Check
the history of the site and the area. A weedy cow pasture may
have originally been a redwood forest, shadscale scrub community
or even a salt marsh. If there are no native plants left on the
site, start a botanical sweep of the area looking for remaining
native plants to figure out what was originally there. Historical
memories of some of the areas residents can be very useful.
Whatever the site was before we showed up and screwed it up is
the target of the restoration. It really doesn't matter that no
native plants have been on the site since 1840, if the site was
coastal sage scrub, that will be the easiest plant community to
restore to.
Question the botanical survey. These
lists can be a crime in themselves. Many are generated from an
office in a distant city, with no botanist coming within 50 miles
of the project. Some 'botanical' surveys' only look at what is on
the project site. There should be two lists, one on the site, one
from the surrounding area. The surrounding area needs only needs
to include the nearest intact native plant community that mirrors
the site. Some of the 'botanists' are completely unqualified,
with either no experience and/or no science degree. An old fart
with no degree but tons of experience and knowledge of the local
flora is sometimes better than a PhD from Nebraska, but a
combination of degree and experience is preferred.
Do not assume anything before the
botanical survey of the AREA is complete. The plant lists for
the project should be generated off of the AREA species list.
Your project may be a bald field, parking lot, feed lot, etc.,
but the same slope, aspect and soil a half mile away may be a
complete chaparral or coastal sage scrub community. Rebuilding
the plant community for the site should be the target for the
project, not the individual rare species. The rare species are
supported by the plant community.
Are
there multiple soils and different aspects on the same site?
Multiple plant communities? Riparian and desert? Just because
there is a healthy riparian corridor near the bottom of the hill
doesn't mean it should go on the top of the hill.
How will the alien species be
controlled? How will the weeds debris be removed? Can a roll
off from the waste hauler be used? If weeds cannot be controlled
and the debris removed, forget the restoration. The site will
return to weeds and the money will be wasted. Leaving weeds will
shift your site from a healthy ecosystem to a weedy field.
Leaving the weeds is like giving your plant community HIV. For
more info see simple
restoration. (Burning is not a solution for removing debris;
remember disturbance and fertility favor weeds (ruderals),
not healthy ecosystems. In an already weedy area burning will
just make more weeds.)
Timing is important. Planting
schedules, growing schedules and weed control all need to be
planned out well before the first shovel of dirt is dug.
Can site specific plants be grown for
the project? Are there any plants at all, anywhere grown that
can be used for the project? The closer to the site the better.
Plant community specific plants will have much higher success
rates. Wildlife isn't to particular. In most cases they will
recognize and use the plants if you are close in plant material.
Do not specify weird, rare and endangered plants and expect to
find 10,000 of them in a specific month at K mart. Weird, site
specific plants do not sell well and are generally only contract
grown. Some need a lead time of two or three years to even grow a
few, never mind 10,000.
Does
the project need irrigation?
Drip is a problem for most natives. Overhead irrigation
encourages weeds. Truck watering is very expensive. The more site
specific the plant material, the higher the success rates, and
the less water is required. If the planting can be timed for
winter planting, the water needs drop dramatically. It is counter
intuitive that more plants result in less water, but the weeds
are the problem. The more weeds left in place and allowed to
grow, the lower the yields and the higher the maintenance and
water requirements.
Double
plant all sites. Plant a full planting of secondary pioneers
along with a full planting of the climax species for the
restoration site. You will have very low survival rates if you
plant climax species in a weedy area. You need the pioneer
species to establish the plant community and give a foot hold for
the climax species.
For a successful restoration you'll
need about 4000 plants per acre. One hundred plants per acre
are a complete waste of time and money. They become a weed patch
every time. As little as a 1000 plants per acre can work if there
is some plant community left and there is monthly maintenance
preformed on the project. The more sensitive the area, the more
restrictive the herbicide use will be, and the more plants are
required. This is not optional. The three year costs range from
$25,000 per acre for a dream site to $100,000 plus per acre for a
nightmare site. If you do not have the budget, downsize the area!
$5000 is sufficient about a city lot, not 20 acres.
Do not blade off all of the rare and
endangered plants from a site and call us a year later expecting
to find 6000 of the plants! DUH!
Do not amend or fertilize a restoration
site. You do this for a vegetable garden not for native
plants. You will have lots of dead natives and lots more happy
weeds. See
amendments.
Grasslands are for buffaloes. Most
areas of California should not be planted in grasses. See
Grassland
plant community.
Learn
about herbicides, or better yet, bring in a knowledgeable PCA to
be part of the team. Herbicides can be very effective in
restoring a site, planting densities can be lower if the proper
herbicides are use. On the other hand, the whole planting can die
and the water courses can become polluted with the wrong
herbicide on the wrong plant in the wrong area. Some herbicides
kill only grasses, some thistles and lupines, some germinating
seeds(largely weeds) and some everything. Once you get the easy
weeds controlled, the planted plants up, then the challenge is to
get rid of the problem weeds. Using herbicides also minimize soil
disturbance and is highly preferable to hoeing, tilling, scraping
or any of the other crazy things people try to do to get rid of
weeds. Remember there are good organisms in the soil that you
don't want to kill or disturb. Also don't forget there is usually
a huge seed bank of weed seeds. They will be back next year
unless you deter them with mulch or preemergents or both.
More info on herbicides and weeds.
Veldt
grass and pampas grass have to be controlled!
Sometimes, not often, but sometimes,
grazing can help. If the project is hundreds of acres, and
mostly grass weeds, a hard pulse of grazing can remove a great
deal weeds and their litter. If there are any natives on the site
try to graze around them. This can be very effective in
increasing native bunch grass populations.
Hydroseeding sucks. Hydroseeding
almost never works, and usually is a weedy mess with erosion
problems.
Wildflowers, poppies and lupines can be
used to make the site pretty, but plants are usually
required. They are no competition for invasive weed species. They
also don't have very deep root systems for managing erosion.
Mycorrhizal inoculum has little science
behind it. If the plant community is planted back, mycorrhiza
will reestablish as the plants grow. You can't sprinkle fungi on
a weed and expect it to become a native plant. It is still a
weed. If it looks like magic, better get some more information.
More on Mycorrhiza
What
a restoration should look like
Coastal
Prairie
Coastal
Sage Scrub
Chaparral/
Woodland
Serpentine
Wetland
Riparian
