Publisher's Notebook Archives - Page 2 of 3

Publisher’s Notebook: Federal energy policy must be firm, but fair

February 20, 2018 by David Atkins 5 Comments

When I was a kid, my Dad was more than just my Dad. He was also the leader of my YMCA club, 15 rambunctious boys who gathered one evening a week to learn lessons of respect, trust and responsibility, followed by time to play games (the primary incentive to attend) in the gym.

During the school year, we would play various sports on Saturday mornings against other clubs. For a dozen years or more, my Dad led Y clubs for my older brother and then me, no easy task as you can imagine. He used to talk about his philosophy for imposing discipline upon the chaos we would naturally generate: “firm but fair.” It meant the rules applied to everyone, all the time, but they also had to be fair, neither arbitrary nor capricious.

It meant my brother and I got no special breaks because Dad was the leader. Nor did it help the fast-talking, “yeah-but” kid that could normally sell milk to the dairyman. It wasn’t until I was older and in the working world, and eventually when I was a dad myself, that I came to fully appreciate and understand his approach and its applicability in many other situations – even including energy policy. [Read more…]

Publisher’s Notebook: Managing forests for carbon storage, wood energy & lumber

January 31, 2018 by David Atkins Leave a Comment

Is using wood for energy renewable? Is it sustainable? Does it destroy forests or make them better managed?

At Treesource, we are in the middle of a series of articles on wood energy. There are some strongly divergent perspectives on the carbon benefits or detriments of using wood for energy.

In my previous career, I was a forest ecologist and forester who developed and managed a program focused on using waste wood to heat schools, hospitals, colleges and more. So this is a debate with which I am familiar.

As with many debates, people often talk past one another because they have different assumptions about the fundamentals of the debate – sometimes out of lack of knowledge, sometimes with the purpose of misleading or diverting the discussion. [Read more…]

Publisher’s Notebook: Chasing winter’s cold with wood-fired heat

January 8, 2018 by David Atkins 1 Comment

Happy New Year! Thank you to our readers who made donations to Treesource last year to help us continue providing in-depth forest-centered journalism.

If you didn’t make a contribution, it is never too late. Just hit the contribute button here. We truly appreciate your support.

Winter has settled in (watch for our photo essay in the coming weeks), and for most of us that means the heat is on, the days are shorter and we are using more electricity. The deep Southeast is even getting a severe dose of cold – weather usually reserved for folks in the northern tier of the country.

The deep freeze, though, makes this a good time to talk about renewable energy from sustainably grown forests. We’re starting that exploration with Marcus Kauffman’s look at Alaskan communities that power their schools with wood-fired boilers. Over the next month, we will also touch on the use of wood to make liquid fuels for cars, trucks and airplanes. The when, why and how’s of whether wood energy does or does not make sense will be explored.

[Read more…]

Publisher’s Notebook: Our promise to readers for the year to come

December 22, 2017 by David Atkins Leave a Comment

Happy holidays to you all!

2017 has been an eventful year for Treesource with our launch in March, the work preparing for the launch, applying and getting our 501(c)3 status as a nonprofit from the IRS and getting lots of positive feedback from people like you who have read our articles.

From drinking water and wooden skyscrapers to wildfires and climate change, we produced and aggregated some important, relevant journalism this year.

We hosted a public forum in Missoula following the state’s epic wildfire season. It focused on how we can learn to live WITH fire, whether you are in New Jersey or California. [Read more…]

Publisher’s Notebook: Respectful discourse at NAFP a breath of fresh air

December 5, 2017 by David Atkins 6 Comments

We live in a time of historically low trust and confidence in our institutions, whether they be banks, big business, the federal government, police, the media, science or religion. It doesn’t seem to be skepticism, but a more deeply rooted cynicism.

There’s a danger in such deep-seated cynicism. Democracy as a form of government requires an underlying trust in institutions, the rule of law and its enforcement. Now, the idea that we are all Americans who hold the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution as the core organizing principles upon which we base our allegiances is under attack from within and outside our borders.

The notion that we will battle in elections, but then come together and govern for the good of the whole has severely eroded. I worry about the future for my children and grandchildren. I ask myself how do we break this negative, downward cycle. What can I do as an individual? What can Treesource do to strengthen our democratic behavior? [Read more…]