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Save
Our Forests
Having lived for many years in the Pacific Northwest,
I can attest to the appalling degradation of national and private forests.
While wood is ostensibly a renewable resource, we have gone way beyond
sustainable harvesting and have ruined enormous ecosystems.
Use wood as
decoration. Cull dead trees for structural supports. Use masonry, straw
bales, papercrete, cob, adobe, rocks, bags of volcanic rock, etc., instead
of wood. Unfortunately it is difficult to get away from lumber in making
a roof, so consider making a dome from materials that can be stacked.
Domes are also more energy efficient and use less materials for the same
space as a box. A conventional straw bale house only diminishes the amount
of wood used by about 15%!
Homes can be made with certified sustainably harvested trees. This
means that the forests where the trees are harvested are carefully monitored
to make sure that the health and character of the forest is maintained.
Only certain trees are culled periodically, leaving the remaining trees
to grow and contribute to a healthy ecosystem.
Unfortunately, the American
Forest and Paper Industries has begun to mislead the public with their
own SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative) label, which would better be
considered the "Same-old Forest Industry" label. The Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC) legitmately certifies forest products, so look
for the FSC label. |
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Forestry and Climate Change by Peter H Freer-Smith, Mark S J Broadmeadow, Jim M Lynch, 2009.
Climate change is one of the greatest challenges we face - both in terms of its potential impact on our societies and the earth, and the scale of international co-operation that is needed to confront it. Emerging as a component of the international dialogue on the environment and climate, the role of forests in influencing earth systems will need to be assessed. Drawing together perspectives from researchers and policy makers, this book explores how forests will interact with the physical and natural world, and with human society as the climate changes. Also considered is how the world's forests can be managed to contribute to the mitigation of climate change and to maximize the full range of economic and non-market benefits. Providing an examination of the science, a detailed consideration of the sciencepolicy interface and the international frameworks and conventions, this book is valuable reading for all those interested in sustainable forest management, climate change and the associated environmental sciences.
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Fragile kingdoms of innumerable organisms and rich beauty, forests today are both our most plentiful and our most endangered natural resource. Understanding their workings and how to sustain them is imperative to ensuring the future of humanity. John Berger urges us to learn what can be done to preserve these treasures, and he offers here a compelling guide to the complex issues surrounding forest preservation.
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The Healing Power of Forests: The Philosophy Behind Restoring Earth's Balance with Native Trees by Akira Miyawaki and Elgene Box, 2007. The Healing Power of Forests describes the successful techniques used to recreate depleted forests, whether near factory sites, parking lots, or even the Great Wall of China, on the basis of environmental studies. The book challenges us to plant 'native forests of native trees' to increase the chances for achieving a sustainable way of life before it is too late.
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Building with Vision: Optimizing and Finding Alternatives to Wood by Dan Imhoff, 2001. The United States has both the rare fortune and the dubious distinction of being among the only industrialized nations to use wood as its primary material for residential buildings. While other developed countries have evolved masonry and other building systems not reliant on wood, on average, a full acre of trees is consumed to build just one house in the United States. And, for every twenty houses built, enough waste is typically left over to frame another house. Combining environmental philosophy, practical information, and dynamic visuals, Building with Vision makes accessible many solutions to wasteful tree-dependent construction and design. In addition to identifying the benefits, challenges, and applications of the recommended alternatives to contemporary American construction, this book details building methods to minimize wood waste, maximize efficiency, and emphasize the unique aesthetic properties of non-wood materials. Case studies highlight successful building projects that utilize innovative and effective framing, siding, insulation, roofing, and finishing materials and techniques.
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Finding the Forest: The Initiation by Peter P. Bundy, 1999, is a series of vignettes that offer a different vision of the forest. This vision challenges many of today's assumptions about trees, preservation and forestry practices. Peter Bundy is a certified forester who works with private landowners on stewardship plans, reforestation, harvesting, and habitat restoration projects.
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The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods by Julia Butterfly Hill, 2000. On December 18, 1999, Julia Butterfly Hill's feet touched the ground for the first time in over two years, as she descended from "Luna," a thousandyear-old redwood in Humboldt County, California. Hill had climbed 180 feet up into the tree high on a mountain on December 10, 1997, for what she thought would be a two- to three-week-long "tree-sit." The action was intended to stop Pacific Lumber, a division of the Maxxam Corporation, from the environmentally destructive process of clear-cutting the ancient redwood and the trees around it. Hill endured El Nino storms, helicopter harassment, a ten-day siege by company security guards, and the tremendous sorrow brought about by an old-growth forest's destruction. This story--written while she lived on a tiny platform eighteen stories off the ground--is one that only she can tell.
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From the Redwood Forest: Ancient Trees and the Bottom Line: A Headwaters Journey by Joan Dunning, 1998. A passionate account of the struggle to save an area of northern California from logging. Describes how it was logged sustainably for decades by a family-owned business, but was subjected to liquidation logging by the Texas corporation that took over the company in 1985. Augmenting the narrative are 57 color photographs by Doug Thron of the forest before and after logging and of protest
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Common Sense Forestry by Hans W. Morsbach, 2002. Twenty-five years ago, when Hans Morsbach became interested in cultivating trees and managing small woodlands, he searched for a good how-to manual. He never found one, so he decided to write his own someday. Based on his subsequent experience, combining deep research into the academic literature on forestry with his successes and failures as a small-scale commercial tree farmer, the result is Common Sense Forestry, an indispensable reference for anyone who owns or wants to own wooded property. Morsbach is an unabashed nature lover as well as a businessman, and well understands the essential importance of a long-term approach to sustainable forest management. In this highly readable and entertaining text, the author offers a comprehensive look at managing existing woodlands by creating, and later maintaining, forests that promote biodiversity while providing harvestable timber.
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Forests in Peril: Tracking Deciduous Trees from Ice-Age Refuges into the Greenhouse World by Hazel R. Delcourt, 2002. In Forests in Peril, Hazel Delcourt takes the reader on her personal journey to document the history of the great deciduous forest that covers much of eastern North America from its elusive and nebulous presence at the peak of the last ice age through its development as a magnificent natural resource to its uncertainty in today's, and tomorrow's, greenhouse world. Along this journey, the reader is introduced to methods of studying vegetation, collecting and interpreting data, and applying the insights of forest ecology and history to project future needs of the forest in a world that is increasingly dominated by human activities. The philosophical, intellectual, and methodological perspectives contained in Forests in Peril will appeal to readers interested in understanding how the natural history of North America has been studied and how that study can contribute to the protection and preservation of America's important biological resources.
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Our Forest, Your Ecosystem, Their Timber: Communities, Conservation, and the State in Community-Based Forest Management by Nicholas K. Menzies, 2007. Community-based forest management (CBFM) is a model of forest management in which a community takes part in decision making and implementation, and monitoring of activities affecting the natural resources around them. CBFM provides a framework for a community members to secure access to the products and services that flow from the landscape in which they live and has become an essential component of any comprehensive approach to forest management. In this volume, Nicholas K. Menzies looks at communities in China, Zanzibar, Brazil, and India where, despite differences in landscape, climate, politics, and culture, common challenges and themes arise in making a transition from forest management by government agencies to CBFM. The stories of these four distinct places highlight the difficulties communities face when trying to manage their forests and negotiate partnerships with others interested in forest management, such as the commercial forest sector or conservation and environmental organizations. These issues are then considered against a growing body of research concerning what constitutes successful CBFM.
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In a Dark Wood: The Fight Over Forests & the Myths of Nature
by Alston Chase, 2001
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LINKS
SaveAmericasForests.org politically active site with news archive, resources list, internships.
fscus.org Forest Stewardship Council, ngo certifies wood products.
americanforests.org dedicated to ReLeafing America.
nature.org The Nature Conservancy preserves ecosystems.
certifiedwood.org Certified Forest Products Council promotes certification of sustainably harvested timber.
usplasticlumber.com
sustainablescience.org systems for utilizing small diameter poles and recycled pallets for building.
worldforest.com supplier of FSC certified hardwoods and softwoods.
westcoastjuniper.com is a supplier of FSC certified Western Juniper lumber.
yankinsreclaimedwood.com supplies reclaimed, recycled, or salvaged redwood lumber.
cascadiaforestgoods.com supplies FSC certified lumber, flooring, decking, siding and timber in the Pacific Northwest.
westcoastlands.net has a portable sawmill service in California and Oregon.
avinylfence.com offers vinyl fences.
entangledfurnishings.blogspot.com shows examples of rustic furnirture made from the invasive vine, Oriental bittersweet.
ecovantagewood.com sustainably sourced, thermally treated wood products that are non-toxic and rot resistant. |
