[APWG] Utah petri dish tests

[Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed Company]

Dear Tony and All,

Thanks for your email.

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Tony wrote: Will this work with an allelopathic species like Secale
cereale which has formed dense stands along what is left of the foothills
of the central Wasatch Front in Utah?   Will the native grasses even be
able to get a foothold absent removal of the cereal rye?

Reply: Cereal rye is exactly what Dr. Liu was studying in his two papers
written in the Journal of Chemical Ecology in 1994 and 1995.  What he
discovered, is the drier the conditions that the cereal rye grows in, the
more allelopathic chemicals it produces, which makes sense.

The question for the area where the rye is growing in your area---where
are the native grass seeds going to come from, and what species are
currently growing amongst the cereal rye?  If it is mature Great Basin
wild rye, it is unlikely that you will get seedlings without a lot of
effort, but if it Bluebunch wheatgrass, there is a good chance.

Bluebunch wheatgrass is what is in the pictures,  growing to the horizon,
and cheatgrass-free, at http://www.ecoseeds.com/greatbasin.html  I would
try some tiny sown test plots of various native grasses amongst the cereal
rye, and see what you can do, at a lot of different sowing rates.

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Tony wrote: We are also inundated with two other particularly out of
control plant species along our foothills (besides all of the normal ones
and too many others to list) including Linaria dalmatica and Euphorbia
myrsinities, both of which seem to like to grow over/under/in everything. 
How do we remove these from rock crevice habitats?

Reply:  What would normally grow in those rock crevices?  Probably some
native bunchgrass?  Our Western native bunchgrasses have a remarkably
strong effect against weeds, especially the broadleaf weeds.  Perhaps
Indian Ricegrass, Thurber's Stipa if they are local to your area, or a
local native Poa might do the trick?   I would try some tiny test plots in
the rock crevices with some of the native-rock-crevice grasses.

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Tony wrote: We do have a few precious places with relatively intact
ecosystems where these weeds advance and invade nonetheless, i.e. a
healthy ecosystem (contrary what was traditionally taught) does not
necessarily seem to, sadly, be a defense against many of these invaders.

Reply:  In doing my 1997 Megatransect at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/megatransect.html from California to South Dakota
and back, I also noted, what I called Pristine native areas, compared to
the rest of the cow and sheep-chewed West.

I call those Pristine relics, the Sacred-Places, that have been able to
withstand everything that we have dished out to them, so they deserve a
modicum of respect, able to survive our land-tsunami-like onslaught.

However, there is always something in the ecosystem puzzle missing in
those areas, anywhere where the Pristine relics occur in the USA in the
lower 48, and those holes in the puzzle are exactly where the weeds find a
place to get in.   The weeds fill an empty niche.

For example, on the Shaw property, the 4-6 species of native clovers are
missing, which allows the exotic clovers to fill that ecosystem vacancy,
until Mr. Shaw is able to reintroduce the native clovers back onto his
land.

It is not enough for an ecosystem understory to be relatively intact. 
That is like the spark plugs in your car engine were relatively put in,
maybe at the right number?

Your car needs exactly the right number of spark plugs, torqued into the
engine at the correct number of foot-pounds--and the ecosystem understory
also has to be precisely fitted together to function properly, to hold its
own against the weeds.

That is why we need professionals in the future, who can survey land, and
be able to give us the ecosystem understory recipe, of how much cover of
what native species we need on the land, to hold the ecosystem together,
against the weeds.

The proper percentage of cover of each native species, within any
non-riparian ecosystem, is a mathematical constant.

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333