next message in archive
next message in thread
previous message in archive
previous message in thread
Index of Subjects
> read that are dying all at once are white spruce (hit har <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head> <meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"/> </head><body style=""> <div> One lesson we get taught over and over again Donna is </div> <div> manufacturing electricity is not an environmental friendly activity. </div> <div> We went away from coal because of the effect on the environment </div> <div> and now we put up steel windmills which is made with coal. </div> <div> I saw an estimate where there are 2500 coal fueled power plants from the </div> <div> drawing board to start of production in the world. And then look at the Made in China </div> <div> stickers on whatever in the stores. And we don't burn coal! </div> <div> Each change is hyped as wonderful only to discover latter that is not </div> <div> the case. Look at the tidal plant at Annapolis - was it worth eliminating </div> <div> one of the few spawning areas of the Striped Bass for the electricity it produces? </div> <div> Learn  a bit from this so the next scheme will have more questions. </div> <div> Enjoy the January thaw - at least it cut s down on fuel! </div> <div> Paul </div> <div>   </div> <div> <br/>> On January 10, 2016 at 10:43 PM Donna Crossland <dcrossland@eastlink.ca> wrote: <br/>> <br/>> <br/>> There is no whole-tree harvesting allowed on Crown lands. Bob Bancroft and <br/>> I suggested this be enacted back in 2010 during the Natural Resources <br/>> Strategy, and it may be one of the very few good things (sadly) that stemmed <br/>> from our work. But as we know, Crown land is a very small portion of the <br/>> province. Private lands are where the atrocities are presently occurring, <br/>> and there is an increasing focus on how to convince private land holders to <br/>> relinquish their wood. <br/>> <br/>> Foresters have been ordered to go and find suitable private lands for "full <br/>> tree" harvesting for some companies. The criteria are deplorably low and <br/>> devastating on the ecology of the land. Search for lands that are at least <br/>> 50 % treed (species not important, but hardwood is best for most operations) <br/>> that are 4 inches in diameter (DBH) or greater. (Teeny, tiny trees, in <br/>> other words.) <br/>> <br/>> Our Nova Scotia forests are being cut long before maturity and long before <br/>> they are allowed to recover and grow to the next successional stage. <br/>> "Stands" of grey/wire birch (barely meet the criteria of a "stand") are <br/>> being mowed down; this little tree which generally indicates past abuses <br/>> wherever it grows by its very nature is never allowed to 'heal the land' or <br/>> restore soil, as is part of its natural ecological role. The flattening of <br/>> such stands resets the land to the same early successional stage. Other <br/>> stand types are also being cut using the same criteria. Yellow birch, sugar <br/>> maple, no matter-all sent through the chipper. It doesn't matter if it's <br/>> green or brown biomass. There are no laws for private. I sometimes lie <br/>> awake at night during springtime and wonder how many bird nests and young <br/>> are being sent through the chipper while we sleep (operations go all night <br/>> and day, no matter the season in the mad dash for the last pitiful grab). <br/>> <br/>> The tops of some of the softwoods, if present in the stand during a full <br/>> tree chipping operation, may be taken back out to the site and scattered <br/>> around. The goal is not environmental so much as to please the buyer who <br/>> wants mainly hardwood chips for industrial pellets overseas. And other wood, <br/>> of course is going to the Port Hawkesbury burner. Biomass burners are <br/>> starting to pop up here and there elsewhere in NS, too. (We no longer grow <br/>> trees to saw log size, and no new saw log mills have been started up for <br/>> ages.) <br/>> <br/>> Companies such as Reeves out of New Ross puts most of their cut through the <br/>> chipper. Chips are going to Sheet Harbour and from there I am not certain <br/>> to where. I know that several years ago, some operations were quietly <br/>> shipping wood chips across the Atlantic to biomass burners in Europe so they <br/>> could state they were generating 'green energy'. It would be laughable if <br/>> it were not so sad. <br/>> <br/>> I am happy to see this topic being focussed upon by the naturalist <br/>> community, and I am grateful to Jamie Simpson's research into biomass. This <br/>> is a very important subject, and one that our current politicians would not <br/>> disagree with. More that I would like to share with folks on that later, <br/>> but there is another item or two that I would like to address before bed- <br/>> <br/>> About thinning: What I've been reading in this thread is an old school, <br/>> 'agronomist' perspective still widely taught in forestry, and a strongly <br/>> held mantra with foresters, but one not generally adopted by <br/>> biologists/ecologists/naturalists who are taught to think more broadly on <br/>> the incredible complexities of forest ecology. Thinning trees is done <br/>> mostly to speed up growth and yields. The objective to cut down trees <br/>> sooner. There are stacks of research papers