Dumped orange peel transformed a barren pasture (2017)

I read years ago that the local Indians, instead of farming or conventional gardening, would create gardens with the desired plants all mixed together (including trees and bushes). This would create an ecosystem of interdependent crops which would provide food year round.

They're largely abandoned and forgotten, but one can find them having gone wild in various places. They're marked by a marked diversity of flora.

> But a year after the contract was signed — during which time 12,000 metric tons of orange peels were unloaded onto the degraded land — TicoFruit, a rival company, sued, arguing the company had “defiled a national park.” The rival company won the case in front of Costa Rica’s Supreme Court, and the orange-peel-covered land was largely overlooked for the next 15 years.

Sounds like corporate jealousy on the part of the competitor. I wonder if the supreme court decision has set a precedent preventing future projects like this from going ahead. I don't think anyone would describe the land after 15 years as being "defiled" – quite the opposite.

> "It's a shame where we live in a world with nutrient-limited degraded ecosystems and also nutrient-rich waste streams. We'd like to see those things come together a little bit,"

Saw a talk about circular economies once. One of the things that stuck in my mind was, "If mankind has any chance of a permanent occupation of earth, the current meaning of the word 'waste' will have to fade away."

What is the normal outcome of these orange peels? Fed to livestock? Mulch? Or just added to landfill?

The results were impressive, but I imagine there were months of rotting orange peels. Which is probably not ideal neighbors, but fine in otherwise barren, uninhabited land.

https://www.princeton.edu/news/2017/08/22/orange-new-green-h... seems to be the original article; this is a very light rewrite by the looks of things. Perhaps we can change the linked article, dang?

This is particularly interesting to me because (1) they have a natural control, given that it’s such a small area, and (2) the mechanism is apparently a mystery?

> When comparing the site to a nearby control area that hadn't been treated with orange peels, Treuer's team found their experimental compost heap yielded richer soil, more tree biomass, and a broader diversity of tree species – including a fig tree so huge it would take three people wrapping their arms around the trunk to cover the circumference.

> As for how the orange peels were able to regenerate the site so effectively in just 16 years of isolation, nobody's entirely sure.

> "That's the million dollar question that we don't yet have the answer to," Treuer told Popular Science.

"Dumped orange peel" from the title is really 12k tons of orange peel

I read about that case years ago, and as a result started composting my biomass garbage, especially the orange peel! I don't generate enough to make a difference, but the local fauna eats most of it. A couple of onions have sprouted in the pile.

I wish they had a picture of this fig tree they mention.

I'm surprised that the oranges didnt make the soil too acidic, but I guess organic matter + water == lushness works 100% of the time

Somewhat related to this, when I first setup a compost bin at home it was simply to try to reduce yard and food waste, and I hoped it wouldn't be too annoying to use. I was surprised to find that I've actually had a lot of fun with it! Especially around trying to optimize the throughput. It's interesting to me to try and find the ideal balance of inputs that will generate compost quickly and minimize organic waste.

Managing a system that takes a whole bunch of scrap and turns it into something useful, in a largely autonomous way, tickles the same part of my brain that gets satisfaction from writing a custom script to automate away some annoying but useful task.

>> has eventually revitalised the desolate site into a thriving, lush forest.

That's an understatement. every hard core gardener knows organic matter is the key to wonderful soil which is the key to wonderful produce. We want as much of it as possible (to turn into compost). Personally, I keep all my orange peels, all my fruit refuse/kitchen scraps, every last oak leaf that drops on my property and thensome (suprisingly no one wants them!). I compost pretty much every last drop organic matter that comes onto our property.

This might be misleading as often biodiversity can't be measured by how lush it looks and how much vegetation there is. Certain plants and animals can only survive in arid landscapes that look 'dead' but can't survive otherwise as they are adapted to an environment with less nutrients. So it is possible that you actually reduce biodiversity by doing things like this. Often land has too much nutrients due to farming and leaving arid landscape as it is might be better.

Was there follow up now, to overturn the case to allow dumping/composting again?

Stuff like this seems like such a win-win it would be sad if it didn't lead to some changes now.

It's very obvious when you walk through Scotland's forestry which trees are native, and which have been transplanted because there is lush grass and plants underneath the native trees, and a lot of the time bare patches underneath the imported.

> As for how the orange peels were able to regenerate the site so effectively in just 16 years of isolation, nobody's entirely sure.

Well, the first thing that comes to my mind is: Maybe it wasn't only the orange peels. Perhaps there were other factors that contributed to the turn around. And given that this was a one-off they need to reproduce this experiment again, ideally two more times.

Once is not a pattern. Even twice isn't a pattern. Three times? Now we can begin to identify and consider there might be a causation-worthy pattern.

To often we want a single causation, and more often than not it's not that simple.

Isn't "barren pasture" an oxymoron?

One thing not mentioned in the article is the use of pesticide. Were the peels organic, or do the pesticides naturally degrade in a harmless way?

Very misleading title. Barren soil is barren soil. Desert is a classification based on rainfall. Dumping ground is/was not a desert.

This article is from 2017