218
Art. # 218
MAINTAINING AND REHABILITATING GRASSLAND
Environmental Management
Text by Stefan
Rust
Photos by
Birgit Leicher, Argo and Stefan Rust
2014
(In
terms of the Geneva Convention the copyright of these texts belongs to Stefan
Rust)
Father Sky gives
light, rain and air to mother Earth and she in return gives birth to plants,
animals and humans. We humans are part of this family called Nature, the sky
being our father, the earth our mother and the plants and animals our brothers
and sisters. For many years family Nature lived a peaceful and quiet life but
recently the human children became disobedient and rebellious against their
family. Humans pollute Father Sky and Mother Earth and poison and kill their
siblings, the plants and animals.
Many
kind of animals, such as this White rhino, assist in
maintaining or rehabilitating grassland.
In an attempt to
restore family Nature, BirdsConTour founded the Environmental Management project.
Many farmers
depend on livestock and game, so grass as food is inescapable. In livestock
country the grass indicates the health of the land. In these areas there are
very few places where grass cannot grow, but nowadays many places where it
doesn’t grow anymore. Where good grass grows, the animals will be in a good
productive condition.
But
inappropriate land management leads to trouble on many farms, poisonous plants
increase, grass disappears, bare soil originates, wind and water erosion
increases, dense bush grows and animals move away and die.
Disappearance of
grass is not because of animals or too many animals. Since the beginning of
time plants and animals coexisted and belong together. So blaming the animals
for the absence of good grass is wrong. Grass (plants), as any other living
organism, needs among other things movement to stay healthy. But because of its
roots a grass plant can’t move from A to B to keep fit, it needs another way of
movement, so it grows and grows again several times. But therefore grasses
depend on animals. They bite off part of the grass that is visible above the
ground, to then being able to move, to grow again. Only grass that is eaten by
animals can live healthy and be productive.
By reducing or
removing animals from land where we want grass to grow is not the answer
because grass that does not get stimulated to grow through being grazed or gets
stimulated too seldom, initially turns yellow and eventually dies because of
lack of movement and lack of sunlight. Old stems and leafs spend shadow so that
young leafs can’t grow from the bottom.
Besides sunlight
and being grazed, grass needs water and food to live. This they get by their
roots out of a healthy soil. Soil to be or to become healthy needs large herds
of animals as it used to be under natural circumstances. The feet open the
ground for the seed to be planted, water to soak in and the feet break down old
plant material serving as ground cover and protection. The manure and urine of
a herd of healthy animals gives back part of the digested grass to the soil and
serves as good fertilizer. In a healthy ecosystem the energy flow, water cycle
and mineral cycle is fully functional and good grass can grow to avoid bare
soil to develop, causing desert-like circumstances or dense bush growth, the
biggest competitor of bush being an according growth of grass that suppresses
bush germination.
With keeping
animals it is of utmost importance to avoid “overgrazing” and “over-resting” of
grass plants. Both factors are equally harmful for grass growth and for the
topsoil, eventually causing the loss of both.
This is where
the crucial time factor comes in. Animals have to move or be moved around
enough to give eaten and trampled grass the necessary time they need to grow
again and reproduce. This recovery time often was and still is the neglected
factor resulting in destroyed grassland. Once again it needs to be emphasized
that not animals or too many animals are to be blamed but inappropriate
management by people.
These
test sections managed by Mr. Argo Rust prove that grasses can return within a
relative short period of time with appropriate livestock practices applied, in
this case with cattle. Each picture set shows the same test section before (top)
and after (bottom). The dates are 26.6.’10 (top) and 8.8.’11 (bottom) on the
left set, 3.10.’10 (top) and 5.4.’11 (bottom) on the middle set and 26.6.’10
(top) and 4.10.’11 (bottom) on the right set.
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