[HN Gopher] How to Plant the Forests of the Future
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       How to Plant the Forests of the Future
        
       Author : nautilus
       Score  : 21 points
       Date   : 2021-09-02 11:21 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (worldsensorium.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (worldsensorium.com)
        
       | hinkley wrote:
       | Not one mention of succession. If you're starting what we already
       | know to be a multigenerational project, then what matters is not
       | what are the "right" trees to grow but what are the right trees
       | to grow to get more trees, and the right trees to grow to get
       | more carbon in the ground. So that's succession pathways and
       | growing soil by focusing on the soil food web.
       | 
       | From that perspective something like alder or other short-lived
       | tree may be better. They flame out and die young, and then you
       | can seed trees that like to grow on nurse logs, things like
       | hemlock, which will refill the canopy and help keep the process
       | going. Then you plant the monster trees that you see in a mature
       | forest. If you let this happen organically it will of course take
       | longer, but you can nudge things along by planting in clearings
       | instead of waiting a lucky germination, cull trees in areas where
       | they the pioneer trees are doing too well, reintroduce understory
       | plants and other wildlife, microbes, etc.
        
       | betwixthewires wrote:
       | IMO this is a terrible idea. Humans love to try to engineer
       | things and wind up mucking things up sticking their fingers in
       | it. Think of all the invasive deliberately introduced species
       | worldwide. In some cases it worked out, but the results were not
       | predictable, in most cases it caused unforseen problems usually
       | as bad as or worse than the one people were trying to solve.
       | 
       | > Currently voluntary for foresters, transferring seedlings in
       | anticipation of future climate conditions will soon become
       | mandatory.
       | 
       | Think of this: those forests that are there, when the climate was
       | different before there were probably different sorts of plants,
       | no? I'm not talking millions of years ago, I'm talking ten
       | thousand years ago, way too short of a timeframe for evolution.
       | So how did those plants get there?
       | 
       | The answer is clear, either the trees that are there are more
       | adaptable than we give them credit for, or the seeds were winding
       | up there but didn't germinate until climate changed to the
       | conditions they needed.
       | 
       | Either way no intervention is necessary.
       | 
       | So why don't we just let it happen naturally the way it always
       | has? Why do some people think a solution to (pardon my French)
       | putting your dick in the pudding is to put your dick in the
       | pudding some more? Maybe quit digging the hole and leave shit
       | alone?
        
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       (page generated 2021-09-03 23:02 UTC)