[APWG] Wildland fires, exotics and replanting natives

[Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed Company]

Dear Wayne and All,

Thanks for your email.

With the increase of major wildlands fires in California, especially the
cities that back up against the wildlands, management of the wildlands
vegetation for fire is on the agenda this fall, and draft plans are
starting to be written.

150 years ago,  the Nassella pulchra that you mentioned, was one of the
most widespread perennial bunchgrasses in California---so much so, that
there is a field of Nassella on our state flag, underneath the Grizzly
bear.  It is also our State Grass.

The Nassella pulchra (Purple Needlegrass) planting that is the easiest to
visit, is the Caltrans/UC Davis test plots along I-505 in the Sacramento
Valley, and you can get the map, and see photos of the history of the
sowing and planting of the test plots on my web page at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/road.test.html

I hope that all the botanists, ecologists and ecological restorationists
on these two email lists, will also agree, that the massive amount of
extremely flammable biomass of exotics in California and the arid West,
needs to be converted back to the very low flammable biomass of the
original natives, like what I show at http://www.ecoseeds.com/flames.html
?

The good part of the story, is that California has at least 300 species of
native perennial grasses, plus hundreds of species of native perennial
herbaceous plants, which are also critical in holding together the native
understory, as much as the bunchgrasses are.  Some species actually help
snuff out the fires in the summer.

Every part of the West has their own set of useful native species, that
could be replanted to convert areas, from exotics back to natives. The
Southwest has its own group of perennial native species, and the Great
Basin has its groups of useful natives, and the deserts have their species
of natives that could be resown, etc.

I am not talking about replanting grasslands per se, but replanting the
native understory, especially underneath and between the shrubs.  That
way, the perennial grasses can increease the space between the shrubs, and
make the shrublands less flammable.

To show when perennial native grasses are removed from an arid western
ecosystem, in less than 100 years, see Dr. Robert Humphry SW pics at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/desertgrass.html ---it is quite dramatic!

I have been doing this work for 35 years, but it took about 25 years of
test plots, and thousands and thousands of transect measurements,  plus
the inventing of useful ecological restoration technologies, to be able
achieve any successful understory plantings, that would be resistant to
the weeds here in California.

My major concern about these massive wildlands fires here in the
West---Are we going to lose what is left of the native understory, when
the exotics move in after fires, and suppress the germination and growth
of the local natives?

You can see how vulnerable in the West to this eventual conversion to
exotics, at http://www.ecoseeds.com/megatransect.html

To answer some of the details of your questions, I have made up a web page
that give a basic outline, of what needs to be done, to do successful,
weed-free ecological restoration, at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/standards.html

I taught this basic outline, in workshops to the Forest Service and BLM in
eight western states, that you can see at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/classes.html and the focus of the workshops were
the steps to take, on how to use local native seeds, instead of exotics
like annual rye, crested wheatgrass, smooth brome, etc.

The picture of the people attending one of my workshops, taken near Bend,
Oregon shows exactly what I am talking about.  That area of the National
Forest burned the year before, but there was a significant native grass
understory in the area, so that the next year, the burned area was covered
with native grasses.

BASIC OUTLINE:

1.) SURVEY FOR RELIC STANDS of the native understory in the area that you
are going to replant, the bunchgrasses and herbaceous perennials, and
collect seed for test plots.  In a fire-prone area like Southern
California, fires occur at regular intervals in certain areas, so those
areas would be the first to survey.

2.) PROTECT THE RELIC STANDS because you need them for two purposes--as a
local seed source, and as a model for how the local ecosystem-puzzle is
put back together.

3.) PLANT LOTS OF TINY TEST PLOTS, and keep planting until you can achieve
a self-sustaining native understory that is 99% weed free.  This is the
most important step in the process.  See
http://www.ecoseeds.com/greatbasin.html

4.) GROW OUT the locally collected native seeds, under contract with
commercial seed growers.  One pound of hand-collected bunchgrass seed,
will produce 100 pounds of seed in one year, and then if that seed is
planted, the second year you get 10,000 pounds, a million pounds the third
year, etc.   Native seeds bulk up very rapidly.

Getting back to the beginning, you mentioned all sorts of other reasons
why replanting the understory will be good for the environment, improve
water quality after fires, etc.

Also, the bunchgrasses will be good for wildlife because they regrow
immediately after the fire, and can also help control landslides during
the rainy season, because there will still be live roots holding the soil.

What we need to do, is come to the conclusion as a society, that
replanting the natives is a priority, to protect and convert the
understory away from exotics, at least to protect our homes, and so we can
keep the arid western native ecosystems going into the future.

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