[APWG] Mustard invades bare areas, needs native plants to control it

[Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed Company]

Dear Wayne and All,

The Saharan mustard was still mostly a roadside weed in the California
Mojave when my wife and I did our 2,000+ mil-by-mile survey in 2005 for
that devil, that you can read about at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/mustards.html.

I call that web page:"How do we get ahead of the spread?" or "Dude,
where's my Desert Ecosystem?" or "Did you want Mustard on that desert
ecosystem?"
or "Got Mustard?" or the "No Mustards Left Behind" program.

Pulling or spraying of this weed, will only allow for plants to colonize
another day or another year.

The only effective eradication or control for this mustard, is to cover
bare areas with native annual vegetation, like goldfields, amsinckia, Cal.
poppies, phacelia, for example. Perennials like Indian Ricegrass and
desert stipa are good also.

These natives give off natural herbicides as they grow, and suppress the
mustards from colonizing the areas.  We saw that effect very clearly when
we were doing our survey, driving over 2,000 miles, and inspecting each
mile.

And we need to stop creating new bare areas, like the highway department
does by blading along all of the desert roadsides in California.

Plus, the weed is spread by off-road vehicles using BLM off-road vehicle
areas, and then it gets spread from those vehicles elsewhere, like the
rest stop 200 miles north in the San Joaquin valley along I-5 in Kings
County.  If it gets spread in the hills around the San Joaquin valley,
that will be the permanent end to a whole lot of annual exotic grassland
grazing from Fresno to Bakersfield.

I am hoping that some botanists or ecologists will go out and confirm that
planting local desert native seeds will be the best and only successful
method to stop this mustard?

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333