permaculture

["Marsha Hanzi" <hanzibra@svn.com.br>]

 

I have obeserved a dilemma which arises for vegetarian communities:

 

It is not Natures "nature" to  let abundance hang around.  As all in Nature is recyvled, as soon as there is abundance, a large quantity of native fauna begin to appear to "recycle " that abundance... I have seen three times now  that when the system comes on full steam,  wild families begin to be a "problem".  Often they are animals , today rare or even threatened by extinction, which grow in such incredible numbers, fed by the abundance of fruits, corn, sweet potato, etc.  that these systems produce, that the communitites  are faced with the necessity of being the "large predator"  and keeping the fauna thus in check ( most of these fauna are edible, they are wild pigs, deer,   pig-size rodents, enormous lizards).  Or then let all the fields go until nature's large predatores-- usually puma-like wildcats-  appear...Which means buying food in the local market.

 

 

The local deer took about three years to learn to eat Ernst Gotsch's pineapples, but now they relish them!  From Nature;'s point of view, that's the most efficient and logical thing to do with an abundance of pineapples in a forest.  But we just might have OTHER plans for them...

 

One of the communities I  will be visiting in May is losing all to monkeys...That's an even harder dilemma...

 

Marsha Hanzi

Instituto de Permacultura da Bahia

http://www.geocities.com/oliarte

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Vint Lawrence

To: permaculture

Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2000 7:52 PM

Subject: Re: bear and or mountain lion

  . (Note to Verne L. Chinampas - we are surrounded by Santa Fe National Forest, thousands of acres of high grade zone 5 habitat. We occupy the "edge" of that zone and - as we are generating greater abundance at times than zone 5 - we attract the bears.)