Site Discussions

Annette,
It is not really possible to tell what is bothering your trees from your description. Can you contact a county forester or extension agent to help you? It would be best if someone could come to look at your trees. It doesn’t sound like an insect to me, unless the gouges are very tiny.
Good luck with this!

WE HAVE SEVERAL PINE TREES THAT GROW IN OUR BACK YARD THAT LOOK LIKE THEY HAVE BEEN KEYED. THEY HAVE SEVERAL GOUGES IN THE BARK THAT LOOK LIKE THE TREE IS TRIING TO SPLIT OPEN. SAP IS COMING OUT OF THESE GOUGES AND DRIPPING ONTO THE GROUND. IS THIS A NATURAL PROCESS OR IS IT CAUSED BY SOME TYPE OF INFESTATION? IF YOU CAN HELP ANSWER THESE QUESTION OR DIRECT ME TO SOMEONE WHO CAN, THANK YOU IN ADVANCE.

Hi Elizabeth,

At Northern Woodlands, we publish information about forestry, but unfortunately don’t offer any forestry services ourselves.  If you need assistance locating a consulting forester, logger or lumber yard, please let us know.

Do you buy lumber? I have 5 hemlocks that need to be cut and that I want to sell as lumber.

The best thing is to get the opinion of a professional arborist. Someone who works with urban trees needs to make an assessment on site about the extent of any damage. The City of Denver provides a list of arborists at http://www.denvergov.org/TreeContractors/ConsultingArboristList/tabid/387524/Default.aspx.

There is a LYME DISEASE SUPPORT GROUP the fourth Thursday of the month at the Concord Public Library, 129 Main St., Concord, MA 7-9 pm.  It is open to those who would like to share their experiences and learn more about present legislation and resources, and information on the internet.  The next meeting will be September 25, 2008.  No meeting in August.  For more information call Rose at (978) 369-2396 or e-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

We had a sprinkler repair company cut a large root (ten inches) right at the base of the tree.  The tree is approx 25 yrs old, and the main trunk is probably 18 inches in diameter.  Will this tree die?  I don’t want to pay the repair company because they cut the root without asking, and we think the tree will be damaged, but it may take 2-4 years to know for sure that there will be damage.

What do you recommend?  Thanks,

Please visit the websites below to learn more about OWBs and the victims they have claimed throughout the U.S.:
http://www.myspace.com/freedomofair
http://www.freewebs.com/freedomofair
http://burningissues.org

The problem is this as quoted by the U.S. EPA: “Current outdoor wood-fired heaters are substantially less efficient and more polluting than other home-heating devices.” That pretty much sums it up. An OWB creates on average 72 g/hr of pm 2.5 particulate matter as compared to other forms of heating (even with wood) of: OWB = 72 g/hr Conventional Wood Stove = 18 g/hr EPA Certified Stove = 6 g/hr Oil Furnace = 0.07 g/hr Gas Furnace = 0.04 g/hr Secondly, these DON’T I repeat DON’T save a person money. These cost around at minimum $10,000 to install and operate before you even throw your first log on the fire? So when someone claims “I can’t afford my bills” well they sure could afford $10,000 to buy on of these monstrosities. I know I don’t have $10,000 to throw down on anything much less, something like this. So don’t believe the “I’m so poor I can’t heat my home” argument because it is all bogus. So in closing would you want this across from your house?

Walter—

I highly recommend the forums at the website http://www.hearth.com. The “Green Room” has many discussions about solar, and the “Boiler Room” has lots about wood gasifying boilers. We are currently installing a wood boiler at our home and already have solar electric and hot water systems in place.

In general, the thinking seems to be that heating a house in New England entirely with solar hot water is not a good way to go. You’d need a very large number of collectors for the winter (8-12, maybe more), and would need to drain/cover/remove all but 2 or 3 of them in the summer to keep the system from boiling. The current thinking is to install enough solar to provide all of your domestic hot water during the non-heating season, then use a wood boiler for both during the heating season.

Good luck!

I’m looking for tips how to install a wood boiler (EKO 40) into my existing oil boiler heating system with 4 heating zones and using the oil boiler as an back up which will automatically jump on if the wood boiler fire goes out.  I was hoping to use my existing thermostat and pump system form the oil boiler.

Very nice usable information and advice. Our home has eastern exposure, no tall trees around close urban area. I am thinking to install sun water heating system and electric collection panels. At this moment searching for information and costs associated with it. If you or same one has ability to help us we appreciated.

There is a LYME DISEASE SUPPORT GROUP the fourth Thursday of the month at the Concord Public Library, 129 Main St., Concord, MA 7-9 pm.  It is open to those who would like to share their experiences and learn more about present legislation and resources, and information on the internet.  For more information call Rose at (978) 369-2396 or e-mail Roseruze@verizon.net.  The next meeting is scheduled for July 24, 2008.

We were just at an Energy Fair in Custer, Wisconsin. We will be converting our curved roof barn into our home (barn footprint is 36 by 104 feet, and 25 feet to-the-peak). We are looking at alternative sources of energy for heating/cooling the structure and thought that the Energy Fair would ba a great place to get educated. We wanted information on Wind Turbines for electricity generation, solar for both PhotoVoltaic and passive heat capture, etc. We currently heat our ~2,000 sq ft (totally uninsulated) 150 year old farm home with an EMPYRE 450 outdoor wood burner, using pallet wood. Only way we can afford to heat it!

While wandering around the exhibits at the Energy Fair my wife, my step son and I unexpectedly came across the GARN booth and got excited…..highly efficient burn, nice reservoir of stored heat, and we CAN put it into the basement (formerly milking parlor) of the barn/home. Pretty awesome.

The information we got from the GARN GUYS alone made our 3 hour drive to the Energy Fair worth the trek. 

My wife particularly likes (a) the fact that there is negative air pressure ‘at the door’ - so no more smelling like a fireplace after loading the burner, and (b) we can have the unit inside the house - so no more getting all bundled up just to go out and load the burner.

I agree - we WILL be buying a GARN for the heating of our soon to be converted, new home. We will sell our 3 year old EMPYRE outdoor wood burner (which has and continues to function admirably for us) and move to the GARN.

Requesting permission to post article on our website…
minnesotalymeactiongroup.com

Great article!!!!!!!

Thanks, Laura

I had the good fortune to host Charlie last month when he was in RI for a lecture on his studies. (What a great guy to walk in the woods with!) One of the interesting topics in his lecture was the various names of trees found in the town survey archives, e.g. “pepperidge” as an early term for Nyssa sylvatica. This might be an interesting topic for a magazine article.

like it

Requesting permission to print a copy of this article for display at our monthly support group meetings and at our Lyme run/walk benefit coming up?

Minnesota Lyme Action Support Group
http://www.mlasg.com

The areas in the migratory flyways for ducks and geese are where Lyme disease has been well documented since the late 1970’s. There was a lengthy article in Scientific American in late ‘70’s or early ‘80’s. At Cornell University there was a Dr. Aaron Moen who did deer population studies at numerous locations in North America, and correlated the deer densities when transfer of disease normally in animals are transferred to humans (often through intermediate hosts as the mouse). He believed that having deer populations in the range of 10% to 20% of annual new growth available for deer consumption should be the goal in order to minimize disease transfer. Unfortunately, Fish and Wildlife want to manage populations at 100% of carrying capacity to optimize hunter success i.e. sell more licenses. The public that wants to “save Bamby”, does not realize that deer multiply faster than rabbits as long as food is available. A doe will have one offspring in her first year, and if food is available will have twins or triplets each year for the next 12-14 years. You do the math. The denser the people populations are at the wildlife interface, bad disease things will appear. I worked with Dr. Moen for twelve years on a deer study and population management on a privately owned 14,000 acre research forest in Kentucky. Results could be seen and documented within 24 months.
The bad thing about the Lyme Disease bacteria is, being very similar to that causing syphilis, and living in the nervous system; what will be the long term medical outcome, with or without proper diagnosis, and treatment, we still do not know…dementia and ultimately death. Not a pleasant thought, but a reality. Mac.

I’m a 49 year-old man who was diagnosed last August with what appears to be chronic Lyme Disease.  I say “appears to be chronic” because of the 10 or so co-infections; the extensive progression of the disease that SPECT and MRI studies of my brain have revealed; and because I have no clue just when I was infected - it could have been YEARS AGO!
Anyway, after 8 months of treatment, including a complete change in diet; dietary supplements; and about 100,000 milligrams of doxycycline, I’m beginning to feel relief from the (almost exclusively) mental effects of this devastating disease.  But the hard part for me is knowing when I can safely discontinue taking antibiotics (though I do intend to maintain the healthier lifestyle I’ve learned and internalized through all of this).  Does anyone have any experience with long-term treatment, and if/when it is ever safe to discontinue 400-mg/day antibiotic use.  I’m very concerned about some of the studies I’ve found that indicate that long-term antibiotic use can be harmful.  Thanks.