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by jcattle 2 days ago
Yes, I'm well aware that Landes naturally should be an extensive sandy marsh.

With how natural forest disturbances are more and more starting to affect the plantation, it proves to be seen what the response will be.

The thing is that it is an incredibly productive forest (only in terms of biomass). So now there's a bunch of capital riding on it which will have a vested interest to keep it productive.

1 comments

>Yes, I'm well aware that Landes naturally should be an extensive sandy marsh.

No, it shouldn't. It used to be a forest but was cut down by firewood and sheep grazing.

Stop with the "return to nature" fallacy. With how things are going, even "natural" forests are going to burn down.

Ah, I thought that was the main vegetation present beforehand? What kind of forest was it before it was cut down?
A mixed forest with oak, beech and the like, as you can find higher north. But that was during the middle ages' European "little ice age", when the winters were much colder, and the Thames and the Netherlands froze over. That's also likely the reason why the forest was cut so much to feed fires.

https://daily.jstor.org/climate-canvasses-of-the-little-ice-...