Making Native Plants

Ah Yes, hunting and gathering

There is something primal about this activity that makes me feel connected to the world around me.  This is a task I saved for myself out of all of the work it takes to make native plants at a native plant nursery.  As the farm expanded and other people joined us,  here I am after 23 years collecting an early spring fruiting of silver maple in Iowa.

Who is this seed collector and what can he say about the world around us.

I am biologist but not until season after season, following the cycle of flowering, fruiting then the harvest did I so fully understand this living planet.

I am competitor with the flock of Flickers noisily feasting on hawthorne fruits in the same tree with me, so close, I can hear their feathers rustle.

I am shaman giving thanks to this tree for its bounty. In my mind telling tree I have selected her children to represent your kind at our farm. Because I know every individual is different everywhere and this tree is best suited this place by gift of inheritance.

I am seed collector who knows plants are not distributed by random in nature and understands to find  places to plant these seedlings where they will thrive

These are the growers who do much more than throw seed into the ground. When I started there were no books to tell me how to sow each of the hundreds of different native plants kinds I wanted to grow.                                                                                               Trees and shrubs and perennials and grasses of aquatic of salt flat and of sand dunes each with their own genetic heritage telling their embryo when to begin to imbibe water and send out that  tiny root growing down to locate nutrients and microbial partners supported by stored energy in the seed.

Now we know some of our plants will grow whenever placed in warm moist ground, just like corn.
Some seeds can be stored dry for many years others rapidly lose viability on drying.
Some seeds will never grow unless they spend a period in winter, moist cool conditions and others need a summer and a winter dispelling chemical inhibitors or allowing the embryo to finish ripening,
and some will never grow unless their thick coating is etched in an animal gut by acids or blistered in a fire.Lastly there are those it seems we will never come to understand or perhaps they change from year to year in their germination requirements.


And you know this is the fun and the joy of learning to grow these native plants

A Sense of Community

Benjamin wrote: Doctor Haard, translation of "fiador" is "fastener" , it also  means "shared in common" environment as definition not only for dutys also as phylosophy. In contrast to Wall Street Environment (Bellingham, WA) shareholders. Our shares are trees, animals, soils,water. We need to conserve it. "Mutirão" is when all people works for one. An example is to fill concrete roof. Miguel gives 60 french breads with hot dogs, four liter soda, two liter ron as payment one weekend to his supporters who were helping to fill concrete roof near 300 square feet. Structure to support (encofrado) was paper board over bamboo and eucaliptus logs This is a very nice piece describing the spirit of your community. When I was in Tobago last spring , i sat down at a park bench with an old man. He told me in the very same words how people worked together in the past and that now with the tourism industry and everyone working jobs is all lost.  We will work this way to make our native plant nurseries and cattail waste water treatment, I hope? Best  Richard

Cattails and Biomass energy

Here are is a cattail plant showing the starchy root.       

From which feed or fuel (ethanol) can be made           

The leaves and stems also contain sugar, just as do        

the sugar cane plant. Cattail tissue is soft and easier       

to complete enzyme reduction of cellulose than wood

Here are cattails in their natural habitat

Cattails serve a role of water purification by 

trapping nutrients and saving as biomass. 

In nature this stabilized the ecosystem and serves the

food chain

Cattails are also tool for biological water treatment

In storm-water retention  holding ponds

In industrial effluent treatment               

In municipal sewage treatment lagoons 

Now our study topic - a new application. If we can show profit from extracting food and energy value from cattails the we will be able to expand this concept to region wide watershed water treatment in drainage basins that are polluted with nutrients and chemicals from agriculture, urban and industry

This is our vision

  

Correspondence with Ben

Above is a rough translation into English and below is original spanish from Ben. I've made some minor changes in the english


Our agenda for work, missions and idealism is unfolding. More to follow


ALGAE, fish, aquatic plants, by Benjamin BOF (16/07/2008)

Very good site of the authors of the note.
Acros expelled from the camps even for us forestaciones refugiamos in the flooded areas are those with more activity
planet's biological to meet human needs without leave a
polu naked planet and future generations.


Following the publication of Christian Frers "Plants for acuaáticas
wastewater treatment 


"We are working on a sustainable model
with immense possibilities of applied in marginal regions of the
Plata Basin and the depressed area of the Salado River. 


Dr. Ricahrd Haard noted Frers and translated into English and we have another companion route this is Dr. Folke G6unther of Lund, Sweden specialist in "vetpark"
Park also Humid with interest in purify waste water using them to produce algae, fish, aquatic vegetation and Salicaceae among other species greedy water.


Haard The doctor sent me this letter:

Benjamin BOF - You are a person interesting. Much more than a blacksmith.

Rich

The fundamentals are good to believe. Why are we talking about this, even
doing this? In his chapter, on ecosystem ecology Howard Odum is very good starting point for this discussion ..................

All our life activities can be understood in relation to ecosystem dynamics as Howard Odum has revealed. 


Another life lesson I learned during my studies to become a
mycologist is the incredible diversity of approaches to accomplish this
working life that all agencies have discovered the planet. This is the science of biology.

It is diversity we need to contemplate as we work on our
path towards sustainable communities. Sometimes we get lost in our
own words and we must strive to maintain an expression of a
simple idea.

A global society does not mean that all those living in the same
manner will work towards the same expectations. In the future, regional diversity becomes more important than the homogenized societies. Each place, sometimes separated by only a few few miles or a mountain pass which have different ways of
achieve livelihoods for their people. This is the way it was in the past and how it will be in the future.


There is also what Peter Kropotkin expressed so well in his book, Mutual Aid.

How do people make their livelihoods? Here? (Angatuba, Brazil). How much of
Angatuba economy originates with the money or energy comes from outside the community?

Should we give our local energy production would buy imported goods or services? No! We keep this energy flowing within our community whenever possible. How can we (make the cake bigger) to keep this money and energy that circulates within
your community?

This is the model of economy = E L P = Economize, Localize, Produce.

The farm, and natural habitats, sunlight and soil are basis for the livelihood of the old system of our grandparents, where the money did not exist. Today this kind of basic production  that continues remain important. What is different today is the energy fossil fuels of who we are our energy slaves that we use to get
work done or to make added value to the farmer, and trade or services for the community.

there is a second way of seeing this production system. Above I pointed out that we became dependent on fossil fuels, but now because of the scarcity and cost of energy we do have a problem. We must find substitutes for this energy or we must go back to the way in earlier days. We must work harder and more intelligently.

This second way of looking at this is to become more efficient in the use of energy and to delay the time before the "job" is to lost heat sink.

Produce = The magic of a farm or a forest or a river is that new things appear that had not existed before. It's like making money from nothing. Nothing, except water and sunlight.

Localize = We work very hard to maintain our production,  Local Production, circulating over and over again within our community

Economize = We understand that resources are increasingly scarce and expensive,
so I work for the design of our production system to recycle and utilize our resources efficiently.

Totora (Cattails) is an example to economize.

If we design a system biological water treatment Residual then capture nitrogen and other minerals instead of flushing in the ocean. There will be a time when the nitrogen and phosphorus
...



ALGAS,PECES,PLANTAS ACUATICAS, por Benjamin Bof (16/07/2008)
Muy bueno el site de los autores de la nota. Expulsados de los campos acros incluso para forestaciones nos refugiamos en las areas inundables que son las que presentan mayor actividad biológica del planeta para satisfacer las necesidades humanas sin dejar un planeta desnudo y poluido a las generaciones futuras. Luego de la publicación de Cristia Frers "Plantas acuaáticas para el tratamiento de aguas residuales" estamo trabajando en un modelo sostenible con posibilidades inmensas de aplicarse en regiones marginales de la cuenca del Plata y el area deprimida del rio Salado. El doctor Ricahrd Haard tradujo la nota de Frers al inglés y tenemos otro compañero de ruta ; el doctor Folke G6unther de Lund, Suecia especialista en el "vetpark" o Parque Húmedo tambien con el interes en purificar las agaus residuales utilizándolas para producir algas, peces,vegetación acuática y salicáceas entre otras especies ávidas del agua. El doctor Haard me envió esta carta: Benjamin BOF - Usted es una persona interesante. Mucho más que un herrero. Rich Los fundamentos son buenos para pensar. ¿Por qué estamos hablando, incluso haciendo esto? Su capítulo de Howard Odum es muy buen punto de partida para este debate .................. Todas nuestras actividades de la vida puede entenderse en relación con la dinámica de los ecosistemas como Howard Odum ha puesto de manifiesto. Otra lección de vida que aprendí durante mis estudios para convertirme en un mycologist es la increíble diversidad de enfoques para realizar este trabajo de vida que todos los organismos del planeta han descubierto. Esta es la ciencia de la biología. Es la diversidad que tenemos que contemplar como trabajamos en nuestro camino hacia comunidades sostenibles. A veces nos perdemos en nuestras propias palabras y tenemos que luchar para mantener la expresión de una idea simple. Una sociedad global no significa que todos los que viven de la misma manera y trabajamos con miras a las mismas expectativas. En el futuro, de hecho, la diversidad regional pasará a ser más importante que las sociedades homogeneizadas. Cada lugar, a veces separados sólo por unos pocos kilómetros o un paso de montaña que tienen diferentes maneras de lograr medios de vida para sus pueblos. Esta es la forma que fue en el pasado y cómo será en el futuro. También existe lo que Peter Kropotkin expresado tan bien en su libro, la ayuda mutua. ¿Cómo hace la gente hace sus medios de vida? Aquí? (Angatuba). ¿Cuánto de la economía de Angatuba se origina con el dinero o la energía que proviene de fuera de la comunidad? ¿Debemos dar nuestro local de producción de energía fuera a comprar las mercancías importadas o servicios? No! Mantenemos esta energía que circula dentro de nuestra comunidad siempre que sea posible. ¿Cómo podemos (hacer el pastel más grande) mantener este dinero y la energía que circula dentro de su comunidad? Este es el modelo de ELP = economizar, localizar, Producir. La granja, y los hábitats naturales, la luz del sol y la tierra son la base para la subsistencia del sistema antiguo de nuestros abuelos, donde el dinero no existía. Hoy en día este tipo de producción de base sigue siendo importante. ¿Qué es diferente en la actualidad es la energía de combustibles fósiles de quienes somos esclavos y que usamos para hacer los trabajos ó hacer un valor añadido para el agricultor , el comercio o los servicios para la comunidad. Hay una segunda forma de ver a este sistema de producción. Por encima nos señaló que nos convertimos en dependientes de combustibles fósiles, pero ahora debido a la escasez y el costo es que tenemos un problema. Deben encontrarse sustitutos para esta energía o debemos remontarnos a la forma en que hicimos las cosas antes enque esta energía era fácil. Tenemos que trabajar más duro y más inteligentemente. La segunda forma de ver a este es a ser más eficientes en el uso de la energía y para retrasar el tiempo antes que el "trabajo" se pierda al disipador el calor. Producir = La magia de una granja o un bosque o un río es que lo nuevoy cosas, que no habían existido antes. Es igual que hacer dinero a partir de la nada. Nada, excepto el agua y la luz solar. Localizar = Nosotros trabajamos muy duro para mantener nuestra producción local que circulan una y otra vez dentro de nuestra comunidad Economizar = Entendemos que los recursos son cada vez escasos y costosos, así que trabajo para el diseño de nuestro sistema de producción para reciclar nuestros recursos y utilizar de manera eficiente. Totora es un ejemplo de ello para economizar. Si queremos diseñar un sistema biológico de tratamiento de aguas residuales entonces la captura de nitrógeno y otros minerales en lugar de rubor en el océano. Habrá un momento en que el nitrógeno y el fósforo se...

ALGAS,PECES,PLANTAS ACUATICAS

Benjamin Bof, my friend in Argentina and Brazil has been corresponding about this common interest we share. Back and forth, using google language tools we understand each other. Here is some of our dialog , split in duplicate sections , english and spanish