On the San Luis Rey watershed (359,000 acres) all Arundo donax has been mapped. This was completed by the WMA is Spring 2000 through funding from the San Luis Rey Watershed Council. This information is available on line at the WMA's web page as a GIS coverage or JPEG image. For details on the method used for this mapping, please contact Jason Giessow (jgiessow@home.com).

On the Santa Margarita watershed Arundo on the lower watershed has been mapped (approx. from Temecula downstream), but Arundo sources in the upper watershed have not yet been mapped. This mapping should be complete in Summer 2001.

In terms of Lepidium latifolium (perennial pepperweed), mapping is incomplete. All known sources have been recorded, but there has not been a comprehensive and thorough survey on either watershed. The plan is for this to be done in 2001 for the Santa Margarita watershed hopefully using a group of volunteers.

The Arundo mapping on the San Luis Rey watershed has allowed the WMA to define manageable Arundo control project areas that fit in with the watershed approach. In Fall 2000 the WMA carried out Arundo control on the uppermost infested portion of the San Luis Rey River. Approx. 4 acres of solid Arundo were treated along 5.8 miles of the river from Wilderness Gardens to Hansen Aggregates using funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant. Working from the top to the bottom of the watershed, the next Arundo targets are: Double Canyon, Live Oak Creek, Keys Creek, Moosa Canyon, and Ostrich Creek, in addition to the main stem of the San Luis Rey. Funding to treat of some of these areas have been or will be requested in grant proposals the WMA has/will submit. Specifically, for the second year of funding through the Natl Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the WMA requested funding to control Arundo on the main stem of the San Luis Rey River from Hansen Aggregates (i.e. where we left off in 2000) to Interstate 15 (approx. 7 acres of Arundo on 3.4 river miles). The WMA has applied for two Environmental Enhancement and Mitigation grants to treat Arundo and do some replanting with native shrubs and trees. The two project sites are on Ostrich Creek (from Fallbrook to Bonsall) and on the San Luis Rey River from Interstate 15 down to the town of Bonsall.

On the Santa Margarita watershed the WMA is managing several Arundo control projects. Approx. 4 acres of Arundo will hopefully be treated in Murrieta Creek in Temecula using money from an ACOE In-Lieu fee mitigation program (this may not occur until next year) This program also supported the removal in Fall 2000 of Arundo scattered within the town of Fallbrook The scattered Arundo present from the confluence downstream through the SDSU Field Station a was treated in Fall 2000 using funds from a FWS grant. This grant will also support the removal of Arundo in Rainbow Creek, which may still occur this year, but if not will be carried out in 2001. Lastly, a thick infestation of Arundo on the Santa Margarita River that was surrounded by treated areas up and downstream was treated in Fall 2000 through support from MCB Camp Pendleton (this was about 11 acres along 2 river miles).

• San Diego County Watershed Forum 2000, April 2000 (Local)
• San Luis Rey Watershed Council presentation, May 2000 (Local)
• CalEPPC Symposium, October 2000, presented 2 posters (State)
• CDFA Remote Sensing Workshop (sent poster), Oct 2000 (State)
• CDFA Statewide WMA meeting, Oct 2000 (State)
• WMA meetings, May and Nov 2000 (Local)

Interacted with over 30 private landowners in Fallbrook area to

gain permission for the WMA to control Arundo on their property

Information available on the web site (http: smslsrwma.org)

Questions directed to WMA's email (wma@smslrwma.org)

Web page is at: http://smslrwma.org

The five basic sections of the web page are: 1) meetings and other events - WMA meetings, workshops, meeting minutes, etc., 2) Information on the WMA organization: goals, participants, email listserv, 3) Documents produced by the WMA: e.g. grant proposals, 4) Information on plants with a link for each species, 5) Relevant links to other web pages that have useful info. In the future there will also be a section on different funding opportunities for exotic plant control, and a sort of library section with articles, notes, essays, proceedings etc. that relate to exotic plant control.

Each plant page will have information about it's biology (physical description, photos, reproductive method) and control methods (pros and cons of different control methods). There are downloadable distribution maps of available distributions of each plant within the two watersheds as GIS layers or JPEG images. There is a summary of plant control projects within the WMA jurisdiction/county and within the state. Lastly there are links to other web pages with info specifically on the plant. For some species, such as Lepidium latifolium, there is an informative poster that can be downloaded and used to distribute to help people identify the plant and report locations of it to the WMAs.

National Fish and Wildlife Foundation 'Pulling Together Initiative' Grant: The WMA received this grant last year and reapplied for a second year of funding. The grant was submitted on 11/7/00 and should be announced 3/31/01. We applied for a total of $41,000 from NFWF for operation of the WMA, Arundo control (on San Luis Rey River from Hansen Aggregates downstream to Interstate 15), Lepidium latifolilum surveying, and research.

EPA Watershed Assistance Grant: The WMA applied for $20,000 - grant was submitted on 8/10/00 and announcements were supposed to be made by 11/10/00, so we presume that we probably did not get awarded this grant. This grant was mostly for support of the WMA and educational projects.

Environmental Enhancement and Mitigation Grant: The WMA submitted two separate grants for $250,000 - one for Ostrich Creek and one for the San Luis Rey River (from Interstate 15 downstream to Bonsall). Both projects involve Arundo control and some replanting with native shrubs and trees. Grants were submitted on 11/17/00 and announcements are supposed to be made in the end of April 2001.

Urban Stream Renewal Grants: This grant is through DWR using Prop 13 money. The WMA will apply for funds to remove Arundo and carry out some native replanting in Live Oak Creek (tributary to San Luis Rey River). This grant will probably be due sometime from Jan-March 2001.

Prop 13: There are various RFPs that have been put out for Prop 13 that we are currently reviewing and that we will apply for. One area that we might apply for is Keys Creek.

CA Riparian Conservation Program (Wildland Conservation Board): We don't have all the information on this grant yet, but it looks promising!

Senate Bill 1740: This is a bill to funds WMAs in the state - $37,000 will got to each county-based WMA. We may get a portion of the San Diego county WMA.

Mitigation Bank Development: The WMA will work with ACOE, Fish and Wildlife Service, Fish and Game and other entities to try and set up a mitigation bank to be used for Arundo control on the San Luis Rey watershed. We will also work on creating an endowment fund to maintain the WMA and to cover long-term monitoring and re-treatment costs.

A draft MOU was handed out for all to review. After discussion we decided that the best was to proceed was to allow time for everyone to review the MOU and then for people to get back to us with comments and changes. We will make these changes and send out a finalized version for acceptance. Once this finalized version is agreed upon we will sent it out to everyone with a signature page. Each group will sign the signature page and return it to the WMA and we will compile all the signature pages into one document. Click to download the draft MOU (Word document).

We discussed the MOU as mentioned above.

We talked briefly on biocontrol of tamarisk and Arundo. There are several biocontrol agents for tamarisk (for more details contact Carl Bell, UC Cooperative Extension) and Arundo. The biocontrol process for Arundo is in the beginning stages and finding agents for grasses is generally harder than for dicots.

Flammability of Arundo is partly due to the thick thatch that stays off the ground and so remains dry and burns well. Also the height of the Arundo allows flames to move upwards.