Just simple physics

There is nothing mysterious about the ability of the Green Belt to clear the air. It´s just simple physics. Look at the animated gif to the left!

The brownish shape in the middle is a dust particle and the blue shapes are water vapour.

When dust particles blow in at a normally low altitude they become condensation nucleii:

Air borne vapour condensates as water on the surface of the dust particle. The particle attracts more and more vapour. The particle becomes heavy and sinks. Vapourized water from the trees in the Green Belt bind dust.

It´s that easy: just simple physics.

A win - win project

Of special interest for the Green Belt project are the hills south of Hewler, on the road to Kirkuk. They are marked green on the map – green for forests. These hills are today used for oil production and pasture. Both industries can successfully be combined with the tree plantation.

The oil industry is today concerned with their environmental reputation: They are the fact the motor of global warming! To be able to show that they are involved in massive tree planting projects is to somehow counterweight the negative effects, both environmentally and concerning status. The oil business can, a bit farfetched but still, claim to be a green commerce!

Due to the high percentage of protein in the leaves of the tree legumes – up to 35% - will the browsing cattle, and certainly their owners benefit from the tree plantation! It’s a solid fact, confirmed by numerous international studies that tree legumes contribute to a faster growth rate, higher progeny (more kid and lambs) and an improved animal health.

If there ever has been a win-win project, a project that everybody will benefit from, it is this! So what are we waiting for?

A Green Belt for new life

There has been a long going talk about creating a Green Belt south of Hewler. The question has been raised and dropped in periods. The interest of the oil companies, conservative environmentalists and other more pressing issues have this far hindered the project. I hereby suggest a model that enables the establishment of the Green Belt that will attract interest, money and expertise from abroad – among other positive effects.
Why a Green Belt?
· Every summer Hewler is covered by desert dust, carried by winds from the south, a yellowish filth cover streets, cars and laundry. It penetrates the houses and covers furniture.
· People with respiratory problems suffer during this period.
· At the same time is the growing city lacking recreational areas: simply, good healthy nature.
· To the picture must also be added that the city is creating its own problems. All the cars are producing green house gasses that are giving us a hotter climate. The desert is moving north.
Examples from abroad show that this can be addressed by planting massive green belts. A dense forest in the direction of the ruling winds can filter the air, diminish the winds, give good recreation, bind green house gasses and stop desertification and land degradation.
Today we have the techniques and trees for this climate. We only lack the decision, the organization and the means for this endeavor.
Non-profit NGO
I suggest that a large area of the Zurgazraw hills is managed by a non-profit, nongovernmental organization for 25 years. After this period the land is handled over to the government, now as a lush park covered with trees and filled with wild life.
How?
1. 2007/2008 Selection of suitable area
Together with representatives for the general directorate of forestry, oil wells, planning and other authorities in concern, should a suitable area be selected for Project Green Belt. It must have a depth of at least 10 kilometers to make any kind of impact on the climate. Concerning the width it shall be as large as possible. I guess that some 40 kilometers would be great. We might have to accept areas of national economic interest within the Green Belt.
2. 2008 Pilot project
I project of this dignity must be tested concerning species, organization and logistics. Let’s begin with a minor pilot project of 1 000 trees. This Pilot project will start immediately as the proposal of the Green Belt is accepted. During December 2007 to February 2008 is a selected area planted within the Green Belt of about 12 – 16 000 m2. A valley surrounded by ridges is to prefer since it can create a climatic pocket. The area shall be fenced by the ministry to stop browsing cattle. It can be simple fencing like double barbed wire.
The ministry should place a minor post for the Green Belt Pilot project in its budget for 2008:
· 1,6 km simple fencing (double barbed wire) (1 000 USD)
· 1 person clearing around the plants and maintaining the fencing.( 6000 USD)
· Watering twice a week during the dry season ( 1 000 m3 water)
· I guess that the total costs will be less than 20 000 USD or 20 USD/plant, year one. After the first dry season is no watering needed and the cost per tree is maybe 1 USD/tree/year, or less.
· The project evaluation shall be in December 2008. The evaluation shall consider the performance of the plants as well as the cooperation.

3. The Green Belt Project start
In the end of 2008 should both the ministry of Agriculture and the Green Belt Trust have acquired a good picture of:
· Suitable species for the area
· Methods of plantation, maintenance and watering
· Organization on both sides for a well working cooperation
It is now time to write the Green Belt proposal. Based on experiences gathered from the Pilot project should the goal be to:
· 2009 plant 1km2,
· 2010 plant 10 km2
Every year coming should the goal be to plant 10 km2. This area is possible to plant by traditional methods while larger areas call for other means. This will be discussed later in this sketch.
4. Organization
The Green Belt Trust should be organized in a manner that attracts donators. The chairman shall be a well known Kurd, with broad international contacts and ability to communicate in several languages. This person shall have a strong personal interest in environmental issues. As the representative of the Green Belt Trust he shall attract sponsors and act as spokesman for the project. Without the right person here the project will dwindle.
The organization shall invite expertise from renounced universities working with semiarid forestry as the University of Auburn and the University of Arizona. There is also solid expertise at the Danish Agricultural University (Skov og Landskab). It is of course beficial to join the UN Billion Tree program. The Green Belt trust is open to every person interested in the issue. The organization is not related to any certain party or religious group. All cherishing environmental thinking and democratic values are welcome.
All documentation from the organization shall be in English in order to make it transparent and trust worthy in the eyes of foreign interests and to allow non-Kurdish board members and international economical revision.
The board and the council are to be formed according to international democratic rules.
If the organization is not formed and working within one year after the foundation, the area is handled back to the government.

5. The Government and the Green Belt Trust have different roles
The Government enables
I suggest that in the Green Belt project shall the Ministry of Agriculture supportive role, thus enabling the Green Belt. The ministry of Agriculture should contribute with:
· Infrastructure like fencing, roads and electricity, buildings, transportation for persons involved and for material to the project.
· Manpower to nurse the growing trees, maintain the fence and Park Wards to guide the visitors and protect the wild life.
· Resources at the nurseries to grow bulk plants (that will be bought by the Green Belt)
The Green Belt Trust plants
By the support of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Green Belt Trust can focus entirely on the trees. This will attract donators from near and far. The contributors shall be able to buy a certain amount of trees for a fixed sum per tree. From 50 trees or more shall a plate commemorate the givers of a certain lot. In fund raising it is important to have simple tangible goals. We welcome of course donations from the Ministry buying 1000 trees of more per year! Every square kilometer is planted with 70 – 100 000 trees so contributions are needed.

6. Coming years
I expect radically decreased costs for the yearlings planted coming years. By smart planting of drought hardy species should the costs/tree/year never exceed 1, 50 USD. The Green Belt shall have as its goal to increase the plantings as much as practically possible. Limiting factors are available funds, plants and methods. The trust shall initiate tree planting campaigns and popularize environmental thinking in the country as whole.

7. Species used
The world offers several climatic regimes comparable to the Kurdish setting. In all of these trees grow, adapted to the climate. Many belong to the Fabeace family like Prosopis and Acacia but also Jacaranda and Paulownia will be useful.
In the Pilot Project we intend to plant:
Prosopis alba, Prosopis glandulosa torreyana, Prosopis flexuosa, Prosopis chilensis, Acacia aneura, Acacia nilotica, Acacia brachystachya, Geoffroea decorticans and Jacaranda mimosifolia.
These species have already proven to grow well in Kurdistan. Since many of them live in symbiosis with certain bacteria, special care has to be taken during the germination to ensure healthy growth. We are of course open to others suggested by the ministry of Agriculture.
So, we ask you Sir, to call for a pre study in which an area is selected as members of your staff that shall cooperate with us.
After that a proper proposal for the Pilot Project is written during the end of November.

What would a Green Belt do?

Pict 1. 100 sq km grass steppe, almost withouthigher life

Pict 2. Land degradation caused by little herbs able to buffer flows and few roots bilding soil.

As I mentioned before there are plans on planting a green belt south of Hewler/Erbil. What effects would it have on the environment - if it becomes big enough?

From studies made abroad there are some effects that we can expect after planting a massive Green Belt on the Makhmor hills:
A. Less accentuated seasonal changes outside the Green Belt.
The seasonal changes considering water run-off, humidity in air and (if the belt is massive enough) temperature, will be less accentuated.
1. Precipitation and water run-off
Barren, grass covered hills have a very limited ability to store larger quantities of water. With a pronounced seasonal rain as in Kurdistan and with a cattle-packed surface is the absorbsion only a few percent. The waters moving in high speed downhill excavate the hillside in a flood of mud. The result is advanced land degradation, see picture. It is common knowledge that a slope with trees and sub-vegetation has a totally different ability to buffer and store water. Water remains long enough to be absorbed by the underlying layer to finally reach the water table. A Spanish study shows that water is lead by pole roots to deeper levels than otherwise. This larger intake of water compensates the used later in the season by the trees for evaporation. We can expect less rapid floods and less land degradation and a deeper penetration of larger amounts of water.
2. Evaporation in dry periods
As said above the trees not only contribute to the absorbsion of precipitation. They consume water for evaporation. That is, the trees ooze out soil stored water and thereby increase the humidity. Data suggest that evaporation from a pasture-mesquite vegetation is an important component in the water balance considering the limited rainfall occurring.[1] The moisture wills condensate on air bore dust that will descend in the direction of the ruling winds. In our case with desert winds it should normally happen on the plain between Makhmoor and Hewler, place depending on the velocity of the winds and the altitude of the dust. We can expect an increasing humidity that is dust binding. and changes in the sub-vegetation, from steppe grasses to herbs and other kind of grasses.
3. Wind break
Another factor that diminishes the air-borne dust is the wind break. As the Green Belt slow down the wind, the ability of the air masses to transport dust will decrease. Behind the Green Belt, and even within it, we can expect downfall of dust. As the velocity of the winds slows down will also the drought of the land behind the Green Belt, caused by hot and dry winds diminish. We can expect higher yields on the fields behind the Belt, maybe hampered by dust shading the photosynthesis.
B. Dramatic changes within the Green Belt
The introduction of shade, humidity and available nitrogen will rather dramatically change the biotype in the Green Belt, over time.
1. In a first stage higher grass
In the beginning the areas will be exposed to sun and drought. With the addition of nitrogen from the growing trees the grasses will grow taller and denser. They have to be held back around the trees by mechanical means. We can expect higher grass in the beginning and increasing amount of insects living on the grass steppe.
2. Replacement of grasses
The increased humidity and shade will benefit a lot of herbs depending on these factors and change the composition and amounts of grasses in the area. We can expect a succession of species were each and every has a golden period with optimal conditions.
3. Stable shade/glade biotype, many microclimates
Within, maybe seven years we will see the development of a shade biotype. Under the trees will grow herbs with little demand on sunlight but high on nitrogen. In the glades between with more light and less nitrogen will grasses have their chance. Instead of the ruling steppe monoculture we can expect a high diversity in microclimates depending on light/shade, humidity and available nitrogen.
4. Insects!
As the biotype changes and the differentiation of microclimates increases, the specialists will colonize different niches and the grass steppe insects will diminish. Species seldom seen before will settle in the Green Belt. We can expect a change in the insect population and a rapid increase in the number of species but less individuals of each and every.
5. Higher wild life
Comparing with the grass hills of today will the change be dramatically. Birds, reptiles as well as mammals will colonize the Green Belt. This will be especially evident if we dig water holes that contain water some months after the rain. We can expect a wealth of animals in the Green Belt!
C. The Green Belt and the surrounding areas
There will be an interaction between the Green Belt and the surrounding areas that I have already briefly treated in climatical terms.
1. The Green Belt leaks life
The borders between the Green Belt and the zone around will not be that sharp. Depending of type of organism we can expect life leaking: Animals moving, birds flying outside the Green Belt will in some cases cause irritation from the farmers around. Some of the species will try to colonize the hills around by themselves. Shall we let the Green Belt grow? We can expect the leaking out of life to influence the areas around the Green Belt.
2. Game and poachers
The wealth of wild life will attract poachers. This is a no man’s land with a long history of hunting, except for the restrictions during the Saddam years. There are several ways of treating this issue that will stop or restrict to a controlled hunting. We will for instance see flocks of wild dogs chasing that we simply must kill. We can expect an increased interest from poachers and from wild dogs that has to be handled in an intelligent way.
3. Visitors
As obvious for everybody that has seen a Kurdish or even more, Arabic picnic area, there is a most irresponsible attitude to nature. Go to the picnic sites in Shaqlawa if you don´t understand what I mean! We can expect human impact that contradicts our intentions with the Green Belt that simply have to be controlled and restricted by Park Wards.

4. Claims of ownership and use
As the park grows in every dimension, concerning beauty and number of visitors and thus its economical value increases all kind of demands will be raised: from families that claim that they have ownership to parts of the Green Belt to business people who want to open a restaurant in the park. This has to be regulated by
a. handling over the rights for 25 years in a legally impeccable manner to the Green Belt Trust.
b. restrict the commerce to business zones by the entrances
c. restricting all entrance to parts of the Green Belt zone that are havens for wild life.
We can expect claims of ownership and use that contradicts the intentions of the Green Belt. This has to be controlled by the Green Belt Trust.
[1] http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004AGUFM.B51A0932S

Visiting the Minister of Agriculture

Yesterday I visited the Minster of Agriculture, mr. Abdul Aziz Tayeb. Among other things I briefly presented a plan for a Green Belt south of Hewler. The idea was very well recieved and the Minister expressed his gratitude for my work.

Later I discussed the technicalities with the General Director of Agriculture and he also expressed his full support.

"We totally agree on the necessity of this project"

The General Director and I shaking hands.

Explosive growth

It was a joy to return to the plantation and to see the growth. The trees had reached some amazing three meters or ten feet in a few months. These are really trees for this climate! They all look very well. On the pictures you see my wife standing by them for comparision. (Our pumpkins are also doing well but they were suffering intense exposure of sun so they are rather small.) 10 000/65 000

Harvest time!

Dear readers

It is now time to havest the trees. They are at a length of 1 - 2,5 meters with well developed root systems. They are versatile trees well suited to survive in and contribute to the Kurdish environment.

News

Roots may promote infiltration and thus reduce runoff and soil erosion; they may also serve as pathways for water to move to the groundwater, facilitating groundwater recharge. By increasing our knowledge of these processes we hope to make recommendations for the better management of vegetation in arid lands of the Mediterranean. (http://www.silsoe.cranfield.ac.uk/iwe/medalus.htm)

In the semi-arid grassland on the Arid Lands Ecology Reserve on the Hanford Site in south-central Washington State, three legume flushes occurred in the past decade.Estimates of leguminous nitrogen in both native and disturbed vegetation after a flush showed that nitrogen in the legume (above-ground) doubled the amount of nitrogen associated with vascular plant tissues.( http://www.osti.gov/energycitations/product.biblio.jsp?osti_id=6444278)

The environmental impact of Nitrogen fixing trees

The usage of Nitrogen fixing trees will change the environment. The addition of moist, shade, mulch and nitrogen will create zones of different properties.

“We found a higher number of shrubs under canopies, whereas that of grasses and perennial forbs increased in intercanopy areas. Concentrations of organic matter, nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, factors limiting biological productivity in Monte desert soils, were significantly higher under than outside P. flexuosa canopies. Electrical conductivity and concentrations of Na+, Ca++, Mg++ were higher in the northern than in the southern microhabitats. …… We conclude that P. flexuosa modifies the spatial pattern of plant species in the shrub and herbaceous layers and the chemical conditions of the soil, generating spatial heterogeneity on different scales.”
(Journal of Vegetation Science Article: pp. 543–550 Effects of Prosopis flexuosa on soil properties and the spatial pattern of understorey species in arid Argentina RossiBertilde E.A, VillagraPablo E
If we translate the scientific gibberish to ordinary English the article simply states that Nitrogen fixing trees create a biological diversity that was not there before. They also enrich the soil in areas of scarcity.

Trees and climate change

Forests could be used to combat climate changeIn addition to preventing forests from being turned into other land-uses, new forest-based carbon stores should be created through afforestation (new plantings) and reforestation (replanting of deforested areas), FAO says.Carbon stocks in forest biomass reach the highest values per hectare in Western and Central Africa and Central and South America, according to FRA 2005.Particularly in the tropics, where vegetation grows rapidly and therefore pulls carbon from the atmosphere more quickly, planting trees can remove large amounts of CO2 from the air within a relatively short time. There, forests can fix as much as 15 tonnes of carbon in their biomass and wood per hectare per year.FAO and other experts have estimated that global carbon retention resulting from reduced deforestation, increased forest regrowth and more agroforestry and plantations could make up for about 15 percent of carbon emissions from fossil fuels over the next 50 years. http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2005/1000176/index.html