Mr. South,
Your research does not consider the use of herbicides, pesticides, etc,
to maintain these pine monocultures. Nor does it take into account the
dioxin that is produced by the making of tree based paper. Hemp paper
has been produced by the Chinese for about 2000 years. It lasts longer
than tree based paper (the Declaration of Independence was written on
hemp!!), it doesn't require all of the chemical treatments to be produced,
and it's more Earth friendly than Tree based paper. It also makes a
very fine cloth for clothing (our first American flag was made from
hemp!!). When are you industry supported academics and the "sawdust
heads" that are running corporations and the government going to wake
up? Our children and grandchildren are going to be living in an
environmental hell if you people don't start putting your short term
greed aside and start thinking about this planet's future.
Charles Phillips
On Mon, 10 Oct 1994, David South wrote:
> ARE TREE MONOCULTURES MORE EFFICIENT IN PRODUCING PAPER FIBER
> THAN HEMP MONOCULTURES?
>
> A recent advertisement states "According to the US Department of Agriculture
> hemp produces 4:1 times more paper per land area than trees." However, the data
> cited is about 80 years old (USDA Bulletin #404 was published in 1916). The
> growth rate for wood was 0.37 cord/acre/year (approximately 2.3 cubic
> meters/ha/yr). The title of the Bulletin is "Hemp hurds as paper-making
> material"
> by Lyster H. Dewey and Jason L. Merrill (thanks to Stephanie Bianchi who tracked
> down the reference).
>
> The 1916 Bulletin compares yields of hemp grown in a monoculture (single species
> crop) with yields from trees grown in natural stands (often containing
> several tree
> species per hectare). We now know that wood yields from intensively managed
> monocultures can be greater than that achieved from multiple species native
> stands. Therefore, I suggest those advocating use of hemp paper should
> recalculate the land use efficiency. Current information may show that
> intensive
> tree monocultures require less land per ton of paper than hemp monocultures.
> Some approximate growth rates of tree monocultures in 1994 are:
>
>
> Country cubic meters/ha/yr
>
> Brazil (Eucalyptus) 35
> New Zealand (Pinus) 25
> South Africa (Eucalyptus) 21
> Chile (Pinus) 21
> Congo (Eucalyptus) 20
> South Africa (Pinus) 15
> United Kingdom (Picea) 14
> West US (Pseudotsuga) 14
> Southern US (Pinus) 9
>
>
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
> In 1916, Jason Merrill was concerned about the rapid depletion of forests
> in the
> United States. His work involved making paper from hemp hurds ( a waste
> product of the hemp industry). He expected hemp to be one of the staple
> agricultural crops in the United States and using the waste to make paper could
> reduce the expected shortage of wood paper. Readers may be interested in the
> following comments by Jason Merrill (Bulletin #404).
>
>
> "There seems to be little doubt that the present wood supply can not withstand
> indefinitely the demands placed upon it, and with increased scarcity economy
> in the
> use of wood will become imperative. This effect is already apparent in many
> wood-using industries, and although the paper industry consumes only about 3 per
> cent of the total forest cut, it is probable that it will be affected
> through this
> economy. Our forests are being cut three times as fast as they grow, and as
> wood
> becomes more expensive proper growing and reforesting will receive more
> attention. Thus, naturally, a balance will be established between
> production and
> consumption, but as this condition approaches its limiting values the price
> of wood
> may rise to such levels that there will be a demand for other raw materials."
>
>
>
> What happened in the 8 decades since has been quite different than that
> predicted
> by Merrill. For example, the amount of wood used for paper has increased.
> In 1916, the amount of woodpulp production in the Southern
> United States (South) was about 230,000 metric tons (few pine plantations
> were being
> established). By 1984, the production was up to 35,054,000 metric tons and
> about
> 745,000 hectares of pine monocultures were being established annually in the
> South.
> The amount of annual growth of wood in the Southern US now equals about 153
> million cubic meters/year. Merrill was right when he predicted an increased
> attention to
> tree planting. In 1993, the South grew about 1,123 million tree seedlings
> for reforestation.
>
>
>
> Thank goodness here in the Southern United States, we now have effective fire
> control (the area burned in the South in 1916 was about 4 million hectares)
> as well
> as an efficient replanting program. By the turn of the century, it is
> predicted that
> half of the conifer volume harvested in the South will be from plantation
> monocultures (even though only 23% of the timber stands would be in pine
> plantations). Thanks in part to fire control and monocutures, our growth to
> harvest ratio
> is now 1 to 1. This ratio is much more "sustainable"
> than the 1 to 3 ratio in 1916 when wood was harvested only from native forests.
>
>
> David South
> School of Forestry
> Auburn University, AL 36849-5418
>
> dsouth@forestry.auburn.edu
>
> 205-844-1022
> 205-844-1084 (FAX)
>
>
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