TAZmuse7250: SANTUARY GARDEN

FOREWORD

The market size of engineered bamboo within the Asia Pacific region is set to reach US$ 40.7 Bn by 2031. As Australian native forestry declines and demand for timber skyrockets, the necessity for alternative building materials will continue to grow.

According to a new ad campaign by Forestry and Wood Products Australia, everything is ticking along just nicely in the world of wood. The campaign, titled ‘The Ultimate Renewable’ promotes the ‘sustainability and environmental advantages of Australia’s forest and wood products industry’.

Celebrity builder Adam Dovile appears in the commercial and confidently delivers the key message:

When trees are harvested for today,
they’re regrown for tomorrow,
that’s why wood is the ultimate renewable.

It’s a convincing sales pitch…designed to allay any fears or negativity associated with our timber industries. HOWEVER, is the timber industry really in such a healthy position? Is it the case that Tasmania is a net IMPORTER of timber as has been reported?

Launceston was once at the heart of Tasmania's export timber industry and 'timber' was a determiner of the city’s CULTURALlandscape that is currently under repair due to that industry’s excesses. The ‘timber industry’ is rarely discussed at polite dinner parties given that if it was it would be ever likely that an unwelcomed contentious discussion would arise.

Notably, city’s premier cultural institution, the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery (QVMAG), has steered well clear of mounting any kind of exhibition that takes a critical look at the city’s relationship to the timber industry, largely an export industry. Interestingly on August 9 2019 the City of Launceston ceremoniously declared a Climate Emergency and has since put a GREENING LAUNCESTON POLICY in place – December 2 2023.

The City of Launceston council has endorsed its first urban greening strategy, which sets a target of planting 18,000 trees in an effort to double the city's canopy coverage. Arguably, IF bamboo was included in sufficient numbers, well the 18,000 target, that could feasibly be doubled and quicker.

Bamboo has a few things going for it in the sustainability stakes and even in the CIVIC circumstance.

1. Bamboo Grows Fast - Like, Really Fast
According to Guinness World Records, the fastest growing species of bamboo can grow up to 91 cm (35 in) a day. That's about 1.45 inches an hour, so if you sit with bamboo for long enough, it might just grow before your eyes!

2. Bamboo Has Regeneration Superpowers
No, really! When done in the right way, cutting 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. Because only the aboveground parts are harvested, there is less soil disturbance, which helps maintain stability. What it all comes down to? A strong, healthy rhizome that encourages vigorous growth of new shoots.

3. Bamboo Can Help Mitigate Significant Amounts of Carbon
Bamboo’s incredible growth rate is impressive, but that's not all that's impressive about the plant: it also has powerful potential for climate change mitigation. According to an analysis by Project Drawdown, "bamboo production can sequester 2.03 metric tons of carbon per hectare per year." This figure includes carbon that is stored in long-lived products made from harvested bamboo.

4. There are two main types of bamboo
The approximately 1,500 bamboo species in the world fall within two main categories: clumping and running. Clumping bamboos have roots that grow into clumps, which can become quite large over time. Running bamboos have long underground stems (rhizomes) that sprout new growth, enabling them to rapidly expand their reach. Some running bamboos are highly invasive, while clumping bamboos are considered far less so. Nonetheless, in the CIVICcircumstance each kind has place albeit that like grass and trees bamboo needs to be managed and that process can be income generative.

5. Bamboo is Really Strong and Flexible
Bamboo plants have hollow, but very strong stems that can grow up to 130 feet high with 1-foot-thick stems. With their hollow stems, they are able to grow to similar heights as trees, but much more quickly and using fewer resources. The largest bamboo stems can be used to create planks for building homes, while a combination of large and small stems can form the scaffolding found at construction sites –and more still.

6. Bamboo Rarely Flowers
Since vegetative growth is their dominant reproductive strategy, most bamboo species flower and produce seeds just once in their lifetime – after 12-120 years of growth.

While bamboo can sometimes be considered a weed due to its aggressive spreading nature, especially when referring to "running bamboo" varieties, not all bamboo should be considered a weed. In an appropriate circumstance running some bamboo's ability to spread might well be a welcomed attribute – but that is unlikely to be in an urban backyard.

Many types, particularly "clumping bamboo," are considered non-invasive and can be safely grown in gardens with proper management and containment methods.

"Running bamboo" spreads rapidly through underground rhizomes, making it more prone to becoming invasive, while "clumping bamboo" grows in a contained clump and is easier to manage.

With proper planting techniques like barrier installation, even running bamboo can be controlled and prevented from spreading beyond its designated area.

Many people mistakenly label all bamboo as invasive due to the aggressive nature of certain varieties. HOWEVER, there are about 1500 bamboo species, some are invasive and many that are not. Nevertheless, 'bamboo' is regarded as a "weed" in many jurisdictions. In fact bamboos are seriously misunderstood yet if the plant's attributes are well understood, then bamboo can be the right plant in the right place doing what it can do that cannot be matched by tree – not all of which have a sustainability role in urban CULTURALlandscapes.

Bamboo deserves to much better understood in the context of urban CULTURALlandscapes. Also, bamboo needs to be better understood in Tasmania for its 'materiality' and all that has to offer as the world looks to mitigate climate change. There is a way forward and engaging with communities in ways that offers people to come to understand bamboo in real world context.

A COMMUNITY GARDEN WITH A DIFFERENCE

As Australia's quarter acre HOMEsite has incrementally diminished in size community gardens have become something of a necessity. Increasingly community gardens have become a vibrant part of urban precincts each with its own idiosyncrasies reflective of the cultural diversity in inclusive multicultural communities.

Arguably there is a role for Bamboo Sanctuary Garden as a community garden. Such a garden in reality cannot be managed and function in isolation from 'the community'. Certainly, if a garden of any kind on public land needs the support of Local Governance but ideally in cooperation and collaboration with community members.

That being accepted it is important that such a garden's purpose be clearly understood and articulated. As a 'nice idea' such a garden would have little relevance to many people and while it might be created to demonstrate sustainability, it would become unsustainable quickly enough without meaningfulness and placedness.

PURPOSE

To provide members of a wide ranging and culturally diverse community with a cluster of BAMBOOresources that collectively lead to better understandings of bamboo, its usefulness, and bamboo's diversity in inclusive ways along with this plant's capacity to make and shape CULTURALlandscapes.

OBJECTIVES

Establish a resource that is valued in an environmental an cultural context.
To lay down a foundation that has the capacity to facilitate a viable and place oriented bamboo forestry.
To engage governance – Local, State, Federal & corporate – in proof-of-concept projects that through the use of bamboo in sustainable ways, communities on their own initiative as PLACEmakers can be CHANGEagents.
To provide a exemplar for the ways appropriate bamboo species can be effective environmental repair and remediation in the context the need to do in the face of the climate emergency that is upon the planet.
To develop the skills within both urban and rural communities that are needed to effectively enlist appropriate bamboos to be deployed in the cause of sustainable CULTURALlandscaping.
To establish an entity that operates as COMMUNITY ENTERPRISE that has rhizomatic cum network links and interfaces with multiple operations in Tasmania and beyond.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Bamboo has enormous and demonstrated potential in mitigating climate change no matter where it is grown.
A foundation for a BAMBOOindustry that facilitates a viable and place oriented BAMBOOforestry will enable better and more sustainable 'timber harvesting' in Tasmania.
It is an imperative to engage governance – Local, State, Federal & corporate – in proof-of-concept projects to demonstrate the viability of bamboo in regard to communities being sustainable PLACEmakers and CHANGEagents.
Given the misinformation that has gained unjustified negativity relative to Bamboo communities need exemplars for the ways appropriate bamboo species can be effective environmental repair and remediation.
Given that currently there is a dearth of skills relative to bamboo's husbandry and its us in construction in Tasmanisa, there is a need develop the skills base in order that Tasmania can actually profit from the sustainability dividends bamboo offers in the cause of developing sustainable CULTURALlandscaping with bamboo fulfilling its potential. Moreover, it needs to bean entity that has the the capacity to operates and function as COMMUNITY ENTERPRISE rather than a standalone corporate entity given that it:

Needs to be a component of a rhizomatic cum network of communities and their operations, enterprises and organisations; that in turn
Needs to have links and interfaces with multiple stand alone operations in Tasmania and beyond; and that it
Needs to be understood as an entity that can be understood as a Community of Ownership & Interest that delivers sustainability dividends to the multiple layers of memberships and do so equitably.

STRATEGIES

Be a proactive advocate fo bamboo and its enormous and demonstrated potential in mitigating climate change no matter where it is grown.
Be a component of the foundation that a viable BAMBOOindustry
Ensure that governance – Local, State, Federal & corporate – is aware of, and ideally engaged in, proof-of-concept projects via proof-fo-concept projects.
Be proactive in countering the misinformation that has gained unjustified negativity relative to bamboo communities via social media and the publication of information in various formats.
Be a proactive in addressing the dearth of skills relative to bamboo's husbandry and its us in construction in Tasmania.
Be a proactive in promoting the planting of bamboo and promoting bamboo's capacity to fulfil its potential.
Be a proactive in promoting any entity relative to bamboo that has the capacity to operates and function as COMMUNITY ENTERPRISE rather than a standalone corporate entity.
Be a proactive component of a rhizomatic cum network of communities and their operations, enterprises and organisations; that in turn
Be a proactive in promoting entities/operation, that have links and interfaces with multiple stand alone operations in Tasmania and beyond; and that i
Be a proactive in developing an understanding of the Community/ies of Ownership & Interest that aim to deliver sustainability dividends to the multiple layers of memberships and the communities outside their networks.