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Page 14-B The Jewish Floridian of Tampa/Friday, September 18, 1987
JNF Saves Hundreds Of Acres
By Innovative Tree Planting
By DAVID LANDAU
IN THE NORTHERN
NEGEV, Israel Hundreds
of acres of fertile soil would be
washed into the sea each year
were it not for the innovative
use of trees by the Jewish Na-
tional Fund.
Standing at the edge of a
northern Negev wheat field
that is crumbling into a rain-
formed gully, Eli Kliegler, the
JNF's head of planning for the
south of Israel, explained to
the JTA how trees can stop the
erosion.
The JNF, best known for its
extensive afforestation pro-
jects all over the country, has
been planting trees to stop soil
erosion for more than 20
years. Kliegler notes that the
increasing sophistication of
erosion-prevention techniques
means JNF planners interfere
with nature less.
"Once we thought we could
just level the gullies and
dispense with the problem that
way," Kliegler explains. "But
nature was stronger than us."
The rain of the northern
Negev 9.6 to 16 inches a
year falls in short, heavy
downpours, and the water can-
not all be absorbed by the
light, sand-colored loess (fer-
tile clay-like) soil. Forcing
itself into cracks in the earth,
the water erodes the fine soil
as it flows toward the sea.
Aerial photos of one field
taken 10 years ago show a flat
area. Now the field is crossed
by a branching gash, a gully
more than a yard deep and
about a yard wide, that leads
to a neighboring gully that
connects to a central wadi 30
or 40 yards away. That wadi is
a dry river bed in the summer,
but a rushing torrent during
the rainy season.
The gullies grow two to
three yards a year. Several in-
ches from their edges, the field
is criss-crossed with cracks,
and soil falls away with the
slightest prod.
As Kliegler explains, the
gullies not only steal valuable
farm land, but can grow so
relentlessly that it can even at-
tack a road alongside the field,
eventually slicing the road in
two.
The rich topsoil that enabled
the former desert of the nor-
thwest Negev to become a fer-
tile agricultural area is washed
away down the gullies to the
wadi and on to the sea. All that
is left is a chalky, salty surface
inhospitable even to thistles.
The JNF has managed to
stop this erosion by planting
trees on the internal slopes of
the gullies. The trees ap-
parently hold the sides in place
and prevent them from exten-
ding. JNF plants quick-
growing eucalyptus where it
will take, but some of the
slopes are so eroded that only
the hardy Jerusalem pine
survives.
At the very edges of the
gullies, JNF plants cypresses
and other trees that have roots
less invasive than those of the
eucalyptus and will not
damage the adjacent arable
land.
The floor of the gully is
deliberately left clear to allow
the rain to flow freely. "Other-
wise it would just form
another gully," Kliegler says.
Sometimes a simple wooden
dam is built at the head of the
gully to keep back the soil,
while allowing the water to
run down.
The JNF locates the trouble
spots, and, providing the kib-
butz or moshav that farms the
land accepts the long-term
benefits of erosion prevention,
proceeds to plan the new plan-
ting project together with the
Land Conservation Depart-
ment of the Agriculture
Ministry.
First they commission aerial
photos, then develop a detailed
guide to the area. Only after-
ward do they bring in the
heavy tractors to prepare the
slopes for planting.
The JNF plants about a
thousand acres a year in its ef-
fort to fight erosion. That in-
cludes about a hundred acres
of replanting trees that did not
take the previous year, and
replacing old trees that have
died.
The conservation work that
has benefitted Negev kibbut-
zim such as Beeri, Bet Kama,
Lahav, Nahal Oz and Ruhama
costs $600 to $800 an acre. The
saplings come from the JNF
nursery at nearby Gilat.
Detroit Loses Third Butcher Shop
DETROIT (JTA) A third butcher shop has closed
here in a year, leaving nine, with one butcher worried that
only a third of those stores will survive.
Franklin Kosher Meats of West Bloomfield, Mich., went
out of business because of high costs, including rent, Rabbi
Chaskell Grubner of the Council of Orthodox Rabbis of
Greater Detroit told the Jewish News.
Allan Cohen, president of the Detroit Area Kosher Retail
Meat Dealers Association, said the industry has been
weakened here. He cited the increase in working women,
meaning more "pre-cooked" or restaurant meals; artificial-
ly high prices; the decreasing number of wholesale sup-
pliers; and policies of the rabbis' council.
President Will Appoint Berman
WASHINGTON (JTA) President Reagan will ap-
point Julius Berman of New York, a former chairman of
the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations, to a two-year term on the Commission for
the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad. Berman
was born in Poland.
Hadassah Names Executive Director
NEW YORK (JTA) Aileen Novick of New York has
been hired as executive director of Hadassah, the Women's
Zionist Organization of America, succeeding Zmira
Goodman.
The Board of Directors and Administration of
Memorial Hospital
of Tampa
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