26-02-2012, 11:40 AM
Hello Col, growing fast growing trees has been going on since the formation of the Fortestry Comission just after WW1, the problem is that none of the governments have put any serious money in providing a nation wide infrastructure to take the produce to a suitable power generating system. In my own case: I go down the woods which is mainly plantation grown Sitka Spruce and fell a few trees for firewood for ourselves, there is arguably as much potential energy in all the brash (branches etc) that come off the tree than there is in the main stem (firewood) itself. to use all the brash for potential power/heat generation would be self defeating as a certain amount needs to be left on the forest floor for decomposition to feed the soil but as a guess I would say that 75% could be taken away for potential energy use, the nations plantation woodlands are virtually self sustaining. It annoys me when people think that by not buying paper or newspaper etc they are saving the forests...they are not, in fact they are helping there demise...there is an old saying in the wood game "A wood that pays is a wood that stays" Our forestry standards are one of the best in the world, we should make more use of them, anyone who has used a cut beam of straight home grown Douglas Fir or Larch can tell what an asset we have. Remember forest are only cleared for one of two reasons, land to grow food on (or poss bio oils) and land to build on, both are short sighted in my opinion and it reflects collectively what a greedy power hungry society we have become, we are not doing our future decendants any favours.
Lawrence.
Lawrence.
