Cultural Controls

This method suggests using a suite of horticultural approaches to revegetate, irrigate, and fertilize a site to cultivate growing conditions and plants communities that outcompete invasive species. This method is highly site specific and can imply anything from altering the pH of your soil, to increasing light conditions, to draining man-made ponds, to increasing flow in lake systems. 

A common case comes when patches of invasive terrestrial plants are removed leaving behind bare ground. In these cases, cultural control in the form of re-vegetating exposed areas can help fill that niche with fast growing natives. 

Benefits of cultural control:

• Encourages long-term site maintenance to exclude invasive species

• Can be used in environmentally sensitive sites

• Can creatively utilize native plants and other best management practices

Limitations of cultural control:

• Site can be favorable to invasives regardless of efforts

• Labour intensive and potentially expensive