June 12^th 2000 Meeting, 1 to 3 pm, FPUD Board Room

Goal of the WMA is to focus weed control on a watershed basis and find funding opportunities. On the Santa Margarita Watershed there have been funding pools put together using an in-lieu fee program where mitigation for small temporary wetland impacts is used for Arundo control. On the San Luis Rey watershed we have received some initial funding from a PTI initiative to allow invasive non-native plant control to begin from the top to the bottom of the watershed. They key is to enfranchise all the cities, groups and private landowners who live in the watershed.

This WMA covers the Santa Margarita and San Luis Rey watersheds in north county, and there is also a county-wide WMA that is initially focusing on tall whitetop (perennial pepperweed).

Brief introduction and description of non-native invasive plants that are of most concern to the WMA. These include:

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.

Mapping is important as a first step before control. It tells us where the plant is located and the extent of the infestation, helps break up the infestation into different projects, allows prioritization of areas, and helps to rank the different types of plants and to determine how much are able to control with funding available. Mapping helps to put together grant proposals because can say how much of plant want to treat, exactly where it is, and who's property it is on. Mapping is also important in the permitting process because are able to tell regulators exactly where are going to be working, who's land plant is on, etc. Lastly having the plant maps is important for re-treatment efforts because allows us to know exactly where to go back to for followup and this is important for an effective long-term control program.

Arundo mapping has been done for most of the Santa Margarita Watershed and all of the San Luis Rey Watershed. Arundo mapping on the San Luis Rey was done by the WMA and was funded by the San Luis Rey Watershed Council. For other plant species there are scattered surveys.

Arundo control has been happening on the SMR since the early 1990s. Camp Pendleton, Mission RCD, TNC, SDSU started a program more or less working from top to bottom of the watershed. About 500 acres of Arundo have been treated. There are about 200 acres of Arundo left on the SMR that is slated to be removed in the next couple of years. Bob Wheeler (Elsinore-Murrieta-Anza RCD) notes that there is some Arundo present on Cottonwood Creek above Vail Lake that is not indicated on the maps being displayed. This infestation and other areas in the upper watershed still need to be mapped and this is planned for this year using a grant Cleveland Natl Forest received from NFWF. It is important for participants and other people in the communities to make the WMA aware of infestations of target exotic plants that they know of that may have been missed in surveying efforts. This is especially true for plants in upland areas.

Tall whitetop (Lepidium latifolium) is presently known to occur at one location in the San Luis Rey watershed at San Luis Rey Downs. This plant is the focus of the county-wide WMA started by the County Ag. Office. We need to keep our eyes open for this plant so that we can keep it under control in the SLR watershed. The WMA has contacted the owner and he has tentatively agreed to removed this infestation. On the Santa Margarita whitetop has been found in many locations, both in the upper watershed around Temecula and Murrieta and in the lower watershed on Camp Pend. The County Ag Office is going to treat one of the largest infestations at the intersection of De Luz Rd and Sandia Crk Rd in Fallbrook that is probably the main infection source for the populations on Camp Pend. Camp Pend. has initiated a control program this year for plants found on the Base.

On the San Luis Rey watershed there has been almost no Arundo (or other exotics) control. There have been a few small Arundo control projects, but they have not been followed up on, so Arundo has grown back. There are about 490 acres of Arundo (at least 50% cover) in the watershed that needs to be treated - most in the main river, but also quite a lot in the tributaries. Tributaries can be broken off into separate projects. From Interstate 15 upwards there is scattered Arundo and this is one of the initial projects of the WMA - to control this scattered Arundo so control projects can begin to proceed downstream. Tributaries can be treated before the main river channel, but the main river channel should not be treated unless the tributaries feeding into it have been cleared.

We envision the WMA as a partner with many different entities in weed control projects and as a player that expedites the process of control projects. We can be partners on grants, hire contractors etc. but would also just like to facilitate watershed based control. The WMA is going to carry out some small initial projects to get things rolling (Arundo control on upper San Luis Rey and Genista control on private land adjacent to Fallbrook Naval Weapons Station). Some projects that the WMA would like to initiate are Arundo control in tributaries to the San Luis Rey. Each tributary lends itself to being a separate project - and we are hoping we can pull together groups of landowners to apply for grants for Arundo control on Ostrich Creek, Live Oak Creek, Keys Creek, Moosa Creek, and Dye Creek.

How are we going to get these projects going? Grants are a main source of funding, but the problem with most of them is that they required non-federal matching funding. This means that we need a lot of partnerships to supply the matching funds or in-kind contributions (labor, supplies, etc.), especially for large projects. We are hoping to put together an in-lieu fee program for San Luis Rey like on the Santa Margarita river. Verne Lauvitzen (Senator Ray Haynes Office) suggests that Prop 12 and 13 money can be used as non-fed matching money for grants.

The most effective time to treat Arundo with herbicides is when the Carbon/Nitrogen Ratio plateaus - the leaves are still photosynthesizing but they are not growing anymore so the photosynthate is transported into the rhizome structures. If people who are going to control Arundo using herbicide send Dr. Wijte samples (she has instructions on this) then she can let you know when the plants reach the point where herbicide will be most effective. In exchange for providing the controller with information on the best time to spray, Dr. Wijte will gain valuable data. She would like people sending samples to provide some information on the location and appearance of the Arundo plants the samples come from. For more information contact: Dr. Antonia Wijte (565)985-4917, wijte@csulb.edu.

Role of WMA - to pull projects together, not always to be the lead group. Map and monitor so have good standardized methods, aid in permitting process, disseminate info through website/outreach/education projects.

Bob Eisele (County Ag) says that the main problem he has seen with many groups/projects is that there is not a permanent funding source to keep the group going - non-native control requires multiple treatments to be completely killed.

Tony Wijte (CSU Long Beach) thinks that one of the really important elements of Team Arundo and Team Arundo del Sureno was Valerie Vartanian - and that this indicates that it is important to have an energetic, passionate person that can work well with different groups to keep things going. Once Valerie left Tony feels that the organization has not been as effective.

On the other hand, Leigh Sevy (Cleveland Natl Forest) points out that the fact that Team Arundo relied heavily on one person was partly what resulted in the organization being less effective once that key person was gone. If an organization is directed by a panel of dedicated folks then it is more likely to keep functioning effectively even with some people's departure.

For a long-term, effective weed control effort Leigh Sevy suggests that the WMA really needs to stress education and prevention. Over time new invasive species are going to appear - as an example, diffuse spotted knapweed has been found at Palomar Mtn. One way to increase awareness of exotic plant issues and also to increase the exposure of the WMA might be to consider television time, radio time, newspaper articles, and articles in local magazines. Oceanside Magazine put out by the city would run article about workshops, the WMA, etc..

Part of the WMA's role is to be a repository of info on exotic weed control and projects that have been carried out. Other agencies could also be involved in this - such as City of Oceanside - and maybe SANDAG should be approached to see if they can set up an exotic weed repository for the county??

To allow for uniform mapping methods it was suggested by Tony Wijte that the WMA puts the methodology used for plant distribution mapping on the web site.

Elsinore-Anza-Murrieta RCD has found that targeting particular landowners that are receptive and using them as an example to the rest of the community has worked quite well.

Restoration of areas where Arundo has been removed may be desirable/necessary in areas where the Arundo was acting as a screen for private landowners, and in native habitat where natural recovery may be slow to occur. Also, in some areas where Arundo has been removed a secondary non-native invader has moved in (e.g. Lepidium) and so in some cases it may be beneficial to get native plants started right away. Carol Bell (TNC) is setting up a nursery (at Santa Rosa Plateau) and a source of dedicated volunteers and is willing to use some of these resources towards re-vegetation projects. She already has some volunteers from Bonsall, Vista etc. that would be helpful people to have in place for Arundo control in these areas.

If Arundo received the proposed wildland noxious weed classification - does this change anything in terms of control/funding?

Thomas Porter (CDF) suggests that some exotic plant control work could potentially be 'piggybacked' on to other projects, such as CDF's Vegetation Management Funding - where they remove some vegetation prior to burning. Could this be used as non-fed matching funds?

Suggestions for in-kind contributions for grant matching: labor of DUI offenders (Bill Tidwell on Santa Ana does this), CNPS, local schools, Team Stream (TNC)

Nursery work/volunteer labor through TNC.

Permitting - a MAJOR issue. May become even more difficult with proposed protected habitat areas for arroyo toad (see link on main page to newspaper article on this issue). City of Oceanside (Jerry Hittleman) is doing exotic removal in channel area of San Luis Rey and are in the process of getting 404 permits (and prob. Streambed alteration permits too) for this work. He will check if the city may be able to extend the coverage of its permits to some of the riparian area outside of where they are going to doing control. He is working with Robert Smith of LA ACOE.