permaculture

[Scott Vlaun <scott@moosepondarts.com>]

Wood is a renewable resource. I have spoken directly with Mollison  
about wood heat and he strongly recommends masonry heaters for  
extreme northern climates. We can harvest plenty of wood from our  
woodlot and continue to restore the forest ecosystem and sequester  
carbon more carbon than an unmanaged forest. Except for wilderness  
areas, of which we have dedicated part of our land, managing a forest  
carefully, especially with coppicing techniques, can be more of an  
ecological solution than letting the forest be. Small. well-insulated  
buildings with passive solar and clean wood heat and hot water make  
the most sense in my climate. There isn't enough green power on line  
to begin to heat all the homes in northern climates no matter how  
well insulated they are.

I've been using an Amish built stove called Kitchen Queen to heat our  
house and hot water as well as do all our cooking during the heating  
season. I basically burn damaged and diseased trees as well as  
thinnings from where we are trying to develop mature trees for sap  
collection. There are probably even better stoves out there in terms  
of emissions. We have a footing under our kitchen for a masonry  
furnace with a small oven, but no time or funds to complete it at  
this point. If anyone has good plans for such a heater that will fit  
on a 9x3 ft footing I'd love to hear about them.

Harvest Hope,

Scott Vlaun
Moose Pond Arts+Ecology
Design Solutions for a Sustainable Future

450 Main St. Studio 2
Norway, Maine 04268
207-739-2409 Studio
207-890-4099 Cell
http://www.moosepondarts.com



On Oct 5, 2007, at 4:39 PM, Healing Hawk wrote:

> Heating and cooking with wood is not ecologically supported.  In
> California's mild climate, passive solar design, especially using  
> cob and
> strawbale construction, should result in a home you can heat with a  
> small
> thermostatically controlled electric heater that might come on once  
> an hour
> or so.  Buy or make green power.
>
> Humans now have to reforest Earth to contain atmospheric carbon  
> rather than
> going the other way.  I'm saddened when "permaculturalists" don't have
> control of the basic systems theory that Bill and David so carefully
> articulate in their books.
>
> Designing so that we have to heat with wood is one of Bill's "type  
> one"
> errors.  So is designing a cob/strawbale house without passive  
> solar.  This
> is why there is a long observation stage in Permaculture design.   
> Einstein
> said the solution doesn't come from the consciousness that created the
> problem.
>
> Permaculture is about saving what remains of Earth's life support  
> system and
> designing to reclaim that which was foolishly squandered supporting
> parasitic human lifestyles.  Permaculture is not about making humans
> comfortable in parasitic lifestyles that continue to harm the  
> biosphere.
> Heating with wood is parasitic, i.e., taking without giving back.
>
> Humans do not possess the power to replace the manifold ecological  
> services
> provided by a single tree.  As a general rule, don't cut trees.  As a
> general rule, make symbiotic choices.  As a general rule, purge the  
> idea of
> human dominion over nature before starting the observation phase of  
> design.
>
>
> Tommy Tolson
> Austin, TX
>
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