[APWG] purple loosestrife--and other roadside exotics

[Craig Dremann]

Cynthia Boettner
Coordinator, New England Invasive Plant Group (NIPGro)  and MA Invasive
Plant Advisory Group (MAIPAG)
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge
52 Avenue A
Turners Falls, MA  01376

Phone:  413-863-0209  ext. 6

Dear Cynthia and All,

Thanks for posting the piece about purple loostrife along roadsides, and
that the State maintenance crews seem to be favoring it or "promoting"
it with their mowing practices.

I did a series of classes for Caltrans four years ago, and the first
thing I learned about the organization, is that within the entire State
agency---I don't think there was one single Botanist on staff.  And then
on a District Maintenance level, there's nobody usually responsible for
exotic vs. local native plant management, or even knowing the
difference.

A funny story about exotic roadside plants that I told at one of my
classes:  When I stopped along I-5 in the Sacramento Valley one day in
the summer, where Yellow Star thistle was so thick that it completely
inhibited the annual flammable European grasses.  The European grasses
dry out in the summer and grow throughout California, causing dozens of
fires in the summer along roadsides.  I stopped to ask what the
Maintenance worker thought of the YST, and he said he "loved it".  

I was shocked---but quickly realized how Caltrans looked at roadside
vegetation: If it was low-growing, didn't need mowing or irrigation, and
stayed green all summer, and inhibited the dangerous fire-catching
grasses, then that might be the ideal roadside groundcover!

When I did the Caltrans classes, I realized how many millions of dollars
is going to have to be spent by the Federal government to get each of
the State highways depts. up-to-speed on the exotic plant issues along
the nation's roadside---and then many more millions to go the next step,
which is to manage and restore the local natives.

For example, I got a list from the Caltrans class participants, of 228
questions that they needed answered about native plants before they
could proceed with their use and management, at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/questions.html

The second step, which is to convert the exotic plants along the
roadsides, is starting to be done here in California as tests, but it is
costing truckloads of money---$8.8 million for the first successful
acre, that you can see at http://www.ecoseeds.com/road.test.html

So don't be surprised by $8.8 million per acre, because that's what
managing exotics and replacing them with local natives costs in the arid
West, where there's no irrigation for rain during the months of May to
October, and 100 deg. F. every day in the Sacramento Valley.  We have a
cost per acre, depending on your annual rainfall, at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/standards.thml

What I'm suggesting: Every State DOT try and set up at least one
successful non-riparian local-native roadside acre---only 43,000 square
feet of a local native as-close-to-weed-free ecosystem rebuilt from
scratch.  

And expect that first acre, like our Califoirnia acre, is going to cost
a truckload of money.  In that way, you'll have a "Ecosystem Prototype"
model, from which to judge the cost and effectiveness of any other weed
management or native restoration project you might want to do in that
part of your State.

In successfully completing that first acre, then you'll also have a
"Blue Book" or "Replacement value" for that particular ecosystem, which
is useful for setting future mitigation bonds, and then working on
building efficiencies in either your weed-management or your restoration
strategies.

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann, The Reveg Edge
Box 609, Redwood City, CA 94064 (650) 325-7333