Re:Re: CULT: HYB: Jean Stevens - climate/soil?

I'm glad Colleen has first-hand knowledge of the area and posted.

The Wanganui catchment area is in the southern part of the North Island.
Denuding the ancient forests has caused rapid erosion of some of the higher
elevations.  The forests do not spontaneously regenerate, probably because
grasses imported from elsewhere (probably European in origin) are more
agressive and vigorously prosper in the rainy, rarely dry climate.

The soils in the Wanganui area are the beneficiaries of "mass wastage" from
sedimentary and volcanic uplands, so would be of high fertility but low
stability and easily disturbed if not kept planted.

The contrast between winter and summer is not nearly as great as in Oregon and
Washington.

The entire island complex is somewhat closer to the equator than I thought,
although southern hemisphere climates do not have exact parallels in the
northern one due to the large, very cold continental landmass of Antarctica
and no large landmasses near the island complex.

At the latitude of Wanganui one would expect a climate more like middle to
northern California, north of the Mediterranean climate areas but just barely
so.  It appears to be a bit cooler than that, which is just what Colleen
describes.

Neil Mogensen

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