sparing the air

Kathleen Sayce ksayce@willapabay.org
Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:35:26 PST
I live in one of the great carbon fixing and storage areas of the  
world, the Pacific Northwest Coastal Temperate Rainforest Biome,  
which is a wordy way to say conifer trees grow really well here. And  
we are well outside any urban areas and on the coast, so have no  
indoor fire restrictions, unlike California, or even Puget Sound. So  
yes, much firewood is being cut up right now. We have not completely  
burned the firewood that resulted from storms in December 2007; there  
is rather a lot of downed wood around this area.
Part of the problem is that the commonest tree around homes here is  
Pinus contorta var. contorta, AKA beach or shore pine. It's a well  
known thug tree elsewhere in the world, grows fast, starts  
reproducing when young, has brittle wood, and has a short life. Put a  
brittle aging pine in a 90 mph wind, and it's going to break apart or  
pull out of the ground. The 50-80 year old pines are coming down all  
over, rather like humans.
Kathleen


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