Micro Forests
Micro Forests
The latest craze appears to be "forests the size of a tennis court". Plant 600 trees into an area 20x10 metres, i.e. 3 per square metre. Earthwatch are keen on them.
Here's a BBC video. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-56003562
Here's an Oxford one: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-o ... e-55811698
A Bristol one: https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... iny-forest
Am I being too cynical in suspecting the only reason a "forest" is chosen is because (1) easier to get funding for it, (2) you can pretend it helps CO2 and meet some arbitrary tree-planting target, and (3) NIMBYs will support it rather than oppose?
A better use of the area this sort of size would be a thicket of brambles and nettles, or letting a hedgerow grow outwards unchecked?
Here's a BBC video. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-56003562
Here's an Oxford one: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-o ... e-55811698
A Bristol one: https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... iny-forest
Am I being too cynical in suspecting the only reason a "forest" is chosen is because (1) easier to get funding for it, (2) you can pretend it helps CO2 and meet some arbitrary tree-planting target, and (3) NIMBYs will support it rather than oppose?
A better use of the area this sort of size would be a thicket of brambles and nettles, or letting a hedgerow grow outwards unchecked?
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Re: Micro Forests
What sort of trees tolerate being planted 3 per square metre? How do they picture these little thickets will develop as they mature? Also I was confused by the remark about wishing the school kids could be taught there every day. Surely they're planting areas that are impassable and exclude humans and that's partly the point.
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Re: Micro Forests
This is the ecological right answer.lpm wrote: ↑Sun Feb 14, 2021 12:24 pmThe latest craze appears to be "forests the size of a tennis court". Plant 600 trees into an area 20x10 metres, i.e. 3 per square metre. Earthwatch are keen on them.
Here's a BBC video. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-56003562
Here's an Oxford one: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-o ... e-55811698
A Bristol one: https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... iny-forest
Am I being too cynical in suspecting the only reason a "forest" is chosen is because (1) easier to get funding for it, (2) you can pretend it helps CO2 and meet some arbitrary tree-planting target, and (3) NIMBYs will support it rather than oppose?
A better use of the area this sort of size would be a thicket of brambles and nettles, or letting a hedgerow grow outwards unchecked?
Plus, if you put your forest in the middle of another bit of habitat, like grassland, you also f.ck up that habitat. This is already happening with commercial forestry, so normalising micro fragments (in the wrong place) will only make it easier.
Forest restoration needs to be large scale. Planting small patches would be an effective way of reforesting a wider area as part of a bigger plan, though. So grants could be geographically restricted.
But those densities sound nuts. They must be planning to coppice regularly for biomass or something.
We have the right to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment.
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Re: Micro Forests
Wait are they planning to keep the trees really really small? Like a bonsai* forest?
Coz that sounds really really cool.
*Not real bonsai, probably
Coz that sounds really really cool.
*Not real bonsai, probably
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Re: Micro Forests
If they're just planting these in city parks stuff, they're probably a bit better than manicured lawns and clipped hedges, wildlife-wise.
But using new land at the edge of, or out of, town mightn't be ideal.
But using new land at the edge of, or out of, town mightn't be ideal.
We have the right to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment.
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Re: Micro Forests
Imagine doing shrooms in a bonsai forest
We have the right to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment.
Re: Micro Forests
Wow. There's someone who's really got a grip on the magnitude of the problem. Or maybe the "every second" got edited out -- that would just about keep up with global deforestation.To mitigate climate change we'll need hectares and hectares of forest.
Charitable, what they are creating in the short term is a patch of scrub, but because it's planted with a mix of species it's a bit more varied than just bramble and briar (nice to see some spindle in the video). Although since it's presumably nursery-grown, it may not reflect the local gene pool. What will happen in the medium term, I think we all know.
Re: Micro Forests
Mictrodosing, maybe,?