A "tree farm" can be eco-friendly in the same way that a small, organic family farm can integrate itself nicely with the environment. The trouble is, most farms are not like that, and neither are most tree farms. Most paper comes from plantations that are often thousands of acres of pine monoculture (planted in straight rows, no less) that provide little in the way of wildlife diversity and have displaced native species.
In southeastern NC, for instance, the Green Swamp *used* to be a vast peat bog supporting species like Loblolly Pine, Red Cockaded Woodpecker, the rare and unusual carnivorous pitcher plants (Sarracenia), sundews (Drosera), and butterworts (Pinguicula) and the famous Venus Flytrap which grows nowhere else in the world except within 100 miles of Wilmington, NC. Today, a lot of it looks like this: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=34.13646,-78.307457&spn=0.042625,0.061197&z=14
That's about as interesting as a parking lot, just row after row of the same tree, all the same type and all the same height.
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I've been playing with synthetic muscles
Is that you, Barry Bonds?
This concept is explored wondefully (IMHO) in this 8 minute stop-motion animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj3rT_yYCw8
A "tree farm" can be eco-friendly in the same way that a small, organic family farm can integrate itself nicely with the environment. The trouble is, most farms are not like that, and neither are most tree farms. Most paper comes from plantations that are often thousands of acres of pine monoculture (planted in straight rows, no less) that provide little in the way of wildlife diversity and have displaced native species.
In southeastern NC, for instance, the Green Swamp *used* to be a vast peat bog supporting species like Loblolly Pine, Red Cockaded Woodpecker, the rare and unusual carnivorous pitcher plants (Sarracenia), sundews (Drosera), and butterworts (Pinguicula) and the famous Venus Flytrap which grows nowhere else in the world except within 100 miles of Wilmington, NC. Today, a lot of it looks like this:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=34.13646,-78.307457&spn=0.042625,0.061197&z=14
That's about as interesting as a parking lot, just row after row of the same tree, all the same type and all the same height.
*That's* what's I don't like about paper.