Sustainable Forestry, Bioenergy, and the Carbon Cycle - Misunderstood and Misrepresented

Earlier this week I received an email from a colleague directing me to the following video, a product of the Natural Resources Defense Council. On a web page entitled "Our Forests Aren't Fuel" the video and its accompanying text decry the use of forest harvesting for biomass energy, although they admit that "Biomass can be harvested and utilized in ways that reduce pollution and protect forest habitats, but only with sustainability safeguards and proper accounting for carbon emissions -- including carbon released due to deforestation." Under their definition of sustainable biomass production fall agricultural biomass and woody biomass from short-rotation biomass plantations, but not natural forests.



Note the use of the phrase "proper accounting for carbon emissions". Here the folks at NRDC are relying on a policy-targeted carbon accounting framework utilized in the Manomet study we discussed last May in a post entitled "Wood Biomass and Carbon Neutrality". They have posted a longer video explaining the "carbon deficit" logic in more detail.



These videos are misleading and illustrate clearly the lack of understanding of forest ecosystems and the carbon cycle in general. Key to the "biomass carbon deficit" argument is the logic explained beginning at 1:45 of the above video. The overly-simplistic example used is of one forest harvested, and one left to grow; the claim being put forward is that the one harvested creates an immediate "carbon deficit" compared to the one that is left, and that deficit is slowly closed over the years, until eventually, "at some point in the distant future, [the forest that is harvested] will start producing carbon reductions".

What this scope-constrained comparison fails to take into account is the cumulative effect of multiple forest stand harvesting over continuous time periods. Rather than comparing one forest harvested immediately and one left for fifty years, consider the forest as one comprised of fifty different forest stands harvested one per year, and growing at a rate of 2% growth rate each year. This is closer to reality, and yields a cumulative impact of a sustainable harvest in perpetuity, with no real starting or ending point to the carbon cycle.

Also consider that each of these stands was collecting carbon from the atmosphere before they ever reached harvesting age. In the example, the stand harvested in Year One had been growing for at least fifty years on the harvest date. It will be ready to be harvested again at the end of another fifty-year cycle. Thus, the "carbon deficit" is only real if you ignore the fact that the trees gobbled up carbon before they were harvested.

Narrow arguments against forest biomass energy such as the NRDC's also tend to ignore some basic realities of sustainable forestry and markets...

1. Biomass harvests are rarely, if ever, stand-alone operations. For fundamental economic reasons, forest biomass (which is typically called "pulpwood" in the industry) is harvested as a co-product of sawlog harvesting, either at the same time as the sawlog harvest or prior to the sawlog harvest as a thinning treatment. Natural forests will not be treated merely as "fuel depots" within the construct of sustainable forest management; all the other products of the forest, including lumber, air and water quality, wildlife habitat, and recreation are optimized to meet the management objectives of the land owner.
2. Any biomass energy industry that develops here in North America is able to do so only because the pulp industry here has been on the decline for the past two decades. Pulpwood harvested for biomass energy is simply filling a vacuum created in the marketplace by the decline of pulp production. And all biomass that was harvested in the past for pulp and paper production ultimately returned to the atmosphere as carbon, either through its use for mill energy in the form of black liquor, or as waste paper that ended up in landfills. 
3. As pulpwood markets have shrunk, large portions of the northeastern, Great Lakes, and western forests have become overburdened with small-diameter stems that are densely-packed and growing far more slowly than the healthier forests of previous decades when an appropriate pulpwood component was being harvested. Dense, slower growing forests mean less carbon sequestration per acre and more hazard of wildfire, both situations that can be reversed by increased levels of biomass harvesting.
4. This harvesting of the pulpwood component is an essential component of forest health and restoration.  The growing bioenergy industry provides a way to pay for this benefit to the forest. Without it, the balance of forest ecosystems will come under even more pressure as "sawlog only" harvests become ever more prevalent.
5. Biomass energy production will always be driven, and limited, by the marketplace. As more facilities are built, local market prices for the biomass will rise and biomass energy operations will be harder to justify economically. Fears that biomass harvesting will wipe out the forest are overblown, as even today the market works as a natural constraint against a broad expansion of biomass energy facilities.
6. Biomass energy production is an enabling technology for more advanced biorefinery processes and products. Bioenergy-related companies seeking to add value to the biomass raw material will be the ones that bring us advances in cellulose and lignin utilization, and produce the miracle bio-products of tomorrow, including those that replace products of fossil fuels. Without biomass energy providing the economic incentive to resurrect the pulpwood harvesting industry, these future miracle bioproducts will never see the light of day.
7. All other forms of energy production, including the solar, wind, and agricultural biomass touted on the NRDC videos, also have environmental and societal drawbacks to some extent. Can we say which is better or worse? In general, no. But in specific applications, we usually can...and sometimes, biomass energy from natural forests is the best option.

The NRDC videos do make valid points about relative efficiency of wood versus fossil fuel energy production. It's lower, and this does result in relatively more emissions per unit of energy, at a higher cost in large-scale applications. That's the reasoning that went into our discussion of using biomass energy in appropriate applications, or as we put it, "Size Matters" when determining the best use of biomass for energy applications. But by presenting biomass energy production as a "one size fits all" proposition, opponents of natural forest biomass energy like the NRDC are able to misrepresent the resource potential and mislead the public into thinking that harvesting the forest for biomass is a bad thing in general. And while some studies theorize that certain scenarios of biomass-to-energy harvesting and conversion may in fact increase overall carbon emissions, the science is ongoing and government-funded research tends to focus on large-scale processing, which we here at Go Wood posit to be a sub-optimal use of the forest resource compared to right-sized biomass harvesting that can improve the overall ecosystem quality of the forest.

The following video produced by the National Geographic Society demonstrates modern understanding of and technology utilization in sustainable forestry, and features some of our forest industry friends here in Pennsylvania...



By following sustainable harvest guidelines, society will benefit from the capture of woody conversion of carbon stock to energy in our homes and businesses. Ultimately, if we don't, the carbon is returned back to the atmosphere anyway, one way or another.



Would you prefer that forest biomass and its carbon molecules heat your home or local business, or heat the atmosphere out in the woods? Ultimately, it's one or the other. No forest lives forever. It's continually dying, being reborn, growing, aging, and dying again. Those who think they are "defending" the forest seem to be instinctively against human management and utilization of natural resources, despite the fact that forests in most areas of the world that have been responsibly managed for the last fifty years are larger and healthier now than they've been in centuries. They imagine that we'll all be better off if we just leave the forest alone and use other resources they deem to be more environmentally-friendly. In fact, the use of misleading "carbon-deficit" accounting just seems to be the latest angle at stopping forest harvesting, period. Just like "clearcutting" in the 1980's and "endangered species" in the 90's, "carbon-deficits" is the cause célèbre  for those who would like to see a day when no forest tree is ever cut down.

But this too will pass, and in the end, we'll benefit from the knowledge gained by further, more balanced research into the workings of forest ecosystems and the carbon cycle. Our friends at the NRDC are welcome to take credit for helping spur our progress in those areas, even as we disagree with their position of preventing the sustainable harvest of natural forests for biomass.

Wood Science 101(3) - Lignin

http://shakib-biology.blogfa.com/8708.aspx

You'd be hard pressed to find a material more universally researched right now than lignin. Let's talk about it a little today. It's the second most abundant organic polymer on earth, behind cellulose. It's what makes trees stand upright, what makes wood hold its shape, and what makes furniture support your weight when you sit on it. It's been called "God's glue", and "nature's plastic", because it fills the space between plant cells, called the middle lamella, where the lignin is highly concentrated, and binds to the cell walls (which themselves have a lower concentration of lignin mixed with the cellulose and hemicellulose fibrils that make up the primary and secondary cell walls).  It's really sticky, durable stuff, and that's what all the research is about.

It seems that today's scientists, in trying to reverse-engineer plant materials, would like to have an easy way to break down the lignin bonds that hold the other plant constituents together, so that they can then re-assemble those components into various other things. Over the last century or so, various processes have been developed, mostly by paper companies, to de-lignify wood pulp, and the lignin by-product that remains has been burned for energy in the paper-making process, or further refined into other products, such as:

• forms of sugar
• water reducers in concrete and gypsum wallboard admixtures
• mineral pelleting and granulating production aid
• oil drilling additive
• animal feed additive
• road dust control
• additive for certain yeasts and pet foods
• dispersant in brick manufacturing

Technical description, from Wikipedia:

"Lignin, or lignen,is a complex chemical compound; most commonly derived from wood, and an integral part of the secondary cell walls of plants and some algae. The term was introduced in 1819 by de Candolle and is derived from the Latin word 'lignum', meaning wood. It is one of the most abundant organic polymers on Earth, exceeded only by cellulose and constituting from a quarter to a third of the dry mass of wood. As a biopolymer, lignin is unusual because of its heterogeneity and lack of a defined primary structure. Its most commonly noted function is the support through strengthening of wood in trees.

...

Lignin plays a significant role in the carbon cycle, sequestering atmospheric carbon into the living tissues of woody perennial vegetation. Lignin is one of the most slowly decomposing components of dead vegetation, contributing a major fraction of the material that becomes humus as it decomposes. The resulting soil humus, in general, increases the photosynthetic productivity of plant communities growing on a site as the site transitions from disturbed mineral soil through the stages of ecological succession, by providing increased cation exchange capacity in the soil and expanding the capacity of moisture retention between flood and drought conditions."

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lignin

Lignin is everywhere in the biological realm, plays a huge part in maintaining the earth's carbon cycle, and therefore, the environmental stability of the world, and is still one of the primary foci of the world's scientific community. More reasons to appreciate the role of wood in our world.

And those reasons continue to mount as the scientists make progress. You've heard of carbon-fiber technology, and how it improves the strength-to-weight ratio of everything from body armor to Formula One racing cars? Well, one problem with carbon-fiber materials are that they are expensive when produced from petroleum-based raw materials, or precursors. So, guess what? Scientists are striving to make them cheaper using lignin, from wood! Sound familiar? Check out the great video below from the scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.



So, just as scientists and entrepreneurs envision fast-growing plantations for the farming of cellulose for various energy and bio-refinery products, so too are they working on high value-added uses for the lignin as it is separated. And fortunately for lignin-production values, the lignin content of softwoods is typically higher (23 to 33%) than in hardwoods (16 to 25%), so faster-growing softwood plantations of warmer climates will increase the viability of any future lignin markets.

http://www.gizmag.com/

When you consider all the potential uses of cellulose and lignin already under development, it's really not difficult to envision a day in the not too distant future when practically everything we wear, ride, build with, or use for energy will come from a wood or woody plant derivative. Those old woodies of the 1940's may have George Jetson style successors made from wood, after all.

Great Designs in Wood (20) - The UK Wood Awards

"The Wood Awards is the UK’s premier architecture and furniture competition celebrating excellence in design in the world’s most sustainable material. Now in its ninth year, the Wood Awards is the most respected award for building and design in wood."

Far Moor Bridge, North Yorkshire, UK. Built of Scottish larch. Photo by Peter  Lambert.

The 2011 winning entries were impressive, I thought, by their simplicity, use of engineered wood products and local species, and the general sense of "normalcy" that is not usually associated with great designs in wood. In other words, wood designs tend to stick out precisely because they are wood. In this year's competition, though, I thought the powerful and important message conveyed is that wood designs don't have to be overwhelming to demonstrate wood's unique ability to convey natural, organic beauty with utilitarian function.

This site at sustainmagazine.com has some nice photos of the winning entries, along with judges' comments of each. Interesting perspectives that are, I think, helpful to architects considering using wood in their creations.

Great Designs in Wood (19) - Classic Woodies

Go Wooder Jeff Wartluft, who also happens to be a classic car buff, sent these great photos of classic "woodie" automobiles along. Since the beginning of the year is also a great time to look back in order to think forward, they are a timely topic of interest.

This 1948 Chevy convertible is a classy-looking thing, isn't it? Usually we think of a woodie being a boxy wagon, but this one proves that you could go wood and be cool, too. I like that.

The classic woodie. A 1942 Chrysler Town and Country. The modern minivans of the same name are almost blasphemy, I say.

How about this 1948 Packard? A roadside picnic in the country takes on special meaning in one of these.

The Brits had a fondness for wood, too. This Austin A70 Countryman was the envy of every well-to-do country squire in its day.

But the American woodie station wagons of the 1940's were the zenith of the art. The Pontiac photos below display the luscious detail that steel-sided cars just can't match.

Here's a neat Chrysler wagon, with wooden surfboards to match. You couldn't get cooler than that. Where's Annette Funicello when you need her?

Think they'll ever bring back the Woodie? Maybe we should start talking about how much carbon could be sequestered if all the cars in the world were woodies...we might get somewhere with that.

Closing with a snappy video, with a tune that really sets the mood for cruising in a woodie.



If you're hungry for more, visit the nice website www.oldwoodies.com. And here's a great blog about a fellow restoring the woodwork on a 1948 Chevy wagon.

Going Wood in 2012

Now that you've made all those New Year's resolutions about weight, money, and love that you're going to break this year, how about making one or two that you can keep? :-)

If you feel the need to slow down a little, enjoy life a little more, reconnect with traditional values, and use your hands again, why not try one of these in 2012?

• Plant a witness tree. Back in the old days, farmers used to plant a witness tree near their farmhouse, or leave a large witness tree, that would survive generations of their farmstead. We live sort of a short-term, disposable life these days, but there's no reason we have to keep throwing away our family traditions and history. Go to a local nursery and pick out one of your favorite tree species, as large a one as you can afford and transplant, and plant it at a strategic location on your property, or in a favorite public park after you've gotten permission to do so. Invite your family and friends to attend and participate in the planting, and say a few words about what you hope the tree will witness in the coming generations. It may just happen that fifty or sixty years from now, a child or grandchild of yours will visit the tree and reflect back on that moment...and a moment of your family history will be re-lived.  
• Take up hiking. Maybe you hiked a lot as a student, but you've gotten too busy to get out in the woods much lately. Or maybe you've always wanted to take up hiking, but the woods always seemed so far away and intimidating. Well, go buy yourself a nice pair of hiking boots and head out to the nearest trail, even if its just a short one in a state or local park. It's amazing how the first fifteen minutes of a walk in the woods will lower your blood pressure and slow your world down. When was the last time you sat under a big tree and studied the sky? Or watched a stream flow over its rock bed, and noticed little pieces of vegetation swirl in its eddy? Or climbed to see what was over the next ridge? Sometimes I think that hiking is one of the last vestiges left to us of the freedom our pioneer ancestors experienced as they spread out over the country. Experience that freedom again...you'll feel years younger.
• Join a wood-turners club. Wood-turning is really gaining in popularity, and the American Association of Woodturners has chapters all over the country. If you know someone who is into wood-turning, ask them how they got started...once you get them talking you'll get all you need to know to get into the hobby yourself. Wood-turning is the ultimate in learning the secrets of wood, and how to turn a piece of wood you might pitch into a landfill into a stunning family keepsake. You can spend as little or as much as you like on the hobby, and in the end, its all the same...your reward is the time you spend watching the wood reveal its hidden beauty to you.

• Attend a furniture or timber framing class. If you're looking for something a little more strenuous than wood-turning, and still want to make something out of wood, you may be ready to tackle furniture design and construction, or timber framing. We're fortunate that there are still schools and clubs out there that teach the old trades, and attendance and participation in one of these would be unlike any vacation you've ever taken...and probably the one that you'll remember most. Why waste time staring at the ocean on a warm beach in a tropical location when you could be working up a sweat in a woodshop for a change of pace? Wait, let me re-phrase that...
• Install a wood stove in your home or garage. Even if you already have a energy-efficient source of home heating, a wood stove will add something to your life. Firewood is still a bargain in most places, and if you care to cut and split your own you'll add productive outdoor exercise to your life and enjoy the stove's warmth even more. But even if you just purchase the firewood and have it delivered and stacked for you, there is still the enjoyment one feels when selecting the next piece of wood for the fire, and building that perfect blaze. It's hard to put a value on what a fire in one's home adds to a cold, winter night, or a holiday party.
• Purchase a custom-built wooden rocker. About thirty years ago La-Z-Boy convinced us all that rocking ourselves in a mechanical overstuffed mattress was the way to enjoy our quiet moments. We found out that all it really offers is a great way to miss the second half of a good football game. I have a factory-built wooden rocker (OK, it has cushions) and every time I sit in it I appreciate the feel of its wooden armrests, but I feel the need to experience real craftsmanship. The maple rocker I saw in Australia has me convinced that there is a custom rocker out there with my personal buttocks dimensions, and I'm going to find it!
• Start playing hickory golf. You golfers out there may be looking for a way to re-ignite the love for the game you once had, but have lost in this day of graphite and titanium. The Hickory Golf Association may hold the answer. Started by a group of antique golf club collectors, these golfing purists are returning to the days of golfing with hickory- and ash-shafted clubs, with persimmon heads on the drivers. They admit it's a lot harder, but also that it improves their game with the modern clubs. And as part of their return to the wooden clubs, paying attention to the condition of the clubs brings them a great sense of the value of maintaining the wood for its best performance. I bet a lot of them never go back to the steel and composites once they get hooked on wood.

Well, those are a few ideas I'm thinking about for 2012. I encourage you to get out, slow down, and Go Wood!

Last Blog Posting of 2011

Well, I hope you all had a pretty good year, and that Go Wood made it a little better in some small way. Thanks for coming back each time...we had over 80,000 views of the blog this year, which I think just goes to show how much people really love wood and reading about the ways that we can use it wiser, more often, and more efficiently.

Thanks also to those who voted in the poll that was posted all year in the right panel on Favorite Topics. By coincidence, 110 people stated their preference, and this post is the 110th post since I started the blog about a year ago. When I started, I thought it was going to be devoted to wood energy issues, but the poll showed me that you all have a fairly broad and evenly distributed range of interests...

Bioenergy - 28
Wood Design - 34
Wood Species - 27
Wood Artifacts and History - 29
Wood Industries - 33
Housing and the Economy - 20
All of the above - 20

and six folks admitted to being spies for the plastic industry.

Well, since your votes didn't give me a single focus for the blog, I have another idea...I'll try to match the number of future posts to the breakdown of the survey. I aim to please...and to keep everyone interested.

The "Popular Posts" box was also interesting to me...Blogger keeps track automatically which posts get the most views. The post on logging the old redwood forest shot right up to the top in a hurry, which convinced me that the hunch I had that people still are interested in history is correct. I'll try to dig up more wood-related history this year. Also, the Gibson-related post coming in as the second most popular shows me that folks are always interested in current events, and I'll try to keep the future posts as timely as possible.

Oh, and if you care to share the blog with your friends, please remind them of the Follow by Email box in the right-hand column. They'll get blog updates by email without my adding them to my distribution list, which I am narrowing down with each post. I know some company servers are blocking my emails, so if you fit that category and would still like to be notified, the Follow by Email widget will probably get you back online with us.

Also, thanks to all who commented publicly on the blog and sent me personal emails on the topics posted. It really helps to hear other perspectives, and I've gotten some great ideas for follow-ups. Still have lots more topics to post on...it seems ideas come in faster than I can keep up with. When the ideas quit coming, or if the world ends in 2012, I'll quit writing. Until then, I hope you'll continue to Go Wood.

Wood Stove Use and Maintenance

In the last post I discussed the use of green wood in the wood stove, and its potential advantage in stretching your wood supply and lowering the overall cost of your winter wood supply. If you're considering this for your own stove, you need to make sure to maintain a regular schedule of cleaning your chimney flue. If you burn a lot of green wood, you will increase the amount of creosote buildup in the flue, and if left to build up for too long, it may lead to a chimney fire.

Regular users of wood stoves who get their stove up to a nice fire every day will reduce the amount of creosote build-up, and a yearly chimney cleaning will usually suffice for daily users. However, folks who only use their stoves irregularly, or on weekends, will wind up with more creosote build-up in their chimney. If you're one of these occasional wood stove users, try to stick to well-seasoned wood...it will give you more heat and pleasure for the shorter time you're using it.

The University of Missouri has a nice informative series of documents that provide help in maintaining the most efficient and safest use of your wood stove.

Wood Stoves and Their Installation

Wood Stove Maintenance and Operation

Chimneys for Wood Stoves

Cleaning Stovepipes and Chimneys

Wood Fuel for Heating

How to Buy and Sell Cordwood

Starting a Fire in a Wood Stove

Preparing Wood for Your Wood Stove



These articles and the video pretty well cover the operational aspect of wood stove use. For those of you who haven't yet purchased a stove, but are thinking about it and would like to know how to evaluate the alternatives, I'll have another blog posting in the near future.

Go Wood in 2012!

"Green" Energy from American Elm and Green Wood

Winter has finally arrived here in central Pennsylvania. Thirty-two degrees today and the wind is howling. Time to break out the long-handle underwear and gloves.

I'm experimenting with my stoves again this year. Seems like every year I come up with something new to try. This year, I lost a big old American elm in the back of the house, and my friend Martin Melville came out and took the big boy down in a couple of hours. Martin is an artist with the ropes, and his manipulating those huge branches to avoid smashing in my roof was a thing to marvel at. He and I are the same age, and while I get dizzy pulling off my pajama bottoms in the morning, he's out there swinging around sixty feet in the air with a chain saw in one hand and a rope in the other. I think he missed his calling with the circus.

So, I get to experiment with this winter with American elm, which is something most folks these days don't get to do, since it is so rare these days. According to the nice heating value chart at Hearth.com, elm is about in the same class as the more common paper birch, cherry, and red maple; if you've burned those, you have a sense of what elm burns like. Pretty nice heat, but practically no coals in the morning. And it produces a light, white, fluffy ash, that both looks and smells like cigar ash. So, overall, not the greatest wood for the stove. And it's not great fun to split, either.

Another experiment this winter is mixing in various amounts of green wood. If you're new to firewood burning, you may have been warned about getting gypped into buying some green wood. Let me share another perspective on green wood.

First, if your supplier admits it's green, you should be able to get a good price on it. I'm burning a load of mixed green hardwood that Martin cut late in the year and dumped in my front yard about two months ago. I rented a hydraulic splitter, and bribed my seventeen year old son Jesse to hoist the bolts up to me; my six-year old son Wesley ran the switch (he works cheap) while I tried to avoid getting my fingers crushed by him as I turned the bolts. It all came together, and we had about three cords split in a couple half-days of work together.

Well, back to it's being green. Since it was, Martin gave me a good price on it...real good, considering it was mostly rock and red oak, with some maple. And this stuff green is about as heavy as gold or lead...so you might thinked I'm screwed if I have to burn it this year.

Not so. What I do is get the fire going real good with some dry wood, and then feed in the green stuff according to a rate the fire can handle. In effect, I'm using the moisture in the green wood to damper down the fire, instead of using the damper rod to cut back on the oxygen flow to the fire. True, in the process of doing so I'm effectively reducing the BTU value of the wood, because energy is being consumed in volatilizing the water and sending it up the chimney as steam. But, the heating time per stick of wood is being extended because the wood burns slower, and my efficient stove can still blow you out of the room with green wood, if you want it to. Once it gets below 20 degrees outside, though, I'll probably need a higher ratio of dry wood to green to keep the rooms toasty.

Back in the days of the open fires, folks used to appreciate the sizzle that green wood put off. Here's a video I shot last week of some of that real green wood once it starts to heat up.



And I shot this next video about a half hour later. You can see the stick in the middle is really burning now, and the entire end of the stick is wet as all the water is being chased out. Believe it or not, wood this green will keep sizzling until it gets completely charcoaled.



Oh, that's another strategy for green wood. One thing that works well is to get a great fire going just before bedtime, then pack your stove full of green wood and damper it all the way down for the night. In the morning, you'll have nice dry charcoal that will produce a great hot fire for your tush in just a minute or so, once you add another piece or two of wood and crank the air to it.

So, part of being a firewood aficionado is understanding your stove, your heating requirements, and the trade-off in heat produced by different species of wood and different degrees of "green". The fun is in the learning. Stay warm!

Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh

"When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. 

And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh. 

And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way."

-Matthew 2:10-12, The King James Bible

So goes the story. I always thought it an interesting one, especially for the two mysterious gifts with names that I never saw anywhere outside of the Bible. Gold, that was easy, and it showed that these three wise men were serious players. But frankincense and myrrh? What the heck is that?

As a kid, I always had a vague notion that frankincense was some kind of magic dust that was somehow associated with Frankenstein. And that myrrh was a smooth, sweet, middle-eastern butter. Well, I could see how Mary and Joseph would appreciate some high-end butter, but it never really was clear to me what they did with the magic dust. The Bible never did clear that up for me.

But it turns out that frankincense is mentioned in the Bible sixteen other times, fifteen in the Old Testament and once in the Revelation of the New Testament. And from these mentions, it is clear that it is some kind of incense/spice, useful for burning as an offering or for spicing up your roasted lamb. Myrrh is mentioned fourteen other times, thirteen in the Old Testament as a fragrant spice with some apparent medicinal use, and once more significantly as one of the two ingredients (aloe and myrrh) that were brought by the merchant Nicodemus to dress the body of Jesus with after removing it from the cross and carrying it to his tomb.

Perhaps you already knew this. But did you know that both are wood products? And both apparently were, at least at the time of the story, worth their weight in gold?

Frankincense and myrrh are both resins that are produced by stripping the bark from small trees and letting the sap, or gum, run and harden on the trunk in the form of a droplet, or tear.

Frankincense (Olibanum) resin

The frankincense trees are different species of the genus Boswellia, and myrrh trees are scientifically known as Commiphora myrrha. Both are rare, and are found as small, scraggly trees in arid places in the Middle East and East Africa. Both are the source of some nice revenue for the hardy folks who have the patience and diligence to scout out the trees in the dry hills, avoid the snakes that love to lie around them, and perform the tedious work of stripping the bark from the thorny stems and pick out the dried tears.

And predictably, now, scientists are finding that these trees are increasingly endangered. In the latest issue of The Journal of Applied Ecology is a paper entitled "Limitations to sustainable frankincense production: blocked regeneration, high adult mortality and declining populations." In this paper, the authors found that the Boswellia trees in Ethiopia used for frankincense production are endangered...

"Under the ‘business as usual’ scenario, population models projected a 90% decline in the size of tapped and untapped populations within 50 years and a 50% decline in frankincense yield within 15 years. Model simulations for restoration scenarios revealed that populations and frankincense production could only be sustained with intensive management leading to full sapling recruitment and a 50–75% reduction in adult mortality. 

...Regeneration bottlenecks and high adult mortality are causing rapid decline in frankincense-producing tree populations in Ethiopia. This decline is unlikely to be a consequence of harvesting and is probably driven by fire, grazing and beetle attacks. Fire prevention and the establishment of non-grazing areas are needed. Our results show that other factors than exploitation may seriously threaten populations yielding [frankincense]."

- Groenendijk, et al, The Journal of Applied Ecology

Frankincense tree, Boswellia sacra

It's likely that the species are under similar attack in other parts of their ranges, and that the price of frankincense and myrrh will skyrocket as its availability decreases. Too bad, because the products are still popular in middle-eastern cultures and as incense in Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox services. 

Especially interesting is the potential use of the products for medical purposes. From Wikipedia:

Standardized preparations of Indian frankincense from Boswellia serrata are being investigated in scientific studies as a treatment for chronic inflammatory diseases such as Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, and osteoarthritis. Initial clinical study results indicate efficacy of incense preparations for Crohn's disease. For therapy trials in ulcerative colitis, asthma, and rheumatoid arthritis there are only isolated reports and pilot studies from which there is not yet sufficient evidence of safety and efficacy. Similarly, the long-term effects and side effects of taking frankincense has not yet been scientifically investigated. Boswellic acid in vitro anti-proliferative effects on various tumor cell lines (such as melanoma, glioblastomas, liver cancer) are based on induction of apoptosis. A positive effect has been found in the use of incense on the accompanying specimens of brain tumors, although in smaller clinical trials. Some scientists say the results are due to methodological flaws. The main active compound of Indian incense is viewed as being boswellic acid.

As of May 2008 FASEB Journal announced that Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have determined that frankincense smoke is a psychoactive drug that relieves depression and anxiety in mice.^[11] The researchers found that the chemical compound incensole acetate^[12] is responsible for the effects.^[11]

In a different study, an enriched extract of "Indian Frankincense" (usually Boswellia serrata) was used in a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study of patients with osteoarthritis. Patients receiving the extract showed significant improvement in their arthritis in as little as seven days. The compound caused no major adverse effects and, according to the study authors, is safe for human consumption and long-term use.^[13] The study was funded by a company which produces frankincense extract.

In a study published in March 2009 by the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center it was reported that "Frankincense oil appears to distinguish cancerous from normal bladder cells and suppress cancer cell viability."

- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/frankincense

Myrrh resin

So now you know "the rest of the story" on frankincense and myrrh. And why the wise men thought it valuable enough as a gift to offer it to a being they consider to be heaven-sent.

Still, it would be interesting to know what Mary and Joseph used it for, wouldn't it?

Myrrh tree, Commiphora myrrha

Spirit of the Season, In Wood

For football fans, Christmas and Budweiser are eternally linked by video images of Clydesdales pulling beer wagons through the snow to the sound of bells and soft music.

Well, our industry friends at FinnForest have created a wood industry version of that marketing phenomenon, of a sort. Entitled "The Spirit of Wood", the video below provides us with a spiritual look at an industry that contributes so much to our shared human experience. While you enjoy the video, listen closely to the narrator. You'll hear that the "wood is produced from certified forests", and that "the transport distances to the production units are minimal", and that "all harvesting work is done on a long-term development principle". That heat from the veneering process is captured and re-used in other processes. And that "continuous internal and external quality control" is maintained at all times.

Throughout, technology and precision is conveyed as the essence of the product being touted, which is a type of cross-laminated timber panel. And vertical integration of the industry to architects and designers is shown to be key to the success of this new generation of engineered wood product. Much of the Metropol Parasol we visited a few weeks ago was made with this product from the very same FinnForest.

I got a sense of vision and the future of wood products from the video, and found it a very encouraging message at this time of hope.

Merry Christmas...and enjoy the spirit of wood past, wood present, and wood future.

Sarah Explains Woodpiles

Been spending a lot of time around the woodpile lately, and just now ran across a short video entitled "Sarah Explains Woodpiles". My curiosity was peaked as to what exactly there was to explain, so I bit.

So glad I did. In just a few words, Sarah explains the wisdom of the ages with respect to woodpiles...she gets right to the heart of both kinds of people: those who love to build them, and those who love to hate them.

Not sure if the beverage is water or vodka, but Sarah is one inspired Canuck.



What kind of a person are you, really? :-)

Finished Ski Table

The ski table is finally complete and I am extremely happy with the results. The project remained the same throughout the building process except for the inclusion of cut pegs for the mortise and tenon joint. I spent somewhere around 4-5 hours each week working on the table also bringing me close to Jackie’s time of 60 hours. All together the project came in around $250 including the wormy maple, oak tiles, stain, polyurethane and inner hardware to make the ski top move. Using rollers for bi-fold doors and cutting a ledge inside the structure, the table top is able to split open. The full design includes a continuous Alpine themed oak border; snowflake cut pegs and a hidden shadow box for ski memorabilia. The real eye catcher though and pride of this project has been the wormy maple legs and structure. After applying the clear coat the grain really started to pop and bring out the Scandinavian feel I was going for.

Check out other details and commentary in the following video!

Final Jewelry Chest

Mission accomplished! I have proudly completed my first piece of furniture. There were a few minor changes in my envisioned construction techniques but overall the final design came out exactly the same as I had planned. The final cost of the project came in a little over $430 dollars. I spent about 4 hours a week working on it, making a total of about 60 hours. The final piece has 7 drawers for boxes and individual pieces of jewelry. There are two long doors that each have two rows of five hooks for longer hanging necklaces. The final composition of wood includes: mahogany legs; maple base; oak plywood drawers faced with lacewood; maple frame doors with maple plywood door panels; oak plywood drawer frame; and a maple top. The piece is complete with copper hardware on the doors and drawers that perfectly compliments the lacewood and maple.

Christmas Shopping Ideas for the Wood-Wise

If you're thinking about the perfect Christmas gift for that special someone who likes wood as much as you do, I have a few suggestions that will greatly enhance anyone's library.

If I could have only one book to learn about wood, Understanding Wood by Dr. R. Bruce Hoadley would be it. Dr. Hoadley covers the entire breadth of wood science and technology in one straightforward, easy-to-understand, and enjoyable-to-read volume. This is a coffee table book for wood nerds. Filled with excellent, colorful pictures, and simple diagrams and charts, this book makes wood science accessible to anyone. And even the seasoned veterans of woodworking and the wood industry will learn a lot more than expected by spending time in its pages.

A Splintered History of Wood is a joy to spend time with. Author Spike Carlsen has searched the world for the best wood-related stories, and brings them together with an easy-to-read storytelling style that makes it an adventure to move from page to page. Here you read of the Quest for the World's Most Expensive Board Foot, there you read of the most unfathomable woodworking tools and the crazies that use them. And who doesn't want to know about The Ten Great Moments in Catapult History? My personal favorite was his exposition on A Barrelful of Coopers, Kegs, and Tradition...the importance of wood to the fine taste of wines and whiskeys is knowledge that every one will appreciate after a few glassfuls of the product.

And finally, the book about wood that anyone can read and love, is Eric Sloane's classic A Reverence for Wood. I found a copy of this book in a souvenir store back when I was in college and I've kept a copy at my fingertips ever since. Mr. Sloane's style was to write simple vignettes and to illustrate the topic with freehand line drawings. A Reverence for Wood is only 111 small pages long, but you or your loved one will read them many, many times, in those quiet hours of reflection between chores. His books, which include other titles such as Diary of an Early American Boy, American Barns and Covered Bridges, Our  Vanishing Landscape, The Seasons of America Past, and A Museum of Early American Tools, are all excellent companions and very handy for reflecting on life "in the good old days". I wish someone would give me the whole Sloane collection for Christmas!

Great Designs in Wood (18) - Metropol Parasol

Here's an interesting design in wood that is really out there. You can get the project details and some excellent pictures of the project at this site, which calls the Metropol Parasol the world's largest wooden structure, which it really isn't...but it's notable, anyway, in many respects.

J. Mayer. H.'s Metropol Parasol, Sevilla, Spain from Pedro Kok on Vimeo.

I found some interesting divergence in opinion about the structure in the comments following the pictures and description at the link above. Here are a few samples:

"How amazing! Stunning pictures and a great illustration of how to make a beautiful city even more attractive!"

"So much wood. Why must we destroy our forests for beauty, especially for a great modern building in a cultural focus. This seems quite perverse. It is a fantastic structure otherwise."

"This is the kind of art I hate. They wasted so many trees to build something completely pointless... They should have used all that wood and money to build homes for people in Africa, that would have been a lot more beneficial."

"...The unemployment in Seville is around 23%. The community is still on debts from the Expo they realized in 92, which was also full of beautiful buildings such as this. Hence, the government just thinks about building huge and worthless buildings rather than enhancing the lifestyle of the population, promoting parks, sustainable employment, facilitating taking care systems for the increasing elder population, mitigating the social bad consequences of the crisis, promoting education, etc etc. However, once more, they've let us know how important we are for them and for their megalomaniac projects. So...please, do not bestow uniquely to the building the "artistical value" (although I like its psychedelic shape) and think more if we need it for the social well being right in a period of economic crisis. It's a kind of mockery."

"I do not see any benefit of this structure. First, it does not fit at all in the estetical ambient of the city. Second, the colour is strange and much to clear. Third, it seems that it does no give shadow because it is much too high. Fourth, I am sure that the people of Sevilla would have preferred to spend the money in really important things. It is really a shame how money has been wasted for this ugly and not useful construction."

"I simply love it! It's a fantastic way of combining art with architecture, commerce and culture. Just look at the ugly shopping centers you find world wide..., this one has bars, a museum and a market all together in an aesthetic beautiful building. The world is bad enough with hungry and poor people and a destroyed environment. Let's celebrate that we have culture and new technologies and we can create a better world! Be happy!"

Well, it is somewhat understandable that some of the citizens of Spain are upset by what they perceive as a waste of public resources. Hopefully, the economy will turn around for them and ten years from now they'll be proud of the structure.

Here's a rare chance for you to weigh in. Take the Go Wood poll at the right >>>>

What do you think?

"The World's Most Environmentally-Friendly Raw Material"

Any idea what it might be? :-)



It's nice to see the pendulum of environmental education swinging back towards sensibility and stewardship. Twenty years ago paper and lumber companies felt compelled to defend the practice of timber harvesting, and students were being taught that "trees were living things, too". But our friends in Europe, especially Scandinavia, have always appreciated the natural value of timber and wood products, including for energy. Now, as we shared in previous green building posts such as this, their leadership in wood utilization and its role in design for sustainability are greatly needed, and much appreciated.

Thanksgiving Thoughts

The wood stove is once again fired up and calling you to pay attention to it.

You sense an urge to make something out of wood for the season.

The short days call you outside to enjoy the chilly warmth of the sun riding low in the southern sky.

The trees, now bare of leaves, reveal hillsides and vistas that they have hidden safely from your eyes during the past three seasons. You notice trees that you never saw before, and marvel at their shapes that had been covered by their foliage. You begin to think of sources for next year's firewood.

You decide to split more wood even though you have enough for the season. The ax handle feels right in your hands at this time of year, and the cool air refreshes your lungs with every swing.

The crows watch you from the treetops, and mock you as you miss a split. You look up at them and wonder if they're really that smart. They laugh some more.

You walk around, noticing the bark and the stems of trees, and mentally checking them off in your head. A stately white oak, the unnoticed ash...wonder how long before the borers kill it? A patch of hemlocks that still hide their treasures. And there's that little white pine that you see every winter, but never during the rest of the year...will it ever break through the canopy and elbow its way to maturity?

Squirrels hurry out of your way and bark at you to get along, they've got work to do. And so you do, and as you head back to home, you smell the wood smoke from the stove and think about the fire, calling you back for another piece of fuel.

As you come into the warm air, almost too warm now that you've been out, you smell the turkey and the pies in the oven. After finding just the right piece of wood for the slumbering fire, you settle into the rocker and run your hands along the smooth, warm wooden armrests. The curl at the end almost feels alive in your palm.

And in this moment, as you gaze at the fire, before the house fills up with your loved ones and their noisy laughter, you give thanks for the little piece of the world you've been given. And you make a commitment in your heart to try to be better next year, to earn the blessings you've been given in this life.

And when you awaken, the Detroit Lions are losing again. Yep, it's Thanksgiving.

Gibson and the Lacey Act, Explained

I just read the best explanation of the US government's proceedings against Gibson Guitar. If you are interested in the topic, and especially if you import wood or use products that are made from imported wood, you need to read it too. Written by Dan Meyer of the Hardwood Review, it lays out eight "lessons" that we in the wood products industry need to understand about the rapidly-changing world of the global wood trade.

Good Intentions Gone Wrong? Lacey Act Lessons from the Gibson Guitar Raid

In a related editorial, editor Chaille Brindley of Pallet Enterprise adds his own thoughts on the controversy that seems to have much larger implications than when it first brought wood products to the national consciousness a couple of months ago.

Don’t Fret Over It.... Gibson Guitar Case Raises Green Questions

My friends in the wood import/export business tell me that the issue of mislabeling wood imports, whether intentional or not, has been a cultural component of the business for decades and ignored for too long. As these authors point out, whether you agree with the rules or not, the trend is toward more enforcement, not less, and everyone needs to be aware of that.

Housing the World

You may remember the post we had about the tall wooden buildings, and perhaps you were surprised, and wondering why, that wood buildings were making an architectural comeback. Well, it has to do with the concept of carbon sequestration of wood in structures, under the recognition of the coming need for housing in the developing countries of the world. Remember the Ghost Cities of China? If architect Mark Green had been involved in their design, they would have been built of wood.

Listen to his compelling story in support of Going Wood.

When Wood Went to War...the Patrol Torpedo Boats

Veterans Day, one of my favorite holidays...some of my favorite people and role models were vets, and I think of them every year on this day.

Wood played a big role in World War II. Gun stocks by the millions, wooden hangars, and temporary housing and facilities all over the world. But the most memorable contribution of wood to the war effort came in the form of Patrol Torpedo boats, or PT boats. You've probably seen PT-109 that recalls the war heroics of John F. Kennedy, or the classic They Were Expendable, starring John Wayne. If you're as old as me, you grew up watching Ernie Borgnine and Tim Conway zoom around in McHale's Navy, long before their rise to fame as Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy on SpongeBob SquarePants.

What they all had in common was the lowly PT boat. These boats didn't look imposing, didn't look comfortable, didn't look safe in the middle of a war, and didn't even look respectable for an accomplished Navy captain to stand in. But any Navy veteran of WWII will tell you, they definitely contributed in a mighty way to winning the war in the Pacific. And, in case you didn't know it, they were made of wood, by woodworkers and boat builders working right here in American factories. The following series, filmed during the war by the boat manufacturer Elco, reminds us that not all contributions to the cause of freedom are made by soldiers, sailors, and marines; the hard-working folks back home keep them equipped for their service, even today.

The film provides us with great detail of the manufacturing process, and has a lot of wonderful and up-close footage of how these durable and affordable (thus, "expendable") boats were built. What surprised me in watching the videos is how many different species of wood went into them:

"It's a wooden boat. Mahogany from Africa and Honduras, white oak from Jersey, Brazialian balsa, maple, fir, Burmese teak, West Coast cedar, Wisconsin birch, Alaska and Canadian spruce, ash, poplar, and heavy green heart from the Guianas."

Enjoy, and thank a veteran today.