On the road...again!!!
Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams
Chronicles of a Footloose Forester
By Dick Pellek
From Generalities to Specifics
The essential transition from generalities to specifies is one reason why the Footloose Forester demands of himself to look beyond the big picture in science-based issues, to the underlying factors that lead to identifying the possible and/or probable reasons why some things work and some don’t. Call it looking for cause and effect. Or call it seeking contributing factors. But seeking and then listing clues is part of the persona of someone who would call themselves a splitter.
A case in point regarding an improbable solution to a real-world problem came in one of those frequent dreams of the Footloose Forester. The dream was about sprigging native Bermuda Grass (Cynodon dactylon) in virtually pure sand surface soils at a worksite in wartime Viet Nam. The sandy surface of the entire construction crew living area was so problematic that PA&E, the support contractor, had built a wooden walkway to the mess hall to keep the sand out. The Footloose Forester was asked to take a look and to suggest a better way to improve the conditions for foot traffic.
The true story of nearly 50 years vintage goes something like this: Managers and supervisors at PA&E were surprised that hand-sprigging native Bermuda Grass throughout the site was proposed as a feasible solution for keeping the sand from shifting and causing problems in living and eating areas. It is fair to say that they were all skeptical and a few of them were openly mocking of the idea. But the Footloose Forester did convince the Installation Manager to give him a work crew of about 20 Vietnamese employees to collect grass sprigs at one location and then to transplant those sprigs at the work site. Subsequent watering, as needed, was part of the plan. So much for background about the episode.
The specific dream that was a key to the impetus to telling this story, many decades later, brought forth the name of another local grass found in Viet Nam. It was buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris). And when Footloose Forester first observed the extended and exposed root system of an isolated and solitary clump of buffel grass atop a sandy road cut at Cam Ranh Bay in 1968, he knew that some types of vegetation were able to thrive in sand. Buffel grass was one of them and Bermuda Grass was another. More important, the modes of plant propagation by stolons and rhizomes in both Buffel Grass and Bermuda Grass suggested that they were able to hold sand in place. But it was that 1968 first-hand observation of a 35-40-foot-long lateral root extension of Buffel Grass, fully exposed at that road cut at Cam Ranh Bay, that was proof enough for using natural vegetation as a fix.
buffel grass
Since there was plenty of wild Bermuda Grass in the region, but not much Buffel Grass, we harvested the Bermuda Grass but ignored the Buffel Grass. With frequent watering of the sprigs, as needed, not a single blade of grass was lost and the work site turned green. The patches or stands of grass became stabilized through the combined networks of roots, thanks to the knitting interactions of stolons and rhizomes. Stolons are modified surface roots. Rhizomes are modified surface and sub-surface roots that grow horizontally. The knitted architecture of the whole root mass thus binds the individual plants together.
How, or why could one expect a sandy soil to successfully establish a lawn-like appearance? Part of the answer could be found in the sub-soil which collects organic debris, if ever so little, by migration from the surficial environment which is relatively bone-dry. Even deep sandy soils have a moisture index which increases with depth into their profiles. And part of the survival mechanisms of grasses like Bermuda Grass and Buffel Grass are to extend their roots deep into the soil profiles. There are photographs and scientific evidence that show some grasses have root masses that go deeper than the roots of trees.
With AI input, decades after the fact, here is a more detailed explanation about how stolons and rhizomes work:
Stolons and rhizomes are both types of vegetative structures in plants used for asexual reproduction: Stolons are horizontal stems that grow above the ground, producing new plants at nodes. They are typically slender and can spread over longer distances.
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Rhizomes, on the other hand, are underground stems that grow horizontally beneath the soil surface. They are
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usually thicker and bulkier compared to stolons and can produce new shoots and roots at various points along
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their length.
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Both structures allow plants to propagate and spread, but they do so in different ways: stolons grow at or just
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below the soil surface, while rhizomes grow deeper underground.
Users of AI understand that the fonts on the page may to expanded or contracted, but the non-judgmental findings of AI are useful foils for would-be story tellers.