Daryl's Journal

Tuesday 01/28/2003

What Happened Today? Feather Sound walk.
Lunch with Irv at Bennigan’s. We waited so long for our meal that is was free when it did finally arrive. Listened to President Bush’s State Of The Union address. Kay bought a new bowling ball. A Valentine’s gift from me!

GAIA- Planetary Management: 

896. Temperate forests are actually expanding slightly, due to reforestation in the North.

897. Densely-settled zones such as southwest Germany are one-quarter covered with forests.

898. Much land, however, is under utilized.

899. Recycling paper: Developed countries could reduce their demand for paper pulp by at least one-quarter, simply through greater recycling.

900. During World War II, most Northern countries recovered as much as half their paper.

What Happened Today? Feather Sound walk. Irv Walter arrived to help with year end. Tampa Bay Buccaneers arrive in Tampa from San Diego. There was a rally at Raymond James Station. Talked with Chris about the Super Bowl. Stock market below 8000.

GAIA- Planetary Management:  

891. Community forestry relies on the involvement of the people.

892. If everybody’s ideas are sought from the start, hopefully everybody will plant trees and tend them, and everybody will ensure that the harvesting system produces a regular supply of fuel wood.

893. Similar community efforts are needed to stabilize degraded watersheds.

894. In china and parts of India there has been much success, due to the close coordination of planners and villagers.

895. Forests of the future: Tropical and temperate forests are so different in their biological makeup, that two fundamentally different approaches to their management are needed.

What Happened Today? Kay, Jen and I went to see Chris. Kay won 2 games of Phase 10. Tampa Bay Buccaneers win the Super Bowl!! Bucs beat the Oakland Raiders 48-21.

GAIA- Planetary Management: 

886. Tropical plantations which mix fast and slow growing species could be managed to provide fiber and timber.

887. According to the Washington based World Watch Institute, establishing such plantations on just 5% of the area of tropical  forest already cleared could provide almost twice as much industrial wood as is currently harvested from all tropical forests.

888. Fuelwood plantations are also urgently required in the South to relieve pressure on natural forests.

889. We need to increase five-fold the number of fuelwood trees planted per year, especially around farms and in village woodlots, at an annual cost estimated at $1 billion.

890. The difficulties, however, are not all financial.

What Happened Today? Finished Writ of Execution by Perri O’Shaughnessy (621 pages). Wrote 3 letters to Chris. Went to the library. Golf ball walk with Ian (4).

GAIA- Planetary Management:

881. The major Northern development in recent years has been in genetic engineering.

882. Trees grown from tissue culture can quickly reforest large areas of denuded land, and can be “engineered” with useful commercial qualities.

883. However, industrial plantations, almost always consisting of generically-uniform stands, are generally more vulnerable to pests and pathogens.
884. Widespread disease and pest outbreaks are common throughout conifer plantations in the US, China, and central Europe.

885. In the South, because of the critical environmental role played by tropical forests, it is better to establish “tree farms” on lands already deforested than to harvest the natural forest.

What Happened Today? Feather Sound walk. Working hard on the Imerys price increase. Very cold weather coming. Talked to Chris about the Super Bowl. Watched ER with Kay.

GAIA- Planet Management: 

871. Despite its need for wood, the developing world’s share of global trade is projected to rise only a little by 2000.

872. A source of revenue: When large numbers of large logs are taken from a Southeast Asia forest, at least half of the remaining trees are injured beyond recovery.

873. Yet the logger does not care, as long as there is enough forest to last for the next few years.

874. Governments could be much tougher to enforcing less harmful harvesting techniques, but the need for hard cash often means that they fail to see their forests as sources of future revenue.

875. Fortunately a partial breakthrough is on the way, in the form of increased wood processing: the veneer sheet earns several times more foreign exchange than a raw log, thus reliving pressure to exploit every forest tract.