Drax at it Again!

[Stinsy]

Drax: UK power station owner cuts down primary forests in Canada https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63089348

[AE-NMidlands]

It's a trailer for tonight's Panorama programme, also trailed on R4 this morning.
My bet is it doesn't really tell us anything we didn't know or suspect, but hopefully it will be another nail in the coffin of their claims and subsidies.
A

[Oldgreybeard]

Drax have been doing this for years, haven't they? I remember an article years ago claiming that the supposed eco credentials behind the conversion of Drax to burning wood were deeply flawed. Apart from them burning virgin forest, the growth time and climate change make even their claims about the regenerated forest fail to stack up, when all the CO2 is accounted for (including all the heavy oil burned to get timber from Canada to here).

[Stinsy]

I'm up for burning: locally felled, sustainably processed, naturally seasoned, biomass. All that is perfectly sustainable if you want a log burner to augment your heat pump on the very coldest days.

The sheer scale of Drax means that feeding it requires chopping down vast areas of virgin woodland on far-away continents, then consuming huge amounts of energy processing the timber into dry pellets, before shipping it across the globe, and burning it in a converted coal power station. You don't have to get into the detail to realise that this is horribly polluting and completely unsustainable.

Drax seems to claim that they're "just burning some sawdust and a few offcuts" but this isn't possible with the sheer scale of the operation.

[Ken]

I'm up for burning: locally felled, sustainably processed, naturally seasoned, biomass. All that is perfectly sustainable if you want a log burner to augment your heat pump on the very coldest days.

The sheer scale of Drax means that feeding it requires chopping down vast areas of virgin woodland on far-away continents, then consuming huge amounts of energy processing the timber into dry pellets, before shipping it across the globe, and burning it in a converted coal power station. You don't have to get into the detail to realise that this is horribly polluting and completely unsustainable.

Drax seems to claim that they're "just burning some sawdust and a few offcuts" but this isn't possible with the sheer scale of the operation.

Totally agree.

Last yr i had to chop down 7 small DEAD Elm tries. Man did not plant them,man did not kill them and left to their own would have rotted away all the time emitting methane a very potent green house gas. So i came along and burnt the logs and the chippings as mulch around the garden. Whats to not like.

A large timber merchants near me directs all its saw dust to a 40ft container outside which i guess then gets used for chip board/mdf or pellets (must find out nextime there) and will one day get burnt i guess.

Its not so much chopping trees down which may after all be near the end of life and can be used for better things but that collecting and transport in Drax,s case is not acceptable. If Drax genuinly used off cuts and waste nearer to home then i would support it, the trouble is here in the UK we chopped down most of our trees along time ago and are now telling other countries not to do the same.

Always remembering there is not a shortage of wood and many woods could be cleared of dead wood at a local level-perhaps increased energy prices will up the value of this dead wood. A few yrs ago the Nat Trust had to clear a huge amount ,100ks of dead trees -i wonder what happened to them?

I have some dying conifers which i guess is because of drought -this is nature in action not mankind.

[Oliver90owner]

man did not kill them

So, who spread Dutch elm disease around the continent? Who spread Ash die-back disease around the continent? Answers on a postage stamp if you can get 6 characters letters on one.

[Joeboy]

I'm up for burning: locally felled, sustainably processed, naturally seasoned, biomass. All that is perfectly sustainable if you want a log burner to augment your heat pump on the very coldest days.

The sheer scale of Drax means that feeding it requires chopping down vast areas of virgin woodland on far-away continents, then consuming huge amounts of energy processing the timber into dry pellets, before shipping it across the globe, and burning it in a converted coal power station. You don't have to get into the detail to realise that this is horribly polluting and completely unsustainable.

Drax seems to claim that they're "just burning some sawdust and a few offcuts" but this isn't possible with the sheer scale of the operation.

Totally agree.

Last yr i had to chop down 7 small DEAD Elm tries. Man did not plant them,man did not kill them and left to their own would have rotted away all the time emitting methane a very potent green house gas. So i came along and burnt the logs and the chippings as mulch around the garden. Whats to not like.

A large timber merchants near me directs all its saw dust to a 40ft container outside which i guess then gets used for chip board/mdf or pellets (must find out nextime there) and will one day get burnt i guess.

Its not so much chopping trees down which may after all be near the end of life and can be used for better things but that collecting and transport in Drax,s case is not acceptable. If Drax genuinly used off cuts and waste nearer to home then i would support it, the trouble is here in the UK we chopped down most of our trees along time ago and are now telling other countries not to do the same.

Always remembering there is not a shortage of wood and many woods could be cleared of dead wood at a local level-perhaps increased energy prices will up the value of this dead wood. A few yrs ago the Nat Trust had to clear a huge amount ,100ks of dead trees -i wonder what happened to them?

I have some dying conifers which i guess is because of drought -this is nature in action not mankind.

The trees cleared from last year's storm Arwen figured in the millions. I am sure that a percentage would be sold to Drax. Read an article on it, will see if I can find.

Edit- https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co ... 926691.amp

https://forestryandland.gov.scot/blog/s ... -aftermath

[Joeboy]

I'm up for burning: locally felled, sustainably processed, naturally seasoned, biomass. All that is perfectly sustainable if you want a log burner to augment your heat pump on the very coldest days.

The sheer scale of Drax means that feeding it requires chopping down vast areas of virgin woodland on far-away continents, then consuming huge amounts of energy processing the timber into dry pellets, before shipping it across the globe, and burning it in a converted coal power station. You don't have to get into the detail to realise that this is horribly polluting and completely unsustainable.

Drax seems to claim that they're "just burning some sawdust and a few offcuts" but this isn't possible with the sheer scale of the operation.

Totally agree.

Last yr i had to chop down 7 small DEAD Elm tries. Man did not plant them,man did not kill them and left to their own would have rotted away all the time emitting methane a very potent green house gas. So i came along and burnt the logs and the chippings as mulch around the garden. Whats to not like.

A large timber merchants near me directs all its saw dust to a 40ft container outside which i guess then gets used for chip board/mdf or pellets (must find out nextime there) and will one day get burnt i guess.

Its not so much chopping trees down which may after all be near the end of life and can be used for better things but that collecting and transport in Drax,s case is not acceptable. If Drax genuinly used off cuts and waste nearer to home then i would support it, the trouble is here in the UK we chopped down most of our trees along time ago and are now telling other countries not to do the same.

Always remembering there is not a shortage of wood and many woods could be cleared of dead wood at a local level-perhaps increased energy prices will up the value of this dead wood. A few yrs ago the Nat Trust had to clear a huge amount ,100ks of dead trees -i wonder what happened to them?

I have some dying conifers which i guess is because of drought -this is nature in action not mankind.

The trees cleared from last year's storm Arwen figured in the millions. I am sure that a percentage would be sold to Drax. Read an article on it, will see if I can find.

Edit- https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co ... 926691.amp

https://forestryandland.gov.scot/blog/s ... -aftermath

Sorry I have went off topic on this. The article I can't find was in.part on the race to process as many of these storm felled trees before any 'blueing' took hold. This affects the grade of the timber and devalues it from building grade to less than. This lead my mind to there being no dip in the price of timber even with this glut of material. Must assume that it went to the world market to be swallowed by China?

My wind then wanders along to national trust/forestry commission. The majority of the timber was on land under these headings, so who profits? I'm not really going anywhere with this other than to wonder that a 'national resource' such as 12,000,000 trees didn't help the typical UK resident at all. Didn't touch the timber price on these islands, how can that be proper?
Further edit- this might be the article.
https://www.forestryjournal.co.uk/news/ ... ed-sooner/

[Andy]

A friends father had woodland planted on his farm for his pension.
It was all blown down this year. It was no use for construction timber and my understanding is that it was also too contaminated from soil to be processed into wood pellets. I’m guessing a lot of wind blown wood falls into the no use for processing bracket.

[Joeboy]

A friends father had woodland planted on his farm for his pension.
It was all blown down this year. It was no use for construction timber and my understanding is that it was also too contaminated from soil to be processed into wood pellets. I’m guessing a lot of wind blown wood falls into the no use for processing bracket.

Where is he Andy? Not being a rapacious bustard but I plan to use my WBS1&2 for years. Could do a wee cash conversion? Just a thought and no worries if not as I've another 5T to fell & collect Nov. Nonetheless, if'en it worked..

Btw, sorry for your pals Da, tough break..