posted 8 years ago
I agree that this would be a good new forum, to focus on how to design and work with wetland systems solely.
Chinmapas are a wonderful idea, but how many people have them? I think that there are a lot of people who don't know what they are. I have a few in my head to build on my land, but... then there is access. The biggest stumbling block with working in wet areas is often that (in Canada anyway) the government is involved in maintaining these systems for wildlife, or pure water standards purposes, and so in many cases the landowner might not be allowed to do any alterations within a certain 'green belt' surrounding a given waterway.
For instance, though I have water rights on my creek, I am only allowed to have one outlet off the creek, and only so many cubic meters of water diverted from it for my home and agricultural purposes. It's good to have such regulations in place as environmental protections and protecting other downstream users access to clean dependable water sources.
If I want to build a hydro electric system, or build a bridge, (both of which I would like to do) this will likely require permits so that I ensure that I am not taking too much water, or damaging the creek bank. What it all comes down to is that in order to develop wet areas we may have to help re-build the legal framework for doing so (Just as building codes are adapted to new methods, through example and proven projects), so that the powers that be can see that benefits can be gained by such permacultural designs.
If we have a forum dedicated to such projects, then we can easily find such projects and build a more cohesive and accessible pool of knowledge from which to dive in, and examples of successful projects to give the authorities as specifics when trying to create precedent for our own designed/planned projects.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."-Margaret Mead "The only thing worse than being blind, is having sight but no vision."-Helen Keller