permaculture

[dylanford <dylanford@optonline.net>]

Subject: [permaculture] The Spiral Forest - Alan Armstrong

Jim Channon's First Earth Battalion Manual mentions this book in his section 
about reforestation.


Here is a reference to what it's about.


http://www.interspecies.com/pages/art%20for%20nature.html
3. The Planting Spiral
Desertification is the term invented to describe the desert's encroachment on 
arable land. It 's effects are most visible in North Africa where the Sahara 
has moved southeard 100 kilometers in just the past seventeen years. Planting 
trees to stop the desert is not a new idea, what is new, is designing these 
plantings to optimize the result. Like all the other projects outlined on 
this page, The Tree Spiral design for planting the minimal amount of trees 
that grows to achieve the maximum effect. It not only draws upon classical 
geometry and botany, but also upon the modern sculptural movement of 
"earthworks" exemplified by Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty, constructed at 
great Salt Lake. This piece was created and developed by Alan Armstrong of 
the Tree Brigade. In his efforts to promote the concept, Armstrong was in 
correspondence with Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in the year before the 
leader's death. The original spiral planting was designed to originate at the 
Nile delta and spiral through Egypt, across to Sinai and the Arabian 
Peninsula, terminating at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba. Armstrong believes 
that in order to stop desertification, the planting would have to be large 
enough to be viewed from space.