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> read that are dying all at once are white spruce (hit har
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One lesson we get taught over and over again Donna is
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manufacturing electricity is not an environmental friendly activity.
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We went away from coal because of the effect on the environment
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and now we put up steel windmills which is made with coal.
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I saw an estimate where there are 2500 coal fueled power plants from the
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drawing board to start of production in the world. And then look at the Made in China
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stickers on whatever in the stores. And we don't burn coal!
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Each change is hyped as wonderful only to discover latter that is not
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the case. Look at the tidal plant at Annapolis - was it worth eliminating
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one of the few spawning areas of the Striped Bass for the electricity it produces?
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Learn  a bit from this so the next scheme will have more questions.
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Enjoy the January thaw - at least it cut s down on fuel!
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Paul
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<br/>> On January 10, 2016 at 10:43 PM Donna Crossland <dcrossland@eastlink.ca> wrote:
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<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