well i'm reclaiming my 5 acre farm fro the creeping reforeststion that is happening to fields all over the area, as the meadows and spaces that humans cleared by hand over the centuries have been abandoned in the exodus to the cities.

the richer bottom lands are still treeless, whipped by chemicals into growing tobacco, but many of the hill farms are reverting fast.

when i saw de lang on tv overlooking france from a helicopter, saying that if it were not for the cap, all the farmland would be swallowed by woods quite quickly.

i have mixed feelings about this, as i imagine the woods would be cut pretty swiftly and unsustainably if heating prices continue to rise exponentially, and the wildlife is very sparse now, due to overhunting and chemicals in the ecosystem.

more woods would be good for them.

italy does have a very keen forest police -forestale- who do nothing but patrol looking for illegal cutting, issue permits for tree cutting -3 months to have permission to cut one tree to make a driveway.

but when you consider it took 2 years to have a landline connected, and i am less that 2k from the nearest phone, this may be proto-italian, in its glacial slowness.

i must say that the woods are healthy, and there are lots around me, providing sustainable work for families here.

you NEVER see the kind of nightmare clearcuts like some places; there are strict rules as to how many years between cutting, and how many trees must be left uncut, to minimise runoff and erosion.

i hear if you run into a tree in your car, the fine for killing the tree can be very steep, though this may be urban legend.

as fuel prices rise, i expect more will be done by hand, providing more jobs and more incentive not to damage the national patrimony....colour me optimistic on this perhaps!

maybe someone will come up with a solar panel-powered laser chainsaw, lol.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty