While reforestation projects abound in Mexico, finding them can be hit or miss—sending emails, visiting officies. The city of Leon is an exception and a destination for fellow restoration enthusiasts thanks to a Google map. Created by the city's Environmental Department (DGGA)[1], the map shows greening-related projects throughout greater Leon, including:
- 140 reforestation sites in Leon and surrounding Sierra de Lobos.
- 671 green areas
- 134 'adopted green areas'
- 35 urban gardens
"Environmental Map - Information from Oct 2015 to Nov 2017."
(Click menu icon in upper left to open more layers.)
(Open full screen map.)
(Open full screen map.)
The map serves as a GIS database that can help with planning and management. For the DGGA, whose mission is the "environmental improvement of the City and the lives of its citizens,"[2] the map can also promote their greening work and make it accessible to the public.* After all, it's the public who's paying for the trees, and will ultimately reap the benefits.
[See my guide on mapping a site with Google Maps]
[See my guide on mapping a site with Google Maps]
Urban Forestation
- Benefits - Temperature moderation, air purification, and beautification of an otherwise brown, semi-arid city. (Average rainfall is 26.8 inches per year, mostly within June and July[3]). According to DGGA, city greening also helps with "adaptation to climate change, recovery of the Leon's identity as a natural landscape, protection of water, reduction of pests and diseases, improvement the quality of human health and creation of employment."[4]
- Species - alder (aliso), ash (fresno), various oaks (encinos), pines (pinus), cedar (cedro), coral tree (colorin), yellow oleander (fraile), mezquite, jacaranda, and non-natives including chinaberry (paraiso), chinese elm (olmo chino)
See Trees of Mexico.
Rural Reforestation in the mountains above Leon, known as Sierra de Lobos.
- Benefits - wildlife habitat, erosion control, improved water supplies for Leon, and economic benefits like firewood, timber and fruit.
- Species - pines, oaks, mezquite for forestation. Apple, pear, peach and citrus for orchards.
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Trenches dug uphill from seedlings, which catch rainwater and sediment as well as loosen soil for root growth. See this practice at a CONAFOR reforestation site. |
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Dryland polyculture: maguey (agave) and nopal (prickly pear). |
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Trenches on contour help catch erosion and absorb rainwater. |
References
[1] "Environmental Map," Dirección General de Gestión Ambiental (DGGA)
[2] "Mission, Vision and Values," DGGA
[3] "Leon: Climate," Wikipedia
[4] "Forum on Green Spaces and Urban Trees," DGGA (Jan. 15, 2015)
*Promoting such wok can also help "make reforestation cool again," on of Brian Fey's Principles for Reforesting the World.
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