Invasive/Exotic Plant Management Strategies for Your Restoration Projects
Jason York
Michael Baker Intl.
Asheville, NC
The session will focus on strategies for effective invasive/exotic plant management for your mitigation projects. We will discuss the mechanical and chemical aspects of treatment, including methodology, seasonality, the choice and mode of action of herbicides, and appropriate formulations for the target species. The use of herbicides for invasive/exotic plant management is a tool in our toolbox to control these persistent species, but like any tool, an applicator must be educated and trained in their safe and effective use. Improper use wastes valuable resources, is ineffective, and unnecessarily introduces toxins into the environment, whereas proper application can be safe and highly effective at controlling unwanted plant species without causing minimal or no damage to planted or other desirable native species.
Our team has worked extensively with the US Forest Service, National Park Service, the NC Division of Mitigation Services, NRCS, Resource Institute, consulting firms, private landowners, and multiple municipalities from the mountains to the coastal plain. We are currently licensed to perform this type of work in NC, TN, VA, and SC. We are currently working on a large project (227 acres) for the US Forest Service in TN at Weavers Bend on the French Broad River. We are also managing the invasive dune plant beach vitex for the towns of North and South Topsail Island and Surf City on the coast of North Carolina.
About Jason York
Environmental Scientist, Michael Baker International
Jason York is an Environmental Scientist for Michael Baker Intl. (MBI) in Asheville, NC where he oversees MBI’s NC Certified Laboratory for Population Studies of Benthic Macroinvertebrates. His work focuses on pre- and post-construction biological monitoring of streams, using aquatic insects as indicators of water quality. Jason has completed several large contracts throughout the mid-Atlantic region with MBI and Penrose Environmental Consulting, assessing water quality using aquatic insects. He is a certified taxonomist for Eastern Mayflies, Stoneflies, Caddisflies, North American chironomids, and General Arthropods through the Society for Freshwater Science of which he is also a member. Jason has lived in Madison County, NC, since 2006, where he enjoys his family, the rivers, the insects, and the people.