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<font size=3>Craig and Forums:<br><br>
Oops! I left out an "if" in the offending
paragraph. My tendency toward irony has got me into trouble
again. Note the "quotes." I quite agree with
you. I was referring to my own work, not yours. I meant that
"real" scientists don't like anything that varies from their
uptight version of what's "proper." I both agree and
disagree with them. Some, of course, are more perceptive. As
to 24K gold, it's in the eye of the holder. <br><br>
</font><font size=2>I have done some "barnyard" transects along
highways with a tape recorder keyed to mileposts and single species of
interest and general observations, but never got around to writing them
up; they're "worthless" as "real" scientific research
anyway. I hope you have, or will, set a standard of methodology so
others can take this up and the research will be repeatable and
statistically respectable. Even IF it ain't the latter, it should be
useful as a "changing mile" type record. <br><br>
</font><font size=3>You are an even bigger hero than I realized! I
offered to do a demonstration of the effectiveness of aerial photography
in mapping/tracking the "progress" of B. tournfortii a year or
two ago, but my offer was ignored by CAL-IPC and the state park official
I contacted. This true invader is popping up in a lot of small
populations that could be extirpated, but you can expect a continued
problem because it's distributed by vehicles. The idea behind the
areal survey is that you can map "progress" year-by-year and
are not restricted to the roads, as well as being more complete.
The best time is when the desert first "greens up" and the
dried mustard stems are still tan-colored. At least that's the
theory I wanted to test. The mustard does, however, exist in areas
where the it can't be surveyed that way (scattered stands and individuals
that remain green, such as in mesic areas), and good old-fashioned road-
or foot-work is essential. It's being dispersed along roadways, but
it's marching inexorably across the deserts, such as in Anza-Borrego
State Park. It travels slowly by itself, but when you add the tires
of off-road vehicles and yes, even the feet of desert lovers, its march
accelerates. <br><br>
Where are you depositing your records? Mine are just scribbled in
notebooks, squirreled away in some box somewhere. <br><br>
I hereby appoint (or is it anoint?) you King of the Megatransect and
authorize you to contact National Geographic. I know an
ecologist-photographer who works for them, and if you would like to put
together a good pitch, I'll ask him what he thinks of it the next time I
see him. Yes, it would wonderful to have a centralized integrated
system. Even if the points aren't random or perfectly regular, they
could accumulate over time. Preferably, however, there would be at
least some locations that would be pinned to solid locations like
mile-posts. Odometers simply are not accurate enough, and locating
photo points from photographs simply takes too much time and is subject
to inaccuracy. However, this is where standardization of procedures
could help a lot. <br><br>
WT<br><br>
<br>
At 03:16 PM 9/15/2006, Craig Dremann wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Dear Wayne and All,<br><br>
Thanks for your email. <br><br>
NEVER, EVER consider that any ecological transect, especially a<br>
Megatransect that can be retraced to particular geographic points,
is<br>
ever worthless--actually it's worth its weight in 24K gold, because
it<br>
may be the only record that exists for that area, at that time.<br><br>
For example, last year I drove 10,000 miles to map over 1,900 miles
of<br>
the California desert's roadsides, for the occurrance of a new weed,
the<br>
Sahara mustard, Brassica tournefortii, that is rapidly taking over
the<br>
roadsides of the arid West---you can see some examples of those<br>
mile-by-mile transects marked with a "+" sign, linked to <br>
<a href="http://www.ecoseeds.com/mustards.contents.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.ecoseeds.com/mustards.contents.html</a><br><br>
In the 2005 California Desert Megatransect I was looking for that
exotic<br>
mustard, plus noting where there were good examples of the pristine<br>
native ecosystem, at every post mile on the highways. <br><br>
Where there were no post miles along the roads, like along the Old
US<br>
Route 66, I used odometer miles, and also linked the data to highway<br>
junctions, towns, etc. <br><br>
In the 1997 Great Basin/Rockies Megatransect I was looking for
native<br>
grasses, exotic grasses, and the general ecological conditions that
I<br>
encountered at every odometer mile-point, and the data is also
linked<br>
with Post Miles on the highways, highway junctions, towns, etc.<br><br>
For the various North American Roadside Megatransect<br>
ecological-conditions data, that investigators around the country
might<br>
be able to accumulate, wouldn't it be nice to have a central place
to<br>
eventually store all this great roadside information? <br><br>
If you search at
<a href="http://www.google.com/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.google.com</a> for "megatransect" you will see<br>
that National Geographic has sponsored at least three Ecological<br>
Megatransects in Africa---so why should our fine and beautiful
continent<br>
of North America be left out of the fun?<br><br>
Sincerely, Craig Dremann, Redwood City, CA (650)
325-7333</font></blockquote></body>
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