Vol. 22, No. 3
Fall 2014
Cal-IPC News
Protecting California’s Natural Areas from Wildland Weeds
Newsletter of the California Invasive Plant Council
Making
restoration
Fly
Successful organizers find that having fun and a sense of play can
help sustain restoration projects over the long term, and maybe
even help build a conservation ethic. This photo of students
working on French broom at the Marin Municpal Water District
by David Greenberger won first place in our 2014 Photo
Contest.
INSIDE
Survey of volunteer groups 4
PlantRight progress 5
Chinese pistache spreading 6
Symposium in photos 8
Updates from Sacramento 10
From the Executive Director
The Symposium
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
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
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
Fall 2014 – Vol. 22, No. 3
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.
2
Cal-IPC News Fall 2014
I
won’t lie. Putting on the Symposium is hard work. We have program staff fitting
Symposium planning in between all their project work, and volunteer board members fitting it into their busy lives on top of their day jobs.
It’s not always easy to attend the Symposium, either. I heard some grueling “planes,
trains and automobiles” stories from some of the almost 300 attendees we had in Chico
earlier this fall.
But it’s all worth it. The photos in this issue are evidence. We collect information
we wouldn’t get any other way. We meet people and learn about projects we’d otherwise
miss. And we celebrate each others’ commitment to stewarding California’s wildlands.
The Symposium broadens our perspectives, strengthens our work, and recharges our
batteries.
Here are some of the things people had to say:
“Having attended all but three Symposiums since their beginning 20+ years ago, I
still learn new and useful information at every one…”
“A critical venue for working professionals to share information about what’s working and what isn’t. The issue is too complex to go it alone!”
“An excellent way for professionals and scientists to get together.”
“A way to catch up with colleagues, make new friends, and get a chance to think
deeply about a topic that’s very interesting and important to me.”
“It’s like the Clampetts, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Avengers all rolled up together!
Inspiring (and a little strange)…”
“By far the best conference I’ve ever attended!”
Putting on the original Symposium was the first real accomplishment of Cal-IPC.
Bringing people together was an obvious need, the best way to get the ball rolling
forward. It continues to be an important aspect of our work, even though the field has
changed significantly.
As a recent essay put it, there are philosophical divisions in conservation between
those who think in
terms of restoration,
those who think in
terms of adaptation,
and those who think
in terms of letting
nature take its course. I
agree with the authors’
conclusion, that we
need all of the above in
a coordinated fashion.
Coming together at the
Symposium to share
our approaches strikes
me as the best way to
Symposium attendees networked with presenters, sponsors
do just that.
and each other. Photo by Bob Case
Big thanks to Christina Ripken, our Conference Coordinator for this year’s
Symposium, who did an amazing job. Good luck with your family in Okinawa!
Cal-IPC Updates
Cal-IPC Symposium a success. Our 23rd
annual event brought nearly 300 attendees
to Chico! See photos on p.8. Presentations
are online at www.cal-ipc.org.
“Predicting invasive plants in
California” article published. CalIPC and Joe DiTomaso of UC Davis
developed a preliminary determination
of plants that pose the greatest risk of
becoming invasive in California, primarily
through the horticultural pathway, based
on lists of invasive plants from other
Mediterranean-climate regions. In the
July-September 2014 issue of California
Agriculture. californiaagriculture.ucanr.edu.
Cal-IPC Mapping page updated. The
page features new guides for submitting
data, closing data gaps, submitting vouchers, and engaging citizen
scientists.
Weed-free Forage list
updated. An updated
list of suppliers of weedfree forage and mulch
has been posted in the
prevention section of
our website.
Cal-IPC’s Sierra
work highlighted.
Cal-IPC’s project
to protect Sierra
meadows by
removing invasive
plants is featured
as a case study in the
“Taking Action” report for the National
Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate
Adaptation Strategy. A grant from the
Wildlife Conservation Society allows us
to fund local partners to remove invasive
plants. www.wildlifeadaptationstrategy.gov/
pdf/Taking-Action-progress-report-2014.pdf
Cal-IPC staff presented at Ecological
Society of America conference. We
shared our work on “Setting and
Implementing Regional Strategies
for Landscape-Scale Invasive Plant
Management.” We also hosted a “mixer”
that brought together people working on
invasive species from across the U.S. and
as far away as Portugal and Australia.
Wildland
Weed News
How-to templates posted. The Pacific
Invasives Initiative (PII) launched a new
on-line Resource Kit for Invasive Plant
Management, including template plans.
ipm.pacificinvasivesinitiative.org.
Forest Conditions report posted. This
Weed ID on a stick. A memory stick that annual report from the California Forest
is. Joe DiTomaso’s identification guides
Pest Council details forest health and
to 700 invasive broadleaf species and 200
pest issues impacting California’s forests,
invasive grasses are now available on
woodlands, and
Check
a handy USB drive (PC format
urban trees.
the mailing label to see
only). Order at www.cal-ipc.
www.fs.usda.
when your membership expires.
org/shop.
gov/detail/r5/
Renew at www.cal-ipc.org.
forest-grasslan
Other News
Thank you!
dhealth/?cid=fsb
First-ever California Invasive
dev3_046704.
Species Action Week. Sponsored by
Webinar on risk assessment. Risk
the state Dept. of Fish and Wildlife
assessment tools for invasive plants and
August 2-10, the action week included
animals continue to evolve, and this
events organized by local groups across
webinar shows how federal and state
California plus a youth poster contest.
agencies are using them to improve the efwww.dfg.ca.gov/invasives/
fectiveness of their policies and programs.
actionweek
Environmental Law Institute. www.eli.org/
Got medusaevents/species-risk-assessment-tools-sciencehead? UC Davis
and-policy-applications
has published a
New snakes found in California. Two
new Medusahead
non-native water snakes, common in
Management Guide
the eastern U.S., have been found in the
for the Western States.
Sacramento area and in Long Beach, and
Download it at wric.
could threaten aquatic habitats. Capital
ucdavis.edu/publications/
Public Radio, Sacramento, 6/26/14.
MedusaheadManagement
www.capradio.org/articles/2014/06/26/
Guide_pub_2014.pdf.
invasive,-non-native-snakes-showing-upEat Me! That’s the mesacross-california/
sage of eattheinvaders.org,
Preventing salamander loss.
complete with recipes and
Environmental groups are asking for
gastronomic history for all
strict import regulations for newts and
sorts of invasive organisms.
salamanders in light of the recent spread
Invasives— they’re what’s for dinner.
of an Asian skin fungus that is decimating
Accidental biocontrol. A thrips from
European populations. http://news.nationTasmania found its way to Southern
algeographic.com/news/2014/10/141030California where it is killing invasive
salamanders-fungus-disease-amphibiansMyoporum laetum trees native to New
science-lethal-frogs/
Zealand. Unfortunately the insect also
made it to Hawaii where it is attacking
Thank you, TNC!
native Myoporum insulare. Sullivan, J.J.
Biological Invasions (2014) 16:445-453.
Thanks to Shona Ganguly and Amy
Burns of The Nature Conservancy
New book. How to Eradicate Invasive
for hosting the Cal-IPC Board’s
Plants by Teri Dunn Chace covers idenAugust meeting at their Los Angeles
tification and control methods for 200
office. Board meetings rotate around
invasive plants. It’s written in language
the state to facilitate statewide
designed for a layperson. While not
representation.
specific to California, it contains many of
our weeds.
Cal-IPC News Fall 2014
3
Survey of volunteer event leaders yields tips,
common challenges
By Susan Schwartz, Friends of Five Creeks in Berkeley
F
or people who lead volunteers against
invasives, what is the biggest challenge? Long term maintenance, according
to the 75 who responded to a recent
survey of folks who lead such groups.
The survey aimed to spark discussion
at Cal-IPC’s October meeting in Chico.
But I put the survey together just as much
because years of organizing meetings has
convinced me that many leaders and
organizers hunger for communication and
knowing what others are doing.
The 15-question survey isn’t scientific
or representative. It was distributed to the
Cal-IPC list and about 150 others, urging
them to pass it on. There could be several
responses from one organization. Many
questions allowed multiple answers or
were open-ended. All encouraged comments – often the most interesting part!
The most popular size for volunteer
groups seemed to be 10 to 20. One comment: “10 hard workers, therefore about
15. Send those out for light duty into
trashy areas.” But folks gave lively reasons
for liking sizes from 5 to 100. A small
group, for example, is good for “balancing
disturbance with work done” and “you
can accomplish a lot, all work in the same
general area, and carry on a conversation
that includes everyone.”
Suggestions flowed generously:
For larger groups: have a single simple
task (e.g. removing a dense patch) or,
conversely, varied activities for different
ability levels. Others: “Large groups need
a work plan that is easily communicable,”
“Make sure you have enough work to do.”
“Make one volunteer the team leader. I
hop from group to group to check in for 5
minutes at a time.”
Those who answered work with
volunteers a lot. Only 15% reported
having events less than monthly; a whopping 32% said they had events “daily or
several times a week.” The most common
4
Cal-IPC News Fall 2014
Volunteers working on ivy in Tilden Park, Berkeley. Photo by Susan Schwartz.
length was two to three hours, with half
days close behind. Not surprisingly,
wildland events were less frequent but
longer. Nonprofits were the most likely to
require advance signup, while volunteerled events and citizens groups were least
likely to require RSVP. (Categories are not
mutually exclusive).
Volunteers do many things besides
pull weeds. Planting and seeding were
by far the most common “other” tasks
reported. But more than a third said that
volunteers also helped with outreach
and communications, monitoring or
citizen science, mapping including GPS,
trail work, trash removal, and tarping or
sheet-mulching.
At events, overwhelming majorities
provide tools, gloves, and drinking water.
About two-thirds supply snacks, about
40% give educational handouts, and a
quarter offer “swag” such a pins, shirts, or
hats. Gifts were most common at agency
and wildland events, often rewarding
repeat volunteering. Only a fifth offer
lunch—mostly at nonprofit and (no
surprise) longer events. Comments
mentioned offering educational talks and
training, sometimes quite high level—as
well as sunblock and Tecnu!
While 85% of events include social
time, often with refreshments, far fewer
incorporate structured exercises such as
icebreakers, team-building exercises, or
reflections. This probably reflects the
preponderance of adult volunteers.
Asked about a favorite tool for
volunteers, the most frequent answer
…continued page 14
PlantRight makes strides promoting non-invasive
gardening and landscaping
By Greg Richardson and Jan Merryweather, PlantRight and Sustainable Conservation
P
lantRight is a project run by the
non-profit Sustainable Conservation
that promotes the use of noninvasive
plants for gardening and landscaping in
California. PlantRight is pleased to share
its 2014 developments with the friends
and members of the California Invasive
Plant Council.
New partners join the effort
Spring nursery survey
Recently joining PlantRight’s efforts
to promote exclusively non-invasive
plants for California are: the American
Society of Landscape Architects (Northern
California Chapter), Armstrong Garden
Centers, The Home Depot (California
stores), and SummerWinds Nursery!
Crowdfunding success
Educating CCN Pros
With the wonderful assistance of
California’s Master Gardeners, PlantRight
conducted its fifth consecutive survey of
retail nurseries this spring. Volunteers
surveyed 226 stores across 35 counties
statewide for plants on PlantRight’s list.
This year saw further decline in the
retail availability of invasive plants from
PlantRight’s original list. This was largely
due to big leaf periwinkle (Vinca major),
which was found in 9% of stores in 2014,
compared to 16-19% in past years of the
survey.
The number of stores selling the
most recently added invasive plants on
PlantRight’s list (updated in early 2014)
increased, however. Notably, 27% of retail
This summer, PlantRight partnered
with 11 trade and conservation groups,
including Cal-IPC, to complete a successful crowdfunding campaign. Generous individuals across the state helped to buy (at
a significantly discounted rate) a leading
grower’s inventory of Mexican feathergrass
(Stipa tenuissima, formerly known as
Nassella tenuissima) and properly dispose
of it. While Mexican feathergrass is not
yet listed on the Cal-IPC Inventory (it’s
on the Watchlist), land managers are
starting to see it spread out of plantings
and into wildlands, raising concerns about
its invasiveness.
While buying out growers’ inventories
is not a long-term strategy for PlantRight,
this was a rare opportunity to accelerate
the grower’s invasive phase out, while
lessening environmental impact. The
grower has stopped California sales of all
invasive plants on PlantRight’s list. And
the campaign created significant buzz
about “emerging” invasive plants.
This year, study materials and exams
for nursery staff qualifying to become
California Certified Nursery Professionals
(CCN Pros) were modified to include
invasive plant information. In addition,
PlantRight’s online trainings are now
eligible for Continuing Education Units
(CEUs) for the nearly 4,000 existing
CCN Pros. Support your local retail
nurseries’ CCN Pros!
…continued page 14
Partnering with retail nurseries
PlantRight is partnering with retail
nurseries to promote noninvasive gardening. Stores pledge not to sell any invasives
from PlantRight’s list and receive free staff
training, communications materials, and
new promotional opportunities. To date
we have enlisted over a dozen nurseries in
the pilot program, and are now looking
to take it statewide. Want to see your
local nurseries participate? Contact us and
become a PlantRight “Ambassador!”
These Mexican feathergrass (Nassella tenuissima) plants are among the thousands that
were composted at a commercial facility this summer as a result of a crowdfunding
effort to keep invasives off store shelves in California. Photo by Jan Merryweather,
Sustainable Conservation.
Cal-IPC News Fall 2014
5
Chinese pistache: Why isn’t it more invasive in California?
By Marcel Rejmánek, Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis
B
ased on the most recent taxonomic
revision (Al-Saghir and Porter 2012),
the dioecious genus pistachio (Pistacia,
Anacardiaceae, cashew or sumac family)
consists of nine species and three subspecies. In California, everybody knows
Pistacia vera, cultivated pistachio, native
to the Middle East. Two more species
are commonly cultivated in California:
Pistacia atlantica (Mt. Atlas mastic tree;
odd-pinnate leaves and 7-9 leaflets, leaf
rachis winged) and P. chinensis (Chinese
pistache; even-pinnate leaves and 10-16
leaflets, terminal leaflet commonly present
in seedlings, leaf rachis not winged). P.
atlantica, native to North Africa and
Middle East, has been reported as naturalized in several counties in California and
is characterized as “escaping” in The Jepson
Manual.
Chinese pistache is a very popular ornamental tree because of its reddish leaves
and fruits in the fall. It is among the five
or ten most commonly planted trees in
Californian cities. It was introduced to
California about 90 years ago, but it has
been planted more often recently. Native
to China, Taiwan and the Philippines,
the species was mentioned in the first
edition of The Jepson Manual (1993), but,
surprisingly, not in the second (2012).
However, it is freely regenerating along
Hangtown Creek in Placerville (M. J.
Bower, personal communication), along
Big Chico creek in Bidwell Park in Chico
(Warren Roberts, personal communication), and I am finding more and more
seedlings/saplings in western Davis.
Because spontaneous fruiting individuals are sometimes more than 100 m
from nearest planted trees, the species fits
the international definition of an invasive
woody seed plant (Richardson et al.
2000). This species has been recognized as
invasive in Australia (New South Wales),
central Texas, Oklahoma (riparian corridors around Oklahoma City), and North
Carolina (Krings 2011, Smith et al. 2008)
and was included into the global database
of invasive trees and shrubs (Rejmánek
6
Cal-IPC News Fall 2014
Extensive panicles of drupes hang from Chinese pistache, but only a relative few
contain viable seeds. Photos by author.
Spontaneus seedlings of Chinese pistache growing together with spontaneous
Japanese privet (Ligustrum lucidum) and viburnum(Viburnum tinus) in Davis.
and Richardson 2013).
Each mature female tree produces
tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of
thousands, of drupes. Seeds are apparently
dispersed by American robin, European
starlings, yellow-rumped warblers, and
cedar waxwings, and several other bird
species. Why this species was not already
more invasive in California has been a
mystery to me. To my surprise, I found
that most of the seeds of this species were
empty. This is consistently the case in
red drupes. Later I learned that deceptive
fruits (fruits containing empty seeds)
may reduce predispersal seed predation
by insects and/or birds, as has been
demonstrated for Pistacia terebinthus and
P. lentiscus (Traveset 1993, Verdú and
García-Fayos 2001). Another, mutually
not exclusive, option was that fruits with
insect predated seeds turn red (Liu et al.
2011).
After dissecting 100 red fruits from
eight trees growing in different parts of
Davis, I concluded that about 60% of
fruits had either parthenocarpic (without
fertilized ovules) or aborted seeds. About
40% of seeds in red fruits were infested
with larvae of the chalcid seed wasp,
Megastigmus pistaciae. This wasp species,
native to the Mediterranean and western
Asia, was first found in California in 1967
(Rice and Michailides 1988). Obviously,
it now provides a spontaneous biological
control of Chinese pistache in California.
Such cases of inadvertent biological
control may be underreported. The most
recent example of an accidental biological control of invasive plant species is
Australian thrips, Klamobothrips myopori,
killing Myoporum laetum trees in southern
California (Sullivan 2014).
Based on my observations, only 1 20% of seeds on P. chinensis trees in Davis
are viable; those are consistently in pale
green/metal blue drupes. Moreover, if bird
fruit-removal rates are higher for red fruits
(which is often the case), there would be
an even lower chance that this species
would spread. Nevertheless, with more
trees being planted and the maturation of
earlier planted trees, propagule pressure
will likely increase. Is it a ticking time
bomb? I wouldn’t wait. I would, at least,
limit future planting of this beautiful, but
suspicious tree. Of course, planting only
conclusively male individuals would also
be safer.
Contact Marcel at mrejmanek@ucdavis.edu.
References
AL-Sagir, M.G. and D.M. Porter. 2012.
Taxonomic revision of the genus Pistacia L.
(Anacardiaceae). American Journal of Plant
Sciences 3: 12-32.
Caron, V., Moslih, F., Ede, F.J. and D.J.
Spontaneous sapling of Chinese pistache growing together with spontaneous Ulmus
parvifolia in Davis.
Introduced eastern fox squirrel (Sciurus niger) eating drupes of introduced
Chinese pistache in the front of Walker Hall on the UC Davis campus.
O’Dowd. 2011. An accidental biological
control agent? Host specificity of the willow
sawfly Nemantus oligospilus (Hymenoptera:
Tenthredinidae) in Australia. Australian Journal of
Entomology 50: 290-295.
Krings A. 2011. Pistacia chinensis
(Anacardiaceae) naturalized in North Carolina,
U.S.A. Journal of Botanical Research Institute Texas
5: 867-869.
Liu, Q-X., Wen, L-Z., Zhou, H-J. et al.
2011. Effects of seed wasps and seedless fruits
on fruit and oil yields of Pistacia chinensis as
a biofuel tree. Acta Entomologica Sinica 54:
1133-1139.
Rejmánek, M. and D.M. Richardson. 2013.
Trees and shrubs as invasive alien species – 2013
update of the global database. Diversity and
Distributions 19: 1093-1094.
Rice, R.E. and T.J. Michailides. 1988.
Pistachio seed chalcid, Megastigmus pistaciae Walker (Hymenoptera: Torymidae), in
California. Journal of Economic Entomology 81:
1446-1449.
Richardson, D.M., Pysek, P., Rejmanek,
…continued page 14
Cal-IPC News Fall 2014
7
Cal-IPC’s 23rd Annual Symposium in Chico
“Wildland Weeds and Water”
Nearly 300 attendees journeyed to Chico State from as far
away as Utah. Photo by Frank Row.
The poster session featured 20 posters on plants
ranging from brooms to taro root. Photo by Bob Case.
Carri Pirosko, a former biologist with the CDFA noxious
weed program now working for the Oregon Department of
Agriculture, returned south to describe the importance of collaboration across orders. Photo by Bob Case.
The raffle and silent auction are one of Cal-IPC’s biggest fundraisers
of the year. This year’s eclectic assortment of items included a European
river cruise, Patagonia jackets, earrings made from fossilized walrus teeth,
and a bushel of organic pears! Photo by Bob Case.
Gina Darin and
former staffperson
Heather DeQuincy
were two of the
many volunteers
who helped make
the Symposium run
smoothly. Photo by
Bob Case.
Jim Dempsey of State Parks won this year’s Golden
Weed Wrench for Land Manager of the Year. With
Cal-IPC President Jason Casanova and State Parks
colleagues. Photo by Bob Case.
8
Cal-IPC News Fall 2014
Congrats to this year’s
award recipients!
Jake Sigg Award for Vision and
Dedicated Service:
John Anderson, Hedgerow Farms
Wednesday’s field
course featured
instruction and
demonstration on
a variety of weed
control methods.
Photo by Bob Case.
Golden Weed Wrench Award:
Jim Dempsey, California State Parks
Ryan Jones Catalyst Award:
Joanne Drummond, Fire Safe
Council of Nevada County
Organization of the Year:
River Partners
Corpsmember of the Year:
David Huerta, San Joaquin Regional
Conservation Corps and Eric Popp,
Cal. Conservation Corps, Chico
Young Steward of the Year:
Michael Bruhn, CSU Chico
Partnership Award:
Mary Pfeiffer, Shasta County Dept.
of Agriculture and Mike Boitano,
Amador County Dept. of Agriculture
Student Paper Contest:
1st – Justin Valliere, UC Riverside
2nd – Joan Dudney, UC Berkeley
3rd – Erin Degenstein, CSU Humboldt
On the Stoney
Creek field trip,
Patrick Moran
of USDA gave
participants wasps
to release to kill that
arundo! We also
saw River Partners’
very first restoration
project. Photo by
Elizabeth Brusati.
Student Poster Contest:
Scot Parker, UC Irvine
Hotdoggin! Richard Thiel of Sequoia/
Kings Canyon National Park explains
the history of his award winning T shirt.
Photo by Bob Case.
Trish Ladd of California State Parks (left) led the field trip to Sutter Buttes, where
management includes feral pig control and cultural preservation. Photo Dana Morawitz.
Join us October 28-31, 2015, in San Diego!
Cal-IPC News Fall 2014
9
A Symposium sampler
T
his year’s Symposium featured the
usual range of great talks and posters.
Our plenary sessions with invited speakers
covered “Riparian Restoration”, “Creative
Solutions”, and “Weeds as Water
Wasters.” Presentations and abstracts
are posted at www.cal-ipc.org/symposia/
archive/2014_presentations.php. (Don’t
forget that presentations from 20 years of
Cal-IPC Symposium are available in our
online archive at www.cal-ipc.org/symposia/
archive.) Here are excerpts from a few of
this year’s presentations:
A collaborative approach to invasive
species management in the Mattole
watershed. Cassie Pinnell, Mattole
Restoration Council
The Mattole River drains 300 square
miles of northern California’s Lost Coast
region in Humboldt County. The majority of the Mattole watershed is privately
owned, and in response to a rapid decline
in watershed health from extensive
logging, the Mattole community acted in
the early 1980’s to form one of the first
community-based, watershed restoration
efforts in the Pacific Northwest. Today,
invasive species management is a large
component of the Mattole Restoration
Council’s restoration priorities, and is
included in the majority of our restoration
projects.
For our rural community, we prioritize
education and outreach on invasives,
including newsletter articles, pamphlets,
fliers, workshops, volunteer days, community meetings, weed-pulling field trips
and internships for local students. Our
Lend-A-Wrench program extends our
invasive plant removal efforts throughout
the watershed by providing landowners
with free and unlimited access to weed
wrenches and other tools. We work to
deter the establishment of invasives by
re-vegetating our restoration sites and
private and public lands with native plants
cultivated in our native plant nursery
and native grass seed and straw from our
native grass farm. By integrating multiple
funding sources, agency collaboration,
and landowner outreach, we are working
10
Cal-IPC News Fall 2014
to comprehensively target priority invasives on a watershed level.
High stakes for California rangelands
– the battle to stem the tide of invasive
plants must be a collaborative effort.
Tim Koopmann, Koopmann Ranch and
California Cattlemen’s Association
The 38 million acres of California classified as rangeland represent a major land
use component of the state. Rangelands
are home to the majority of terrestrial special status species, provide much coveted
viewshed and open space for our urban
population, play an integral role in the
collection, movement, storage, and overall
quality of surface water resources and
account for significant economic value to
the agricultural economy.
Although there are some examples of
conservation grazing reducing targeted
invasive plants, the development and
implementation of an effective rangeland
invasive weed management strategy
is hampered by a multitude of factors
including regulations, apathy, economic
constraints, biological ignorance and
public resistance. Recent severe drought
across the state is greatly affecting rangeland productivity and recent observations
indicate a highly variable effect on
medusahead and stinkwort populations.
Climate models predict shorter, more
intense rainfall seasons that will likely lead
to less certainty for rangelands and weed
control efforts.
Nitrogen deposition and invasion:
the effects of N availability and plantsoil feedback on the success of three
invasive plant species. Justin Valliere, UC
Riverside (student paper contest)
Nitrogen deposition is the input of
biologically available forms of nitrogen
from the atmosphere to the Earth’s surface. Industrial, vehicular and agricultural
emissions have dramatically increased
rates of N deposition worldwide, and this
has been identified as a driver of biodiversity loss and invasion in multiple systems.
In southern California, high levels of N
deposition have been found to increase
nonnative biomass, decrease native forb
diversity and alter mycorrhizal fungal
communities. We studied the effects of
experimental N addition on native and
nonnative vegetation in the Santa Monica
Mountains National Recreation Area,
as well as in two controlled greenhouse
experiments.
We found that N addition led to
higher nonnative cover in the field, at the
expense of native species. We also found
that both N availability and changes to
the soil microbial community influence
plant performance. Finally, our results
also indicate that increased N availability
results in increased reproductive output
in all three species. These results highlight
the important role N deposition may play
in invasion.
Precipitation and nitrogen manipulations alter post-fire recovery of coastal
sage scrub. Scot Parker, UC Irvine (student
poster contest)
Climate models project increased
aridity and precipitation variability in
southern California over the next century,
which may accelerate invasion by exotic
Eurasian grasses into coastal sage scrub
ecosystems. To test the effects of increased
nitrogen, aridity, and precipitation
variability on postfire recovery of coastal
sage in a region invaded by European
grasses, we established a precipitation and
nitrogen experiment in adjacent grassland
and coastal sage scrub communities in
Orange County, CA. We analyzed the
response of three shrub species (Acmispon
glaber, Artemisia californica, and Salvia
mellifera) to five years of these treatment
effects.
For all three species we found a
dramatic reduction in biomass in the
restricted precipitation treatments. Our
results indicate that urbanization threatens
to alter fire succession patterns by displacing nitrogen fixers such as A. glaber, and
that prolonged drought threatens coastal
sage scrub. Both factors individually favor
invasive grasses, and in combination their
future effect could be dramatic.
Policy Update
Encinitas restricts weeds in landscaping
E
ncinitas, on the coast in northern San
Diego County, passed an ordinance
this summer that helps limit invasive
plants in landscaping and on city property. The policy is based on an extensive
list of invasive plants developed by the
county for its Water Efficient Landscape
Design Manual.
According to the new policy, the city
will not use any listed plants on public
property and rights-of-way, including
parks, trails, medians, and easements. In
addition, new landscaping projects (on
any property) that require CEQA and/
or design review permits cannot use the
listed plants.
Long-time Cal-IPC member and
Encinitas resident Jesse Giessow has been
part of a task force working to develop
the ordinance over the last 5 years. Her
hope, she says, is that the ordinance
“puts the city in the role of setting a good
example, and really limits the potential
for these plants to spread into our vulnerable natural areas.”
Also this summer, AB 2470 was
signed into law. Though the bill chiefly
Cal-IPC goes to ESA
C
al-IPC sponsored an evening mixer
at the Ecological Society of America
(ESA) meeting in Sacramento in August.
ESA is the world’s largest organization for
professional ecologists. The conference
featured a week of talks, poster sessions,
field trips, and special events. The mixer
aimed to bring together attendees working on all types of invasive species. We
had a great turnout, with attendees from
as far away as Great Britain and Portugal,
Former board member Carla D’Antonio
of UC Santa Barbara gave a brief welcome, recalling that invasive species were
barely mentioned at ESA when she first
started attending and compared that to
the 2014 meeting with multiple sessions
on all aspects of invasive species ecology
aims to clarify seed laws, it also contains a
clause that municipalities cannot regulate
plants without consent of the state’s
Secretary of Agriculture. This clause aims
to prevent a legal patchwork of different
regulations across the state (for instance,
for what plants can be sold). Encinitas is
not restricting sale, so it’s unclear whether
the new law pertains to them, but the law
also grandfathers in actions implemented
before Jan. 1, 2015, so the Encinitas
ordinance is unaffected regardless. It is
unclear at this point how this law may
affect future efforts at the local level in
other communities.
AB2402 for WMAs signed into law
Cal-IPC’s bill for Weed Management
Areas, supported by over 150 conservation organizations across the state, has
been signed into law by the governor, but
without any funding attached.
Without the funding, which was the
main purpose of the legislation, the bill
made several useful changes to the code
that defines how the WMA program is set
up. The bill provides a higher percentage
of the funding to CDFA so that some
weed biocontrol work can continue,
and it also allocates a higher percentage
to research and prioritization so that
organizations like Cal-IPC can help local
partners design and track projects.
The language now points to the impact of invasive plants on water resources,
and requires that the program take these
impacts into account when determining
project priorities.
Cal-IPC continues to actively pursue
avenues for getting funding for Weed
Management Areas into the state budget.
A current idea under discussion would
engage multiple agencies, such as Dept. of
Water Resources and Calfire, in contributing support.
AB2193 passes, will streamline
small restoration projects
Under this new law, the California
Department of Fish and Wildlife can
approve voluntary, small-scale (less than
5 acre) habitat restoration projects in 60
days, reducing the potential bureaucratic
load on landowners who want to undertake such restoration. For more information see www.suscon.org/watersheds/
AB2193.php.
and management.
A few attendees
volunteered to
pursue creation of a
Biological Invasions
Section within ESA.
Next year’s conference will be ESA’s
100th Anniversary in
Baltimore.
Board alumni Tom
Dudley (seated,
facing camera), Carla
D’Antonio and
Carla Bossard (seated
at right) attended
the mixer. The
mixer was suggested
by members of
Cal-IPC’s student
chapter.
Cal-IPC News Fall 2014
11
Hot Shot: Wildland firefighters conduct a
prescribed burn of European beachgrass (Ammophila
arenaria) along the coast at Vandenberg Air Force
Base. Photo by Morgan Ball.
2014 Photo Contest
professional and
Spraying cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) near
volcanic thermal vents, Lassen National Park.
Photo by Thomas Reyes.
Chainsawing Arundo: CDF-Calf Fire conservation
crew members remove Arundo donax in a joint
project with BLM, San Benito Co. Public Works,
San Benito Ag Commissioner’s Office, and USDA
on Las Voboras Creek near Hollister. Photo by Ron
Ross.
Thank you to Brianna Richardson, Morgan
Ball and David McNeill for organizing this
year’s Photo Contest!
12
Cal-IPC News Fall 2014
Fourth graders from Culver City remove iceplant
(Carpobrotus edulis) at Ballona Wetlands. Photo by
Shawn Kelly.
shows the best of
volunteer stewardship
A Boy Scout volunteer removes French broom
(Genista monspessulana) from the Mt. Tamalpais
watershed. Photo by Suzanne Whelan.
Castor bean (Ricinus communis) along a dry
creek on the Angeles National Forest. Photo by
David Bakke.
Arundo puller extraordinare: After initial work by
Shelterbelt Builders, volunteers have removed Arundo
donax resprouts from an important serpentine seep
in San Mateo County. Ken Himes displays his prize
excavation. After the Arundo was removed, a rare
Asteraceae moved back into the area.
Photo by Lech Naumovich.
Cal-IPC News Fall 2014
13
Volunteers from page 4…
PlantRight from page 5…
was the weed wrench—with pleas for
help in getting supply going again (a
business opportunity for Cal-IPC?) [Note:
Extractigators are similar, available, and
have gotten good reviews from Ken Moore.]
But answers ranged widely, centering
around simplicity and effectiveness. One
recommended “repurposed household
gear—chopsticks and forks for planting,
for example, make people feel at home
and comfortable with their abilities.” At
the other end were fans of “the good old
shovel. It doesn’t intimidate volunteers,
and it’s effective” and Pulaskis: “all
purpose and it’s bomb proof.
Who volunteers? The most common
answer by far was retired adults, about
the same as all youth through college age.
A third listed “high- and middle-school
age,” about a quarter listed “college age,”
and about a tenth mentioned younger
kids as among their top three sources.
Service required by school or court didn’t
seem major.
To reach these volunteers, email was
most commonly reported as effective,
followed by online listings. Social media
ranked much lower, about the same as flyers or handbills, contacting or partnering
with other groups, or word of mouth.
How do you get volunteers to return?
Most often cited: A prompt thank-you
and invitation to come back! But there
were dozens of tips, ranging from “I show
them as many natural items as I can find”
to “serve beer with the food.”
Asked what volunteers got from the
experience, the most frequent answers
were “learning about and enjoying
nature,” “learning about and being
motivated on environmental issues,” and
“nice social experience, work in good
company.”
Want to know more, including questions respondents wished we had asked?
The full report is online at www.fivecreeks.
org/info/VolunteerSurvey.pdf.
nurseries were selling Mexican Feather
Grass (Nassella [or Stipa] tenuissima)
in 2013, compared to 38% in 2014.
Because nurseries often order their plants
months in advance, there was little time
to engage the industry about Nassella
tenuissima prior to the data collection for
this survey. View the full results at
www.plantright.org/spring-nursery-survey.
Susan Schwartz is president of 18-year-old,
all-volunteer Friends of Five Creeks. Find
out about F5C at www.fivecreeks.org, and
reach Susan at f5creeks@gmail.com.
14
Cal-IPC News Fall 2014
Become an Ambassador
You can help our efforts by becoming
a PlantRight “Ambassador” and informing
local nurseries, garden groups, and others
about invasive ornamental plant issues
and opportunities. Participation begins
with a free, online Continuing Education
module that takes about 30 minutes to
complete, and includes free materials
for spreading the word. PlantRight is
especially excited to connect with Weed
Management Areas (WMAs) around the
state to discuss how retail nursery engagement might support their efforts for
invasives prevention. If you are a WMA
member, let’s chat! To begin, visit www.
plantright.org/continuing-education.
Follow PlantRight online
To learn more about PlantRight’s efforts and resources, visit www.plantright.
org. You can follow PlantRight at www.
facebook.com/PlantRight, or contact us at
plantright@suscon.org.
Chinese pistache from page 7…
M., Barbour, M.G., Paneta, F.D. and C.J. West.
2000. Naturalization and invasion of alien
plants: concepts and definitions. Diversity and
Distributions 6: 93-107.
Smith, J.M.B., S. Borgis, and V. Seifert.
2008. Studies in urban ecology: the first wave
of biological invasion by Pistacia chinensis in
Armidale, New South Wales, Australia. Australian
Geographical Studies 38:263–274.
Sulivan, J.J. 2014. Inadvertent biological
control: an Australian thrips killing an invasive
New Zealand tree in California. Biological
Invasions 16: 445-453.
Traveset, A. 1993. Deceptive fruits reduce
seed predation by insects in Pistacia terebinthus L.
(Anacardiaceae). Evolutionary Ecology 7: 357-361.
Verdú, M. and P. Garcia-Fayos. 2001. The
effect of deceptive fruits on predispersal seed
predation by birds in Pistacia lentiscus. Plant
Ecology 156: 245-248.
2014 Symposium Sponsors
PLATINUM
ACS Habitat Management
California Association of Local
Conservation Corps
California Dept. of Water Resources
Pacific Gas & Electric Company
GOLD
The Nature Conservancy
USDA Forest Service
SILVER
Hedgerow Farms
Olofson Environmental, Inc.
Shelterbelt Builders, Inc.
BRONZE
California Wildlife Foundation
Habitat West, Inc.
RECON Environmental / RECON
Native Plants, Inc.
PlantRight (Sustainable Conservation)
GREEN
California Association of RCDs
California Conservation Corps, Chico
California Native Grasslands Assoc.
Chapman University
Dendra, Inc.
Driwater
Forester’s Co-Op
ICF International
Marin Municipal Water District
Northern California Botanists
Restoration Design Group
SERCAL
The Watershed Nursery
Raffle/Auction Donors
Thank you to all of the donors who
provided items for the raffle and silent
auction, and to Symposium attendees
for supporting Cal-IPC’s programs by
purchasing tickets or bidding! Thanks
especially to donors of auction items:
Baja Outdoor Activities Bill Rosenberg
Disneyland Resort Doug Gibson
Extractigator Island Packers Markos
Alexandrous Mystery Ranch Oxford
University Press Patagonia Peter
Dixon/Catalina Island Conservancy
Rusack Santa Catalina Island Vineyards
Viking Cruises
Thank You for Supporting our Work!
Supporting Members
Organizational Members
[New and renewing]
Stewardship Circle ($1,000)
Edith Allen, Riverside
Jason Casanova, La Crescenta
Annette Wheeler, Los Altos Hills
Champion ($500)
Mike Kelly, San Diego
Steve Schoenig, Davis
Partner ($250)
Pamela Frost, Corvallis, Oregon
Marc Lea, San Luis Obispo
Kate Symonds, Cotati
.
Your memberships keep
Cal-IPC strong. Thank you!
In the next year, Cal-IPC will…
Fund high-priority on-the-ground
projects in the Sierra and elsewhere,
Organize our 24th annual Symposium, to be held in San Diego,
Maintain CalWeedMapper and
WHIPPET onine tools, and
Advocate for WMA funding.
Individual Membership
Stewardship Circle
$1000
Champion
$ 500
Partner
$ 250
Professional
$ 100
Friend
$ 50
Student
$ 25
Members receive Cal-IPC News and
discounts on Symposium registration.
Supporters:
ACS Habitat Management
Cabrillo National Monument
City of Walnut Creek
CNPS Sierra Foothills Chapter
County of Lake Agricultural
Commissioner’s Office
Elkhorn Slough Foundation
Inyo County Water Department
Land Trust of Santa Cruz Coun
Natomas Basin Conservancy
Orange County Parks
Placer County Department of
Agriculture
Sacramento Area Flood Control
Agency
San Joaquin Regional Conservation
Corps
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden
Sierra Foothill Conservancy
Sweetwater Authority
The Nature Conservancy-California
Tule River Indian Tribe
Organizational Membership
Benefactor
Patron
Sustainer
Supporter
$2000
$1000
$ 500
$ 250
Pro membership for 8
Pro membership for 6
Pro membership for 4
Pro membership for 3
Quarter-page
Eighth-page
Logo
Name
Organizations receive Professional membership for individuals
and newsletter recognition for 12 months.
See www.cal-ipc.org for full membership details
Cal-IPC News Fall 2014
15
Non-Profit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
Berkeley, CA
Permit No. 1435
California
Invasive Plant
Council
1442-A Walnut Street, #462
Berkeley, CA 94709
ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
Check your membership
renewal date! Renew at
www.cal-ipc.org
The WILDLAND WEED CALENDAR
CNPS Conservation Conference
January 13-17, San Jose
www.cnps.org
Great Basin Consortium
February 17-19, Boise
environment.unr.edu/consortium/
Science for Parks Summit
March 25-27, UC Berkeley
parksforscience.berkeley.edu
California Weed Science Society
January 21-23, Santa Barbara
www.cwss.org/conference
National Invasive Species Awareness Week
February 22-28,
Washington, D.C. and nationwide!
www.nisaw.org
SERCAL
May 12-14, San Diego
www.sercal.org
Society for Range Management
January 31-February 6, Sacramento
rangelands.org/sacramento2015
Tamarix Coalition
February 10-12, Albuquerque, NM
www.tamariskcoalition.org
Invasive Weeds Awareness Day at the
Capitol
mid-March, Sacramento
www.cal-ipc.org
Ecology & Management of Alien Plant
Invasions
September 20-24, Waikoloa, HI
www.emapi2015.hawaii-conference.com
Cal-IPC Symposium
October 28-31, San Diego
www.cal-ipc.org/symposia
“The vast majority of conservationists… don’t even self-identify as conservationists. But if
you would rather that bulldozers not raze the woods, desert or beach you love, then you are a
conservationist. If you would rather that the tiger or bog turtle not go extinct, then you are a
conservationist. And, if you like the idea that some places should be truly wild and free, then you
are a conservationist.”
~ Emma Marris and Greg Aplet, “How to Mend the Conservation Divide,” New York Times, Nov. 1, 2014