Working with it

Maybe we just cannot remember far enough back or maybe unprecedented, which ever we will have to learn to live and cope with weather extremes we are now experiencing. Does not matter what you attribute the cause to, no point kidding ourselves, this past six weeks of continually showers and gale winds is not a one-off freak. This is our new weather pattern, but how do we live with it? Re-learning past forgotten lessons, for one. Farmers of old who lived, worked and spent their lives on the land, knew their land, knew where water collected, where ditches worked and where to create courses to take water off their land and away. Modern farmers take profit out of the land, hiring contractors to do the bulk work and from their tractor cabins surrounded by technological aids have lost that direct contact and feel for their land. So we have to rediscover that direct contact with our land again, watch and listen to what it tells us. Point one, clear out all your ditches making sure that their outfall is clear beyond your own borders. Next is to dredge your rivers to stop them getting choked up with all the sediment taken off the fields. But we know that is not sufficient, fast off the land means fast into water courses then fast down to the next settlement along the water course. We have to reinstate flood plains to absorb that initial fast run-off giving the now reinvigorated rivers a chance to do their work. Hopefully flood plains that just have to take flood waters for a week or two and not for the months the Somerset Levels are having to endure. Managed and controlled flood plains. Or natures random flood plains generated by Beavers cutting down trees that choke the streams and rivers. Either way, but slowing down the run off into the rivers. Lest we forget, we have covered vast areas of our land in hard impermeable surfaces, that too is adding to our problems of a lot of water wanting to flow downstream and all at once. 

The rain will come as it comes, we have to learn to live with it. One solution to softening the impact we should have done hundred years ago. But it still not too late to act now for our grandchildrens benefits. Plant lots and lots of trees. Trees take the sting out of the wind, calm down its energy and diffuse the rain, softening it impact, increasing the prospect of it being absorbed before it runs off. Trees can be our giant country wide blanket soaking up the wind and the rain. Not solving but helping to dissipate the wind and rain, giving our flood plains, ditches and rivers a chance to work. Trees can take a long time to achieve any stature but not all. Some trees, that people might know as hedgerows, such as Elder, Damson, Wild Cherry, Crab Apple, Hawthorn, Sloe or Blackthorn are fast growing. We just need  rethink how we go about growing our crops, perhaps between harvesting lines of 'trees' but what ever we do need to plant a huge number of trees and right now. We will of course also learn how to manage them better so we do not flail them to within four feet of life.We can get smart and learn how to live with our new weather or procrastinate, hold on to our old comfortable ways, hum and haw while Nature just carries on and determines our future. Better to act, anyone for Elderflower Presse, Damson Cheese,
Crab Apple or Hawthorn Jelly or maybe some Sloe Chutney?