Overlooked and underestimated

Trees have always had their place: oaks as a thing and a place of judgment, the lime tree in the center of a village, or, to this day, the old meadow fruit trees on the edge of the Alb that shape the landscape. Forests are important to us - from the primeval forest in fairy tales to the dying forest. But grass? Alongside forests, grasslands are the "other" dominant ecosystem on planet Earth.

Steppes, pampas and prairies are the original grasslands, which are no less impressive than the forests of Canada or the Amazon rainforest. In his novel "Giants in the Earth1", the Norwegian-American author O.E. Rölvaag describes a family crossing the prairie in the Dakotas in a covered wagon: 

 "A small caravan made its way through the tall grass. The trail it left behind was like the stern wave of a ship - except that instead of widening at the stern, it closed". A grassland landscape so vast that you can lose your bearings and disappear without leaving a trace.

WHY IS GRASSLAND SO IMPORTANT? 

Next to forests, grassland is the largest ecosystem on earth, covering around 40% of the land surface. It is a habitat for other plants, birds, insects and mammals. Our most important crops, cereals and rice, belong to the grass family. However, only a third of all agricultural land worldwide can be used for arable farming. Two thirds are too high, too steep, too wet or too dry: "only" grass grows here. Only? Grassland is enormously important for food production:

Cows and other ruminants provide us with meat and milk because only they can convert grass into calories thanks to their four stomachs. Grassland stores large amounts of carbon and, if used correctly, could be an important, perhaps the most important carbon sink. Proof of this is provided by the "granaries" of the earth with their fertile, carbon-rich soils: "the black earth soils (chernozems) of the prairies in North America, the Ukraine, the Puszta in Hungary, the Baragan in Romania, the German lowland bays, as well as Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China (Manchuria) and also the subtropical pampas in Argentina and Uruguay not only have fertility in common, but also their origin: They are steppe soils2", writes Anita Idel, veterinarian and author of the book "Die Kuh ist kein Klima-Killer3". With the development of the Haber-Bosch process and the production of chemical fertilizers, soil biology became a marginal topic. Soil fertility, according to the message of the agrochemical industry, can be bought in a bag.

We now know that monocultures and agrochemicals lead to a loss of soil fertility and soil erosion. Regenerative and organic farmers have long relied on mixed crops, long rotations and perennial, species-rich grassland fallows - i.e. grasses, herbs and legumes.

"A SMALL CARAVAN MADE ITS WAY ITS WAY THROUGH THE HIGH GRASS. THE TRAIL IT WAS LIKE THE STERN WAVE OF A SHIP - ONLY THAT IT DID NOT WIDEN AFT WIDENED, BUT CLOSED"

HOW DO GRASSES DO THIS? 

In a way, grasses can be compared to icebergs: only a small part is visible, the main mass is in the soil or, in the case of icebergs, under water. While most other plants invest most of their energy in above-ground growth, grasses invest in root growth. And it is these enormous root masses and root exudates that, together with mycorrhizae and soil organisms, make grassland a carbon sink. And that's not all: because of the dense root network, grassland can absorb and store large quantities of water, which is particularly important in view of the climate crisis. Thanks to such "water reserves", all plants have a better chance of survival during periods of drought.

Grazing improves the system, it triggers a growth impulse in grasses. Mowing meadows does not have the same effect, and not only because mowing machines do not leave behind fertilizing cow pats: the growth point of grasses is low, quite different from that of bushes and trees. They grow from the tips of the shoots - or not, for example when a cow eats the shoot. Grasses can grow anywhere where trees thrive - and also in areas where trees have no chance. They are extremely adaptable and can cope better with cold, heat, wet and dry conditions than many leafy plants.

GRASSLAND, WATER AND HABITAT 

The fact that grasslands such as prairies have their place in the USA will be obvious to any Western fan. But in Germany? Despite all the mythical relationships with the forest, trees have not always stood close together everywhere. "We do not live (...) in an area of the world that should be completely overgrown if we want to preserve the biodiversity that we have inherited from the climate history and evolution of our continent," writes Florian Schwinn in "Die Klima Kuh4". After the last ice age, steppes first emerged and our ancestors were at home in "semi-open pasture landscapes". This is not only our "psychotope", a landscape in which most people "feel completely at home", says Schwinn, our landscape needs open spaces. Which brings us to WiesenObst. The forests from which the WiesenObst trees originally come are sparse forests with clearings. Today, the trees grow on the edge of the Swabian Alb, often on steep slopes. With their long roots, they are deeply anchored in the soil, but the fact that this soil is not washed away by torrential rain or torn open by drought is due to the grass that grows between the trees and covers the soil protectively. The tree rhizosphere is beneficial to grasses, just as the trees benefit from the presence of the grasses and the herbs and flowering plants that thrive between them.

Together they form a refuge for a variety of insects, birds, microorganisms and mammals. It is the meadow-fruit meadows that save a number of endangered species from extinction. Meadow fruit connects the two most important ecosystems in the world in a unique way and the use of the fruit protects this uniqueness. 

 "IN A WAY, YOU CAN COMPARE GRASSES TO ICEBERGS: ONLY A SMALL PART IS VISIBLE, THE MAIN MASS IS IN THE GROUND, OR, IN THE CASE OF ICEBERGS, UNDER WATER."