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Re: TT: Big Storm
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In message <v03110705b08040e206cf@[129.186.12.84]>, Mark Vitosh
<mvitosh@iastate.edu> writes
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Since Oct.26 they have removed 400 dump truck loads a day of wood
> waste from the storm and as of today (Dec.1) they are still not done.
The follwing article appeared in Permaculture Works, the newsletter of
the Permaculture Association (Britain) issue 16 Autumn 97 it is adapted
from an article, on the storm that hit the southeast of Britatain in
1987, that appeared in the Times newspaper 26th September 1997. Comments
in the cheverons <> are mine and do not appear in the original article.
Permaculture Association (Britain) email <pcbritain@gn.apc.org>
<http://www.sysmag.com/permaweb/groups/pcbritain/>
[start...]
Woodland left to regenerate after the great storm of 87 has fared better
than areas deliberately replanted.
Environmentalists have claimed that at least 13 million ukpounds was
wasted replacing the estimated 15 million trees blown over on the night
of October 16th 1987.
Woodlands where fallen timber was left on the ground now have new 20
foot (6.1m) high trees and a huge diversity of other flora and fauna in
the gaps. Areas where bulldozers moved in to clear up the damage and
immediate replanting took place have failed to thrive.
The big tidy up was obviously the right thing to do with dangerous
hanging branches in public park land, less the right thing in commercial
woodlands and wery much the wrong thing with ancient semi-natural
woodlands. Said Peter Raine of the Kent wildlife trust <The county of
Kent in the southeast of Britain was worst hit by the storm> He said one
site planted up with 200 trees 10 years ago now has only 5 surviving.
Another example was Stanmer park, where Brighton council had completely
cleared woodland and replanted trees in protective tubes, only for them
to die. In semi-natural woodlandm even more damage was done by the clear
up. The soil contained the genetic seed bed needed for regeneration,
putting bulldozers on it compacted the soil. You ended up with the kind
of plants that grow in car parks: rose bay willow herb <Epilobium
angustifolium> bramble <Rubus fruticosus agg.> etc, rather than the
seeds in the soil like blue bells <Endymion non-scryptus>, oaks Quercus
spp.>, hazels <Corylus avellana> and hawthorn <Crataegus spp.>. Trees
planted in the compacted soils generally died.
The experience of the storm has transformed the way woodlands and parks
lands are managed in Britain. In the past foresters had planted dense
stand, where trees grow up relying on each other for wind protection. So
when areas are cleared either by storm or felling the rest fall over
like match sticks. We have learned and continue to learn many important
lessons form the famous storm of 10 years ago.
[...end]
--
|o o|
|o Myk Rushton <myk@rockbase.demon.co.uk> o|
|o Middlesex University-Ecology & Ecotechnology <mr107@mdx.ac.uk> o|
|o o|
|o 'Do not adjust your mind, there is a fault with reality' o|
|o o|
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