"Forget the lost city of Atlantis. All over the world are very real lost forests, standing exactly where they were when they were flooded by hydro dams, their roots still implanted in what becomes lakebeds, their spooky treetops poking through the surface.
Until now, they stood as old-growth reminders of our need and greed for hydroelectric power. But a British Columbia company has an appropriately Jules Vernean business proposition to ensure that they are not lost forever.
Using what amounts to the world's first logging submarine, called a Sawfish, Triton Logging Co. Inc. has devised a way to dive to the base of the trees, cut them, float them to the surface and mill them."
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"Mr. Godsall believes that every time he can cut a tree underwater, he saves another tree.
He figures that in B.C. alone, that means saving about 20 million trees. "If you were to cut 50,000 board feet a day -- and that's a lot of wood -- 365 days a year, it would take you about 200 years to log it. We think B.C. is 1 per cent of the global resource.""
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"As for consumers buying the wood on the other end, Mr. Godsall says that if given the choice, they will choose wood that is completely reclaimed and was not an indigenous habitat for any animals. It just so happens that submerged wood is considered very high-quality. Mr. Godsall says wood that has been underwater for decades is old-growth and is cured of volatile organic compounds, such as turpentine. "We're still doing research about the benefits to the wood from being underwater, but we know that groups in Japan, for instance, are actually buying wood and sinking it to cure underwater."
This is all counterintuitive, of course. We think wood plus water equal rot. But absent oxygen, water, even in warm climates, is an excellent preservative.
For example, logs salvaged from Lake Superior that were submerged 100 years ago are bigger and better than lots of trees available now, Mr. Bryan says. "If it's been in a cold, anaerobic environment, the timber can be in good condition for quite a long period of time.""
-- William T Goodall Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/
Misuse of IMPs leads to strange, difficult-to-diagnose bugs. - Anguish et al. "Cocoa Programming"
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