LOWER LAKE – The University of California's McLaughlin Reserve will host a free lecture on Saturday, July 11.

“Can native species help us control unwanted weeds? Native tarweeds versus yellow starthistle” will be presented by Kris Hulvey, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

The lecture will take place from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

When working to control weed spread in grasslands, it is important to understand the extent to which biodiversity and the composition of plant communities influence the ability of a non-native species to invade.  

Similarly, when trying to decrease abundances of invasive plant species, it is important to consider whether restoration with particular native species can result in higher success in controlling the target invasive species.

Hulvey has been focusing her research both on understanding what makes grasslands vulnerable to invasions as well as how to restore invaded areas so that these areas become less vulnerable to re-invasion by unwanted weeds.

Her main focus has been the weed, yellow starthistle. This familiar non-native weed species is problematic for ranchers and managers of wildlands alike.

When pastures become dominated by starthistle, they no longer support sufficient amounts of forage plants for cattle. Similarly, wildland meadows suffer severe loss in native species when invaded by starthistle.

In both cases, understanding what might keep starthistle from invading or re-invading grasslands is key to maintaining natural diversity and healthy ecosystem functions.

Kris will discuss results of three experiments that highlight the role that native competitive plants – and in particular, California’s tarweeds – can play in decreasing starthistle invasion/re-invasion.

While tarweeds are not the solution to everyone’s starthistle problems, understanding how tarweeds and other competitive plants interact with starthistle in grasslands can help land managers of all sorts determine the best way to manage their weeds.

Join them afterwards for a tour of one of the experiments mentioned in the talk. This restoration experiment, which is a cooperative effort with the McLaughlin Reserve managers, looks at the success of various restoration actions in controlling yellow starthistle re-invasion.

UC Davis' McLaughlin Reserve is located at 26775 Morgan Valley, Lower Lake. Call 707-995-9005 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information.