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<font size=3>Good for you! <br><br>
In her 1964 book, <b>Trees and Shrubs of the Witwatersrand</b>, Barbara
Jeppe reported that she had to resort to graveyards to find many South
African plants. <br><br>
Are you more formally reporting your results and methods? <br><br>
WT<br><br>
At 03:51 PM 9/14/2006, Craig Dremann wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Dear All,<br><br>
Regarding Native Plant Conservation, and the importance of Roadside<br>
Refugia---plus the impacts of weeds on those refugia, especially
weeds<br>
intentionally sown by State DOTs---here's the second part of the
Nevada<br>
portion of my 1997 Megatransect: <br><br>
US 93 and US 6, total miles 444<br>
Jackpot NV to Wells to Ely to Warm Springs to Tonopah to Cal.
border<br><br>
NATIVE GRASSES ABSENT = 196 miles (44%), <br>
---Native grasses should have be present in 180 of those miles.<br>
TOWNS, riparian, playas, lava = 17 (3.8%)<br>
CHEATGRASS = 37 (8.3%)<br>
CRESTED WHEATGRASS sown along roadside by DOT = 26 (5.8%)<br><br>
NATIVE GRASSES PRESENT = 248 miles (55.8%)<br>
Oryzopsis found only within R/W = 84 (19%)<br>
Oryzopsis on other side of fence = 48 (11%)<br>
Oryzopsis solid prairies = 6 (1.3%)<br>
Hilaria grasslands = 22 (4.9%)<br>
Mixed native grasses, Stipa, Poa etc.= 59 (13.2%)<br>
Great Basin Wild Rye, found only within R/W = 13 (2.9%)<br>
Great Basin outside of R/W = 21 (4.7%)<br>
Great Basin Wild Rye solid beautiful prairies = 7 (1.5%)<br><br>
You can see for two of the native grasses, the roadside fences and
thin<br>
strips of the Federal highway right-of-ways, were protecting nearly
100<br>
miles of the only remaining stands of grasses, that used to occur<br>
abundantly in those areas. <br><br>
I think that everyone will agree, when Roadside Megatransects are
done<br>
across the United States in many of the other States, we will begin
to<br>
see clearly, how important and to what degree roadside right-of-ways
are<br>
the last safe harbor and refugia for many of the local native
perennial<br>
grasses, native herbaceous perennials, and native insect nectar
plants?<br><br>
Sincerely, Craig Dremann, Redwood City, CA (650) 325-7333<br><br>
_______________________________________________<br>
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RWG@lists.plantconservation.org<br>
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