Site Discussions

As birders who have visited in Central America and Caribbean; my husband and I were witness to devastated former forests, sacrificed for short term gains. (Think banana and pineapple plantations) Many of those areas have become deserts. Islands seem to suffer more intensely. Some even have to import water. I hope the agencies involved with assisting Haiti will consider reforestation
as an imortant part of their goals.

Great article—I have had an interest in bee hunting since I was a teenager.  Unfortunately, there are a lot fewer feral bee colonies than there used to be.  However, it is still an exciting sport.  In the past, I have referred to “The Bee Hunter” by George Harold Edgell and “Hunting Wild Bees” by Robert Donovan.  Enjoyed the article!

Babington style waste oil heater pumps

The cam gear pump works fine for filtered WVO or used motor oil Babington heaters and I have installed it on my Babington style heaters. Ldu Company’s stock number is 450516 , The only thing about the cam gear pump is that the fire kind of pulses as the cam gear rotates. If you use the spur gear pump that is LDU’s stock number 450512 then you get a steady non-pulsing fire. The WVO pump website is http://www.liangdianup.com/subpages/oilpump_1.htm or you can click through to the tools section from the home page at http://www.lducompany.com

LDU Company also has other parts that I use for building my waste oil burners, like gear reduction motors. I find it best to turn the pump slower because you really don’t need a whole lot of oil dripping on the atomizer ball.

Reminds me of my dad who often lined wild bees.  We found one huge hive a couple miles out in the woods in a huge tree on a sidehill with no way to even drive to it and decided it was too much work to save.  I remember particularly that he always used anice to attract the bees but I don’t know exactly how he did that.  I also remember that he generally would mark the bee that was working the box with, I believe a drop of liquid white shoe polish.  He would time the bee and determine the distance, then move to another field and try to get another bee from the same hive to give him multiple lines.  This was back about 1960 or so before GPS but we had topo maps and compass and a lot of ambition.  Good article.
ldb

Thank you for a wonderful article.  I found this while searching for dye information on autumn olive.  Do you know anything about this?

Nice thoughts for our bumbled friends. I would have likes to see pictures of these bees and a bit on differential of these. Other than experts could help a bit in maybe spotting some of these out and around. We constantly imbalance our ecology by growing American bees in Europe, for instance. I want my butterflies back too.

Seems like excess cutting (Especially areas in Mass) would open avenues for exotic plant species to gain a foothold in areas they had never been in.  Little by little that creeps in.  Once it’s producing seeds and we have a high Avian population scavaging on them the exotics root in sporadically in areas we may not be able to MAINTAIN!  There Just doesn’t seem to be ENOUGH biomass in some areas.  Transportaion of Beetlewood and fungus could become an issue.  Invasive seeds too.  Small scale Biomass generators could be the ticket for certain Counties.  I suppose a current inventory and forecasted inventory Should be of a certain volume for “LOCAL Sustainability.”  Diversify power generators.  Use wind when the topography allows.  Perhaps wind and Solar or Solar and Biomass. 
Some wood is better left to rot!  I find rotten punky wood makes a good blend between Lawn and forest.  I’ll mix rotten wood and chopped leaf litter.  Using it in areas to capture surface runoff from grassy or exposed areas before entering a wet zone.  Mabey we should be looking more twords using our VALUABLE and overlooked “biomass” as water filters, soil enhancers,  sheltered areas for habitat.

To Vermont Wood Pellet,
It sounds like you have a superior product. Can you tell me what firm built your pellet mill.

Susan, You are welcome to use this.  Allison

For a small tree, cut the back cut first, drive in a wedge lightly, and then cut the under cut.  Finish felling the tree with wedges.

The year 0f 2007-08 we spent about $3000 heating our home and water. We bought an E Classic in Aug 2008. We cut our own wood at a cost of about $200 to $300. Granted it does generate some smoke, but so did our old fuel oil furnace. We have only two neighbors, both about 100 yards from our boiler—one NE and one NW (upwind most of the time). And guess what they heat with—wood. My next nearest neighbor is a mile away.

I spent $10000 by the time I had it completely installed, which I did myself.Financially, it is a no brainer. I will admit I burn some green wood mixed with seasoned wood, but the coals from the green wood generate an incredible amount of heat just by themselves.

I really don’t understand all these so called environmentalists. Wind turbines generate no smoke and as far as I can tell, are not a hazzard to anyones health, but they are opposed to them too.

I guess the solution is to drill more oil in the ocean. Or import it from Iraq. Thats a plan!

I have a stewardship tree farm in northern PA and would like to know more about ship mast locust and its availability.

I agree with the main points of this article and would like to add that taking down birdfeeders when snow is not on the ground also keeps bears away from homes. Bears used to eating near us become problem bears.

If the pro biomass people who claim to be so concerned about enhancing the interests of the owners of the forests spent that much energy into selling the high value timber to the people with all the money- that is the East Asian and OPEC nations- the forest owners and their forests would be far better off. If every biomass plant on the drawing boards was built- the value to forest owners would be trivial compared to a return of high stumpage prices as we saw just a few years ago.

All truly pro forestry organizations should band together and send a large number of salesmen to those nations- while our national government should let nations who don’t trade fairly with us that we will now insist that they balance their trade- and they can begin by buying our premium timber.

Joe Zorzin
Mass. Lic. Forester #261

As with any energy issue, there is no simple answer. For example, in Western Massachusetts there are several proposed biomass energy plants. Apart from the carbon issue, one should consider the impact of the plant on river water used to cool the turbines. Also, there is a debate about whether there is enough wood available to supply the plants in a sustainable manner, which leads to the question of how much and which State lands should be harvested (Quabbin watershed, for example).
I certainly don’t have answers, but it is simplistic to just look at the carbon issue. And every region has its own set of issues. Power plants not located on a river don’t raise water quality issues but may well raise other concerns.

Dave, I’d be most interested in looking at biomass harvesting from the woodlot owner’s perspective; does the existence of biomass markets change revenue per acre; the ability to make economic thinning/improvement cuts, etc.  Also how biomass demand relates to pulp demand; what the experience has been around existing bioenergy plants in the northern states, provinces and northern Europe; where in the Northeast plants could be most advantageously sited; what cultivation practices may develop and what effects biomass cultivation and harvest might have on soil composition and run-off, wildlife populations and the appearance of cultivated acreage.  In any case, I look forward to the coverage.

I agree that wood is a “renewable resource” and that perhaps in the long run the CO-2 from the wood burned is recaptured in new growth, but in the short run, it is not.  We will burn more than can replenish and the equation will fall apart.  Consider David Brynn’s comment, repeated in Bill McKibben’s book Eaarth—Our (Vermont’s) forests produce just under 4 cords of wood per person in the state every year in terms of new growth”, (and about half of that is already being harvested.)  “We are not awash in wood.”

Wood pellet industry is a new and better industry.
Everyone should be for it.

This is an update to a post made in 2009. After 10 years of living downwind of a boiler, our neighbors on the other side of our property installed one just before the state made them illegal-a regulation loophole was left open so dealers could clear their inventory.

The net result of this is that at the age of 59, having no other health problems, I have developed “pulmonary reactive disease”, commonly known as asthma. My doctor and the pulmonary specialist who tested me have advised me to avoid the smoke at all costs, including sleeping in the tv room, to stay in the house with windows shut when the smoke is detectable (living between 2 boilers 600 feet apart that means every burning day short of gale force winds), to use an inhaler if I need to be outside for more than a few minutes.

Wood boiler owners trivialize the problems they cause because , well, it’s “not their problem”, and because like most other people, putting money in their own pocket justifies
any negative effect their actions might have on other citizens.

The problems caused by Enron, Wall Street,BP,for example, all seem justified at the time because money was being made, or saved, by ignoring possible consequences down the road.The wood boiler industry was just using the standard business model to succeed, and pass that credo on to the boiler owners.

In other words, Greed is still “good” in the eyes of those who profit from it, and bad for us “small people” who might suffer from it. No amount of regulating, philosophizing, science teaching,or preaching is going to change the mind of anyone putting “free money” in their pocket.

All of us, we and our neighbors, feel like our civil rights and personal freedoms are being abused. I want my health and freedom to use my property at will, they want the freedom to save money on heat with an outdoor boiler. Both can’t co-exist. These are the facts.

Is anyone systematically studying moth populations that are/were the mainstay of the afflicted bat’s diet?  Just casually I have noticed an increase in the chunkier moths that I presume would be primary bat food.  As sad as it is population disasters are ideal opportunities to do predator/prey relationship studies.  Wishing the best for the bats.  Tom Prunier