[RWG] Ecosystem Restoration Management Grasses and grasslands Seeding Planting 090116 Re: [APWG] Wildland fires, exotics and replanting natives

[Wayne Tyson]

Ecosystem Restoration  Management  Grasses and grasslands  Seeding  Planting 
090116



I had missed this email somehow, but found by accident it sorting for 
subject; that's why I try to use subject headings that begin with the 
general category followed by increasingly subordinate ones. If I fail to 
respond in the future I am probably dead, traveling over the West someplace, 
or overlooked the email in the tsunami of spam. It is always my policy to 
respond to any response to my posts, so just hit me with another email once 
a month; If I don't respond after 6 months, I'm probably pushing up 
(hopefully indigenous) daisies.



I am in almost complete agreement with Dremann's statements and can't 
overemphasize its importance. I have added some [[notes  WT]] to his text, 
and hope that he will spread his message much more widely. I hope others 
will add more notes.



WT



----- Original Message ----- 

From: "Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed Company" <Craig at astreet.com>

To: <rwg at lists.plantconservation.org>

Cc: <apwg at lists.plantconservation.org>

Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 2:41 PM

Subject: [APWG] Wildland fires, exotics and replanting natives



> Dear Wayne and All,
>
> Thanks for your email.
>
> With the increase of major wildlands fires in California, especially the
> cities that back up against the wildlands, management of the wildlands
> vegetation for fire is on the agenda this fall, and draft plans are
> starting to be written.
>
> 150 years ago,  the Nassella pulchra that you mentioned, was one of the
> most widespread perennial bunchgrasses in California---so much so, that
> there is a field of Nassella on our state flag, underneath the Grizzly
> bear.  It is also our State Grass.
>
> The Nassella pulchra (Purple Needlegrass) planting that is the easiest to
> visit, is the Caltrans/UC Davis test plots along I-505 in the Sacramento
> Valley, and you can get the map, and see photos of the history of the
> sowing and planting of the test plots on my web page at
> http://www.ecoseeds.com/road.test.html
>
> I hope that all the botanists, ecologists and ecological restorationists
> on these two email lists, will also agree, that the massive amount of
> extremely flammable biomass of exotics in California and the arid West,
> needs to be converted back [[I prefer "restored," but I won't quibble; the 
> important thing is to do it.]] to the very low flammable biomass [[This 
> point needs emphasis too-especially to fire officials, other public policy 
> makers. WT]] of the
> original natives, like what I show at http://www.ecoseeds.com/flames.html
> ?
>
> The good part of the story, is that California has at least 300 species of
> native perennial grasses, plus hundreds of species of native perennial
> herbaceous plants, [[and annual grasses and forbs WT]] which are also 
> critical in holding together the native
> understory, as much as the bunchgrasses are. [[There are some very 
> important rhizomatous grasses too, though many have been extirpated in 
> most places; one can find a few small stands that once carpeted 
> California. WT]]  Some species actually help
> snuff out the fires in the summer. [[YES! And the importance of indigenous 
> grasses and their associates in the soil water budget (directly related to 
> flammability) is often overlooked. Some ecologists are not very well aware 
> of the importance of infiltration capacity, permeability and percolation, 
> groundwater recharge, and streamflow; I hope this will change as you 
> continue to advance your cause. WT]]
>
> Every part of the West has their own set of useful native species, that
> could be replanted to convert areas, from exotics back to natives. [[This 
> is a central point that needs to be emphasized again and again. This is a 
> case of something that everybody thinks they "know," but it doesn't happen 
> widely enough. The "choir" needs to be "preached" to (but one must be 
> careful not to be preachy), and there needs to be a HUGE public 
> information program. Any "revegetation" or "landscape" professional should 
> ALWAYS consider plants that are genetically matched to the site (micro- or 
> macro-), but this crucial message is too often lost in favor the plant one 
> favors most rather than the plant (genetic characteristics) that thousands 
> of years of ecological field trials have demonstrated as the most 
> efficacious and efficient-and, most important to the "practical" mind, 
> ECONOMICAL. The key is doing it Nature's way, not [hu]man's way, as with 
> irrigation and fertilization and "maintenance." WT]] The
> Southwest has its own group of perennial native species, and the Great
> Basin has its groups of useful natives, and the deserts have their species
> of natives that could be resown, [[I always prefer seed and seedlings to 
> any sort of asexually propagated plant, but have planted a lot of them for 
> reasons I won't detail here to save space. WT]] etc.
>
> I am not talking about replanting grasslands per se, but replanting the
> native understory, especially underneath and between the shrubs.  That
> way, the perennial grasses can increease the space between the shrubs, and
> make the shrublands less flammable. [[Well, I'm not sure I'm in full 
> agreement here, but would like to hear more about the 
> theoretical/empirical foundations for this conclusion. I would agree that 
> well-developed grassland associations are significantly resistant to shrub 
> colonization, however, and that shrub-tree seedling predation by wildlife 
> and VERY selective burning (NOT in shrublands, however) can be used, as 
> can the stimulation and maintenance of browser populations. However these 
> last two are subject to human opportunism and can be cynically used as a 
> front for ill-informed burning and livestock grazing. I similarly fear 
> that making the argument that such management will reduce wildand fire 
> hazards plays into the hands of the "burn the brush" proponents. The 
> primary problem with wildland fire is that many people, even some 
> professionals, do not understand the nature of the burning process 
> particularly with respect to wind and windblown burning material such as 
> "embers." Most people intuitively think that all the hazard is in the 
> "brush" and the flame front (radiation as a source of structure ignition). 
> This leads to campaigns to burn large acreages of "brush" and the 
> invasion/spread of alien plants. WT]]
>
> To show when perennial native grasses are removed from an arid western
> ecosystem, in less than 100 years, see Dr. Robert Humphry SW pics at
> http://www.ecoseeds.com/desertgrass.html ---it is quite dramatic!
>
> I have been doing this work for 35 years, but it took about 25 years of
> test plots, and thousands and thousands of transect measurements,  plus
> the inventing of useful ecological restoration technologies, to be able
> achieve any successful understory plantings, that would be resistant to
> the weeds here in California. [[Hell, it took me 15 years just to get the 
> right idea, and after over 40 years I ain't done learning yet. WT]]
>
> My major concern about these massive wildlands fires here in the
> West---Are we going to lose what is left of the native understory, when
> the exotics move in after fires, and suppress the germination and growth
> of the local natives? [[There may have been too much fire suppression in 
> forest lands, but shrubland burning is dangerously misguided. WT]]
>
> You can see how vulnerable in the West to this eventual conversion to
> exotics, at http://www.ecoseeds.com/megatransect.html [[First, the causal 
> factors have to be removed. Much of the west is so cow-burnt that there 
> are more cow-pies than feed in thousands of acres of "pasture." This is 
> bad for the livestock operators and bad for the ecosystems impacted by 
> this insane practice (what makes it feasible is that small operators have 
> to compete with heavily subsidized large operators). WT]]
>
> To answer some of the details of your questions, I have made up a web page
> that give a basic outline, of what needs to be done, to do successful,
> weed-free ecological restoration, at
> http://www.ecoseeds.com/standards.html
>
> I taught this basic outline, in workshops to the Forest Service and BLM in
> eight western states, that you can see at
> http://www.ecoseeds.com/classes.html and the focus of the workshops were
> the steps to take, on how to use local native seeds, instead of exotics
> like annual rye, crested wheatgrass, smooth brome, etc. [[The Forest 
> Service has long recognized the importance of ecotypes in "reforestation," 
> so it's "incredible" that they have to be taught that the same principle 
> hold true for other vegetation. WT]]
>
> The picture of the people attending one of my workshops, taken near Bend,
> Oregon shows exactly what I am talking about.  That area of the National
> Forest burned the year before, but there was a significant native grass
> understory in the area, so that the next year, the burned area was covered
> with native grasses.
>
> BASIC OUTLINE:
>
> 1.) SURVEY FOR RELIC STANDS of the native understory in the area that you
> are going to replant, the bunchgrasses and herbaceous perennials, and
> collect seed for test plots.  In a fire-prone area like Southern
> California, fires occur at regular intervals in certain areas, so those
> areas would be the first to survey.
>
> 2.) PROTECT THE RELIC STANDS because you need them for two purposes--as a
> local seed source, and as a model for how the local ecosystem-puzzle is
> put back together.
>
> 3.) PLANT LOTS OF TINY TEST PLOTS, and keep planting until you can achieve
> a self-sustaining native understory that is 99% weed free.  This is the
> most important step in the process. [[I tried to sell this idea for 
> large-scale restoration to a CA agency in 1980, but they thought I was 
> crazy. I demonstrated it with test plots, made "permanent" by burying 
> rebar markers. WT]]  See
> http://www.ecoseeds.com/greatbasin.html
>
> 4.) GROW OUT the locally collected native seeds, under contract with
> commercial seed growers.  One pound of hand-collected bunchgrass seed,
> will produce 100 pounds of seed in one year, and then if that seed is
> planted, the second year you get 10,000 pounds, a million pounds the third
> year, etc.   Native seeds bulk up very rapidly. [[I quite agree. Dick Vogl 
> emphasized transitional uses, and there is no reason why the development 
> of indigenous grassland "farms" could not be used as an economic incentive 
> for restoration. WT]]
>
> Getting back to the beginning, you mentioned all sorts of other reasons
> why replanting the understory will be good for the environment, improve
> water quality after fires, etc.
>
> Also, the bunchgrasses will be good for wildlife because they regrow
> immediately after the fire, and can also help control landslides during
> the rainy season [[See my previous remarks about the hydrologic cycle. 
> Alien annual stands induce slope failures. WT]], because there will still 
> be live roots holding the soil. [[I quite agree! However, while 
>  "anchoring" roots are not an insignificant part of the equation, the 
> permeability that roots create to significant depths (alien annuals tend 
> to be shallower-rooted) is perhaps an even more significant factor-the 
> accumulation of free water in the upper profile is the major factor in 
> slope failures, and the shear line commonly correlates with the root zone. 
> WT]]
>
> What we need to do, is come to the conclusion as a society, that
> replanting the natives is a priority, to protect and convert the
> understory away from exotics, at least to protect our homes, and so we can
> keep the arid western native ecosystems going into the future. [[Well, I 
> certainly agree, but the "protection" afforded by the altered burning 
> characteristics of shrublands more than 30 to perhaps no more than 100 
> feet from structures is minimally-relevant to structure ignition. WT]]
>
> Sincerely, Craig Dremann, Redwood City, CA (650) 325-7333
>
>
>
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>
> Disclaimer
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> opinion of the individual posting the message.


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