Comments on: Dry Weather

By: jalex

jalex — Fri, 21 May 2010 08:22:10 +0000

Hi Roy,
Thanks for this. I don’t know if this has ever been quantified or not, – but it does seem to be well documented over very many years. I refer mainly to the flooding we have witnessed through the press media when severe flooding has wiped out homes and villages in tropical countries. The last one I remember hearing about where 200 people lost their lives, was in the Philippines. It is commonly known, and usually reported in the aftermath of flooding, that tree cover lessens the impact of heavy rain on soils. Their roots absorb and hold water, and as you say create permeation in the subsoils, thus relieving the pressure which further reduces and often prevents flooding of the lower lands. It irks me to think that Ireland is still buying unapproved timber from countries in Asia where the effects of deforestation can be so devastating. ATB Jan

By: Roy Johnston

Roy Johnston — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:31:28 +0000

Having posted a comment I see my name and contact address invites me to post others. I note the remark on soil firmness in forest vs muddy fields. At the time of the recent floods I resurrected a thought I had way back, to the effect that the flooding of a river basin is probably related to the extent to which the upper reaches, which collect more rain, due to higher altitide, are forested. I have always felt that forestry probably delays run-off, and sends a higher proportion down into the ground-water, via the subsoil being broken up by the root system. This is merely an experimentalist’s hunch. I remember devising an experiment, involving finding a mountain valley where one side was forested and the other wasn’t, and organising to measure the stream flows during a downpour. But I never got around to doing it. May I ask, has this ever been quantified? If so, it should be in the catchment planning agenda, and on the agenda of those promoting the farm-forest link.

By: Cathy

Cathy — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:00:53 +0000

What a lovely post Jan and thanks for sharing all your photos. I too was out in my wood today and couldn’t get over how dry it is. So hard to think how liquid the soil was in January when ten of our almost mature sitka spruce fell over. I also couldn’t help noticing that some people had lit fires on the lower slopes of the Blackstairs mountains nearby to burn the bracken and encourage new growth for the very few sheep they graze up there. Hard to look at all that smoke against the clear blue sky but its also I suppose the reason why the forests that once were in this area long ago are not going to come back anytime soon.