[RWG] LI pine barrens preserved? Do not worry about checkerboard

[Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed Company]

Dear Karen and All,

So are the 50,000 acres of pine barrens preserved yet?  I am loving to
hear about these places, so next time I am back East, I can go and visit.
We need to have a web page with all these areas mapped for each State?

I am going to our next San Mateo County Weed management area meeting,
where all the local public land managers gather to talk about weeds every
couple of months, and suggest that we carve out these 100 acres pieces
locally to restore to 99% native plant cover in the next five years.

For example, developers made a promise 30 years ago, to restore some
Endanegered butterfly habitats in the very first Habitat Conservation Plan
in our county, in exchange for destroying butterfly habitats--with not a
single acre restored so far.  Wherever promises have been made, like for
environmental mitigiation, might be the easiest 100 acres to snag to begin
the preservation and restoration process.

Also, I am contacting our State Native Plant Society and our State Fish
and Game Heritage program, to see what they think about the possibility of
100 acre preserves every 15 miles thoughout California.  Since land values
are continuing to go down, and the ultra wealthy families always need tax
writeoffs, this may be the best time to get started on this process.

Perhaps nationwide, we could start to get 100 acres every 200 miles, and
get those areas back to 99% native cover, then move in closer and closer,
like every 100 miles, then every 30 miles, then finally at least every 15
miles?

We should not worry so much if the first cut of these new 99% biota
preserves may look checkerboard at first--it is much more important to
snag the last good examples of the local ecosystems within each 15 minute
USGS quad. (15 x 15 miles) while these resources are still here.

I have put this idea on my web server at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/99percent.html

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333