[Terrapreta] Fwd: PHOTOS ABOUT CATTAIL

[Kevin Chisholm]

Dear Brian

Brian Hans wrote:
> I frequent Thailand quite often and live in Wisconsin. /T. 
> angustifolia/  is in both places, thick. Cattails represent a 
> tremendous annual C and NPK... source that is virtually 100% recycled 
> into CO2 and worse, CH4 and loss of Nutrients down stream (Ocean dead 
> zones). Human fix more N than biology does, and all that P, K digging 
> doesnt just evaporate... there is far too much C and NPK being pumped 
> into our environment.
>  
> I vote that we develop the ability to harvest cattail marshes. I 
> think (as an ecologist) that we can do this with more benefit than 
> damage. A invasive spp. monoculture marsh doesnt offer a whole lot of 
> biodiversity and ecology anyhow except as a kidney. And by removing C 
> and NPK... from the system, we are very much enhancing that filtering 
> capability of the marsh. Farmer gets his C and NPK back for a small price.

Certainly, it would be nice to be able to harvest Cattails, but how can 
this be done??? The roots tangle together in a most uncooperative 
manner, such that they need heavy machinery to deal with them. Some 
people feel that Cattail roots are anchored around the Gates of Hell. :-)

In natural circumstances, they generally seem to grow in bottomless 
bogs, that are great places to lose heavy machinery. :-) 

What would you suggest as a practical concept for growing and harvesting 
Cattails?

Best wishes,

Kevin
>  
> I cant wait for a portable gasifier tractor that can be run like a 
> combine... in my lifetime.
>  
> Brian
>  
> */Richard Haard <richrd at nas.com>/* wrote:
>
>     Michael 
>
>     It's a stretch on this list but Ben and I have Been discussing
>     this for over a year in the context of biofuels utilizing the
>     starch in the rhizomes and also reinventing agriculture  by
>     utilizing land considered marginal for purposes of traditional
>     farming and native plants that might become new crops with
>     additional uses for food, fiber and economic endeavor for local
>     farmers. We've been working over this topic on the gasification
>     list but I suppose Ben posted here because we are more oriented to
>     farming/growing plants. 
>
>     For me the link to terra preta is the link to agriculture as is /
>     was practiced by native peoples in different parts of the world.
>     In my part of the world a well known ethnobotanist, Dr Nancy
>     Turner, was editor for a book (conference proceedings)
>     titled keeping it living
>     <http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/DEUKEC.html>   in
>     which the authors countered the popular supposition that the
>     native peoples of the PNW  were simple hunter gathers and instead
>     they were actively cultivating plants long before contact with the
>     Europeans. 
>
>     from the review
>
>      Keeping It Living tells the story of traditional plant
>     cultivation practices found from the Oregon coast to Southeast
>     Alaska. It explores tobacco gardens among the Haida and Tlingit,
>     managed camas plots among the Coast Salish of Puget Sound and the
>     Strait of Georgia, estuarine root gardens along the central coast
>     of British Columbia, wapato maintenance on the Columbia and Fraser
>     Rivers, and tended berry plots up and down the entire coast.
>
>     Especially interesting to me is the fact that the method of
>     cultivation of these native peoples was passive in a natural
>     environment and also that some of the early settlers respected the
>     heritage of these original peoples and as they settled into their
>     places, intermarried, took the effort to learn their methods and
>     uses of native plants. A long time friend of mine now deceased was
>     fourth generation descendant who had kept this knowledge alive.
>     For some time I would interview her on this topic and one story
>     she told me was about her childhood living on San Juan Island
>     during the great depression years and it was their knowledge and
>     use of native plants that kept them alive. 
>
>     Perhaps , just like terra preta there is something here that may
>     show us how we are going to be making our energy and food after
>     the oil is gone. 
>
>     Thanks for the link to NZ Typha species. There are 4 species in
>     Argentina including the ubiquitous Typha latifolia of North America. 
>
>     Rich
>     On May 18, 2008, at 2:24 AM, Michael Bailes wrote:
>
>>     http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Typha~orientalis
>>     <http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Typha%7Eorientalis>
>>
>>     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattail
>>
>>     Why is it important?
>>     m
>>
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