<p> </p>
<div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;
color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">
<p>Dear Dr. Patricia and All,</p><p>You are going to have to get a whole
lot of funding to answer both of those questions, because really nobody
has wanted to know so far the answers to those two questions, until you
asked them yourself. </p><p>I tried to answer one question in 1997,
how much was left of the native understory in a 2,000 mile stretch
between California and South Dakota, and did a Megatransect, and noted
mile-by-mile what was growing at each mile-post, that you can see at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/megatransect.html.</p><p>I also conducted in 2005
a 2,000+ mile by mile Megatransect in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts that
you can see at http://www.ecoseeds.com/mustards.html.
</p><p>However, there has been zero interest so far in the data
produced by either of those Megatransects, even though they would be
invaluable baseline vegetetaion data to remeasure and see trends and
changes with, like the information you are looking for. </p><p>If
you never measure what you have at a certain date, you will never know
how much you are missing each year. It is very difficult to know how
much we are losing each year, without having done a baseline
Megatransects at some time in the past.</p><p>And it is almost impossible
to know how much native habitats is actually being restored each year,
because you can sow native seeds on a 100 acres by dumping seed sacks out
behind a pick up truck and drive away, and call that "100 acres
restored"--but six months to five years later, how restored is it
really, like you can see at http://www.ecoseeds.com/road.test.html that
took over 10 years and $245,000 per acre to actually accomplish
anything.</p><p>So in 2014, based on my two Megatransects, and some
informal Megatransects I did on the East Coast and SE, my guess is that
<strong>the native plant understory in the lower 48 states below 5,000
feet in elevation is between 95-99% Spatially Extinct</strong>--that
means whatever grew underneath the Eastern forests like perennial native
grasses and herbaceous perennials, the grasslands of the Midwest along
with their herbaceous component, and the Great Basin grasses and
wildflower understory, and the SW and West Coast wildflower understory,
like you can see at http://www.ecoseeds.com/wild.html, are Spatially
Extinct.</p><p>In terms of restoring native areas, wetlands probably lead
the number of acres, due to the legal requirement of mitigation, but
those acres do not usually add to the total each year, because they are
only planted to replace those being destroyed. In terms of
uplands, </p><p>In 2014 we are living on a depauperate planet, the
this change only happened in about 200 years. It would be a very
good plan to do mile-by-mile Megatransects zig-zagging understory
vegetation census across the continent every 10 years at a
minimum--perhaps at least one Megatransect crossing each of the 48
states--then we could measure the vegetational changes one way or another
when we have some baseline data to start from.</p><p>For the East Coast,
it would be very interesting to see how much or how little of the native
upland understory is left, say in the original 13 colonies/states.
My guess after doing a Delaware to Virginia census in 2000, is less
than 1%.</p><p>Sincerely, Craig Dremann (650)
325-7333</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>>
Hi,<br />
><br />
> Can someone point me toward US statistics on
loss/conversion/degradation<br />
> of<br />
> habitat for native plant communities - not just forestland, not
just<br />
> wetlands, not just West Coast, not just mainland, but US?<br />
><br />
> Also, are there nationwide statistics on how much native habitat
is<br />
> restored on a national level - across agencies, private/public,
etc.?<br />
><br />
> Thanks!<br />
> Patricia<br />
><br />
> Patricia S. De Angelis, Ph.D.<br />
> Botanist, Division of Scientific Authority-US Fish & Wildlife<br />
> Service-International Affairs<br />
> Chair, Medicinal Plant Working Group-Plant Conservation Alliance<br />
> 5275 Leesburg Pike, MS: IA<br />
> Falls Church, VA 22041-3803<br />
> 703-358-1708 x 1753<br />
> 703-358-2276 (FAX)<br />
> _______________________________________________<br />
> native-plants mailing list<br />
> native-plants@lists.plantconservation.org<br />
>
http://lists.plantconservation.org/mailman/listinfo/native-plants_lists.plantconservation.org<br
/>
><br />
> Disclaimer<br />
> Posts on this list reflect only the opinion of the individual who
is<br />
> posting the message; they are not official opinions or positions of
the<br />
> Plant Conservation Alliance.<br />
><br />
> To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to<br />
> native-plants-request@lists.plantconservation.org with the word<br />
> "unsubscribe" in the subject line.</p></div>
<p> </p><p> </p><p>> Hi,<br />
><br />
> Can someone point me toward US statistics on
loss/conversion/degradation<br />
> of<br />
> habitat for native plant communities - not just forestland, not
just<br />
> wetlands, not just West Coast, not just mainland, but US?<br />
><br />
> Also, are there nationwide statistics on how much native habitat
is<br />
> restored on a national level - across agencies, private/public,
etc.?<br />
><br />
> Thanks!<br />
> Patricia<br />
><br />
> Patricia S. De Angelis, Ph.D.<br />
> Botanist, Division of Scientific Authority-US Fish & Wildlife<br />
> Service-International Affairs<br />
> Chair, Medicinal Plant Working Group-Plant Conservation Alliance<br />
> 5275 Leesburg Pike, MS: IA<br />
> Falls Church, VA 22041-3803<br />
> 703-358-1708 x 1753<br />
> 703-358-2276 (FAX)<br />
> _______________________________________________<br />
> native-plants mailing list<br />
> native-plants@lists.plantconservation.org<br />
>
http://lists.plantconservation.org/mailman/listinfo/native-plants_lists.plantconservation.org<br
/>
><br />
> Disclaimer<br />
> Posts on this list reflect only the opinion of the individual who
is<br />
> posting the message; they are not official opinions or positions of
the<br />
> Plant Conservation Alliance.<br />
><br />
> To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to<br />
> native-plants-request@lists.plantconservation.org with the word<br />
> "unsubscribe" in the subject line.</p>