[RWG] 98% of NM native grass species may go extinct in next 100 years 100years

[Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed Company]

Dear Wayne and All,

Thanks for your email.  What I am suggesting for New Mexico also goes for
the arid western grasslands, including California, the Southwest and the
Great Basin.  I am suggesting a survey to see if your grassland biome is
reproducing or not.   It is very simple to conduct a 100-plant transect in
a small area and measure basal diameter of plants, to see if the
population is all plants that are not reproducing, or if you see some
young ones around.  You can read details at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/extinct.html.

My 1997 Megatransect survey of the Great Basin from California to South
Dakota and back, at http://www.ecoseeds.com/megatransect.html--except for
Yellowstone NP, each state that I did the survey through had less than 50%
of its native grass cover left.  California=<1%, Colorado=44%, South
Dakota=43%, Wyoming=40%, Nevada=34%, Utah=32%, Idaho=6% for the areas
surveyed.

Also the native grass surveys that I have done on the East Coast, much
less than 50% is left of forest understory of the native non-riparian
grass species, maybe 1-5% overall.

I see this dwindling native grass resource similar to the Passenger
pigeons, as if we were living in the mid-1800s and someone reported that a
State had done a survey and found that only 44% of the original Passenger
pigeon population was left, compared to say 1790.

If you find that your grasslands are dwindling in percentage cover, then
on top of that not reproducing, then your biome is in very, very bad
trouble for future survival.

Part-two of the easy grassland method can then be used to see if it is a
soil nutrient problem that is stopping reproduction.  You take some of the
bare soil from around the old grass plants, where seedlings should be
growing, and plant some of those same native grass seeds in two
containers, and see what the soil needs by adding fertilizers to one and
not the other, like you can see at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/good.example.html.

If public grassland grazing management agencies like BLM and the USFS that
manage millions of acres and military bases that allow grazing, went out
and checked their grasslands--at a minimum to check for reproduction--I
believe there would be a huge surprise at what is going on in our public
grasslands, and then what it will take to get them to reproduce again.

I first did this basal-diameter survey method with BLM in the California
deserts in Susanville and in Barstow over a decade ago, and am confident
that surveys of our other public grasslands will show an interesting
perspective on grassland management and help us see what the possibilities
are for their survival into the future.

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333