[APWG] Native grassland and forest understory weedings need to be at least 99%

[Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed Company]

Dear Wayne and All,

Thanks for your email.

I got an email from Mark Vande Pol, and last weekend he measured a 500
pace Evans & Love (1957) Toe-point transect, 1,000 feet long, and got
99.6% native plant cover.

That means out of 500 steps, he only stepped on a weed 2 times and stepped
on natives 498 times.  That is a very remarkable achievement no matter how
you cut it, or parse it.

I never want any statue, and I do not think Mark or Shaw wants one either.

All I want, is at least one billion restored arid grassland acres
worldwide, to help cool the planet, that you can read about at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/cool.html

Mark is going to start writing articles in the California Native Grass
Association quarterly, GRASSLANDS, and Shaw and I are planning to write an
update to his project in the ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION journal.

The point about Shaw's and Mark's achievements, is what they have done,
was mostly to release the dormant native seeds that were still in the soil
underneath the weeds, that sprouted up once the weeds were removed.

Only 10 years ago, if you asked any grasslands ecologists in the arid
West, they would have thought what Shaw and Mark did, getting 95-99%
native plant cover, impossible in California.

California grasslands are probably the most difficult upland areas on the
planet to manage the weeds and convert back to solid natives, because we
are so completely weed infested.

So Mark's and Shaw's ability to get back to 95-99.6% native plant cover on
a large scale, on 14-74 acres, should give other weeders around the world,
 hope that they can achieve something of that quality also.

In fact, the 99% native cover should be the new weeding goal for upland
grassland or forested understory project standard around the country.

Of course the goal should always be 100%, but the longevity of weed seeds
in the soil may be so long, perhaps 100 years, that the best we can do in
our own lifetimes is 99.6%---with the hope of getting 100% after several
generations of management, to wait out the weed seed viability issue.

So are there any other 99% native cover for uplands projects out there?

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333

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