Carbon offset scheme performing badly
“Deep in the Australian outback, there are billions of dollars being made from carbon farming. It's called Human Induced Regeneration (HIR) and while it's Australia's most popular method of carbon farming, it's also controversial."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-18/experts-criticise-carbon-offset-scheme-730/102736696
Land #degradation #pastoralists #overgrazing #LandClearing #pollution #emissions #carbon #offset

@kevinrns Your interesting choice of words (Sahara-fication rather than Desertification) prompted me to do some research...

What Really Turned the #SaharaDesert From a Green Oasis Into a Wasteland?

10,000 years ago, this iconic desert was unrecognizable. A new hypothesis suggests that humans may have tipped the balance

by Lorraine Boissoneault
March 24, 2017

Excerpt: "'By overgrazing the grasses, they were reducing the amount of atmospheric moisture—plants give off moisture, which produces clouds—and enhancing albedo,' Wright said. He suggests this may have triggered the end of the humid period more abruptly than can be explained by the orbital changes. These nomadic humans also may have used fire as a land management tool, which would have exacerbated the speed at which the desert took hold.

"It’s important to note that the green Sahara always would’ve turned back into a desert even without humans doing anything—that’s just how Earth’s orbit works, says geologist Jessica Tierney, an associate professor of geoscience at the University of Arizona. Moreover, according to Tierney, we don’t necessarily need humans to explain the abruptness of the transition from green to desert.

"Instead, the culprits might be regular old vegetation feedbacks and changes in the amount of dust. 'At first you have this slow change in the Earth’s orbit,' Tierney explains. 'As that’s happening, the West African monsoon is going to get a little bit weaker. Slowly you’ll degrade the landscape, switching from desert to vegetation. And then at some point you pass the tipping point where change accelerates.'

"Tierney adds that it’s hard to know what triggered the cascade in the system, because everything is so closely intertwined. During the last humid period, the Sahara was filled with hunter-gatherers. As the orbit slowly changed and less rain fell, humans would have needed to domesticate animals, like cattle and goats, for sustenance. 'It could be the #climate was pushing people to herd cattle, or the #overgrazing practices accelerated denudation [of foliage],' Tierney says.

"Which came first? It’s hard to say with evidence we have now. “The question is: How do we test this hypothesis?” she says. 'How do we isolate the climatically driven changes from the role of humans? It’s a bit of a chicken and an egg problem.' Wright, too, cautions that right now we have evidence only for correlation, not causation.

"But Tierney is also intrigued by Wright’s research, and agrees with him that much more research needs to be done to answer these questions."

Full article:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-really-turned-sahara-desert-green-oasis-wasteland-180962668/

#ClimateChange #History

I've been visiting some beech woods on a Northumberland moor for over 12 years, I've never seen a seedling tree. There are no young trees, it's dying. The land is now up for sale and there have been no sheep this year - all of a sudden the place is awash with beech & rowan seedlings. 1/2 #Overgrazing

The Great Barrier #Reef and #farming practices
Investments go “into repairing land catchments, such as revegetation, grazing management of #cattle, and structural works to stabilise gullies and riverbanks. "#Funding needs to go towards tackling the biggest polluting gullies and streambanks, and projects need to have strong measurable #pollution reduction targets to ensure a high level of accountability and transparency”

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-22/remember-that-record-funding-for-the-great-barrier-reef/102252268
#Climate #FossilFuels #Farming #Farmers #Deforestation #Graziers #Cattle #Overgrazing #Gullies #Erosion #Corals #LandBased #Pollution #Runoff #GBR

Challenge to Irish apartment plan referred to European courts
https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/courtandcrime/arid-41101234.html
<< at least the tree angle is interesting.

Ireland has the lowest amount of trees cover in the whole EU and virtually no enforced protection of trees. #Overgrazing , as always in Ireland, also playing a part.

It is yet another area of #ecology that Ireland doesn't do enough to reach the minimal levels of other #EU states.

This amazing journalist, who is announcing his retirement, at 90 years of age, has written another column which is making me tearful.
The fantastic #MichaelViney. #Biodiversity #Machair #dunes #overgrazing #journalism
https://www.irishtimes.com/environment/2023/02/04/michael-vineys-final-another-life-column-more-than-60-years-after-the-first/

It’s well understood that #overgrazing by #herbivores like #kangaroos can change #ecosystems dramatically, but the impact excessive grazing has on the cover of dead vegetation – and cascading effects on small #vertebrates like #lizards, #desert #frogs and #dunnarts
#Conservation #EarthScience #Environmental #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2023/01/con01302301.html

Bringing #beavers back to #colorado

"In the time of Enos Mills, and until relatively recently, #beaver were abundant in the Estes Valley, Tahosa Valley, and in many parts of North America. Locally, there were beaver dams and lodges at Lily Lake and along Fish Creek. There were also beaver colonies in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), creating and maintaining habitat for many other species. A good example of a thriving beaver colony can be seen from Fish Creek Road, west of the intersection with Rockwood Lane. But now, beaver are rare in this area. What happened? Outside RMNP, #trapping, #grazing, #logging, and human settlement took its toll on beaver populations. Inside RMNP, #overgrazing by ungulates like elk, and now moose, eliminated willow habitat beavers depended on and turned the marshes into dry meadow."

https://www.estesparknews.com/estes_park_news/article_4f458d40-9cd0-11ed-aa4b-cbcb61b400a1.html

#beaverrestoration #habitat #ecosystems #conservation

(more)

Wildlife group wants all deer removed from Phoenix Park
https://www.fm104.ie/news/fm104-news/wildlife-group-wants-all-deer-removed-from-phoenix-park/
<<
I am always amazed how little life there is in Phoenix Park. The reason for this lack of biodiversity is the same as nearly everywhere in Ireland: overgrazing.

We have no top predators (we killed them all), so either we bring them back, do their job, or accept Ireland as a biodiversity wasteland.

#Ireland #overgrazing #biodiversity #dublin

A stretch of Alder woodland by a burn in Northumberland. These trees usually live for less than 100 years, but they have been used by farmers until fairly recently - coppiced or pollarded for charcoal and winter fodder, so some are MUCH older than that. Overgrazing (sheep + deer) means that there is NO regeneration happening, so this type of woodland - a feature of Northumberland - will soon be gone.

#Tree #Woodland #Wild #Overgrazing #Deer #Sheep

@earthwaves@mastodon.online @conradhackett @sociology Cattle not the problem. How humans manage and whether they can keep them moving so grass (and its roots) stay at a healthy height for plants, soils, waters is definitely the problem, and the solution. BTW #equine folks have alot to answer for in lack of #rotationalgrazing, #overgrazing, #feedproduction and #concentrated housing/feeding ops. Look at actual satellite imagery and you can pick out a horse hobby farm pasture every time due to degradation