Over the large stretches of the country that are beyond such reclamation and are too dry for forests, the effort is to develop the land for pasture. Throughout the Near and Middle East and North Africa the land has been overgrazed for more than 1,000 years. What sheep will not eat, goats will, and what the goats leave, camels will graze. By the time these hardy animals have ranged over the land through the long, hot, rainless summer, there is little plant cover left to protect the soil from the winter rains. But if one may judge by the relict species of forage grasses and plants that survive in rocky places and thorn thickets beyond the reach of goats and camels, it may be surmised that this lan d was once a pastoral paradise. The prompt return of a good cover of grasses and herbs after the goats were removed from the land by the Israeli Government in 1948 confirms this appraisal. The Soil Conservation Service has since been reseeding the range with native plants and with species imported from the U. S. and South Africa. In addition, certain woody bushes and low trees are being planted to hold the soil and furnish browse for livestock; the rich beans of the hardy carob tree, for example, yield as much feed as an equal planting of barley. Measures to divert and spread the storm waters over the pastures are further increasing the yield. Herds of beef and dairy cattle are now beginning to multiply on the restored range.
Early in the Jewish immigration to Israel the planting of trees came to be a symbol of faith in the future. Afforestation now plays a central role in the control of erosion, in reclamation of stony hills and in sheltering orchards and garden plots from the winds, whether from the sea or the desert. Some 250 million trees, both native and imported species selected by the Israeli Forest Experiment Station, are to be planted in the next 10 years. The growing of stock in the nurseries and the planting of trees on uncultivated hillsides, on roadsides, in shelter belts and on sand dunes provides interim employment for new immigrants until they become. established. Already the new stands are yielding timber, poles and fuel products-valuable commodities in a deforested land.
The land inventory has served to protect the best agricultural lands from being engulfed by the growing cities and towns of Israel. Along the coast, for example, the communities have been encouraged to expand their boundaries into the sand dunes rather than into surrounding cultivable land. The dunes comprise 10 per cent of the coastal land and; under the drag of the prevailing westerly winds, are overwhelming good land, orchards and even houses. Experiments are under way to hold the shifting dunes by stabilizing the sand surface and by aggregating sand grains into crumb structures. This is accomplished by plantings of hardy shrubs and sand grasses, and of such fibrous-rooted plants as alfalfa, with water supplied to some tracts by sewage effluent and partially rectified sewage water. The rapid growth of the plants where this has been tried converts the sand in a few years into a stable soil-like material suited to the planting of trees and even some crops. But the full reclamation of the dunes to agricultural use is still in the research stage.
Ultimately the expansion of agriculture is limited by the availability of water. The Israeli Water Planning Agency is seeking to double the 1956 water supply by 1966, giving the country a total of 14.5 million acre feet (an acre foot is 12 inches of water per acre) per year. A central feature of the plan derives from a survey that I conducted in 1938 and 1939 for the U. S. Department of Agriculture and from the proposal, growing out of that survey, of a Jordan Valley Authority to achieve the fullest development of the surface and underground waters of the valley for the entire original Mandate under the League of Nations, including what is now the Kingdom of Jordan as well as Israel. That proposal called for the development of ground waters and diversion of the upper Jordan waters within Israel to the dry lands in the south and for the diversion of the waters of the Yarmuk River to the eastern side of the Jordan Valley for irrigation of a promising subtropical region in Transjordan. In order to replace the flow of these rivers into the Dead Sea, salt water was to be brought in from the Mediterranean Sea through canals and tunnels to drop through two sets of hydropower stations nearly 1,300 feet below sea level to the Dead Sea. This salt water would not only produce electric power but also would maintain the level of the Dead Sea for the extraction of the minerals and chemicals that are there in fabulous amounts. The plan was declared feasible by an international consulting board of engineers. All parts of the plan that do not require the collaboration of the adjoining Arab states are now being carried out by the Israeli Government. The prestressed-concrete sections of the main 108-inch pipeline that will carry upper Jordan water down as far as the Negev are now being fabricated and set in place in a great trench, and the tunnels to carry it through intervening hills are under construction.
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Add CommentOne wonders what has been the impact of the draining of wetlands in the early days of the State of Israel on percolation of surface water down to undergound aquifers?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this(This, especially with consideration of all the pumping of ground water, and is not even to mention, the impact on wetland biota).
Also, I cringed at the several mentions of the introduction of non-native plants, from eucalypts to southern California species. This practice contributes nothing to the restoration of the ancient biological richness of the region, and indeed threatens it, should any of the non-natives turn into the aggressive, invasive sort (as no doubt some have by now).
One wonders what has been the impact of the draining of wetlands in the State of Israel on the regeneration of aquifers (This, especially with consideration of all the pumping of ground water)?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFurther, one wonders how much effort and expenditure now needs to be done to conserve wetland biota, with its vastly shrunken habitat?
Also, I cringed at the several mentions of the introduction of non-native plants, from eucalypts to southern California species. This practice contributes nothing to the restoration of the ancient biological richness of the region, and indeed threatens it, should any of the non-natives turn into the aggressive, invasive sort (as no doubt some have by now).
It would be interesting to read (a less patently biased) account of the present state of affairs of the ecology and agricultural sustainability of in modern Israel and surrounding coutnries.
For some reason, the latest edit of my comment did not get submitted...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI wanted to add that I wonder how much effort, now, is being directed to restoration of wetlands destroyed in the name of progress, back then?
It would be of great interest to read a report on the current state of affairs in Israel and surrounding countries, with regard to the ecology and agricultural sustainability of the region. One that is less biased than this piece of patently propagandistic journalism would be especially welcome.
It likely depends on your definition of ecology. The Middle East has been host to civilisation longer than anywhere else in the world. Like Europe (Greece being an excellent example), there was almost certainly very wide forestation across Israel, which was then denuded by millennia of cultivation. The fact that the marshlands existed in the 1950s doesn't mean they had been standing for thousands of years. If anything, reforestation and croplands have replenished the ecosystem.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlso, Israel has very efficient agricultural systems, relying especially on drip systems. These are much less wasteful than the spray irrigation used by most of the world.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs long as we treat population growth as an inevitable act of God, we are setting ourselves up for future disaster. There are too many resources with doubtful future prospects: water, land, fertilizer, pesticides, transportation, fuel. We pander to local customs and organized religion by allowing population growth to continue, but we make the system ever more sensitive to glitches and failures. In the future, even the smallest failure in agricultural production will probably kill millions of people. We are building a system with no excess capacity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis article is a great opportunity for pictures.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWeb space is free, push to get more pictures with each article.
It would be great to have pictures of soil conditions, irrigation techniques, erosion prevention techniques...
In the 1800's a British traveller in "Palestine" as it was then called by the British,commented that there was not a tree to be found from Safed to Akko and all the birds had been shot and killed by the local Arabs and all of the crocodiles killed and eaten by them.The custom of goat herding had converted the whole area into a desert as goats eat the plants.Modern Israel has worked miracles in restoring the environment.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI cannot believe that in the 21st century Scientific American will re-issue such a biased, history-distorting article. Claiming that 'Palestine' was uninhabited since the Byzantine era, rules out a millenia of Arab and Islamic civilization. And the comments that the local Arabs converted the area into desert land is naive, as everyone knows that the Bedouins are the indigenous population of the desert, and did not contribute to desertification, which is purely an ecological process, for which we have the climate to blame and not the arabs. However, I do thank the magazine for providing me with an insight on the views of the past 50 years or more which will encourage me to do some serious research on the subject .
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI cannot believe that in the 21st century Scientific American will re-issue such a biased, history-distorting article. Claiming that 'Palestine' was uninhabited since the Byzantine era, rules out a millenia of Arab and Islamic civilization. And the comments that the local Arabs converted the area into desert land is naive, as everyone knows that the Bedouins are the indigenous population of the desert, and did not contribute to desertification, which is purely an ecological process, for which we have the climate to blame and not the arabs. However, I do thank the magazine for providing me with an insight on the views of the past 50 years or more which will encourage me to do some serious research on the subject .
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Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI live in Israel, and like many is very concerned with the status of environmental issues here and worldwide. Reforestation here is something like a national value there is a holiday dedicated to tree planting and cutting down trees is forbidden by law.
Unlike the main narrative though, the land was not completely barren till the 20th century. Most of the northern part of the country, which was not densely settled, remained covered by diverse vegetation, dominated by oak trees. However, apparently the bush-like height (4-5m) of these trees didnt look much like a forest to European visitors. These trees continue to thrive to this day and form a natural habitat to many animal species.
Some other parts of the country were and remain completely barren, despite adequate precipitation, specifically due to human intervention. There is a huge difference between land management of the Jewish and Arab population (by the way, most of the Arabs are not Bedouins). You can see this directly if you visit Israel, or by looking at aerial maps like Google earth.
Like any other developed nation, Israel has many environmental problems, these include water management air, water and soil pollution, and expansion of cities. Probably, due to the problematic political status, environmental issues do not receive adequate attention from the government and the voters. It is hard to tell what the future holds for already immensely stressed natural wild life.
Climate & economy of Southwestern Asia,Central Asia (Near & Middle East) & Northern (North) Africa. Water supply.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOnly by making the climate is more saturated with moisture can make the Near and Middle Asia and North Africa is even more suitable for a good life.
There are good and real water projects in deserts. The purpose of one of the projects - to give the water in a deserts and to spend the finance and water for the right thing, that to change the climate.
Megaprojects,technologies,innovations,management decisions,investment objects,climate change.
http://www.usw.com.ua/profiles/blogs/technologies-from-past-and-future-that-could-change-the-world?xg_source=activity
http://easypay-shop.com/index.php?ukey=news
http://blogs.pravda.ru/users/3039108/post198925789
http://konsyltacii.livejournal.com/21903.html