segunda-feira, 20 de maio de 2013

1st Cycle of Meetings "Edible landscapes - Food forests and Agro-forestry in Fire-prone Landscape"




O quê/What:

1º Ciclo de Encontros "Ambientes comestíveis - Florestas de Alimentos e Agro-florestas em Zonas de Incêndio" em Chão Sobral
Cada encontro é independente do anterior ou próximo.
O programa é co-criado pelos participantes e vai ser em detalhe adaptado aos interesses e perguntas dos participantes de cada encontro.

 
1st Cycle of Meetings "Edible landscapes - Food forests and Agro-forestry in Fire-prone Landscape" in Chão Sobral
Each meeting is co-created by all participants and is independant from previous or next meetings.
Interests and questions of each participant will be addressed in detail.

Porquê / Why:
"Porque vivemos num barril de pólvora ... " e precisamos testar práticas, gerar conhecimento e entender as diferentes maneiras de lidar com o nosso ecossistema, reduzindo o potencial destrutivo do fogo e gerando economia, serviços ecológicos e saúde.
"Because we live in a gunpowder barrel ... " and we need to test practices, enacting knowledge and understand the different ways to deal with our ecosystem, reducing the destructive fire hazard and generating economy, ecological services and health.
http://chaosobral.org/incendio.htm
http://florestaparasempre.no.sapo.pt/19jul001.htm

Como/How:
Visitas de estudo guiadas a zonas de incêndio, ambientes comestíveis e sistemas agro-florestais locais
Apresentações e oficinas temáticas
Actividades práticas agro-florestais e florestais para apoiar projetos locais

Guided study tours through fire-prone landscapes, edible landscapes and agroforestry systems
Presentations and workshops
Agro-forestry and forestry hands-on activities to support local projects


Quando/When:

Sábados / Saturdays - 25 Maio/ May, 1, 8, 15 e 22 de Junho / June 2013
9h-17h com intervalo para almoço.

Onde/Where:

Chão Sobral - Serra do Açor - Freguesia de Aldeia das Dez - Concelho de Oliveira do Hospital - Distrito de Coimbra - Portugal

Organizado por João Gonçalves - Terras Altas - Permacultura Aldeia Pedagógica
Organised by João Gonçalves - Terras Altas - Permaculture Learning Village
 
 
 
 

sexta-feira, 17 de maio de 2013

The Casuarina experiment on the ridge crest



For this Casuarina experiment a ridge crest (at about 600 mts high) with good sunlight exposure was chosen.

We have 5 trees, planted 2 years ago at the same time. The tallest is about 2 mtrs.
They were seeded at the same time, but have different growth pattern and shapes.
This site receives the strongest autumn winds we get around.

They are also exposed to the north freezing winds, and tip damage accurs in such events.
They will function has a south side windbreak edge along with Rosemary planted under their canopy.
In the future they will be pruned so as to cut limit their growth vertically and expand their growth horizontly.

They are the south edge of a agro-forestry flood irrigated tiny system that includes other trees like olives, pomegranate, peach, plums, apples, cherry, and kaki, plus perenials like palm cabbage, jerusalem artichoke, raspberry and mint.
Annual crops this spring include potatoe, lettuce, beet, palm cabbage, onions.
This tree performs the functions:
- capture wind energy and transform it into (very useful) wood, protecting other trees from wind damage
- capture sunlight relieving sunlight stress from other (deciduos) trees
- nitrogen fixing into the soil
- production of mulch, litter/leaves to use in the vegetable garden nearby
- produce seeds with new "local" genetics