Comments on: Succession, Human and Wild

By: Apple Jack Creek

Apple Jack Creek — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 03:35:01 +0000

It’s amazing how your thinking changes when you find land you’re willing to be bonded to, a place to actually put down roots.

I’m so glad we finally found a place we’re willing to invest in, not just “well, we will probably stay in this house for oh, another five years, then we’ll move across town” or whatever.

I hope that someday, my children will live here and make use of the infrastructure and soil and pasture we are building, but if not my children, well, someone’s children will live here and it is good to make this chunk of earth into something productive, something that’ll make someone’s life a bit easier in a lower energy future because we started on the transition ahead of the curve.

This post is really encouraging me – keep doing what I’m doing and not give up. Thanks.

By: Greenpa

Greenpa — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:05:07 +0000

One thing the Chinese chestnut nurseries won’t tell you is that they are highly susceptible to the American chestnut weevils (2 species).

The probable reason is the burr spine density- Chinese chestnuts tend to have sparse spines, and American chestnuts have dense spines.

Hybrid chestnuts, available here and there, tend to be medium to dense.

Dense spined chestnuts will still get some weevils; but not nearly as many.

Poultry under the trees can help a lot- they’ll eat every weevil they can.

By: MEA

MEA — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:12:13 +0000

This remined me of how not so long ago, one basically was alway thinking a year a head — I’ll need a new dress in a year — that’s what I’m shearing sheep for now. I’ll need a new long bow — that’s what that yew is aging for.

By: Don

Don — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:52:54 +0000

Sharon, it’s fascinating that you discuss succession here. I am almost finished reading David Holmgren’s Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability. In his discussion of the twelfth and final permaculture principle, “creatively use and respond to change,” Holmgren spends a lot of time talking about succession, both ecological and human.

Since Holmgren’s book is primarily theoretical, I enjoyed reading your discussion of the practical ways you make succession work for you.

Thanks!

By: PeakEngineer

PeakEngineer — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:21:55 +0000

We need to change our thinking patterns from always only considering the here and now to approaching every problem with a lifecycle analysis like you described. In our society, long term planning is pretty much limited to money (and even there, still very limited thought…) rather than physical systems.

You’re dead on about the approaches for folks in different life phases — we did exactly as you described for the young transient folks when we moved here a couple years ago: building networks, developing some skills, dropping roots for a new community family. And now we have the luxury of taking the long view at our long-term (final!) residence planting slow-growing trees, carefully and deliberately architecting the environment for a maximum of long term flexibility, and all the while still enjoying the fruits of what we have here and now.