On this spot of the Secret Forest the brambles had taken over and nothing could grow anymore. Last December I cleaned up while waiting to plant new trees to make up for the existing forest fabric all around. That is, a mixture rich in oaks, maples, ash trees, chestnut trees, walnuts, rowan trees, cornus, conifers and others. By carrying out important preventive work to preserve all the pre-existing artifacts under the bush, after manual cleaning it will also be possible to appreciate all the beauty of the dry-stone retaining walls. These were originally terraced crops and paths delimited by walls.
This cleaning and planting project involves the conservation and revaluation of both the forest and these artefacts. My dream would be to equip an outdoor art path that winds through these elements, nevertheless this will come later, with time.
The new planting, in addition to resuming the colorful beauty of the forest, will by itself absorb the CO2 produced annually by about 20 cars.
Including the other areas that I saved from cutting, the CO2 subtracted is that produced annually by 180 cars. Re-employing those same lumberjacks who were about to tear everything down. This is a very small first step. Planting a tree may seem simple but it requires a series of studies and important planning with expert advice. To move forward I still have to find an adequate model of sustainability. In the meantime, know that by buying one of my hand-made prints right here in the same forest, you will help and encourage this endeavor. In short, I will not feel alone.
The Forest has an articulated history and in salient points like this it is the result of the abandonment of the fields once cultivated. Many terracing walls and an abandoned road network are still visible. In a world where entire forests are cutted to gain fields, the opposite has happened here, the forest has engulfed fields and villages. To such an extent that the zones of the regulatory plan that identify these new areas, reassigns some of them from arable land to woodland. Somehow even the bureaucracy recognizes the conquest of nature over the work of man.
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