[Terrapreta] Biomass sources

[Greg and April]

Don't let the box fool you - you don't always have to look outside of it, 
sometimes you will be surprised at what you find hidden in the corners.


There are allot of places where the forest is over grown, sick and dieing 
due to pest and/or disease.    In many cases due to always having fire being 
suppressed before it has had a chance to thin out the undergrowth and 
smaller trees.

Drought stresses trees when they are growing to close to each other and 
makes them susceptible to disease and pests.

There are now many places in the western US where the Mountain Pine beetle 
(  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_pine_beetle ) is so prevalent, that 
trees are slowly dieing acres at a time, and the only way to fight the 
beetle is to destroy all the affected trees - and when I say destroy I mean 
the tree has to be cut down and chipped ( or used for firewood within a 
couple of months ) and the stump shredded.


Don't be mistaken, this is not clear cutting ( although if the infestation 
is bad enough the treatment can resemble it ), as trees like aspen are not 
normally touched, but if a few large aspen are cut down it can stimulate 
rapid regrowth as new shoots spring up from the roots of the old tree, and 
can totally fill in an area with in just a couple of years with primary / 
pioneering vegetation.


Another source of biomass, might be to take a look as all the biomass that 
suddenly becomes available right after Dec 26th, in the form of Christmas 
trees.


Ask any commercial tree trimmers, what they do with the trees they cut. 
Most end up as firewood, or shredded and spread on play grounds but it can 
end up in the landfill - I tap this source and can end up with 1-2 cords of 
firewood a year, just from the trimmers that visit my neighborhood.


There are some places that receive so many pallets that they give them away 
for free for the hauling.


Greg H.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kurt Treutlein" <rukurt at westnet.com.au>
To: "Terra Preta" <Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 20:14
Subject: [Terrapreta] Biomass sources


>
> Where is all that biomass to come from? Cut down existing forests?? Not
> good.