Forest list archive: msg00033

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Re: Fwd: Wood Chip Industry Feeling Mounting Pressure from Citizens



Nelson Wong wrote:
>
> To members of the Forest List,
>
> > In the past decade, at least 100 of the more than 140 chip mills in
> > the Southeast have been constructed.  Annual logging to supply these
> > chip mills has been estimated to exceed 1.2 million acres annually.
> >
> > "Though there has been a vast proliferation of chip mills throughout
> > the Central and Southern US in the past decade to supply the pulp and
> > paper industry, there is little thorough documentation of the impacts
> > of the wood chipping industry despite growing public concern," stated
> > Douglas Sloane, Co-Director of the Southeast Forest Project.
> >
> > Since the beginning of this year, citizens throughout the Southeast
> > have been calling for a region-wide study of the impacts of the wood
> > chipping industry.
>
> To call for a region-wide study is a tunnel vision of the wood-chipping
> industry. One must really begin with the 'why' question - Why did the
> wood chipping industry exist at all? Answer:  Paper & wood-pulp. BTW,
> wood-pulp is also use in picture frames manufacture. So, 'no wood-chips
> = no paper & pulp'.
>
> Second question, take away the paper & pulp, what do you get?  No books,
> magazines, newspapers. Meaning no 'Times, The Boston Globe, Wall Street
> Jounal, Newsweek, PC World, Bibles, Reader Digest, Playboy, Nikkei,
> etc....also no libraries!
>
> If the wood-chipping industry in the USA is not 'green' enough, why not
> import the wood-chips from, say, Canada, New Zealand, Chile, Sweden,
> etc... I am sure their forest management could easily rival the USA. So
> what's the problem? Forest pests & diseases. Now really?
>
> So what are the solutions? Fibre, hemp, grass??? Are these the
> solutions? Can they meet the demands, specifications, price level, of
> the industry? I wonder.
>
> You know what you need in the USA? Environmental organisations with
> their own respectable team of researchers, technologists, business
> strategists, who can talk & communicate with the business world. The
> business world welcomes solutions, not loud mouths!
>
> God bless.
>
> Nelson Wong
> MTC

Well said, Nelson. One and a half million acres a years sounds like a
lot, but it isn't. We could sustain yield that in my own state. Again,
keep thinking and posting, friend.

Sincerely,
Ted



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