[APWG] Altering is too kind, destroy not strong enough

[Craig Dremann]

Dear All,

Eleven years ago, I drove 3,000 miles through the west, to conduct a
scientifically measured census of the remains of the native understory
(grasses and forbs) mile-by-mile, from California to South Dakota and
back, that you can see an abstract of, at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/megatransect.html

When we look at our North American native understories on a large-scale,
from county-wide to state-wide to continent wide, even in the East,
where I have done informal surveys in Delaware, Maryland, Georgia and
Alabama, the understories are in the same destroyed---or as the
scientists like to say---depauperate condition.

The native ecosystem understories that I have surveyed so far, were
largely absent or had been replaced by exotics that have been either
accidentally or intentionally introduced.

It might be very useful for this discussion, if everyone could go
outside of their home later this year, and bring back some mile-by-mile
data, on what the understory conditions are like in their part of the
country.  That way, we would have all have seen first-hand, what the
situation of the health of the ecosystems really is currently.

When exotic people came to North America from other lands, no thoughts
were given to altering the North American native ecosystems, because
there seemed to be no direct adverse impact on our way of life.

However, adding global warming to the equation, 2008 might be the first
year where we see the beginning of a new reality.  Perhaps we will find
out that we really and desperately need that native perennial grass and
native forb understory, that we allowed the sheep and cattle to
catastrophically exterminate continent-wide, and that the exotic plants
have altered.

For example, if you compare today's Drought Monitor map at
http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html and overlay it on my
Megatransect maps, the more severe degrees of drought in the West,
exactly matches where the native ecosystem understory has been more
severely exterminated or destroyed.

Until native ecosystems become dear to us---necessary for our existence
and survival on this continent---then the discussions of the health of
the native ecosystems, plus the spread and intentional planting of
exotics, will just be interesting abstract discussion on List servers,
with no incentives to take serious action and make significant economic
investments.

Maybe, we will only wake up to the altering or destruction of North
American native ecosystems, when part of the continent becomes
uninhabitable to us?  Then, we might realize that we need to make a huge
economic investment in turning the tide on the exotics, and start the
job of ecological restoration of the North American native ecosystems?

North Americans probably do not want to do down the path of the Arabian
Peninsula's Empty Quarter, that had huge rivers flowing as large as the
Nile with waterfalls higher than Niagara, and huge lakes within historic
times? That area was altered and became one of the most arid places on
the planet, when the native ecosystems were destroyed by grazing. You
can read about that, at http://www.ecoseeds.com/Saudi.html

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333