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Note: This issue is no longer available for purchase.
Giant Minds, Giant Ideas
In this issue we write about the twin
towers of human progress: knowledge
and inspiration. Both
flourish in abundance at the United States forest Service Forest Products
Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin. We
doubt that any Americans have ever heard of the lab, yet so ubiquitous is
its contribution to the way we live and work that it rivals that of the
national Aeronautics and Space Administration.
All of the technology advanced structural and panel products used
in home construction today began as basic research by lab scientists; so
too did the impressive array of paper-based packaging materials we use
daily. But
for all of its unheralded contributions to the nation’s standard of
living, the Madison lab’s greatest strength has always rested on its
ability to identify practical and often quite timely applications for
seemingly unrelated discoveries in chemistry, physics, botany, forestry,
pathology, biology and engineering. The
lab’s attention is currently concentrated on the most vexing problem our
society has faced since conservation first took root in forestry and wood
utilization more than a hundred years ago:
what to do with the explosion of small diameter trees that have
crowded their way into our national forests over the last half-century,
choking the life out of treasured landscapes, both east and west.
And what also to do with millions of tons of woody biomass, both
green and dead, that, along with millions of dead and dying trees, are
fueling the most destructive forest scientists have ever witnessed in the
West? In
the hopes of finding the answers to these questions, Evergreen
traveled to Madison to talk with scientists who are trying to find
uses for this fiber. We are
pleased to report that we found reason for hope, though it was tempered by
a straightforward acknowledgement that until viable markets are identified
and appropriate technologies developed, forestry restoration, which enjoys
remarkable wide public support, will remain a distant dream. “Giant
Minds. Giant Ideas” is
available for purchase in our on-line store.
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