Can anyone out there give us some
good advice? We have vast amounts of poison
oak and blackberries on some acreage that we
bought. About four of these acres we are
reforesting and I wanted to plant some low
lying orchard grass or something of that
nature which would not interfere with
the seedlings which are to be planted.
Another few acres are heaviest
with poison oak , vinca major and
rocks, and these I need to put into
pasture for horses.
All of the aforementioned have slopes
too steep for my small tractor. I was initially
thinking that I could mow, plough, plant
and keep mowing until the poison oak and
berries had died back from lack of being
able to photosynthesize but that isn't
realistic for our situation.
Almost everyone says Spray with
roundup and crossbow, especially the
local forestry division. I haven't yet
heard from the soil conservation agent
to whom I have placed a call re: the pasture.
I have a large tarp weighted down with
rocks in one meadow but the areas are really
too large for this to be a reasonable solution.
We have enough animals to care for and don't
want goats. None of us wish to try eating small
amounts of poison oak and develop
immunity...
None of the local (and non) organic
farmers with whom I have spoken have had to
deal with anything on this scale. And I can't
find anyone else who has had these problems
on this scale who hasn't sprayed.
I am needing to deal with the pasture
areas soon and the reforestation ones by
midAutumn.
Any suggestions would be Greatly
Appreciated!!!!! I am posting this in
several likely-seeming conferences so
please bear with if you bump into it
elsewhere .Feel free to respond
email if you like.
Thanking you hopefully in advance,
All Blessings,
Healani
ahealani@igc.apc.org