[PCA] Ecosystem functions--must be connected with human survival

[Joe Franke]

Craig, 

Sounds like an interesting set of projects.

But how do you make people care?

I just had a really depressing meeting today with the Partners (FWS) program
concerning miniscule amount of funding for some native pollinator work that
we've been trying to get started for several years now.  The program, which
helps private landowners to do, in part, some of the work that you're saying
needs to be done is on the verge of collapse and could conceivably be
defunded entirely. One of many examples, but unfortunately the trend in the
States is towards decreasing resources for restoration work, not the other
way around. 

Joe 


On 9/6/12 5:51 PM, "Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed Company"
<Craig at astreet.com> wrote:

> Dear All,
> 
> I am currently a consultant for a farm project in Haiti and also studying
> the lack of any vegetation in parts of India and Pakistan is creating
> drought this year, worldwide.
> 
> In Haiti, the lack of native ground cover can be seen from Google Maps or
> Google Earth images, and that is very similar to what I saw when I did my
> Megatransect of 3,000 miles from California to South Dakota and back.
> 
> Continent-wide in the USA, we stripped off the original native ground
> cover from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and the current massive drought
> across the country is not helping matters.
> 
> The issue of native plant cover or exotic cover on the land, only get into
> people's minds when human survival is threatened.  That is where India and
> Pakistan comes into view.  Parts of those lands are bare, which creates a
> Dust Cloud that blocks the summer rainfall that is supposed to move
> westward and rain on our fields here in the USA.
> 
> In the past, native cover, exotic cover, or the lack of cover, was mostly
> a local issue, for the local people to sort out.  However, when the native
> cover is taken off the land at key points, like in India, Pakistan and
> Arabia, then we all suffer across the planet.
> 
> You can see the impact of the lack of cover, at
> http://www.ecoseeds.com/2012drought.html.
> 
> That is why I am setting up a test plot right now in my part of
> California, in the hills of Palo Alto and Los Altos Hills, to see about
> getting 99.5% native cover established between now and February 1 next
> year.
> 
> And that is why I am negotiating with local public land managers to do the
> same, to restore the original native cover on our public lands, at
> http://www.ecoseeds.com/midpendeal.html and
> http://www.ecoseeds.com/postdeal.html
> 
> The people of the wealthy nations must start right now, to expend time and
> some serious money to get the native cover back on their own lands, so the
> successful technologies that are invented here can be shared with other
> countries--especially those areas whose lands are key for all of our
> survival, and for the rainfall all our farms need every year.
> 
> Sincerely,  Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333
> 
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Joe Franke
Sapo Gordo Ecological Restoration Services
Chile Dog Designs, Inc.
1228 Lafayette Dr. NE
Albuquerque, NM 87106 USA
ph: 505-515-8736
Sapogordoeco at comcast.net