permaculture

[Rick Valley <bamboogrove@cmug.com>]

Title: Re: [permaculture] Carbon Sinks / Fire Proof Forests

>
So if you develop a pristine landscape, are you going to let a transforming species like beaver (or in Africa, elephants) take the place of man and turn it into something else? Not always. 

Just twelve thousand years ago there were elephants here in Oregon, mastodons in Kentucky, Gomphotheres in Mexico. Take the place of man? A little humility please!
Anything wrong with ranching elephants? Our ancestors thought they tasted pretty good, and ivory is cool stuff. And you can get four neat wastebaskets from each!

Seriously, is there any information out there on beaver in Maine & the surrounding states & provinces on how beaver transform  the land and the resulting changes? 
Here out  West they seem to be crucial for maintaining water on the land. True, the initial changes can be severe, as when the last remaining huge cottonwoods on a creek get eaten. I think a bit more needs to be done to help the beaver move into an area- initial forage plantings of willow, f'rinstance. But the farmers I know who have had beaver move in and adjusted instead of killing the beaver, are happy with the new regime. Which doesn't necessarily mean leaving the beaver alone. F'rinstance, why not let them build a tap into their dam, and then you can drain it if you want. I've had them show up just when I was desparing of ever finding the time to coppice a stand of willow for purposes of growing good withies, and do the work for me!

I'm not against clearcuts either- if it's done conscientously & with full appreciation of the changes. For instance, one friend tells me that Coptis species (a genus in the ranunculaceae, incl. Goldthread in the East and at least one species in the Chinese pharmacopeia, ie valueable medicinal herbs) do better in small clearcuts than in selectively harvested plots or large clearcuts in SW Washington.

But do they not find that in Maine it's really good to have some hairy old methuselah white pine stands here and there?
-Rick