Category Archives: Environmentalism

Timber’s Term of the Week: Gyppo Logger

Gyppo Logger n An independent, or small, logging contractor often working on a minimal operating budget with substandard, “haywire,” equipment. A busheler, someone who will do piecework. The term “gyppo” (or “gypo”) is not necessarily the same as the Irish Traveller, though the etymology seems to share the same root. The term is thought toContinue reading “Timber’s Term of the Week: Gyppo Logger”

Timber's Term of the Week: Gyppo Logger

Gyppo Logger n An independent, or small, logging contractor often working on a minimal operating budget with substandard, “haywire,” equipment. A busheler, someone who will do piecework. The term “gyppo” (or “gypo”) is not necessarily the same as the Irish Traveller, though the etymology seems to share the same root. The term is thought toContinue reading “Timber's Term of the Week: Gyppo Logger”

The trouble with Hemp

… there is a solution that is simple, elegant, and wrong. Any time there is a discussion about forests, someone brings up the possibility of substituting hemp for paper and for petroleum products. I read on one discussion forum, “[Industrial hemp] can be harvested every four months while traditional varieties of trees are allowed toContinue reading “The trouble with Hemp”

Timber’s Term of the Week: Timber Beast

Timber Beast n Forest Service personnel (or any establishment types) who invariably side with timber industry. Someone obsessed with denuding woodland of all marketable timber. A logger. A lumberjack. The title of a book by Archie Binns, copyright 1944. Like most definitions, the meaning of Timber Beast has morphed over the years. The first definitionContinue reading “Timber’s Term of the Week: Timber Beast”

For Every Complex Environmental Problem

For every complex environmental problem there is a solution that is simple, elegant, and wrong. Any time there is a discussion about forests, someone brings up the possibility of substituting hemp for paper and for petroleum products. I read on one discussion forum, “[Industrial hemp] can be harvested every four months while traditional varieties ofContinue reading “For Every Complex Environmental Problem”

Samboja Lestari

Willie Smits is working to turn the deforestation, caused by palm oil plantations in Indonesia, around. His district had been deforested because of the desire for palm oil to make bio-diesel (download a BOS report on the threat from palm oil). His organization, Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS), has created 3,000 jobs through reforestation at SambojaContinue reading “Samboja Lestari”

Timber’s Term of the Week: Timber Beast

Timber Beast n Forest Service personnel (or any establishment types) who invariably side with timber industry. Someone obsessed with denuding woodland of all marketable timber. A logger. A lumberjack. The title of a book by Archie Binns, copyright 1944. Like most definitions, the meaning of Timber Beast has morphed over the years. The first definitionContinue reading “Timber’s Term of the Week: Timber Beast”

Timber's Term of the Week: Timber Beast

Timber Beast n Forest Service personnel (or any establishment types) who invariably side with timber industry. Someone obsessed with denuding woodland of all marketable timber. A logger. A lumberjack. The title of a book by Archie Binns, copyright 1944. Like most definitions, the meaning of Timber Beast has morphed over the years. The first definitionContinue reading “Timber's Term of the Week: Timber Beast”

Samboja Lestari

Willie Smits is working to turn the deforestation, caused by palm oil plantations in Indonesia, around. His district had been deforested because of the desire for palm oil to make bio-diesel (download a BOS report on the threat from palm oil). His organization, Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS), has created 3,000 jobs through reforestation at SambojaContinue reading “Samboja Lestari”

Deforestation and Reforestation

Experts Advance New Way to Size Up Global Forest Resources According to research out of the University of Helsinki, “An increasing number of countries and regions are transitioning from deforestation to afforestation, raising hopes for a turning point for the world as a whole, according to researchers advancing a more sophisticated approach to measuring forestContinue reading “Deforestation and Reforestation”