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[waldron] 10/4/2007 06:13

Last Updated: Tuesday, 10 April 2007, 03:47 GMT 04:47 UK

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Snowy forests 'increase warming'

The report suggests deforestation is not always harmful
Planting trees in snowy areas may worsen global warming as their canopies absorb sunlight which would otherwise be reflected by the snow, a study says.

The report in US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says the pine forests of Europe, Siberia and Canada may contribute to warming.

Only tropical forests effectively cool the earth by absorbing carbon dioxide and creating clouds, the report says.

But the report's authors stress they are not advocating chopping down trees.

They say forests are a valuable resource and remain vital for bio-diversity, providing a home for animals and plants.

'Lively discussion'

Scientists have long argued that planting and preserving forests helps reduce global warming because trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it to oxygen.

Trees also absorb water from the ground, helping to form clouds that shield the earth from sunlight.

But the report's findings, discussed last year at an American Geophysical Union meeting and now published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest planting forests indiscriminately may be counter-productive.


Rainforests do help stop global warming, the report says

"Our new study shows that only tropical rainforests are strongly beneficial in helping slow down global warming," Govindasamy Bala of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory says.

In cooler areas of the earth, tree cover helps store sunlight reflected by snow on the ground and this "cancels or exceeds" the net cooling effect, Mr Bala told the AFP news agency.

Another author of the report, Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution, said the report suggested it is "more important to preserve and restore tropical forests than had been previously realised".

But, he told the Associated Press news agency, he was "a little concerned about this being misapplied as an excuse to chop down the forests in the name of saving the environment".

Computer models produced by the report's authors suggested deforestation in higher latitudes could reduce global warming.

Steven W Running, a professor of ecology at the University of Montana, praised the report's authors for "sparking a lively scientific discussion".

But Mr Running, who was not involved in the report, said it was too early to base policy on the report's conclusion that certain types of reforestation might be counter-productive.

[waldron] 25/3/2007 10:05

GuitarLumber





'http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/ggu/lowres/ggun268l.jpg

[waldron] 21/1/2007 11:57

wb,

apparently we are going to get snow tuesday and wednesday

i wonder whether the meteo guys get the weather right this time.

[waldron] 21/1/2007 11:54

its protected up until you make a claim.

[wild bill] 21/1/2007 11:53

"warning that not everything is as protected by insurance as people may think"

Is it ever?

[waldron] 21/1/2007 10:43

Insurers offer guidance on storms
Andrew Foxwell, Mail on Sunday
21 January 2007

The Association of British Insurers has provided advice to those households affected by the recent storms, warning that not everything is as protected by insurance as people may think.


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The ABI's Malcolm Tarling said that roof tiles falling off, one of the most common forms of storm damage, is protected by standard household policies, and insurers will pay out for replacements.
If however the fallen tiles have caused leakages with water coming through, Tarling says people need to either contact the 24-hour emergency repair hotlines that most insurers have, or contact a local repairman yourself.

'If you want to get a local builder to fix the problems then just keep the receipts and you can claim the money back from the insurer,' he says.

When it comes to damage to your car, the situation gets a little more complicated.

If, for example, a tree has fallen onto your car, then you will only be certainly protected if you have comprehensive motor insurance.

If you merely have third party cover, then to claim anything you will need to take a claim out against the owner of the tree, and prove they were negligent.

However, Tarling says that in most cases 'this is very difficult to prove'. Again the importance of negligence is highlighted when it comes to injury – if for example one of your roof slates falls onto you then you can make a claim if you have personal accident insurance; if the slate is your neighbour's then you need to prove they were negligent.

Surprisingly, Tarling says that storm damage to gates and fences are not normally covered by insurance.

However, he says that if a tree or branch falls onto a property then most insurers will pay out.

Finally, for those estimated 30,000 households who were left without electricity because of the storm – most household policies let you claim for the cost of the food which has been ruined because the fridge and freezer didn't work.

[waldron] 20/1/2007 19:24

Fire danger fuels trees-for-fuel plans


O'BRIEN, Ore. (AFX) - After nearly 90 years of sawing
pine and Douglas fir logs into lumber, Rough & Ready Lumber Co. is branching
into the energy business, building a $5 million plant to burn logging debris and
to produce electricity that it can sell at a "green tag" premium to the regional
power grid.
"It's ripe," said Rough & Ready President Link Phillippi, who hopes to have
a 1.5 megawatt plant up and running by this fall. "There are the economic
benefits, the benefits of healthy forests, and the benefit of a country needing
renewable energy -- clean energy."
The idea of burning wood waste -- known as hog fuel -- to produce energy at
wood products and pulp mills is an old one that was going nowhere as long as
fossil fuels were cheap, and logging was cut back to protect fish and wildlife
habitat.
But leaders in the timber industry realize that energy production can help
finance widespread thinning of national forests to combat wildfires and insect
infestations. And the concept has a newer, catchier name -- biomass energy --
that helps align it with the wider movement linking economic and environmental
concerns, including reducing dependence on fossil fuels.
Since Congress reauthorized a federal energy production tax credit for
biomass, solar and wind power last month, at least two other sawmills in Oregon
are going forward with biomass projects.
Another is slated for Arizona in conjunction with a long-term U.S. Forest
Service thinning project there triggered by the massive 2002 Rodeo-Chedeski
fire. More are foreseen in California, which has a long history of generating
electricity from forest thinnings.
Steve Mueller, president of DG Energy LLC of San Diego, which is building a
new plant in Lakeview, said there are three keys. A generating plant needs to be
close to the fuel -- trucking little trees much more than 35 miles is too
expensive. It must be close to a major electrical transmission line. And it
needs to be close to a mill to buy the excess steam.
Plants burning forest thinnings and waste from lumber and pulp mills
generate about 2,500 megawatts nationally -- far behind wind power in
production, popularity and government support -- said Bill Carlson, chairman of
USA biomass Power Producers Alliance.
Burning mill waste and logging debris, which formerly had gone to waste, can
reduce the cost of thinning the millions of acres of national forest at high
risk of catastrophic wildfire.
"We are giving the forester, the manager of the land, another economic tool
to work with, whether it is to thin the forest, remove disease, or just for
general economic activity," said Allyn Ford, president of Roseburg Forest
Products, which already has a biomass generator at its mill complex in Dillard,
Ore.
"When you compare the value of the electricity to the value of restoring the
health of the forest, I would say restoring the health of the forest is at least
as valuable as the energy that is produced," Carlson said.
Two things are holding it back, people in the industry say. Federal energy
credits for biomass remain about half the levels for solar and wind power,
something advocates hope to see corrected this year.
And the Forest Service has developed just one long-term contract for forest
thinning. Without a long-term contract, developers are wary of investing
millions of dollars.
"If the Forest Service got serious about this and wanted to solve 50 percent
of the (forest thinning) problem over the next two decades, there might be 5,000
to 10,000 megawatts of biomass power," said Carlson.
A report for the Western Governors Association estimates biomass in the West
has a potential to produce more than 10,000 megawatts -- about 1 percent of the
nation's production by 2015. About half would come from forest thinning. The
rest from urban waste and agriculture.
Spurred by the massive Rodeo-Chedeski fire of 2002, which burned 400 homes,
the Apache-Sitgraves National Forest in Arizona has let a 10-year contract to
thin 150,000 acres that is generating small logs for lumber, wood pellets for
stoves, and fueling a 3 megawatt biomass plant, said Forest Supervisor Elaine
Zieroth.
Zieroth said having buyers for the trees too small for lumber helps reduce
the cost of thinning from $900 an acre to $500 an acre. If forest service
officials could expand the market enough to break even, they could easily thin
800,000 acres that need it.
Future projects are being developed, but likely will remain small, geared to
local needs and conditions, said Marcia Patton-Mallory, biomass coordinator for
the Forest Service.
Environmentalists are wary. Although they like the idea that biomass
generation can help pay for forest thinning, they want natural fire to take over
once the thinning is done.
"One should not consider biomass energy sustainable or renewable," said
environmental consultant Andy Kerr, who has been working to help more biomass
projects get up and running. "Because for the most part, after these forests
have been thinned, you don't want them to get thick again, certainly not thick
enough to be economically feasible to cut the trees down and haul them to the
biomass energy incinerator."
For now, the grants and tax credits make construction of a biomass plant too
good to pass up, making it possible to pay back the estimated $5 million
investment in four years instead of 10, said Phillippi of Rough & Ready Lumber.
"These plants were always unaffordable because of our size," said Phillippi.
But with the grants and tax credits, "It looked pretty good. We went ahead and
did it. We're glad we did."

[ariane] 20/1/2007 06:48

Cause for concern?

The Almond Tree is budding already.

[waldron] 14/1/2007 12:29

Last Updated: Sunday, 14 January 2007, 11:36 GMT

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Bugs threaten Italian chestnuts

Chestnuts have huge significance in Italy's rural and culinary history
Alarm is growing in Tuscany, one of Italy's top tourist destinations, after the arrival of a possibly devastating threat to the region's chestnut trees.
A Chinese insect, which has previously appeared further south near the capital Rome, is now attacking some of the country's finest chestnut forests.

The 2.5cm-long gall wasp has a black body and yellow legs.

Experts say they can eat as much as 80% of a large chestnut tree's fruit. The bug is also difficult to eradicate.

The BBC's Mark Duff in Milan says the chestnut has almost totemic significance in the rural and culinary history of Italy.

For centuries it meant the difference between life and death for poor peasants with little else to eat, our correspondent says.

Confirmation of its nutritious properties came last week when a walker who spent 12 days lost in the Tuscan hills told rescuers he had survived on a combination of river water and chestnuts

[wild bill] 11/1/2007 00:29

bummer of a day, early start, was North of the border, just back, no pub tonight boo hoo, catch you later

[waldron] 10/1/2007 06:25

wb

just being silly as always.

must have been another branch of the family tree

lovely walks in that area and the history fascinating as you well know


enjoy your day

[wild bill] 09/1/2007 22:52

waldron - 9 Jan'07 - 19:29 - 64 of 66

Eh?

[waldron] 09/1/2007 21:28

great--------------------

[pc4900074200] 09/1/2007 21:17

I have been glued to this for an hour or so.

Who needs a tv.



Wall to wall woodwork and for free.

pc

:-]

[waldron] 09/1/2007 19:29

a yer you must know the murton's down on yonder farm

they left their plough there on moor donkeys years ago.


it begun as a meeting place then became a pub