[PCA] Economic Competitiveness of Natives

[Virgil Dupuis]

Mary, I agree with you on the cost of using natives.  From what I have
seen in restoration work, I have seem much more money used on poor
planning such as specifying native plants for restoration where seed
sources do not exist, or specifying 5 foot tall material instead of more
smaller material (land scape architect consulting fees of 100/hr),
excessive earth moving ($4.00/yard to move dirt and rising), and over
specification of plant densities.  Also, the nature of contracting
restoration work is the adversarial low bid approach between the business
man and sponsor that results in cost cutting and expense hiding that
always gravitats towards lowest cost plant material because it is the last
item on the job.  The cost of installation including labor, tree
protection, and maintenance are in excess of planting costs of natives
also.  Producing natives in a simple nursery is very feasible and project
sponsors  should consider accessing the production information available
for many natives and partnering with a local high school to grow them. 
Natives should be used where they make sense, an area relatively free of
invasive plants, use plants from the site that are easy to grow, and don't
use natives as a punative measure ( run the cost of a project up
specifying many large plants that do not exist in inventories).       

Virgil