Sustainable Forestry Archives - Page 4 of 4

Hidden Celtic Cross Emerges in Aerial Views of Eastern White Pine Forest

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Jeff Easterling

eastern white pine celtic cross forest

Six years after the death of its creator, a beautiful living work of art comprised of Eastern White Pine trees has emerged from a forest in Ireland. Airline passengers flying into the City of Derry Airport were the first to notice the dramatic display this fall, as the lighter-colored symbol emerged from its darker-hued surroundings. Measuring an amazing 330 feet long by 210 feet wide, the installation in County Donegal is located on the land of Irish forester Liam Emmery.

Before it got noticed and became international news, the cross had been entirely forgotten, with Emmery’s family saying they didn’t even realize it was there. Drone pilots got closer views of the planting, seen in the footage above. This kind of horticultural engineering lasts much longer than a lot of other kinds of land-based art, and the results will be visible for 60-70 years.

“If he was here, we’d all have heard about it because he’d be so proud,” his wife Norma told ITV. “He just loved things to be perfect, and I think the Celtic cross is perfect for him.”

How Can Timber Help Combat Climate Change? Case Study Confirms Benefits

Posted on August 31, 2016 by Jeff Easterling

michael green

The immediate sustainability benefits of timber compared to steel and concrete, the two other widest-used building materials, are pretty obvious. Most people are already aware that wood is the only one of the three that’s renewable, and that it’s able to trap literal tons of carbon from the atmosphere, absorbing it for the duration of its lifetime so it doesn’t accumulate in the atmosphere. When it’s time for it to be replaced, wood can be reused in all sorts of creative ways, including reclamation as floorboards and furniture, before it is finally burned as fuel. And finally, timber requires far less energy in its extraction and recycling processes than steel and concrete. But for a long time, strict limits on the height of wooden buildings has kept timber from meeting its full potential.

That could all change very soon as wooden skyscrapers get green lights around the world, and studies are enacted to confirm even more benefits to using timber as a primary building material. One example is a recent life-cycle analysis on how timber can help combat climate change through the construction of compact wooden cities sourced from well-managed sustainable forests. Forest management in the European Union is leading the way to show it’s possible to produce more forest than what’s being harvested, and an integrated modern operation using today’s advanced timber technology can ensure that the benefits of carbon absorption outweigh any hazards of over-harvesting.

fujimoto

An article by Eduardo Wiegand on ArchDaily goes into the details, explaining how incentivizing the use of timber in construction could catch on and lead to a sustainable architecture revolution of sorts. “It is a fact that dense cities are significantly more sustainable than sprawling cities; therefore one path to more sustainable forms of living might be the planning and regulation of compact wooden cities,” says Wiegand.

“…the challenges of global warming and emissions of CO2 could be solved partially though the densification of cities using timber as the primary material of construction. In order to achieve this, structural systems and timber-based products must continue to develop, and the forestry industry should be prepared to respond to a higher demand for wood in the future, which can be achieved by increasing the productivity and efficiency of the extraction of this renewable resource.”

Lumber and Sons: White Pine Monographs Chronicle Family-Owned Mills

Posted on May 6, 2016October 21, 2021 by Jeff Easterling

Continuing the tradition that began over a century ago, the Northeastern Lumber Manufacturers Association presents modern-day editions of the White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs, a publication promoting the use of white pine as a building material. While many of the older issues focus on Colonial architecture in the Northeast, others put the spotlight on the material itself, and the people who make it available to the world. In Volume XXX, Issue II, published in 2011, we get to meet the families that run several mills, including Robbins Lumber Company and Pleasant River Lumber.

NeLMA visited with these families and spoke to them about their passion for forestry, their sustainability practices, and how they manage transition to keep up with the changing times. Jim Robbins, for example, is a steward of the land his family owns, ensuring that both the forests and his business remain healthy. They’ve got 30,000 acres under their direct management, with 130 years of family experience. Says Jim, “You give the best soils, the best seed stock, the best management techniques and hopefully we will come out with the best pine product in the end.”

The Brochu Brothers are the fourth generation to run Pleasant River Lumber, a 100% family-owned Maine business producing over 100 million board feet of spruce dimensional lumber and Eastern White Pine annually. While the brothers initially went their own way after college, choosing not to enter the family business, they ultimately returned, bringing fresh ideas with them.

Read the whole story in this issue of the White Pine Monographs.

Maine Timber Industry Growing Despite Paper Mill Closures

Posted on May 1, 2016 by Jeff Easterling

The forest industry remains a crucial element in Maine’s economy despite the recently announced closure of Madison Paper Industries, which will result in the loss of 215 jobs. According to the Maine Forest Products council, the forestry industry pours about $5 billion into the state’s economy each year, and sawmills are bustling day in an day out as the demand for timber continues its upswing.

Though foreign competition, wood prices and startup capital have thrown a wrench in the industry’s recovery from the 2008 economic recession, the outlook is good. At Kennebec Lumber, which produces about 60 percent of its lumber and hardwood flooring from local trees, business has grown 10 to 15 percent over the last eight years.

“Our sawmills are fairly healthy,” says Patrick Starch, executive director of the Maine Forest Products Council. “They’ve invested millions during tough economic times, so they’re all looking for housing starts to improve. The housing market has gradually been improving, but we’re ready for an upsurge, and that’s going to e reflected in people feeling better about the economy.”

Biomass facilities and pellet plants in Maine have struggled to compete with low gas and oil prices over the last mild winter, but again, the long-term outlook is good. Biomass accounts for 60 percent of Maine’s renewable energy portfolio, and without healthy markets for it, low-grade wood and sawmill residue would clog the state’s forests or landfills.

Forest Facts: Sustainably Forestry Benefits in Infographic Form

Posted on April 1, 2016 by Jeff Easterling

Sustainable forestry pays off, not just in slowing climate change and restoring ecosystems, but by creating jobs and wealth around the world. 1.3 billion people depend on forests for employment, financial benefits and the wood products they produce, and forested watersheds and wetlands supply a whopping 75% of the world’s accessible freshwater while acting as natural air filters. These two infographics from the World Bank sum up these and other benefits to sustainable, responsible forest management, explaining why it’s so crucial.

For example, did you know that carbon emissions from land clearing outweigh those of the entire global transport sector? Sustainable forestry gives landowners a strong financial incentive to continuously replant their land and practice other techniques that maintain vital tracts of wooded land that might otherwise be sold and cleared for development.

Standing forests absorb greenhouse gases and also build more resilient landscapes by regulating water flow, improving soil, protecting coastal communities from extreme weather events and providing migratory corridors for plant and animal species. GreenBiz.com has a rundown on how sustainable forestry can be a crucial part of a billion-dollar carbon removal industry.

Top photo: Wikimedia Commons

Forest Facts: Cutting Down Trees Isn’t (Always) a Bad Thing

Posted on July 15, 2014 by Jeff Easterling

It can seem like a terrible shame to cut down a strong, healthy tree – and often, it is. There are certainly times when mature trees are cut down for no good reason, or without any sort of plan to properly replace them. But the perception that cutting down trees is always bad just isn’t true. In fact, when properly managed, the process of growing and harvesting trees is an important part of a sustainable future for humans, wildlife and the environment.

The most important reason for this is very simple: trees are a renewable resource, and provide essential raw material for thousands of products, including wood, paper and even lumber byproducts that can be burned for energy. The fact is, wood is simply more sustainable than many other materials, to the point that it’s experiencing a major revival in even the largest-scale architecture and construction all over the world.

Unlike other raw materials, wood is easy and efficient to reproduce, especially fast-growing species like Eastern White Pine. Avoiding the devastating deforestation often associated with logging all comes down to sustainable methods of forestry, which meet the needs of the present without harming wildlife or the environment or compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable forestry methods outline long-term plans to ensure biodiversity in forests and regeneration capacity for decades or centuries to come.

In managed forests, the trees are younger and healthier, with care taken to ensure that they don’t become infested with pests or taken over by invasive species. Many people don’t know that young trees actually capture more carbon from the atmosphere and produce more oxygen than their old growth counterparts, helping to combat climate change.

Supporting sustainably produced wood and paper products also helps keep more land forested, since it provides an economic incentive not to cut trees down to make way for agricultural, residential or commercial usage of the land.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons