Green Energy, and the German Grid, from: Kiev Is Burning

[rmgill]

Some disturbance of forest is probably good. Homogenous old growth will have a canopy that edges out other plants on the forest floor. Going in and taking specific trees and opening up gaps is useful and good for biodiversity. I'm not so happy with whole sale clear cutting of old growth. Managed forests like Georgia Pacfiic has which are pine forests with nice neat rows, well, they do have some under growth and if they put fire breaks in between stands you get the 'meadows' that the biodiversity needs. Add in trails that people can use for hunting, driving, etc and now you have ruts that fill with water and amphibians can use those for spawning, also upping the bio-diversity. 

[Colin]

7 hours ago, sunday said:

Do not be so skeptical, there is documented proof.

Do not be a NPC, read before passing judgement.

The Canadian Forest industry is set up to benefit the big players at the expense of the small boutique sawmills, who can maximise profits from many of the trees we have. Our raw log exports are far to large as well. Whatever happens, Canada ain't running out of trees anytime soon. Also because of restrictive burning practices and pine beetles, we have serious fire risk in Western Canada.

[Colin]

6 hours ago, sunday said:

Subsidies, grants, etc. should be taken into account. Otherwise it would not be cost-effective to ship wood from the west coast of Canada to England.

The Royal Navy used to get masts from my area due to the height, species and straightness

[MiloMorai]

14 minutes ago, Colin said:

The Royal Navy used to get masts from my area due to the height, species and straightness

Most came from eastern Canada and eastern Europe.

[sunday]

19 minutes ago, Colin said:

The Royal Navy used to get masts from my area due to the height, species and straightness

But not as firewood.

[NickM]

41 minutes ago, Colin said:

The Canadian Forest industry is set up to benefit the big players at the expense of the small boutique sawmills, who can maximise profits from many of the trees we have. Our raw log exports are far to large as well. Whatever happens, Canada ain't running out of trees anytime soon. Also because of restrictive burning practices and pine beetles, we have serious fire risk in Western Canada.

Same in Cali,  with regards to beetles & burn practices. 

You think maybe some good controlled burns would be a benefit to the forests? Yours AND Cali's?

[bd1]

these little bastards are ruining lots of spruce forests around here, logs AFAIK go to pellets after the beetles are done

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trypodendron_lineatum

[Harold Jones]

1 hour ago, Colin said:

The Royal Navy used to get masts from my area due to the height, species and straightness

There's still a forest set asside for producing timber for the navy.  These days the USS Constituion is the main (possibly only?) recipient. 

[sunday]

7 minutes ago, Harold Jones said:

There's still a forest set asside for producing timber for the navy.  These days the USS Constituion is the main (possibly only?) recipient. 

Indeed.

http://www.oldsaltblog.com/2020/11/constitution-grove-the-navys-white-oak-forest-on-a-high-tech-base/

[rmgill]

4 hours ago, Harold Jones said:

There's still a forest set asside for producing timber for the navy.  These days the USS Constituion is the main (possibly only?) recipient. 

For hull frames, South Georgia (the state) Southern Live oak is amazingly good. Lots of that down here. 
 

 

Edited October 7, 2022 by rmgill

[Harold Jones]

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/the-225-year-old-working-warship-sustained-by-a-navy-forest

[Colin]

UK owes much of it's forests to the Royal Navy

[MiloMorai]

The Brits had oak forests specifically to supply timber for RN ship construction. Trees were forced to grow certain ways so that the ship timbers like knees were preshaped.

[Soren Ras]

When the perfidious Albionese took the Danish navy in 1807, Denmark sowed new oak trees to be able to rebuild the navy.
About 200 years later, mind you, as that is about the time it takes.

There is a story going around that when the head of the forestry department retired in 2004, as his last act, he sent a note to the Admiralty to the effect that. "Your fleet oaks are ready. Where do you want them?"

The Fleet Oaks are considered a part of the cultural heritage today, so they are generally only felled if needed to repair old wooden warships or for replicating Viking ships.

 

--

Soren

[sunday]

Spain had too little oak to support her fleets from the 17th century onwards, so we went to use mahogany and other tropical woods, building even ships of the line at Havana, Santísima Trinidad, for instance.

[BansheeOne]

Not directly energy-related, but this morning rail transport all over northern Germany was suspended on the grounds of "urgent repairs". Now half an hour ago Deutsche Bahn came out to claim sabotage of internal comm links at two different nodes, noting that you'd need specific knowledge about their network and how to disable it for this effect.

Now before everyone starts screaming "Russians!", it should be pointed out that rail infrastructure has been a popular target for local militant leftists because, reasons; though those included Deutsche Bahn being involved with Bundeswehr logistics. Their attacks have included setting cable nodes for Berlin light rail on fire, however this would represent quite a step up for them. Of course someone else might have provided the required intelligence and means.

At any rate it's notable that rail transport figures in the measures to close a possible energy gap this winter; in fact it has been stated that trains running coal to power plants taking up any slack would receive priority over passenger lines if the question arose.

[MiloMorai]

German retalition for the pipeline sabotage?

Crimea bridge blast damages key Russian supply route; 3 dead (msn.com)

[jmsaari]

18 hours ago, bd1 said:

these little bastards are ruining lots of spruce forests around here, logs AFAIK go to pellets after the beetles are done

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trypodendron_lineatum

seems to be a cousin of this fella here that has recently started to go after our spruce forests:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_spruce_bark_beetle

Had to take down 2 big spruce trees at the cabin that died this summer, both due to those ones; luckily only two trees, but am wee worried now if the cabin in the forest will become a cabin in the open in a few years. Unfortunately the little ones were long gone by the time the trees were down, too. Wood was well on its way to turning blue already from the fungus, too. Oh well, at least lots of firewood for the sauna now .....

[BansheeOne]

Quote

German rail operator says massive train disruption caused by sabotage

54m ago

The German rail operator said that security authorities had taken over the investigation. It had earlier reported that the "technical fault" had been repaired.

Rail operator Deutsche Bahn said on Saturday that intentional interference was the cause of disruptions in the train network in northern Germany.

"Sabotage to cables which were vital for train traffic meant Deutsche Bahn had to stop trains running in the north this morning for nearly three hours," Deutsche Bahn said.

The German rail operator said that security authorities had taken over the investigation. There was no immediate information on potential suspects.

What do we know about the rail disruptions?

Earlier on Saturday, Deutsche Bahn reported a "technical fault on the line" after trains in large parts of northern Germany were stopped.

"The reason for that is the failure of the digital train radio communication system," the company said.

Hours later, the Deutsche Bahn reported that the issue had been amended, but further service cancelations and disruptions were still possible.

Cables for DB's communication network had been severed in two locations, unnamed security sources told Der Spiegel magazine. The magazine however noted that it wasn’t clear whether the cut was at the hands of a saboteur or if it was accidental damage due to construction work.

[...]

https://m.dw.com/en/german-rail-operator-says-massive-train-disruption-caused-by-sabotage/a-63377385

By newer reports, one of the locations was a cable shaft in Berlin, the other one in Dortmund. It's still being investigated whether both incidents are related. Anyway, the effect was an outage of the GSM-R network used for voice and data communication between trains and control centers for three hours in North Germany.

[bd1]

1 hour ago, jmsaari said:

seems to be a cousin of this fella here that has recently started to go after our spruce forests:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European__bark_beetle

Had to take down 2 big spruce trees at the cabin that died this summer, both due to those ones; luckily only two trees, but am wee worried now if the cabin in the forest will become a cabin in the open in a few years. Unfortunately the little ones were long gone by the time the trees were down, too. Wood was well on its way to turning blue already from the fungus, too. Oh well, at least lots of firewood for the sauna now .....

yeah, same little fokkers, common name for them showed in latin as in the link i posted. 

wife´s family forest has had a semi-serious outbreak , as always the enviromental agency drags heels till it´s almost too late....

[JWB]

 

What could have been:

 

 

[urbanoid]

Quote

Biden Weighs Options After OPEC+ Moves to Cut Oil Output

Congress, White House consider retaliatory measures such as suing cartel on antitrust grounds

WASHINGTON—The decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its Russia-led allies to cut oil production has Washington looking at ways to hit back.

U.S. lawmakers are pushing bills that aim to break up the cartel; charge it in front of the World Trade Organization; or even seize assets its members own in the U.S.

The White House, after Wednesday’s action by OPEC+ to slash oil production by 2 million barrels daily, threatened to join Congress in efforts to loosen the cartel’s power over energy prices—a move which analysts say could lead the U.S. to curb overseas exports.

It marks a potential end to what had been several years of a fragile detente between OPEC and the U.S., the world’s largest oil consumer.

“We are returning to a period of prolonged hostility between OPEC and the United States,” said David Goldwyn, who worked on international energy affairs at the departments of energy and state during the Clinton and Obama administrations. “A production cut of [this] size, when inflation is ravaging global growth, and Europe is struggling to access alternative supply in the face of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, is a declaration of economic and diplomatic war.”

President Biden told reporters Thursday that he was disappointed over the decision by OPEC+ to reduce oil production and that his administration was weighing its response.

“There are a lot of alternatives and we haven’t made up our minds yet,” Mr. Biden said.

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/opec-decision-to-cut-oil-output-prompts-u-s-to-weigh-options-11665057275

[BansheeOne]

2 hours ago, JWB said:

What could have been:

 

Ah, the days of unmitigated belief in a radiant nuclear future. And if we had bet it all on that card, we might have found us in the current situation of France, which usually derives over two thirds of its power from nuke plants, but still has 60 percent of them down over maintenance issues right now. TANSTAFL, and all.

[JWB]

4 hours ago, BansheeOne said:

Ah, the days of unmitigated belief in a radiant nuclear future. And if we had bet it all on that card, we might have found us in the current situation of France, which usually derives over two thirds of its power from nuke plants, but still has 60 percent of them down over maintenance issues right now. TANSTAFL, and all.

France to restart all nuclear reactors by winter amid energy crunch (france24.com)

[JWB]