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permaculture - Re: Re:Keylines

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  • From: "John Schinnerer" <johns@eco-living.net>
  • To: "permaculture" <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Re:Keylines
  • Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 18:33:32 -0800


Aloha,

> Today its very difficult as government water authorities and downstream
> irrigators are making it real hard to establish upper catchment keyline
> systems due to over regulation and laws that take away the landholders
> ownership of water that falls on their land, and will likely require
> licensing and payment for access rights.

Dunno about down under, but I reckon in the USA one could simply cut the
keylines on one's land - no need to tell anyone that it was any different
than "plowing" or whatever it is that those farm folks do when they're
pulling stuff behind their tractors... ;-) Building ponds and other
obvious catchments could be a bureaucratic hassle, but "plowing" that just
happened to be keyline cutting would probably slide under the radar...?

It's a double-edged sword...if someone wants to put a cynaide leach pit
upstream of me I sure hope someone takes away their "water rights!" Either
no rights for landowners or all rights for landowners cuts both ways. Much
of the downstream destruction from old-growth clearcutting in the
headwaters groves in N. CA. is due to the USA culture of "it's my land and
I'll do whatever I please" regardless of consequences on others' land and
in larger ecosystems.

> ...and that
> environmental flows to creeks and rivers are compromised by the
significant
> reduction in runoff that pattern cultivation creates.

Well, that's a possibility...? Ultimately, how is a bunch of small
landowners capturing most upstream water different than one or two big
agribusinesses diverting most upstream water? It's a shared resource, like
it or not, but that's not the cultural bias in the USA (or in Australia
either, I reckon... ;-).

John Schinnerer
---------------------------
Cultural & Ecological Designing
Human Habitat Design
johns@eco-living.net
http://eco-living.net







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