[RWG] Ecosystem Restoration Grassland CA Nasella species Re: Wildland fires, exotics and replanting natives

Mon Dec 1 23:40:57 CST 2008

Dear All,

Thanks to Craig for a most interesting post. I share his concerns about the invasion of alien annual weedy grasses and forbs into indigenous grasslands and other habitats. I quite agree with him that alien weeds worsen the fire hazard, interfere with indigenous plant recovery, and also am concerned about their effect upon soil moisture and groundwater recharge and streamflow (and thus their short- and long-term effects upon ecosystems, both on the site and elsewhere within the watershed). 

Please tell me where there is(are) one (or more) site(s) where direct seeding of native bunchgrass has produced a reasonably good  stand. I'd like to have a look at them and learn a little about their history. 

I am not implying that there are none, but it has been my observation that such seeding rarely produces a satisfactory stand, and is potentially infeasible due to the quantity of seed required and the potential for adverse effects on native stands used for collection sites.* I would like to know what the best ratio of seed to mature plants that has ever been achieved is. For example, a bunchgrass that counts at about 160,000 seeds per pound should produce how many plants per acre? Given the best survivorship curve that results in a stand that increases rather than decreases, how many pounds of seed per acre would be required? How many plants per acre are optimal for a stable stand population? How many acres would be seeded? What would be the effects of seed collection on the native stands from which the seeds are harvested? Should seed collections be limited on native stands? If commercial growers are growing native bunchgrass seed as a crop, what is the annual production? How would that compare with the number of acres to be seeded? What method of seeding is envisioned? What are the habitat requirements and characteristics of successfully seeded stands? What are the specific objectives of the program (e.g., number of grass plants per acre, number of other species per acre)? 

I am all for restoring the indigenous grasslands, but I am interested in how well the proposed program's numbers compare to the objective and the effects upon native stand reproduction when wildland collections are the source of seed. I do not object to wild seed collecting unless it is so severe that it limits natural stand replacement and/or natural dispersal into nearby degraded habitats. I am concerned that large-scale seed collection could backfire on the native seed collection industry if, for example, and EIR had to be filed for each collection site or operation. I believe there are more efficient and effective ways to restore degraded native grasslands that are more feasible, practical, cost-effective, and environmentally sustainable than direct seeding. 

Thank you for answering my questions. I will appreciate all comments and answers. 

WT

*An interesting paper is An Analysis of Ecological Factors Limiting the Distribution of a Group of Stipa pulchra Associations Within the Foothill Woodland of California   (Robinson, R.H. 1968). PhD Thesis, University of Oklahoma

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Craig Dremann" <craig at astreet.com>
To: <rwg at lists.plantconservation.org>
Cc: <apwg at lists.plantconservation.org>
Sent: Monday, December 01, 2008 1:40 PM
Subject: [RWG] Wildland fires, exotics and replanting natives

> Dear All,
> 
> Wildland fires, exotics and replanting natives
> 
> While traveling to relatives for Thanksgiving, my wife Sue and I, took a
> side trip to do a northern and southern California severe drought
> survey, as we are entering a third year of drought, and looked at three
> fire areas at the edge of Los Angeles,  NW of downtown.
> 
> The Oct. 13-15 Porter Ranch (Sesnon) fire, that shut down the 118
> freeway and burned 14,700 acres, and you can see a photos linked on
> Google images, like the one at
> http://www.hubbuzz.com/images/cache/4d7d17be-7441-4b3c-a595-99d0015ba83f-1-Medium.png
> 
> My picture from Porter Ranch at
> http://www.ecoseeds.com/burned_shrubs.jpg, is were the burning embers
> were blow by the wind 1/4 mile from the fire, through the wrought-iron
> fence surrounding the parking lot for the city park, and the embers got
> lodged in the irrigated planted shrubs, and set the shrubs on fire.
> 
> And the Sylmar (Sayre Wildland) fire on November 15, burning 11,262
> acres in Los Angeles county, that you can see at
> http://laist.com/attachments/lindsayrebecca/SayreFireGrowing.jpg
> 
> Our Sylmar picture is at http://www.ecoseeds.com/burned_hillside.JPG
> 
> And the Santa Clarita (Church blaze) June 2005 fire,
> http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2277/1694122794_ce7b9543ba.jpg that was
> not replanted with any local native perennial bunchgrasses, and over the
> last three years, solid exotics have regrown.
> 
> In all of these areas, a perennial native bunchgrass understory should
> be sprouting up immediately after each of these fires, but since the
> native bunch grasses were grazed out over 100 years ago, the wildlands
> ecosystems are now extremely vulnerable to future fires.
> 
> Once a fire goes through the native shrublands, it opens up empty spaces
> for the extremely flammable annual European exotics to grow solidly,
> like what we saw on the west side of I-5 behind the 76 station in Santa
> Clarita.  The hillside burned in June 2005, and what a local told me,
> nothing was planted, and nothing grew on the burned slopes for two
> years.
> 
> Then this spring, the 2005 burned slope became completely solidly
> infested with exotic mustards.  My picture is at
> http://www.ecoseeds.com/burned_hillside.jpg and a close-up at
> http://www.ecoseeds.com/weeds_on_burned_hills.jpg
> 
> In the arid West, if we do not invest the money necessary for replant
> the missing perennial local native bunchgrasses, especially after
> wildland fires in California, the SW and the Great Basin, then by our
> negligence, we are allowing the exotics to move in and create even
> bigger and more severe wildfires in the future.
> 
> Any professional ecologist can go to where the western wildlands fires
> have occurred in the last decade, and see this conversion wherever the
> native bunchgrasses are missing from the local ecosystems, and see where
> the flammable annual exotics are gaining ground.
> 
> The difference in flammability between the bunchgrasses and some of the
> exotics, is that most native bunchgrasses only have the amount of
> flammable biomass per acre, as a single sheet of paper spread over the
> land, whereas the exotics are like putting out 500-1,000 gallons of
> gasoline per acre, that you can see at
> http://www.ecoseeds.com/flames.html
> 
> All of our public land managers in the arid West, should start asking
> Congress for adequate annual funds, to sowing  local perennial native
> bunchgrasses after every fire, to keep the flammable annual exotics from
> moving in.   We need a massive wildlands fire ecosystem restoration
> bailout.
> 
> Sincerely,  Craig Dremann, Redwood City, CA (650) 325-7333
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> PCA's Restoration Working Group mailing list
> RWG at lists.plantconservation.org
> http://lists.plantconservation.org/mailman/listinfo/rwg_lists.plantconservation.org

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