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

[Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed Company]

Dear Wayne and All,

Thanks for your detailed replies.

Where we are so thoroughly weed infested like California, and starting
with 99% weed cover on most sites,  trying to achieve a long term 50%
native plant cover threshold in a California non-riparian grassland or
coastal sage scrub habitat, is like flying a jet plane and trying to break
the sound barrier.

Even achieving the 95% native cover threshold like Shaw--is NOT GOOD
ENOUGH in California--you absolutely must plug up all of the empty niches
in upland grassland or coastal sage scrub ecosystems.  Otherwise,  the
weeds just move back into your beautiful 95% weed free areas, and occupy
those empty niches again.  Any open niches are like hanging out a
“vacancy” sign for the weeds to come back.

The concept that 95% local native plant cover is not good enough, is a
difficult concept for us to get our minds around, but that is just how the
reality is.  When you are missing key native plant families because of
spatial extinction, you are going to start on an open-ended, never-ending
weed fight, and it will only end when you fill in those gaps with the
missing plant families.

You can look at the project along Interstate 505 here in California at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/road.test.html and see how rapidly the weeds
destroyed each of the five sowing attempts, and see in the long term, was
unable to stay above the 50% native cover threshold:

February 2003 sowing on west side, resulted in zero native cover by June.
January 2004 sowing on west side, by September 2005, 99.9% weed cover.
January 2006 sowing on west side, by September 2006, 99% weed cover.
January 2006 sowing on east side, by August 2011, 26% native cover.
October 2008, sowing on the west side, by August 2011 is only 48% native,
still not over the 50% native-cover threshold.

That is a very, very  sad result, for either a weed management project or
for ecological restoration, to get less than 50% long term native cover,
after spending a decade of work, five sowing attempts and $225,000 per
acre.

The biggest problem regarding weeds getting established in California, is
the spatially extinct and missing native species, specifically, the native
grasses, both the hundreds of species of perennials plus the annual
Vulpia, the missing sunflower family, the missing bean family, the missing
lily family--plus the always overlooked--the missing Miners lettuce
(Claytonia or Montia).

All those native plant families work together to keep the native
non-riparian ecosystem understories intact.

And it is sometimes it is absolutely necessary to achieve very quickly, 
the very best quality weeding projects and/or restoration project, like
for the Endangered Riverside County Krat.

If the government has already spent $42 million to buy some land for the
Stephens Krats, it cannot be left as a solid weed patch, in order for the
animals to survive, and some serious money must be spent immediately, to
do the job quickly, gently, and efficiently.  Quick but gentle conversion
of the weeds back to local native species, is what is called for.

To answer some of your comments:

1.) ONLY BROADCAST SOW native seeds, and never use seed mixes.  I only
recommend broadcast sowing of locally genetic native seeds, without ever
any soil disturbance at all, and never any tilling or drill seeding.  And
always sow your native seeds as individual species in swaths like a
mosaic, and NEVER use native seed MIXES.

2.) FERTILIZERS:  ALWAYS use fertilizers when sowing native seeds.   I
know that goes against the myths and legends that have been told for years
about sowing natives, but native seeds always need some type of
fertilizer, and sometimes in the arid West, needing shockingly large
amounts.

3.) VULPIA MIMICS. The Vulpia mimics in California issue is between the
native Vulpia microstachys and the European Vulpia myuros (Rat tail or
Zorro fescue).  There was a controversy about the origins of the Vulpias
in California, until a study was done in 1974 by Lonard and Gould in
Madrono 22:217-230, that sorted those two out.

4.) YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU LOST, until you see how 100% fits together
again.  Until you get a North American non-riparian ecosystem understory
back to  99.5% native cover, you do not get to see the complete picture of
what the original interactions were between the native species, before the
weeds invaded those areas.

The weeds and spatial extinction of native species in North America, have
so decimated and interrupted our native ecosystem functions, you need an
almost 100% pure ecosystem to be able to see those interactions and how
they functioned together in the past.  That is what I learned by seeing
Mark Vande Pol and his 14 acres of 99.5% native cover, or Shaw and his 74
acres--unexpected plant interactions I could never have imagined.

5.) SPATIAL EXTINCTION--those two words should be added to our ecological
vocabulary and added to our dictionaries--that is exactly what every
individual weed does within our native ecosystems-.  Wherever an
individual weed grows, it has caused spatial extinction of our native
ecosystem, on that spot of land.

6.) FEAR NOT, the 99.99% native non-riparian ecosystem.  It may seem like
an impossible Holy Grail--either for weed management or for ecological
restoration-- but this standard needs to be established as our goal when
we are doing our work out there, plus achieve it as quickly, cheaply and
efficiently as possible, like six months or less.

7.) ADOPT the 99.5% PERFORMANCE STANDARDS.  Federal and State agencies
should ask for that performance standard, for 99.5% local native cover for
any projects done on their lands--like pipeline right of ways, gas or oil
pads, new highway construction, mitigation, HCP mitigation, Endangered
species habitat, etc.

It sounds like we should have annual meetings somewhere about these
issues--either state-wide or for several Western states, or regionally on
a nation-wide basis--where the land managers and practitioners could have
a more in depth discussion, and invite the people to speak, who have been
able to break the 50% non-riparian native cover barrier?

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333