We had the pleasure of having James Jackson (Alligare) and Caitie Cyrus (Verdantas) join us for our Part 2 of our Getting Into the Weeds ASGA Workshop. This workshop focused on the identification and mitigation strategies for solar graziers in the Southwest and Southeast.

What exactly is an undesirable or unwanted plant on a solar site? It’s a tricky question that depends on where you’re at and what your goals are, not to mention the goals of the solar asset owner.

There is one thing that is certain: to properly manage vegetation, solar graziers need the right approach to manage and mitigate undesirable plants. Graziers need an understanding of what plants may be harmful to animals or negatively impact land management. They must work together with solar site owners to meet the maintenance goals of the site. These steps often involve taking into account effects on pollinators, native species, and other ecosystem goals depending on the site and local requirements.

Caitie and James discussed what makes a weed a weed. They also identified the top 5 unwanted weed species for the Southwest and Southeast regions, with their typical levels of concern and options for mitigation.

For the Southeast region, Caitie listed spotted knapweed, Sericea lespedeza, Japanese knotweed, Japanese stiltgrass, and Johnson grass as those species of most concern. For the southwest region, James listed mesquite, prickly pear, huisache, yucca, and creosote bush as the species of most concern.

Our ASGA event recordings are available to members of ASGA’s online network. Not a member? Please join us here!

This workshop was Part 2 of this two-part ASGA workshop series. The workshops were divided by region to account for variation across different geographies. Our goal was to identify some shared practices across ecosystems. Part 1 of our series focused on weed identification and response in the Midwest and Northeast regions.