[APWG] Ecosystem restoration and alien species eradication and MONEY Re: Careful measurements of species cover & Performance standards

[Wayne Tyson]

APWG:

Re: Money, how much money ($/ac or hectare or?) is involved? Is there any 
deterrent to restoration after a certain unit cost cluster? If so, what 
options are there to make restoration more palatable to a wider range of 
potential customers?

WT


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed Company" <Craig at astreet.com>
To: <apwg at lists.plantconservation.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 9:43 AM
Subject: [APWG] Careful measurements of species cover & Performance 
standards


> Dear Tony, Wayne  and All,
>
> Before setting up your test plots, get very careful vegetation cover
> measurements, and that may give you some clues on what species can fight
> the Cereal rye best.
>
> Like the petri dish pic at http://www.ecoseeds.com/mrsa.jpg -- you might
> find hidden amongst the weeds, some natives as individual plants or small
> groups of plants, that are successfully keeping the weeds at a distance,
> like the disks at 5 and 11 o'clock, where you see rings of antibiosis
> circling the two disks?
>
> For crude plant cover measure-detail, I use a toe-point line transect when
> I want to get plus or minus 1% cover for a species.  But for my more
> detailed work, I use a belt-line transect, where I can get down to 1/100th
> to 1/1000th of a percent overall cover, like when I studied the Benicia
> Prairie,  and the transect design is at
> http://www.ecoseeds.com/transect.html.
>
> The native plant, Blue Eyed Grass, was very rare,  appearing for a single
> year at Benicia, and for the whole area, only made up 0.004% of the
> overall plant cover.
>
> Sometimes the worst weeds at Benicia, were measured at a very low, almost
> unnoticed  0.5% cover, but the process they started, is chaos within the
> native ecosystem, which is what I talk about in the conclusion of the
> Benicia Prairie study, at http://www.ecoseeds.com/juicy.gossip.ten.html
>
> You may have to set up at least two different sets of Tiny Test plots in
> different habitats.
>
> You may have to set up one set, for example in open grasslands, and
> another at the edge of forests or shrubs, because in general, different
> mixes of native species live in those two different habitats.
>
> If you imagine converting the land from solid weeds back to solid native,
> you can look at the project as one big giant landscape painting, and
> instead of painting on a canvas, you are painting back directly onto the
> land.
>
> Nobody should be the least bit concerned or afraid of converting large
> tracts of land,  100% back to natives -- I see absolutely no problem at
> all, as long as we are all working with local genetic material.
>
> The idea is to put a 100% coat of native cover primer back on the canvas,
> and then the other natives as least will not have to contend with any
> weeds, as the local natives can find their own historic, original, and
> rightful place within the ecosystem.
>
> Our most important first goal for weed management in North America, needs
> to be high quality Performance Standards for our work, like 100% native
> cover and zero weeds, within 90 days or less, like my web page talks about
> at http://www.ecoseeds.com/standards.html
>
> And, in the very near future, there needs to be a solid economic reason
> that society can agree on, for funding this work with some serious annual
> budgets -- Why do we need to convert these wildland weedy areas, back to
> solid natives?
>
> Sincerely,  Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> APWG at lists.plantconservation.org
> http://lists.plantconservation.org/mailman/listinfo/apwg_lists.plantconservation.org
>
> Disclaimer
> Any requests, advice or opinions posted to this list reflect ONLY the 
> opinion of the individual posting the message.


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