[RWG] Ecology Roadside Vegetation methodology and value of Megatrasects

[Craig Dremann]

Dear Wayne and All,

Thanks for your email.  

You can see exactly what the 1997 Roadside Mile-by-mile Megatransect
protocol-format looks like, since I used that same format for my 1995
Mojave Mojave Mustard Megatransect from US 395 at 
http://www.ecoseeds.com/mustards.395.html

One reason why I took over 100 photos for the 1997 Megatransect, was to
show photographic examples of what I defined in my notebooks as "Decent
natives," "pristine," or scrappy.

Since no large-scale Ecological Megatransect has ever been on the North
American continent for the last 500 years, perhaps it is time to take an
inventory and see what's left of the native ecosystems, and where the
exotic junk is invading? 

And we should never, ever have any fears of making mistakes with any
Megatransect protocols--AS LONG AS:

1.) The data is linked mile-by-mile to the highway post miles, and,
2.) The data-collectors for the transect can accurately identify the
plants that they are seeing along the roadsides.

We always hear about biodiversity being lost in the tropical forests of
the Amazon, or in Madagascar, but we really don't have any good idea of
what's going on right under our feet in North America!

That's why it's so important to get ANY kind of Megatransect inventory
of the lower 48 States within the next 10 years, so we can have some
baseline data for managing what remains of North America's native
ecosystems.  

Doing a mile-by-mile transect is like reading the story of the land,
page-by-page, and anyone who can identify native and exotic roadside
plants should try it, because you'll love it.    

And any Megatrasect data collected, even 70 mph roadside data, is 24K
gold for the future---because it will probably be the only data
collected for that part of the country within a particular period of
time---so becomes a priceless historic record for future ecological
studies and comparisons.

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann, Redwood City, CA (650) 325-7333