Midnight Oil

[Powderworks] Protesters chip away at Garrett's forests stance

Kate Parker Adams kate at dnki.net
Mon Sep 27 08:55:03 MDT 2004


Hey all,

Actually, it makes perfect sense to use the woodchips to protest if you
understand that woodchips are generally a byproduct, not a primary product
of forestry - at least with most old growth timber.  Until other markets
were found, mills simply burned the stuff for heat.  I remember giant wigwam
burners going day and night at the sawmill where my uncle worked, until they
were shut down for emissions issues.  When my mom was little, pacific
northwest residents bought truckloads of chips from the sawmills or had it
delivered for use in residential furnaces much the way coal was used on the
eastern seaboard.

Plenty of vegetarians don't eat cows, but wear leather shoes because the use
of leather does not drive the unsustainable aspects of the cattle industry
like the use of beef does.  Traditionally, the relationship between
woodchips and lumbering is similar.

Then again, way too many trees are chipped for paper these days, at least on
this side of the ocean.  Most trees chipped for paper on the eastern US are
what is called "pulp wood", or knotty, half-rotted, or otherwise unusable
for lumber.  That does not justify clearcutting, however, nor the attendant
erosion and habitat destruction that happens regardless of whether the trees
cut down had a lot of knots or are diseased or stunted.  I don't know what
the practices are in Tasmania, but I suspect they aren't chipping this stuff
but shipping it to the same asian lumber mills they rip out Pacific
Northwest old growth for - there are no mills left in the states that can
take the monster trees.

Kate Adams

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Kate Parker Adams
University of Massachusetts - Lowell
Department of Work Environment
Kitson 202A
Kate_Adams at uml.edu
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Practice Abstinence: No Bush, No Dick in 2004
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*



-----Original Message-----
From: powderworks-bounces at cs-lists.cs.colorado.edu
[mailto:powderworks-bounces at cs-lists.cs.colorado.edu]On Behalf Of David
Sent: Monday, September 27, 2004 2:37 AM
To: Powderworks at cs-lists.cs.colorado.edu
Subject: RE: [Powderworks] Protesters chip away at Garrett's forests
stance


Some protesters just don't get it.

They buy a tonne of woodchips to try and reduce woodchip production?

Next they'll be chaining themselves to buried combi vans to protest
against landfill.


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