Wednesday 15 August 2018

Eucalyptus....whats the problem....

So I mentioned Eucalyptus trees in Portugal....

Last year when I went to west coast of Portugal the place was inundated with the stuff......this year in the Alentejo area there were more Cork Oaks which are fabulous for wildlife....however, there were occasional plantations and the further west we went the more appeared....

What ive got against Eucalyptus....these trees have, over the millions of years in their native Australia, learned to survive in arid, nutrient poor conditions.....so give them nutrient rich and theyre like pigs in muck....

They are pretty bad for the local area.....because they survive in dry conditions they are great at finding water with extensive root systems...so if you want to get rid of water go plant some of these guys, they will happily assist....and in many places this is the one thing you DONT want to do...an ecological disaster is what you will be gaining....

The biggest issue with these trees is...environmentally they are pretty poor for anything around them...unless you are a Koala.....they produce oil, obviously....it might clear your nose but it will also clear anything else around the tree....rotting oil rich leaves and sticky gum will kill off microbes in the area....stands of trees become dense and offer nothing to other flora and fauna in Portugal (okay, there is one famous stand somewhere with a few White Stork nests in)….

So why so many planted in Portugal.....money.....apparently farmers were given financial incentives to plant it because it reaches maturity in 6 years....it can be harvested quickly for pulp compare to pines which will take anywhere from 30+ years.....now things have changed....the money has dried up so they don't plant them any more....thankfully.....

Portugal has recently been hit with 'wildfires'....and theres nothing more a Eucalyptus will assist with, apart from your blocked nose, other than a wildfire....all that oil, dry bark peeling off continually piling up under trees.....large tracts planted densely....

Im happy they are being burnt at incredible rates....though maybe not the best solution, but they do have to go...

So...its that humans didn't think ahead thing again.....but that's not surprising really....

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