REDWOOD NEEDLES
REDWOOD NEEDLES
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Sierra Club Books re-issued its classic The Book of Bamboo by David Farrelly with a new preface in 1995 to meet the growing demand for information about bamboo. Thought by some to be an invasive weed, others consider bamboo a "miracle plant" because of its wide use for shelter, food, paper and countless articles of daily life. There are actually two distinct kinds of bamboo. One is indeed aggressive, called running. The other is clumping, and is quite orderly. Bamboo is also classified as either tropical/sub-tropical or temperate, which is the type that grows well in the Redwood Empire.
Bamboo is a fast-growing grass, growing as much as four feet in 24 hours. Various species rise to a maturity of 30 to 50 feet in three to six years. Stalks can grow over 100 feet tall. Farrelly documents "the natural advantages bamboo possesses over wood as raw material for paper making. Trees such as pine require 15 to 30 years to mature. Bamboo matures in three to six years. In the 30 years one pine harvest is maturing, an established grove of bamboo may be harvested 10 to 20 times."
Considered the definitive work on bamboo, Farrelly's book, originally published in 1984, asserts, "In the context of an urgent need for revegetation in many areas of the world, bamboo can take the weight of wood in a number of human uses, while playing the same roles as trees in modifying weather, controlling floods, diminishing winds, and guarding he soil." As a wetlands activist, I was originally drawn to bamboo as a way to fight soil erosion and protect stream banks.
Sonoma County hosts one of the USA's best suppliers of bamboo, the Bamboo Sourcery, located between Sebastopol and Occidental in a wet, mixed forest area. It feels like the bamboo jungles of my childhood in the rainforests of Panama. Bamboo does well as a companion plant with conifers, including redwoods. The Sourcery's owner, Gerald Bol, is a former president of the growing American Bamboo Society. Having seen bamboo successfully planted locally for various commercial and landscaping purposes, I have begun to plant it on my organic farm.
Over 1000 uses of bamboo are detailed by Farrelly, including for brooms, food, containers, medicine, hedges, eating utensils, crutches, flutes, boats, ladders, toys, and furniture. Bamboo's flexibility and weightlessness help it survive earthquakes. Farrelly documents bamboo's extensive use in China, Japan, India and other Asian countries and in Columbia, Nicaragua and other Latin American countries. One of the over 1000 species is even indigenous to the USA. Rather than being dry, The Book of Bamboo is humorous and full of anecdotes and poetry. The well-written book of more than 300 pages includes over 300 illustrations, and eleven page bibliography, hundreds of helpful footnotes, and a catalogue of major species.
Farelly is the Johnny Appleseed of bamboo, having planted and nourished the idea of bamboo as a viable alternative to wood. the idea of bamboo as a sustainable crop has been growing and is being practiced around the world, around the USA, and here in the Redwood Empire. For further information on bamboo, contact Shepherd Bliss at (707) 829-8185. For information on this or other Sierra Club Publications, please contact the Sonoma Environmental Center Office at 544-7651.
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