Well, our Earthday set out perfect! great weather after buckets of rain, birds singing – all the joys of spring!

I uploaded the pictures of our earthday contribution to our local commune, finished the chicken nesting box we worked on the night before (more on this when I have the time again), tried to achieve too many things at once as usual… when there was a knock on the door! The young farmer at the door, who owns the land adjacent to the orchard/chicken/goat, field was not happy!

Our earthday contribution was and is (I hope) the saving of many trees that regrow each year along the two sides of one of the roads that lead up to Padiès. “Autrefois” or “in the olden days” this road was flanked by oaks and elms. Each year they re-shoot – joy! But each year in April, the “epareuse” passes and they are decimated!

The epareuse is the instrument the communes use to cut the grass and to trim trees and hedges along the roadsides – sometimes with devastating results, the embankments have nothing to hold them, and with the heavy rains, mudslides fill the ditches and block the roads.

The trees and hedges were cut down in the first place because they got in the way of the tractors – which are getting bigger and bigger! The farmer’s objection was exactly that – they will get in the way of his tractor and he will have to maintain them. But what is to become of our world if we clear everything that might get in the way of a tractor? (more on changing agriculture philosophies in another post)

Our new Mayor is keen to make the commune carbon neutral. I negotiated with him and the local cantonnier (the person who takes care of the roadsides and several other things) that the commune allows the oaks to grow back (the elms only die within a few years – dutch elm disease devastated the elms in this area some years ago) – we were to be responsible for indicating where the re-growths are since they are not always easy to identify from inside a tractor.

[singlepic id=68 w=320 h=240 float=left]I gave the happy job to Silas our Danish wwoofer. Silas found thirty eight oaks trying to grow – amazing the resilience these trees have after being cut back to the base year after year! As arranged, Silas put a bamboo stake each side of the shoots he found. Six of these are on the side that the young farmer owns (six over a length of some 400 metres).

I phoned the Mayor, had a chat – he was to call the young farmer – so far the stakes have not been removed – so maybe someday our roadside will look like this.

And in a couple of years they could form a continuation to this hedge replanted by our neighbor, also a young farmer – but with a different mindset – who has the land further down the road.