[RWG] Ecology Vegetation surveys and mapping Releve methodology CNPS Megatransect Dremann Re: New map of roadside weeds & natives from Jackpot to Wells, Nevada Re: Ecology Roadside Vegetation surveys methods & a survey per State?

[Wayne Tyson]

Craig:

Thank you for the clarifications, which are so noted.  I now 
understand that you are using mileposts for transect points and I am 
satisfied with that.

I do wonder, however, whether or not your data collection procedures 
will be considered useful or even acceptable by your peers, but I 
must admit that this observation about your work may be another 
artifact of my ignorance of your exact procedures.  You are obviously 
expending a huge amount of energy and heart on your project, and I 
quite agree that it would be worthwhile to do more of it on a wider 
scale.  If your goal is to do it all yourself, you can, of course, do 
it any way you like.  If, on the other hand, you want to enlist the 
aid of other ecologists, I think now is the time to subject your 
methods to peer review to ensure broad cooperation and even financial 
support.  It would be a shame for you to do all that work without 
taking full advantage of all the opportunities that many decades of 
ecological research experience affords.

May I suggest that you write a paper for the Ecological Society of 
America's blog or listserv describing your research and requesting a 
critical review?  That way, you will have a much better chance of the 
eventual publication of your monograph, and I would hope, many, many 
additions to it in the coming years.  My concern is that if you 
continue with your present methodology, which has many good features, 
you run the risk of your project being only a cry in the 
wilderness--as it were.  By this I am not suggesting that you turn 
over control to anyone else; only that you have the benefit of all 
that experience.  You can expect both useful and perhaps even rude 
comments, but the latter can simply be ignored.

For what it might be worth (probably nothing) I would not follow all 
of your procedures, primarily because they are not quantitative where 
they could easily be so.  Terms like "scrappy remains present," for 
example, and "decent shape" cry out for a clear basis for their definition.

As to your last two questions, my answer is yes, certainly, and I 
though I had made that clear in all my previous responses.

Again, I think your work will be valuable as it is, but with a little 
modification it could be so much more.  If I have missed something I 
should have caught, or if I am presuming too much due to ignorance of 
details you have not revealed, please correct me.

Best,
WT

At 09:59 AM 11/7/2006, Craig Dremann wrote:
>Dear Wayne and All,
>
>Thanks for your email.
>
>Please note that I have only been summarizing the details of the 1997
>Megatransect data on these list-servers, that is now a 80-page, 8-1/2"x
>11", four columns to the page with maps and commentary format
>Word-document (with the 100+ photographs extra), so it will probably
>have to be published as a monograph in the future, because it's just too
>huge for a journal article.
>
>However,  I'm not quite sure exactly who would ever publish or utilize
>my Megatransect data if it was ever published, or be able to resurvey
>the roadsides in the future, to measure any ecological changes, or
>perhaps preserve some of the good native ecosystem examples that are
>left?
>
>For example, the PLANTCONSERVATION.ORG list-servers, is currently
>limited our discussion about the mapping of natives plants and exotic
>plants along the roadsides, to only the revegtation list (rwg@) and it
>is not being posted on the native plants list (native-plants@) nor the
>exotic plants (apwg@) list any more.
>
>HERE'S THE PROTOCOL for taking notes for the Megatransect:
>
>1.) Data was taken at every post-mile along the highway, the phyical
>post-mile acting as the "point" for the transect.  Plus there are other
>geographic notes made, like where the transect crosses highway
>interchanges, rivers, mountain passes, towns, etc. to give other
>reference points.
>
>2.) For the 1997 transect, the presence or absence of any species of
>native grass is noted, the species is/are present are identified and the
>extent and density of the cover at each mile-post is noted, as follows:
>
>   a.) Only a single plant of a native grass was present at that point.
>   b.) Only found growing along the roadsides, usually a single species.
>   c.) Also on other side of the fence, but only scrappy remains present.
>   d.) Also on other side of fence, and in decent shape, usually multiple
>species of native grasses, plus sometimes native forbs.
>   e.) Pristine grasslands, usually solid and weed-free and usually large
>areas like a square mile or more.
>
>3.) All exotic grasses are noted (Smooth brome, crested wheatgrass,
>cheatgrass, etc.) or intentionally-sown exotic plants (yellow sweet
>clover, white Dutch clover, etc.), if they are seen at any mile-post.
>
>So with the 1997 Megatransect, we now know the exact locations of the
>native grass refugia as of that data, and how important they are for
>certain species, plus the exact locations and extent of a few of the
>important weed species like cheatgrass and the sown crested
>wheatgrass.
>
>Once this roadside Megatransect is published, anyone could go back and
>measure changes that have occurred in the last nine years, or at any
>time in the future.  And anyone could go out tomorrow and recheck the
>Nevada US 93 from Jackpot to Wells, and see if that pristine prairie is
>still there!
>
>I firmly believe that roadside ecological Megatransects for each of the
>48 lower States should be conducted in the next 10 years, so we have
>some baseline large-scale data to measure future ecological trends for
>the United States.
>
>Shouldn't we try and map the big picture of weeds and ecological
>conditions in the United States, to get a census at a particular data
>and time?
>
>And wouldn't even one roadside ecological Megatransects from each State,
>provide a valuable snapshot of those current conditions?
>
>Sincerely,  Craig Dremann, Redwood City, CA (650) 325-7333

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