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[permaculture] Ecosystem Diversity & Bio-mass: Prairies vs. Forests
- From: "Kirby Fry" <peace@totalaccess.net>
- To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: [permaculture] Ecosystem Diversity & Bio-mass: Prairies vs. Forests
- Date: Mon, 8 Jul 2002 11:16:17 -0500
Hi Carla,
You must have lived pretty close to where we live
now, about 15 miles east, north-east of Elgin, Texas.
>> I lived in an oak forest in Central
Texas, east of Austin, for years in the late sixties and most of the seventies
(where I met Scott Pittman in 1968, by the way) and it had sprung up as a
result of the land -- mostly sandy loam -- being "cottoned out" in the late
1800's. <<
The history of the decline of Texas ecosystems is an
extremely fascinating line of study and I agree that nearly all of the
tree growth on the black land prairies and in the present oakwoods is
secondary growth. What I would like to come to understand is what was
there before the Spanish arrived and how the diversity and bio-mass of a healthy
native Texas grassland compares with that of a healthy native Texas
woodland.
There's a thirty year period from about 1820 to 1850
that is described as being the Golden Period of the Southwestern Stockman.
This is just after the decline of the Spanish Mission
grazing system, where tens of thousands of horses, goats and cattle had been set
out to graze freely on the Texas prairies. The Spanish had also introduced
large scale burning to Texas and its Natives as early as 1570 or 1590, which was
enthusiastically taken up by the earliest Anglo exporers in the early
1800's.
Around 1850, by the time the wild Spanish horses, mules
and cattle were rounded up and slaughtered, and the buffalo were hunted out,
almost all of Texas had either been burned, improperly grazed, logged, over
hunted, plowed or developed. The Anglo settlers quickly filled the void
left by the absence of the bison and Spanish livestock with their own domestic
livestock and have continued to improperly graze ever
since.
This Golden Period is the freeze frame image most of
our grandparents have in their mind's eye of Texas in its natural state and as
how it should be now. However, by this time about seven feet of biomass in
the form of soil humus, leaf litter and standing vegetation had been stripped
off of the state. Three out of four of the great contiguous forests in
Texas had been or would soon be cleared - including a bamboo forest at the mouth
of the Brazos River on the Gulf Coast.
There's a book out called, "The Explorer's Texas," by
Del Winager. He's gone through the logs and journals of the first Spanish
and Anglo explorers and created some descriptions based on the explorers'
earliests accounts.
Winager says the most common description of the Texas
prairies was as a sea-scape. Rolling, wave-like hills, with tall
grasses swirling back and forth in the wind. Woodlands filled the
riperian areas resembling shorelines behind the grasses, spaces that felt like
bays and coves were common and small islands of trees called mottes formed out
in the open. It was the perfect living envoronment for edge-dwellers like
ourselves, which is why it was disturbed so quickly by the
settlers.
Most important to note, however, is the prominant
presence of woodlands in the Texas prairie landscape.
>> Was that [1900 - 1925] before the
juniper and mesquite had gotten a foothold? <<
The tall straight cedar was a preferred timber
throughout Central Texas by the earlists settlers and at least 100 year old
stands of mesquite (meaing no significant fires for that period) are
reported to have existed in the South Texas Brush Country. They had
quite a foothold before we arrived, though they hadn't been perceived as
"invasive" until after the 1900's.
I believe the trees and woodlands were kept in check by
the bison more than fire. Improper grazing, burning and mechanically
clearing juniper and mesquite are probably what are
provoking them out of their original habitats - which were
considerable. I would also conjecture that humus
rich soils, several feet deep broke down plant litter rapidly and that
even when lightning struck, fires were much harder to get going than
today because the land is now so much more brittle and tender than it was
500 years ago.
It may be that there were vast treeless expanses in the
Great Central Plains or Prairies but I believe that such treeless-ness ends at
the line between the Texas High Plains and Rolling Plains. One of Texas
largest contiguous forests is reported to have been in the Rolling Plains.
Even supposed desert bioregions such as the Trans Pecos are famous for dwarf oak
forests.
I'm all for prairie restoration, but I would like to
see the definition of prairies to include a fair proportion of woodlands, and
for every acre of land cleared of trees and or burned in the name of
restoration, a like number of acres should be restored to native
woodlands.
Kirby Fry
For the real scoop on environmental and social justice
issues check out the archives of Democracy Now! http://www.webactive.com/webactive/pacifica/demnow/archive.html
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-
[permaculture] Ecosystem Diversity & Bio-mass: Prairies vs. Forests,
Kirby Fry, 07/04/2002
-
RE: [permaculture] Ecosystem Diversity & Bio-mass: Prairies vs. Forests,
Carla McAuley, 07/05/2002
-
[permaculture] Ecosystem Diversity & Bio-mass: Prairies vs. Forests,
Kirby Fry, 07/08/2002
- Re: [permaculture] Ecosystem Diversity & Bio-mass: Prairies vs. Forests, Mark, 07/08/2002
-
[permaculture] Ecosystem Diversity & Bio-mass: Prairies vs. Forests,
Kirby Fry, 07/08/2002
-
Re: [permaculture] Ecosystem Diversity & Bio-mass: Prairies vs. Forests,
Mark, 07/05/2002
-
[permaculture] Ecosystem Diversity & Bio-mass: Prairies vs.Forests,
Kirby Fry, 07/08/2002
-
[permaculture] Prairies and Forests,
Mark, 07/08/2002
-
Re: [permaculture] Prairies and Forests,
Loren Davidson, 07/08/2002
-
Re: [permaculture] Prairies and Forests,
Mark, 07/08/2002
- Re: [permaculture] Prairies and Forests, Heide Hermary, 07/08/2002
-
Re: [permaculture] Prairies and Forests,
Mark, 07/08/2002
-
Re: [permaculture] Prairies and Forests,
Kirby Fry, 07/09/2002
- RE: [permaculture] Prairies and Forests, Carla McAuley, 07/09/2002
- Re: [permaculture] Prairies and Forests, Mark, 07/09/2002
-
Re: [permaculture] Prairies and Forests,
Loren Davidson, 07/08/2002
-
[permaculture] Prairies and Forests,
Mark, 07/08/2002
-
[permaculture] Ecosystem Diversity & Bio-mass: Prairies vs.Forests,
Kirby Fry, 07/08/2002
-
RE: [permaculture] Ecosystem Diversity & Bio-mass: Prairies vs. Forests,
Carla McAuley, 07/05/2002
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