permaculture

[neshura <neshura@gmail.com>]

The exotics/invasives is not something I'm willing to touch right now
(being wholly new to the list), since I think it necessitates a more
abstract discussion. However, it seems to me to be a matter of
perspective on the pond; the principle of succession is well
established, but the chronology is not. It may be that the local
particulars of this pond have led to a relatively stable micro-ecology
where the reeds will be a highly dominant species for 1 year or 50
years.

The right and necessity of tweaking one's local environment is as near
and dear to permaculture, it seems, as the principle of succession.
The biologist has the ability and seemingly the responsibility for
tweaking this pond. It would seem to me that one excellent approach
that avoids a head-on confrontation would be to avoid arguing Gaia and
instead to research the local patterns of succession or the succession
patterns in the reeds' native environment. Perhaps the reeds are
intolerant to highly oxygenated water, and an approach that oxygenates
the water through another means will bring them to a tolerable level
without tearing them all out. Perhaps speeding up succession, or a
fountain, or fish that nibble on the plant roots...

In my experience, folks rarely change immediately from a brute-force
perspective to a do-nothing perspective from being argued into it. But
succession applies to thought patterns as well as to plants; it is a
trivial matter, usually, to offer a slightly tweaked view of the
original plan, and later a do-less perspective, and thus ease people
into a more permaculturist way of thinking. A practicing biologist
wooed to the side of permaculture may be more valuable to the earth in
the long run than the pond ever could be.

Best of luck!
-Amanda Gilbert


On Fri, 18 Mar 2005 13:32:11 -0500, Claude William Genest
<genest@pivot.net> wrote:
> Hi Kevin,
> 
> I am being told that the night time respiration excedes the day time
> inspiration.... The biologist feels that these plants, being invasive,
> are crowding out other indigenous plants and prohibiting biodiversity
> and therefore man should intervene to remove them and to replant a
> variety of plants....
> 
> I will attempt to make the argument that according to the Gaia theory,
> the earth is intelligently choosing the exact plants she needs in exact
> quantities to repair, restore, regenerate and reorganize itself and
> that furthermore the principle of succession is well established and
> that therefore a plant's inasiveness is only as long lived as its
> uselfulness in  preparing the soil for the next generation...
> On Friday, March 18, 2005, at 09:38 AM, Kevin Topek wrote:
> 
> > Claude,
> >
> > Wetland plant roots provide conduits for air, which includes oxygen, to
> > enter the soil. During the day the plants produce oxygen and at night
> > they
> > use it in respiration. A pond without plants is not healthy.
> > "Invasives" are
> > merely aggressive successional species that colonize disturbed areas.
> > The
> > only time plants rob oxygen is when they die and rot in an aerobic
> > fashion.
> > The cycling between aerobic and anaerobic states is the point of a
> > wetland.
> > What is the issue for the municipal biologist. Does she want to plant
> > other
> > plants there? It is not about species, but function.
> >
> > Kevin & Dr. Bitchface (Mindy)
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Claude William Genest" <genest@pivot.net>
> > To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> > Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 6:28 AM
> > Subject: [permaculture] reeds & Oxygen
> >
> >
> >> Hi All,
> >>
> >> Can anyone tell me to to what extent reeds either add or remove oxygen
> >> from a pond ? I am meeting with a municipal biologist next week who is
> >> hell bent on removing ALL the  reeds around a pond and her principal
> >> arguments are that this must be done because the reeds are "invasive"
> >> and deplete oxygen - I thought the roots pumped out oxygen allowing a
> >> place for water purifying bacteria to live ?
> >>
> >> Thanks in advance,
> >>
> >> Claude
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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