, weeds with persistent roots and seed banks, weeds with repeated re-introductions might take several years before the desired level of control is achieved. Projects will address this and be designed to maximize the funds available.

Educational and public relation opportunities exist with control projects. The SBCWMA will use control projects for educational and outreach efforts, as appropriate.

Monitoring will be important to determine a project's success. The SBCWMA will map a project's target within and outside of a project's scope, and determine the density of the target species within the project's scope, both pre and post project. A successful project is one that stops the expansion of or reduces the range, density, or impact of the target species for at least five years following the completion of a project.

Action Plan. The SBCWMA will design control projects when project funding is available or when sufficient in-kind resources are committed. Funding will be actively sought as indicated in the following section. The following control projects have been funded for years 2002 through June 2004.

Yellow Starthistle Control Cost Share Program This project proposes to control yellow starthistle via a cooperative spray program - material and labor costs will be shared by private landowners and the SBCWMA on a 50/50 basis. A project goal is to protect the western portion of Santa Barbara County from significant infestation by yellow starthistle.

Arundo donax Removal on the Santa Ynez River Infestation by Arundo donax on the Santa Ynez River is incipient and the opportunity exists to eradicate it from this river. This project proposes to eradicate Arundo donax from the Santa Ynez River.

Arundo donax Removal Demonstration Project on the Arroyo Burro Creek Arundo donax significantly infests public and private property within the Arroyo Burro Creek watershed. The SBCWMA will be partnering with the City of Santa Barbara to demonstrate the control of Arundo on a selected portion of Arroyo Burro Creek.

Pampas Grass Removal on the Patterson Ag Block Follow-Up The SBCWMA's 2001 Patterson Ag Block Pampas Grass Removal project removed almost 70 tons of pampas grass from an agricultural parcel located near the environmentally sensitive habitat of the Goleta Slough Management Area. This project will follow-up the 2001 project with additional monitoring, manual removal, other control methods, as feasible and revegetation.

FUNDING:
The SBCWMA, as a coalition of government, non-profit organizations, and individuals, is partially dependent on funding from non-traditional sources. Government funding from taxes is improving but still inadequate. Grants will be pursued to supplement the budget of the SBCWMA.

Action Plan. The SBCWMA will use the following strategies to fund projects.
Grant Search and Application. Under the guidance of this Strategic Plan, the SBCWMA will search for and submit a proposal for one or more grants, each year.

Collaboration. The SBCWMA is a collaborative effort. The SBCWMA will encourage members to share resources, and provide labor, material, and money to assist SBCWMA projects. All public agencies will be strongly encouraged and may be partially funded by the SBCWMA to treat infested properties under their jurisdiction. A summary of the collaborative efforts will be included in an annual report.

V. MEMBERSHIP
The Memorandum of Understanding (Attachment A) delineates the specific roles and responsibilities of member agencies. Signatories to the Memorandum of Understanding (Attachment A) are members of the SBCWMA.
January 10, 2002