permaculture

[Jay Woods <woodsjay@cox.net>]

On Tuesday, May 18, 2010 05:06:25 am Les Mulder wrote:
> Rain wrote:
> > I'm not big on animals in permaculture systems <snip>
> 
> Hello Rain,
> 
> Would it be possible for you to elucidate on your statement about
> animals in permaculture systems? I'd really like to understand the
> reasoning behind it, as it does seem to contradict a lot of the
> permaculture teaching I've been exposed to to date (where animals
> are deemed to be integral to permaculture, especially in food
> forests) and I'm always interested in new ideas...

I'm not Rain but keep in mind that there is more than one kind of us 
Permaculturists. For example, I have concentrated on raising my trees 
from seedlings recovered from under the parent tree (or some nearby tree 
tree where the fruit was carried for consumption, etc.). That said, the 
parent trees that are used have been selected for the quality of the 
fruit, yield, ripening period, and byproducts such as flowers, honey, 
quality of offspring, and timber. All the knowledge about the life cycle 
that can be gleaned will probably turn out to be useful.

The driving force (beside that I like communing with the trees) is 
minimal labor for maintenance and expansion of the food forest. 

For me the same applies to livestock. As an example, I would choose wild 
turkeys over domestic turkeys. This sticks me with optimizing their 
environment and figuring out how to hunt them but I am not needed for 
their usual life cycle. A population of 1/acre can be maintained. 
> 
> Thanks & regards,
> 
> Les
> 
> 
>  
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