Well, I know that pine, being a fast-growing wood, is a highly renewable forest product, but I wondered about the manner in which it is done. I have worked live-tree farms & "boutique" timber in the Northern climate, and that is highly compatible with orchid habitat.
There is a good passage in Rachel Carson's "The Sea Around Us" in which she describes the deforestation of some islands by goats. The mature trees of course die off one at a time, and the goats were left there by sailors (English used to supply their shipping lanes with fresh meat this way). The goats were eating young seedlings, and so the island was deforrested by attrittion and never recovered. There was a lot of detail at the meeting today that will be rebroadcast on Austin's city cable channel and streamed live at their website this weekend. Extremely interesting stuff: http://www.cityofaustin.org/channel6/ and I am going to pick up a citizen's copy of the program asap. I suggest everyone who has that privilege do the same, because I am not sure if a person outside the city can request one, and I think other cities are considering this same type of plant. (possibly you need just an Austin library card or voter registration, I don't know, since I never needed a copy before) Today they covered how the plant will be built, what it will burn, how it will harvest, etc and so I imagine that the info is relevant to any and all such plants. What I saw of concern to the habitat is related to the goat thing that Carson described so many years ago, except that of course responsible forestry would leave the young trees. But I think that would have to be done "boutique timber" style and this plant must surely be relying on something that will bulk-harvest. Some orchids actually do well in distrubed soil, so it really is a topic requiring more specialized knowledge of both species needs and logging techniques. On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 7:27 PM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Message: 2 > Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 07:56:31 -0400 > From: "Gareth Wills" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: [OGD] Texas biomass plants > To: <orchids@orchidguide.com> > Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > Logging of short and long-leaf pines in the South has been going on for > probably more than a century. It's not unusual to see convoys of logging > trucks speeding along the countryside state roads. Any sensible person > keeps > their distance from these behemoths. It's not common but there are > incidents > of a truck losing its load of massive trunks onto the road or even > unsuspecting motorists. But I don't know what the rest of the country would > do for pine lumber or pulpwood for paper products. The site where the trees > were harvested looks like a war zone when the harvesting machines are done. > The tops of the trees and all the limbs are shot through grinders and left > on the ground to rot. This does have a good effect of enriching the > otherwise rather poor southern soils. The land may have been planted > specifically with this in mind and the trees grown as a rotational crop, in > which case the land is replanted immediately with new seedlings. The land > may be privately or corporately owned. The land could also be harvested > from > a private owner who just decided to harvest his forest. This is not usually > replanted. But here in the South, the line of succession progresses rapidly > from war zone through dominance of various shrubs and pioneer trees, on up > to the pines. In drier areas, this is the end of the line. Natural fires > keep hardwood seedlings from even starting. > > Some by products may be reclaimed during the processing of this valuable > resource but a good deal is not. It wasn't too long ago that processing > pulp > was a smelly, polluting business and could be smelled miles away. The > waterways struggled to recycle the waste. But the mills have cleaned up > their act considerably. But still a large portion of the wood harvest is > wasted. Add to this the waste from small lumber harvest companies and > independent contractors who remove problem trees storm damaged trees from > private owners and municipalities. Useable lumber is hauled away to sell at > the mill while the contractors search for more space to dump the huge piles > of ground up waste. > > I can't see any problem with using this waste or even growing crop trees to > feed biomass generators. The piles of unused branches and leafy portions > that are deemed 'unusable' will release carbon dioxide as they decompose > anyway. These huge piles of unwanted waste won't mar the countryside if > there's a good use for them. And the land recycles quickly whether helped > by > man or not. > > There may be some negative issues involved here which should be addressed. > But I think that the idea as a whole should be approached with a positive > attitude and deal with the problems individually rather than the other way > around. > > Gary > > > > ------------------------------ > _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) orchids@orchidguide.com http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
