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Outside the box thinkers, divergent thinkers that they are, typically get to be called out for being disruptive and some kind discordant, irritating, irrational and destructive activist who is 'surplus to requirement' .
Divergent thought processes are used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions, rather than seeking a single, supposedly correct answer. So, in order to be 'correct', and assuming that what exists is correct, the imperative to change gives way to the status quo. However, in cityscapes everywhere the status quo is unsustainable and if governance, and their administrations, are to be 'fit-for-purpose', on the evidence, they must be disrupted.
It follows, that mentioning the notions of "cooperative" and "bamboo" within a colonial cum settler mindset, and in the same paragraph, that is ever likely to disrupt the peace in so much as up to now Australian and Tasmanian urban CULTURALlandscapes reek with status quoism forged in some Westernised social cum political belief system. Sadly, as Michael Mobbs has pointed out, this 'system' is all too often based upon premeditated ignorance.
If there is to be a future where humanity continues to exist there is a clear and present need to disrupt the status quo.
All of us spend unmeasured time musing upon our bodies in the hope that we will better understand what is going on, what this or that means, how something can be mitigated, why something is or isn't happening and so on.
All that said, and acknowledging that bamboo is not a SILVERbullet of any kind, it is worthwhile to spend some time to consider 'the hows, the whys and the whens' relative to proactively inserting bamboo into Tasmania's, and specifically Launceston's, CULTURALlandscaping. Plus, do so in order to develop better understandings relative to developing a sustaining and sustainable ecology on the lutruwitaTASMANIA islands in a 21st C context. Nonetheless, proactively introducing bamboo into say Launceston's CULTURALlandscape, there will be disruption of the status quo – welcomed and shunned.
LANDSCAPING CUM PLACEMAKING OPPORTUNITIES
•... Screens, hedges and boundaries because of bamboo's ability to grow quickly with a narrow 'footprint' in well watered, shallow and fertile soil bamboo delivers fast growing carbon sequestering biomass that is 'shapeable' to fit the circumstance. Moreover, in many situations such plantings may supply 'material' for the making of basketry, mats etc. NB: The species od bamboo needs to be selected carefully and thus by-and-large running bamboos should be avoided UNLESS planted in containers and/or containing garden beds.
•... Street verge planting because of bamboo's ability to grow quickly with a narrow 'footprint' in well watered location with shallow and relatively fertile soil, bamboo delivers fast growing carbon sequestering biomass that is 'shapeable' to fit the circumstance of overhead power lines and underground infrastructure. Moreover, in this situation such plantings may supply 'material/timber' harvestable over time for the various purposes.
In this circumstance clumping bamboos in most/many cases would be transplantable when required for infrastructure maintenance and in high winds more likely to bend than break. Along with all this, bamboo's fast growth by extension it becomes a subject for street plantings in that it can reach 'maturity' within four to five years. Therefore, in terms of biomass and canopy cover bamboo can outperform most trees four to five fold.
•... Recreational parkland plantings, again because of bamboo's ability to grow quickly with a narrow 'footprint' a in well watered or irrigated location with shallow and relatively fertile soil, bamboo delivers fast growing carbon sequestering biomass that is 'shapeable' to fit the circumstance. Moreover, in such situations plantings may well offer 'material/timber' that is harvestable over time for the various purposes that fit the purposefulness of the place.
•... Plantings in locations where there is a need manage spaces typically unsuitable for infrastructural development, again because of bamboo's ability to grow quickly with a rhizomatic growth below ground root system bamboo can be used:
- To stabilise compromised landslip areas; and
- Mitigate against erosion; and
- To stabilise riparian zones; and
- Convert spaces otherwise considered 'wasteland' into land with utility and that is of benefit to urban communities.
•... Plantings in locations where landscape remediation is a concern, again because of bamboo's ability to grow quickly with a rhizomatic growth below ground root system bamboo can be used:
- To stabilise and remediate land compromised by roadworks, landfill, quarrying and mining activities; and
- Mitigate against erosion developmen sites where natural contours have been disrupted and/or compromised; and
- To screen places that are undergoing longterm redevelopment; and
- Convert spaces otherwise considered 'wasteland' into land with utility and that is of benefit to urban communities.
•... Plantings in the context of developing urban forest resources for food and fibre production. Because of bamboo's ability to grow quickly and deliver a wide range products it offers considerable advantages to placemaking communities. This is not to discount other plants, fruiting trees and shrubs, all of which have viable niche's in peri-urban landscapes and AGRIzones with porous boundaries into suburban streetscapes. Initially, such placemaking might well be strategically focused upon stimulating a class of forestry in rural economies that service 21st C cities' CULTURALlandscapes and that are equally serviced by them.
- Be a foundation for a forestry enterprise that supplements and complements current forestry practices and resources; and
- Provide a the resources for local network of micro and macro enterprises based on 'coppiced' resource management in the city and the State; and
- Expand the variety materials available for debveloping the built environment in the city; and while doing so
- Contribute significantly to the sequestration of carbon in a local, national and global context.
Importantly, bamboo planted in Tasmania, or indeed anywhere else on the planet, sequesters carbon in a global context. Consequently the act of planting bamboo has a kind of utility that invokes symbolic, social and cultural meaningfulness.
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| VIDEO LINK Interestingly, the tree here have performed quite well as 'street trees' and the arborists are understandably pleased with their growth in three years. Nonetheless, if the PURPOSE in planting these trees was to sequester carbon and generate biomass bamboo might well have outperformed these trees two to three times the volume. Moreover after say five years a percentage of the bamboo's biomass could harvested, still retaining the biomass, and self-replenish on an annual basis for a further 30 to 40 years. If the PURPOSE was to provide environmental amenity various varieties of bamboo could deliver on that expectation. The important consideration is the 'purpose for planting' and currently purposefully planting to generate biomass, and canopy cover, with the possibility to provide a resource – construction materials, fuel, fibre, etc. Unfortunately, trees and/or bamboo are too often planted one-dimensionally and with a single objective – visual or placemaking amenity, or say timber – when a wider and overt 'purposefulness' might well deliver more sustaining CULTURALlandscape.  VIDEO |
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