Boondocks No. 15

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

The Growing Timber Theft Problem. It looks like for at least some forest owners, that timber theft continues to be a major problem, with the DEC investigating 57 incidents in 2006.

Some of it's innocent mistakes, like people crossing property lines that are poorly marked. But some of it's complete thefts, and it seems lack the sexiness of other crimes for the police to investigate (not unlike cattle rustlers). Sex offenders, now that's sexy, says a cop. Tree theft, blah, blah, blah.

P'Link

Woodstock Tries to Open Up Swimming Holes. This is not a story you hear every day—a town tries to get more places open to let kids take a dip. It should be noted that this is the town of Woodstock outlaying the beautiful village of Woodstock with it's green party mayor and cool little shops. We are talking about places like Byrdcliffe and others.

It's such a good thing to have swimming holes open. Swimming holes are far better then pools, as they are more fun, and get people outdoors. And as the article notes, the liability claimed by some doesn't really exist, particularly in light of recent changes to the civil practice law in New York. The biggest problem is getting easements from property owners. who still are afraid of being sued and yahoos destroying their property. P'Link

Cleaner Outdoor Wood Furnaces To Become Available. It looks like the pressure put on manufacturers of outdoor wood furnaces to clean up there acts by former Attorney General Elliot Spitzer and others has paid off. Several manufacturers will be offering machines that are as much as 70% cleaner then the old models.

The old ones won't disappear instantly—and manufacturers say they will be still available for purchase, at least for a while. But the new ones will be more efficient and more practical in more areas. So while some people might choose the cheaper older machines, where there is cheap wood supply, few neighbors, and few hills to create zones of temperature inversions that trap in the smoke.

So these new machines make a lot of sense for all those who don't live on the Tugg Hill Plateau on 250 acre dairy farms with about 20 acres of woodland to provide the prerequisite 12 cords of wood a year to fuel this machines.

So regulation or at least the threat of regulation works. Government can set reasonable standards or cause reasonable standards to be set that will benefit everybody. Even if you live in area not prone to temperature inversions or have a tall enough stack bolted on one of these boilers to mitigate this problem, the two or three cord savings of wood will be worth it, if only for the less labor it takes. P'Link

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Pellet Stoves and Grist. Grist magazine has an interesting article about Pellet Stoves and their environmental virtues. It's an interesting article pointing out some things I didn't know about these stoves such as:

• They burn a lot cleaner then wood as they have a much lower moisture content
• They use quite a bit of electricity in the feeding of pellets into the stove

The downside is well known about these machines. You first have to get a reliable pellet supplier, which in New York may be easier said then done. No pellets, no heat. Pellets can be expensive at times, and you can't just go out back and cut some wood for these machines. P'Link

Grist Looks at the Farm Bill. There is an interesting article on the farm bill and the flaws of contemporary agriculture subsidies. Nothing too new or free of liberal bias here, but still worth a read. P'Link

Thursday, February 8, 2007

Pet Cows. Yes, I found an article over at HobbyFarms.com that talks about training cattle to do tricks, and all kinds of interesting things about owning cows and how to raise them. P'Link