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

Tue Oct 18 15:34:38 CDT 2011

Dear Craig et. al.,

	Yes. The 50,000 acres are a legislatively designated (New York State)  
"core" pine barrens preserved area, carved out of an original 100,000  
pine barrens area, the rest of which, sadly enough, became a  
"CGA" (Compatible Growth Area). Although 100,000 acres sounds large,  
it actually excluded thousands other areas of true pine barrens on  
Long Island.

	The fifty thousand acre Core is in remarkably good original  
condition, minus a few inholdings here and there. Further, even when  
highly disturbed, this barrens ecosystem has a remarkable ability to  
return to the original. Witness a 100-acre portion of a 150-acre site  
destined to become a regional mall. An environmental group, The Open  
Space Council, stopped the project through the courts a couple of  
decades ago, but the developer, one of Long Island's biggest, even  
knowing that his case was in the Appellate Court, flagrantly bulldozed  
down one hundred acres of it. Mercifully he did not remove any of the  
soils so what we have is a perfect laboratory. The entire site has  
returned to a 99.9% native pine barrens over the past twenty years  
and, despite the abundance of invasives everywhere on the Island, none  
have gotten a toehold onto the site except in the barest of spots  
along the edges. It may be the high acidity of the soil environment or  
other reasons, but something in the pine barrens negotiates toward the  
original.

	I have discussed with the Pine Barrens Commission, having  
jurisdiction over the legislated lands, when there is a vegetation  
violation or a site restoration needed, to allow pine barrens sites to  
restore themselves by simply removing all non-natives under the  
watchful eye of an agent or ecologist knowledgeable about plant  
species, or a policy to at least do so. This would be an alternative  
to requiring plantings, which are expensive, fossil fuel demanding,  
and often an ecological disaster. There is still much work to be done.

	Also, I should mention, I am about to publish a book on LI native  
plants which has a sizable section and emphasis on restoration ecology  
the way it should be done: by planting nothing and using knowledgeable  
techniques to insure habitat self-restoration. I call the effort "The  
Challenge" and already have a surprising number of individual  
homeowners, businesses, agencies, NGOs, and municipalities who are  
taking the Challenge by designating part of their gardens, properties  
and preserves for habitat self-restoration under their own careful eye  
after training by my program. We will soon have a tracery of landscape  
weavings connecting one another to regional forests and fields of  
local genotypes derived from their own adaptation and competition, a  
veritable re-connected tableau. Possibly even connecting the network  
of ninety-nine percenters?

	If you get the 99% biota preserves going, we may even have a program  
for the connectors well in place -- at least on Long Island. We should  
stay in touch; I may want to publish the 99% solution concept in the  
book. We have time. I am looking at an early 2012 date.

Karen

Karen Blumer
Author, LI Native Plants for Landscaping: A Source Book
    2011 -- make that 2012! -- Revision

Growing Wild Publications
15 Dickerson Drive
Shoreham, NY 11786
631-821-3337
growingwild at optonline.net

On Oct 17, 2011, at 10:14 PM, Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed  
Company wrote:

> 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
>
>
>
>
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