Tree Farmer - May/June 2009 - (Page 28)

By cooper roBerT Wow, what a wonderful sight it would be to drive by exotic bamboo shoots down a country road lined instead of those mundane old pine trees! Absurd statement? You bet, but a recent article I came across on “building green” boasted how bamboo walls, cork floors, and wheat board cabinetry in a new office building were considerable improvements over the traditional materials — presumably some of them made of wood — because these materials were from renewable resources that could be harvested every five years. All of these products were reported to be manufactured within 500 miles of the building. Pardon me if I, as a proud North Carolina Tree Farmer, get a little perturbed about a green building code that fails to recognize that trees, a product grown right here in North Carolina, offer the highest “green factors” of any product on the market. Trees provide the raw materials for building supplies and more than 5,000 Green Building Code products Americans use every day at an unrivaled environmental impact at all phases of production. Scientists estimate that lumber manufacturing consumes just four percent of the energy used by all raw material manufacturers while steel and concrete manufacturers consume 56 percent. A steel stud requires 21 times more energy to produce and releases more than 15 times the sulfur dioxide than a wood 2-by-4, and producing concrete emits up to three times more carbon dioxide, Wood Belongs in the sharing your experiences 28 Tree Farmer MAY/JUNE 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Tree Farmer - May/June 2009

Tree Farmer - May/June 2009
Contents
Cover Story - Farm Bill: What’s In It for You
Tree Farm: People Are Our Greatest Asset
2008 Western Regional Tree Farmer of the Year
Taxing Issues
Wildlife Matters
Tools & Techniques
Sharing Your Experience
Gadgets & Gear

Tree Farmer - May/June 2009