[APWG] Percentage cover of each species to find constants

Tue Oct 16 10:21:35 CDT 2012

Dear Wayne,

Thanks for your email.

For the last few decades, when one is trying to replace weeds with local
native plant cover--usually from two to a dozen native species are sown. 
However, these native species have never rarely been pre-tested against
each other, to see what percentages can safely grow together in harmony,
and not overwhelm each other.

That is what I saw in the Washington state mine restoration slide show in
1994.  The first slide was a list of 20 species that were sown on the
site, and the next slide was a photo of the site--with only one aggressive
native grass in the photo, and the other 19 species were MIA.

Using the Edgewood Thornmint example at http://www.ecoseeds.com/WMA.html,
the final fix to that site is to achieve 100% native cover.

It is like working on a puzzle, and you are going to pull the weed
puzzle-pieces out of the ecosystem puzzle.  But then you need a method to
determine what local native puzzle pieces you need to put in those blank
species.

At Edgewood, you could go to an area in the park that still has some
relict stands of missing natives, such as the native Plantago or the Owls
clover, or the very rare native clovers.   Measure what percentage cover
they represent in the intact examples, and just like working a puzzle,
test-fit those native pieces into the spaces where the weed pieces have
been removed from the Thornmint site.

Using cover measurements of each species, you can develop some
mathematical models that can be used to determine how much cover of each
species makes up an intact ecosystem.  That is what I call the cake mix. 
And test your cake mix in small scale test plots first, like plots
measuring one by two yards.  Like baking one small cake with the mix.

The biggest cause of failures in non-riparian restoration today--is the
lack of small scale test plots, combined with starting the big project
before you get your small scale test plots to work 100% first.  That was
the main cause of failure of the $450,000 decade-long two-acre project, at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/road.test.html.

Conversely, our successes on those 600 acres in the Great Basin against
the cheatgrass in 1994, would not have ever been possible, without two
year's worth of test plots and to achieve 100% success in the test plots
before we started the big project, at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/greatbasin.html.

Native non-riparian planting schemes are mandated each year by regulatory
agency, such as a State suggesting restoration of pipeline corridors, or
replanting native species on gas well pads, or planting natives after new
highway construction, or HCP mitigation for Endangered Species habitat
development projects.

However, for ALL of the lists of native seeds that government agencies
want contractors to use, the government agencies MUST hire someone to
independently pretested those seed mixes in small scale test plots and
prove that those proposed mixes actually work.

I have run into project after project over the last 40 years, of
contractors given native seed specs for a huge construction project, and
those seed mixes have never been sown before or tested to see if they will
actually work.  The contractor is unaware of this flaw in the contract
because it is never disclosed to the contractor, and that the contractors
are potentially liable for any failures.

So what I am suggesting, is to go out and measure the actual mathematical
relationship between the species in an intact example of the non-riparian
ecosystem you are hoping to restore.  Then, prove out the mathematics in
small scale test plots, to make sure that everything adds up.

That is what I am setting up in my test plots right now--I want everything
to add up to 99.5% weed-free by my birthday, March 3, 2013.

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333

==========================

Wayne wrote:

Subject:
           Re: [APWG] Percentage cover of each species to find constants
      Date:
           Mon, 15 Oct 2012 09:10:39 -0700
     From:
           "Wayne Tyson" <landrest at cox.net>
       To:
           <apwg at lists.plantconservation.org>
References:
           1

Craig, your responses often contain something that piques my interest, but
they also are general and vague that I can't get a grip on them. Could you
be a bit more specific?

WT

PS: Earlier, I asked that you preserve the thread rather than clipping the
relevant posts from your replies. You said you would, but you continue to
clip said posts. Is there some reason that you do not want such messages to
remain attached to your responses to facilitate our connecting your
responses to the queries?

CRAIG replies:  Sorry, it is because I compose my answer in Word, and then
paste my answer into the email--but can add your email that I am answering
at the end if you wish.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed Company" <Craig at astreet.com>
To: <apwg at lists.plantconservation.org>
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2012 4:02 PM
Subject: [APWG] Percentage cover of each species to find constants

> Dear Wayne and Ty,
>
> Thanks for your email.  You asked: What "ecology dynamics" are relevant to
> cover.
>
> The dynamic you are looking for is the relationship between each plant in
> the ecosystem, and be able to express that relationship as a mathematical
> number, so you can write axioms and models.
>
> Then with your mathematical axioms and models, you can start to write
> equations to express the overall dynamics as each species ebbs and flows
> around each other.
>
> Also with your equations, you can find the stronger local native to
> permanently take the place of the weeds, or to determine what the "cake
> mix" should look like, for replacing each of the natives in the proper
> proportions.
>
> Once you translate species interactions and dynamics into mathematical
> models, a whole new world opens up to view.
>
> Sincerely,  Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333
>
>
> __________________________________