A DISCUSSION PAPER
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CONTEXT
Launceston City Council has embarked upon a project to
GREENlaunceston and consequently TOWNhall's Urban Forester
has launched a survey reportedly to glean the citizenries
understandings and aspirations. As is all too often the case
such administrative initiatives come with a mindset that
suggests that what is being sought is an endorsement for a plan
in hand, a planner's 'vision' arrived at soewhat in isolation
and often in the dark. Likewise, in the vernacular, wherever
it is that these visionary plans come from, they are often
BLOWins who are not part of the cultural reality they are
working within. This is not to say that they have no expertise
they do, but its not by necessity of the vernacular.
Now in one sense this is quite OK but we do have to wonder about
THEforms that 'must' be filled out. So what is the actual
utility in knowing the FORMfiller's gender, age, religion,
ethnicity, sexual preferences and political alliances in order
to work out where a FORMfiller's sits on the MYSTERIOUSspectrum
at HEADoffice where the form came from. Perhaps it is useful
information but it is most valuable when volunteered and not
extracted, not a shared placedness.
However, asking the inhabitants of a CULTURALlandscape to share
their views and aspirations in say 1,000 words and saying to
the FORMfiller's that they may share any personal information
THEY think is relevant says more. Then the people at HEADoffice
may well be much better informed about the CULTURALrealities
they are aiming to work WITH & WITHIN. The 'authority' might well
come with a shared understanding of'placedness' that underwrites
an agency for change.
When confronted with a HEADoffice looking for an endorsement for
what'THEY' already have a plan for and that will be, no has been,
deemed to be the MOSTappropriate, almost always it will not
require challenging change – long live the status quo, it serves
incumbency well.
HOWEVER, one might consider making a SUBMISSION and one MAY
divulge their SEXUALpreferences, who knows, but it, and other
data' will perhaps be illuminating if one does.
Against this backdrop I WILL make a case for BAMBOO being a
usefull subject for STREETscaping and I will say which of the
14000 species might well fit the circumstance in Launceston.
Sadly it seems that the URBANforesters in TOWNhalls can only
see 'trees' and bamboo is a grass. It's a BLACKandWHITE thing,
a kind of apartheid. Then there is the issue of endemic and
plants from elsewhere but in the end the issue is all about
viable and sustainable ecologies. Valuable plants have moved
with humans for mellennia ... coconuts, potatoes, tomatoes,
bananas, apples, plums, wheat, rice, maize etc.
When we – personally and governments too – think about
reforestation, bamboo may not be the first thing that comes to
mind. And it’s true that bamboo isn’t technically a tree — but
when planted in areas where it is native, typically it is very
beneficial. As the fastest growing plant on Earth, bamboo
has incredible potential as a sustainable ecological resource.
Its woody stem makes it very tree-like, yet it also has unique
properties. In Tasmania need to learn more about this special
plant and what it can deliver!
Indeed, we need to start to think about what bamboo has
to offer in urban cultural landscaping! Importantly, bamboo
needs to cohabit with other GREENINGvegetation many of which
will also be 'exotics' and in the 21st C that is inevitable. For
example GREENfacads are very likely to be more common in urban
greening strategies as they cool buildings, quieten them and in
some instances mitigate against expensive refurbishment. AND
they are not as susceptible to graffiti and other visual
pollutants.
When done in the right way, cutting and 'harvesting' bamboo
actually stimulates growth. Many species of bamboo mature in
four to eight years. Once plants reach maturity, they can be
sustainably harvested as a perennial crop for 40+ years.
Comparatively, trees typically take 30 years before being
harvestable as timber/fibre but they have a place in cultural
landscapes alongside bamboo in a 21st C context.
Placedness requires a sustainable ecology. In music its
'sustainability' is orchestrated. In 21st C placemaking,
sustainable placemaking, the need for collaboration, cooperation,
and innovation is increasingly compelling.
Anything that humanity is interested in or needs is not going to
happen if we cannot breathe the air, drink the water or find
enough food. We cannot sit this out. We must do something.
Humanity is by accident and fate alive at an absolutely
critical moment in the histories and our placedness.
With bamboo, because only the above round parts are harvested,
there is less soil disturbance, which helps maintain stability.
Also bamboo in more likely to bend in high winds than break.
What it all comes down to is strong, healthy rhizomes that
encourages vigorous growth of new shoots. In an urban situation,
bamboo plantings alongside trees in an URBANforest, bamboo offerss
utility along with significant amenity that enhances humanity's
placedness albeit via its elsewhereness.
More about bamboo
LINKS:
THE UTILITY OF BAMBOO IN URBAN AND PERI-URBAN
CULTURAL LANDSCAPES
Firstly, it has to be said that 'bamboo' has been claimed to be
the most useful plant on the planet. It is a bold claim, but
it is an extraordinary and useful plant and one that has been
largely overlooked in Australia and particularly so in Tasmania.
Bamboo's advocates are regularly told that:
•...Bamboo is an invasive weed. However, bamboo's detractors
rarely identify which of the 14,000 plus species they speak of;
•...Bamboo will not grow in Tasmania. However, that may be true
for a large number of the TROPICAL & SUBTROPICAL species, but
there are many varieties that perform well in Tasmania as they
do in similar temperate elsewhere.
•...Bamboo does not belong in Tasmania. Well to the extent that
it might be true it is also true of most of the food plants grown
in Tasmania along with a large variety of fibre producing plants
and a great many deciduous trees grown for their amenity.
Advocates for bamboo usually need to start their endorsement
with a reminder that the plant is an outstanding plant that in
most Eurocentric mindsets its at the very least misunderstood.
It must be said that this is all too often spiked with blind
prejudice – sometimes driven by an ideology. The reasoning
behind this assertion needs to be discussed but not here or now
as it is outside the purposefulness of this paper. Nonetheless,
the two sites linked to this paper are expansive in their
advocacy for bamboo and the plant's utilities.
Geoff Pyne, Dec 1/12/24 ... The Green Revolution: How Bamboo
is Changing the Game
"Bamboo is an amazingly versatile plant with many uses. Plants
are found all over the world and are highly resistant to
heat, drought, UV light, insects, pollution, and more.
They are also durable and can withstand some of the world’s
harshest climates.
Bamboo is often used to make paper, food, clothes, and even
Bamboo is often used to make paper, food, clothes, and even
building materials. Bamboo can be used to build homes in
some areas where other materials are scarce. The plants
are also extremely safe for construction because they contain
no carbon.
The plants can also be used to make clothes, furniture,
The plants can also be used to make clothes, furniture,
baskets, food, paper, flooring, building materials, and
more!"
Against this kind of backgrounding the case for proactively including appropriate species of bamboo in Tasmanian urban, peri-urban and many rural landscapes
is strong, compelling even. Despite the plant's detractors'
negative narratives and often distorted assertions the case for
proactively planting bamboo in urban cultural landscapes
resonates quite loudly. What are some of these?
• .Bambusa textilis Gracilis, Oldhamii, Bambusa eutuldoides‘,
Bambusa multiplex, Fargesia, Fargesia, Bambusa ‘Compacta’,
Himalayacalamus ‘porcatus’, Bambusa Chungii barbelletta ....
all test grown in Tasmania and all are clumping varieties.
COMMON BAMBOO MYTHS
• ... Bamboo is an invasive weed! Not quite so, albeit that some
of bamboo 14,000 plus species can be invasive but not always
true of the species that will grow in Tasmania cool temperate
climate. Nonetheless there is no longer any doubt that urban
cultural landscapes and urban cum peri-urban landscaping
need to be 'GREENER' and by design.
THE NEED TO SHIFT MINDSETS
Firstly, it has to he said that in no way can bamboo be seen as
some kind of SILVERbullet. That cannot be claimed for any class
of plant life even endemic plants that evolved in a cultural
landscape where the ecological 'balance point' was fundamentally
different to the current cultural and ecological realities in
Tasmania and other colonised places.
Fundamentally, cultural landscaping in Tasmania is a colonial
cultural construct and something that has evolved within a
mindset where the imperatives of elsewhere have become paramount.
Opportunities to develop an ecologically sustainable cultural
landscapes in colonised places have been missed and ignored in
deference to the imperatives of elsewhere.
Tasmania, is an interesting case study in that its 'placedness'
is deeply impacted upon by Eurocentric colonial mindsets and
the sensibilities of elsewhere. Moreover, the 'place' is an
island with its own idiosyncratic and well defined geographies.
Moreover, it is timed that the lutruwitaTASMANIA islands' cultural
realities seriously engaged rhizomatically towards the development
of sustainable cultural landscaping in Tasmania.
Colonial and post-colonial TOPdown cultural landscaping has been
exploitative with 'local' ecological sustainability not being a
priority just so long as there was a 'market' elsewhere for
lutruwitaTASMANIA's resources. It is what it is as is the
outcome.
Bamboo along lutruwitaTASMANIA's endemic plants, Australia's
native cum exotic plants and exotic cool temperate plants
together all have a niche' in the 'construction' of a sustaining
cultural landscape. Determining those niches' needs to be
facilitated rather than imposed, organically rather than
administratively. The for a mindset shift in many ways is acute
as is recognition the need to acknowledge the status quo's
inadequacies.
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TESTIMONIALS...https://jungleinwillunga.com.au/adelaide-bamboo/
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