More interesting notes from yesterdays meeting

I was so tired last night that I forgot about the other things I was going to write about.  Both of the other topics also were related to trees. 

The first may not seem like such a big deal but I just think it's worth noting.  I remember about 15 or 20 years ago when the housing market was good and the timber market in the state wasn't great due to several yearly additions of new, much more stringent sets of forest practice rules.  We were importing logs from foreign countries.  What I didn't like about it was that the environmental groups were trying to slow or stop the logging in the state, although we have the most stringent logging regulations in the country, so in order to meet demand companies were purchasing logs from foreign markets who had no real environmental regulation at all.  We were destroying their ecosystems in order to protect ours.  From my point of view there needed to be a better way.   

Now, because the need for lumber in our country is at such a low demand and in China the need is so great  (remember they have four times our population), logs are being exported from California and being shipped to China.  I just thought this was an interesting switch, nothing else...

Another topic of discussion, which I've discussed in the past, is the mapping of trees and gardens.  Some are public and some are private.  It's a total invasion of privacy for someone to drive by your property, see your trees or garden, and load that information into Google Earth.  This new project is called urban forest mapping.  Cities and the general public are being encouraged to add their trees or other peoples trees into this project.  At some point there is going to be a public push to do this, possibly with federal grant money.

Part of this urban forest project includes a website from CalPoly.  http://ufei.org/  I did find the Selectree part interesting.  I clicked on Tree selection by attribute. I clicked on prolific fruiting habit and edible fruit.  It came up with a list of trees, including some I hadn't thought of.  I think I'm going to plant some carob trees.  Carob is a substitute for cocoa.  I'm still waiting for the local nurseries to get in their bareroots.  They seem to be running late this year.