Allan Savory, who has done pioneering work in managing grasslands on several continents, gave a very interesting talk at the TED2013 conference last month. Here are some quotes:
Burning one hectare of grassland gives off more, and more damaging, pollutants than 6,000 cars. And we are burning in Africa, every single year, more than one billion hectares.
And:
We cannot reduce animal numbers to rest it more without causing desertification and climate change. We cannot burn it without causing desertification and climate change. There is only one option left to climatologists and scientists, and that is to do the unthinkable, and to use livestock, bunched and moving, as a proxy for former herds and predators, and mimic nature. There is no alternative left to mankind.
Here is the description of his talk:
Desertification of the world’s grasslands, Allan Savory suggests, is the immediate cause of poverty, social breakdown, violence, cultural genocide — and a significent contribution to climate change. In the 1960s, while working in Africa on the interrelated problems of increasing poverty and disappearing wildlife, Savory made a significant breakthrough in understanding the degradation and desertification of grassland ecosystems. After decades of study and collaboration, thousands of managers of land, livestock and wildlife on five continents today follow the methodology he calls “Holistic Management.”
In 1992, Savory and his wife, Jody Butterfield, formed the Africa Centre for Holistic Managementin Zimbabwe, a learning site for people all over Africa. In 2010, the Centre won the Buckminster Fuller Challenge for its work in reversing desertification. In that same year he and his wife, with others, founded the Savory Institute in Boulder, Colorado, to promote large-scale restoration of the world’s grasslands.
The entire 22-minute talk is worth watching, but if you’re pressed for time, he begins discussing the use of fire and the alternatives at about the 10-minute mark. The video below is more impressive if you click on full screen at the bottom-right after it begins playing.
When Mr. Savory is talking about managed grazing, I don’t believe he is referring to the kind that we are used to in the United States where animals are confined to an area for months at a time. He mentions “bunched and moving” — intensive but of short duration. It makes me think of a herd of bison, pre-1800, numbering in the thousands or more, moving across the grasslands of the United States. I’m no grazing specialist, so maybe someone with more more specific knowledge can enlighten us.
Thanks go out to Bean
OMG
A revival of a form of my Range Management class in 1989 in a Midwest State no less
Let me get my range management text by Stoddard (sp) and see if this is ” new ” technology” or not……….
I was wondering if the way to fix desertification is to put livestock on a peace of land. Then have certain times when they eat in a area at a time… At what circumstances do you see the people in the U.S. or other urbanized places would let livestock on their land for the grater good?
burning to help the environment should be outlawed. Some rural firefighters are doing it on purpose when there is no fires just for an excuse to receive government money.
What?
Here is an eye opening explanation and elegant proposal and result. My question is, would it be possible to apply your same Holistic management to forestry?
If a hectare of grassland burned emits the same pollutants as 6000 cars, I cannot imagine what the figure is for an equivalent size of forested land! Perhaps Mr. Savorys concept of (bunched animals) intensive forestry, including slash removal, logging and other means to reduce the fuel load is the real answer.
I work as a helicopter fire pilot. I have watched firsthand the amazing devastation that out of control wildfires are causing. Yet many still believe that the best policy is “Let it Burn”.
I believe that we are experiencing climate change, I don’t know why. I am seeing a difference in the way trees are burning, but more importantly, a reduction in the areas that trees are able to self regenerate after a fire. I think it is more important than ever to come up with a different plan for our forest lands.
I think that there are many paralells to Mr. Savorys work that would revive our forests and reduce the destruction of them.
Joseph, I had a really good conversation with a state forester who I respect a great deal. I asked him if the pine beetle was a new and disastrous development. He said no and that it was just nature cleaning up the forests. He went on to explain how beetles have an easier time attacking older trees that cant push them out with pitch as well as an young healthy tree can. He had been with the state for thiry years and had seen alot change. The colapse of the logging industry took away alot of the managment that used to make the state money instead of cost money. An over abundance of old trees, spaced closely together help spread beetles. He went on to say that nature’s way was fire. But, we used to be able to mitigate (some) of nature’s fury with logging and grazing. Sheep used to be a great way of limiting ladder fuels as well. He said we have all of the tools we need to properly manage the forests we just never seem to be able to use them at the same time due to economic, political, social, and envriomental concerns. He explained all of this to me when I was a very green FF 1 so I hope I did him justice! So yes I agree with you.
You are right Mr. Gabbert. This style of managed grazing is very intensive for a short period of time. A pasture that would summer 10 cows for 6 months would now be stocked with say 60 cows for a month or even higher for rates for just a week or two. This practice greatly improves range health by decreasing stress on the plants themselves, and by increasing manure(fertilizer) concentrations. The longer a cow grazes a plant more damage can happen to the plant resulting in slower regeneration. These practices can reduce erosion, increase the nutrition value of the plant, increase stocking rates( more beef produced per acre) reduce the ammount of overmature non-palatable grass, and reduce animal stress. The only down side is it takes more time and management on the part of the producer. I am sure Mr. Mangan could add more to the subject at hand as well. And hopefully correct me if I made any mistakes.