by Michael Smith, RFA
High gas and heating oil prices are renewing the interest on firewood from local forests
The German NGO Wald in Not regards the use of wood as renewable energy source as an important contributor to the care and conservation of our local woodlands and forests.
Wood is “stored solar energy”. It is produced in our woodlands and forests by means of energy from the sun, carbon dioxide, water and the nutrients that are soluble in water and are carried in it.
Heating with wood means therefore heating with the cycle of nature. The carbon dioxide that is being released by the process of burning the wood is by means of the energy of the sun absorbed by the growing trees and returned into the growing wood. This wood is then once again available as new raw material. The CO2 that is being released by burning the wood would also be released if this wood would be allowed to rot and decay in the woods.
The wood used for firewood is that wood that has no other commercial value, in other words wood that is not suitable for building lumber or as timber for the making of furniture, for example. If it would not be burned for heat it would rot away in the woods. Firewood is also created as a byproduct, so to speak, in the production of high value timber in forests and hence is available in sufficient volume in properly manages forests and woodlands.
Wood as a fuel is extremely environmentally friendly:
- because its production is simple and uses little energy
- the transport distances for wood are generally short
- the storage of firewood does not endanger the environment
The use of wood for fuel, as firewood, from local forests and woodlands ensures the necessary care and conservation of the woodlands and forest through the forestry companies and the state or private forest estates, as it improves their economic situation.
The care and thinning of the forests and woodlands is an urgent and necessary preventitive measure against the changes in the environment and the climate. In order to counter those we must reconstruct and convert our woodlands and forests into stable mixed woodlands with a broad spectrum of trees that are right for the soil and area.
Modern wood heating system that are properly installed, managed and maintained retain in comparison with other energy systems a firm position and also fulfil the regulations for clean air.
In conjunction with solar-thermal installation for the production of hot water – solar collectors – modern wood burning furnaces constitutes the ideal combination for use of renewable energy sources to provide a good insulated so-called low energy home with heat.
© M Smith (Veshengro), September 2008
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November 8 is Day of Action “Save our Horse Chestnuts”
by Michael Smith
A nasty parasite is already for a number of years been plaguing the white-flowering Horse Chestnut. In Germany this pest has now reached all areas and also in Britain it is spreading like wild fire. From its arrival in 2001/2002 in the Wimbledon area of South London it has now spread to most parts of Southern Britain.
This parasite is bringing an early autumn to our beloved Horse Chestnut, the tree that brings fun and games to the children of the British Isles, in the form of the conker game (as long as the schools and authorities try not to ban it) and simply collecting the chestnuts. As children we also made little animals and people and little baskets out of the conkers. In August already all the leaves have dried out and it looks like Fall has arrived.
The parasite responsible for this, the Horse Chestnut leaf miner moth (Cameraria ohridella), has no natural enemies, neither in Germany nor in the British Isles. It was always said that a wet summer and wet winters would kill the moth and the eggs of the moth that overwinter in the fallen leaves but, alas, this does not seem to happen for the last two summers in Britain were very wet and the moth still has caused great damage again in 2008. Despite intensive research no antidote has as yet been found against this damaging insect.
The until now only effective countermeasure against it is to collect all the fallen leaves as soon as possible and to burn them in a sanitary way. This is the only way to prevent that the eggs of the moth that overwinter in the fallen leaves turn into larvae.
In Germany the Schutzgemeinschaft Deutscher Wald calls already now for a number of years upon communities and cities to take part in the collection action and to encourage their residents to take part in this.
The city of Essen in North-Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) is leading the way here in that sacks are provided free of charge for residents to be able to collect the leaves, which are then collected by the municipality and burned in a waster incinerating heating plant.
Those communes that have been taking part in this action of collecting of fallen leaves for a number of years now can prove that it works in that their Horse Chestnuts are once again green until at the right time in late autumn.
Collecting and burning the fallen leaves is the only way to rid ourselves of this pest that so badly affects our Horse Chestnut.
While the Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner Moth not necessarily causes the death of the trees it will, over time, however, weaken the trees and allow other pathogens and parasites to destroy the trees.
© M Smith (Veshengro), September 2008
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by Michael Smith (Veshengro), RFA
An old growth forest, ancient or primary forest or ancient woodland, is a woodland of great age that exhibits unique biological features. Depending on tree species and forest type, the age can be from 150 to 500 years.
Old growth forests typically contain a mixture of large live and dead trees or "snags", while unharvested fallen tree logs in various states of decay litter the forest floor.
Foresters and botanists use certain criteria to determine old growth forests. Sufficient age and minimal disturbance is necessary to be classified as old growth. The characteristics of old-growth forest include the presence of older trees, minimal signs of human disturbance, mixed-age stands, canopy openings due to tree falls, pit-and-mound topography, downed and decaying wood, standing snags, multi-layered canopies, intact soils, a healthy fungal ecosystem, and presence of indicator species.
Second growth forest are forests regenerated after harvests or severe disruptions like fire, storms or insects is often referred to as a second-growth forest or regeneration until a long enough period has passed that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident. Depending on the forest, to become old growth again may take anywhere from a century to several millennia.
Old growths forests are extremely important as old growth forests are often rich communities of great biodiversity harboring wide varieties of plants and animals. These species must live under stable conditions free from severe disturbance. Some of these creatures are rare.
The age of the oldest trees in an ancient forest indicates that destructive events over a long period were of moderate intensity and did not kill all the vegetation. Some suggest that old growth forests are carbon "sinks" that lock up carbon and help prevent global warming.
As said earlier, the characteristics of old-growth forest include the presence of older trees, minimal signs of human disturbance and therefore in Britain and much of Europe there are no real “ancient woodlands” and this despite the fact that many misguided and ill-informed environmentalists claim that there are. The great majority of all those forests and woodlands have been touched by human hands and many until not so long ago. All the woodlands often referred to as thus are in fact old coppice woodlands that have been worked up until the 1950's and cannot every return by itself to Nature.
Only at the border between Poland and Belarus there is a more or less primeval forest containing the last herds of European bison. Further in the East then, behind the Urals, there it is possible to find real ancient forests and woodlands. All other European woods and forests have, however, at one time or the other, often well into the not so distant future, been worked by man for human benefit.
The previously mentioned coppice woodlands of Southern England, for instance, if left to “return to Nature”, as is being demanded by those environmentalists that have no knowledge of forestry, will simply fall apart. Without man's intervention the thousand to fifteen hundred year old coppice stools will simple break apart and that will be the end then of those woods.
For this very reason, e.g. the fact that unless those coppice woodlands will break apart – literally – if not worked in the next couple of years again by woodsmen and underwoodsmen. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that the use of those woodlands as productive woodlands would be re-initiated. Now would be a good time to start. The coppice stools will otherwise, if not coppiced again in the next couple of years, literally break apart and that will be the end of the trees and of the woodlands.
While it is often thought that ONLY old growth forests are carbon "sinks" that lock up carbon and help prevent global warming but in a way all forests, ancient and more modern, contribute towards the prevention of climate change. The term “global warming” is rather misleading nowadays as the warming, in fact, stopped about seven years ago and plateaued out and has remained at the same level ever since. Climate will, nevertheless, still change until the temperatures will fall again, as they have always been doing in this cyclic changes the Earth seems to be going through every 1000 or so years.
© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008
Two new Makita high technology chainsaws are being launched to meet the demand from the rapid growth in ownership of chainsaws in the 30-45cc range.
The Makita DCS3501 and DCS4301 “Compact Class” saws feature easy starting, single switch choke, on/off safety control, ultra-low vibration rating and long service, easy maintenance reliability.
The new DCS3501 has a 34.7cc 2-stroke engine which develops 2.1hp and is available with either 35cm or 40cm bar.
The DCS4301 saw has a 42.4cc engine with 2.8hp and 35cm, 40cm or 45cm bar and .325” microlite chain.
“These brilliant new compact chainsaws are now available with all the advantages of the new design. They really are a major step forward on anything else on the market,” says Mark Earles, Makita’s OPE sales manager. “Our dealers are going to have a sales bonanza with these new machines. They are designed to deliver the top professional chainsaw features but at a price that the grown-up domestic user wants.
by Michael Smith (Veshengro), RFA
Seeing the impact the so-called “Credit Crunch” appears to be having on the finances on the individual, and not the individual alone, and also the rising costs of food and gasoline, it is my opinion that we shall, beginning with the year 2008, see the return to people taking their vacation more at home than at resorts or abroad.
Parks and Open Spaces will, I am sure, be more in use this summer, that is to say 2008, and if the money situation is anything to go by, also in years to come.
With the rising fuel costs and the increase of the general cost of living, from food to taxes, people are going to be turning the penny around a few times before they are going to spend it. Therefore, vacation at home may just be the result. Those that have a nice home and a nice garden I have never been able to understand as to why they would, not only spend the money, but the time and effort, to travel abroad for a for a few weeks holiday and then return more exhausted than when they left.
I remember before the times of the package holidays and the cheap flights to all over the world that people vacationed at home, in their own gardens, or those in the urban areas on their allotments, or went for a day or so to the seaside, and such. Others, especially the working classes that had the funds had a caravan by the seaside or some hitched up a caravan and went on holiday travelling about. Yet again others went on cycling tours with tent, including with their children. But even caravanning probably is out with the rise of fuel costs.
People who could not afford to go away or did not want to stayed, as said, at home in their own gardens, if they had such, or on their allotments, or went to the local parks and open spaces as much as possible.
Seeing the current economic climate, in the United Kingdom as much as in the United States and elsewhere, with the rising cost of living, of fuel, of food, of everything it would seem, it is more and more likely now that with the summer of 2008 we may just see a beginning of the “stay at home” holidays again.
Not a bad thing either, I am sure. Aside from saving money the local parks and open spaces will, once again, see a real resurgence of and in use and the powers that be might then be more reluctant to even think of getting rid off parks and open spaces. The other good thing of the “stay at home” vacations is the fact that such holidays put less of an impact on the environment (do take your litter home with you from your visit to the park and the woods please) in that there is less fuel used, and that aside from the money that is being saved. This saved money, or at least part of it, can then be spent in the local economy, at home.
Aside from the Parks and the Open Spaces in preparation for the “stay at home” vacations the garden centers and such stores will, I am sure, also find a lot of people visiting.
Allotments finally could find takers again as well. While in some parts of this country there is a waiting list for allotments in other parts, such as in some of the London Boroughs and other areas you cannot give a plot away. Entire allotment garden areas lie empty and overgrown. What a possibility for a real nice garden colony where to spend one's vacation close to home.
The Parks Departments and their staff will, in times like this if and when people will vacation at home, as just might happen this year, have their work cut out as, aside from the good people visiting parks in such instances, there are also always those that have to misbehave. On the other hand the simple pressure that an influx of a great number of people – more people that there have been for ages – puts onto the Parks and Park Staff will mean that, at times, litter may not be removed from areas as fast as people might like.
Again here the admonishment to all: Please, as far as possible, take your refuse home with you and do not leave it in the countryside or the park. If a litter bin is full do not put your bags of litter on top. It gets blown off, or taken off by wildlife, and scattered all over the area.
During the hot spells do not light or barbecues in parks, open spaces or woodlands. Aside from the fact that in most cases this is against the laws or bylaws it is also a fire hazard.
Leave wildlife alone and no, Bambi is not abandoned. His mother will be back soon. Do not touch him. If you do his mother may definitely abandon him and he will die.
Aside from this: enjoy your holiday in the parks and open spaces in our towns and our countryside, but please follow the Countrycode.
A “stay at home” holiday, with visits to the local parks and open spaces, as well as the local attractions – and there are more than you might think, regardless where you may live – is much more beneficial to you, and not just in respect to your pocketbook, as well as to Mother Nature (as long as you respect Her when you are out and about in the countryside during such a “stay at home” vacation.
Save money and reduce your environmental footprint (I refuse to call it carbon footprint or CO2 footprint) and have a relaxing time by having a “Holiday at Home”.
© M Smith (Veshengro), May 2008
Motorcyclists and mountain bikers are destroying a prehistoric monument and environmentally sensitive sites in "ancient" woodland in Cornwall.
By Michael Smith (Veshengro), RFA
For the second year running, bikers have been wreaking havoc by riding their vehicles off-track in Kilminorth Woods, West Looe, which is designated as an Area of Great Landscape Value and a Local Nature Reserve.
Owned and managed by Caradon District Council, the 45ha site lies along the western bank of the West Looe River and is South East Cornwall’s largest primeval oak woods.
Until recently, Kilminorth Woods offered a largely undisturbed habitat for many different species of wildlife and plants. Last year mountain bikers, who are permitted to use the bridleway through the woods, began using the area for off-road biking, building several large ramps and causing substantial damage to ancient woodland’s fragile environment.
The district council removed the ramps, but the bikers are back in force this year. Trial bikers have also recently taken to using the woods – even though motorcycles are prohibited from the area – causing much more serious damage to the woods and creating a hazard for walkers.
Councillor Margaret Allen, Caradon’s local environment portfolio holder, said: “During the past year I’ve made many visits across Caradon to see our woodland sites, play parks and nature reserves, but my recent trip to Kilminorth Woods was the saddest.
“The bikers have built substantial wood and earth ramps, gouging trenches in the floor of the woods for their construction and churning up the earth where they ride their bikes off-track.
"They are destroying the lichens, mosses and ferns for which the woods are known and disturbing the habitat of small creatures such as voles, insects and nesting birds. Deer and badgers are also being affected, and one bike track passes close to an established badger sett.
“Worse still, the bikers have deliberately dug out sections of the Giant’s Hedge to form tracks. There can be no excuse for wantonly destroying an ancient monument, and it is clear from the scale of the destruction that we are talking about the actions of adults rather than children.
Councillor Allen continued: “Kilminorth Woods is designated as a Local Nature Reserve, and Caradon has an obligation to protect it. We have no objection to bicycles on the formal pathways, but off-track mountain and trial biking is not appropriate in an environmentally sensitive area.
“The vast majority of visitors to Kilminorth Woods use the footpaths in a safe and sensible way, but sadly a few thoughtless trial and mountain bikers are causing serious problems by their illegal and inappropriate use of the woods.
"The near accidents, verbal abuse of other users of the woods and damage to the area is wholly unacceptable.
"Ancient woodland like Kilminorth is the United Kingdom’s version of the rainforest. A mere 2 per cent is left, and it is still disappearing”, said Councillor Allen further.
Unfortunately, Councillor Allen does not know, in the latter instance, what he is talking about, much like so many local councillors. She does remind one of some of the so-called environmental advisers to the local councils here that have about as much knowledge of the environment, namely none or very little.
I very much, as a professional forester, amongst others, would like to dispute the notion of ancient forest/woodland in the UK to mean one never touched by hand of man. 99.9% of all woodlands and forests in this country have, at one time or the other, been worked and managed by man. The often quoted ancient woodlands in some places of the West Country are in fact ancient coppice woodlands which, if they are not going to be worked pronto will fall apart and will become history.
Spouting off the contents of material they have read, but all too often not properly digested and especially understood, and more often than not from dubious sources, does not help the cause one little bit.
I do, however, agree that motorbikes have no place in such woodlands – or any other woodlands – for that matter as those that ride mountain bike of the push bike variety should do so with consideration and if they do not they should be brought to book and fined severely – period.
Like the law give the right of seizure of an illegally used motorbike, that is to say that the relevant authorities can take the bike and have it crushed, the same might be a good idea for the mountain biker variety too when they are used in a manner as outlined here. It is my belief that many riders would thing more than twice doing the described if they'd knew that the authorities could seize their bike, which often have cost them thousands of British Pounds, and gave then destroyed or – and this would be much better – sold off to others.
© M Smith (Veshengro), May 2008
by Michael Smith (Veshengro), RFA
Climate Change and the loss of Biodiversity are the most pressing environmental problems and challenges of the twenty first century. Biodiversity and forestry will be tremendously affected by this.
In order to develop the necessary adaption strategies integrated and appropriate research is required that covers a broad spectrum of themes. We must not, under any circumstances, underestimate the possible effects of climate change on the environment and on biodiversity, especially, as said, in our woods and forests and the impact that this will have on our continued use of forest products.
The concept of the protection and retention of the biodiversity includes, aside from the mere protection of the environment and biodiversity, also the commercial use of our woodlands and forests. Therefore research into climate change and biodiversity has to be seen and understood an interdisciplinary task which also must include the socio-economic aspects and the questions as to our moral concepts and ideas.
According to calculations and prognoses based on computer modelling not only would by a warming of the climate the potentially suitable ranges for tree species like beech and pine change considerably, but this would also be the case for the rarer species and those endangered ones on the red lists. The “red list species”, according to those calculations, would be extremely hard hit due to loss of suitable areas where they can grow and thrive.
We must find ways and means to react to such a threat so as to preserve the species but also to be able to continue to commercially use timber and other products from our woods and forests even during this probable climate change.
© M Smith (Veshengro), Tatchipen Media & EcoFor, April 2008
