[APWG] [PCA] Any Ecological Megatransect, is extremely valuable?

[Philip Thomas (www.HEAR.org)]

FYI, see esp. item (2) in:

http://www.discoverlife.org/who/CV/Pickering,_John.20_year_research_goals_2006.html

Aloha,
pt at hear.org

Philip Thomas (www.HEAR.org) wrote:
> http://www.discoverlife.org/ might be a place that such transect info 
> could be archived.  Contact John Pickering 
> (http://www.discoverlife.org/who/Pickering,_John.html) if you're 
> interested in pursuing this.
> 
> Aloha,
> pt at hear.org
> 
> 
> Craig Dremann wrote:
>> Dear Wayne and All,
>>
>> Thanks for your email. 
>> NEVER, EVER consider that any ecological transect, especially a
>> Megatransect that can be retraced to particular geographic points, is
>> ever worthless--actually it's worth its weight in 24K gold, because it
>> may be the only record that exists for that area, at that time.
>>
>> For example, last year I drove 10,000 miles to map over 1,900 miles of
>> the California desert's roadsides, for the occurrance of a new weed, the
>> Sahara mustard, Brassica tournefortii, that is rapidly taking over the
>> roadsides of the arid West---you can see some examples of those
>> mile-by-mile transects marked with a "+" sign, linked to 
>> http://www.ecoseeds.com/mustards.contents.html
>>
>> In the 2005 California Desert Megatransect I was looking for that exotic
>> mustard, plus noting where there were good examples of the pristine
>> native ecosystem, at every post mile on the highways. 
>> Where there were no post miles along the roads, like along the Old US
>> Route 66, I used odometer miles, and also linked the data to highway
>> junctions, towns, etc. 
>> In the 1997 Great Basin/Rockies Megatransect I was looking for native
>> grasses, exotic grasses, and the general ecological conditions that I
>> encountered at every odometer mile-point, and the data is also linked
>> with Post Miles on the highways, highway junctions, towns, etc.
>>
>> For the various North American Roadside Megatransect
>> ecological-conditions data, that investigators around the country might
>> be able to accumulate, wouldn't it be nice to have a central place to
>> eventually store all this great roadside information? 
>> If you search at http://www.google.com for "megatransect" you will see
>> that National Geographic has sponsored at least three Ecological
>> Megatransects in Africa---so why should our fine and beautiful continent
>> of North America be left out of the fun?
>>
>> Sincerely,  Craig Dremann, Redwood City, CA (650) 325-7333
>>
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>>
>>
>> Disclaimer
>> Posts on this list reflect only the opinion of the individual who is 
>> posting the message; they are not official opinions or positions of 
>> the Plant Conservation Alliance.
>>
>>
> 

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Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR) - http://www.hear.org
P.O. Box 1272
Puunene (Maui), Hawaii  96784  USA

Philip A. Thomas - pt at hear.org

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