“Permaculture instructor Andrew Millison journeys with the UN World Food Programme to the country of Niger in the African Sahel to see an innovative land recovery project within the Great Green Wall of Africa that is harvesting rainwater, increasing food security, and rehabilitating the ecosystem.”
Category: Land
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What happens when you set a river free? | BBC News
See what happened when a river in west Somerset was filled in and allowed to take its own course through the landscape.
Virtually all the UK’s rivers have been physically altered in one way or another – straightened, dammed, dredged or restrained by barriers in some way along their course. Which is why the National Trust decided to do a radical experiment, to see if it is possible to the ecological equivalent of a complete reboot.
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Planet Wild: “We killed 10,000 trees to restore an ancient forest”
Many of us have been led to believe that just planting trees is a solution to the climate crisis and saving our environment. This is not the case. To have true impact, ecosystems have to be restored and consumption habits changed.
From Planet Wild: “Human activity has turned most of Scotland’s beautiful and ancient forests into monoculture plantations. This pushes endless animals and species out of their natural habitat, drastically reducing biodiversity. That’s why in our twelfth Planet Wild mission, we’re transforming monoculture plantations into real forests, using an unusual reforestation technique. Spoiler alert: not a single tree was planted.”
How can you see this
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Growing a pine tree: 300-day time lapse
From pine cone to baby pine tree, here’s a video about how to grow your own pine tree! From the YouTube description: “Last Christmas they sold these stone pine cones in the supermarket so I bought one to try to see if i could grow something from the seeds. And it turned out to be one of my favorites this year. Definitely keeping this one going for longer so there will most likely be an update video coming end of next year.
‘The stone pine, botanical name Pinus pinea, also known as the Italian stone pine, Mediterranean stone pine, umbrella pine and parasol pine, is a tree from the pine family (Pinaceae). The tree is native to the Mediterranean region, occurring in Southern Europe and the Levant. The species was introduced into North Africa millennia ago, and is also naturalized in the Canary Islands, South Africa and New South Wales.’”
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Wired: How to Responsibly Dispose of Your Electronics
Get rid of old, broken, and unused devices—even Lightning cables—without adding to the e-waste problem.
https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-responsibly-dispose-electronics/
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Bees Get All the Love. Won’t Someone Think of the Moths?
LOOK, WE GET it—bees are fantastic. As more people keep piling into cities over the coming decades, we’ll need more of these insects to pollinate urban green spaces, which provide fresh produce and the biomass that can cool a metropolis. But while deploying as many flowering species as possible to attract bees, cities risk sidelining an underappreciated champion of pollination: the humble moth.
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Removing Barriers: Converting Culverts to Bridges for People & Wildlife
Undersized, damaged, aging culverts can limit access to important stream habitat for fish and other aquatic organisms. They can also seriously affect transportation if a culvert fails or negatively impacts the road above. Replacing a culvert with a larger, more suitable structure like a bridge is a win-win for fish, water quality, transportation, and the economy. At Peterson Creek, a tributary to the Miami River in Tillamook County, Oregon, upgrading the undersized, perched culvert improved access to 6.2 miles of upstream habitat for ESA listed coho salmon, as well as Chinook, chum, steelhead, cutthroat and lampreys.
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How we get tree planting wrong | It’s Complicated
In the face of the impending climate catastrophe, there has been a growing clamour to repopulate the trillions of trees our planet has lost over the centuries.
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You Can Turn Your Backyard Into a Biodiversity Hot Spot
From Wired: New research shows that if done right, urban farms and gardens can support all kinds of species—for the good of people and the environment.
PEOPLE HAVE LONG stoked an urban-versus-rural rivalry, with vastly different cultures and surroundings. But a burgeoning movement—with accompanying field of science—is eroding this divide, bringing more of the country into the city. It’s called rurbanization, and it promises to provide more locally grown food, beautify the built environment, and even reduce temperatures during heat waves.
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Wolves have returned to Belgium after 100 years, sparking controversy
Wolves have returned to Belgium; reintroducing species can sometimes be a challenge, as this news report from the BBC documents.
“Wolves have settled in Belgium for the first time in more than 100 years – raising concerns among livestock owners. Wolves were once widely hunted in Europe and folklore suggests the last wolf in Belgium was shot by the nation’s King Leopold II in the 1890s. Estimates vary but around 15 to 20 wolves are currently thought to be in the country, with one pack in Flanders plus another in southern Wallonia, as well as a newly settled pair. Dietary analysis in the area has found that the wolves mainly eat roe deer and wild boar. But around 15% of their diet is livestock – which is causing concern among farmers.”