For the general public, the sacrifice and change will be relatively painless. However, for the forest and mill workers, the changes and sacrifices are much greater. Like the gold miners, trappers, whalers, salmon fishers, and myriad others whose jobs disappeared before them, timber and mill workers now face job extinction. Retraining programs need to be initiated now. Habitat restoration projects and alternative fiber industries must be established to provide local jobs. The workers must realize that the future of employment in the timber industry is very bleak and encourage their children to seek higher education and employment in other fields. Fortunately, Homo sapiens, unlike other endangered species, has the ability to reason and adapt; we can capably survive severe changes.
Most of us are aware that our own gluttonous consumption of forest products has contributed to the non-sustainable forestry practices that have all but destroyed our temperate rainforests. If we want the destruction to stop, then we have to stop. It's time to walk our talk, to rethink our own use and abuse of tree products and consume out of necessity, not convenience. Paper plates and cups, toothpicks, restaurant chopsticks, napkins and paper towels are all made to use and dispose. Stop using them. The alternatives are obvious and the sacrifice is small. Tree-free art paper, office paper and writing paper are available; pay the premium and use them. To answer the age-old question, "How ya gonna wipe yer butt?", the immediate answer is post-consumer waste, recycled paper. By the time we've used up all the recycled paper, there should be plenty of cheap alternative fibers for toilet paper.
More than a third of the lumber consumed in the U.S. is used for housing, and over 90% of new single-family houses are wood framed. Approximately 11,000 board feet of lumber are used to build a medium-sized house. Framing accounts for 70% of the wood used in the average home. Wood is also the primary material used for subfloors, doors, cabinets, trim and siding. The timber industry says that if they don't cut trees there won't be enough wood to house the poor. We note the concern, but we don't need trees to house anyone. There are more practical, energy and labor-efficient, and less costly building systems and materials than wood provides. By choosing these alternatives we choose not to contribute to forest destruction.
Structural panel systemsÑused for over thirty yearsÑprovide a material- and labor-saving alternative to traditional two-by-four and two-by-six stick framing. With a core of expanded polystyrene (EPS) and oriented strand board (OSB), the panels are structurally sound and can be used for walls, floors and roofs. They are ideal for housing the poor; not only are they quick and easy to erect, but the finished product is an energy efficient dwelling with energy bills that low-income people can afford. Although the EPS foam core is derived from a limited petroleum source, it only takes one quart of oil to make forty quarts of EPS foam, with no CFCs, HCFCs or formaldehyde. Expanded foam can be made from vegetable oils; hopefully it will be, in the future. OSB is mostly made of small wood chips harvested from fast-growing trees as opposed to the larger dimensional timber used in plywood. OSB processing often uses plastic resins, toxic glues, binders and formaldehyde additives. There are a few manufacturers who make non-toxic, sustainably harvested OSB. There are also structural panels made from waste agricultural fibers. Manufactured from rye or wheat straw, corn or sugar-cane rind, and using non-toxic glues and binders, these panels not only help provide a tree-free building but also eliminate the burning of agricultural resources. Structural panels are also fabricated with recycled steel wire mesh faces over an EPS core. Shotcrete is field-applied to form an insulated, load-bearing, finished wall.
Straw bale houses are a low cost, low technology approach to home construction. Bales are stacked on a solid foundation, secured together and protected with thick coats of stucco. Bale houses are well-suited for areas with high seismic risk and/or severe climate, where straw resources are available. The two-foot thick walls can provide an insulation of R-45. Straw bale houses built in Nebraska at the turn of the century show very little sign of decay. Unlike wood, straw contains up to 60% silica which acts as a natural fire-retardant. The density of the compressed bales further prevents combustion. Straw bales make beautiful and comfortable tree-free homes.
Many dwellings can be made from earth. Cob houses have thick earthen and straw walls. There are also rammed earth and adobe-constructed houses which use very little wood. Super blocks are made by filling sand bags with earth and building dome dwellings by taking the earth from the interior "footprint" and finishing with stucco or cob. "Earthships" are earth-sheltered, adobe finished houses that use recycled tires, bottles and cans as a substitute for exterior and interior walls.
Most residential sidings used today consist of wood or wood-based composites. There are alternatives available now. Fiber-cement composite sidings are a fireproof, durable and attractive alternative. Metal siding uses a great deal of energy to produce, but it often contains a high recycled content. When durability and end-use recyclability are factored in, the total energy involved in producing the siding is reduced. Stucco has long been a conventional alternative to wood siding.
The saying, "They can't see the forest for the trees" has been an appropriate description of the vision of the timber industry. Now, they don't see trees, they see fiber. That's how we win. There are many cheaper, superior, faster growing fibers that can replace tree fiber.
Kenaf and hemp produce longer, stronger, faster growing fiber than trees and can be used to make paper, plywood, OSB and engineered structural lumber. Many waste agricultural cereal crops can be made into paper wall coverings, cabinets, furniture and sheathing for structural panels.
Bamboo, the largest variety of grass, is super-strong, durable and the fastest growing woody plant. It is being used for posts, beams and trusses that are stronger than steel. Bamboo can cantilever two and a half times further than steel. It's 23% harder than oak and makes superior flooring, paneling, particle board, OSB, engineered lumber, molding, furniture and fencing. Harvesting does not harm the plant, which will produce more timbers. It can replace its mature fiber every three and a half years. There are varieties of timber bamboo well-suited to our climate. They also produce edible shoots worth about $5/pound, sold fresh in Asian markets. Timber/edible bamboo is a crop that can compete in terms of dollars per acre with grapes.
¥Buy salvaged lumber. Although there is certainly not an inexhaustible supply, it makes sense to reuse good wood as a natural resource that would otherwise be wasted.
¥Buy certified sustainably harvested wood, to protect biodiversity. For "sustainability harvested" claims to be credible, they need independent, third-party certification.
Everything we do or don't do is a choice. To choose a future of forests forever, the path of the present must change. We must implement a shift of policies, ideas and lifestyles.
We can live without forest products. We can't live without forests. <
¥Aspire to a tree-free lifestyle. Stop using all the tree products you can now, and wean yourself from using others.
¥Write to our representatives and ask for re-training programs for forest workers. Tell them that well-paying, habitat restoration jobs are important for all species. Encourage them to promote the uses of alternative fibers, to relegalize hemp, and to establish new building codes that can cut the lumber used in construction by 70%.
¥Buy recycled plastic lumber. Some plastic lumber is structural and can serve as studs and headers. They also have many outdoor applications, such as fences, decking, benches, picnic tables and landscape borders, replacing solid wood. Plastic lumber is rot and corrosion-proof and will not crack, splinter or chip. By purchasing 100% post-consumer, recycled ADP and HDPE manufactured lumber, we keep plastics from the waste stream.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1999
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited