[APWG] Ecosystem Restoration costs CA UCD and CalTrans Yolo Co I 505 Road 14 exit site etc. Re: MONEY to convert weeds back to 100% native, in the arid West

[Wayne Tyson]

Craig and APWG:



I did a lot of work on the grassland restoration issue in the early 1980's, 
handed the State of California a cost-effective means of restoring 
indigenous grasslands on a large scale at very low cost, but they went with 
another consultant and/or in-house personnel. They could not believe the 
good news, even though I demonstrated it with field trials. They wanted the 
immediate effect of planting bunch grasses out of gallon cans and irrigating 
them, I suppose, and with the kind of money you cite on the link, they could 
have. I didn't follow up the way you did on that project, so I don't know 
how successful they were. You might have been the man for the job . . .



The 505/14 site looks like it had a number of things going against it, but 
I'm just putting your pix and remarks and my general knowledge of the area 
(too superficial be certain) together.



The first thing is soil. While Nasella species are pretty adaptable to a 
wide range of soils, high densities are difficult to achieve on lighter 
soils, particularly if they are compacted subsoils which are frequently 
present on highway projects. Even if a species grew in the exact location 
historically, it is not the same after that kind of treatment.



Timing is often crucial, especially on such sites and when the summers are 
frequently near or above three digits F with low humidities and lots of 
wind. Soil moisture reserves can be lower in the summer, but not bone-dry. 
More attention has to be paid to plant soil moisture relationships and 
exceeding overall carrying capacity than most agriculturalists and 
horticulturalists are trained to do. (I would be delighted to be corrected 
by seeing their planning data. As public institutions, I hope I am correct 
in assuming that such data are public, but I don't know where to find it.) 
Not many ecologists understand plant soil water relationships either, at 
least in non-agronomic terms--the texts and university courses on the 
subject don't seem to emphasize wildland soils, if they discuss them at all.



The survivorship of seedlings in the field--especially a "field" like 
that--tends to be very low (this was established by Robinson in the 1970's 
for "Stipa"). I'm not surprised that Leymus didn't make it.



I'd really like to know what their plan was and what their technical 
assumptions were.



WT



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed Company" <Craig at astreet.com>
To: <apwg at lists.plantconservation.org>
Cc: <landrest at cox.net>; <craig at astreet.com>
Sent: Sunday, August 23, 2009 5:10 PM
Subject: MONEY to convert weeds back to 100% native, in the arid West


> Dear Wayne and All,
>
> You bring up the issue of money, what is the cost to convert California
> weed patches, back to local native species, 100%?
>
> Those details are at http://www.ecoseeds.com/standards.html with a 1/10th
> acre by 1/10th acre approach.
>
> There is a baseline estimated price for the first 1/10th acre within a 20
> inches of precip. per year area, with surcharges for additional problems
> about the site, like:
>
> 1.) Less than 20 inches annual precip.
> 2.) Unusual soil types, like serpentine, sand dunes, etc.
> 3.) If the site is above 3,000 feet (1,000 meters) elevation.
> 4.) Angle of site, adding a slope surcharge for every degree above level.
> 5.) Are you working within Endangered species habitat?
> 6.) Top soil disturbance surcharge
> 7.) Human-induced toxins surcharge, like salt brines, road salt, etc.
> 8.) Global warming/drought surcharge
>
> My suggestions have been, to use Licensed Restoration technologies that
> have high quality Performance Standards supporting them.
>
> Using public domain (meaning what you can find in journal articles, or you
> can get for free), unlicensed ecological restoration technologies, without
> any Performance Standards, you can see what $450,000 can do to convert the
> weeds in two plots,  in the Sacramento valley, west of Davis, at
> http://www.ecoseeds.com/road.test.html -- visited and photographed on 
> Friday.
>
> Sincerely,  Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333
>


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