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E_mails[E_mails]
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From Bamboomuse@aol.com To: "Internet Bamboo Group" <bamboo@housing.ucsc.edu>
Aloha Bambuseros, Below is a letter to the editor published in the Hilo, Hawaii newspaper. This was written after trees were removed from the Hamakua Coast which opened the land to erosion. Posted by Richard Waters - Hawaii/ABS STILL DISTURBED I propose a viable natural and reasonably fast way to keep rocks from rolling down the cliffs through the planting of bamboo. Bamboo, has for centuries, been used to stop rivers from changing their course. It can stop rocks from starting to roll off the slopes with roots (rhizomes) that form a net more effective than steel mesh. The mesh of bamboo shoots and runners does not have to catch an object that has already built momentum. The rock that never loosens never falls.
One of the many species of clumping bamboos can be chosen to prevent its spreading out of control. Better yet, we can accept the natural net of runners and harvest the shoots that grow beyond the slope and turn a multi-million dollar expenditure into a safer net that produces food and employment as well.
Howard O. Wright, Ph.D
Hilo
