[APWG] Weed Talk abstract for Nov. 14 meeting in Monterey

[Craig Dremann]

Dear All,

Here is an abtract of the talk that I will be presented Friday Nov. 14,
2003 in Monterey, California at the annual “War on Weeds” conference:

“CRAIG’S TEN TOOLS FOR THE FUTURE SUCCESSES of
Weed Management and Ecological Restoration in California”

Copyright © 2003 by Craig Dremann, The Reveg Edge, Box 609, Redwood
City, CA 94064

1. ELIMINATE IMMEDIATELY, the Use of All Inefficient Weed Management
Tools that Have Never Worked on any large scale to manage weeds and
restore local native ecosystems in California: like burning, grazing,
tilling, herbicides, etc. 

2 GET SUFFICIENT ANNUAL BUDGETS to Manage All the Exotic on All of
California's Public Lands Within 30 Years. 

3. KNOW WHAT YOU WANT in the place of the exotic weeds, once you've
managed them.

4. INVENT NEW TECHNOLOGIES, where a Single Person Can Convert at Least
One Square Mile of Exotics back to 90%+ local native plant cover, within
one year. 

5. ANNUALLY COMPILE EFFICIENCIES of the Various Technologies and
Processes that are Available. how many acres can one person complete in
one year, using which technologies, and back to what quality of native
plant cover? I would suggest using one single weed species for these
tests, like Yellow Star thistle, so the different technologies can be
fairly compared with each other.

6. USE YELLOW STAR THISTLE to Measure All Your Tools or Newly Invented
Technologies Against.  Since YST is the easiest of all the California
exotic plants, to convert back to native plant cover, why not use it to
measure the efficiencies of your tools or the technologies you invent?

7. EXPECT TO HAVE TO GET PATENTED AND LICENSED TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE
FUTURE, because none of the "free", or unpatented or unlicensed
technologies for weed management or non-riparian ecological restoration
have ever worked on any large scale here in California.  See ECOLOGICAL
RESTORATION 2001, V. 19, No.2, p.70-71

8. UTILIZE YOUR LOCAL NATIVE SOIL SEED-BANKS before it is too late. In
many parts of California, there's a 100+ year old local native seedbank
still viable in the soil, underneath the exotics, ready to sprout up and
replace the exotics once we have managed them.   See ECOLOGICAL
RESTORATION June 2002 cover article.

9. PRESERVE EXAMPLES EVERY 10 MILES in Each Direction Throughout the
State, of Intact Native Ecosystems, so you have both a model to work
towards, and in-situ seed resources.   See
http://www.ecoseeds.com/wild.html for photos of intact ecosystems.

10. REMEMBER THE RULE OF FOUR-TIMES: Whatever technologies you employ,
your technologies must be able to convert the exotic weed cover back to
local native plant cover, four times faster than the weed originally
spread.

The complete text of the talk, plus photos, at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/talk.html

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann.