Salt air. Ah. Good point. Thanks for bringing that up. Should be fairly healthy to be breathing that. I'd be curious to know what the respiratory illness rate there would be like as compared to somewhere with less salt and moisture in the air. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sigurd Towrie" <sigurd@orkneyjar.com> To: <ORCADIA-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 7:35 AM Subject: Re: [<orcadia>] Re:Fiona Northern Lights at last > >An 8 footer! Now that's not too bad at all. I've sort of been curious. I > >wonder if it's just winds or is it also poor soil? Seems to me just about > >most crops that would grow in the environment grow well there. What is it > >with trees? Wind? > > Wind and salt air. I've watched it destroy a young tree (in my garden) in a week. > -- > Sigurd Towrie > Blackhall - Kirbister - Stromness - Orkney > Heritage of Orkney: www.orkneyjar.com > > > > ==== ORCADIA Mailing List ==== > To unsubscribe from the Orcadia mailing list, send an e-mail with the word > 'unsubscribe' in the message body to orcadia-l-request@rootsweb.com > > >

Hi- Can't speak for the Orkney islands but here on this one in eastern Canada we have the highest asthma rate in the country. No part of the island is more than 14 miles from the ocean. Salt spray kills trees here too- Austrian pines seem to be more tolerant. I was reading recently that some salt flooding in fields doesn't hurt the crops (marsh hay harvested on tidal flats was a valued fodder for years here, esp. by the early pioneers who didn't have to cut down huge trees & then stump to get a crop to feed a cow ) and at one time potatoes- we grow huge amounts, with all the accompanying spraying of herb/pesticides- were top-killed with a spray of salt water. Alas, that old method isn't practiced by modern farmers. Some people connect the herb/pesticides with the respritory (spelling !) problems. cheers Thompson in Prince Edward Island ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tirabasso" <zorahh@sssnet.com> To: <ORCADIA-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 6:57 PM Subject: [<orcadia>] Re:Salt air > Salt air. Ah. Good point. Thanks for bringing that up. Should be fairly > healthy to be breathing that. I'd be curious to know what the respiratory > illness rate there would be like as compared to somewhere with less salt and > moisture in the air. > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Sigurd Towrie" <sigurd@orkneyjar.com> > To: <ORCADIA-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 7:35 AM > Subject: Re: [<orcadia>] Re:Fiona Northern Lights at last > > > > >An 8 footer! Now that's not too bad at all. I've sort of been curious. I > > >wonder if it's just winds or is it also poor soil? Seems to me just about > > >most crops that would grow in the environment grow well there. What is it > > >with trees? Wind? > > > > Wind and salt air. I've watched it destroy a young tree (in my garden) in > a week. > > -- > > Sigurd Towrie > > Blackhall - Kirbister - Stromness - Orkney > > Heritage of Orkney: www.orkneyjar.com > > > > > > > > ==== ORCADIA Mailing List ==== > > To unsubscribe from the Orcadia mailing list, send an e-mail with the word > > 'unsubscribe' in the message body to orcadia-l-request@rootsweb.com > > > > > > > > > > ==== ORCADIA Mailing List ==== > To unsubscribe from the Orcadia mailing list, send an e-mail with the word > 'unsubscribe' in the message body to orcadia-l-request@rootsweb.com > >

Trees in Orkney.Something doesn't Add Up. North of where I am located, we experience weather similar to Orkney, save and except it is colder here in the extreme. The entire James Bay and Hudson's Bay costal areas , consisting of literally thousands of miles of sub arctic and arctic shoreline, expose the land to winds sweeping ashore from vast areas of frigid open sea water. There are areas of hundreds of miles where there is no place to get out of the wind. And finally, when the weather is decent in the arctic summer, the flies would drive the average visitor batty. In southern Hudson's Bay, and moreso along James Bay, the winding rivers that tumble to this icy salt sea, embrace scattered outcrops of trees. The further north one travels, the smaller the trees tend to be, and the longer it takes to grow them. Oversimplified, it is an issue of declining thermal units and shorter growing seasons related to latitude. I flew a small Cessna floatplane in this area for many years, and I was always amazed at where these scattered northern woodlands popped up on that flat never-ending horizon. Rivers like the Harricanaw , the Moose, Albany, Attawapiskat, Ekwan, all on James Bay and the Brant, Sutton, Severn, and Winisk on the Hudson's Bay, all featured these intermittent outcrops of trees on chosen places along their shores. It was in these areas that moose were at their northern limits, and caribou were sometimes sighted. Willow, aspen, birch, and various spruce species seemed to prevail. The willow in particular were and are a valuable foodsource for critters, both feathered and furry, and grew very close to the salty shores. Taller trees were further back. When we would cut dead standing trees by the rivers with a small swede saw, for firewood to fry trout at lunchtime, I would marvel at the tightness of the growth rings. A thousand miles south on our farm, giant maple and oak hardwoods harvested from managed woodlots had significant annual growth rings. In the north, by contrast, skimpy black spruce softwood had razor thin annual growth ring evidence, a testimony to tough conditions and a tenacious species. A seventy five- year- old tree would have a very small diameter. I think, that the appropriate species of trees in Orkney could withstand salt. Those tests have been proven in Ontario's south where millions of tons of salt are poured on the winter road ice, to keep emboldened urbanite yuppie drivers of fuel-sucking monstrous four-wheel mall assault vehicles, from crunching into each other beyond the limits of affordable insurance rates. To simply drive slower would be to refuse the imagery of might that these SUV ads conjure up. This salt bath killed millions of roadside trees. Now the research has been concluded to determine which trees can withstand the annual five-month onslaught. Adjustments have been made. So pass the salt and carry on. The Orkney conditions parallel parts of our north where trees are common. But evidence seems to be that trees that once covered more of Orkney, have been removed, by man or nature or both. In reading Orkneyinga Saga, I see that the Thorfin boys weren't opposed to a good old bonfire on occasion. And I don't recall the likes of Cubby Roo planting any trees. To re-establish that natural cover, takes a lot of time and patience and a significant quantity of money too I suppose. Soil types and composition, localized environmental factors and a dose of modern-day forestry technology and fertilizer all have a part to play. For in our north, undisturbed by man in the remote areas, mother nature has been very picky about just where trees should thrive. I often wondered just what her specifications are. There are no sweeping forests there, just outcrops. But it seems that if someone wanted to dedicate the appropriate acreage and research, somewhere in Orkney, patchwork clumps of trees could thrive. There is a riddle hereabouts: "When is the best time to plant a tree?" Answer.... "Yesterday and today!" It is an ongoing process and commitment. Procrastination contributes to de-forestation. We are not doing a good job in our part of Ontario in terms of long term forest management. We slaughter our prime hardwood sugar maples, the source of the finest syrup in the world, so people in North Carolina and Europe can have nice floors to walk on, or a nice bedroom suite, all at competitive prices. Out of the eyesight of the public, huge, and I mean huge areas of softwood forest are clear cut, every species mowed down to the detriment of every living creature and any hope of benefit of a mixed and healthy long term forest. To fly over or walk in these areas is horrifying. But in the more accessible populated logging areas, scrutinized by bearded urban academics clad in expensive and stylish gore-tex outwear, "environmental wannabees" stumble about with hand held radios and a gps, all within an hour or so of a donut shop and a decent pita and salad, and five star lodging , chatting up conclusions with a hot tub and a cool drink, and never ever seeing the worst of it because I think they don't want to. The tough stuff would put their collective conscience on overload. They retreat southward with exposed film and stuffed digital cameras, filled to the brim with success and spiritual fulfillment, to their lavish penthouses fueled by electricity demands met and generated by oil from Orkney sea floors or coal from Ohio, and sneak about on their gleaming maple floors, on feet clad in cozy moccasins, a souvenir of the last mission north, made from the skins of moose and caribou who cannot any longer appeal for better forest management. Nice, conscientious Canuks, protecting our resources and supporting the status quo. And excellent, consuming tourists. They come from Europe and Japan, in the good weather, to participate in these important, often tax-deductible treks, burning tax-deuctable fuel in their tax-deductable rented monster 4X4 road toys. Canada is perhaps the tree capital of the world. But our stewardship is another issue. We endure lousy management and get away with it because of our resource volumes. Sweden, Norway and Finland all have their act together. Our act is born from sheer greed. In many cases we are the worst stewards of the best resources in the world; water trees and farmland. Perhaps it is the unchanging, simplified and unspoiled aspect of Orkney that makes we foreigners with roots there, long to understand it better. As long as the north sea oil effort doesn't produce, heaven forbid, a tragic spill, it seems Orkney will march forward into the future, undisturbed save as to an eight week influx of camera-clicking curiosity seekers. When I look into the eyes of those incredible seals amongst rocky Orkney shores, on the Charles Tail website, or all those spiritual northern lights shots of late, or the St. Magnus Cathedral on a ghostly wet night, it's thousand year old history defying the shiny wet cars parked out front, or those iconic stark, man-placed stones standing mysteriously and undaunted against the elements for thousands of years, then I instinctively know I am from there, although my next visit there will be my first. In these thoughts and feelings I am not alone. It is unique moreso than many places today struggling for independence, with less valid reasons than Orkney would have to do so. We are amazed at the physical forms of very old history. That evidence is testimony to the uniqueness someone appreciated long ago. Sorry friends, but when trees are bantered about as a subject, this fellow gets a little remorseful, having seen first hand and fresh, some of the worst devastation of the best stands on the planet earth. I figure the reason no trees are on Orkney, is because they were simply cut. Why not get one of those giant companies vacuuming oil from your seas to contribute to a tree planting effort? That's the least they could do. How bout one tree per barrel of oil? You can be sure they won't be replacing your oil, so why not a tree? What are they going to leave after the oil is gone? Tree planting would be an environmental offset for the damage all that spent oil will do to our world air environment, and give them something positive to brag about aside from their profits. When I come to Orkney, I think I'll bring a dozen "sanitized" northern spruce seedlings along. Why not? It could get to be contagious. SCG Davie Hi- > Can't speak for the Orkney islands but here on this one in eastern > Canada we have the highest asthma rate in the country. No part of the > island is more than 14 miles from the ocean. Salt spray kills trees > here > too- Austrian pines seem to be more tolerant. > I was reading recently that some salt flooding in fields doesn't > hurt > the crops (marsh hay harvested on tidal flats was a valued fodder for > years > here, esp. by the early pioneers who didn't have to cut down huge > trees & > then stump to get a crop to feed a cow ) and at one time potatoes- we > grow > huge amounts, with all the accompanying spraying of herb/pesticides- > were > top-killed with a spray of salt water. Alas, that old method isn't > practiced > by modern farmers. > > Some people connect the herb/pesticides with the respritory (spelling > !) > problems. > > cheers Thompson in Prince Edward Island > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Tirabasso" <zorahh@sssnet.com> > To: <ORCADIA-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 6:57 PM > Subject: [<orcadia>] Re:Salt air > > >> Salt air. Ah. Good point. Thanks for bringing that up. Should be >> fairly >> healthy to be breathing that. I'd be curious to know what the >> respiratory >> illness rate there would be like as compared to somewhere with less >> salt > and >> moisture in the air. >> >> >> >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Sigurd Towrie" <sigurd@orkneyjar.com> >> To: <ORCADIA-L@rootsweb.com> >> Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 7:35 AM >> Subject: Re: [<orcadia>] Re:Fiona Northern Lights at last >> >> >>>> An 8 footer! Now that's not too bad at all. I've sort of been >>>> curious. > I >>>> wonder if it's just winds or is it also poor soil? Seems to me just > about >>>> most crops that would grow in the environment grow well there. What >>>> is > it >>>> with trees? Wind? >>> >>> Wind and salt air. I've watched it destroy a young tree (in my >>> garden) > in >> a week. >>> -- >>> Sigurd Towrie >>> Blackhall - Kirbister - Stromness - Orkney >>> Heritage of Orkney: www.orkneyjar.com >>> >>> >>> >>> ==== ORCADIA Mailing List ==== >>> To unsubscribe from the Orcadia mailing list, send an e-mail with the > word >>> 'unsubscribe' in the message body to orcadia-l-request@rootsweb.com >>> >>> >>> >> >> >> >> ==== ORCADIA Mailing List ==== >> To unsubscribe from the Orcadia mailing list, send an e-mail with the >> word >> 'unsubscribe' in the message body to orcadia-l-request@rootsweb.com >> >> > > > > ==== ORCADIA Mailing List ==== > To unsubscribe from the Orcadia mailing list, send an e-mail with the > word > 'unsubscribe' in the message body to orcadia-l-request@rootsweb.com >

Don't know about official figures in Orkney, but since moving here my asthma condition has improved and I take far less drugs and have far less attacks. This is probably partly due to less traffic pollution, and maybe because I lead a much less stressful life-style. Also less crops, so less crop spraying - and I don't think I've seen a field of Oil Seed Rape since I moved here, which was one trigger for me and my horse! Sian Graemsay Orkney -----Original Message----- From: Tirabasso [mailto:zorahh@sssnet.com] Sent: 18 November 2003 22:57 To: ORCADIA-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [<orcadia>] Re:Salt air Salt air. Ah. Good point. Thanks for bringing that up. Should be fairly healthy to be breathing that. I'd be curious to know what the respiratory illness rate there would be like as compared to somewhere with less salt and moisture in the air. ______________________________