Michigan Forests

[slack]

I have seen a quote that Michigan's forests are growing 2.5 times more wood than is being harvested each year.  Does anyone know if that's true?  If so, is there a good reference for that?

[Tom]

check out the The Michigan Forest Resource Alliance
link at the bottome of the page.  You will find the teachers guide has a lot of good Michigan information.  Those figures you quote are very generic.  There are a lot of other ways of measuring the state of the environment and the number of trees which, this link and others associated with this site, try to explain.

The Michigan Sustainable Forest Initiative(sm) program, link at the bottom of the page, also makes good reading.

The link to The timber Buyers Network, our sister site, has good information on wood and links to companies and forestry related organizations.

I'm sure one of the Michigan based foresters will come along to help answer your question, but in the mean time, good reading  

[Jeff]

According to the flyer "Michigan Forest Facts" distributed by The Michigan Forest Resource Alliance,  Yes its true! I am sure this fact was created using state timber inventory data.

Additional National facts:
We Still have 70% of the forestland that was here in 1600-737 million acres of forest in the U.S.

247 million acres (33.5%) are reserved from harvest by law or are slow-growing woodlands unsuitable for timber production

490 million acres are called timberlands, forests that can produce more than 20 cubic feet of wood per acre annually. They're growing more trees today then they were 50 years ago.

References: Powell, Douglas S, Joanne L. Faukner, David R. Darr, Zhilang Zhu, and Douglas W. MacCleery. 1993. Forest Resources of the United States, 1992. USDA Forest Service. General Technical Report RM-234

USDA Forest Service. 1999. Resource Planning Act Assessment Database Retreival System.

You can go to www.mfra.org and request free brochures and pamplets with information on Michigan Forests be sent to you. (really, Free!)

Welcome slack!

[Ron Scott]

Yes, Note the findings of the 1993 Forest Inventory of Michigan Forests conducted by the USDA-Forest Service, North Central Forest Experiment Station and the Michigan DNR Forest Management Division.

Findings of the iventory are published in Resource Bulletin NC-170 Michigan Forest Statistics, 1993 available without charge from the:

North Central Distribution Center
c/o Forest Products Laboratory
One Gifford Pinchot Drive
Madison, WI 53708-2398
(608) 231-9237

[CHARLIE]

WELCOME to the forum Slack! I hope you stay around and enjoy this fine family of friends. They are a great bunch of guys and gals! 8)

[RavioliKid]

Help!

The new student teacher didn't like the fact that I talked with the kids about how trees are cut down and turned into lumber to build homes. She wants to give an alternative viewpoint. Seems she used to work for the Sierra Club.

I told her that she could, if she could think of a way to relate it to the topic we are studying, which is shelters and how they are built.

Oh, the trials of being a teacher!  :D

[Tom]

Another, with few life experiences, looking for a cause. You have a job on your hands now protecting the idea that more than one person can be right.

Steel homes take energy to make. Where do they get that?  It's not renewable either.  Concrete means you have to dig holes for the mines.  What happens to those eco-systems.  Plastic is nothing more than petroleum products made from forests that lived a long time ago.

If we could find enough of them, perhaps we could live in caves again.

A lot of these folks don't realize that much of what they use to do their job or provide shelter or transportation comes from The worlds only renewable resource......plants. Contrary to popular belief, trees are plants and are farmed just the same as corn.  It's a shame these anti-tree folks don't get envolved with tree planting one summer.  

[CHARLIE]

Rav, it would be interesting to go to your student teacher's home and see if she has any wooden furniture. Does she use wooden chairs at school? Does she use wooden pencils? If she does, then she is supporting the lumber industry. ;D  What a waste it would be if trees just died and rotted on the forest floor. Their is no other product in the world, renewable or otherwise, that has the properties that allow it to be used for so many things and still be very strong as wood does.  :P

[swampwhiteoak]

Perhaps you can find some common ground with her.  I'm sure you both can agree on recycling and using as few resources as possible.  Then just note that when you have to use resources, they might as well be sustainable.

[Ron Wenrich]

And to think it takes about 3200 railroad ties for 1 mile of line.  That's about 141 Mbf of lumber per mile, just to get your goods from one side of the country to the other.  Coal, feed, chemicals, food, cars, all sorts of stuff.

I think the average life span is 17 years for a tie, depending on the amount of service.

They also use ties in the subway systems.  And they can't be replaced by concrete.

[Bud Man]

Rav ===Give her an  " F- Grade"   We don't need a person with such a shallow mind  instructing and influencing  our children and paying her to do it as well in the form of a salary !!!!  

[Jeff]

Rav, invite her here to share with us her ideas and opinions and reasonings. It might be good for her to meet some of the people that this renewable resource touches daily. Then, maybe we can have her look into a mirror and see that she is one of us. Just one of Gods creatures utilizing his gifts.

[RavioliKid]

Thanks for all your support, guys!

I think she will be all right, in the long run. Just a little more living and learning is in order.

We haven't discussed the topic in depth - or anything in depth, really. We are just so busy trying to get everything up and running.

I guess we all just have to be patient. (Or, at least I have to be patient!)

[timberbeast]

Rav,  Jeff's right!  If she came to this forum,  she'd probably expect a gang of land-raping,  anything-for-a-buck tree-killers.  Hmmm.....Seems to me that if she read through with an open mind,  she'd understand that we are taking great care with our forests,  planning for the future,  and respecting our resources.  The person who buys an oak enertainment center doesn't think about where it comes from.  The person who cuts the tree does.  And judging from everyone here,  they want to have their great-great-grandchildren have a new Oak desk,  rather than plastic,  as the so-called "lovers of the environment" would have it.  If their credo was law,  only owls could live in wooden houses!

[Bud Man]

I still say the best wake -up call is an "F Grade" she suffers from tunnell vision and should not be around impressionable young minds planting seeds of her ignorance !!  Our children are a pretty valuable resource too and they need to be protected.  Elementary children haven't developed or learned the process of reasoning or debate and can be lead to believe anything.  On second thought reel her in or run her off , some body's got to be in charge. Student teaching is a time to learn- not a time to preach.   Can I ramble or what !!

[Jeff]

Its not going to happen in this case I'm sure, but the goal is to reel them in. A 21 year old assistant teacher that has formed opinions against sustainable forestry and the use of forest products apparently has been indoctrinated somewhere. What good does it to to "run them off"? They find another place to fit in, and continue to spread the same opinions.  

Timber Beast is right on with his statements. Just like the statement give a man a fish and he'll eat a day, teach a man to fish he'll never go hungry, if we could turn that young student teachers head around where she can see the facts then we have a resource to teach our kids about how to use and manage our forests for maybe a 30 year career where she could reach thousands. The same thousands she will reach if not educated with the facts about our forests

[Bud Man]

I hardily agree but if her disposition is such that she can't keep from preaching ignorance , let her do it on her own time at her own expense.(street corner)  The world is full of people with causes but an elementary school is not the proper pulpit for ignorance to flourish.  Teaching to fish is great but there's a right way to fish and a wrong way to fish and like the horse you can't make him drink water and some people won't fish -they just want to be fed. Misery like's company and I don't want my kids or grands in her type company. The jury is still out and her student teaching grade is up to her teacher- Now Evaluate And Stand Your Ground.

[Jeff]

You have not been around quite long enough to know our Rav.

She without a doubt will teach that class whats right. In fact, I think if the student teacher wishes to be a foil, The first thing the kids may learn is the difference between myth and fact.  The enviros always shout at the street corner but never have anything to back up the sermon. When you quote to them from the good book they run down the street and change thier religion.

Go back and look at some eary threads. Kim has taught sustainable forestry to her class in some unique and outstanding ways. Who would ever dream of using milkweed as a model for trees? Showing how it could be grown, harvested, make the fibers into paper in class and then replant to grow another crop.  How about using walnut husks for making ink?  These kids are in good hands, and ultimatly the student teacher is too.

[Bud Man]

I know Rav from reading her 275 post's . A lot of her post's are complimentery in nature but she's into this forum for more than collecting trees.  I admire her searching out proper answers to subject interest's and from her post's I know she's into education for the pound and not the penny. She gets A+ marks from me and the educational system would be blessed with more like her.  My remarks were off the cuff and were certainly not aimed at Rav , wish I could have had more teachers like her in my past or future !!!

[Jeff]

I know you were not aimed at Rav, I just wanted to point out that the REAL teacher is still there, and I think some real learnin is yet to be done. Thats why I wouldnt give the newbee the boot.

To change the subject, is anybody else tired of seeing the little guy to the left beating up my server?