[APWG] Emergency Declaration needed for California desert counties for mustards

[Craig Dremann]

Dear All,

This is part of a separate and continuing discussion about the exotic
mustards invading the Mojave and Sonoran deserts.  If you want to be
ccd. on future messages, that are going back and forth between
California and Lake Mead, I'll put you on the ccd. list 
mailto:craig at ecoseeds.com

Today's message so far is below.  
Sincerely,  Craig Dremann 
(650) 325-7333

---------------------------------

SUBJECT: "Emergency Declaration needed for California desert counties
for mustards"

Each County in California has a County Agriculture Commissioner, and
every California county has also designed their county as part of a
"Weed Management Area" (WMA) organized under the California Food and
Agricultural Code Section. 7272(b). 

The WMA, is a group formed under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
mostly made up of the County Ag. Commissioner's office or the County RCD
or NRCS office, along with the major public land managers of the County,
like BLM, Caltrans, County Parks, etc.

One of the purposes for the establishment of a California County WMA is
to ensure that exotic plants “are not the primary cause of degradation
or demise of rare and/or Endangered plant and animal species within
unique native habitats.”

After attending my own County's Weed Management Area's bi-monthly
meeting yesterday, where we discussed the desert exotic mustard
problem,   
here's the conclusions I came away with:

1.) EMERGENCY DECLARATION:  A declaration under the California Food &
Agriculture Codes of an "Emergency" needs to be made for each of the
desert Counties: Kern, San Bernardino, Riverside, San Diego and
Imperial.  

The wording of the law that allows for an emergency declaration, is that
a declaration is made whenever an exotic gets too out-of-hand for an
individual County Agricultural Commissioner to manage.

Other California laws also can kick in, including that the exotic
invasive mustards are declared public and private nuisances, and that
they need to be "abated" under the California Civil Code and Code of
Civil Procedure.  

I think we'll all agree that these mustards in each of the desert
counties are way too far out of hand?  

2.) BENEFITS OF AN EMERGENCY DECLARATION made by each desert County Ag.
Commissioner, is that you draw a line around the infestation, and you
are making an attempt at not letting it get out of that area.  

For example, Dr. Powell's reports and photos from Lake Mead are now up
on a webpage at http://www.ecoseeds.com/lake.mead.html

Part of Dr. Powell's discussion, is the movement of the mustard seeds on
tires, like ORV vehicles.  Also in our California desert, we have huge
military bases which conduct maneuvers with tanks, etc. like at Ft.
Irwin and 29 Palms.  

For example, the Stoddard Valley ORV area south of Barstow along Cal.
247 probably needs to be shut down immediately (or at least until the
mustard is eradicated on that property), because it's the perfect place
to pick up mustard seeds by ORV drivers, and spread it to other sites
around the desert.

What an Emergency declaration does, is contain the infestation, and shut
down sources of the spread of the infestation.

3.) SOURCE OF SUFFICIENT ANNUAL FUNDING by each County and each FEDERAL
LAND MANAGEMENT AGENCY in the California desert must be established, to
continue to manage these mustards in the desert into the future.  

That means for example, each desert County is establishing a Special
Property Tax District, and/or a Special Development Weed Assessment.  

So far, the County Weed Management Areas (WMA) have been run on nickels
and dimes, but the ante that will be needed in each desert County, is
going to start in the tens of millions per County and may run into the
hundreds of millions desert-wide.

Just to manage the mustards that are stabilizing the Coachella Valley
Endangered Species dune habitat in Riverside County---say that you have
10,000 acres, times $2,000 per acre to abate, then you've got to budget
$20 million just for that single spot!

CONCLUSION:

I'll be updating my desert exotic mustard pages, where I'm mapping some
of the extent along some of the California roadsides with photos next
week, at http://www.ecoseeds.com/mustards.html 

I'm hoping that two actions that the desert County WMA groups will
accomplish in the next few weeks, is:

A.) Declare an Emergency under the California State Agriculture Codes,
and, 

B.) Get out and survey the roadsides mile-by-mile before it gets too hot
to drive, so we can start putting the puzzle pieces together this year,
while the mustards are at their maximum extent of their infestation due
to the record rainfalls.

Sincerely, Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333