Will hardwoods become extinct?

I live in New England and a couple of years ago I purchased a woodstove. Since then, I've heard so much about the Maples dieing from disease and how, in the not too distant future, there won't be any hardwoods left. It's very troubling. I've planted as many maples in my yard as I have room for, knowing that it will take many years for them to mature. I donate annually with the Arbor Day foundation to plant trees but they only do fir trees. Does anyone know of a organization that plants hardwoods? I'd like to hear comments on this, but please don't scold me for burning wood. It's a financial necessity for the time being.

You might ought to buy insurance against the sky falling before getting too worried about all the hardwoods disappearing.

While imported pests/diseases are all too real and destructive, there are no forecasts of all hardwood trees going extinct. Even with the existing fatal problems, all the currently affected species live for a certain amount of time, just not to the ripe old age that we'd all prefer to see. And that includes elms, ash, maples, oaks, chestnuts, hemlocks, pines, and pretty much any other species you might name.

And even once a disease gets them and they have to be cut down, you could still burn them for firewood, so the supply for your woodstove probably isn't in particular danger.

My friends in Maine complain about what they see as an increase in the number of deciduous trees there, compared to conifers. Climate? I don't know.

Daggone anthropomorphism, anyhow...

My neighours would say otherwise as they have hundreds of Acer macrophylla seedlings sprouting inbetween their pavers each year and they must hand weed them with knee pads on. Quercus garryana might be a different story with Sudden Oak Death becoming more widespread. If anything in my area, it is a decline of conifers. Pine Beetle have killed vast numbers of trees in my province and windstorms have thinned coastal conifers. Planting the right tree can't hurt though.

I live in an area where there's alot of logging taking place. Also alot of land being cleared for houses and many people with woodstoves. Years ago I did some camping up in northern Me. and remember huge clear cut areas. Maybe I am being foolish worrying about it , but a few years ago no one was worried about global warming either. Just throwing in my four cents.

O.k. I'll admit that I'm stupid! What does "anthropomorphism" mean?

LOL. Ya we have no hardwoods in SC just soft wood trees and I hear the tropics don't have hardwoods either. With that golbal warming happening in the next three years your in trouble. LOL.

You do know that burning wood is very polluting? A couple of wood fires put off more bad things than a year of running your car. LOL. Natural gas is very clean burning so if you want to help the planet you really should burn Nat gas.

audreyannewert:

Careful about taking all of us too serious (especially me) -- having a joking or semi-sarcastic tone takes the edge off the real daily stresses of life.

What I meant about anthropomorphism is attaching human characteristics to things other than people. It was a sideways attempt to make light of what people want to see in plants (or that way that people think plants ought to behave) based on relatively little information.

The recorded history of North America is relatively short, and quite incomplete. The archaeological and fossil record has some additional information, but in no way tells the entire story. So, when we see changes today that leave the landscape different from what we remember or like (and can't directly be attributed to human intervention), that can be upsetting because most of us want straightforward answers and/or to place blame.

A really good short publication on this subject was put together by the KY Archaeological Survey and the USDA Forest Service in 1999. Forests, Forest Fires, & Their Makers: The Story of Cliff Palace Pond tells the story of a part of southeastern KY and the incredibly detailed information found there in the sediments at the bottom of a "trapped" pond on the top of a ridge.

I am sure this kind of information has been generated by professional researchers across this country and around the world. It assists in understanding how much change there really has been in plant communities (that many assume to be rather static) since the glaciers receded during the ice age in which we currently reside, and how those changes might be attributed.

VV, I liked your first post best, but I understand the need for the last. The sky is not falling, just remember, the only constant in our lives is change. Well, that's my story.

CoreHHI wrote;". Ya we have no hardwoods in SC just soft wood trees and I hear the tropics don't have hardwoods either."

Okay, is this part of "Careful about taking all of us too serious"?

I know I had hardwoods in Florida, and I'm pretty sure that my SC oaks qualify.

The tropics have hardwoods like teak, Ipe, rosewood. Probably not too many maples, but they've got plenty of other ones!

Natural gas isn't available in my area. I know that burning wood isn't good for the environment and I'm trying to make up for it by doing other things. My heavy use of wood is actually a temporary thing. Perhaps I'm not seeing the forest for the trees (lol). Perhaps this is only an issue in my area. I know that there really is a special concern for the Sugar Maples and the maple syrup industry isn't expected to last much longer. I think it would be a shame if we lost our fall foilage season. I don't know if any of you have heard of Quabbin Reservoir. It supplies water to Boston and 1/4 of Massachusetts. It happens to be about 2mi. from my house. It's 18mi. long and has been a beautiful recreation area. During the 911 crisis, it was guarded by army tanks. Anyways, there has been heavy logging done around this body of water. I don't like it, but no one asked me (lol). Thank you for explaining the 50 cent word. It wasn't in my small dictionary.

I was being sarcastic. Even if the north warmed up 20 degrees on average new hardwoods would simply move in. Temps and hardwoods have nothing to do with each other. The Tropics are loaded with hardwoods and so is SC.

I had sorta discussed purchasing 10 acres on Lasqueti Island which has no power, internet, ferry, etc with my folks. You may want to look into geothermal in smallscale as an alternate clean energy: http://www.dougrye.com/geothermal.html
I was looking at it from the perspective of heating a small house and a large greenhouse. The house I currently live in has geothermal in large scale in the centre of Vancouver but there are small-scale versions aswell. The addition of a few solar panels & a wind generator covers pump & fan operation and significantly reduces your electrical bill. The burning does produce quite a bit of pollution. Every person that puts forth global warming reduction gets a gold star beside their name. lol

Thanks for the geothermal link. We have been discussing various options for using alternative energy sources, and are thinking about this in combination with solar. At this point, we're in just the talking about it stage, as we don't have much money to do anything with right at the moment. I have lots of sun when it is not behind the clouds or quite low on the horizon in the winter. Solar panels are quite pricey. I need to check out the costs involved with developing a geothermal system for a household.

Just jumped in on this one. I look at all the hardwoods in my home state of Michigan and think that they are the most identified tree in our area. Then I read about the pine forests that were almost the only trees before logging. I then remember to enjoy change and not fear it. Why does the planet need to remain as it was. 10,000 years ago that would mean that the entire northern hemisphere would be under ice. Thank goodness for global warming. Oh yes I too agree that all of us should remain committed in making our carbon footprint small. Plant trees!

Hi, audreyannewert. While househunting in the spring of 06, my husband and I took a couple of hours to drive around the park at the southern end of the Quabbin Resevoir. It was such a beautiful day; dappled light streaming through new leaves, fresh unfurling ferns, blooming dogwood. The view from the observation tower to Mt. Monadnock, breath taking! Central Mass. is a beautiful area. Don't panic over the perceived devastation of the hardwood forests. In developed countries, we have greatly improved our practices of forestry so that it is eco sensitive and sustainable. The undeveloped countries are behind, but info and tech move rapidly. Also forests have a built in ability to reestablish. Thanks for refreshing my memory of The Quabbin.

I was reading about the settling of the east in the US. Trees were in-the-way. They even made roads of charcoal from burnt trees! I think trees represent the highest level of human development no matter how they are utilized. Hardwoods probably have a higher level than soft because of non-burned uses. Hardwoods are scarce here in the west and take effort to grow where I live (in the desert of the southwest US). Every time I throw my wood ashes on the flower beds I know what I consume for heat is not wasted. The most wasteful thing on the planet are internal or external combustion engines (if you consider that consuming billions of barrels of oil wasteful). The energy that goes into an aircraft or automobile (a trip to work and back in a car can support the energy needs of 5 houses I've heard) is the problem. There are/and will be nice softwoods to burn in your heater/stove. Just try to keep the efficiency high (less pollution): use the most efficient stove you can afford, have adequate draft (keep stack cleaned), and use extra dry wood.

I've planted trees everywhere I've lived and burned wood from New York, to California, to British Columbia, and in Alaska. I suppose it would be better to not burn wood. I'm now sitting next to an electric heater that receives power from solar cells. Our house uses glass to collect heat and light from the sun. This time of the year I can heat for an hour or two with the surplus solar energy (3 Kwh). Clear cutting, although ugly, is a necessary evil IF the trees regenerate the forest rapidly (softwoods). There should be areas set aside for hardwoods to mature for non-burning uses.

There is something special about seeing the forest, the cows chewing in the shade, and the green grass on the ground under the trees one has planted. The water in the streams is clearer and the trees and grass absorb the pollution more rapidly than the concrete, steel, and industry of the cities. Until the human overpopulation problem is solved (man and woman graduate to a higher plane of existence) ignore the cry from any sector that favors their existence over yours :-)

Sigh. No, not about the views expressed here. This is the kind of thread that should be in the Sustainable Forum as well. That forum suffers because so many ideas that are sustainable are expressed elsewhere on DG (and appropriately so). It's just so hard to read even a small portion of topics that interest me.

If you get technical what does oil and gas do in the ground? Nothing, doesn't matter if it used or not. The by products of using it are another matter. Then again oil and especially gas are so much cleaner burning than wood so they're a better choice. Solar is the way to go for power and it is making some in roads but it won't happen over night. Nuclear fusion is great on paper but we're not evcen close to being able to use that. Takes more energy to get it going than it puts off.

On and on and there are no simply answers.

Oil and gas......unused......certainly have a purpose and an effect. The earth is a 'closed' system and oil and gas under the ground were produced over eons. The creation of a tree maybe 100 years. Burning complex petro molecules is considered a crime by people aware of the energy and time required for their creation. A more rational approach would be to balance consumption vs replenishment, complexity vs simplicity, and change vs stasis. We choose consumption, simplicity and change.....go figure!