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RE: Natives vs. non-natives, long-term

Along the lines (and in support of) Patrick's discussion, I heard an 
interesting talk this summer at the prairie conference about Louisiana 
prairies being (virtually? completely?) only found along railroad R-O-W's.

In a related vein, I've heard that Union-Pacific has become VERY serious 
about folks being on the R-O-W's. Has anybody run into this problem? We 
have some nice prairie remnants around Ames on the R-O-W's, and I don't 
like the idea that they are now off-limits. I could understand getting 
"caught" on the actual grade/ballast/tracks, but I've heard that folks have 
been at least lectured, if not actually fined/arrested, for just being 
anywhere on the R-O-W. If this is the case, do you think we stand any 
chance of trying to reason with the U-Pac "powers that be"?

Deb
At 05:02 PM 10/09/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>In this discussion one obvious influence that has not been mentioned is the
>roadside management in the different regions.  In the more metropolis area
>of southeast Wisconsin, it is my opinion that more extensive use of chemical
>control, regrading roads, and to some extent the edge encroachment of
>farmlands on road right of ways have been used than in other less urbanized
>areas.  It is always interesting to me to take a trip from the southern
>boundary of the state north and see the gradual change in abundance of
>native vegetation.  This seeems to me to be directly correlated to the
>population of an area.  There will obviously be exceptions to this
>generalization, but on the whole I think it works.
>
>The other part of the influence that European settlers have had on this is
>the fragmentation of the land: subdividing and subduing the land to our
>wants.  This also goes along with the road grading projects, but it also
>extends to all of the areas that would have been seed sources for these
>areas once the regrading was done.  A prime example of this kind of plant
>reintroduction is evidenced in the railroad right-of-ways.  Quite typically
>these ROWs have a high frequency of native vegetation.  People have
>accounted for this in several ways.  When the rails were constructed in the
>mid to late 1800s there was ample surrounding vegetation to revegetate the
>disturbed areas which were then left alone for the most part except for the
>occassional burning of the ROW due to embers falling off the steam
>locomotives or sparks from whatever metal parts happened to be dragging from
>the train. There was very little use of herbicides on these ROWs and they
>would typically not have been reseeded with Eurasian seed. Another dispersal
>mechanism for these native plants was to hitch a ride on the trains and
>disperse over a larger range than were typically present. Thereby filling in
>recent ROW construction areas.  This is again a gross generalization, but
>again I think this holds true on many ROWs.  This contrasts the local
>development of roads, farmlands, utility right-of-ways that quite typically
>employed herbicides and reseeding techniques on a more localized scale to
>manipulate the land immediately surrounding a given community with more
>frequent intervention than the railroads.
>
>Patrick Daniels
>Green County, WI
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-prairie@mallorn.com [o*@mallorn.com]On
>Behalf Of Robert Wernerehl
>Sent: Monday, October 09, 2000 2:55 PM
>To: prairie@mallorn.com
>Subject: Re: Natives vs. non-natives, long-term
>
>
>John,
>You live in the wrong part of the state (just teasing). We have native
>grasses all over the roadside here by Arena and Spring Green. The soil is
>sandy here and that helps. One thing Wis. roadside don't have that the
>native grasses need is fire!
>Bob Wernerehl
>Iowa County, WI
>
>At 11:29 AM 10/09/2000 -0500, you wrote:
> >
> >I'm puzzled by the fact that I don't think I've ever seen, say,
> >little or big bluestem along a roadside here in southeastern
> >Wisconsin.
> >
> >In recent years, I have seen them as far out as a half-mile
> >from purposeful prairie plantings, so the seed will spread!
> >But I don't think I've ever spotted them in a place where
> >I subsequently don't find a nearby preserve.
> >
> >Are the non-native grasses introduced 100 or 150 years ago
> >so strong that they out-competed and eliminated such natives
> >in every instance, in every nook and cranny I pass?
> >
> >What does this say about today's plantings - are they forever
> >doomed to be "hot house flowers" that can't stand up to the
> >others in the long term?
> >
> >- John
> >
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