Fear motivates. Fear was the reason I got into forestry. When I was in college (I grew up in the 1960s and graduated high school in 1969), Martin Litton’s iconinc picture of a boy looking out over a large clearcut of redwoods caused a number of us to take action. The Photos Were a SnapshotContinue reading “Green, Inc.”
Author Archives: Norm Benson
Paper or Plastic, why ereaders are not the right choice
I have seen in posts, comments, and letters to the editor statements that ebook readers will save trees. On a APM Marketplace segment, Kevin Pereira of cable TV’s G4 network, called the Amazon Kindle, “the savior to many, many forests in the future.” What an Ebook Reader is These handy electronic devices can display textContinue reading “Paper or Plastic, why ereaders are not the right choice”
The Anthropocene Epoch
Stop Trying to Save the Planet is an interesting op-ed by Erle Ellis Ph.D., the director of the Laboratory for Anthropogenic Landscape Ecology. “[Nature] was gone before you were born, before your parents were born, before the pilgrims arrived, before the pyramids were built. You are living on a used planet…We now live in theContinue reading “The Anthropocene Epoch”
Tree Planting
What’s wrong with this picture of two women planting a tree? Take a look and put your answer in the comment section. Odwalla is donating $1 per click toward the purchase of trees for planting in a state parks in one of eleven states (including California). The promotion runs until the end of 2009. IContinue reading “Tree Planting”
Get your facts first
and then you can distort them as much as you please.– Mark Twain Are U.S. forestlands “currently being lost at a rate of 150-million acres annually”? An RSS feed from the Pacific Forest Trust titled, “New Climate Research Supports Forest Protection, Reveals CO2 Storage Potential of Temperate Forests” caught my eye a few weeks back.Continue reading “Get your facts first”
Timber's Term of the Week: Choker
Choker n A 3/4 to 1-1/2 inch diameter steel wire rope used pull a log to landing. A choker is normally 15 to 35 feet long with a knob at both ends and sliding hook for either knob. Synonyms: Steel necktie The greenhorn in this video (at just over a minute in) is setting chokers:Continue reading “Timber's Term of the Week: Choker”
Timber’s Term of the Week: Choker
Choker n A 3/4 to 1-1/2 inch diameter steel wire rope used pull a log to landing. A choker is normally 15 to 35 feet long with a knob at both ends and sliding hook for either knob. Synonyms: Steel necktie The greenhorn in this video (at just over a minute in) is setting chokers:Continue reading “Timber’s Term of the Week: Choker”
Timber's Term of the Week: Biltmore Stick
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. Biltmore Sticks date back to the mid-18th centuryContinue reading “Timber's Term of the Week: Biltmore Stick”
Timber’s Term of the Week: Biltmore Stick
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. Biltmore Sticks date back to the mid-18th centuryContinue reading “Timber’s Term of the Week: Biltmore Stick”
Timber’s Term of the Week: Bucking
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,Continue reading “Timber’s Term of the Week: Bucking”
Nullius in Verba 