permaculture

[Claude Genest <genest@together.net>]

> Hi Mark,
 I don't think it's fair to compare degraded agricultural land left to its
own devices "in the name of preservation" with a well thought out and
executed food forest/agroforestry system.

Mollison says the designer can recline, not "walk away and expect a paradise
to grow there". A key component is to get the ground planted up and under
control as a measure against invasive/undesirable plants. If the area is
fully planted into, it only goes to follow that there will be that much less
room for invasives to invade, no ?

We are a part of the package, of course, and I do like it very much. I can't
imagine going through all the trouble of planting a garden of eden and then
walking away from it. But even if I did, and the whole thing was overrun
with "garbage" trees, So what ?! If the laternative is a hayfield/lawn, what
an ecological service we've provided !  One species' garbage is another
species' gold.... When life gives you lemons, make lemonade; when it gives
you kudzu, make salad.... What harm can come from there being more trees,
more food , more habitat, more biodiversity, carbon sequestration, etc. etc.
? The real danger IMHO is to sit in our armchairs and await the perfect
magic-bullet flawless solution - To look at trees only for their
services/benefits to us humans is to miss the point: A yielding food forest
is but the icing on a desperately needed cake.

Claude



> The hardest part of PC to swallow for me is this notion of designs one just
> walks away from that are supposed to continue developing into some kind of
> paradise.  Given invasive species (exotic and native), wandering wild
> critters, diseases etc. etc. this seems a little far fetched in most
> situations.  Further it really limits what one may choose to place in a
> design.  Black Locust, for example, makes a nice addition to a grazing farm
> to provide the finest fence posts available, but would over run the place
> if one walked away.  I have seen far too much good farm land overrun with
> brush and garbage trees in the name of "preservation" to believe we just
> get to step back at some point.  Even the first people around here set the
> place on fire pretty regularly.  We are part of the package, like it or not.
> Mark
> 
> 
> 
> Mark P. Ludwig
> Poultry Research Lab
> University of Wisconsin -Madison
> 608-262-1730 WK
> 608-846-7125 HM
> 
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