Floods And Trees

[Morakot]

Eucalyptus draws a high amount of water but uses it for its quick growth and therefore tends to destroy the soil quality and any ground cover plants.

A lot of these ground cover plants catch rainfall and stop top soil erosion.

http://www.nabard.or..._eucalyptus.asp

The soil erosion issue is very important, once you lose it it's extraordinarily difficult to repair the damage. Hence you end up in an ever increasing circle of floods and damage.

I was suspecting this. What about eucalyptus (mono-culture) tree plantations for timber? How is this circle avoided?

[theblether]

Eucalyptus draws a high amount of water but uses it for its quick growth and therefore tends to destroy the soil quality and any ground cover plants.

A lot of these ground cover plants catch rainfall and stop top soil erosion.

http://www.nabard.or..._eucalyptus.asp

The soil erosion issue is very important, once you lose it it's extraordinarily difficult to repair the damage. Hence you end up in an ever increasing circle of floods and damage.

I was suspecting this. What about eucalyptus (mono-culture) tree plantations for timber? How is this circle avoided?

That's what I'm trying to get my head around.......check out this photo.......

That's the famous Glencoe in Scotland, about 200 years ago it would have looked more like this.......

A combination of clearances to aid sheep farming and forest destruction to supply the military and domestic markets has created a situation where we have suffered immense soil erosion and we are struggling to re build the forest.

This is what I fear for Thailand........

[chrisinth]

How long is a piece of string?

Twice the length from the centre to one end..................

[Morakot]

The soil erosion issue is very important, once you lose it it's extraordinarily difficult to repair the damage. Hence you end up in an ever increasing circle of floods and damage.

I was suspecting this. What about eucalyptus (mono-culture) tree plantations for timber? How is this circle avoided?

That's what I'm trying to get my head around.......check out this photo.......

That's the famous Glencoe in Scotland, about 200 years ago it would have looked more like this.......

A combination of clearances to aid sheep farming and forest destruction to supply the military and domestic markets has created a situation where we have suffered immense soil erosion and we are struggling to re build the forest.

This is what I fear for Thailand........

Aye. I'm quite aware of this. It's shocking, but at least in Scotland considerable efforts are made to reverse this. In many places in England, the soil erosion problem is not as extreme, but the deforestation is equally bad; this has been aggravated by a bunch of numpties who claim to "protect" / preserve the rural environment and strictly oppose any re-forestation projects. I think, in Thailand the situation is not as extreme as in the UK, and a growing awareness and some policy changes are a positive sign. I have no evidence, but I think the loss of bio-diversity in forests in South East Asia is not as extreme as in Europe, where with the industrialisation the last remains of diverse indigenous forests were permanently eradicated.

Edited September 6, 2012 by Morakot

[StreetCowboy]

My street in KL

while we're on the topic of trees.

The birds don't half make a racket - not as grating as the screeching birds on Soi Cowboy though.

They're always willing to buy on credit, as well - you can't park down there but one of them will put down a deposit on your car

SC

[theblether]

The soil erosion issue is very important, once you lose it it's extraordinarily difficult to repair the damage. Hence you end up in an ever increasing circle of floods and damage.

I was suspecting this. What about eucalyptus (mono-culture) tree plantations for timber? How is this circle avoided?

That's what I'm trying to get my head around.......check out this photo.......

That's the famous Glencoe in Scotland, about 200 years ago it would have looked more like this.......

A combination of clearances to aid sheep farming and forest destruction to supply the military and domestic markets has created a situation where we have suffered immense soil erosion and we are struggling to re build the forest.

This is what I fear for Thailand........

Aye. I'm quite aware of this. It's shocking, but at least in Scotland considerable efforts are made to reverse this. In many places in England, the soil erosion problem is not as extreme, but the deforestation is equally bad; this has been aggravated by a bunch of numpties who claim to "protect" / preserve the rural environment and strictly oppose any re-forestation projects. I think, in Thailand the situation is not as extreme as in the UK, and a growing awareness and some policy changes are a positive sign. I have no evidence, but I think the loss of bio-diversity in forests in South East Asia is not as extreme as in Europe, where with the industrialisation the last remains of diverse indigenous forests were permanently eradicated.

Your not wrong.......back in the day when Scotland was stripped bare money was good and sod the consequences. The consequences were dire for the environment, as the soil erosion has caused multiple problems for nature, bio diversity and wildlife.

I think the Thais and other countries have the advantage of seeing what went wrong in Europe and that may help slow the devastation, but at the current rate that's all it appears to be doing, slowing it. There are still plenty of areas that are being stripped of their natural resources.

[jonnyscot]

I'm just in from digging my trench too,(watching the wife digging it I mean) I had just finished playing about with water pipes to take the water INTO the bamboo,, now trying to stop the bamboo trees we planted a couple months back from getting washed away, not had much rain here until the last 2 days, but it's pissing down now

[/quote

Dont worry Blether old chap, I dug a hole to catch all that water, wife in bottom for scale

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[Kan Win]

Replying to Floods And Trees

Tsunami - Phang-nga - Khao Lak - Thailand 53 Days After

Khao Lak’s resort area now seems more like a desert than a walk through this tropical paradise. This area is now devoid of any vegetation except for the trees left behind.

February 16th 2005

http://www.pbase.com/win13/khao_lak

Win

Edited September 6, 2012 by Kan Win

[travelmann]

@travelmann.......are you intending to farm fish in that big pond? Do you have an irrigation system in place? Is your area susceptible to floods?

The Wife's Sister will not so much farm fish but certainly have some in there, irrigation system will be installed, no flooding round here where I am is one of the driest areas in Thailand + my land is on a hill.

Eucalyptus trees are another over planted item in Thailand however Rainbow gum is a special case not grown for its timber more for its ornamental bark .

[theblether]

I'm just in from digging my trench too,(watching the wife digging it I mean) I had just finished playing about with water pipes to take the water INTO the bamboo,, now trying to stop the bamboo trees we planted a couple months back from getting washed away, not had much rain here until the last 2 days, but it's pissing down now

[/quote

Dont worry Blether old chap, I dug a hole to catch all that water, wife in bottom for scale

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

@johnnyscot......any chance of some photos? and good to hear you have the wife doing the work........I bet your a good supervisor

[theblether]

@travelmann.......are you intending to farm fish in that big pond? Do you have an irrigation system in place? Is your area susceptible to floods?

The Wife's Sister will not so much farm fish but certainly have some in there, irrigation system will be installed, no flooding round here where I am is one of the driest areas in Thailand + my land is on a hill.

Eucalyptus trees are another over planted item in Thailand however Rainbow gum is a special case not grown for its timber more for its ornamental bark .

Rainbow gum looks stunning...........have you any photos of items which are made of it?

[jonnyscot]

Hope these pics come thru ok, not much to see yet, still only a couple months old,

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[jonnyscot]

Hope these pics come thru ok, not much to see yet, still only a couple months old,

You can see the farm labourer,,, oops, I mean the wife in the background just about to fill another bag o cowsh-t to workin for fertiliser in the last pic

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

[theblether]

Hope these pics come thru ok, not much to see yet, still only a couple months old,

You can see the farm labourer,,, oops, I mean the wife in the background just about to fill another bag o cowsh-t to workin for fertiliser in the last pic

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

They came through fine.......what's the business plan in connection with the bamboo?

[overherebc]

How long is a piece of string?

Half the length it would be if it was twice as long.

[StreetCowboy]

How long is a piece of string?

Half the length it would be if it was twice as long.

Does anyone else recall the Monty Python sketch about Gibson's 3" stringettes?

Anyway, those pieces of string were 3 inches long

SC

[travelmann]

@travelmann.......are you intending to farm fish in that big pond? Do you have an irrigation system in place? Is your area susceptible to floods?

The Wife's Sister will not so much farm fish but certainly have some in there, irrigation system will be installed, no flooding round here where I am is one of the driest areas in Thailand + my land is on a hill.

Eucalyptus trees are another over planted item in Thailand however Rainbow gum is a special case not grown for its timber more for its ornamental bark .

Rainbow gum looks stunning...........have you any photos of items which are made of it?

Eeeeeeeeek you mean murder a tree to make something.....................shame on you Blether you feeeeeelthy swine, the bark being renewed makes the colours the wood isnt multicoloured at all

[theblether]

@travelmann.......are you intending to farm fish in that big pond? Do you have an irrigation system in place? Is your area susceptible to floods?

The Wife's Sister will not so much farm fish but certainly have some in there, irrigation system will be installed, no flooding round here where I am is one of the driest areas in Thailand + my land is on a hill.

Eucalyptus trees are another over planted item in Thailand however Rainbow gum is a special case not grown for its timber more for its ornamental bark .

Rainbow gum looks stunning...........have you any photos of items which are made of it?

Eeeeeeeeek you mean murder a tree to make something.....................shame on you Blether you feeeeeelthy swine, the bark being renewed makes the colours the wood isnt multicoloured at all

Ooops sorry

Now I'm a tree murderer.....can't be having that

[StreetCowboy]

...

Ooops sorry

Now I'm a tree murderer.....can't be having that

SoPaddy says to Mick in the job centre "Here, look at this one. Lumberjacks wanted... ah, but it's no good, there's only two of us"

"How d'ye mean by that, then?"

"Well, they're lookin' for treefellers"

SC

[jonnyscot]

Not so much as a business plan blether, happy to be doing something to keep me occupied (amongst other things) during my home leave, although during the growing i don't think there's much taking care to be done after the roots of the bamboo become established, I've only planted a couple of rai of the bamboo for now, the wife has some thoughts on how to progress if the bamboo does come good,, but i leave that up to her since its one of her wee investments, I'll just tag along and do some grafting (supervising) hehe,, we've a few banana trees just starting to come to fruit and 2 or 3 coconut trees although just planted them this year,, the bananas are the bigger ones(same you get at home) cant stand peeling these wee sweet Thai bananas when there's bugger all of them to eat.

They came through fine.......what's the business plan in connection with the bamboo?

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

[theblether]

I know a Chinese manufacturer that injects resin into reconstituted bamboo, and creates flooring with it. It's virtually indestructible.........

This one is the Tiger variety from a collection called Silkwood............branding courtesy of theblether. I was sitting in a tea room overlooking a canal in a little town just outside Qingpu in China, brainstorming potential names. We couldn't call it hardwood or solid wood as that would contravene trade descriptions.......so it occurred to me that the texture was silky smooth hence!! Silkwood!!

The biggest benefit of Silkwood ( Bamboo ) flooring is that it only takes 4 or 5 years for the plants to come to maturity, hence the harvesting is less destructive than the longer growing tree species. European hardwood ( oak in particular ) and other countries such as the US have well managed Oak plantations ( or forests, up to you ) however one of the biggest sources of oak comes from the Russia, and that supply is highly profit driven with no eye on sustainability. Young trees are being cut down in the short term pursuit of profit.......we have seen devastation of teak wood forests in SE Asia as well.

There is money in wood, plenty of it, but the forests have to be well managed, or even better, left alone. As the photo from morakot put it.......more trees, less <deleted>.......

and greater use of bamboo would be a good thing too.

ps......this resin treated bamboo could well be the solution to the infestation problems that curse a lot of wooden structures and furnishings in Thailand. It's waterproof and very tough. Hmmmm.......

Edited September 6, 2012 by theblether