[APWG] A place for Aliens--steaming in my compost pile

[Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed Company]

Dear All,

The article -- A place for alien species in ecosystem
restoration -- is written from a Hawaiian US Forest Service perspective,
where those islands are probably as exotic-infested as we are here in
California, and it will take hundreds of millions of dollars to start the
conversion back to a 100% native Hawaiian understory.

When none of the US government agencies, including the ones with the
biggest budgets like the Federal Highway admin. or the military, provide
any signicant annual per-acre budgets to manage exotic plants on our
Federal lands, then perhaps you are going to write articles trying to put
a positive spin on exotics, if your agency is never going to get any funds
from Congress to do the right thing.

And at the same time, if Congress is still spending millions of dollars
annually  to purchase millions of pounds of exotic seeds, to be sown onto
our Federal lands, like smooth brome, crested wheatgrass, exotic clovers,
etc., and also along Federal highways, everyone on the List-server should
expect to see many articles in the future that promote exotic invasive
plant use, to justify that ecosystem destruction?

The Place for Aliens article can be downloaded for free from Google
Scholar as a PDF file, and is 7 pages, at
http://www.globalrestorationnetwork.org/uploads/files/LiteratureAttachments/20_a-place-for-alien-species-in-ecosystem-restoration.pdf

Yes, I agree that there is a place for alien species--nicely composing
away at a very high temperature to kill its seeds in my compost pile, to
feed the native plants in the area, once the composting process is
completed.

By the way, my test plots on exotic annual grasses in Palo Alto, CA. hills
are producing some very interesting and unexpected result in terms of
their nutrient take-up--drawing down the soil nutrient levels to near
zero, and far below where native seedlings can survive.

The exotics working with the cows and sheep over time, especially in the
arid West, can draw down the soil nutrients within a few years, below the
threshold where native seedlings can survive, like what I show at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/good.example.html.  When the native seedlings do
not have the necessary levels of nutrients, the seeds germinate and die.

Allelopathy produced by the exotics killing our natives, and the ability
of the weeds to mine and rob soil nutrients from the native seedlings, may
be the two strongest cases against allowing ANY exotics within our native
ecosyetems on public lands, and along our highways?

Shouldn't we stop intentionally sowing those ecosystem-killing weeds onto
our highways and public lands?

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333