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Forests Are Growing Faster, Ecologists Discover; Climate Change Appears to Be Driving Acc'd Growth
ScienceDaily ^ | 2/2/10 | ScienceDaily

Posted on 02/03/2010 8:38:13 AM PST by Upstate NY Guy

ScienceDaily (Feb. 2, 2010) — Speed is not a word typically associated with trees; they can take centuries to grow. However, a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found evidence that forests in the Eastern United States are growing faster than they have in the past 225 years. The study offers a rare look at how an ecosystem is responding to climate change...

Sean McMahon discovered that, on average, the forest is growing an additional 2 tons per acre annually. That is the equivalent of a tree with a diameter of 2 feet sprouting up over a year.

Forests and their soils store the majority of the Earth's terrestrial carbon stock. Small changes in their growth rate can have significant ramifications in weather patterns, nutrient cycles, climate change and biodiversity. Exactly how these systems will be affected remains to be studied.

Parker and McMahon's paper focuses on the drivers of the accelerated tree growth. The chief culprit appears to be climate change, more specifically, the rising levels of atmospheric CO2, higher temperatures and longer growing seasons...

(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: co2; forests; globalwarming; science
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To: EggsAckley

>> My 30-acre redwood forest has grown much faster and healthier since we did selective thinning ten years ago. <<

All our national forests should be managed this way. It would cut down on forest fires and get timber to boot. Plus it would promote a healthy forest without fire.


41 posted on 02/03/2010 10:15:14 AM PST by GraceG
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To: Upstate NY Guy

Don’t forget, the trees that the paper and lumber industry cut down are replaced by “better” (genetically) trees and the forests are better-managed to promote growth. Bottom line, our forests in the USA are not only healthier than they were when the USA started, there are actually MORE forests. People have been brainwashed that they must “save a tree” ... came from the same crowd that thought banning DDT would “save the earth.” ( How many times can these people be “wrong” and still be “believable”???) As for the trees, if you depend on trees for your living, you don’t cut them down and move on, you replant, replace and take damned good care of them in the process.(Example keeping undergrowth thinned, resulting in less fires, hence more healthy trees). The result is a better, more productive forest ... more growth for the treas and for your tree-growing profits! The MONEY makes the environment better!!! Amazing isn’t it? :-)


42 posted on 02/03/2010 10:25:38 AM PST by ThePatriotsFlag (http://www.thepatriotsflag.com - The Patriot's Flag)
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To: Red Badger

“You watch Ax Men on History Channel?..................”

Yes, I have.
I actually like Swamp loggers better though.

I’m a Lumberjack....

is an old Monty Python song.


43 posted on 02/03/2010 10:33:31 AM PST by woodbutcher1963
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To: Upstate NY Guy

I notice that they jumped on “it’s the CO2” bandwagon immediately. The fact that the sun’s radiant output increased until about 2002 had nothing to do with it.


44 posted on 02/03/2010 10:37:00 AM PST by lafroste
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To: Red Badger

I don’t think I shall ever see
a sight as lovely as a tree.

A tree cut down for paper and wood
A tree cut down for the human good.

Think on that, Joyce Kilmer.


45 posted on 02/03/2010 10:39:52 AM PST by Don W (I only keep certain folks' numbers in my 'phone so I know NOT to answer when they call)
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To: Don W

He’s dead, Jim...............


46 posted on 02/03/2010 10:42:17 AM PST by Red Badger (Education makes people easy to lead, difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave.)
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To: GraceG

Our natioanl forests were managed up until the endangered species act gave the preservationists the spotted owl to use as a surragate to file injunctions to prevent timber sales.
Since then they have successfully used fish other threatened spieces of insects,etc. to stop logging, mining, dam construction, windmill,etc,etc.


47 posted on 02/03/2010 10:44:02 AM PST by woodbutcher1963
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To: woodbutcher1963

Artist: Stevens Ray
Song: The Haircut Song
Album: Box Set

When you get a haircut, be sure to go back home
When you get a haircut, get a barber you have known
Since you were a little bitty boy sittin’ in a booster chair
Or you might look like Larry, Moe or Curly if a stranger cuts your hair

Well, Butte, Montana just a’passin’ through, one thing I just had to do
Had to get a haircut and I was worried for my hair
I had a feeling of impending doom the minute I stepped into that room
And laid my eyes upon that barber chair

It was a macho barber shop. Hair dryers were mounted on a rifle rack.
Wasn’t no mirrors. The barber chair was a Peterbilt... Barber walked in;
he was huge, seven feet tall, three hundred pounds of spring steel and
rawhide. Wearin’ a hard hat, chewin’ a cigar, had a t-shirt on — said,
I hate musicians. Threw me in the chair, sneered and said, What’ll it
be pal? Now a lot of people would be intimidated in a situation like
this...I was not. I am what I am, play my piano, and sing my little
songs. I looked him right in the eye and I said, I’m a logger - just up
from Coos Bay, Oregon. Been toppin’ trees - quite possibly the toughest
man in the entire world. He said, All right! he gave me a haircut and
I walked out of there friends, my hair was gone! Made Kojak look like
Bill Golden. Yeah, had a tremendous craving to operate heavy equipment.
Now, you may think that Butte, Montana haircut’s the worst any man could
ever get...Wrong!

Well, a few months later I was in LA, truckin along on a smoggy day
I needed a haircut so bad I looked like Bozo the Clown
I was looking shaggy, not too good, I’d put it off as long as I could
And Lord, I hate to get a haircut out of town

Well, I walked in immediately and realized immediately that this guy was
into punk rock. The walls were done in black leather. Had chains and
whips and handcuffs hanging on me. Barber walked in, he had orange hair.
Black mascara. Stainless steel teeth. Black leather jacket with zinc
studs. He threw me in the chair, hit me a couple times - whap, whap -
chained me down, threw a Nazi flag over me. Said, I’m going to tell you
something that might make you a little nervous. I laughed. Ha ha
ha... I said, What could possibly make me nervous? He said, I’m
gay. Nooo problem. I’m not threatened in any way. I mean, I’m secure in
my manhood, everything is cool I am what I am, play my little piano,
sing my little songs. I looked him right in the eye. I said, I’m a
logger. Played football in high school. I was in the Marine Corps. He
said All right and he gave me a haircut. I walked out of there,
friends, my hair was purple. Well, at least that Mohawk section down the
middle was purple. Had a white streak down one side... other side looked
like Mr. T. Had a couple safety pins in my cheeks. Felt a teeeeny bit
conspicuous. Luckily, my next job was in San Fransisco. Shoot, I got
there and I didn’t even stand out at all. Wasn’t even close! Those
people thought I was an insurance salesman!

Well, a few months later, I was way down south, grits and gravy and hush
your mouth
Hair so long I’m startin’ to look like a man in drag
It was then that the sheriff walked up and said, Boy, you got too much
hair on your head...
You better get yourself a haircut or a dog tag!
Well, when I stepped into the shop, I realized immediately that I was
dealing with a born-again barber. Don’t see too many barber shops with a
steeple, had an organ in the corner, a choir. An usher led me to the
barber chair. Barber walked in, started saying grace, Oh Lord, for
these haircuts we are about to receive, may we be truly thankful.
Dominus possum pax probiscus, post mortem, et tu brute, puella
carborundum. He was sorta half-Baptist, half-Catholic... kind of a
Cathtist. He started cuttin’ my hair and preachin’ at the same time. I
mean he’s a wild man, scissors and razors a’flyin’ around my head, he’s
talkin’about the liquor and wild women and music and sex and the evils
of dancing and the music business in general. Then he looked down at me
and he said, What do you do for a living? Now, I’m not ashamed of what
I do for a livin’. Workin’ bars and casinos, around liquor and wild
women, I just play my piano, sing my little songs. I looked him right in
the eye and I said, I run this church for loggers...

When you get a haircut, be sure to go back home
When you get a haircut, get a barber you have known
Since you were a little bitty boy sittin’ in a booster chair
Or you might look like Larry, Moe or Curly if a stranger cuts your hair


48 posted on 02/03/2010 10:45:50 AM PST by Red Badger (Education makes people easy to lead, difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave.)
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To: EagleUSA

***Massive frauds do not apply to trees -— you cannot TAX THEM !!!!***

Yes you can! I pay timber tax on my property.

The Turks taxed the trees in the Middle East when they ruled it. everyone went out and cut down their trees so as not to have something to tax.


49 posted on 02/03/2010 10:53:59 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar (BHP man!)
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To: Red Badger

Soooo,

You don’t think my little additional verse would have been appreciated,

or you just didn’t like it,

or you think that Joyce Kilmer wouldn’t have liked it?

Ah, well, I suppose posterity will be the judge...

(LOL)


50 posted on 02/03/2010 10:54:29 AM PST by Don W (I only keep certain folks' numbers in my 'phone so I know NOT to answer when they call)
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To: EggsAckley

Fantastic! Yes, it is the best thing out there on Ecology. Of course, full disclosure reveals that I had a tiny hand in it by proof-reading. Please keep pushing it to everyone you know so it will get noticed by those who need to know.


51 posted on 02/03/2010 11:05:04 AM PST by WVNan (.)
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To: Don W

I liked it, I just posted The Haircut Song because it has a part about lumberjacks in it.............;^)


52 posted on 02/03/2010 11:15:30 AM PST by Red Badger (Education makes people easy to lead, difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave.)
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To: Lakeshark

If the EPA figures this out they will declare oxygen to be a pollutant next!


53 posted on 02/03/2010 12:09:06 PM PST by RipSawyer (Trying to reason with a leftist is like trying to catch sunshine in a fish net at midnight.)
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To: GreyFriar

Yeah, PC is a very recent invention.
Gaia is a 20th century goddess.


54 posted on 02/03/2010 12:10:10 PM PST by zot
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To: Upstate NY Guy; WL-law; Para-Ord.45; Desdemona; Little Bill; IrishCatholic; mmanager; ...
 


Beam me to Planet Gore !

55 posted on 02/03/2010 12:19:29 PM PST by steelyourfaith (FReepers were opposed to Obama even before it was cool to be against Obama.)
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To: PeterPrinciple

“Just talked with a college student awhile back on this and got a blank stare.”
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Talk to college GRADUATES about things that my generation was expected to learn in the first twelve years and you will get a lot of blank stares! Some of those blank stares will come concerning things we had to learn to get INTO high school.
I say this in a serious and very disheartened tone, not to belittle anyone but I really don’t think I have met a college grauate under the age of thirty in my area who would have a chance of passing the final exams from the public high schools of South Carolina for the year that I graduated. I am almost certain they would all flunk English, History and Biology and probably other subjects as well.


56 posted on 02/03/2010 12:24:38 PM PST by RipSawyer (Trying to reason with a leftist is like trying to catch sunshine in a fish net at midnight.)
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To: Upstate NY Guy

1 tree per acre per year. Is that runaway growth? Since trees utilize CO2, maybe we should plant a few more trees, instead of cap and tax, we could have plant and mulch.LOL


57 posted on 02/03/2010 12:28:16 PM PST by greeneyes (Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)
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To: greeneyes

1 tree per acre per year. Is that runaway growth?
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

That one tree is the increase for one year. I saw one report on this subject in which it was said that this represents a two to four hundred percent increase in growth rate for forests in the Eastern United States. If that is true then it actually does sound like runaway growth.


58 posted on 02/03/2010 12:43:22 PM PST by RipSawyer (Trying to reason with a leftist is like trying to catch sunshine in a fish net at midnight.)
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To: ThePatriotsFlag
That's right. Anybody familiar with tree harvesting understands it is a crop. It may take little more time to grow but it is no different than any other crop: plant, nurture, harvest.

I guess because people do not see trees reaching full height in a year they think there is some big difference.

59 posted on 02/03/2010 1:29:31 PM PST by Upstate NY Guy
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To: neverdem; AdmSmith; Berosus; bigheadfred; Convert from ECUSA; dervish; Ernest_at_the_Beach; ...

Probably because of those evil farmers and their chemical fertilizer runoff upstream.


60 posted on 02/03/2010 3:37:11 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Happy New Year! Freedom is Priceless.)
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