[APWG] Cheatgrass--never fight it, just convert back to natives

[Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed Company]

Dear All,

Cheatgrass in the Great Basin, is only a default-weed, only growing
wherever the native grasslands have been damaged by grazing or eliminated.
It is not an invasive exotic, only a place-saver, waiting for us to sow
back the original native plant cover.

You can see where we successfully replanted the natives in cheatgrass
county in the mid-1990s on 600 acres, at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/greatbasin.html

Some weeds like cheatgrass are only default species, so fighting will
never work, because if you are successful in eliminating it by other means
like herbicides, then another, perhaps worse exotic, will come to fill the
vacancy that you have created.

Or you may make the mistake like BLM has been for years, and start sowing
millions of pounds a year of perennial exotics like crested wheatgrass, to
take the place of the cheatgrass, like you can read at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/juicy.gossip.six.html

But when you intentionally sow in perennial exotics, it is a million times
more difficult to convert those areas back to natives, than if you only
had solid annual cheatgrass to contend with.

That goes for any of the perennial exotics sown by the highway departments
or the other land managers, like perennial ryegrass, smooth brome, etc.

It is going to cost tens of billions of dollars to bale out and convert
back to local native cover, the cheatgrass infested acres that we have on
our public lands, but it will a most excellent investment for the future
of North American ecosystems.

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333