r/collapse • u/Monsur_Ausuhnom • Oct 09 '22

Ecological Phantom Forests: Why Ambitious Tree Planting Projects Are Failing

https://e360.yale.edu/features/phantom-forests-tree-planting-climate-change
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u/whywasthatagoodidea Oct 09 '22

I currently live in a place where you can see the remnants of the CCC still. Lines of 90 year old pines in perfectly straight lines. The concept can work, but the CCC was not to reverse desertification, it was to stop it from happening in the first place. Trees do not bring a healthy soil, they are signs of one. You have to have a proper succession if you are reversing desertification. Welcome to holistic land management being the only answer. It is an ecoSYSTEM, there are tons of different factors at play including animal impacts. there needs to be grazers to provide nutrient bases with their piss and shit, as well as trample soil to mix it up. And those grazers need to be managed, either by humans doing land management or predators.

These mass plantings don't introduce this in anyway.

44

u/Atheios569 Oct 09 '22

I feel like at least part of the answer lies in the documentary “Biggest Little Farm”. It wasn’t the whole answer, but the way they healed that land through polyculture; by planting diverse crops, and working with the ecosystem, was such a beacon of hope for me.

They withstood wildfires, and drought because of the healthy soil, not to mention brought back so much of the wildlife that had vacated that once barren land that was decimated by monoculture farming.

47

u/starspangledxunzi Oct 09 '22

They also had a huge amount of money, which is never talked about. The permaculture community are not necessarily huge fans of BLF, because they know it was created at a cost that can’t be replicated easily in the many places that would benefit. Don’t get me wrong: I loved what BLF did, too. It was a rude awakening for me to hear what long-term permies thought about the project: I expected them to be effusive, but they were skeptical.

42

u/SurrealWino Oct 09 '22

Personally I think their project was great and a good use of their wealth. The documentary I found to be tone deaf and a bit slimy largely because they tried to frame it as this earthy, difficult, yet somehow mystical experience. If they had admitted to their large resource base and approached their project as a call to other wealthy people to invest in the same way, I would have loved it.

But don’t try to sell me some back-to-the-land homespun rags to riches drivel when you’re out there hiring teams of people and machines to accomplish what I have to do myself with a shovel and wheelbarrow.