[APWG] Go for Ecological Restoration, to restore the tattered ecosystem understory

[Craig Dremann]

Dear Gary and All,

Thanks for your email, and good to hear from you again!

Yes, I'm glad you brought your DELDOT project up---because I was going
to mention that the largest stands of native herbaceous plants I saw
anywhere within the Washington DC-Dover corridor, were the many test
plots that you had planted for DELDOT.

And the figure for the extermination I calculated for the Washington
DC-Dover native herbaceous plant understory (native perennial grasses,
forbs) was 90%, but as you say, that doesn't mean that those areas can't
be revived or restored, like what you are doing.  

What I am suggesting, is that both the Eastern, Southern  and Western
ecosystem understories are in very, very bad shape, and will probably
not restore on their own.I think that's the very first reality-check
that needs to be stipulated before we go out to work on exotic plant
management or ecological restoration.  

"The areas on this continent with degraded native understories, which
are missing whole native plant families or where the native understory
is in tatters, will probably not restore on their own." 
 
That means that we humans will have to start investing huge amounts of
money in active Ecological Restoration of these degraded native
understories.

Similar to the investment that the developer, Michael Shaw, did near
Santa Cruz, California on 74 acres, where he took land that was 99%
covered by exotics and converted it back to 85% native plant cover, that
you can read about in the June 2002 cover issue of Ecological
Restoration (U.of Wisc.press). 

Without Mr. Shaw's active work and economic investment in Ecological
Restoration (vs. weed management) on his property over several year's
time, his 74 acres would still look like his neighbor's, which still has
99%-100% exotic plant cover in the understory. 

I'd love to hear, and perhaps others on this List would like to know,
what your DELDOT project has done, for converting roadsides back to
native Delaware ecosystems, since 2000?

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann, Redwood City, CA (650) 325-7333