On Thu, 09 Jan 2003 16:52:01 GMT, (Babberney)
wrote:

As for the water wasting,

There is more to this than just the tree's water consumption as it
also has to do with capturing rainfall before it runs off.

The best surface for capturing rainfail is a mature, native grassland.
Say Little Bluestem/Sideoats Gramagrass, etc. These grasses hold the
water near the soil surface and allow for greater penetration of water
into the soil thus replenishing and holding near surface ground water
as well as feeding into underlying aquifers.

Replace this with a dense stand of juniper. First you loose the near
surface vegetative community, grasses, etc., and the rainfall tends to
run off more rapidly so there is less opportunity for it to soak in.
The loss of the groundcover is due in part to allelopathy. So you end
up with nothing but juniper needle "mulch" under these trees which
repeals rainfall to some degree.

Also, the upper trees tend to hold rainfall which is latter evaporated
so it never reaches the ground. Also, grasses go dormant in the
winter so they consume little water. Junipers are evergreen and
continue consuming water through the winter.

Grasslands used to burn off regularly, killing any invading junipers.
Native Indians may have assisted in this - but who knows. They hunted
edges in the vegetative landscape and fires maintained these edges.

Junipers have their place in canyons and steeply sloped areas where
grasses do not grow - elsewhere they are a weed.

Rusty Mase