It is amazing how some of the oldest practices are actually some of the best for production and management.<<<
Yes, I agree with you.
LOL, but get the young to believe you.
It has to be better, if it is new, that is the message the tv has given them, so they think it is true.
I am finding more and more of the greenie/liberal sites are looking for the old information and it is beginning to sound like the hippies have been reborn, only these are not in a
VW Van, they want a garden and roots.
So the cycles go.
Just as Mother Nature planned.
>>>It has to be better, if it is new, that is the message the tv has given them, so they think it is true.<<<
LOL, they are now ‘discovering’ SRC... Short Rotation Cropping.
Well, that is what they are calling that ‘NEW’ practice of getting 10-15 tons of wood per acre per year...
SRC is the ‘buzzword’ to replace that outdated ‘coppice’ that has been around for so long that it has been forgotten in most parts...
CB - you asked what coppice is, well it is the cutting of trees just above the ground and letting them send up shoots from the roots that are already established. They grow much faster than seedlings as they have a massive established root system already. This reduces erosion and produces much more wood from a given space. Poplars, Willows, Chestnuts, Maples, Oaks, Gum and other trees will send out new shoots from the root. Conifers which we plant by the gillions do not...
Some of the ancient coppiced forests have root systems up to about 30’ in diameter and continue to produce.
I particularly like the hybrid poplars as they grow about 8 feet even in the first year... They can be used at almost every stage of growth. Several of the pulp wood processors are now planting thousands of acres of the poplars in the Pacific NorthWest for paper making - they are working to biologically ferment the wood for biofuel, and also plants are being built now to pyralize the wood for biogas production.
Sometimes we have to use the jargon of the day - Phytoremediation, Carbon Sequestration, Carbon Neutral, Reparian Buffers, and all those other terms that the ‘greenies’ seem to value... I call it common sense conservation.