Micro Forests

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lpm
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Micro Forests

Post by lpm » Sun Feb 14, 2021 12:24 pm

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?
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Martin Y
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Re: Micro Forests

Post by Martin Y » Sun Feb 14, 2021 1:13 pm

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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Bird on a Fire
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Re: Micro Forests

Post by Bird on a Fire » Sun Feb 14, 2021 3:35 pm

lpm wrote:
Sun Feb 14, 2021 12:24 pm
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?
This is the ecological right answer.

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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Bird on a Fire
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Re: Micro Forests

Post by Bird on a Fire » Sun Feb 14, 2021 3:39 pm

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
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Bird on a Fire
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Re: Micro Forests

Post by Bird on a Fire » Sun Feb 14, 2021 3:42 pm

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.
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Bird on a Fire
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Re: Micro Forests

Post by Bird on a Fire » Sun Feb 14, 2021 3:42 pm

Imagine doing shrooms in a bonsai forest
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Sciolus
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Re: Micro Forests

Post by Sciolus » Sun Feb 14, 2021 4:30 pm

To mitigate climate change we'll need hectares and hectares of forest.
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.

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.

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Re: Micro Forests

Post by dyqik » Mon Feb 15, 2021 2:41 am

Bird on a Fire wrote:
Sun Feb 14, 2021 3:42 pm
Imagine doing shrooms in a bonsai forest
Mictrodosing, maybe,?

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