[APWG] More ecosystem examples of weed-free Calif. native understories

[Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed Company]

Dear All,

Over the last four weeks, Sue and I have driven 5,000 miles to search for
the best examples of weed-free California native ecosystem understories,
and we think we found some the best in the West, that we updated the
photos at http://www.ecoseeds.com/wild.2008.html

I was out with two land managers at Russian Ridge, a couple of weeks ago,
which is in the mountains about 10 miles from Redwood City, and the ruins
of the native understory is still there, but in low levels for the
grasses, at less than 10% cover, and the wildflowers are dropping below
60% cover, with new weeds moving in quickly to cover the land.

The Open Space District bought the land at Russian Ridge several decades
ago, but nobody on the District’s Board of Directors had thought that they
would ever have to invest in any weed management or ecological
restoration.

Just buy the property, put a fence around it, and the native ecosystem
would remain stable and in stasis, forevermore.

Now the District has accumulated 20,000 acres of native grassland habitat,
but still are still not budgeting for significant weed or ecosystem
management costs, only $15 per acre per year.

We did some cost estimates, and determined that it will cost a minimum of
$2,000 an acre, and as much as $60,000 an acre, to get those native
ecosystem understories back in shape.

That is a total of between $40 million and $1.2 billion to take care of
the weeds and manage the native understory of just one local Open Space
District.  You can see more details at http://www.ecoseeds.com/invent.html

At the least, in the future when public agencies purchase new lands,
whatever the land costs per acre, an equal amount of money should be set
aside for weed management and ecosystem understory restoration at the same
time.

Don't get behind the eight-ball like our local District did, with tens of
thousands of acres, and no money to take care of the new weeds that are
destroying the investment that they made for the public.

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