Christmas trees - De-forestation, Crops, or Weeds?

Some people claim that by having no Christmas tree or by using an artificial tree they are saving a tree. Really? Where do Christmas trees come from? Tree farms! When the trees are cut, more are planted in their place. How about saving a wheat stalk and not eating bread?

It isn't as if somebody is clear-cutting vast swaths of pine trees and never replanting. It isn't as if somebody is cutting vast swaths of conifers to build a humongous parking lot.

What many people don't realize is that many trees are weeds. Not that they are useless plants, but they grow all by themselves without human aid. On our property in Brimson we have thousands of balsam, some ideal Christmas trees, most all jammed together. They sprout up in fields. They crowd out firewood trees. Just about everything but the long-gone white pine grows by itself. The only white pines we have we planted, and many of them have served as deer feed or buck-antler scratching posts. Ah! Kill a deer and save lots of trees.

When we first bought the property, we saw dozens of dying birch, a foot or more in diameter. All are gone except the rotting logs bound up in some really good fire-starter. Now twelve years later we have hundreds of birch. We only transplanted four from the power-line right of way. Many of these wild birch are now suitable for firewood.

Where balsam doesn't grow, the predominant trees are aspen. These live about 30-50 years and then come crashing down on other trees. Of course, trees rotting on the ground can spread disease to other trees. Next year we'll have a logger selectively cut some aspen for us. By doing so, we may see moose tracks once again. Moose love aspen shoots. Ah! Kill a moose and save lots of trees.

In addition to the above species, we have red maple, willow, black spruce, white spruce, tamarack, chokecherry, hazel, alder, and others all growing merrily without our help.

Sure, we cut paths through all these and use the cuttings for firewood or chip them for the paths. But guess who uses the paths the most? Wild animals! There are tracks of wolf, deer, bear, squirrel, rabbit, and mouse all over these trails.

Besides wild life habitat and our enjoyment, these trees have another important purpose – carbon sequestration. These trees probably soak up more carbon dioxide than we create driving to our cabin and back and more than we create with our heating fires.

Save a tree, don't use electricity

Our Brimson property has an easement for power and telephone right-of-way.  The telephone line is underground with relay or junction boxes every few hundred feet.  The power lines are on poles.

To be sure that the power lines are accessible, the power co-operative has all the brush cut every few years.  We thought it was every eight to nine years in the non-winter months.  In the intervening times we've taken out a few ten-foot birch and replanted them elsewhere on the property.

We were surprised when the brush was cut this winter.  And it was the messiest that we ever saw.  Hacked, splintered stumps of alder and other shrubs and trees all over.  It looked more like a battlefield than a right-of-way.

We generally don't drive by the east half because we come from the west.  Saturday we took a walk on the road along the east half.  We noticed that several good-sized trees had been knocked down: a ten-inch birch, a few smaller birches, and a few 6-8 inch aspen.

Well, we can't let those go to waste.  We might as well harvest them for firewood rather than cut down other trees.

The first job was to make a path to them through all the splintered brush stumps.  That was lots of fun considering how uneven and rocky the terrain is.  More fun yet because the wheeled trimmer cuts too high because of the unevenness and then is difficult to get over the little stumps.  Heave, grunt, groan, heave, back off and try again.

The second job was clearing a safe workplace around the downed trees.  Almost everyone fell into the brush outside the easement.  That took long-handled nippers and a lot of bending.

I won't describe the delimbing process and which part of which of the three criss-crossed trees I did in which order.  Eventually we had enough for two small loads of bolts or rounds in our SUV.  I don't remember if we took all the usable firewood from that spot or left some.

I do know one of my first tasks next weekend is to cut up and split the wood we took back to our cabin.  Then I'll go back to harvest some of the other trees.  Without cutting down a single tree, we'll be well on our way to having some nice, dry wood for the 2011-2012 heating season.

It is sad, though, to think of all the trees on other easements that are just going to be left in an unsightly jumble to rot.

Next time you feel good about all your recycling or other efforts "to save a tree", consider that when you flip a light switch, you may be taking down a tree.

I can't save a tree because I'm saving a tree

Tomorrow is our recycling pickup day.  I looked for paper bags for our stack of old newspapers and our boxes of junk mail, envelopes, and office paper.  We had none!

We have been taking cloth bags to the grocery store to "save a tree".  We use store bags when we forget the cloth bags or we have more than two bags of groceries.  The more we remember to take the cloth bags, the smaller our stash of paper bags gets.  Today we had no full-size paper bags.

Fortunately, we had a couple of smaller bags and we didn't have that big of a pile of newspapers or that much other paper.  But what happens next week if don't get more paper bags?

I've been musing about the balance of recycling.  What is the balance between resources used to produce new paper and containers and those used to recycle these items?

For example, how much water is consumed rinsing out plastic bottles, especially detergent bottles. 

How much water do I use to rinse all the tomato juice residue out of a bottle.

What is the energy cost to have three different haulers come through the neighborhood to pick up recyclables and the traditional trash.  Few haulers have combination trucks and must come through twice.

What is the energy cost to drive to specialty waste spots with compact fluorescent bulbs, yard waste, and old electronics?  Especially if the collection sites are not on your usual travel routes?

I doubt few people know the balance.  Probably the true value of recycling is that it makes people more conscious of their waste.

Save a tree? Why?

Starbucks has been running a commercial to encourage people to bring reusable travel mugs instead of asking for a paper cup.  The commercial shows people putting Starbucks paper coffee cups on the pavement, eventually creating a picture of a tree.  One of the slogans is "One person can save trees, together we can save forests." Ironically, they are not saving coffee beans.  As each person places a cup on the pavement, it is quite obvious that it still contains coffee!  That was lots of coffee to use for a single ad.  I will admit that the cups had to be weighted in case of a breeze.

Minnesota Public Radio has a campaign to get people to become sustaining members.  On the air they are saying "Save a tree" because it will reduce their mailings because sustaining members will be automatically charged each month.  Additionally, for each new sustaining member they will have a tree planted in the member's name.

I don't like to see waste and I like to conserve resources by recycling, but I think these "Save a tree" campaigns are somewhat misguided.

First, the much of the wood pulp for paper comes from private lands.  When held by a forest products company, they are managed for sustainability.  When a tree is taken from such land, it is replaced by planting or by natural regrowth.

Second, the primary source of wood pulp is aspen and balsam fir, both which regrow naturally.  In fact, I call them both weeds.  Aspen regrows quickly from root suckers.  Balsam fir grows from seed cones without much effort.  In fact, both kinds of trees continually spring up in any area of our Brimson property that we don't keep clear.

I am very allergic to balsam fir, getting a severe skin reaction any time I have to trim a balsam or cut one down.  I've talked to a logger friend about removing many of them, but he says there is no market for balsam.  I may have to hire him to remove some near the cabin; they are too close, especially with drought conditions.

"No market for balsam" may be an indication that many recycling efforts are "paying off".  Consider also that many paper companies have been downsizing.  One could change the slogan to "Save a tree; fire a logger."

Worse yet, the value of private forest lands is increasing so much that forest product companies are selling their land to real estate companies.  These companies are selling them off in smaller parcels to individuals.  When this happens the individuals take out trees for driveways and buildings.  See "Breaking Up the Forests".

The breakup of the forests could have consequences for wildlife.  One could change the slogan to "Save a tree; starve a moose."  Somebody long ago told me that if I wanted moose, clear cut.  When we bought our property, there was a recently cut area of aspen (aka poplar or popple).  The stand was about eight-foot high and we occasionally saw moose tracks.  Now the stand is twenty to thirty-feet high and we haven't seen a moose track for years.  Moose aren't completely gone from our area.  One of our Brimson neighbors found two dead bull moose with locked horns: "Shed Hunter Finds Two Minnesota Record-Book Moose Locked After Battle to the Death".

Moose aren't the only tree predators.  One could change the slogan to "Save a tree; shoot a deer."  We have made many efforts to plant trees.  Our most successful was white spruce.  We had some success with sugar maple with probably half the seedlings turning into twelve to fourteen foot trees.  We tried red oak and they are all gone.  We had hoped to plant hundreds and hundred of white pines, but deer took a big toll on them.  We initially stapled paper to the tips in the fall (the recommended practice), but the deer would bite the top off below the paper.  We tried putting circles of fencing around individual trees, but the deer would reach in with their tongues and pull the tips out.  We put screen around the fencing and that seemed to work.  Unfortunately, for all this protection, we couldn't protect against drought.  Several of the trees that survived the deer turned brown and died.  I think of the 200 or more pines that we planted over a two-to-three year period, only about forty have survived and only about twenty are taller than me.

We have been harvesting aspen for firewood, both for our cabin and for our Duluth house.  I think we used about eleven trees last year, almost all aspen.  We are starting to use some birch; it is finally getting to fireplace size after a big die-off several years ago.  But our job may have become easier.  One could change the slogan to "Save a tree; stop the wind."  Except for some trees that were in the way of other trees, we have been harvesting broken tops.  The best yet are the four-inch diameter trees that were snapped off in a big wind storm or two.  The woods looked like it was full of a jumble of toothpicks.  When we can get to those without bark, all we have to do is cut them into fireplace lengths, no splitting.  These are just great for having a fast, very hot fire to warm the cabin quickly.

Ah yes, fire.  One could change the slogan to "Save a tree; start a forest fire."  A mature forest is much more likely to burn and over a wider area.  If we reduce our harvest of trees too much, we will have more forest fires.  It is nature's way of providing for large-scale renewal.

I think where we really have to be concerned about trees is in urban areas.  I regret that we no longer have any of the back yard trees we once had.  A silver maple and a birch became too old.  An ash provided easy access to our attic for squirrels, and three smaller birch just got in the way of the power and telephone lines.  Other than our arbor vitae, trees in the front yard are out of the question because of sewer lines.  Boulevard trees are impossible because the boulevard is only two feet wide.

Overall it is going to be more difficult to have neighborhood trees.  Wider streets leave less room for trees.  The ongoing sewer work in Duluth is going to lead to more front-yard trees being taken down or fatally stressed.  Disease and age are going to do in many mature trees.

About the only places left for lots of trees are parks.  Do we want to spend the tax money to keep our parks green?  It's either spend the money on a healthier environment or spend the money on health care.

Be careful what you wish for, you may get the opposite.