Quote:
Originally Posted by Forerunner
Interesting thoughts on the dust bowl, dry climes and sustainability.
I firmly believe (for what that's worth) that intense composting/soil husbandry/horticulture can heal a climate.
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The arid climate I grew up in (In Caliornia) was never broken, though I suspect that overpopulation has broken it since then.
The reason that I know it was not broken is because many of the plants that did so well there would simply die in most other areas. Many of the plants-like the redwoods- have taken an unthinkable lengh of time to adapt to those conditions.
It was a full and rich ecosystem, and it was a healthy one.
A few of the stranger tidbits: California is meant to burn. Yep. The plants do better and the animals do better and this is how it should be. That is, by the way, why the fire laws are so strict: peoples homes will burn if there is a fire and we cannot aford that. And California is really intended to have fires every few years.
A few things that make California so flammible: much of the brush gets woody and dry when it is old. It then provides BAD forage as it is not tender enough to be nourishing but it burns faster than any midwestern bush I ever saw.
The grass grows rapidly when it is wet out, it goes to seed, and it then goes dormant until the next winter. When dormant ALSO burns in the blink of an eye.
The larger Redwoods are not usually hurt by fire, though the seedlings often are. Redwod bark is fire resistand in the extreme, and the wood does not burn as easily as most others. Redwoods are interesting, by the way. The needles on those trees are meant to condense the morning fog from the ocean and then drip it on their roots: if they are by the ocean at all they will water themselves! This is another way that they are adapted to an arid climate. Redwood trees have had a long time to adapt: they are OLD!!!!!!!!!!
Lastly, there is another type of tree on the west coast-the name escapes me at the moment- that NEEDS fire to reproduce. Without fire that species of tree would die out.
After a fire the one tree seeds will sprout (the one that relies on fire), the Redwoods are not bothered, the brush is burned back and good sprouts come out and make good forage for the animals, the half-dead grass dies and the younger grass takes over, and life goes on.
Some arid climates really ARE the result of human abuse, but some areas are MEANT to be arid, and are healthier if they are so.
