[IMCWMA Partners] [MCWMA Partners] supplemental proposal

Mon Jul 14 19:58:17 MDT 2008

Hi Tara,

Thanks for sending Lauren Johnson's informative response.  I would also add that collecting local native seed adjacent to the fire lines (e.g. Elymus glaucus) and broadcasting it on the bulldozer lines can be an effective means of getting natives reestablished.  Although I've been told that BAER will not fund this work as part of fire line rehab, I'd argue that this approach may be the most appropriate in some areas (e.g. at one area of Montgomery Woods State Reserve), and less costly than applying straw.  Other thoughts?

Regards,
Renee

Renee Pasquinelli
Senior Environmental Scientist
Mendocino District
California State Parks
P.O. Box 440
Mendocino, CA  95460
(707) 937-5721
(707) 937-2953 fax

________________________________

From: partners-bounces at mcwma.org on behalf of Tara Athan
Sent: Mon 7/14/2008 5:49 PM
To: IMCWMA partners
Subject: Re: [MCWMA Partners] [IMCWMA Partners] supplemental proposal

Here is a response from Lauren Johnson that didn't get into the mailing
list.

The Forest Service is a minor player in the Mendocino Co. fires (making up
for it everywhere else!), but I thought I'd share how we approach the weed
issue. There are three basic scenarios - new invasive species introduced by
out-of-area fire suppression equipment, existing species expanding into
habitat created by suppression activities, and new or existing species
spreading into habitat created by the fire (or post-fire soil movement)
itself.

The BAER (Burned Area Emergency Response) Team focuses heavily on fire
effects on soils and possible extreme threats to human life and safety and
sensitive species, resources, and habitats due to erosion events. Our
suppression rehab focuses on preventing soil erosion from firelines.
There's generally no weed treatment or surveys associated with it (though I
am currently looking at treating French broom where firefighters have been
camped for the last month - go figure. Personalities DO get involved!).

The BAER Team's goal for invasives is rapid detection and early response,
in order to prevent serious ecological damage due to fire-related weed
expansion.  BAER can fund up to three years of surveys, depending on what
you find and if it's treated. BAER is generally focused on federal lands.
One thing we are learning is that mulching with CERTIFIED WEED-SEED-FREE
straw or "wood straw" is more effective at controlling soil erosion than
seeding. It also gets us around the issue of seed genotypes and
accidentally planting invasives.  It's amazing how much native seed
survives even hot fires, so if you can keep the weeds out and the soil on
the slope, you start seeing decent natural reveg in a couple years.  Wait a
couple years to decide if assisted revegetation is warranted.  This may not
be possible where aesthetics are a high value, such as in a park.

You all already know that where high intensity fires create many acres of
bare mineral soil with little or no overhead vegetative canopy to provide
shade, there is the potential for explosive infestation by invasive plants.
This is particularly true when there were already small populations of
invasives scattered about.  I have seen a handful of tiny bull thistle and
Dalmatian toadflax infestations expand to cover a couple thousand acres in
four years. The bull thistle had been introduced 20 years earlier in a seed
mix for revegetating timber sale projects.  No one thinks of bull thistle
as a particularly nasty weed, but when it jumps into new habitat ahead of
the natives, it can be a serious competitor and retard development of
natives. So, I recommend prioritizing surveying the hottest parts of the
fires for weeds when you know invasives where already present in the area.
Another high priority is areas that get covered by landslides / debris
flows that occur later, when the denuded, de-stabilized soils collapse and
flow over lands that weren't originally denuded by the fires.
Unfortunately, you won't know where these are until they actually occur.
The other invasive survey we routinely do is of dozer lines and safety
zones.  These are extremely disturbed sites and are your vectors into
previously "clean" areas.  I think expecting to look at 10 miles of line a
day is overly-optimistic. You are generally in steep, rough land, climbing
over fallen trees. Maybe five miles. Drive time to remote sites can eat up
a lot of the work-day.  We try to survey twice during each growing season,
in order to better detect both early and late season species. Prioritize
surveys of areas close to known weed populations, close to rare species and
their habitats, and close to water.  It's impossible to look at everything,
so focus on protecting your most vulnerable resources and the most likely
sites of introduction and spread.   Perhaps I've just been lucky, but I've
never worked on a fire where new species of invasives were introduced by
fire-fighting equipment. But it certainly can directly or indirectly spread
existing ones around!

I second Lynn's suggestion to use some of the WMA's resources to guide
landowners toward appropriate seed sources and sustainable (fire-safe,
fire-resilient) landscaping and re-vegetation.

Lauren W. Johnson
Forest Botanist
Mendocino National Forest
825 N. Humboldt Ave., Willows, CA 95988
Ph: 530-934-1153
FAX: 530-934-7384
laurenjohnson at fs.fed.us

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Thank you.

Tara Athan
Coordinator, Inland Mendocino Cooperative Weed Management Area
coord [AT] imcwma.org
707-485-1198
PO Box 415
Redwood Valley, CA 95470

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