The Tree Farm

January 28, 2016 9:24 AM

Deforestation and tree farming in northern Scotland.
posted by Chrysostom (9 comments total)

The bogs of Sutherland and Caithness alone are estimated to contain 400 million tonnes of carbon, more than double the amount held in all British forests put together. By disturbing it – by ploughing and draining, then planting thirsty trees that suck up all the moisture – they risked releasing massive quantities of carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.

Globally, the degeneration of peatbogs is thought to account for 6 per cent of all emissions due to human activity.

Wow. Who knew?
posted by clawsoon at 10:03 AM on January 28, 2016

That's an astounding read. Thank you for posting.
posted by Annika Cicada at 10:41 AM on January 28, 2016

I think many people knew, but the people who knew and cared weren't the people who were consulted. The Far North has always been a dumping ground for things deemed too dangerous for the South - the Gruinard Anthrax experiment, the fast breeder reactor at Dounreay - and these trees are part of the same mindset.
posted by scruss at 10:43 AM on January 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

While the peat won't recover in any reasonable timescale there is hope for the wooded areas that were cut down and turned to tree farms. For one, as the article notes the farming is being done in a better manner now (smaller areas planted and harvested at the same time and following more natural lines), also once the farming is stopped the forests can be returned to a state of "wilderness" in a hundred years or so. Many of the provincial parks in Ontario look like natural forests but in fact were extensively logged and/or mined prior to becoming parks, and some logging still goes on now in Algonquin Park.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:12 AM on January 28, 2016

I believe the same is true of New England - I think something upwards of 90% of forest there is regrowth over the past 125 years or so.
posted by Chrysostom at 11:20 AM on January 28, 2016

Years ago, I lived in Scotland for a few months. We had some wind farms going in near the community and my favorite comment of a local was, "I don't care about the wind farms, I hate these #$^%#$ christmas tree farms!"
posted by Gor-ella at 11:21 AM on January 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

"Globally, the degeneration of peatbogs is thought to account for 6 per cent of all emissions due to human activity."

I feel like I'm personally responsible for this due to my excessive abnormal elevated consumption of heavily peated single malts.

They're so tasty though.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 12:32 PM on January 28, 2016

I believe the same is true of New England - I think something upwards of 90% of forest there is regrowth over the past 125 years or so.

Certainly true of Vermont. I know walking through the deepest darkest mountainous areas that look like pristine old growth forest you always suddenly have to cross over some rocks, and then you notice that it is a tumble down old wall and you were wandering through an old farmers field. When climbing over the I always think "Good fences make good neighbors"
posted by koolkat at 1:30 AM on January 29, 2016

"Hoofed locusts" heh. George Monbiot called them "Woolly maggots" IIRC.
posted by yoHighness at 7:10 AM on January 29, 2016