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<div class="userStyles" style=" font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000;">Dear APWG,<br>
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In 1993, when needing to replant a 100-mile section of the Tuscarora gas pipeline through BLM lands north of Reno in cheatgrass infested sagebrush, it took us two years and planting a couple hundred of 1 x 2 meter test plots, to figure our that the allelochemicals produced by the local native ecotype seedlings could kill and keep the cheatgrass seeds in the soil from ever sprouting in the future.<br>
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SOIL TESTS critical--The $32 Waypoint Anaheim A-01 ("data only in a bar graph format") and Organic matter tests $16 from the top two inches of soil, are taken from at least two locations. The first is your cheatgrass site, and second is in the same soil somewhere nearby, getting the "soil nutrient thresholds" for the desirable native plants you want to replace the cheatgrass with. <br>
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Then, bring the cheatgrass soil 50% above the desirable plant levels, which are usually too low in nitrogen and phosphorus, but sometimes calcium is an issue too. And the percentage of organic matter in the top two inches is always too low.<br>
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And if you apply the fertilizers and mulch in October, then by May or June, you should see 100% native cover and zero cheatgrass. And once you have that 100% cover, it can remain 95% or more cover for the next 30 years if you do not allow cows and sheep to hammer the planting too much during droughts.<br>
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KEY POINTS--"Craig's Seven RULES to get rid of cheatgrass in SIX months"<br>
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1.) Soil tests to establish each native species critical "Soil Nutrient Threshold".<br>
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2.) Always sow your species as individuals, never in native seed mixes, always mosaics.<br>
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3.) Starting today, NEVER sow another pound of exotics or add any exotics to any planting.<br>
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4.) ALWAYS keep doing your test plots until you achieve 100% native cover in six months. Anything less, and you have not produced a healthy grassland patient, as a Grassland Land Doctor.<br>
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5.) Check for native seed granivores by putting out cupcake tins filled with the different native seeds you are going to sow in your test plots. If eaten then you must do something to hide the scent of those seeds. <br>
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6.) Start work in an area where a fire has gone through a stand of cheatgrass. Or if that does not exist locally, create that type of site. The fire will have eliminated the allelochemicals in the cheatgrass straw, and your native seedlings will add their own allelochemicals much easier, to suppress and kill the cheatgrass seeds in the soil.<br>
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7.) Ignore everything you have ever read or heard about how cheatgrass is invasive, because it is not. It only grow in soils where there are one or more conditions--<br>
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a.) The native grasses and wildflowers have holes in their canopy and bare soil spots and the cheatgrass takes advantage of "nobody home" to fill that vacancy. <br>
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b.) Soil nutrients are too low for native seedling survival and/or<br>
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c.) Ranchers are still feeding native grasses to cows and sheep, instead of allowing the native grasses and locoweeds and other wildflowers to grow and selling carbon credits to the states which need their electricity to be Carbon Neutral by a certain date. <br>
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d,) Zombies--The low soil organic matter and nutrient levels are so low, that the native seedlings do not survive. Check if your native grass stands are only old plants and not reproducing--their have been "Zombized" and will age out and you will lose that entire grassland component over time.<br>
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Unless there is an economic incentive for converting the 100 million acres of cheatgrass back to native cover, there will be no money to do that project. Ranchers currently only take home $1 per acre per inch of rainfall currently, whereas the Carbon Credit value of Great Basin grasslands could be 5-10 times that much. <br>
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Most of the Western States have the desire to become Carbon Neutral by a certain date for its electricity, and the only way that will work, is to purchase Carbon Credits from their own state's ranchers, who have converted from feeding the native grasses to animals, to replanting those native grasses and selling Carbon Credits instead.<br>
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Anyone can visit my preserved test plot site along US 395 at the Junction of Ramhorn Road, preserved as a Natural Study Area by BLM located at Post Mile 100.00 in Lassen County. See photos at https://www.ecoseeds.com/greatbasin.html. <br>
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We now have the tools to convert the entire 100 million acres of cheatgrass in the Great Basin, back to fire-safe native grasses and forbs. And that way, we would not need to keep chaining junipers and pinyon pines, because the Greater and Gunnison Sage grouse and Mule Deer would have all the habitat they needs to increase their numbers.<br>
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And this same method could be utilized for the other bird like the Lesser Prairie Chicken in Texas, NM and Kansas, so their could recover too.<br>
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All of the Great Basin Grassland Land Doctors, who do not want to see another cheatgrass fire, this fall need to get started on their 1 x 2 meter test plots, and send in their Waypoint Lab soil tests with the form at https://www.ecoseeds.com/soiltest-A01-2024,pdf --Let's get the "Great Basin Cheatgrass conversion Party" started in 2024?<br>
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Sincerely, Craig Carlton Dremann CELL (650) 441-9323<br>
The Reveg Edge, P.O. Box 361, Redwood City, CA 94064<br>
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