Its somewhat interesting that I don’t feel like I have time to work on writing anything lately. Even if there has been at least one interesting thing going on.

The other day a coworker gave me a article about tree’s being one of the best crops to grow simply because they are overall non destructive to the environment and create vast area’s of ecosystem under their canopy. Now I’d not thought about it in depth but what was said is entirely correct.

One such example that was stated involved the explosion of Mount St Hellens. Part of it was owned by a private timberland company who went in right after it, collected all the destroyed timber for close to 100,000 homes and planted two year old Douglas firs. Now also consider that all the heavy equipment also caused the ash to mix in with the nitrogen rich soil, which allows seedlings to have a fairly good chance of sprouting. Those tree’s are now over 20 feet tall and will be viable crop in 20 years. The other half that was created as a experiment by the government and left untouched is still quite bare.

That is actually a amazing example of how concerted efforts to provide proper forest management can do far better then anyone would expect. This now leads me back to my own family.

My grandfather was a logger for a good portion of his life, as was his father before him. Unlike a great portion of the loggers at the time, the didn’t clearcut area’s and leave them to become meadows where tree’s can’t spawn again. They selectively logged. One of the advantages of this is that it allowed sunlight to again penetrate the canopy and new growth tree’s could sprout and reach back up to the canopy. They were really ahead of their time in that respect.

Now, why would I talk about tree’s as much as I am. Simply because of the fact that wood doesn’t require a ton of added energy to do anything with it. To create steel requires a huge amount of effort and pollution. Tree’s absorb the pollution as they grow and then get used for heat, homes, paper, and furniture. Consider also the fact that 60% of the wood that is cut down is used for heating and cooking and you can see that its a very valuable resource.

So here’s something to consider..What would happen if we were to say remove some farmland that is used for grazing and convert it to a tree that would live in that area. It’d create quite a few acres of new forest land where many wildlife creatures would live. Its just a very interesting idea.

This then brings us to growth in general. As cities grow more area is covered with asphalt and concrete, those area’s become death zones for anything really. The illusion is created that its healthy and vibrant and that’s running in the other direction of what actually is happening. The growth of the area for nature becomes basically nil. I guess that could explain why I’ve always hated living in large cities.

Would like to thank Patrick Moore for his in depth article. I have paraphrased parts of his writings in this posting. You can find his site at http://www.greenspirit.com