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Posts Tagged ‘ecology’

The best-selling book on “popular mycology,” Mycelium Running, would be a useful reference book in every home, especially to anyone involved in farming (or gardening), forest management and environmental cleanup. The second half of the book is an instruction manual on growing delectable mushrooms for food and medicine.

The book is filled to the brim with valuable information on how to improve soils for farming, gardening and forestry; create simple, low-cost biofilters for waste water (mycofiltration); and clean up toxic waste (mycoremediation).

As an example, a method for building a mycofiltration bed to filter waste water is described in exacting detail. Dimensions, depth, layers and recommended materials and mushrooms are listed. This mycofiltration is useful, among other things, for filtering manure enriched farm runoff.

Added perks when using mycofiltration is that the beds also yield crops of scrumptious food mushrooms, and every 2-3 years, as the bedding material needs to be replaced, the old material can be spread on the farm fields as a rich fertilizer.

Another piece of useful information for farmers and gardeners found in Mycelium Running concerns the no-till farming method as opposed to the conventional method of plowing the fields after harvest. No-till farming helps promote saprophytic fungi (decomposing fungi), which break down organic material at a pace better suited to plant-life than the rapid and heat producing breakdown by anaerobic bacteria, which are the primary decomposers when stubble is plowed under. The mycelium of saprophytic fungi also binds the soil to prevent erosion and loss of valuable nutrients.

Sanford and Son was a classic creation by Redd Foxx who was not only a comic genius but a man ahead of the curve. The reuse and recycle mentality of Fred Sanford may have been a little off the wall but this was a character who did not have to have the latest and greatest to be happy. Other people’s trash was his treasure and he managed to scrape by, happy to live in his loosely organized junkyard. I have a kid just like Fred Sanford. His idea of a good time is to hop in the truck with me whenever I have a load to haul to the county waste facility. He is fascinated by what others throw away, always coming up with ideas of how to give a second life to items that catch his eye in the white goods and brown goods dumpsters.

Junkyards are fascinating places, like galleries that reveal a culture. But archaeologists will tell you that if you want the real anthropological scoop, digging through the detritus of a landfill is far more revealing. Unlike a junkyard of mostly metal and plastics, the full range of organic materials in a landfill can more accurately decode a culture. What people eat, read and wear are pretty powerful indicators of their preoccupations. Apart from interpreting the shifts in our culture, there is the terrifying environmental revelation: It takes a scary amount of time for our trash to disintegrate.

I have a son who will drop his Wii Wand in the wink of an eye if I mention I am making a trip to the dump. I shouldn’t wonder at his response since I know that his favorite TV Land show is Sanford and Son, the sitcom in which spotlighted life in a junkyard. This boy of mine has garbage in his blood. He is always grousing at me for disinterestedly driving past people’s furniture rejects that are out on the curb for collection. When I stop to think about it, I realize this fascination holds a lot of promise for his future. Landfills and waste management are all forefront environmental issues that will require his generation to be scientists and creative thinkers like none before.

A walk through a metal and plastic bone yard like Fred Sanford’s lot,(aka junkyard) is an antiseptic experience when compared with a visit to a landfill site. Archaeologists, those people who like to dig, haven’t skipped a beat when it comes to exploring the mountains of refuse we are building in this country. Like forensic sleuths, they don face masks and take samplings at various depths to draw conclusions about our history over the past century. Shreds of clothing, newspaper and food packaging tell a lot about how people live their lives. But there are other thought arresting environmental conclusions these archaeologists share with us.

Forget the chicken or the egg debate. What should really come first is the chicken coop.

Lots of folks love the idea of raising backyard chickens, and for good reason — it’s a great idea. But the logistics of keeping chickens — all the unknowns about breeds, poultry housing, chicken feed, and city regulations — might keep some people from getting started.

So to take some of the pressure off from all of those questions, here are some basic ideas for building your own backyard chicken coop. The best coops will have many of the following qualities:

1) Proper Overall Size — The floor plan of your coop needs to have at least 4 square feet per hen. So for 8 laying hens you would need a 32-sq-ft coop. And don’t forget free range room too. Each hen will need approximately 6 sq. feet of outside roaming space in the chicken run.

2) Above Ground Level — The nesting area should be raised off the ground by 6-18 inches. This will help protect your chickens from predators and from cold, damp soil.

3) Efficiency — A well designed chicken coop will have easy access to the nesting boxes. This makes cleaning and egg collection much easier and avoids the back-breaking frustration of tight spaces. Something as simple as an access panel, such as a hinged roof panel or hinged door, can make a big difference in your work load each day.