20mm cutting diameter ratchet pruning shears
Review by Michael Smith
I have to say that this is the first of those kinds of pruning shears that I ever really have had an opportunity to use and review.
Other manufacturers and vendors for some reason have been more than reluctant, to say the least, to part with one of those for a proper and thorough product review and I leave the reader to draw his or her own conclusions as to the why and wherefore of this.
Bulldog's representatives on IOG Saltex 2008 were more than happy to supply me with one of those and so far I must say that I am quite impressed with this tool.
It took a little while for me to get the proper hang of it as to the best way of using it but once that had been mastered it is just a great piece of kit.
The maximum cutting size, in my opinion, should not be exceeded when cutting hardwoods, whether green or not, such as apply, plum, oak, etc. While it may work alright with slightly larger branch diameters, I must say that I would not recommend doing it.
Once the “trick” of properly using the ratchet is mastered this pair of pruners cuts through quite thick branches without any real effort. Small pruning is best done with the topmost tip of the pruners as it is then just the single snip. This is very good for dead heading of roses and also general small pruning rather than using the cutting jaws further down that then still employs the ratchet, making the cutting process a little slower.
On larger material the ratchet makes cutting virtually effortless and I recently used it to cut back a Willow (Salix) and in this instance cutting material with diameters of 35mm and such without any problems. It must be considered thought that green willow is a rather soft wood.
I also used it to prune some apple trees and in that case I restricted myself to about the maximum given diameter for this pair of pruners and there as well very little effort and strength was needed for the cutting.
From what I have seen so far as to the performance and reliability I can, I think, very much recommend this model of Bulldog's pruners without any hesitation.
Once again another piece of kit that is of fine quality at a very reasonable price.
© M Smith (Veshengro), October 2008
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by Michael Smith, RFA
The Earth's forests, which are perhaps one of the greatest, if not indeed the greatest, natural defenses against climate change, got somewhat of a boost recently with Britain's Prime Minister and a host of environmental lawyers throwing their support behind plans to protect them and eventually include the forestry sector in carbon markets.
Now who would have thought that the experts suddenly realize what we who have had dealings and have been working in forestry and related sectors for most of our lives have known all the time and those that set up managed forestry have known for centuries, namely that forests are good for the Earth.
A review commissioned by Gordon Brown and led by advisor Johan Eliasch has concluded that deforestation in countries heavily covered by rainforest could be halved in the next 12 years and the world's forestry sector could be carbon neutral – effectively sustainable in the long term – by 2030.
The review looks at the financial mechanisms needed to make this happen and comes down heavily in favour of wealthy industrialized nations offering funding to support forestry in poorer nations and somehow incorporating the carbon sink effect of existing forests into global carbon trading.
In a nutshell, the report says that countries that protect their forests should be rewarded for doing so by the international community.
The specific mechanisms recommended for doing this are slightly more complex.
Mr Eliasch said: “Saving forests is critical for tackling climate change. Without action on deforestation, avoiding the worst impacts of climate change will be next to impossible, and could lead to additional climate change damages of $1 trillion a year by 2100.
“Including the forest sector in a new global deal could reduce the costs of tackling climate change by up to 50% and therefore achieve deeper cuts in emissions, as well as reducing poverty in some of the world's poorest areas and protecting biodiversity.
“Deforestation will continue as long as cutting down and burning trees is more economic than preserving them. Access to finance from carbon markets and other funding initiatives will be essential for supporting forest nations to meet this challenge.”
I wonder whether readers remember that a while ago the papers and the media were full of suggestions that forests actually are bad for the environment. Don't ask me what those experts had been drinking but... Forests are more than carbon neutral; they are carbon sinks, and we need more of them and not just old forests. New planted and commercially managed forests and woodlands have been proven to be as useful as primal forests.
The review has been broadly welcomed in political circles, but environmental NGOs have given it a frostier reception.
Friends of the Earth climate campaigner Tom Picken said: “Allowing rich countries and businesses to 'offset' their carbon dioxide emissions by buying up huge tracts of forest is riddled with problems and will do little to tackle climate change.
“The industrialised world must rapidly cut its dependency on fossil fuels if we are to prevent catastrophic climate change from taking hold. The Eliasch plan will simply create a smokescreen allowing us to carry on polluting - it's the climate change equivalent of sub-prime mortgages.
“Forests and forest communities urgently require protection. Financial packages are needed - but we must also address the underlying causes of deforestation, such as biofuels, excessive meat consumption and industrial logging.”
We can but agree with the statements by the Friends of the Earth, though I also know that often FoE have a problem with commercial forestry per se and would like to see forests and woodlands remain unmanaged. This is not something that works and is not good for the forests and woodlands either, especially not with those, say, in Europe who have always been managed for the last millennia and if they would be no longer managed they would soon completely fall apart, literally. This is something that I have spoken about as regards to the coppice woodlands in the South of England, for instance.
The carbon offset idea, in my opinion, is a total stupidity anyway and we must get away from this notion that we can pay our way out of polluting the planet by paying, say, Brazil or such, to conserve their forests. I am sorry, but this notion is ludicrous. The developed world cannot be allowed to continue polluting just because they can buy carbon credits from the Third World. This is just not sustainable.
© M Smith (Veshengro), December 2008
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by Michael Smith, RFA
In general, it would appear, the environmental community tends to be rather supportive of Forest Stewardship Council certification – often referred to as the “gold standard” of sustainable forestry.
And while there have been scandals before, I grant you that, like Asia Pulp & Paper’s controversial certification, most of the conscious and conscientious consumers still look at the FSC mark as a fairly safe guarantee that the wood does not come from ancient forests, and that it was sustainably logged.
It would seem, however, that we can no longer accept it completely at face value if we can believe Friends of the Earth.
According to a statement from their website it would appear as if FoE are are taking a step back from its endorsement of the FSC certification and this statements it reproduced hereunder in full:
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification is the strongest available standard for new wood.
Most of its timber certifications have improved forestry standards in many countries.
However, we are deeply concerned by the number of FSC certifications that are now sparking controversy and threatening the credibility of the scheme.
We cannot support a scheme that fails to guarantee high environmental and social standards. As a result we can no longer recommend the FSC standard.
The best environmental choice is to repair, restore or adapt an existing item. You could buy second hand.
If you have to buy new, make sure the timber is locally sourced.
Source: Friends of the Earth
As a professional forester I would like to add that while logging ancient forests is not a very good practice and more than likely non-sustainable the woods and forests in most countries on Europe and North America are no longer ancient and primary forests. Many so-called ecologists insist on claiming that the old woodlands in, for instance, the south of Britain are “ancient woodlands”, which, alas, they are not. There are no primary woodlands and forests in the British Isles; all of them have been more-or-less commercially worked in their life, many of them of the claimed to be “ancient” woodlands within the last 50 years. They are primarily old coppice woods that have gone wild again and, contrary to the belief of many of the previously mentioned environmentalists, should not be allowed to carry on running wild. They must, if we are to save them as woods, be worked once again and that rather pronto. The longer they are left the greater the change of the coppice stools breaking apart. That would be the end of those woodlands and they would become scrub land of one from or the others but would lose their woodland characteristics.
It is wood from such local sourced that should be sourced and used for whatever projects, whether building or furniture.
On the other hand, the advice of Friends of the Earth as to secondhand and repairing is also a very valid one, as would be DIY from waste building lumber, for instance. This would divert at least a small amount of the ten million plus tonnes of waste building lumber that are annually in the UK sent to landfill. A practice that to me is just very difficult to understand.
© M Smith (Veshengro), October 2008
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by Michael Smith, RFA
Cooking is on the up. Kitchens and utensils made from wood are easy to care for and are antibacterial.
Cooking is everywhere. On the TV and in the home. Cooking has become a pastime rather than just a means of creating a meal for the family. It has become a lifestyle and a creative expression and also an expression of creativity.
For this very reason the kitchen has now become functional workplace and an object for design at the same time. In the kitchen of today there is not just roasting a frying and generally cooking being done. This is where one meets, sits together and talks over a glass of wine. A bit of trip back-to-the-future for we have been here once before, in the days when out kitchen were large and useful, and where the family gathered, while the parlour, the room that we refer to today as “living room”, was used only on very special days and occasions. It was the kitchen were everyone gathered and listened to the radio and talked about the day. The kitchen table served as a desk for the children's homework in the same way as it was used for the eating of meals, or the mending of clothes.
Because of the fact that kitchens are, once again, more living space than just the area where the food is being cooked, the designers of kitchen furniture are once again reverting to the age-old material of wood. Wood is natural and warm and a great material.
Wooden kitchens with properly sealed surfaces are easy to clean and as wood has antibacterial quality they are much more hygienic than other materials, even stainless steel. But, I guess, I would say that as someone deeply rooted in commercial forestry.
In addition to the furniture in the kitchen being of wood again wooden kitchen utensils too are making a genuine comeback. Wooden spoons, spatulas, cutting- and chopping boards, and such, all once again are seen in kitchens. Wooden utensils are taste neutral and are easy to care for. They also do not absorb any foreign tastes. As they are wood we have the same antibacterial properties and hence they are much more hygienic than other materials and one can but wonder if we should not carry, once again, a wooden eating spoon, as people did in ages past, instead of relying on throwaway flatware.
As wood, as said, has antibacterial properties it is enough to wipe a chopping board clean between uses. This also satisfies hygiene because even salmonella has little survival chance on wood. This was proven already in 1993 by the University of Wisconsin. Especially pine, larch and oak have some of the best antibacterial and virus killing properties.
© M Smith (Veshengro), September 2008
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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
