Biltmore Stick
n
A ruler that is held at prescribed distances from the body. The stick’s four faces are scribed with lines and numbers. These lines and numbers are used to estimate tree diameter and tree height, and ultimately tree volume.
Synonyms: none known to the author.
Using a Biltmore stick to measure a tree's diameter
Biltmore Sticks [...]
Bucking
V
The process of cutting a felled tree into logs.
A bucker measures the downed tree while limbing and then cuts the tree into logs for transport. He will try to maximize the log’s net volume since, as a busheler, he’s paid by what the scaler says in it.
References:
University of Missouri Extension, Falling,Bucking and Limbing Trees.
Alabama [...]
Lee Lofland over at the Graveyard Shift has asked if I’d like to do a guest column. Lee’s a retired detective who’s “solved cases in areas including narcotics, homicide, rape, murder-for-hire, robbery, and ritualistic and occult crimes. He worked as an undercover officer for several jurisdictions, and he even spent a few years as a [...]
I have read a number of articles, blog posts, op-eds, etc., declaring that timber harvesting is not the answer to the problem–timber harvesting is the problem. Well the old axiom about a picture holds, a picture is worth a thousand words. With that in mind, check out Tom Knudson’s article, Fire, climate and thinning over [...]
Forest
noun
Definition:
Land spanning more than 0.5 hectares (just over an acre – ed.) with trees higher than 5 meters (just over 16 feet – ed.) and a canopy cover of more than 10 percent, or trees able to reach these thresholds in situ. It does not include land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban land [...]
Anthropogenic (caused by humans) deforestation is the conversion of land use from forest to another designation. Logging, commercial or otherwise, doesn’t equal deforestation. It is what the land becomes that is the issue. Often, the conversion is to an agricultural use, e.g., the conversion of Amazonian rainforest to soy, vineyards, or rangeland.
Deforestation, what is it? [...]
Northern California Again Poised to Add Millions of Tons of Carbon Dioxide to the Atmosphere Due to Wildfires
Northern California saw nearly a million acres burned last summer. This year may see a repeat of last season. That assessment comes the National Interagency Fire Center’s (NIFC) Predictive Services, which, in its assessment, evaluated the condition of [...]
As you may know, I’m supposed to cut down on my coffee drinking. I’ve written about it before, here (Coffee East of Java), here (Coffee, East of Java, Part Deux), and here (Teecino, Not Quite Coffee).
Well, I have found something that tastes sorta, kinda, like instant coffee: Inka Naturalis, an instant beverage made [...]
Barber Chair
n
A tree that, while in the process of receiving the back cut, splits lengthwise and leaves a vertical piece of wood on top of the stump. The remaining piece sticking up in the air is reminiscent of a chair.
The splitting of the butt of the log during the latter part of the fall. The [...]
Sequoiadendron giganteum occurs naturally in scattered groves only in the western Sierra. The 327,769-acre GSNP is at the southern boundary of its distribution. (Nat'l Park Service image)
My wife and I are members of the Sierra Club. She, because she supported their agenda. Me, because I want to know what the arguments are going to [...]