Vol. 22, No. 2
Summer 2014
Cal-IPC News
Protecting California’s Natural Areas from Wildland Weeds
Newsletter of the California Invasive Plant Council
Volunteers
in action
Boy Scout Troop One removes invasive
hanging sedge, Carex pendula, from Old
Mill Creek, Marin County. See page 4.
Photo by Betsy Wanner Bikle.
INSIDE
It takes a village to get rid of an invasive p. 4
A new tool for WHIPPing weeds p. 5
Get ready for the Symposium! p. 8
Revising bluegum eucalyptus p. 9
The road to WMA funding p.10
Working“climate smart” p.11
From the Executive Director
The volunteer contribution
Cal-IPC
1442-A Walnut Street, #462
Berkeley, CA 94709
ph (510) 843-3902 fax (510) 217-3500
www.cal-ipc.org info@cal-ipc.org
A California 501(c)3 nonprofit organization
Protecting California’s lands and waters
from ecologically-damaging invasive plants
through science, education, and policy.
STAFF
Doug Johnson, Executive Director
Elizabeth Brusati, Senior Scientist
Agustín Luna, Director of Finance & Administration
Bertha McKinley, Program Assistant
Dana Morawitz, GIS Coordinator &
Program Manager for Regional Conservation
Christina Ripken, Conference Coordinator
DIRECTORS
Jason Casanova, President
Council for Watershed Health
Kim Hayes, Vice-President
Elkhorn Slough Foundation
Shawn Kelly, Treasurer
Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project
Jutta Burger, Secretary
Irvine Ranch Conservancy
Morgan Ball
Wildlands Conservation Science
Tim Buonaccorsi
RECON Environmental, Inc.
Jennifer Funk
Chapman University
Doug Gibson
San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy
Jason Giessow
Dendra, Inc.
Elise Gornish
UC Davis, Dept. of Plant Sciences
Marie Jasieniuk
UC Davis, Dept. of Plant Sciences
Annabelle Kleist
Capitol Impact
Dan Knapp
Los Angeles Conservation Corps
John Knapp
The Nature Conservancy
Virginia Matzek
Santa Clara University
David McNeill
Baldwin Hills Conservancy
STUDENT LIAISONS
Bridget Hilbig
UC Riverside
Meghan Skaer
UC Davis
Affiliations for identification purposes only.
Cal-IPC News
Summer 2014 – Vol. 22, No. 2
Editors: Doug Johnson & Elizabeth Brusati
Published by the California Invasive Plant Council. Articles
may be reprinted with permission. Previous issues are archived at www.cal-ipc.org. Mention of commercial products
does not imply endorsement by Cal-IPC. Submissions are
welcome. We reserve the right to edit content.
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Cal-IPC News Summer 2014
C
ommunity volunteer projects, like the one organized by the Mill Valley
StreamKeepers (page 4), are critical to stopping infestations at the urban-wildland
interface. Such efforts do even more than protect the unique natural areas at hand.
Because major invasive plant infestations can get their start in developed areas, these
local efforts may also prevent more widespread problems.
Fifteen years ago there may have been a chance to stop stinkwort, Dittrichia graveolens, from spreading outside the Santa Clara Valley and a few other locations. John
Beall of the San Mateo County Agricultural Commissioner’s office raised the alarm, but
there was not enough capacity for a coordinated response to get a handle on Dittrichia.
Stinkwort is now found from Mendocino to San Diego, and into the Sierra Nevada.
One of the lessons we learned from this episode was that we must do more than
focus on known invaders. Efforts like the Bay Area Early Detection Network brought
more focus on anticipating the next problem species, and considering on-the ground
intervention earlier on the invasion curve. This precautionary trend is also evident in
PlantRight’s recent addition of Stipa tenuissima, Mexican feather grass, to its list of
horticultural plants to avoid in landscaping, despite the fact that the plant has not yet
become a significant problem in wildlands. Likewise, Cal-IPC is gearing up to conduct
risk assessment on our Watchlist species to determine which pose the highest risk for
detrimental impact in the future.
Volunteers form a connection between the activities of professional land managers
and our communities at large. They allow Californians to get their hands dirty with the
realities of habitat stewardship, and to take ownership of their local environment. Some
volunteer efforts, like the Friends of Five Creeks in the East Bay (whose leader Susan
Schwartz won our 2012 Catalyst Award) also weave in cultural history that builds a
deeper sense of place.
Volunteer efforts make a major contribution to our work. Their local projects can be
integrated into broader landscape goals. The skills and knowledge developed in a local
effort can be exchanged with other volunteers in the region. And their enthusiasm for
stewardship can be shared among generations to create a genuine passion for California
wildlands. For these reasons, Cal-IPC is looking at ways to coordinate diverse volunteer
efforts at the regional level. The potential synergy is vital to our future success.
It’s the water… Symposium 23 in Chico!
Our 23rd annual Symposium will be
Oct. 8-11 at Chico State University,
with theme sessions focusing on the
intersection of wildland weed issues and
water issues. Plus all the latest reports on
management techniques, program design,
and invasive plant research. Ken Moore
and Joe DiTomaso will team up to give a
training on woody plant control, and our
field trips include a visit to Peace Valley
in the Sutter Buttes. And did we mention
the awards banquet at the Sierra Nevada
Brewery? Join us! See p.8.
Correction: The table of biocontrol species in our last issue contained a mistake.
Under yellow starthistle, the species Urophora jaceae should be Urophora jaculata.
Cal-IPC Updates
Symposium registration open. CalIPC 23 happens in Chico this October,
complete with a banquet at the Sierra
Nevada Brewery! See p.8.
AB2402 stripped of funding. The bill to
renew the state’s Weed Management Area
(WMA) program passed the Assembly
floor with a 73-0 vote, but with funding
removed. Cal-IPC continues to pursue
other avenues to secure WMA funding in
next year’s budget. See p.11.
WHIPPET online. With support from
the USDA Forest Service and the US Fish
& Wildlife Service, a beta version of this
multi-species population prioritization
tool is now available. See p. 6.
Weed management on military bases.
Staff met with resource managers at Camp
Pendleton and other bases in California
to help set strategy, with support from the
Dept. of Defense Legacy Program.
Work begins on Sierra meadows.
Cal-IPC is contracting with Placer
County, the Truckee River Watershed
Council and others to control wildland
weeds in and around meadows this
summer, as part of a project funded by the
Wildlife Conservation Society’s Climate
Adaptation Fund.
New training video posted. Ken Moore
of the Wildlands Restoration Team
demonstrates methods for controlling
woody species. Thanks to Lynn Overtree
for providing the footage. www.cal-ipc.org/
fieldcourses/videos
New board members. Four new
members have been appointed by the
Cal-IPC Board of Directors: Morgan
Ball of Wildlands Conservation Science,
Elise Gornish and Marie Jasieniuk from
UC Davis, and David McNeill from the
Baldwin Hills Conservancy. See p.14.
New staff. Christina Ripken has joined
Cal-IPC for 2014 as Conference
Coordinator. She brings nine years of experience organizing events, including the
Conference on Tropical and Subtropical
Agricultural and Natural Resource
Management (TROPENTAG).
Invasive species mixer. Join us at the
Ecological Society of America conference
Wildland Weed
News
in Sacramento on Wed., Aug. 13, from
6:30-8:00pm. We’ll also be giving a talk
that day in the session on “Science at
Non-Profit Conservation Organizations”
(OOS 32). www.esa.org/am
Talking to landscape architects. CalIPC’s Doug Johnson spoke on a panel for
the San Francisco chapter of the American
Society of Landscape Architects on the
issue of invasive ornamental plants.
Other Updates
PlantRight adds species. The partnership added Mexican feather grass (Stipa
tenuissima), water hyacinth (Eichhornia
crassipes), and yellow water iris (Iris pseudacorus) to its list of plants that nurseries
and consumers should avoid. Retail
nurseries can pledge to follow PlantRight’s
list, have their staff trained on invasive
plants, and receive acknowledgment on
PlantRight’s website. www.plantright.org
SoCal land manager listserv. Join a new
listserv to discuss new invasive threats,
restoration questions, and other topics
of interest. To subscribe, contact Sandy
DeSimone at sdesimone@audubon.org.
Boating & Waterways now a division
of State Parks. The group controls
Egeria densa, water hyacinth, and South
American spongeplant in the Delta. www.
dbw.ca.gov/BoaterInfo/AquaInvSpec.aspx
Western Governors urge federal cooperation on invasive species. Saying that
invasive species create economic and ecological damage across western landscapes,
governors want to work with federal
agencies to develop and implement a new
National Invasive Species Management
Plan. www.westgov.org/news/298news-2014/583-western-governors-urgefederal-cooperation-on-invasive-species
New climate-smart guide. The
National Wildlife Foundation published
“Climate-Smart Conservation: Putting
Adaptation Principles into Practice” with
broad-ranging guidance for designing and
carrying out conservation in the face of a
rapidly changing climate. www.nwf.org/
What-We-Do/Energy-and-Climate/ClimateSmart-Conservation/Guide-to-ClimateSmart-Conservation.aspx
Future invasive plant “hotspots.”
Australian researchers modeled suitable
habitat for 292 naturalized plants to
determine locations that may be most
suitable for a large number of potentially
invasive plants later this century. They
propose pre-emptive management in such
“hotspots.” weedfutures.net
Mexico invasive species website. With
information in both Spanish and English,
lists of invasive species, the national
strategy plan, and information about
prevention and collaboration programs.
www.biodiversidad.gob.mx/invasoras
Rancher describes worst drought in a
lifetime. As a rancher and president of the
California Cattlemen’s Association, Tim
Koopmann is keenly aware of the tough
choices ranchers in California are making
to cope with drought. He is an Aldo
Leopold Award recipient and a founder
of the California Rangeland Conservation
Coalition. Hear an interview at www.
accuweather.com/en/weather-news/
cattle-ranchers-forced-to-cull/26595624
Breaking News! Help remove
Mexican feathergrass from
production.
The largest grower of Mexican
feathergrass in California (see update
above) has agreed to phase out the
plant and sell the remaining inventory
to PlantRight at a discount. PlantRight
will dispose of the plants safely but first
it needs to raise funds for this purchase.
An anonymous donor will match each
donation up to a total of $10,000. This
is a unique chance to catch a new invasion early and to reward a horticultural
company for its willingness to change
its practices. Funds need to be raised
quickly.
Make a donation at www.plantright.
org (click on “Stop California’s Next
Invasion”) or http://bit.ly/PlantRight.
Cal-IPC News Summer 2014
3
It takes a village… to get rid of an invasive!
By Betsy Wanner Bikle, Mill Valley StreamKeepers, www.millvalleystreamkeepers.org
T
he Mill Valley watershed drapes
down Mount Tamalpais to
Richardson Bay about 6 miles north
of San Francisco. Thousands of homes
above with drooping pendulous seed
heads. The roots are not very deep – only
about 8 inches. Short rhizomes extend
the reach of individual plants. The plant
A section of Old Mill Creek before Carex pendula was removed from the streambanks.
Photos by the author.
within about 8 square miles have changed
the setting, once redwood forest, oak
woodlands and wetlands. Now tidy homes
sit on filled lands, with palms, lavender,
eucalyptus, and in the streamside redwoods: Carex pendula (hanging sedge)
planted by home garden designers.
The Carex seems to have been planted
in a single garden, at 310 Cascade Avenue
streamside along Old Mill Creek about 20
years ago. But it has spread downstream
about two miles to the start of tidal salty
water. Now we spot it up in the hills
along road sides. No Carex pendula grows
upstream on Old Mill Creek from that
first property, although a few plants can
be found high and dry above the first
garden.
In amateur botany-speak, Carex pendula is a sedge whose blades reach about
2 feet high; it sports a stem protruding
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Cal-IPC News Summer 2014
can be distinguished by whitish underside
of the leaf blades; this is different from
the native sedge found along our streams
which has shiny bright green undersides.
The plant is on the early detection list
for the Bay Area Early Detection Network
although we have not heard yet of other
extensive invasions. However, it has been
noticed by vegetation managers of the
Marin Municipal Water District who
have seen one clump near the Bowknot
– well away from a stream. South of San
Francisco, a small amount has been seen
in the extensive Midpeninsula Regional
Open Space District.
The Mill Valley StreamKeepers have
started a pilot project to begin to address
the Carex thanks to a $2,500 grant from
the Cereus Fund of the Trees Foundation.
We have conferred with native plant
nurseries and riparian restorationists and
informally with permitting agencies.
The Mill Valley StreamKeepers
board decided to have two streamside
removal locations: the location of the
initial residential planting and a location
downstream on public land. Both are easily viewed by the public. We were thrilled
to have a Mill Valley Eagle Scout candidate, Jake Marquis, take on the project.
His contractor father, David Marquis, and
the whole Troop One helped in the effort.
Meetings with the home landowners, the
city Department of Public Works, the
native plant nursery in Mill Valley, and
permitting agencies were preliminary to
the weekend of activity. We were very
pleased to have the permission of the
homeowners, Bill and Corinne Lenehan,
to do the clearing and replanting.
We dug up the invasive Carex in
October, the best time of year for working
in our streams which have threatened
steelhead. We planted replacement natives
at the same time. The city hauled away
truckloads of Carex to a composting
facility, and the Boy Scouts provided the
labor, tools, and pizza!
Additional work was done at the
downstream end of the infestation along
the Arroyo Corte Madera del Presidio.
The property owner was especially
enthusiastic about the work as he himself
had been an Eagle Scout and his sons
also are Eagle Scouts. The city helped by
taking all the green material pulled out to
a compost facility.
Several neighbors and folks walking
along the stream were interested in
our work and pleased to hear that they
too could improve the habitat on their
property without need of a permit. Mill
Valley StreamKeepers hopes to make a
one-page brochure with mission, directions, and pictures for streamside property
owners. This will definitely fit into city
and county goals.
The only money we spent on this project was $1,875 for native plants: about
35 lady ferns, 60 chain ferns, 60 Juncus
patens rushes, grasses, and two flowering
native shrubs. The California Native Plant
Nursery in Mill Valley gave us a reduction
in price due to the size of the order.
We are dedicated to enlisting the help
of more streamside homeowners and
the City’s Department of Public Works.
They need information and inspiration
to turn back this invasion and return the
stream to a more hospitable place for our
threatened steelhead and the eventual
return of coho salmon.
California
Invasive Species
Action Week
August 2-10, 2014
www.dfg.ca.gov/invasives/
ActionWeek/
This new event sponsored by
the California Dept. of Fish and
Wildlife aims to increase awareness and promote participation in
the work on California’s invasive
species. Youth poster contest! Hand
out brochures and add your event
to the online schedule.
Youth volunteers with the Mountains
Restoration Trust help remove invasive
red swamp crayfish (Procambarus
clarkii) from Malibu Creek in Southern
California. Photo by John Burnap.
Dads provided support for the Boy Scouts of Troop One, who took the lead on removing the hanging sedge.
Carex pendula… and yelling at the ocean
Andrea Williams, Marin Municipal Water District and Bay Area Early Detection Network
Sometimes I think my weed work is
like yelling at the ocean; hours of intense
struggle, and I can make the tide go out.
My work accomplished, I stop and turn
my attention elsewhere. But the tide
returns. Those of us who live in coastal
areas know to never turn your back on
the ocean (and that you can see really cool
stuff when the tide is out)—and those of
us who do weed work know our attention
must return to the weed patches we have
worked to follow up!
And so it is with hanging sedge (Carex
pendula). This 6-foot riparian up-andcoming weed (and BAEDN target) is
only known from a few watersheds in
California and the Pacific Northwest.
It looks burly, but doesn’t actually have
much of a root system. What it does
have are cascading waves of seeds, seeds
that can be spread by water and wildlife
in addition to people planting them.
Hanging sedge can form dense patches,
altering stream dynamics and vegetation.
I have been unable to find a definitive
estimate of seed life, but a good guess for
the genus is 10+ years. That means at least
a decade of returning to stem the tide,
and communicating with other folks in
the “tsunami zone” of spread.
Eradication of hanging sedge will be
similar to the effort curve of red sesbania
(Sesbania punicea), with the good news/
bad news that we have begun work while
populations are less widespread but that
it’s a much less obvious plant (and in
one instance may have been planted by
someone thinking they were planting
slough sedge, Carex obnupta). Keeping on
populations to ensure no further seed set
will be key to hanging this sedge out to
dry.
Cal-IPC News Summer 2014
5
A new online tool for WHIPPing weeds: whippet.cal-ipc.org
By Elizabeth Brusati and Doug Johnson, Cal-IPC
T
o prioritize which invasive plant
populations to control, land managers need to consider species biology,
species impacts, size and location of
populations, and feasibility of control.
Prioritizing individual populations
rather than species requires accounting
for spatial factors like “how isolated is
the population?” and “how near is it to a
vector of spread like a road?” This can be
a lot of information to evaluate, especially
given the number of species, populations,
and site values a land manager may have
to take into account.
WHIPPET (Weed Heuristics: Invasive
Population Prioritization for Eradication
Tool) was developed by UC Davis and the
California Dept. of Food and Agriculture
to help analyze this large amount of
information. WHIPPET is based on
an algorithm that combines numerous
species and population factors (including
spatial analysis) to create a ranked list of
populations suggesting which are highest
priority. With support from the USDA
Forest Service and the US Fish & Wildlife
Service, Cal-IPC has developed an online
version of WHIPPET, making the tool
more accessible and easier to use at a
range of geographic scales.
WHIPPET draws population information from Calflora (www.calflora.org),
which contains over 200,000 invasive
plant locations. This means that you will
need a Calflora contributor account to
log in to WHIPPET. You can use existing
public data posted on Calflora as well as
data that you upload to Calflora (which
can be kept private as “unpublished” data
if necessary).
WHIPPET currently contains data
for the 210 species on the Cal-IPC
Inventory. Up to 50 species can be chosen
for one WHIPPET run (but selecting a
large number of populations may require
several minutes for the system to retrieve
information, so narrowing your species
list can be a useful first step). WHIPPET
focuses on eradication, so it will work best
for species that are not widespread.
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Cal-IPC News Summer 2014
WHIPPET is designed to work for
users at a range of spatial scales and with
a range of knowledge. Throughout its
development, we worked to balance the
needs of different users. Thus the system
includes programmed default values as
well as options for customizing various
parameters.
Adjusting data
Species information in WHIPPET
comes from each plant’s assessment for
the Cal-IPC Inventory. WHIPPET also
has built-in databases for parameters like
relative control effectiveness and cost. GIS
layers for roads, rivers, mines, and site
value are already loaded to aid geospatial
calculations. Together, these default values
mean that running WHIPPET can be as
simple as choosing only the species and
region you wish to analyze.
However, if you want to further
customize your analysis, parameters for
each population can be adjusted based on
your knowledge of local sites. WHIPPET
walks you through these options. You may
want to run WHIPPET several times in
order to see the effect of changing scores
for population parameters such as “accessibility” or “site value.”
In addition to making changes to
parameters for each population, you can
also choose to upload your own customized GIS layers for Roads and for Site
Value. (In both cases, the customized
layer replaces the defaults for the area it
covers.) The default WHIPPET Roads
layer is based on a standard ESRI layer
of public roads. Users may want to create
a custom layer to incorporate additional
park roads or even trails and levees. The
default Site Value scores are based on
the California Dept. of Fish & Wildlife’s
Areas of Conservation Emphasis (ACE II)
layer, which aggregates numerous wildlife
parameters. Users may prefer to use their
own custom Site Value layer that instead
prioritizes sites based on sensitive species,
cultural resources or other factors.
Online WHIPPET walks users through
five steps for adjusting data after retrieving the requested populations (screenshot
opposite page). Three main criteria, each
with several sub-criteria, determine the
final score for each population (diagram
this page).
Resulting prioritization
WHIPPET generates recommendations for prioritizing invasive plant
management. Two caveats are important
to keep in mind. First, like any decisionsupport tool, WHIPPET provides results
that are only as good as the available data
on which the analysis is based. Second,
the results are not intended as a prescription; they may not include all factors
important to a particular site.
However, WHIPPET’s output
includes both maps and a table that shows
the full analysis so you can judge how
the factors combine to generate the final
recommendation, and then adjust accordingly. The online User Guide recommends
steps to take after running WHIPPET to
refine your results.
Next steps
Cal-IPC will use WHIPPET in its
upcoming projects, including regional
planning for the California Wildlife
Conservation Board. The US Fish &
Wildlife Service will use WHIPPET to
prioritize management on California
refuges. The California Dept. of Water
Resources plans to use WHIPPET for
restoration work as part of the the Bay
Delta Conservation Plan and the Central
Valley Flood Protection Plan.
WHIPPET is in beta version and
your feedback will help us refine the tool.
If you have questions or find problems,
please contact us at mapping@cal-ipc.org.
Acknowledgments
Funding was provided by the USDA
Forest Service, Special Technology
Development Program; the US Fish
& Wildlife Service Inventory and
Monitoring Program; and the California
Wildlife Conservation Board.
The California Dept. of Water
Resources contributed Gina Darin’s time.
Gina developed WHIPPET as part of her
Master’s thesis, and continues to improve
the desktop version, which offers enhanced customizaton for those with GIS
capability. Contact her at gsdarin@water.
ca.gov for more information.
In accordance with Federal law and
US Department of Agriculture policy,
Cal-IPC is prohibited from discriminating
on the basis of race, color, national origin,
sex, age, or disability.
Features
Analyzes hundreds of populations
simultaneously.
Species information included – no
need to research.
No GIS required (but results can be
imported into GIS if desired).
Default values provided, custom
adjustments supported.
Map output shows ranked priorities.
Table output shows calculation
details and supports further analysis
and map creation.
Full user guide with instructions,
background, and limitations.
Cal-IPC News Summer 2014
7
Wildland Weeds and Water*
23rd Cal-IPC Symposium
October 8-11, 2014
California State University – Chico
*and drought
www.cal-ipc.org/symposia
Join your fellow land managers, researchers, and conservationists in Chico for information and inspiration! Fall colors
will be out, most of the treatment season will be behind us,
and it will be time to cogitate and celebrate. We look forward
to seeing you there, where the Cascades, the Sierra Nevada
and the Great Central Valley all come together!
Trainings, Oct. 8
Talks by invited experts in theme sessions:
Riparian Restoration
Weeds as Water Wasters
Complex Problems, Creative Solutions
Plus talks by a range of speakers in “contributed” sessions:
Woody Weed Control Field Course, Bidwell Park, 10am4pm: Mechanical and chemical techniques for removing
woody plants. Instructors include Joe DiTomaso and Ken
Moore. (Separate registration required)
Prevention and Early Detection
DPR Laws and Regulations, 6-8pm: We will apply for
2 hrs of DPR Laws & Regs continuing education credits.
(Included with your Symposium registration)
Invasive Plant Biology & Impacts
Paper and Poster Sessions, Oct. 9-10
Keynote speaker: Tom Griggs of River Partners in Chico
(retired), a pioneering restoration organization that applies
agricultural techniques to large-scale restoration projects.
Other featured speakers include Tim Koopmann, winner
of the Aldo Leopold Award, President of California
Cattlemen’s Association, and a founder of the California
Rangeland Conservation Coalition.
8
Sessions
Cal-IPC News Summer 2014
Innovative Tools & Techniques
Mapping & Monitoring
Discussion Groups
Interact with your peers to discuss key issues:
Control Methods: Ask the Experts
Decision-Support Tools for Prioritization
Working with Volunteers
Careers in Invasive Species & Restoration
Working on the Wildland-Urban Interface
Revegetation & Competitive Planting
Register by September 10 for the $295 early-bird rate!
Discounts for Cal-IPC members, Symposium volunteers, presenters, and students. Rates and information on discounted
hotel room blocks are listed on our website.
Students
Student Paper & Poster Contest (with $250 prizes!)
Photo from Western Rivers Conservancy, www.weternrivers.org
Cal-IPC Student Chapter Lunch
Career Panel
Student registration rate only $100!
Continuing Education Credits
Cal-IPC will apply for continuing education credits from the
Dept. of Pesticide Regulation, including 2 hours of Laws &
Regs and 12 hours Other. The field course and field trips will
have additional credits.
We will also apply for credits from the Society for Range
Management.
Credit hours will be posted on our website in late summer.
Sponsorship
Get visibility for your organization’s work while supporting
the Symposium and Cal-IPC programs! A range of levels
are available. Sponsor benefits including free Symposium
registration, exhibit space, recognition at the event, and
professional-level memberships for your attendees.
Sierra Nevada Brewery!
…is this year’s location for the Thursday evening Social
Hour, Raffle & Silent Auction, and Awards Banquet.
The brewery is just two
miles from Chico State
and will provide the
perfect atmosphere to
win weed-pulling tools,
gourmet food, books, or
trips in our annual raffle
and auction. Promises to
be memorable!
Awards
See who receives this year’s Golden Weed Wrench for Land
Manager of the Year, Jake Sigg Award for Dedication and
Vision, Catalyst Award, and Organization of the Year!
Photo Contest
Get out your camera/smartphone/tablet and impress your
fellow weed workers! We’re working to expand the formats of
this year’s contest.
www.cal-ipc.org/symposia/photocontest.php.
www.cal-ipc.org/symposia
Field Trips, Oct. 11
Peace Valley in the Sutter Buttes / Oroville State Wildlife Area (8am–5pm)
Experience the Sutter Buttes, eroded volcanic lava domes that make up “the world’s smallest mountain range”! Public access is
limited—this is a special opportunity to visit Peace Valley, a State Parks property located within the Buttes.
Stoney Creek / Kopta Slough / Woodson Bridge Natural Preserve (8am–5pm)
Meander through multiple riparian restoration sites with Tom Griggs of River Partners (our keynote speaker). Tom will
showcase his pioneering riparian restoration work at the 708-acre Kopta Slough.
Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve (8am–12pm)
A unique opportunity to enjoy a much-loved refuge as a Chico local! Stewarded for the last decade by Dr. Paul Maslin, the
Reserve protects nearly 4,000 acres of diverse canyon and ridge habitats, including 4.5 miles of Big Chico Creek. Reducing
invasive plant impacts is a key management goal for the Reserve.
Plus: Calflora Training (separate registration through Chico St. Herbarium)
Calflora staff will be on hand to provide a hands-on training on the use of Observer, their smartphone tool for logging observations in the field, and to give an update on the development of Weed Manager.
Cal-IPC News Summer 2014
9
Photo of the Sutter Buttes from the Sutter Buttes Ninety-Nines. www w..sutterbuttes99s.org
Registration
Revisiting bluegum eucalyptus:
Cal-IPC proposes adjustments to its assessment
By Kristina Wolf, UC Davis, and Doug Johnson, Cal-IPC
alifornia has a love-hate relationship
with Australian eucalyptus trees.
We are accustomed to their unmistakable
profile, and for many they evoke nostalgic
memories of seashore excursions. For
others, they are bark-shedding behemoths
that clog coastal streams. And for others
they are culprits in the 1991 Oakland
Hills fire which claimed 25 lives. Jared
Farmer provides a thoughtful cultural
history of eucalyptus in Trees in Paradise:
A California History.
Since its inception in 1996, CalIPC’s Invasive Plant Inventory has listed
bluegum eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus)
and redgum eucalyptus (Eucalyptus camaldulensis). (Some twenty other eucalyptus
species have been introduced to California
but have not become invasive.)
One of the atypical aspects of assessing these eucalyptus species is that they
were purposefully planted for a range of
uses, including fuel breaks, firewood, and
aesthetics, and today’s stands are those
same populations. Some stands in moist
areas are actively regenerating and spreading, while others in dry areas are not, and
few if any isolated new populations occur
outside of these planted areas. So we are
gauging ecological damage resulting from
intentional planting.
In recent years, eucalyptus species have
become highly politicized, as fire safety
plans call for clearing thousands of trees in
Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco, Scripps
Ranch and other communities. One has
only to read the extensive commentary
following online articles to sense the
division and passion of those interested in
our eucalyptus.
Some of this energy has come CalIPC’s way, because our assessment of
ecological impact is sometimes used in
arguments for removing a particular stand.
Advocates have questioned aspects of
Cal-IPC’s 2006 assessment, and we agreed
that this assessment was dated and should
be revisited. New literature is available,
10
Cal-IPC News Summer 2014
and the original assessment was completed
as part of a major initiative during which
some 200 plant species where assessed.
Given the intense interest in eucalyptus, the assessment merits thorough
re-examination.
All invasive plant species have stronger
impacts in some areas than in others;
eucalyptus are no exception. And every
land management situation has its own
unique set of factors to consider: biological, cultural, and economic. Cal-IPC’s
assessments aim to provide science-based
information on ecological impacts that
can serve to inform that aspect of any
particular land management decision.
We convened an expert team to revisit
our assessment of bluegum eucalyptus.
We examined literature submitted by
those critical of the assessment, and collected additional literature to document
the determinations made for each criterion in our assessment system. A review
draft is now available (see www.cal-ipc/ip/
inventory/eucalyptus) and comments are
being solicited through July 31.
Changes in the draft assessment
Two significant changes are proposed
for the assessment. The first is to increase
the level of abiotic impacts (criterion 1.1)
from Moderate to Severe. The increase is
due primarily to the major changes to fire
regime where dense stands of eucalyptus
are established. This is especially true
when comparing to grasslands, where
eucalyptus was often planted, but it is
also true relative to native woodlands and
riparian areas. Another key abiotic impact
is the high groundwater use of eucalyptus.
The other change involves downgrading the ability of eucalyptus to spread.
Several criteria in section 2 have been rescored, including: the role of disturbance
on establishment (eucalyptus for the
most part require active planting to get
established); innate reproductive potential
(eucalyptus reproduction is relatively
slow); and potential for human-caused
dispersal (bluegum eucalyptus is virtually
gone from the horticultural trade).
These changes do not alter the overall
rating of E. globulus as “Moderate” in the
Cal-IPC Inventory. They do, however,
provide a more current and thorough
foundation for informing decisionmaking that includes consideration of
ecological impacts.
www.plantright.org
C
AB 2402: The rocky road to WMA funding
By Doug Johnson, Cal-IPC
G
iven the slight thaw in the state’s
budget freeze, Cal-IPC sponsored
AB 2402 (Buchanan) this spring to
pursue renewed funding for the state’s
Weed Management Area program and
weed biocontrols program. The bill has
received support letters from150 conservation organizations across the state.
The bill passed the Assembly
Agriculture Committee unanimously, and
more recently, the Assembly floor on a
73-0 vote. In between, however, the $2.5
million in funding was removed because
there the bill was unlikely to make it
through the appropriations process.
What does this mean? For funding,
we continue to explore ways to influence
the legislature and the Governor’s office
as they finalize the budget, making the
case that invasive plant management is
critical for long-term drought relief (see
sidebar). It saves groundwater and helps
reduce wildfire risk.
Even without funding, moving the
bill forward does have benefit. For one it
shows continued interest in the program.
It also makes small but important
changes to the structure of the WMA
program that can help it operate more effectively. The portion of funding directed
to program support has been increased
to enable coordination with hundreds of
partners in 58 counties.
AB 2193 (Gordon)
Meanwhile, the Habitat Restoration
and Enhancement Act also passed the
Assembly floor unanimously. The bill
would give the CA Dept. of Fish &
Wildlife the ability to approve voluntary,
small-scale (up to 5 acres) habitat restoration and erosion-control projects within
60 days in an effort to facilitate such
projects. The approval would be in lieu
of existing CDFW permit requirements
such as Section 1600 Lake and Streambed
Alteration Agreements and Section 2081
Incidental Take Permits.
We will keep you posted on progress
as the legislative session and the budget
continue to unfold. We are monitoring
possible water bonds for this fall, and a
possible park bond for next year, both of
which could contain funds for on-theground restoration work.
Weed Management
as Drought Relief
1 million acre-feet wasted each
year by yellow starthistle in the
Central Valley
Gerlach (2004) found that yellow
starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis),
consumes between 1,050-1,200 m3/
hectare/year of excess water relative
to exotic annual grasses, the most
common ground cover in California
rangelands. Pitcairn et al. (2006)
estimated 2.6 million net acres of
yellow starthistle in the Central
Valley (Sacramento and San Joaquin
River drainages) in 2002 and more
than 14 million gross acres infested
throughout California.
Converting to acre-feet:
(1,125 m3/ha/yr) (0.0008 ac-ft/m3)
(0.4 ha/ac) = 0.36 acre-feet water per
acre YST per year
Total for the Central Valley:
(2,600,000 acre YST) (0.36 ac-ft/acre
YST/year) = 940,000 ac-ft/yr
Thus approximately one million
acre-feet of water are consumed by
yellow starthistle each year in the
Central Valley above and beyond
what would be consumed by annual
grasses.
References
Gerlach, John D., Jr. 2004. The
impacts of serial land-use changes
and biological invasions on soil water
resources in California, USA. Journal
of Arid Environments, 57: 365–379
Invasive Weeds Awareness Day at the Capitol atendees before capitol visits, March 12.
Pitcairn, Michael J., Steve
Schoenig, Rosie Yacoub and John
Gendron. 2006. Yellow starthistle
continues its spread in California.
California Agriculture, 60(2): 83-90.
californiaagriculture.ucanr.org
Cal-IPC News Summer 2014
11
Climate-smart invasive plant management:
Getting from “you should” to “here’s how”
By Virginia Matzek, Santa Clara University; Sandy DeSimone, Audubon Starr Ranch; and Elizabeth Brusati, Cal-IPC
L
and managers are often told that they
need to plan for climate change, that
today’s weed work may be nothing but
wasted effort in the warmed-up, dried-out
California of the future if their management techniques and restoration plans
don’t adapt. The problem is this advice
is rarely accompanied by any practical
suggestions on how to plan. What exactly
is a manager supposed to do?
Cal-IPC made a first attempt at filling
that information gap with a special halfday event preceding last year’s Symposium
in Lake Arrowhead. The intent of the
“Climate-Smart Land Management
Workshop” was to help managers
overcome the paralysis we sometimes feel
in the face of uncertainty and complex
recommendations from academic
researchers, and to facilitate a move into
active decision-making mode.
The 30 participants heard talks on
uncertainty in climate modeling, principles for climate-smart land management,
and frameworks for envisioning future
scenarios and planning for ecological
restoration. The heart of the workshop,
though, was a participatory exercise, based
on the real-world experience of planning
for climate change at Audubon Starr
Ranch in Orange County, which gave attendees some practice in deciding whether
climate change warranted a change in
strategy for controlling particular weed
species. Several lessons emerged from the
workshop:
No. 1: Uncertainty is not going to go
away. The challenge is to embrace it,
not resist it. Everything in climate-smart
land management is uncertain, from
the models we use to decisions on what
species belong in what climate zone, to
the forecasts of rainfall and temperature
patterns a half-century from now, to the
efficacy of management techniques like
biocontrol. These uncertainties not only
add up, they multiply. Luckily, most
12
Cal-IPC News Summer 2014
managers are already familiar with taking
an adaptive management approach.
Climate change will require managers to
be even more adaptive in their thinking
and practice. A manager’s toolbox in an
uncertain future will need to include:
formulating management plans to
resemble risk analyses; trying more highrisk approaches along with traditional
techniques; monitoring more extensively
(more variables, longer timeframes) to
capture phenological changes and
responses to a shifting climate; and deciding which undesirable species deserve the
most priority.
No. 2: Scenario planning can help focus
our attention on the most important
drivers of change. Scenario planning is a
useful technique for envisioning what the
future will look like and evaluating how
different decisions might play out depending on future conditions. Originally developed by the military to prepare responses
to unusual (but plausible) strategic situations, scenario planning involves choosing
a few important unknown variables, and
then imagining storylines or scenarios
that go along with different combinations
of those variables. For instance, local
precipitation in California might increase
or decrease in the future and a biocontrol
agent for a particular species may be
approved or not approved for release. A
manager can imagine what might change,
and how to react, for the four possible scenarios (e.g., increased precipitation + new
biocontrol agent, decreased precipitation
+ no biocontrol agent, etc.)
No. 3: Resilience will come from
building in redundancies, and planning
for success under multiple scenarios.
One of the principles of climate-smart
planning is to build in redundancy—
multiple seed sources, increased size and
connectedness of preserved or treated
areas, high ecological and species diversity,
etc. Similarly, when a project or plan is
designed, alternatives should be judged
for their potential success under multiple
future scenarios, and the best choice is the
project that has the most success across
scenarios, not the project that performs
the best under just one likely scenario.
Nat Seavy of Point Blue Conservation
Audubon Starr Ranch is taking climate change into account while planning and
monitoring restoration projects. Photo by Sandy DeSimone.
Science took workshop participants
through several examples, including a
look at the possibilities for tidal marsh
restoration in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Using scenario planning with two main
drivers—high or low sea level rise, and
high or low rates of sediment supply to
the newly restored marshes—planners
found that selecting restoration sites
under the assumption that any one of
the four scenarios would occur actually
had the best overall success, compared to
fitting a particular approach to a single
scenario. Managers should take some
solace in the fact that, although the future
is unknown, it is possible to plan for a
variety of outcomes.
altogether.
Of course there were no “right”
answers determined at the workshop—
only time (and monitoring!) will tell. But
participants reported that the exercise
helped them think more creatively and
expansively about how they will manage
invaders in the future, rather than continuing to pursue a single path forward.
At Cal-IPC, we were inspired to
develop this workshop becausewe did not
find scenario planning exercise or climate
adaptation plans specific to invasive plant
management in published literature
or online. Our closest analog was the
excellent work done in support of Point
Blue Conservation Science’s climate-smart
riparian restoration project. We also
followed principles for climate adaptation
laid out by various agencies and compiled
on the California Climate Commons
website.
Useful references are linked from the
Cal-IPC climate adaptation webpage
at www.cal-ipc.org/ip/climateadaptation.
Resources from the workshop itself are
also available on the page, including
pdfs of the speakers’ talks and the species
matrix. For more information about the
matrix exercise, please contact Sandy
DeSimone, sdesimone@audubon.org,
949-858-0309.
No. 4: Dang… this is really hard when
you sit down to do it. The last part of
the workshop was an exercise in decisionmaking, based on real issues faced by
Audubon Starr Ranch in working to
protect songbirds and their habitat. We
affectionately termed this exercise “The
Matrix” because we compiled information
into a tabular format to facilitate analysis.
Using summary information from
the scientific literature, participants were
asked to decide on the major climatic
drivers of future change in the vegetation
at Starr Ranch, such as increased summer drought or wetter winters. For each
invasive plant species at the site, the participants evaluated whether the changing
climate variable would increase, decrease,
or leave unchanged the site’s suitability for
that plant. This was also done for several
native plant species that currently provide
significant wildlife habitat for songbirds at
Starr Ranch.
A second part of the matrix asked
participants to evaluate the benefits of the
species, if any, to wildlife. This allows for
the possibility that these wildlife services
could be provided by non-natives in the
future if key native plants are no longer
able to provide them. Then, the sum
of the information, and the managers’
intuition and understanding about vegetation management, were used to determine
if any change in Audubon Starr Ranch’s
priorities should be considered—that is,
whether any invasive species should be
made higher or lower priority, or if control of any species should be abandoned
Cal-IPC News Summer 2014
13
Charting a course on Santa Cruz Island
T
he Cal-IPC board of directors convened its annual strategic retreat in
May, this year on Santa Cruz Island. The
Nature Conservancy and the University
of California Reserve System hosted
Cal-IPC. Together with key staff and
board alumni, the meeting planned future
strategy and provided the inspiraton of
seeing species found nowhere else, like the
Santa Cruz Island kit fox.
Special thanks to UC Reserve Director
Lyndal Laughrin who made sure we had
everything we needed during our stay at
the UC Santa Cruz Island Field Station,
and Eamon O’Byrne, TNC’s California
Islands Project Director, for opening
up the Santa Cruz Island Preserve and
providing logistical support. Thanks
also to the Elkhorn Slough Foundation
for helping cover food costs. To keep
costs down for the organization, board
members covered their own travel costs to
the island.
Lyndal Loughrin has served as the UC Reserve Director on
Santa Cruz Island for over 40 years. Plein air painting, such as this
portrait of Dr. Laughrin overlooking Valley Anchorage, has a deep
history on the island.
Welcome new board members!
The Cal-IPC Board of Directors appointed four new members to two-year terms. Morgan Ball is Executive Director of
Wildlands Conservation Science in Ventura. He’s a wildlife biologist and habitat restorationist with experience in coastal
and riparian habitats in Central California and the northern Channel Islands. Elise Gornish is a postdoctoral scholar at UC
Davis working on arid land restoration and invasive species management. David McNeill is Executive Officer of the State
of California’s Baldwin Hills Conservancy. He oversees the long-term acquisition and planned development of open space
into much needed parkland for southwest Los Angeles County. Marie Jasieniuk is Associate Professor in the Plant Sciences
Department at UC Davis where she focuses on identifying the origins and routes of spread of invasive plants. Learn more at
www.cal-ipc.org/about/staff.php.
Morgan Ball
14
Elise Gornish
Cal-IPC News Summer 2014
David McNeill
Marie Jasieniuk
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The Wildland Weed Calendar
California Invasive Species Action Week
August 2-10, statewide
www.dfg.ca.gov/invasives/ActionWeek
Ecological Society of America
August 10-15, Sacramento
www.esa.org/am
California Adaptation Forum
August 19-20, Sacramento
www.californiaadaptationforum.org
Sierra Nevada Alliance
September 6-8, Kings Beach
www.sierranevadaalliance.org
Pacific NW Invasive Plants Conference
September 16-17, Seattle, WA
depts.washington.edu/uwbg/education/
conferences/2014InvPlants/InvPlants2014
Cal-IPC Symposium
October 8-11, Chico
www.cal-ipc.org/symposia
Natural Areas Association Conference
October 15-17, Dayton, OH
naturalareas.org/conference
California Naturalist Conference
October 17-19, Pacific Grove
calnat.ucanr.edu/2014conference
Bay-Delta Science Conference
October 28-30, Sacramento
scienceconf2014.deltacouncil.ca.gov/
Central Coast Invasive Weed Symposium
November 6, Monterey Bay
cciws2014.eventbrite.com
California Association of RCDs
November 12-15, Ventura
www.carcd.org/annual_conference0.aspx
CNPS Conservation Conference
January 13-17, 2015, San Jose
www.cnps.org
Just over one third of species protected under CMS Appendix I and II are under some level of threat from
“
Invasive Alien Species… Predominant threat mechanisms are predation, habitat loss, disease transmission,
competition and interspecific hybridization.”
~ From the Executive Summary of Review of the Impact of Invasive Alien Species on Species Protected
under the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), a 2013 report prepared by the Invasive Species
Specialist Group, International Union for Conservation of Nature, report to the United Nations.