conservation via horticulture (was new member intro)

Steven Hart hartsentwine.australia@gmail.com
Sat, 14 Feb 2015 01:40:15 PST
That sounds so fascinating Jim,  You know, in the 1980s-90s poachers
started entering our property & making their way down into the deep hidden
rainforest gorges that surround us. One day we came home & found a 2m long
Birds nest, or Crows nest fern frond in our horse paddock, kms from the
deep forest where they live. After a 2 hour hike into the gorge that runs
through the edge of the property, I was devastated to find hundreds of
rosettes of leaves from giant ferns, some with a diameter of over 4m, where
they had been cut off & growing cores carried out... I still don't know how
any body could possible manage to carry them out up the steep jungle clad
mountain sides. They stripped hundreds of our stag horn ferns which are a
true epiphyte & only roots remained from hundreds & hundreds of rock & tree
moss growing orchids. It was a devastating blow to the forest & to me...

Soon after, stag horns were studied & sales evaluated  & are now sold on a
permit system to eliminate poaching from National Parks, but the research
came too slow to save our populations unfortunately. Since the sales permit
system, no poachers have ever returned.

I am one of those people who studies tings very closely in the wild, it is
my fascination, my poison..... After several years of visiting the area, I
have watched the changes in evolution of the forest here & what was once a
very dark moist area with moss & water dripping from every tree, held after
rain by the giant crows nest ferns & thousands of stag horn ferns, is now a
dry section, the area de-evolved & never recovered. Later the drying of
this section allowed fire to creep into the rain forest & this section will
be changed for the rest of eternity. In the forest edges, where the fires
damaged, Proiphys cunninghamii, Brisbane lily has repopulated, so is one
consolation.

Fortunately the rest of the gorges are still jungle clad & are far to
difficult for people to get to, so these areas are preserved. It is a
remnant forest & I have recorded countless numbers of rare & endangered
species of animals birds plants & frogs.

I must watch the show u suggested
Steven Esk Queensland Australia

On 14 February 2015 at 11:00, Jim McKenney <jamesamckenney@verizon.net>
wrote:

>
> Well said, Dylan.
> It just so happens that I had Steve's post well in mind as I was watching
> (via You Tube) an episode of Midsomer Murders called " Orchis fatalis". The
> story opens with two wild orchid poachers gloating as the collect "the only
> one" of a unique wild orchid. The writers invented an orchid for this
> story: Paphiopedilum rochebrunianum flavum (the flavum is the invented
> part). If you want to watch it, go to You tube and search on "Midsomer
> Murders S08E03". This episode is full of flowers (you'll have to ignore the
> blood) and a nice antidote to what most of us in the Northern Hemisphere
> are experiencing now.
> Jim McKenneyMontgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where the
> temperature this morning at 5:30 A.M. was 10 degrees F (about minus 12
> Celsius). We are earning our zone 7 reputation this week!
>
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Steven : )
Esk Queensland Australia
Summer Zone 5  Winter Zone 10



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