Monitoring Fallopia at grazing units of ÖBB

For several years the Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica), an invasive plant species originally native to East-Asia, spreads alongside railway infrastructure of the Austrian Federal Railways Company (ÖBB) impeding and hindering railway construction, maintenance and operation. Since 2014, the ÖBB have implemented a pilot project, trying to fight this invasive plant species through intensive grazing by goats and sheep. E.C.O. was commissioned to establish several monitoring research plots in the scope of this project to monitor and document the effects of grazing on the knotweed. The results will offer important information on the distribution of the plant and vegetation control success by grazing.