permaculture

["Darren Doherty" <ozfx@bigpond.com>]

Hello Mark,

This very interesting question is one I am faced with daily. I'm surely not
alone. Ecological succession is a principle that we have to have a pretty
good understanding of. Permaculture is a system of design focussed primarily
on human settlements. Therefore these cultivated systems rely on, to varying
zone-based degrees, human intervention in their management. Otherwise the
system will to revert simply to the whims of natural succession. This in
many cases will not yield (in an anthropocentric sense) in the same ways
where we are involved as managers. To generalise, cultivated plants often
are reliant upon our care - otherwise the get disease etc., or are taken
over by more robust and dominating pioneers or other vegetation.
Permaculture Design has human centred goals and the systems we individual's
design reflect this - as do how they react when we walk away from them. An
exception to this would be where we are establishing Zone 5 systems -
however its certainly not a matter of set and forget, you still need to
manage things over the short term to get the result you're after - or that
you think as nature itself would have it. You can establish an orchard where
it is intended to be managed as you would a zone 5 forest. Ultimately though
(witness old abandoned house lots or farming settlements) they will
ultimately be succeeded with other species.

We have a question on our client questionairre asking what the
intergenerational/tenure status of the proposed development will be. The
client's answer dictates the manner in which we would assemble the design.
Where the client is into capital gain as a developer - then we will complete
and develop a property that has the base minimum features such as house
site, water supply, farm shelter, riparian revegetation,
subdivision/fencing, woodlot and orchards, with  Zone's 1 & 2 typically left
for the next owners to set up. Furthermore this design is likely to be
developed very quickly, and mostly by contractors. Where long term or
intergenerational ownership is proposed or likely then a more intensive
system can be developed that naturally requires more management. These
systems are usually developed by the owner's themselves and as such are
usually done at a slower pace than that done by the capitalist developer.

What has become abundantly clear with our older jobs however (oldest circa
1993 in the temperate zone of South Eastern Australia), is that the zone 3-5
systems are typically more able to continue untended as we more or less
intended. In fact, where grazing systems have fallen by the wayside, the
locals (marsupials) have moved in and continued the work of the domesticated
stock. Much of this is depended upon establishment methods, and the initial
growth rates of the species involved. Where the appropriate capital
investment has been made in soil amedment application and weed control, tree
crops, that are appropriate for the climate etc., move along very nicely. I
suppose this demonstrates the analogue forestry system.  Zone 4-5 forests of
ours (post 1st thinning) have stood up even better as the trees are in the
minority - as ingenous understorey species continue the march of natural
succession regardless. The analogue approach is at work here.

Zone 1-2 systems however are different. Walk away from them and there is a
lot of work to get them back. Its only really the structures and the very
strongest of perennials (and some annuals) that will be there when we come
back from that long trip. Witness these systems after years of
absence/intervention and its back to the grasses and other plants responding
to the results of your previous work.

There is a lot to be gained by the study of human abandonment, it one of my
favorite obs. The visit to Tagari Farm was an treasure and I look forward to
doing it again after they've had a break from the drought. It would be
interesting for us to predict what would happen to any of our projects were
we to leave suddenly and not come back for one to five years - or maybe a
hundred. The likes of Von Mueller etc. would have liked I'm sure to have had
a similar opportunity.

Keep it going.

Cheers Darren Doherty.

PS Robinia's are one species that is always there at the old homesteads -
tough as nails....

----- Original Message -----
From: Mark <mpludwig@facstaff.wisc.edu>
To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 18, 2002 3:17 AM
Subject: [permaculture] walking away is silly


>
> >
> >Permaculture needs to be open and honest about its successes and failures
> >if it's going to be taken seriously and have a sustainable future.
> >Robyn
>
> 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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