[RWG] Monterey Nov.14-15 Invasive Weed symposium+field trip

[Craig Dremann]

Dear All,

The Monterey California Invasive Weed Symposium will be on Friday Nov.
14th, and there will be a field trip ton Saturday Nov. 15th, to see the
74 acre Shaw property near Santa Cruz,  that has been converted from 99%
weed cover, back to 99% native plant cover.

The plant list for the Shaw property, can be downloaded as an Excel
file, at http://www.ecoseeds.com/shaw_plantlist.XLS

The information, agenda and registration for the symposium is at
http://invasiveweedsymposium2008.eventbrite.com

No burning, grazing or seeding was used to do this conversion---the
dormant native
seeds sprouted out of the soil seedbank, once the weeds were intensively
mowed for several years.

Also, two new species of native plants sprouted up, that are new to
science, and have not been named or botanically described yet.

Also a very rare native grass sprouted up, that had only been collected
six times in Santa Cruz county in the last 100 years, the Hystrix or
California Bottlebrush grass.

I hope some of the readers of this mail list , who are working on native
plant restoration or weed management, can come to experience what a
weed-free California native understory has the potential to look like.
It is like getting into a time machine, and walking on the land 300
years ago.

I will be speaking at the symposium, Friday afternoon of the 14th about
this project, as a preview of the Saturday field trip.

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