[APWG] Altering is too kind, destroy not strong enough Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 09:18:12 -0500 From: Craig_Young at nps.gov To: <apwg at lists.plantconservation.org

[Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed Company]

Dear All,

My wife Sue and I just returned last night from a 1,600 mile California
native understory survey, from the San Francisco Bay area to the middle of
the Mojave desert and back.

You can see the results of an earlier native ecosystem understory survey
at http://www.ecoseeds.com/wild.html .  It is a shame to lose these native
understories to exotics, just for their beauty, but there might be a more
important need for keeping the weeds out, especially here in the arid
West.

The results of our current survey, is that only 32 miles out of the 1,600
miles had any significant native understory present, and only about 2
miles had any of the original native perennial grass species present.

That's only 2% left for the native understory in San Mateo, Santa Clara,
San Benito, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Kern, San Bernardino, Los Angeles
and Riverside counties.

And for the perennial native bunchgrass component, that was so widespread
state-wide in 1850, that the designers of the State flag had to depict
them underneath the now extinct grizzly bear, is down to about 1/10th of
1% of its original cover.

The scale of the devastation of California's original perennial native
understory and the scale of the almost total coverage by exotic annual
plants in a little over 150 years should give us pause, because that
conversion may push the West Coast into drier and drier climate
conditions.

The Mojave is already as dry as the Arabian desert's famous Empty Quarter,
with no flowing rivers originating from within that watershed.

Since the central and southern California drought that started in
September 2006, the creeks as far north as the SF Bay area, this morning,
are flowing at about 5% of normal.  Our State is drying up from the bottom
up.

People have been discussing weed and exotic plant issues for decades,
first as agricultural problems, and now as wildlands problems.

What I am suggesting: Weeds, when they start covering 98% of a large area,
like the whole State of California, may start changes in the climate and
annual rainfall patterns, that could threaten the ability of 35 million
people to occupy that area.

Climate change caused by conversions of North American native
understories, which then act as a tipping point for climate change, might
be exactly the right the issue that get the tens of billions of dollars
funded annually that are needed to restore the poor ruined native
ecosystems, so we can continue to live in parts of the arid West?

It would be very interesting, if everyone this year who is hooked up to
this list server, would go out and do some roadside surveys, and let's get
an idea of what is left of the native ecosystem understories.

For the Public land managers, what's left on our public lands?

And what is left of the native ecosystem understories around where we
live?  What percentage has been taken over by exotic plants, either
accidentally introduced, or intentionally planted?

I will look forward to hearing about what other people find in their own
State about the health of the native understories.

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