Bluefin Tuna, Pine Plantations, Cow burps

Plantation Forests in NZ
notes on RadioNZ Insight program 2/11/08

"plantation" in NZ means mostly Pinus Radiata. Originally from Monterey. grows well here.
On "Marginal land" although a voice said our 'marginal' land is quite fertile, so how marginal is it?
.
New Zealand’s forests grow, on average, seven times faster than Sweden’s, 13 faster than Russia’s and 20 times faster than Canada’s.

Its hard to get an actual number for yields (why?) in Tons/ha/year.
The Ministry, having sold off "State Forests" has web pages years out of date.
But dry wood is yield is above 10+ Ton/ha/yr ( or more ... see below)

Problem: Wood is out of fashion.
In the last 4 years 40,000 ha have been cut and not replaced. Planting has "all but stopped"
Sawmills and Nurseries are closing (9 of 14 nurseries closed in last decade)
At peak 30,000 ha/yr were planted (early 90s?)
Emissions Trading means a trickle of new activity. The deforestation deluge may have ceased.
Now: high-density seeds are hard to get... may take 7 years to get seed.

A forester from Tokeroa said "11% of this forest has gone to other uses" [nb 40K is not 11% of 1E6]

70% of wood is exported. (too much as logs, a 3rd world type activity)
China minerals importing drove up bulk carrier prices.

80% of plantations are owned by 9 biggest companies ... greenhouse uncertainty has hurt them ... ???

Lockwood eco-home are all wood inside
[I like the knotty look when new. Needs a lot of varnish,but. Radiata pine has wide soft growth rings that get grubby easily
One House has 18 Tons of Carbon,

Scion (a semi-govt science agency is touting wood as a lignoCellulose source of transport fuel
claims:
1E6ha could supply 40% of NZ's transport fuel [1E6 is one million]
3E6ha could supply all our (current?) petrol = 150% of current forests (nb slightly wooly figures)

lignocellulose should be good "by 2013"

NZ marginal land has good fertility and rainfall [is it then truly marginal?]
(radiata grows every day in NZ, but doesnt sweat it at night, hence NZ is so great. Redwoods also do well here)

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I am a bit sus about lignoCellulose to liquid fuel.
But its certainly worth a look.

• it takes energy to grind up the wood
- leaf eater ants use as much energy cutting leaves as they would flying - leaves are soft

• the pulp is acid treated - have to cost ($ or Joules or Carbon) that acid

• are we talking
1) enzymes ......enzymes aint cheap
2) cells; multiple organism ferment? how to keep the population stable?
We know very little about the multiple organism mix. A lot is said about Termite guts, but a cursory glance reveals a fantastic protoctist bacterial intimate mix. Doubtful if we could mimic it. Termites do it by anus-to-anus feeding
Also those are 'primitive' termites Advanced termites have progressed to fungal gardens. Spend a lot of time chewing.
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News Items
Scientists isolate Spirochetes convert two gases in termite stomachs, hydrogen and carbon dioxide, into acetic acid,
- one bacteria doesnt a system make.
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NZ: 6.2 million hectares are in natural forest, and 1.3 million hectares in planted production forest (old figures?)

MAF figures (sadly out of date)
planted forest area (000 ha) 1980: 880 ......1985: 1,098 ....1990:1,304 ....1992: 1,325 ....1994:1,388


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insights

2005 figures
scionresearch
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Radiata Monocultures can support native wildlife
"already 100,000 to 200,000 hectares have been or are about to be converted – mainly to dairy farming. If this isn’t done in a careful way, we could potentially increase the threat to some of our rare species ...
Native species living in plantation forests around the country include 36 native orchid species, birds such as native robin (or toutouwai), kakapo, kiwi, kokako, an endangered ground beetle, and hundreds of other insects, plants and fungi.
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the plantation forest area in New Zealand decreased by about 12,000 hectares during 2007 - the third consecutive year the area of forest has declined. At 2000 ha or less in 2007, new forest plantings are the lowest recorded since 1950 - down from 10,600 ha in 2004, 6000 ha in 2005 and 5000 ha in 2006. Meanwhile, 14,000 ha were deforested in 2007, up from 12,900 ha in 2006.
fridayoffcuts
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Ethanol not the best?
"a selected mixed culture of thousands of different microbes to convert the biomass into butyrate.
From there the material is sent back to Peoria where another collaborator, Nasib Qureshi. Ph.D., using fermenters, converts the butyrate to butanol.
The USDA researchers Bruce Dien, Ph.D., and Michael Cotta, Ph.D. use physical and chemical techniques to make the hard-to-degrade lignocellulosic material more amenable to degrade, an important step that allows Angenent's mixed media culture to work its magic.
a selected mixed culture of thousands of different microbes to convert the biomass into butyrate."
- I worry about the abillity to maintain that culture of thousands,.... and the costing of those physical and chemical techniques - acids and grinding cost Joules.
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125
a decent report...
Pete Hodgson
• Ethanol from lignocellulose is coming at us faster than we thought possible: see
big scale plants within18 months, with product at around US$1.30 / gallon
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There are no microorganisms that can directly ferment lignocellulose to ethanol.
Three different processes for lignocellulosic ethanol fermentation have been
proposed,. All use a form of acid pretreatment

...a HTML readable of the pdf (ugh!) file:
what is it about bureaucrats that they produce pdf (UGH!) files. Maybe they feel a HTML file is not a 'product', a bolus that they can point to.
why is pdf still around??
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From my old blog 2004:
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Radiata Pine "In New Zealand, stands 35 to 40 years old yield about 770 m³/ha"
pine bark tonic?
One hectare of closely managed Pinus radiata in New Zealand is now expected to yield a remarkable 20 m³ of timber every year .. felled every 20 - 30 years.
One famous plot on unfertilised land gave a 50m³/yr yield.
This might be the 20-50m³ = 10-25T/ha/yr radiata (@ 525 kg m³)
Better than Cannabis
king of biomass
But: I worked in the Copper "recycling" industry in the 1970s ... All the copper recycled was dumped as CuOxyChloride on the Radiata.. so they may grow fantastically well with little fertiliser, but once all the copper toilet cisterns and all the phone wires are gone, we will need to find more Copper (this is only $2.5E6/yr? see below)
Is it "recycling" if the cycle ends in the forest?

On balance it looks like NZ's huge radiata plantations are a giant carbon sink
The timber is not much good for building unless it is heavily poisoned: CopperChromeArsenic is the favourite. Hopefully this will discourage burning, so the Carbon will remain sunk.
Some people day that radiata plantations are dull. The mat of needles does seem to inhibit a lot of undergrowth. Red Tailed cockatoos seem to like the cones, so they aint all bad.

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Other Biomass:
Compare:
canary grass Finland: 4-14(mean 10) T dm/ha on clay soil.
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miscanthus(Elephant grass) 15 T/ha/yr
1 kg dry = 0.4 kg of oil in energy,as a fuel.
DM yield 11.7 - 25.3 t DM /ha/yr (44 t DM/ha/yr as reported from a source in Denmark)
M. sacchariflorus .. southern England 12 - 20t DM/ha/yr.
"In Europe..15 t/ha dw.. Over large areas, ..average.. 8t/ha .. may be expected"
" If high yields can be attained, its energy and carbon balance may be favorable (though not as good as woody crops),"
For Energy use "pulverisation energy" can be a big cost, even for miscanthus.

(2004 extract ends)
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New Zealand forest industry spends around $2.5 million per
year on Dothistroma control by aerial application of copper ... this is small change

nzffa
If pests appear, the reaction cann be savage, witness the unpopular arial spraying of Auckland suburbs with unpublished toxins a few years ago

1080 baits are dropped to poison possum, fortunately NZ has no native mammals to suffer.
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Density defined
basic density, the oven-dry weight divided by the green wood volume, in kg/m3.
Radiata pine is commonly regarded as a ‘medium’ density softwood, with typical tree basic density of 400-420 kg/m³
However,wood samples can cover a wide range ...350 and 550 kg/m³
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Yields
700-900 m³ /ha ???

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trees: 300-500 t/ha = 550 - 900 ton CO2 ??? (C to CO2 I suppose)
(We should all agree to talk about C, not CO2...)
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All those plantations are being cut down to convert to Dairy farms
A double whammy of greenhouse gas: lost tree carbon
and Cow burps
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Estimates vary
1 cow = petrol 107litre/year = car 900km??
or cow = car??
nb 10x variation in estimates
high quality feed or, low quality feed --- stories vary
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But
climate change is a serious distraction from Peak Oil
...Peak Oil will crash our culture long before rising temperatures
the current financial crash is a serious distraction from Peak Oil
.... The economy can recover from greedy bankers, but cheap oil is gone forever.
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in 2003 New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions consisted of 46% carbon dioxide, 35.4% methane, 17.9% nitrous oxide, with Hydrofluorocarbons, Perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride accounting for some 0.5% of gross emissions. Agricultural emissions of methane from ruminants and nitrous oxide from fertilizer make up 48.5% of the total

Even if we follow the Kyoto Rules and assign a value to methane emissions of 20 times CO2 then the 300 to 500gms of methane equate to 6 to 10kgs CO2.

But
The cow has removed 25kgs of CO2 from the atmosphere and emits 6 to 10kgs CO2 equivalents in methane. She is in credit between 15 to 19kgs".
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is it a problem --short term????
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How much is sent overseas in milk products? This carbon is a credit to the cow and the New Zealand farmer. If the carbon is eventually released to the atmosphere from an overseas country then that country should pay.

royalsociety

I think Cow Climate danger is overrated..
But Tree to fuel may be optimistic at $2 per litre

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Bluefin Tuna

Had my first taste of bluefin tuna last week. Lightly fried. Unusual red muscle, almost mammalian in appearance, but softer. Extremely salty taste (added?) not marvelous.
I can see how this was regarded as cat-food until Japs began treating raw tuna as a luxury. I dont know how old my meal was. Raw tuna must hit Tokyo fish market very quickly, upon which it can be worth heaps.
Odd to be munching on a Critically endangered species. Amateur caught. In NZ. They go out 50km in small boats and fish right next to the huge trawlers which are catching Hoki. Hoki is often the fish in "fish & chips", exported, not endangered. Odd looking but.
The trawlers arent interested in the bluefin, which hang around the hull and the trawl net. I guess that without a rapid delivery mechanism to Japan, the bluefin arent worth much. I dont know how critically endangered bluefin are in this South Ocean.

The rod&line guys can spend 3-4 hours fighting (torturing?) a fish, which makes it sporting. I would fish if invited, probably not for bluefin, but it is torturing wild animals. Like shooting, I feel that its OK for some to keep the skills alive. Is it true that 90% of all fish over 30cm have gone?

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Each USA citizen consumes her weight in oil every week

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