Conservation
Conservation and habitat restoration require nuanced land maintenance. Other methods of removing invasive or undesirable plants require expensive human labor, expensive and heavy equipment that can cause soil compaction and damage habitats, and herbicides that poison the land that you are trying to restore. Targeted grazing with sheep is a less expensive, more environmentally friendly alternative to remove or suppress unwanted vegetation and invastive plants, allowing the desired native plants to regain their foothold and thrive.
Invasive Plants on the Olympic Peninsula
Grazing Prescriptions
Each type of invasive plant requires a unique grazing prescription for best results. Some plants can be completely removed, while others can only be controlled using sheep and may require additional control methods to completely remove. Even if sheep cannot completely remove the invasive plant, their use makes other removal methods more viable. After targeted grazing, removal manually, mechanically, or by using herbicides will be more effective with a lower input, thereby reducing your costs and any environmental damage that accompanies these methods.
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Prior to any grazing project, we will work with you to determine your goals and design a grazing prescription to best meet those goals. We will make recommendations for any other methods of removal that might best compliment the targeted grazing.
Your grazing prescription will include how many sheep we will bring to your site, how long they will be onsite, what area we assign for them to graze at one time, how many areas will need to be grazed, how often sheep will be rotated from one area to another, what time of year the grazing should be done, and how many times the sheep will need to visit in order to accomplish your goals. Other factors will influence your plan as well, such as other plants in the area to be grazed, quality/type of soil, access to water, predator risk, and more.
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Please join our waitlist to learn when our targeted grazing services will be available!
Resources
1 / Conservation and Weed Management with Targeted Grazing
The Heart of England Forest "The benefits of conservation grazing"
Derek W. Bailey, Jeffrey C. Mosley, Richard E. Estell, Andres F. Cibils, Marc Horney, John R. Hendrickson, John W. Walker, Karen L. Launchbaugh, Elizabeth A. Burritt, Synthesis Paper: Targeted Livestock Grazing: Prescription for Healthy Rangelands, Rangeland Ecology & Management, Volume 72, Issue 6, 2019, Pages 865-877, ISSN 1550-7424, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rama.2019.06.003.
Society for Range Management "Targeted Grazing: A Natural Approach to Vegetation Management and Landscape Enhancement" and "Livestock Grazing Guidelines for Control Noxious Weed in the Western United States"
NonStop Local News Montana "300 Sheep to Help Wipe Out Noxious Weeds"
Kootenai County Idaho "Biological Control for Weed Management"
2 / Himalayan Blackberry
National Park Service, Olympic National Park "Invasive Exotic Plants"
Jefferson County Washington "Noxious Weed Lists"
Oregon State University "Solve Pest Problems"
Society for Range Management "Blackberry"
3 / Canada Thistle
National Park Service, Olympic National Park "Invasive Exotic Plants"
Jefferson County Washington "Noxious Weed Lists​"
Oregon State University "Solve Pest Problems"
Society for Range Management "Canada Thistle"
4 / Reed Canarygrass
Jefferson County Washington "Noxious Weed Lists​"​
Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education "Intensive Rotational Grazing with Sheep on Riparian Land to Target Invasive Reed Canary Grass and Common Buckthorn"
Wisconsin Reed Canary Grass Management Working Group. 2009. "Reed Canary Grass (Phalaris arundinacea) Management Guide: Recommendations for Landowners and Restoration Professionals"
The Nature Conservancy "Reed Canarygrass Control & Management in the Pacific Northwest"
5 / Knapweed
Jefferson County Washington "Noxious Weed Lists​"​
Society for Rangeland Management "Spotted Knapweed" and "Russian Knapweed"
​Mosley, Jeffrey & Frost, Rachel & Roeder, Brent & Mosley, Tracy & Marks, Jerry. (2015). Combined Herbivory by Targeted Sheep Grazing and Biological Control Insects to Suppress Spotted Knapweed (Centaurea stoebe). Invasive Plant Science and Management. 9. 10.1614/IPSM-D-15-00034.1.
6 / Dalmatian and Yellow Toadflax
Jefferson County Washington "Noxious Weed Lists​"​
King County Noxious Weed Alert "Dalmation toadflax"
Jim Jacobs and Sharlene Sing, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service "Ecology and Management of Dalmatian toadflax"
7 / Policeman's Helmet
Jefferson County Washington "Noxious Weed Lists​"​
Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board "Policeman's Helmet"
Clallam County Noxious Weed Control Board "Noxious Weed Alert Policeman's Helmet"
8 / Leafy Spurge
Jefferson County Washington "Noxious Weed Lists​"​
Society for Rangeland Management "Leafy Spurge"
Kathryn Barry Stelljes, USDA Agricultural Research Service "Sheep and Beetles Control Leafy Spurge"
ScienceDaily "Springtime sheep grazing helps control leafy spurge"
9 / Japanese Knotweed
National Park Service, Olympic National Park "Invasive Exotic Plants"
Jefferson County Washington "Noxious Weed Lists​"
Beyond Pesticides ManageSafe "Least-Toxic Control of Japanese Knotweed"
Hood Canal CWMA "Invasive Knotweed Complex"
10 / Perennial Pepperweed
Jefferson County Washington "Noxious Weed Lists​"​
Society for Range Management "Perennial Pepperweed or Tall Whitetop"
DiTomaso, J.M., G.B. Kyser et al. 2013. Weed Control in Natural Areas in the Western United States. Weed Research and Information Center, University of California. 544 pp.
11 / Rush Skeletonweed
Jefferson County Washington "Noxious Weed Lists​"​
USDA "Field Guide for Managing Rush Skeletonweed in the Southwest"
Montana Field Guides "Rush Skeletonweed - Chondrilla juncea"