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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Turning Deserts into Woodlands

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  • From: Scott Vlaun <scott@moosepondarts.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Turning Deserts into Woodlands
  • Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2002 23:19:12 -0400


On Monday, September 2, 2002, at 03:35 PM, Rick Valley wrote:

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.

Kirby and all,

I recently attended a talk by Florence Reed of Sustainable Harvest International (http://www.sustainableharvest.org/). They are working with farmers in Central America to help them convert from slash and burn agriculture to sustainable polycultures. She told story after story about how drought and flood followed large clear cuts and burns where forests and streams had been. She also told of instances where streams had returned after several years of reforestation. Interestingly, while they seem to be teaching permaculture design, they had never heard of the concept.

Another anecdote about the relationship between forests and riverflow comes up in Frances Moore Lappe's new book Hope's Edge written with her daughter Anna.

( I reviewed it a while back in the Seeds of change eNewsletter http://store.yahoo.com/seedsofchange/hopesedge.html)

They quote Wangari Maathai, founder of Kenya's Greenbelt Movement, as saying "...that without the forest we have no river flow." She partially attributes this to the ability of the trees to hold onto the soil in the mountains and allow it to retain moisture that is then slowly released into the streams as opposed to the cycle of flood and topsoil erosion followed by severe drought that has befallen much of her country as it has been logged clean. Her organization has planted over 20 million trees, transforming entire ecosystems in the process.

Praying for rain in Western Maine, (USA)

Scott Vlaun



















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