[APWG] Try and get reveg costs down, plus quicker, better quality

[Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed Company]

Dear Wayne and All,

Thanks for your email.

You wrote:  I'm not convinced that 98% or even 100% extirpation of weeds
is possible, necessary, or even desirable.

Unfortunately, and in California especially, and in other weed-infested
areas  in North America like the cheatgrass fields of the Great Basin, it
is best to have a goal of 98% or better native cover in your non-riparian
projects within six months or less.

This goal is so you do not have to baby-sit a project for a decade, or
replant it every year or two without any resolution in sight, like the
project at http://www.ecoseeds.com/road.test.html or
http://userwebs.batnet.com/rwc-seed//road.test.html

This is also my conclusion after measuring hundreds of vegetation cover
transects over long periods of time, and seeing that when even a few
percentage cover of certain weeds gets into your native ecosystem or your
native planting, can cause a lot of trouble.

The strong herbicide-like components that certain weed roots put into the
soil, can cause the slow-motion collapse of your native ecosystem, and can
cause local spatial extinction of your native understory.

Plus a lot of the weeds are in place in North America, because they are
able to fill the niche that was once occupied by a native species.

For example, the first weeds that colonized California during the Spanish
Mission period, like the filaree and wild oats, were California native
plant mimics, in that they were able to get into our ecosystems because
their seeds mimicked the native seeds, with their awns.

Also weeds can get quickly established in native areas and able to spread
quickly, if they are members of the same genera as the local natives--like
the weedy European Vulpia grass taking the place of our native Vulpia
species, or the exotic weedy clovers taking the place of the native
clovers, or the weedy thistles like Italian and Yellow Star, taking the
place of the native  members of the sunflower family that used to blanket
our State each summer.

So unless you knock the total weed cover back very quickly, as close to
100% gone as you can, within 3 months or less,  then you open the door for
the weeds to reproduce and spread and continue to do their environmental
damage over time.

I am voting for the Mark Vande Pol standard, which is less than 0.5% weed
cover, and achieve that within three months or less.  That is my goal in
my exsitu test plots right now.

Then, over the next three months or less, get 98% or better native cover,
to hold the ground against future weed invasions or colonizations.

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333