Site Discussions

‘Only eight [...] walkingstick species are found in North America.’ Actually, it’s about 30.

Growing up in Orange, Vermont, back in the 50’s, I took an early interest in the birds.  This was due in part to having a father that taught me at an early age the names of some of the birds that shared the farm with us.  For several years I kept a written record of what day in the spring the earliest birds reappeared after a long winter.  Interestingly the red-winged blackbirds arrived within 2 to 3 days of the same date each year - between the 3rd and 5th of March, regardless of the weather.

You captured the feel of spring with great accuracy…up north I did get one more run of some really rich syrup making on Good Friday…but then I pulled my taps.  It was 85 degrees and it just isn’t that much fun hanging out around a fire.  Guess that’s what the moose thought too, the one who left tracks right up to one of my buckets and knocked it down, pulling tap and all out of the tree.  Moose and I are ready for spring beauties and trout lilies, i guess.

Lovely essay. Captures the sense of things just right.

Except for one detail: 4 months of winter? Not in these parts! Even though it was light compared to other winters, I count six!

Hi Dave: Just want to comment on your Psoriasis of Spring. I really enjoy your vivid analogies of this year’s spring or rather pre-spring.
It seems particularly true this year because of the early departure of snow, especailly in the fields, before the earth was prepared to reveal herself. Thank you for sharing some of those raw feelings of Spring.
I enjoy all the articles and editorials on the e-edition of Northern Woodlands. I always enjoy Bryan Pfieffer’s articles. He writes just like himself. Through his written words, I can picture him telling us about the male ruby-crowned kinglet (with “weak knees”) or pointing out a Bryant’s goose among the hundreds of snow geese at Dead Creek.

I am sending you an April poem by separate email.
      I hope you enjoy every facet of Spring, Ann Day

I aplogize for the length of this commnet.

Nice piece, Dave Mance. Yes winter is long and brutal and hardest part comes at the end; darkest before the dawn. Emerging from a car wreck analogy is apt… We emerge cautiously, squinting in bright light (is that sun?) while wondering if its safe now to smile. Each season has its moods. You captured this one perfectly.

I call your perspective “Yankee Gothic.“But like they say: “Could be worse!” I love winter for its own unique beauties, but I’ll take April’s hope to November’s ominous dread any day!

How much is it to buy black birch wood for use?

What was unexpected was the amount of deca-BDE in the falcon eggs. Although total PBDE remained steady over the 10-year study, concentrations of deca-BDE, once thought to be too big a molecule to cross cell membranes, appear to be doubling in falcon eggs every five years. Deca-BDE remains the major PBDE in production worldwide. liver enzymes

the air space inside a maple tree is what makes sap flow possible; most other trees don’t have the same internal arrangement, so they don’t “run.”

this air space also keeps a maple from exploding, by allowing space for ice to form. it’s kind of like when you freeze a half gallon of cider in the fall: if you freeze it full, it’ll blow up, but if you pour off enough to leave sufficient air space, everything shines on.

of course i only have a sugarmaker’s understanding of it all. any of the maple scientists at either the University of Vermont or Cornell could give more indepth answers.

Commendable and readable essay by C.W.. As to the question posed by Jim, I don’t have an answer, just some thoughts. I haven’t seen what a mulcher leaves behind, but landscape mulch, such as shredded hemlock, suppresses plant growth, be it trees or grass. Slash itself is a form of mulch, and it suppresses plant growth as well. In my anecdotal view, the forest floor after logging operations is inundated with duff-drying sunlight and overwhelmed with highly acidic decomposing needles, the combination of which prevents much regeneration for a number of years. So, you may not have to do anything much to maintain your forest opening for several years. If you are looking for a pasture or lawn-like effect, you may have to rototill and plant grass. This may be difficult due to rocks and residual stumps and roots. Oddly, this method could work against you as grass would be the perfect seed bed for regenerating pine, which means that unless you are going to mow or have grazing animals, the forest could return with a vengeance.

This is the most complete explanation I’ve seen to date, but I’m having trouble envisioning the physics of it. In most situations, the expansion associated with the change in state from liquid to solid would explode the structure that’s being frozen. In my simple mind, I envisioned a tree freezing from top to bottom (small to large), thereby forcing liquid into the root system as it frozen from above and preventing explosion of tissue, in much the same way a water pipe can freeze in a single small location time and time again without bursting because the ice can expand in both directions.

But the real question is, why don’t other species of trees behave similarly? In my youth, I tapped both elm and white ash - not one drop of sap was gathered. Why?

For James in New Brunswick: a controlled burn works quite well to reduce and consume the mulched brush, and this method leaves the nutrients behind to go back into the soil: a win-win.

Not only are the woods constantly growing and creeping in on us but also they have a tendency to fall down on our houses, power lines, and cars. Definitely a reason to beware the encroaching forest!

Thanks for the info. I’ve always wondered how it works!

This is a very well thought-out article.  I’m doing some research on birds for a Cub Scout project. I found some info in here that will help as I work up an outdoor adventure for the boys!  :-)

Thanks, and good luck with your book.

I have 72 acres in New Brunswick, Canada, which was clearcut about 3 years ago. It is a back lot with a right of way. Thanksgiving last, I had a mulcher cut in a road and clear three acres. Now I would like to convert those acres to grass and pasture so that it stays open as a possible cabin site. The mulcher left some fairly large pieces from the slash that was there. Can you advise me on how best to finish the conversion to pasture? Is what I need a rake machine to pile up the cut brush? What do I plant? How do I plant it? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you,  Jim

Getting back into the fray….Those who make complain that “Outdoor Wood Burners” (OWBs) are smoke and pollution belchers are unfortunately for the most part quite correct. I have one. It produces lots of smoke, sometimes embarassingly so. I can’t wait to replace it with a ‘GASIFYING Wood Burner’.
Andrew in Vermont makes an extremely important discinction. Outdoor Wood Burners versus Gasification Wood Burners.  Huge difference(s).
When one is in the country and sees an out-house looking building belching smoke out its short chimney they are looking at what most would call an Outdoor Wood Burner. Most people (including myself, until I got educated) are inclined to think that all wood burners will produce smoke like that. This jsut isn’t true, and it is embarassing that the makers of the gasifiers have not educated the public on how truly clean their wood burners are.
The smoke-belching units use old technology which could (should?) best be eliminated by legislation——Stop selling this polluting technology, but allow those currently out there to continue to burn until they ‘burn out’.  My wife and I have been using an OWB for 4 years, it saves us about $3K per year by not having to purchase propane to heat our virtually uninsulated 120 y/o farm house. Our unit is a smoke-and-pollution belcher, and I am excitedly awaiting the install of our GARN wood burner (gasifier) for heating our barn-turned-home which is under construction (we will bull-doze the current home once the barn/home is complete).
Our OWB is likely 35% efficient, the Garn is ~85% efficient - efficiency meaning the unit will utilize 35% or 85% of the heat content of the wood to heat the house. One major difference in the two units is the OWBs don’t burn the creosote/smoke, it goes up and out the chimney, whereas the gasifiers BURN the creosote/smoke.
We will no longer be polluters - the GARN wood burner/gasifier (a true gasifier) will meet the EPAs emission standards. In fact, it is apparent that even thirty-year old units will meet the standards the EPA is just now instituting.
A gasifying wood burner has essentially two burn chambers. The first (primary burn) chamber burns the wood essentially as a conventional fireplace does. The second chamber (preferrably lined with some type of ceramic) burns the creosote and gases (smoke) produced by the primary burn, at temperatures in the 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit range.  Once that ceramic secondary burn chamber is up to temperature there is virtually no smoke…..the only thing which comes out of the unit is water vapor.
I have read on various forums where people state that when converted from what most of us would call an OWB to a gasifier (a Garn, a Tarm, a Wood Gun, and many other reputable manufacturers) the ‘smoke’ was so greatly diminished that their neighbors asked them if they had QUIT burning wood!  Quite a testament to how well the gasification process works.
Sincerely,
Hank in SW Wisconsin

All parts of a tree grow relatively slowly, so no, if you trim a tree’s root system, the roots you cut will not grow back in two weeks. I’m not sure i understand the whole scenario here, though. I’d call a different plumber and get his/her take on your mom’s situation.

The trees may hang on for a little while, but they will eventually die (check out all the dead tree stems in a beaver flowage for a real-world example.)

Great article!  Gasification wood boilers are often left out of discussions about OWBs and wood burning regulations.

I have been using a Tarm gasification wood boiler for the last 4 years and constructed my own 1000 gallon heat storage tank two years ago.  I can attest to the clean burning, high efficency, low wood consumption of these gasification wood boilers.  They burn so clean that I can actually heat my storage tank in the summer once per week and get all of my domestic hot water from wood year round.  My home is 100% fossil fuel free.  The high cost of the units and installation are quickly recovered with the savings from no longer needing to pay for high priced fossil fuels.

You can read gasification wood boiler reviews at my website WoodNotOil.com to see what brands and models are on the market.  There are also articles and a discussion forums to help you understand gasification and heat storage.