Drought as a problem of reception rather than supply shifts everything about where the responsibility lands. Not just how much rain falls but what the land can still do with it when it does. That matters for us at Purring Oaks directly. Sixty acres in Michigan and we are constantly learning what our soil holds, where water moves too fast, where roots haven’t gone deep enough yet to keep moisture from running off.
The part about becoming useful to the water cycle again rather than just managing our extraction from it… that reorients the project. Not how do we get enough but what kind of land are we being?!
Yeah, that is definitely a good direction. Trouble is, 55 degrees peak heatwave temperatures by the late 2040s will wreck our current way of producing food and create desertification in temperate areas across many regions, and ensuing impacts.
Agree, but the work the beavers do will combine control and retainment of the hard, intense rains to supply the aquifers. To me, the hard part will be making sure they have trees to work with. Some of us here are changing how we work with land now to hopefully prevent the desertification. We'll see if it works but at least people here aren't looking away from the problem.
I live in Oregon, USA in the Willamette Valley which has been extremely fruitful, and we are fortunate to still have full aquifers and reservoirs so am starting from a good place. We also have a very high number of beavers all through the mountains already doing fabulous water retention work. Private landowners don't like them though because of the amount of land their ponds take up. This is one of the goals, to encourage landowners to coexist with the beavers. The wildfires are serious but the beaver riparian areas are protective of the waterways and the surrounding vegetation. We still expect to get some rain in the winter and occasional deluges so the goal is to retain as much as possible through the dry times. I don't think the beavers will bring back the rain, but help retain what does come. Quite a few landowners are also transitioning their properties back to native oaks and grasses which can be managed to be fire resistant as well. So the work has started.
Drought as a problem of reception rather than supply shifts everything about where the responsibility lands. Not just how much rain falls but what the land can still do with it when it does. That matters for us at Purring Oaks directly. Sixty acres in Michigan and we are constantly learning what our soil holds, where water moves too fast, where roots haven’t gone deep enough yet to keep moisture from running off.
The part about becoming useful to the water cycle again rather than just managing our extraction from it… that reorients the project. Not how do we get enough but what kind of land are we being?!
Really glad this writing exists.
Completely agree. Would suggest planting trees and inviting the beavers and those little engineers will do the rest.
Yeah, that is definitely a good direction. Trouble is, 55 degrees peak heatwave temperatures by the late 2040s will wreck our current way of producing food and create desertification in temperate areas across many regions, and ensuing impacts.
Agree, but the work the beavers do will combine control and retainment of the hard, intense rains to supply the aquifers. To me, the hard part will be making sure they have trees to work with. Some of us here are changing how we work with land now to hopefully prevent the desertification. We'll see if it works but at least people here aren't looking away from the problem.
cool. tell me more about your context and i’d love to know more about the links between how beavers bring back the rain.
I live in Oregon, USA in the Willamette Valley which has been extremely fruitful, and we are fortunate to still have full aquifers and reservoirs so am starting from a good place. We also have a very high number of beavers all through the mountains already doing fabulous water retention work. Private landowners don't like them though because of the amount of land their ponds take up. This is one of the goals, to encourage landowners to coexist with the beavers. The wildfires are serious but the beaver riparian areas are protective of the waterways and the surrounding vegetation. We still expect to get some rain in the winter and occasional deluges so the goal is to retain as much as possible through the dry times. I don't think the beavers will bring back the rain, but help retain what does come. Quite a few landowners are also transitioning their properties back to native oaks and grasses which can be managed to be fire resistant as well. So the work has started.
Oh that is a great ethical question
I feel like our writers' guild has been frigging ages. :) x