[APWG] Feasibility of starting invasives program: Invent successful technologies

[Craig Dremann]

Rachel Orwan wrote:

> Rachel
> 
> 1.)  How do you select and rank the locations and species you will
> monitor?

We don't do any ranking of the location and species to monitor [I assume
you mean exotic plant species]---instead we select the area that we are
going to restore to original local native ecosystems, set up small-scale
test plots, and work on the plots until we have rapid and consistent
successes. 
> 
> 2.) Where do you work (public lands, national/state, private lands)? 
> How much land do you monitor?   What land cover type does this
> encompass?

Answer: Mostly private lands recently.  We work on restoring usually
Less than one acre to 74-320 acres.  Land ranges from deserts to arid
grasslands to the understory of oak woodlands.
> 
> 3.) Can you describe your monitoring program (i.e. monitor along
> transects or random sampling, etc.)?  

Answer: Always along belt transects.  You can see the results of one of
our sets of ten years worth of very detailed transects at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/juicy.gossip.ten.html 

Does it involve the use of
> volunteers?  

Answer: Never!

If so, has this been a successful endeavor?  

Answer: Volunteers for restoration/monitoring of ecosystem means that
restoration and monitoring, as a continuing endeavor, is a failure. 
People must be paid a living wage for anything to be a continued
success. 

What sort of time commitment is involved from volunteers?

Answer: Step away from the volunteers!
> 
> 4.)  What is your control strategy (i.e. how do you determine where
> you will focus efforts, mechanical vs. chemical)?  

Answer: We never use any chemicals.  Instead we learn how to manage and
convert the exotic infestations back to local native ecosystems through
our Tiny Test Plots™ or TTPs.  You can read about them at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/standards.html

Do volunteers participate in it?  

Answer: Never! 

Any successes?  

Answer: It took us 20 years to get consistent successes, so for the last
10 years thereafter, we've been very successful, converting areas that
are 99% exotic covered back to 85+% local native plant cover within 90
days to 3 years.

Will you generally try to control small infestations before large, or
vise versa?

Answer:  It doesn't matter, as long as you start with very small test
plots, and that your goals are to develop some sort of technology within
your plots will get 85% or better local native plant cover in the place
of the exotics within 90 days or less.
> 
> 5.) Do you suggest any particular methods/materials/tools for
> monitoring and controlling invasives?

The Monitoring is only 1/100th of 1% as important as the "Controlling"
or rather the "Conversion".   Inventing the successful Conversion
process--"the conversion of the areas from exotic plant cover back to
local native ecosystems," should be 99.99% or your work.   
> 
> 6.) Do you have any lessons learned form your program that you
> wouldn't mind sharing?

Develop and patent the successful licensed ecological restoration
technologies, and get a truckload of money to develop those technologies
in the first place, because you'll need them.  

For example, UC Davis, our greatest agricultural college in California,
is working on a grant from our State DOT, and is finding that the first
successful acre in the Sacramento Valley is costing $8.8 million. You
can read about it, at http://www.ecoseeds.com/road.test.html

Just to develop a successful strategy for invasive exotic species in
your mountains, your organization will have to get from your grant
funders a ten-fold increase in your annual budget or AT LEAST $10
million dollars, to invent the new technologies necessary to get that
first successful acre rapidly converted.
> 
> 7.) Do you have any resources you'd be willing to share with us for
> inclusion in a resource CD we are putting together and will distribute
> (i.e. sample data sheets, protocols, materials, studies on validity of
> volunteer collected data, other info on working with volunteers, etc.)?

My belt transect design is at http://www.ecoseeds.com/transect.html
> 
> 8.) Do you have any suggestions with individuals/organizations that
> would be helpful for us to contact in the planning stages of our
> program?

Get a subscription to ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION journal (Univ. of Wisconsin
press), and look in all of the back issues (they go back to 1980) for
other projects that have been done in your mountains.  And then call ALL
those other people up, and see what they accomplished?
> 
> For groups working specifically with volunteers:
> 1.) How many invasives are volunteers expected to know and monitor for
> in the field?  What type of training do volunteers receive to assure
> they will id the correct plants and follow protocols?

Stick with professionals and stay away from volunteers.
> 
> 2.) What is your volunteer turnover rate?  How many dedicated
> volunteers do you have and what sort of affiliation do they have (i.e.
> church group, volunteer organization, hunting organization...)?

Stick with professionals and stay away from volunteers.
> 
> 3.) How does that compare to the total number of volunteers you have
> had?  Are you able to get all of your monitoring and/or control done
> through volunteers, or does you staff have to augment volunteer
> efforts?

Stick with professionals and stay away from volunteers.
> 
> 4.) What have you found to be the best way to engage volunteers and
> promote public awareness (videos, news media, educational events...)?

Stick with professionals and stay away from volunteers.
> 
> 5.) Has it been a worthwhile endeavor to include local citizens in
> these programs?  Do you think their knowledge and awareness of
> invasives and other environmental issues have increased?

The only "local citizens" that are almost always forgotten that should
ALWAYS be involved are local Native Americans----and they need to get
involved on a highly paid basis.  They sometimes can make the difference
in a project succeeding or a project failing.  

The Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) http://www.ser.org ---when
you are a member of SER you can subscribe to several different
email-lists, including one on indigenous-people and restoration.

Also, if you are of European ancestry---a personal apology to the Native
American that are involved with our projects, for our messing up of
their homes, and apologizing for being the worst invasive-exotics
ourselves on whatever continents we have immigrated to, is also a useful
thing to do.  And a promise to be better in the future, would also be
useful.

I strongly believe that the UC Davis project at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/road.test.html is failing in part, because of
the lack of involvement with the local Native Americans in the
Sacramento Valley.
> 
> 6.) Do you have any concerns with using volunteers for monitoring
> and/or control of invasive?
> 
Yes---if the people who do all the work of monitoring or converting the
exotic infestations back to native plants, don't get paid a living wage,
then they will not see any value in their work.
> 
> Rachel Orwan
> Research Assistant
> Appalachian Forest Resource Center
> P.O. Box 21, Glouster, OH 45732
> 740-767-2090
> www.appalachianforest.org
> 
My answers are based on doing this work for 34 years, and I hope the
information is useful.

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann, Redwood City, California Republic
(650) 325-7333  
An index of email newsletters about ecological restoration can be found
at  http://www.ecoseeds.com/juicy.html