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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Caveat: I write as a layperson/amateur in the field of restoration. </DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR>A well-coordinated erradication and restoration seems ideal. However, some of us may happen to own a few acres (15 in my case) and want to increase natives and decrease aliens, but do not have the interest, resources, time, energy, knowledge to completely restore the property. I am impressed with what you are doing, but, do not intend to do the same. </DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif">In addition to the limitations expressed above. eradication of aliens is almost impossible here in southeast Pennsylvania. Vines, such as japanese honeysuckle and mile-a-minute are very difficult to erradicate, as are multiflora rose and autumn olive. </DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif">And, if eradicated, they come back, brought in on the wind or wing from neighboring properties.</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Anita Bower</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif">West Nottingham, PA</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><FONT face=Tahoma size=2>----- Forwarded Message ----<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN></B> Wayne Tyson <landrest@cox.net><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</SPAN></B> apwg@lists.plantconservation.org<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> Friday, August 14, 2009 1:45:41 AM<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN></B> [APWG] Ecosystem restoration and alien species eradication Re: Performance standards to get weed-free and 100% native<BR></FONT><BR>Craig and all:<BR><BR>It appears that other subscribers aren't interested in this topic, but I think we should continue it anyway, in the hopes that a few will get interested, or that it will stimulate "lurkers" to think about it. While I'm greatly looking forward to a possible visit to your project and discussing the particulars with you in depth, I suggest that we owe it to the
subscribers of this list to iron out the issues that each of us has raised one at a time. I'll be interested in your ideas about this and those of any who care to join in.<BR><BR>Let's again revisit the issue of the importance of well-coordinated restoration with eradication programs. You and I agree on this, I believe, but perhaps there are others on the list who think that restoration is unnecessary or irrelevant.<BR><BR>I hope that all who may not agree will post their ideas on this particular subject and that the discussion sticks to this one subject before moving on to digressions. I am very interested in where subscribers to this list stand on this subject. The only way I know to interpret their silence is to presume that they agree and see no need for discussion or that they don't want to discuss it for other reasons.<BR><BR>WT<BR><BR><BR>----- Original Message ----- From: "Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed Company" <<A
href="mailto:Craig@astreet.com" ymailto="mailto:Craig@astreet.com">Craig@astreet.com</A>><BR>To: <<A href="mailto:apwg@lists.plantconservation.org" ymailto="mailto:apwg@lists.plantconservation.org">apwg@lists.plantconservation.org</A>><BR>Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 12:23 PM<BR>Subject: [APWG] Performance standards to get weed-free and 100% native<BR><BR><BR>Dear Wayne and All,<BR><BR>I want to start my reply, to wax poetically about how nice walking through<BR>a restored, a weed-free North American native ecosystem can be.<BR><BR>It is like visiting the Promised Land, a fairy tale land that people talk<BR>about at annual wildland weed meetings--what would an area look like, that<BR>they have been weeding for years or decades, if it was not only weed free,<BR>but was 100% covered with the original pre-Columbian native ecosystem<BR>understory?<BR><BR>The Shaw property is like a flawless 74-acre diamond, currently set in an<BR>unending ocean
of almost a 100% solid exotic understory of over 1,000<BR>species of weeds, going 250 miles to the North, 200 miles to the East and<BR>600 miles to the South, to the Mexican border.<BR><BR>===============<BR><BR>Wayne wrote:<BR>Mowing before seed-set is a reasonably good practice in some contexts, it<BR>may not always be practical (e.g., 2:1 slopes, etc.).<BR><BR>Reply: 99% of lower elevation California is gentle slopes to fairly flat,<BR>so the level to gently sloping wildlands should be converted first, while<BR>there are still viable native seeds in the soil seedbank.<BR><BR>If the native seeds in the soil seed bank are already 35-100 years old, my<BR>big concern is we will not get started in this conversion back to 100%<BR>native cover process, in time to take advantage of the viable native seeds<BR>that are lying dormant underneath the exotics, before they lose their<BR>viability.<BR><BR>The clock is ticking for these native seeds lying
dormant in the soil<BR>seedbanks, waiting for us to pay attention to them within our and their<BR>lifetimes, otherwise their lives will be lost forever.<BR><BR>===============<BR><BR>Wayne wrote: Once a site has been dominated by weeds for a year or two,<BR>not to mention decades or centuries, there is a considerable buildup of<BR>dormant seeds in the soil's seed bank. Mowing can't get those, nor can it<BR>get all of the standing crop.<BR><BR>Reply: Mowing absolutely must to get the standing crop of weed seeds<BR>before they ripen, for that year, and contrary to popular belief, you do<BR>not have to be concerned about the dormant weed seeds in the soil.<BR><BR>What has been happening over the last decades or hundred years, is that<BR>the percentage cover of the weeds tipped the balance, where the weed<BR>densities were able to use allelopathic chemicals to suppress the<BR>germination of the dormant native seeds in the soil.<BR><BR>See
Journal of Chemical Ecology, especially Dr. Liu's 1994 and 1995 papers<BR>on a method to study plant-produced allelopathic chemicals as an<BR>independent plant suppression system, separate from competition for water,<BR>nutrients, sunlight, etc..<BR><BR>Where the concern should be focused, instead of the weed seed bank, is<BR>managing and resurrecting the native seeds in the soil seedbank, and once<BR>you cross a percentage native cover threshold, the natives will start<BR>permanently suppressing the weeds still viable in the soil.<BR><BR>Those weed seeds will remain alive underneath the natives for a long, long<BR>time, but once you get the right densities or the right local natives in<BR>place, the natives will suppress the weed seeds from every germinating<BR>again, the weed seeds will eventually die in the soil. Weeds Rest in<BR>Peace.<BR><BR>=================<BR><BR>Wayne wrote:<BR><BR>Then there's the issue of the thatch/chaff,
post-mowing regrowth, and<BR>other specifics that raise questions.<BR><BR>Reply: Thatch is not a problem. Fortunately most of the weeds that cover<BR>California are annuals, but for the perennials that might regrow, is<BR>where a little brushing of the cut surfaces with Roundup might be<BR>necessary, like Pampas grass, Harding grass, etc.<BR><BR>=================<BR><BR>Wayne wrote:<BR><BR>Not only that, but the vital importance that such treated sites must<BR>self-sustain rather than be continuously treated for eternity.<BR><BR>Reply: That is why for the Performance Standards that I am recommending<BR>for restoration of California perennial native grassland habitats, on my<BR>web page at http://www.ecoseeds.com/standards.html is that you need to<BR>make the conversion from exotic cover, back to at least 95% native cover,<BR>within 90 days or less, with no future maintenance.<BR><BR>If you have to weed after the 90th day, you need to do your
small scale<BR>test plots over, until you get the right native cover that stops the weeds<BR>cold. It is like a poker game, you have to lay down your Royal Flush of<BR>local natives, to beat the local weeds. You do not want to have to keep<BR>playing hand after hand of weeding-poker to eternity.<BR><BR>The only maintenance that might have to be done after the 90th day, is to<BR>add more local native species to increase the diversity, and to fill in<BR>gaps where native plant understory families have been catastrophically<BR>exterminated, like California and the West.<BR><BR>Sincerely, Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333<BR><BR><BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>PCA's Alien Plant Working Group mailing list<BR><A href="mailto:APWG@lists.plantconservation.org"
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