This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

RE:Atrazine!

Back in the late 80's I did research invesigating the effects of fire and atrazine on prairie restoration (check Rosburg and Glenn-Lewin 1992, Proc. of 12th N.A. Prairie Conference).  I did not see any evidence that the prairie species we were working with were susceptible to atrazine.  Of course none of the warm-season grasses are susceptible (they're like corn), so the main concern is with the forbs.  My sense is that since atrazine needs to be picked up by root systems in the upper portion of the soil profile (thats why it is effective on annual weedy species), the deeper-rooted prairie species don't absorb enough to do much damage.   I would not be too concerned.  In fact you may get a better establishment.  Some of the best results (restoration of prairie species) that I saw in my research were on the pastures where atrazine was applied.  It provided great control on cool-season grasses.  I really think that, if used properly, it is a herbicide that could be used effect!
 ively in prairie establishment.


Thomas Rosburg
Dept. of Biology
Drake University
Des Moines, Iowa
515-271-2920
thomas.rosburg@drake.edu


On 7/19/99, prairie wrote:
>Hello fellow prairie enthusiasts,
>I am a grad student at Western Michigan University.  >Quite recently,
>folks here have begun tossing around the idea of a >prairie restoration
>on our campus of about 50 acres--yippie!!!  We've >been putting together
>species lists, burning regimes, and coming up with >all sorts of research
>projects.  The administration is very anxious to >get something planted
>on this open area that for the past many years has >been farmed.  The
>original plan was to seed it this fall.  Trouble >is, we just discovered
>that it was treated with Atrazine last spring.  >We've been doing some
>research on this troublesome chemical, and it seems >that it breaks down
>in about 2 years or so on the surface, but leaches >down and takes much
>longer to break down at deeper levels of soil.  How >have you who have
>done restorations/plantings dealt with this?  Can >we go ahead and plant
>this coming spring, and then hope that the Atrazine >will break down
>quickly enough that by the time our forbs' roots >reach down that far,
>they will not be affected?  We'd greatly appreciate >advice from folks
>who've dealt with this specifically for prairie >plants.
>
>Thanks much,
>Theresa Mau-Crimmins
>x93mau@wmich.edu
>
>---------------------------------------------------
>------------------
>To sign-off this list, send email to >majordomo@mallorn.com with the
>message text UNSUBSCRIBE PRAIRIE
>
>
>
>RFC822 header
>-----------------------------------
> Return-path: <owner-prairie@mallorn.com>
> Received: from CONVERSION-DAEMON by >ACAD2.DRAKE.EDU (PMDF V5.2-29 #30567)
>  id <01JDQUE72MMO002IZQ@ACAD2.DRAKE.EDU> for >thomas.rosburg@drake.edu; Mon,
>  19 Jul 1999 10:26:17 CDT
> Received: from lorien.mallorn.com >([198.88.188.30])
>  by ACAD2.DRAKE.EDU (PMDF V5.2-29 #30567)
>  with ESMTP id ><01JDQUE5KXYQ002MYK@ACAD2.DRAKE.EDU> for
>  thomas.rosburg@drake.edu; Mon, 19 Jul 1999 >10:26:16 -0500 (CDT)
> Received: (from majordomo@localhost)	by >lorien.mallorn.com (8.9.3/8.9.3)
>  id KAA27433	for prairie-outgoing; Mon, 19 Jul >1999 10:01:47 -0500
> Received: (from root@localhost)	by >lorien.mallorn.com (8.9.3/8.9.3)
>  id KAA27428	for prairie; Mon, 19 Jul 1999 >10:01:46 -0500
> Received: from gw.wmich.edu (gw.wmich.edu >[141.218.1.100])
>  by lorien.mallorn.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id >JAA27291	for
>  <prairie@mallorn.com>; Mon, 19 Jul 1999 09:55:49 >-0500
> Received: from eeyore.cc.wmich.edu
>  (PMDF_BATCH@eeyore.cc.wmich.edu [141.218.20.103])
>  by gw.wmich.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id >KAA23163	for
>  <prairie@mallorn.com>; Mon, 19 Jul 1999 10:55:45 >-0400 (EDT)
> Received: from CONVERSION-DAEMON by WMICH.EDU >(PMDF V5.2-32 #35219)
>  id <01JDQVEQ14RK95N3B4@WMICH.EDU> for >prairie@mallorn.com; Mon,
>  19 Jul 1999 10:55:44 -0400 (EDT)
> Received: from wmich.edu
>  ("port 1090"@pm539-06.dialip.mich.net >[198.108.161.112])
>  by WMICH.EDU (PMDF V5.2-32 #35219)
>  with ESMTP id <01JDQVEOPCT695N3O2@WMICH.EDU> for >prairie@mallorn.com; Mon,
>  19 Jul 1999 10:55:43 -0400 (EDT)
> Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 11:06:22 -0400
> From: Theresa Mau-Crimmins <theresa.mau@wmich.edu>
> Subject: Atrazine!
> Sender: owner-prairie@mallorn.com
> To: "prairie@mallorn.com" <prairie@mallorn.com>
> Reply-to: prairie@mallorn.com
> Message-id: <37933EED.B7709C4@wmich.edu>
> MIME-version: 1.0
> X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (Win95; I)
> Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
> Precedence: bulk
> X-md5sum: 79a2a7ef38ef120c48a8338249bbec59
> X-md5sum-Origin: lorien.mallorn.com
> >

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PRAIRIE
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index