Book arrived today and ripping into it with gusto. Thanks for the precious resource. Been interested in it since the early terra preta days but haven't had the conditions to implement which I now have.
Holy shit. Small world. No wonder we are on the same page! I'm pretty light on the comments this year. Going through major personal shift and getting back into the physical.
Ha ha - like minds. Good idea to get back into the real world. The online discussions are stimulating but crazy-making. All of our blah blah does not seem to change much of anything in the real world. Good luck with your life changes!
Hey just thinking. Are you in touch with Kultsommer on TAE. He's in the Willamette Valley and is farming. I could send him your email if not. He's retiring and wants to get into it...
Nothing turns biomass into good soil faster than a herbivores and insects, there are many ways to regenerate the land and fire suppression where essential is just one. Water for animals in these parched regions is essential, as this helps facilitate their work as active ecosystem engineers, fertilizing, seeding, controlling regrowth and nurturing all levels of life. We have brush turkeys in OZ who will mound debris into human high piles to incubate their eggs and then respread excellent compost as they feed from them, Bandicoots that mix soil and leaf litter to speed up composition. In the arid outback insects eat more living and dead biomass and tunnel for water and nutrient penetration at a far greater rate than all large herbivores even cattle . Fire may be a short cut in some areas but you could try water troughs to encourage territorial occupation and in my view fire should only be used as a last resort or in times of active weed suppression and regeneration. Working toward a climatic ecological maximum as evolution intended offers the greatest stability and although our ecology has been altered by fire to respond to fire it may not always be the best solution. Thanks for your thoughts
Dear Theodore - absolutely you are correct. Fire is just one tool. Biochar is just one tool. Fire can be over-used and end up doing damage. We see this with the mega-fires here in the US West. Looking at potential ecosystem conversion to brush fields, grass lands or deserts where we once had forest. I think of the continental interiors like you have in Australia where the fire stick was most likely over-used in pre-history. I think Tim Flannery's book The Future Eaters covers this, although it has been a long time since I read it. Before humans, mega fauna managed the biomass and made nutrient cycling happen with their browsing and pooping. Insects likely thrived in their poop. Just as we have ignored natural fire cycles in our fire-adapted forests, we have ignored the importance of the water cycles. So much to learn and the encouraging thing is that small interventions like water troughs can have such a big impact once we allow nature to take over. These are small-scale actions but they need to be repeated across the landscape - scaling out, not up. Bravo to you for your great ideas and thanks for telling me about them.
Book arrived today and ripping into it with gusto. Thanks for the precious resource. Been interested in it since the early terra preta days but haven't had the conditions to implement which I now have.
Bone dry here in central victoria australia.
Oxy! I have been following your comments for years over at Automatic Earth - my morning newspaper. How awesome to run into you here, bro!
Holy shit. Small world. No wonder we are on the same page! I'm pretty light on the comments this year. Going through major personal shift and getting back into the physical.
Ha ha - like minds. Good idea to get back into the real world. The online discussions are stimulating but crazy-making. All of our blah blah does not seem to change much of anything in the real world. Good luck with your life changes!
Hey just thinking. Are you in touch with Kultsommer on TAE. He's in the Willamette Valley and is farming. I could send him your email if not. He's retiring and wants to get into it...
Oxymoron - I would love to make contact. Please ask Kultsommer to fill out my contact form on my website here: https://airtable.com/appqqSKbuFNKlnLpW/shr5M0BgMbL5gUG7P
Then we don't have to share emails publicly.
thanks!
Lost and found stories are fascinating. Keep up the good work Kelpie!
Thanks Stephen. Looks like you are a wilderness enthusiast. Nothing better on this planet than Wild Nature! Namaste.
Nothing turns biomass into good soil faster than a herbivores and insects, there are many ways to regenerate the land and fire suppression where essential is just one. Water for animals in these parched regions is essential, as this helps facilitate their work as active ecosystem engineers, fertilizing, seeding, controlling regrowth and nurturing all levels of life. We have brush turkeys in OZ who will mound debris into human high piles to incubate their eggs and then respread excellent compost as they feed from them, Bandicoots that mix soil and leaf litter to speed up composition. In the arid outback insects eat more living and dead biomass and tunnel for water and nutrient penetration at a far greater rate than all large herbivores even cattle . Fire may be a short cut in some areas but you could try water troughs to encourage territorial occupation and in my view fire should only be used as a last resort or in times of active weed suppression and regeneration. Working toward a climatic ecological maximum as evolution intended offers the greatest stability and although our ecology has been altered by fire to respond to fire it may not always be the best solution. Thanks for your thoughts
Dear Theodore - absolutely you are correct. Fire is just one tool. Biochar is just one tool. Fire can be over-used and end up doing damage. We see this with the mega-fires here in the US West. Looking at potential ecosystem conversion to brush fields, grass lands or deserts where we once had forest. I think of the continental interiors like you have in Australia where the fire stick was most likely over-used in pre-history. I think Tim Flannery's book The Future Eaters covers this, although it has been a long time since I read it. Before humans, mega fauna managed the biomass and made nutrient cycling happen with their browsing and pooping. Insects likely thrived in their poop. Just as we have ignored natural fire cycles in our fire-adapted forests, we have ignored the importance of the water cycles. So much to learn and the encouraging thing is that small interventions like water troughs can have such a big impact once we allow nature to take over. These are small-scale actions but they need to be repeated across the landscape - scaling out, not up. Bravo to you for your great ideas and thanks for telling me about them.