8 replies to this topic

[aspen]

I live in Tasmania where forestry is done in an industrial way, that is clear-felled. Things are slowly changing thanks to a long hard campaign by environmentalists. One thing that seems not have changed is the annual burn offs in the coupes supposedly for re-seeding purposes. After the forest and animals have been destroyed bulldozers push what's left into massive windrows. Helicopters are then deployed dropping napalm onto these piles to start a massive fire. This autumn 240 such fires are to be lit. The smoke from these hopefully rises high enough to be taken away by high altitude winds and out to sea.
One consolation these days is after a lot of complaints the public is notified and people with breathing ailments are warned to stay indoors.
For a look at their new site google  Planned Burns Tasmania.

[still learning]

aspen, on 27 March 2012 - 06:26 PM, said:

.....forestry is done in an industrial way, that is clear-felled....... start a massive fire.......

Seems awfully third-worldish.

I just tried looking at Tasmania with Google Earth for the first time.  Lots of clearcut scars visible.

Stumbled on this site via Google Earth :  http://www.wildernes...-business-model   Guess mismanagement and misappropriation of public lands and resouces happens everywhere....

[aspen]

Here is a Forestry burn one of many this weekend. It was taken by Miranda Gibson perched 60metres in her tree sit named the Observer Tree. She has been in it for the past 110 days protecting that particular tree and the forest around. One brave woman.
check out her webpage and Facebook page if you are on it. Show some support.

http://observertree.org/about/
http://observertree....y-blog-day-109/

[artistry]

Just recently in Colorado, one of these controlled burns, led to a massive deadly wildfire. Sometimes the controlled, gets out of control.

[kat74]

Anything we do down here to mother earth, will definitely have effects later. So let no one think because the smoke has disappeared up the sky and the sky's are clear, its a healthy world to live in. Soon or later we will pay for our actions.

[zararina]

That was a dangerous move since it can really be an uncontrollable fire that can spread out.
Sad to know that animals and all living things there are destroyed for the sake of industrialization for the sake of few capitalists. Destroying an entire forest in any part of the world can affect the future of all the living things on earth.

[mariaandrea]

Ugh. Apparently they (and foresters all over the world) don't employ scientists? There's not just the local effects of smoke to think about (asthma, etc). The smoke rises and goes out to sea? That smoke is contributing to global warming, producing carbon emissions. And it takes years for a clear cut and/or burned patch of forest to start acting like a carbon sink again. There are better ways to manage forests.

[artistry]

If they must get rid of the trees, why not cut them down and give them away, to people who could use the trees, or manufacturers who could make things? Seems \ike a great waste of a resource, as well as causing pollution and worse, with the burnings.

[dissn_it]

It is just sad to see forests are still being destroyed this way. It seems that by the time global attention is drawn to an area of heavy forest destruction, these people have moved on to somewhere else and begin the destruction process all over again in some other country. It is such a waste and the damage lasts for many, many years.