rehctub,

I’ve been a little late in joining your thread on the use of timber. Mostly because I’ve been putting in a new timber fence for my son- in-law, extending the house with a timber framed, brick clad, 22 sq mt, three level extension and a bio furnace, wood burning energy system.

Timber is great, I like the smell, the look, the grain, the malleability, durability, ease of construction and the way it burns. (just ask the pink bats customers).

Timber has something for everyone. The Greenies love it because it locks up CO2, providing you don’t burn it (accidentally or otherwise). They also love the fact that they can control supply by activist legislation. The Europeans love it because you can convert coal fired Power Stations to bio-fuel in the form of imported wood chips from Canada without EU penalty.

Governments love it because you can burn as much timber as you like in your power stations under “renewable energy obligations” whilst releasing the very same CO2 that you once purported to save?

The public loves it because we can buy cheap timber furniture from Asia that we in Australia are restricted from processing due to 5,342 regulations that prevent us from competing.

The politicians love timber because they can redefine it as, renewable, old growth, hardwood, chipping, staple, farmed, plantation or political timber, depending on your party of preference and the day of the week.

Trade Unions love timber because they can exploit their own hypocrisy by supporting jobs in the timber industry whilst destroying those same jobs by aligning themselves with Green ideology to save the planet.

The Banks and finance industry love timber because nobody has a freaking clue what, why or how they are doing but need some money whilst they work it out.

Financiers and industrial opportunists love steel, coal, timber, legislation, nuclear, renewables, mining of everything, lignite, coking coal and palm oil. Basically anything that they can turn into money because the rest of the numb nuts on this planet have lost their brains

I'm also one of those who came in late.

But I love timber: you can build the nicest bookshelves out of lumber and pulp the leftovers for paper to make books to enshrine on your bookshelf and also read.

It broadens the mind and it's an excellent carbon sink.

Ban e-books!

If the Rosetta Stone wasn't a stone we wouldn't have been able to decipher hieroglyphics. If the Dead Sea Scrolls weren't scrolls we've had lost a lot of Biblical history. If the Domesday Book wasn't a book and the Bayeux Tapestry wasn't a tapestry we'd have lost a lot of English history.

Imagine a world without Aristotle, Chaucer or Swift. If they'd been recorded on e-books their ideas would not have survived.

You can't preserve history in electrons and LEDs. Once the power goes so does the history.

Bring back the book! And by default, the (hopefully timber constructed) bookshelves!

Cheers,

Tony

Shaggy Dog regards, drop out fever got tome in trying to answer your post.
Jarrah, yes heard of it and let us be honest, this country until about50 years ago built homes with hardwood frames and some stand today.
We have great hardwoods and they are valued in other parts of the world

Here is our problem in my view, if we plant three for every tree used, reducing to two as we near wanted plantations/forests we can give our old growth forests a rest.
And no matter how long it takes to grow a tree the day will come we have plenty to meet any wants.
We set up barriers to real results by oposeing without thought the other sides points.
Both sides can win this one and carbon reduction comes as a result.
Comments about pine being a dead area plant, forget the soil they and for that matter most hard woods grow in is poor.

One problem with plantation hardwood is that it's just not stacking up, as it grows too fast.

At the end of the day, I am not suggesting we stop using steel, however, for every ton of steel converted to wood, we store about 500kg of carbon.

Has to be worth a look.

Belly,
Good morning to you.
Back a bit I developed a real interest in dry land timber and ended up with a dry land tree farm as a result.
Made a lot of mistakes but did learn quite a bit along the way. It is just an interest these days, I still have a good collection of information on the subject and despite advancing years am still inclined to scramble up trees to collect seed for propagation.
There have been some good rains in the area that interests me the most and the country is looking good, a few ambles into the bush this summer will be on the agenda.
Take it easy.
SD

Saggy Dog well small world, I have an interest in the bush and its many plants including trees.
Not so much my age but illness has nearly stopped my walks.
Still get in my small 4x4 on a Winter Sunday, tuned to NRL broadcast and go bush.
Great way to clear the mind, sometimes find myself down at the bottom of a hill that is near impossible to get back up, do so sometimes after much hard work.
I have friends who are very much involved in forest preservation, some times they seem to fear using any timber.
Clear felling in this state is killing the forest introducing weeds that are near impossible to remove.