permaculture

[Charles de Matas <cdematas@hotmail.com>]

Thanks for re-starting this topic, it’s the most important topic for me on 
this list.  Fires are my main problem.  Our dry season has started and I 
expect to get some fires on my land in a week or so.  I live in the tropics 
so what I say may not apply to other regions.  I think it’s important to 
identify the source of fuel for the fires.  In my case it’s grasses.  There 
an annual type which has dried down now on my land and will burn easily.  
This will provide fuel for fires at the beginning of the dry season.  The 
fires at the beginning of the dry season are not very intense and the trees 
may survive them.  There is another type of grass, a perennial that 
propagates by rooting at nodes, which I think is para grass.  This will 
continue growing through the dry season and will accumulate a lot of biomass. 
 It provides fuel for fires at the end of the dry season. The fires at the 
end of the dry season are very intense and will kill practically any tree.  I 
lost most of my valuable trees last year in a fire at the end of the dry 
season.  I lost a lot of enthusiasm for mulching after that.  I may only 
mulch at the beginning of the rainy season from now on.  Last year I mulched 
during the dry season and it only provided fuel for the fires close to the 
trees.  
  I’ve been trying to do more composting instead. The dry annual grass would 
be a very good carbon source for compost.  I’m also harvesting tropical kudzu 
and composting it also.  Fire prevention is now a year round job for me.  I 
started my compost piles during the rainy season.  Norak is quite correct 
that during the dry season the compost heaps dry up and the biological 
activity stops and it becomes a fire hazard.  Every year I lose grass piles 
and compost heaps in fires.  I have to be diligent and hoe around the heaps 
and the trees to prevent fires from reaching them. Only bare earth seems to 
stop the fires from getting to them.  
    While I have some water from a small pond I’m going to use it to help 
keep my compost heaps moist.  My compost heaps are elongated and low to 
maximize contact with the ground to increase earthworm activity.  I keep the 
compost heaps moving by adding material at one end and pulling it forward at 
the other. This avoids the problem of just a small area of ground being 
enriched by the bottom of the heap.
  I tried digging a swale last year but I don’t think it has enough fire 
prevention uses to warrant the effort.  I don’t see any easy way to handle 
the problem of the para grass on my land.  I’ve resorted to hand-to-hand 
combat by grubbing out the roots with a  hoe.
 
Charles 
Trinidad  (10 N, 60 W)
 
 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<some more 
general questions that came to me:what about composting cleared stuff off the 
land? i dont like the idea of having to shred it cause we would have to buy 
the machine and then petrol for it but then my experience is that the piled 
up stuff just dries and becomes perfect place for weeds to grow, and then 
composting process runs only in winter when its moist and it can takae 
million years to compost. also its a fire hazzard in summer. i also thought 
of digging in the stuff but that again is too overwhealming a task with such 
a huge land that we have plus again causes more soil disruption... any ideas? 
also i had the idea of creating something like a swale specially designed to 
keep the fire out of the land, and place it around the perimeter of the land, 
anybody heard of/saw/did something like that before? ok so thats my thoughts 
for now, thanx to all!peace&pacenorak 
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