The long grass

ScumLord

This is something that overlooked by any apocalypse film not just zombie ones and is especially relevant in Ireland.

Nature will take over very quickly once peoples numbers fall. Grass will be close to head height within a year, new trees will be at head height within 2 - 5 years. Roads will be torn up by any new growth, we've all seen the little used Irish country lanes with grass growing up the middle. That's not a disused road it's only little used which should give you some idea of how quickly nature will take over.

How do you intend to get around Ireland once nature takes over, what would have been a simple crossing of a field in todays terms will become a jungle excursion after the fall.

Mahatma coat

I dunno, the Grasses only get that high from intensive fertilisation, I dont think the commercial grasses in a lot of Pastures would be suited well enough to our climate to survive without Farmers , if the REPS Scheme has taught us anything it the prevelance of Broadleaved 'Weeds'

however is a field of NEttles any more comforting a thought

phill106

I thought i read before that "wild" grass would only grow to about knee height?

degrassinoel

Grass can grow quite tall, depends on where it is, i've seen grass at 4 feet height in saint annes park a few years back. Without care and maintenance it could easily get to the same levels, but i doubt it'd go much higher than that for collapsing under its own weight.

Not sure how long it'd take to get to that level though, cant imagine it being more than a year given the right weather and surroundings. What a nightmare to be running through with a horde of undead after ye..

ChaseThisLight

I think in a world with less people, you'd definitely see growth running more rampant - blackberry bushes, weeds, vines, etc all growing unrestrained.

But I think it'd take a little longer for grass to grow to such heights in most places. Where I live, we mowed half of our field last summer and it's still not grown back to much at all in this time and we get plenty of rain and it's not a high traffic area, no animals out there; and the half that wasn't mowed has, as someone else stated, pretty much collapsed under it's own weight due to rain, snow, etc.

Trees on the other hand, grow at different rates. The people down the road from me planted row after row of I think pine trees in this field, about 3 years ago and they are only knee high now. Most trees take years and year to really grow - I'm talking, 20 years to reach full height for some.

ScumLord

I don't think commercial grasses will last long after the fall so we'll be talking about wild bog grasses although they don't get all that long either, brambles which are in abundance around here will make my local area impassable once they take over though.

degrassinoel

long term z-defence.. brambles, cheaper than concrete

Mahatma coat

by 'Brambles' you people mean BRIARS, Right????

Longterm defence wise they would be an excellent perimiter defence

like thos african villages, with the added advantage that you can eat blackberries

degrassinoel

exactly yeah, 2 birds with one stone.. almost said cup for some reason

Ginja Ninja

I haven't posted here in a while,but I'll get on my farmer soapbox and say this;
normal varieties of grass grow to a maximum of about 12" and that's with intensive care and effort by the farmer,without the efforts of active grasscare the crops will be at most half that.
Also,grass has a built in in negative feedback in that if a crop isn't eaten or harvested the grass dies,falls over and withers on top of it's own shoots limiting the growth the following year this will keep levels low as it forms sort of a mat across the ground.
So no forests of grass and no zombie land mines in Ireland I'm afriad the ditchs etc. will over grow a lot but on main roads it won't effect mobility much for a few year[they need a base,such as a ditch to suppost the plant] as roads decay though nature will take over.But that's talking long term,past the 5 year mark

Mitch Buchannon

To give an idea of what nature will do when most humans become Zeds (and lets be honest when Zday arrives most humans will be eaten and become our enemy), others die due starvation etc. Have a look at the video I attached below. This is part of a documentary made by NatGeo or the History channel called "Life after People". It takes a chronological look from Day1 to like 100years or something after humans are wiped out. I understand that when Zday arrives there will be pockets of survivors that will last many years/generations if they/we work together but I would imagine that wont be all that different to the documentary. It starts Day1 @ 2min 10sec.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBtHICMmDJk

alexa5x5

Mitch Buchannon wrote: »

To give an idea of what nature will do when most humans become Zeds (and lets be honest when Zday arrives most humans will be eaten and become our enemy), others die due starvation etc. Have a look at the video I attached below. This is part of a documentary made by NatGeo or the History channel called "Life after People". It takes a chronological look from Day1 to like 100years or something after humans are wiped out. I understand that when Zday arrives there will be pockets of survivors that will last many years/generations if they/we work together but I would imagine that wont be all that different to the documentary. It starts Day1 @ 2min 10sec.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBtHICMmDJk

Saw that when it was on. It was a really fascinating documentary, well worth watching online if you can.

riffmongous

How do you think the zeds will deal with the overgrown paths and roads? Will they instinctively stick to the more manageable routes or move more or less randomly? I mean when they are just on the move rather than following something.

ScumLord

didn't the BBC do that documentary first? I seem to remember it was made as a once off in the UK and then taken on as a series in the US. The US series didn't have much more information in it despite the extra time they had.

It's good though, it's shocking to see how easily every trace of humanity would be wiped of the face of the earth if we're not around to maintain it.

ChaseThisLight

riffmongous wrote: »

How do you think the zeds will deal with the overgrown paths and roads? Will they instinctively stick to the more manageable routes or move more or less randomly? I mean when they are just on the move rather than following something.

I think they'd move more randomly, without much of a purpose, unless they were after a meal.


And I saw some of that documentary - can't attest to whether it was different here in the US than what was shown in the UK...it aired here as a mini series of sorts, over a number of nights. It was definitely cool to see how the world would take itself back.

Kess73

ScumLord wrote: »

This is something that overlooked by any apocalypse film not just zombie ones and is especially relevant in Ireland.

Nature will take over very quickly once peoples numbers fall. Grass will be close to head height within a year, new trees will be at head height within 2 - 5 years. Roads will be torn up by any new growth, we've all seen the little used Irish country lanes with grass growing up the middle. That's not a disused road it's only little used which should give you some idea of how quickly nature will take over.

How do you intend to get around Ireland once nature takes over, what would have been a simple crossing of a field in todays terms will become a jungle excursion after the fall.

Very little of the grass in Ireland would grow to that height.

Very few species of tree would be at head height in only 2 - 5 years as well.


Various species of bush would grow at that rate, but our climate and native plant types dictate that the growth here would not be as extreme as in other countries, and expecially not as quick. There are parts of this country today that get little to no foot traffic and have no access to road vehicles and those areas are not overgrown to a huge degree.

blacklionboy

this reminds me too much of jurassic park 2 lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9p5IVPr784

blacklionboy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9p5IVPr784

Grizzly 45

Mahatma coat wrote: »

by 'Brambles' you people mean BRIARS, Right????

Longterm defence wise they would be an excellent perimiter defence

like thos african villages, with the added advantage that you can eat blackberries

We grow our own native version of thorn hedges ,called Whitethorn!!
What our Shilleaghs used to be made out of.Grow fast are easily maintained ,a total evil bitch of a plant with 3in plus thorns,can be used for good firewood[,is definately man and horse proof as we proved in one battle against the English in 1666 at Yellow ford.]
Dunno about the Z though,they dont feel pain,so would it be effective??

SmileyPaul

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

We grow our own native version of thorn hedges ,called Whitethorn!!
What our Shilleaghs used to be made out of.Grow fast are easily maintained ,a total evil bitch of a plant with 3in plus thorns,can be used for good firewood[,is definately man and horse proof as we proved in one battle against the English in 1666 at Yellow ford.]
Dunno about the Z though,they dont feel pain,so would it be effective??

sounds like a natural form of barbed wire to me, I dont think it would be effective in a way that it would ward off Z's but it may stop their progress allowing them to be taken care of.

question. where did you come from all of a sudden :P
are you actually max brooks? and why have you not been part of this forum for longer?

Grizzly 45

Oh..I've been here before awhile ago .:D

Just stayed in "silent running" mode

Some advice of mine on Improv weaponary was abit too realistic for the powers that be,and thats not the Mods or owners of boards.:eek:

So I just shut up,and watch most of the time.Find me mostly on the firearms section.:D