Soil Restoration

[MikeH]

Mar 18, 2013 1:22:51 GMT -5 steev said:

I would note that while I commend the restoration of the Loess Plateau to productivity, in no way do I see that terracing as a return to any natural ecosystem. It is an environment engineered almost exclusively for the benefit of people, and the irrelevance of other species, both plant and animal. While this is a great improvement over what it had become, it is very impoverished, in the narrowness of its productivity, not unlike thousands of acres of GMO corn or soy.

True. One wonders what the natural ecosystem was on the Loess. It's been under human cultivation for 6,000 years.

This is satoyama in Japan. Satoyama areas support many forms of wildlife including endemic species. A characteristic environment has been formed and maintained by moderate intervention through human work. The word satoyama dates to the mid 1700s but there is evidence to suggest that satoyama-like practices date back thousands of years.



Perhaps the new Loess is a satoyama in the making.

Here's a David Attenborough narrated video on satoyama. vimeo.com/57180701

[steev]

Thats a more balanced landscape, formal, yet flowing. It shows the long-term result of a well-integrated community, operating sustainably. One hopes the Loess Plateau could move toward this model.

[olddog]

It does seem like Japan is more careful than China of all their living and non-living resources.

[steev]

One might suppose that Japan, being much smaller, has a society with less "distance" between producers and rulers. That could lead to more appreciation of the value of the "lower" by the "higher".

While I enjoyed the program, so poetic and lyrical, I hope the reality of the ecosystem is far more complex than it presented; I can't imagine that it isn't, although I recognize that they were making a popular presentation, not an ecological treatise. Still, the more information packed into such entertainment, the more informed the viewing public, and given that many of those who watch such presentations are children, the more receptive youth are to the interconnectedness of the ecosystem. That's hopeful for their future.