"PHASE
ONE - INTRODUCTION TO THE SUCCESSFUL USES of LOCAL NATIVE PLANTS
for REVEGETATION by COUNTIES, LOCAL AGENCIES and NATIVE PLANT
ENTHUSIASTS"
Workshops were conducted
for several of the districts in Caltrans and the Delaware Dept.
of Transportation in 2000, plus the Bureau of Land Management
in 2001, to raise the understanding of roadside vegetation practices,
specifically how to manage and utilize local native plants.
Once a public land
management or highway management agency can obtain their own local
native seeds, a major part of the workshop was to outline a process
to successfully get those seed established.
Prior to each workshop,
participants were asked to submit their top-10 list of questions
they wanted answered about the use of native plants, and those
questions were incorporated into the agenda if possible. You can
read the compiled lists of participant's requested agenda items
linked to each workshop, below.
The core of the classwork was to discuss 14 Exercises and answer
the questions posed by the pictures in each Exercise. The pictures
and questions from the workshop are shown below. Each participants
received a certificate at the completion of the workshop.
A training session with Craig Dremann, research
director and co-owner of The Reveg Edge, a
private outside-training company, experienced with native plants
since 1972, Box 609, Redwood City, CA 94064 (650) 325-7333
Copyright © 2000 by Craig C.
Dremann, all rights reserved.
Grindelia............California poppy...Foothills needlegrass
Perennial Cal. natives that stay green all summer without
irrigation, and don't require mowing.
Drawing from Abrams' Illustrated Flora of the Pacific States,
Stanford Univ. Press. Color by Photoshop.
One day training session is brought to your
location:
The workshop opens with a basic outline of how to
get started with local native plants, and part of the afternoon
session is out in the field. Workshop generally runs 9 AM to 4
PM, unless otherwise noted. The agenda covers what is listed below,
and the final agenda will include items requested by the participants:
-- LOCAL NATIVE PLANTS have something useful for everyone:
-- WHAT ARE local native plants, colonizers, seed transfer zones
and ecotypes?
-- EVALUATING different native species in the field for your various
purposes.
-- LOCAL SEED sources: how to protect for the future and utilize
them.
-- TEST PLOTS: their value in making every project a success in
less than one year.
-- MIXES, hydroseeding, and other methods of installation and
materials to utilize.
PARTICIPANTS please >>> complete the SURVEY <<<
as your survey results are used to form the final agenda
for the workshop.
(All the participant agenda survey results can be found linked
to the workshops listed below).
NEW>>>ALL PARTICIPANTS please check these web pages
below
and prepare your answers to the following exercises for the class:
(click links to see each exercise individually and print off)
Exercise
One:
Landscaping with one gallon container stock of native bunchgrass:
Failed, why?
Exercise
Two:
Direct sowing with natives: Immediate failure and success, why?
Exercise
Three:
Direct sowing with natives: Long term failure or success can
be
determined by checking the seed mix and examining these two pictures.
Exercise
Four:
Maintenance practices today can cause long-term problems or
protect natural resources for decades into the future. Why?
Exercise Five:
The story of burns, what can they tell you?
Exercise Six:
Groundcovers in the past were maintained with herbicides, now
what?
Exercise Seven:
The Hypothetical Case of the Out-of-Place Seed Mix: What doesn't
belong here?
Exercise
Eight:
Beauty examples of roadside native plants in and around Yosemite:
What is similar?
Exercise Nine:
What can a "common garden study" show about native plant
genetics and ecotypes?
Exercise Ten:
Existing weeds and their seed bank, if they are where you want
to plant natives, what to do?
Exercise Eleven:
Evaluation of a Planting: What is the BREAK EVEN RATIO between
native plants and exotics?
Exercise
Twelve: THE DEAD AND LIVING grasses found in June: how can
information about them be used for your vegetation management
plans?
Exercise Thirteen:
The two percent solution, how is it important?
Exercise Fourteen: Landscape painting
directly on the land.
>> see PICTURES and stories about
native plants we saw in the field in So. Calif.
Links to related web pages:
--The 228 topics requested by Caltrans
participants, for the workshops
--The use of natives for roadsides at http://www.ecoseeds.com/highways.html
Updated August 15, 2009