CRAIG'S JUICY NATIVE GRASS GOSSIP & Research

No. 18- July, 2005

HISTORICAL INFORMATION on Workshop for Caltrans, Deldot and BLM - 2000-2001 NATIVE PLANTS FOR ROADSIDES - GRADE ONE - "INTRODUCTION TO THE INNOVATIVE USE of LOCAL NATIVE PLANTS for ROADSIDES, MITIGATION SITES and MANAGING PUBLIC LANDS"


Edited, published and Copyright © 2005 by Craig Dremann of The Reveg Edge (sm).
P.O. Box 361, Redwood City, Cal. 94064. Phone (650) 325-7333 e-mail

The URL of this issue is: https://www.ecoseeds.com/juicy.gossip.eighteen.html or https://www.ecoseeds.com/workshop.html

If you would like to read other issues, see the index: https://www.ecoseeds.com/juicy.html


HISTORICAL INFORMATION on the Workshop for Caltrans, Deldot and BLM - 2000-2001 NATIVE PLANTS FOR ROADSIDES - GRADE ONE - "INTRODUCTION TO THE INNOVATIVE USE of LOCAL NATIVE PLANTS for ROADSIDES, MITIGATION SITES and MANAGING PUBLIC LANDS" - Including 14 Exercises.


A Workshop was 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.


This was the first in a series of 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, 2001 by Craig C. Dremann, all rights reserved.

grindelia
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.

The one-day training session was brought to the participant's locations:

Re-establishment of weed-free, self-sustaining native ecosystems for full-sun, non-riparian, unirrigated areas: utilizing direct seeding of local native seeds.

The workshop opened 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 ran 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:
-- ENVIRONMENTAL - use your species surveys to pick the best revegetation plants.
-- LANDSCAPE Architecture - cut back your species lists to only the successful ones.
-- STORMWATER - bioengineering with local natives can resolve stormwater issues.
-- MAINTENANCE is the key to roadside native plants, assuring success for everyone.
-- WHAT ARE local native plants, colonizers, seed transfer zones and ecotypes?
-- EVALUATING different native species in the field for your various purposes.
-- HOW TO USE native plants and not create new Endangered Species concerns.
-- R/W 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.

ALL PARTICIPANTS were asked to >>> complete the web page SURVEY <<<
as the survey results were used to form the final agenda for the workshop.
(All the participant agenda survey results can be found linked to the workshops listed below).

ALSO>>>ALL PARTICIPANTS were asked to check the web pages below
and prepare their answers to the following exercises for the class:

(click links to see each exercise individually and print off)

14 EXCERCISES, click on each link to see the picture and answer the questions.

bunchgrassesExercise One:
Landscaping with one gallon container stock of native bunchgrass: Failed, why?

natives Exercise Two:
Direct sowing with natives: Immediate failure and success, why?

owls clover Exercise Three:
Direct sowing with natives: Long term failure or success can be
determined by checking the seed mix and examining these two pictures.

mow Exercise Four:
Maintenance practices today can cause long-term problems or protect natural resources for decades into the future. Why?

fire Exercise Five: The story of burns, what can they tell you?

weeders Exercise Six:
Ground covers in the past were maintained with herbicides, now what?

seed mix Exercise Seven:
The Hypothetical Case of the Out-of-Place Seed Mix: What doesn't belong here?

yosemite Exercise Eight:
Beauty examples of roadside native plants in and around Yosemite: What is similar?

common garden 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?

seed mix Exercise Eleven: Evaluation of a Planting: What is the BREAK EVEN RATIO between native plants and exotics?

ripgut Exercise Twelve: THE DEAD AND LIVING grasses found in June: how can information about them be used for your vegetation management plans?

two percentExercise Thirteen: The two percent solution, how is it important?

mosaic Exercise Fourteen: Landscape painting directly on the land.


LIST OF WORKSHOPS CONDUCTED - CALTRANS

District 1: Eureka (13 agenda items) - Completed - August 15, 2000.
District 2: Combined with District 3 - (1 agenda item)
District 2 & 3 combined: Yuba City - (10 agenda items) - Completed - Sept. 12, 2000
District 4: San Ramon - (33 agenda items) - Completed - August 8, 2000
District 8: San Bernardino - (48 items) - Completed - May 16, 2000
willdflower wildflower wildflower wildflower wildflower wildflower wildflower wildflower
>> see PICTURES and stories about the native plants we saw in the field at D-8.

District 11 & 12: San Diego (spring 33 items) Completed - March 30, 2000
District 12 II: - San Diego (autumn 9 items)- Completed - Sept. 26, 2000
SACTO. HQ: Davis - (16 agenda items) - Completed - June 14, 2000


OTHER WORKSHOPS (2000-2001):

DELAWARE Roadsides- Tuesday October 17, 2000 - Wilmington - Completed<< Afternoon field session, we visited DELDOT native plant test plots.



BLM BAKERSFIELD: Monday August 13, 2001 - (agenda items)

BLM SUSANVILLE: "Reveg Workshop" Tuesday October 2, 2001 - USFS Lassen National Forest, 2550 Riverside Dr., Rooms Caribou 1 & 2 - (agenda items)



Updated December 24, 2022 - The Reveg Edge Ecological Restoration service