[RWG] Costs for restoration of arid Western public lands, for fires & weeds

[Craig Dremann]

Dear Wayne and All,

Thanks for your email. 

The opening bid is $10 billion a year for 20 years.

That's the price, for say, 100 million severely degraded acres of public
lands in the Great Basin and arid Southwest, times a minimum of $2,000
per acre---and that's just to get the intershrub understory
kick-started, and replenish the arid-land phosphorus-mining deficit that
the cattle and sheep have created, over the last 100-150 years.  

To get the rarer native species restored, like the native legumes,
Indian paintbrush family, the rarer herbaceous species of the sunflower,
that help hold the arid non-forest ecosystems intact, it could cost as
much as $60,000 per acre.

Doing ecological restoration of our western arid public lands, would be
the best permanent fix for the exotic weed and the fire issues that we
have in the Great Basin.  

The cheap alternative that the Federal government agencies have been
doing for decades, however, is to sow millions of pounds of perennial
exotic invasive seeds, instead of restoring the local native species,
like the wonderful results that can be accomplished at  
http://www.ecoseeds.com/greatbasin.html

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