Purple Loosestrife Problems and Solutions

I had some interest in this (Loostrife) a few years ago. There is a lot of information online through easy Google searches. It should be plenty to do a project on. Are you looking for something more specific than that?

In order to start a project like this you should inject some of your own person a motivations and thoughts. Why did you pick Loostrife? Or was that just assigned to you randomly?

https://www.google.ca/#q=problems+with+purple+loosestrife

Since its an invasive plant in poorly drained soils and in mrshy areas, it is highly adaptive and outcompetes native plants. The native plants provide habitat and food to marsh creatures and in wetland soils.
Loosestrife "takes over" and , as such, causes habitat stresses to existing communities. Ive bever seen any research that concludes anything about what a "Mature" loosestrife habitat would consist of.
1Whatdoes a mature loosestrife community of plants and animals look like?

2What is the "ecological niche" that results

3We seem to want to destroy these loosestrife communities for reasons that state that they are inimical to native species.

4 "Native ecosystems" are always temporary anyway.

In the Susquehanna River basin there are numerous projects to destroy loosestrife communities. They use everything from target herbicides to specific beetles that chow down on loosestrife and remove it via selective feeding.

Someone should do a "Meter plot" analysis of what a loosestrife community looks like. What are the producers and the vegetarians and the predators. How high does the community go?

I know that loosestrife plants have medicinal values in folk medicines , what are the benefits of letting em go and grow.

Im just pleading ignorance here but I have about an acre of loosestrife down in a bottom land wetland area. The entire wetland is in a few acres on my land and mostly on adjoining properties. I often see deer grazing on loosestrife before its in bloom so I don't know what they see in it.

I have NOT contacted Penn State Extension to buy the loosestrife eating beetles yet. (usually biological controls have some Collateral" effects when the host community gets controlled and the beetles start looking for other tasty foods). Im witing to learn the pros and cons of loosestrife. It does seem to do a good job of controlling the extents of wetlands like certain grasses like birdsfoot trefoil. SO, its got some benefit to ag

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