On Nov 20, 1:22*pm, DaveS wrote:


All this jawing might make what i am doing sound like a bigger deal
than it is.

Well, yeah. Or, no. Depends on who's listening and offering which
ill-founded opinionon which ill-founded opinion. Not that any one ill-
founded opinion is necessarily much worse.....or better.....than
another, but it makes a big difference in whether or not it sounds
like a big deal.

Mostly it's an old man's hobby.

Mostly. But hope resides in the fact that there are YOUNG men, and
women, out there who will expend the time and effort to think for
themselves before they get old (assuming they live long enough for the
latter) and take up old men's hobbys.

You can barely see the effects of my work so far.

This is, in itself, almost certainly a good thing. If one could
easily see the effects, so far, it is a good bet that it would not be
a pretty thing to look at. Sort of a fundamental law of what people
touch they almost certainly **** up.

What impresses me is the work some of the
farmers are doing. And most of what I am doing has benefited from
advise from farmers, the water trust and a Walla Walla
environmentalist ("conservationist" is a better, less hot button word
in SE Wa). These folks have planted miles of river edge, and their
practices affect thousands of acres. They work within a very
structured econ/govt/climate/science environment that can grate on
their common sense of independence. But IMHO they are our natural
allies.

Planting trees in riparian habitats in semi-arid county is pretty much
a no-brainer. Luckily, the world suffers from no shortage of no-
brainers. The work should go on apace.

Meanwhile, "allies" are people who think like me. Period.

Sobering thought.

BTW Bob W. occasional Roffian, knows lots about the forest lands in
this part of the country.

Bob is the only person we've encountered here who is apparently well
grounded in the science concerning forest lands of that part of the
country. No disrespect intended (science ain't nothing to scoff at),
but there are other aspects of forests (and whatnot all) worthy of
consideration. That said, I think Bob's views are ALWAYS worth taking
seriously, and are generally a vastly better place to start than most
of the crap that passes through here on virtually any topic.

Dave
OK, plant a tree, AND/OR a native grass.

And. Definitely AND!

Wolfgang
who, though willing enough to be proved wrong, still harbors a strong
suspicion that grasses and trees somehow managed to cohabit not only
north america as a whole, but even many a local ecosystem generally
characterized by one or the other in the common imagination.