20 replies to this topic

[Shortpoet-GTD]

"Bamboo may provide a solution to a very serious problem:  deforestation.
Every year Africa loses forest cover equal to the size of Switzerland.

Deforestation starts a vicious circle of drought and environmental decline.  
Burning wood releases the carbon stored inside.  
And deforestation accounts for at least a fifth of all carbon emissions globally.  As tree cover vanishes, the land dries out and the soil erodes and becomes barren.

Cut down a hardwood tree and it’s gone.
A new bamboo plant is mature enough to harvest after 3-6 years.
Most important, bamboo is renewable.  Unlike hardwood trees, bamboo regrows after harvesting,
just as grass regrows after cutting.  
Its roots grab onto soil and hold it fast. Plant bamboo on a steep slope or riverbank and it prevents mudslides and erosion.

In Ethiopia; trees covered 35% of the country a century ago; by 2000 they covered just 3%.
In 2007 alone the country planted 700 million trees, but even a huge, continuing campaign
may not  be enough to reverse deforestation."

http://opinionator.b...usegasemissions

It can be invasive, but in this case, could that be a good thing?
The mono-culture aspect of it is troubling.
Sure, it's better than barren land but palm oil harvesting, for instance, (another mono-culture) is devastating rain-forests.
Mono-cultures wipe out the diversity of the natural habitat and can endanger more species
that require more than one food source.
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6059

Your thought? Pro's/con's?

[milano]

Great Idea but reforestation even if you use other trees is always great in my opinion. I also don't think bamboos would do great in terms of soil erosion/water but I might be wrong. I also know some larger trees that can grow faster or the same as bamboos.

[hunysukle]

I think growing bamboo trees to prevent deforestation is a great idea because bamboo trees grow much faster than other trees. Bamboo is also a highly renewable resource.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

hunysukle, on 02 April 2012 - 01:40 PM, said:

I think growing bamboo trees to prevent deforestation is a great idea because bamboo trees grow much faster than other trees. Bamboo is also a highly renewable resource.

True, but aren't you worried about the mono-culture and the loss of habitat that have to have the
diversity to survive?

[E3 wise]

ShortPoet-  I love how you start these discussions to spur critical thinking, you’re just too cool in my book.

Ok here is my thought, deciduous trees & conifers provide a wide range of different seeds, cones, and leaves.  This provides habitat and food along with shade, water retention, and of course seeds that feed countless species.  Trees, well without them there is much less rain away from the coasts and by providing support for top soil, prevent erosion.

Bamboo however is in the family Poaceae or true grass family meaning that they put out Rhizomes which means that they send out shoots that pop up in other areas.  In other words this is not a true tree.  Now the bamboo can be used to make wood like products like flooring and boxes and other stuff, heck the Chinese use it for scaffolding on skyscrapers to this day.  (I am 100% serious, I was watching a special on building in china and the workers were using bamboo scaffolds 20 stories up.)

All great for reducing wood usage but not a great solution for deforestation. Commercial Timber bamboo is mostly in the genus Phyllostachys, meaning that if a disease infects the area then there is much less bamboo.

Habitat restoration is all about planting the type of trees that existed there naturally so the animals and ecosystem is restored, walnut, hickory, oak, maple ,beech, ebony, cypress, mahogany are all threatened these and many more are what need to be replanted.

My rule has always been use nature as the template or plan for your work.  Now some times is its too late.

In 2008 I read this story
Thousands of Trees at Risk of Extinction
  Seventy-eight species of oak trees are globally threatened with extinction, including 17 species that are under threat in the United States.  In the Amazon several very important species are close to being gone.  It’s not the first time man has wiped out species of trees, examples include Easter Island, Dade County Pine.

July 18, 2011 The Fish and Wildlife Service determined Monday that whitebark pine, a tree found atop mountains across the American West, faces an “imminent” risk of extinction because of factors including climate change. Makes me sad to be a human being.
Bamboo is a great product for some places but for deforestation we need to replant the type of trees that are threatened.

My view

[zararina]

I also think that planting bamboo is a good idea since it is faster to grow but maybe combining it with some other types of tress would be better. We still need fruit bearing trees not only for human source of food but also for other living creatures in the forest. And also some woods uses cannot be replaced by the bamboo.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

E3 wise, on 02 April 2012 - 06:01 PM, said:

ShortPoet-  I love how you start these discussions to spur critical thinking, you’re just too cool in my book.

If you keep giving me these compliments, my head won't fit into my room (and I've got 10' ceilings in here.)

Thank you for your thoughtful post.
And I can't help but wonder if anyone in these countries is bringing this up to the "powers that be"?

Sure, bamboo is a short term solution for holding soil from eroding, providing cover for the forest floor, etc.
but it is not the long term solution, imo.

Not all animals can adjust to a diet of just bamboo for lunch. Birds, bats, insects-a whole host of species
will either be lost or move somewhere where their natural habitat (if any if left) is still available.

What people fail to realize too, is that by clear-cutting and/or burning rainforests, we're forcing the
oceans of the planet to absorb even more CO-2 and they're becoming more and more acidic because of it.  

The good part of this is that people in the area can burn bamboo for charcoal, for cooking/heating rather
than using hardwoods.

[mariaandrea]

I'm with E3wise. Stick with trees natural to an area when addressing reforestation efforts. We have enough problems with invasive species taking over pockets where they don't belong all over the globe.

But, from what I've read so far, commercially grown and harvested bamboo is a sustainable resource and it might be a good idea to use it more extensively, replacing the use of regular timber and reducing deforestation.

[Phil]

I'd also go with natural species.   All too often the law of unintended consequences turns around and bites you in the behind.  All trees, including hardwoods, can be reforested, some just take longer than others.  Mimicing nature is always the safe bet.

[katdolores]

Why not plant bamboo trees just for a temporary time, while the big, original trees are growing? Can this be possible? Can the two grow together in one area at the same time?

[4leafclover]

I think reforestation, be it done with bamboo or anything else should always be the choice. If we are considering long-term reforestation (that is to completely and permanently put back what was lost without the intention of cutting it back again) is best done with fruit-bearing trees and other sturdy trees there is. With fruit-bearing tress once can ensure economic kickback from the reforestation activity.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

katdolores, on 04 April 2012 - 12:52 AM, said:

Why not plant bamboo trees just for a temporary time, while the big, original trees are growing? Can this be possible? Can the two grow together in one area at the same time?

I know in some area's they are doing that regarding palm oil forests. They plant the palms interspersed within
existing trees, so it's not as harmful as clear cutting and planting nothing but palms.
In this case, though-I don't know. They may think that planting just bamboo is a good thing and are not
worried about diversity.

[jigger]

My question is whether bamboo has the same wood quality and capabilities as other trees. If not, then woodcutting companies probably wont be attracted to bamboos. Also, does bamboo really have the same effects as other trees such as an oak tree. It's a great idea , but it's never good to be dependent on one species of plant. You know...if some disease arises in the future that kills bamboos, there will be massive chaos. You could relate it to the Irish famine when the potato crop died out. Good idea, but you also need a Plan B just in case something happens.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

jigger, on 07 April 2012 - 05:42 PM, said:

My question is whether bamboo has the same wood quality and capabilities as other trees. If not, then woodcutting companies probably wont be attracted to bamboos. Also, does bamboo really have the same effects as other trees such as an oak tree. It's a great idea , but it's never good to be dependent on one species of plant. You know...if some disease arises in the future that kills bamboos, there will be massive chaos. You could relate it to the Irish famine when the potato crop died out. Good idea, but you also need a Plan B just in case something happens.

Bamboo is not a tree, per se. It's a grass.

[E3 wise]

I was going over some information for a habitat restoration group we support and I found that they also recommend bamboo as a substitute for many wood products.  Their feeling, (and I must say it sound logical) is to replace wood products with something more sustainable and fast growing, exactly the point Short Poet brought up.  Now they also point out the need for recycling paper products and other woods like those from old buildings, and using woods that grow faster like pines and others.

Here is an example – chopsticks in China alone the average amount of disposable chopsticks used was calculated to be the equivalent of 25 million trees this was reported in a article from the Associate Press discussing China adding a 5% tax to reduce use on May 12 of 2006. Current figures are hard to find but add in the use of chopsticks from all the other countries including the United States and you can see that this is a lot of trees being used for chopsticks.

Now already many producers use bamboo for chopsticks so transitioning to this solution could really help our forests.
Here was another solution given Rattan – Rattan comes from palms and is much faster growing than many other wood types.  It can be harvested sustainably and still allows for strong, good looking furniture.

Next- reclaimed wood and better building practices.  Limiting wasted wood when building homes is a great way to reduce wood usage.  Using computer aided design and incorporating programs to limit wood waste can help reduce the amount of wood being harvested.

Finally urban wood waste is an area that many times goes unseen, by incorporating these waste streams into products such as mulch, charcoal production and other wood products could help reduce the amount taken from forests.

I am just worried that we are repeating the same thing that happened with Easter Island on a World Scale over a very long time span.

Originally the first humans on Easter Island found a place covered with forests of trees and palms, yet over a few hundred years all these trees were cut down, this changed the entire ecology of the Island, water dried up, birds stopped nesting on the Island and many other animal became extinct due to the loss of habitat and over hunting.  In the end the Island became grassland that could not support the population and many people died.  Later contact with white men and disease finally decimated the population.

Now does any of this sound familiar to anyone else besides me?  In the 1700’s the United States had millions of acres of Hardwood forest.  Today the National Forest Service estimates only 15% is still left, arid land grows as forests are cut down, deserts begin to take over as the Hydrological cycle is cut off, meaning droughts occur more often and deserts can appear and grow.

Using things like bamboo can help, and along with reforestation and Habitat renewal can make a big difference, programs in Africa, the middle east and Europe are proving that we can replant forests.

So ok lets plant some bamboo and trees, and reduce, reuse and recycle.  Arbor Day is coming so lets see what we can do locally to help our planets trees.

[mariaandrea]

E3 wise, on 08 April 2012 - 12:21 PM, said:

I was going over some information for a habitat restoration group we support and I found that they also recommend bamboo as a substitute for many wood products.  Their feeling, (and I must say it sound logical) is to replace wood products with something more sustainable and fast growing, exactly the point Short Poet brought up.  Now they also point out the need for recycling paper products and other woods like those from old buildings, and using woods that grow faster like pines and others.

Here is an example – chopsticks in China alone the average amount of disposable chopsticks used was calculated to be the equivalent of 25 million trees this was reported in a article from the Associate Press discussing China adding a 5% tax to reduce use on May 12 of 2006. Current figures are hard to find but add in the use of chopsticks from all the other countries including the United States and you can see that this is a lot of trees being used for chopsticks.

Now already many producers use bamboo for chopsticks so transitioning to this solution could really help our forests.
Here was another solution given Rattan – Rattan comes from palms and is much faster growing than many other wood types.  It can be harvested sustainably and still allows for strong, good looking furniture.

Next- reclaimed wood and better building practices.  Limiting wasted wood when building homes is a great way to reduce wood usage.  Using computer aided design and incorporating programs to limit wood waste can help reduce the amount of wood being harvested.

Finally urban wood waste is an area that many times goes unseen, by incorporating these waste streams into products such as mulch, charcoal production and other wood products could help reduce the amount taken from forests.

I am just worried that we are repeating the same thing that happened with Easter Island on a World Scale over a very long time span.

Originally the first humans on Easter Island found a place covered with forests of trees and palms, yet over a few hundred years all these trees were cut down, this changed the entire ecology of the Island, water dried up, birds stopped nesting on the Island and many other animal became extinct due to the loss of habitat and over hunting.  In the end the Island became grassland that could not support the population and many people died.  Later contact with white men and disease finally decimated the population.

Now does any of this sound familiar to anyone else besides me?  In the 1700’s the United States had millions of acres of Hardwood forest.  Today the National Forest Service estimates only 15% is still left, arid land grows as forests are cut down, deserts begin to take over as the Hydrological cycle is cut off, meaning droughts occur more often and deserts can appear and grow.

Using things like bamboo can help, and along with reforestation and Habitat renewal can make a big difference, programs in Africa, the middle east and Europe are proving that we can replant forests.

So ok lets plant some bamboo and trees, and reduce, reuse and recycle.  Arbor Day is coming so lets see what we can do locally to help our planets trees.

I like it. Awesome post.

And, if people are looking for a small business to open, our city has 2 reclaimed building materials stores that do a roaring trade. They recover materials from commercial and residential building sites and people bring things in to sell or trade and other people come in looking for cheap materials for remodeling, building, artwork and crafts. Keeps things out of industrial landfills.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

If only common sense could be taught, we'd be doing ok.

[joeldgreat]

If the goal is helping our forest to recover from its loss, then every nice idea is welcome for me. If bamboo would be a better and fast alternative of re-planting our forest, then I think I would agree with your suggestion. I think bamboo do really help a lot as you had already mentioned. My only concern is that bamboos were very prone to fires as they have lots of dried leaves which can easily attracts fires (like lightnings).

[angeldrb]

Planting bamboo to stop deforestation has its advantages and disadvantages. On the upside, bamboo grows quickly and it is thicker than trees which only have one trunk. On the downside, bamboo is prone to forest fires. It burns quickly and the fire spreads fast. It might help if bamboo is not the only one being planted. After all, forests need a variety of plants and trees for the animals inhabiting them.

[Pat]

This is a very thoughtful thread.  I agree that we need to have a variety of plants and trees for food for the animals in the area where they live.  Cutting down trees without thought to the effect it will have on the environment it a big problem.

People who do not understand that the tree hold the soil in place, cleans the air and is home to other species need to be educated before they cut the tree down.

This goes for all plants not just trees.  My daughter pulled up some plants before checking with me that caused a lot of soil to be washed into the street when it rained, not knowing the bushes held the soil in place.