Sustainability of Wood as a fuel??

[cessna]

l would like forum members views on whether you think wood is REALLY a sustainable fuel in the long term.Despite what we are being led to believe by by people brainier than me, in the forestry industry ,I can't help thinking we are using wood in this country for what ever purpose ,faster than it is growing.

I say we can plant as many trees as we like but they are still going to many years to grow to a size worth harvesting. I sell firewood myself,so say what you like.

[Johny Walker]

well wen all the trees are gone we can fall back on coal

[zeroluke]

I'd say you are mostly right cessna. I'm not telling people how they should live, but the more people there are in the world, the more difficult it will be to sustain it, along with everything else. There needs to be less people breeding. What would be your ideas on making this less of a problem than it is?

[Joy Yeomans]

a 20 year old stand of larch or spruce will give a good yeild of firewood, but hardwood we are never going to be sustainable and we should not be promoting hardwoods but promoting softwoods, which we have in abundance and if phytophora catches more then there will be more larch than we can throw a stick at for biomass or firewood

[Stereo]

I've often wondered this too. I wonder how many acres of fully managed woodland the uk would need. Surely it would need to be super fast growing stuff rather than natives.

[corylus]

Wood is perfectly sustainable as fuel. BUT we are not sustainable as a species.

 

Hope that clears up any confusion.

[arbmark]

Wood is perfectly sustainable as fuel. BUT we are not sustainable as a species

as long as you fell it with your fingernails and light it with a bowdrill:biggrin:

[dave fox]

as a farmer first and i sell fire wood second we grow as a country half the amount of sugar we need and import the rest ,so there is no way we can supply our own fire wood wheather it be soft wood or hard.

[liamjordan]

i think planting more willow is the way forward, it may not have as higher calorific value as other stuff, but its sure as hell grows fast, and we manage to shift tons and tons of it as firewood

[felixthelogchopper]

a 20 year old stand of larch or spruce will give a good yield of firewood, but hardwood we are never going to be sustainable and we should not be promoting hardwoods but promoting softwoods, which we have in abundance and if phytophora catches more then there will be more larch than we can throw a stick at for biomass or firewood