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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Turning Deserts into Woodlands

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  • From: Rick Valley <bamboogrove@cmug.com>
  • To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Turning Deserts into Woodlands
  • Date: Mon, 02 Sep 2002 12:35:51 -0700


> From: "Kirby Fry" :
> I would love to study and better understand the relationship between
> precipitation and vegetative covers.

Mollison got me looking for examples. I've never been able to get photos,
but I have seen recently cut areas devoid of cloud when adjacent forest is
covered, including a HUGE cut in Southern Beech forest in NZ (1500 acres at
least) that was the only open spot in the cloud cover in the mountains.
Here, the big trees (1-2 meter) Douglas Firs) behind my house drip
constantly on foggy nights or days.

One friend remembers the stream thru his farm flowing all year, before the
forest above was converted to grazing. Now he pumps from his well to allow
the tree frogs time to mature in a small dam.

Another can barely keep her garden watered from the creek, when the guy she
bought from used to keep 6 big rainbirds blasting out over the whole 10
acres of pasture, 25 years ago. But the floods are worse now; county road
culverts aren't big enough. Nearly the entire catchment above has been
clearcut; the first cut which went into the 1930's, was selective; no one
wasted time on little trees or making huge slash piles.

I had an ecologist at OSU tell me that my ideas were crazy, trees wouldn't
improve the situation on Willamette valley low elevation land (as opposed to
studies showing fog drip up in the Cascade mountains) The next day I saw a
trapped cloud downwind of a "shelter belt", the narrow line of trees in a
gully. Weren't any other clouds anywhere else down on the land in that
wind...

They call lichens "barba de palo" in Spanish; ask any hirsute male what
happens with his facial hair in a moist wind. Dripping wet. People always
ask me if they should pull the Usnea off their trees, if it's harmful?

-Rick























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