Jon wrote:
I remember being given the impression at school that there would soon be no forests left because they were all being cut down for paper. Total rubbish of course, paper companies plant their own trees for paper, nothing could be more renewable than paper and trees, but it was well into adulthood before I realised (and read) what a load of nonsensical propaganda I'd grown up believing.
Took part, as a volunteer, years ago growing hybrid poplar for the pulp paper industry.
The basic idea was that they grew fast but instead of felling the entire tree machines `harvested' the topmost branches only; this could be repeated, like a pollard willow, every few years.
As a side note also remember the paper industry here uses waste residue as a fuel for their boilers to economize on fuel !
Modern `TimberJack' machinery cuts only to the onboard computer requirements, constantly updated by radio from the mill, strips surplus bark and branches on site then mulches it into the forest floor right where the lumber is cut !!!