Permaculture Week: Trees

So today's the last day of permaculture week :(

I know i'm sad too, but I decided to end the week with the most important topic in permaculture:

TREES!!

So why are trees so important?

Well did you know that trees are the only reason we are alive today on the earth?

They are that important.

So you may be saying "yes, yes I know they provide us with oxygen to survive, I learned that when I was in five" haha

But trees do so much more than that!

Did you know that trees are responsible for 80% of our fresh drinking water. That is right. 80% of the water we drink to survive comes some way or another from a forest.

Also where are you right now?

In your room maybe? Well what is your room made out of? Trees!!

What about the paper you write on, the desk you sit on, the pencil you use, the books you read?

TREES!!

Now you see why trees can be so important.

Trees can create rainfall.

So how do trees actually help it rain?

Well think about this.

What happens when it rains in a forest? Where does all the water go?  Well the trees suck up that water and store it. Also they provide shade for the ground to to keep the water from evaporating so quickly. So the water is able to soak into the ground thus helping more plants to grow.

Now what happens when the sun comes back around and starts to shine it's rays and heat on the forest? Well the water that was stored is now released into the air in great quantities thus humidifying the air and helping it rain. And the cycle continues.


Now think of this.

Rain falls in the desert. What happens? The water is immediately evaporated into the air and doesn't have any time to sink into the land or create humidity. Thus the land suffers by not getting the original rainfall to soak in properly and doesn't get the benefit of another rain when the sun comes back out again. It just evaporates and that is the end of it. Not a good place to be.

Trees keep soil in place

Now im sure this seems like common sense but think of this. What happens when you don't have trees holding your soil in place. Let's say you have a farm. And you plant one acre with corn and the acre with potatoes. Now this doesn't seem to abnormal right? But think about nature. Does this ever occur in nature? Does nature ever put one species in place to be taken out all at the same time. NO. And why is that?

Well what happens when at the end of the season you harvest all your crops. The crops are gone. The soil is bare. Nothing is holding it down. What happens when a gust of wind comes? All that top soil BLOWS AWAY. And even if it didn't all blow away then and there, what happens when the next rain comes and lands on that bare soil?  The rain will likely either WASH AWAY all your soil or if it doesn't do that you still won't get much benefit because as soon as the sun comes back out the water will evaporate very quickly.

But if you have your system set up with trees, that can block the sun from drying up the ground and making it easier to blow away, block the wind, prevent water from washing away your soil, the water that does land can be stored, and the roots can hold the soil down. Now how much better is that!

Finally Food Forests. 

Now they are a bit complicated so I won't get into them now. But here is a prime example of what you can build in 10 years from bare soil.

Thanks again for reading.

Enjoy!