MSU Weeds.com Blog

-E. Taylor

Rocky Mountain National Park technical tour...brrrr

During the remainder of the conference I attended several excellent presentations and visited the poster session. I also had the chance to visit the trade show (which we do not usually have at WSSA). On Wednesday evening the societies held a joint event called the “Taste of Colorado” where as you may have guessed we enjoyed a variety of meats from around the state, reflecting their vast range production. On Friday I stayed for the Rocky Mountain National Park technical tour. We had a behind the scenes look at some of the vegetation management and restoration strategies they are implementing at the park.  The elk population at RMNP is causing significant damage to willow and aspen, two of the parks valuable plant species ,so they are using some various fencing techniques to protect certain plant populations in addition to elk population control measures. The park also has been experiencing a mountain pine beetle (factsheet) epidemic which has resulted in the death of many pines, leaving the landscape dotted with red trees. RMNP is making an effort to restore the pines in certain high traffic areas. They also restore native plants anytime there are human disturbances (buildings erected, roads constructed, etc.) using plants grown from seeds collected at the park and some temporary relocation efforts.  From a weeds prospective restoring native plants helps reduce the chances of invasive weeds coming in to the park. Two weed problems at RMNP currently include Canada thistle (nice to know it’s not just MI) and  cheatgrass, though there are several exotic species.

-E. Taylor

Monday started out with the joint plenary session. There are ~2100 people attending the conference. A little less than 300 of those are affiliated with the WSSA the rest are with the SRM. One of our speakers at the Plenary was photographer John Fielder. He shared with us photographs he took and experiences he gained while creating his latest book “Ranches of Colorado“.

In  the afternoon I presented my poster “Weed Control Timing Using a Rotary Hoe in Soybean and Dry Edible Bean”. During the time that I was standing next to my poster I had the chance to interact with several people. The first person I met was Becky Koepke-Hill from the University of Tennesee Extension in Knoxville. She is at the conference to present a new pocket guide “Invasive Weeds of the Appalachian Region.” This is great little guide with several photos and suggestions for control. Though I am not located in the Appalachian Region I found several invasive species that I have seen around Michigan, like Japanese knotweed, garlic mustard, and thistles. Another person I met was Michele Raffaelli from the University of Pisa in Italy. He was interested in my poster because they conduct a lot of mechanical weed control research in Europe. He also shared with me that I could find more information about what has been done on the European Weed Research Society Physical and Cultural Weed Control Working Group web site.

After the poster session was done I made my way to the end of the Technology and Communications Skills for the 21st Century symposium. It was a working symposium, so participants needed to bring a laptop and could also bring things like digital cameras, voice recorders, etc. to see how all of this technology can be used to further our field of research and extension. I learned about a new social networking site geared specifically for scientists called Eperniucus. This site is great of its professional take. Members of the site can ask questions of others with regards to methods, equipment, statistics, etc. The possibilities seem endless.

I ended the day by  attending the WSSA Awards Ceremony. At the ceremony MSU’s Wesley Everman was awarded one of the Reviewer Awards for his work with the journal Weed Technology. MSU student Laura Bast was awarded one of the Graduate Student Awards for the essay she submitted. Graduate student awardees receive a travel grant for them to attend the meeting. After the ceremony BASF held a reception.

-E. Taylor

An old International Harvester Company Warehouse now houses REI on the banks of the South Platte River in Denver, Colorado

By this evening most of the MSU weeds delegation has made their way to Denver, CO for the 2010 joint meeting of the Weed Science Society for America and the Society for Range Management.  We have been slowly trickling into town since Thursday. Coming to Denver gives some of us a chance to enjoy the many recreational activities that a city like Denver offers, especially the skiing.

As a side note, I have a theory as to why the WSSA and SRM choose the Sheraton Downtown. Each guest room is appointed with wall art depicting Common Teasel. That, or the Sheraton wanted to make us feel welcome, kudos.

Many of the graduate students spent the afternoon/evening in a professional development seminar hosted by Monsanto. The goal of this seminar was to assist the students in determining what career path best suits their interests and skills.

I spent the afternoon walking around the Downtown area in the cold wintery weather. It really is not that different from Michigan today, though it was snowing quite a bit. I walked down the pedestrian-friendly 16th Street Mall, through Commons Park, down to the South Platte River. While I was down by the river I noticed the old Denver Tramway Power Company brick building that had “International Harvester Company warehouse”  painted on the side. It now houses the outdoor-enthusiast store REI (After a little Google-ing I found the history of the building). It was good to get out in the fresh air. Hopefully later in the week we will see one of Denver’s ‘300 days of sunshine’ so we can see the mountains.

Tomorrow kicks off with the joint general session.