Where have all the trees gone

Everywhere you look there are new homes being built some of which, are much bigger than most people need. Just look at the new neighborhoods that are popping up all around us. The homes in these neighborhoods are not small; they are big enough to be small hotels. These homes have as much as five thousand square feet, four bathrooms, six bedrooms, restaurant size kitchens, libraries, studies, theatres, craft rooms, wine cellars, game rooms, fitness rooms, and a play room for the kids.   They are indeed exceedingly nice homes. I will admit  that if I were able to afford this luxury I would probably have one myself. However, our environment can no longer sustain Americans’ desire to have more space using lumber as the primary building material.
Most Americans do not need that much space to live. The families that live in these large oversized homes are average sized families.  . If we are going to have big houses then maybe we should consider communal living where our off-spring never leave, the nest. When sons or daughters get married, they and their new spouse live in the house and share in the expenses and the house work. Move the parents in letting them look after the children. As the old get older and become more dependent on others, they are cared for by family members who share the load. This would be better than tucking them away in some poorly run, money sucking nursing home.
  Another reason Americans feel the need to have more living space is that we spend a lot of time and money trying to keep up with the Jones’s, it has to be bigger and better than the homes of their neighbor, co-worker, brother, sister and friends. Many people feel that they possess the need to have a big house either because of their social, economic or, professional status. This desire that Americans have  for these bigger homes has seriously affected our natural resources. In reality, we don’t need a special room to read in or kitchens the size of the state of Montana to cook.  As for reading, go out,side, sit on the porch and get some fresh air while it lasts. If it is raining or too cold, do your reading in the living room. A meatloaf is not going to taste any better out of the Montana sized kitchen than it does out of the average size kitchen.

I often wonder if we even stop to think about how many trees were killed just so we can live in the lap of opulence Our forests don’t stand a chance against the increasing demand for new and larger homes. It takes ten thousand board feet to build the average fifteen hundred square foot home. This equates to twenty four trees; which are seventeen inches in diameter and thirty-five feet tall. At an average growth rate of about one foot per year, thirty five foot tree is thirty five years old or older when its life is snuffed out by the logger’s mighty sword the chain saw. Twenty four trees may not sound like a lot, but that is forty eight hundred trees to build a neighborhood of two hundred homes. Our forest can’t keep up just so we can live in these oversized houses. So what happens when these thirty five year old trees are harvested to the point of depletion? We start harvesting the younger trees which mean one thing. Smaller trees; so we now we harvest more trees, because we still need ten thousand board feet to build an average size home.

I can remember when I was a young boy, and my father showed me pictures of the logging operations from the early days, when he used to work as a logger.  The trees were so big around and so long that a log truck could only carry eight or nine logs to load.  This was only sixty or seventy years ago. Now present day logging trucks carry as many as twenty or more logs, and the trucks are not any bigger than they were back then. If you walk through the forest today, you will be hard pressed to find a tree that is over sixty years old. And finding a hundred year old tree would be like finding a pot of gold. At the rate that we are going, should it continue, I won’t be surprised if we run out of trees to harvest by the year two thousand sixty-five.  That is only fifty one years from now.
If we are going to continue building these large homes, the size of small hotels then we seriously need to get our heads out of the sand. People need to consider using alternate building materials in the construction of new homes. Not just in the big homes but in all homes. I am not advocating that we cut out all wood products in the construction of homes, which would be close to impossible. However, we can dramatically reduce the amount of wood that goes into the construction of a new home.

There are other options in the construction of houses that would decrease the amount of wood being used by up to seventy percent. Instead of using wood for wall studs and roofs, steel could be used in place of wood. Steel is stronger and will stand up to high winds better than wood. Steal will not burn as quickly. It will not mildew like wood. And it is not susceptible to termite damage, or earthquakes. Since none of the interior walls is load bearing walls, remodeling is much easier and much more economical. Steel has been used to construct commercial buildings for more than forty five years. These are only a few of the many advantages of using steel construction for new homes. If the houses in New Orleans had been built using this technology, it would have saved home owners thousands of dollars on the renovations. We could also build more homes using concrete slabs and brick walls If families that are looking to buy their first home bought an older home that needed a little renovating instead of buying a custom built home, that would be one less new home which would help conserve our natural resources.

Now some would argue that the use of lumber is better for the environment in regards to the carbon footprint and green gases. I suppose that there might be truth to that, considering that steel, bricks, tile and a variety of the alternatives products are manufactured, rather than grown. However when we clear a hundred acres of land to put up a new neighborhood, that is land that cannot be used for replenishing trees for future homes. At the current rate that trees are being cut down for lumber production by 2065 we might not be around to worry about green gasses and carbon footprints. Do to the fact that trees absorb carbon monoxide and produce oxygen.

Americans have to do something about this problem; it is not going to get better. Given the number of trees being harvested to construct new homes, we are depleting our resources faster than they can be replaced. If Americans are determined to live in these oversized homes, then Americans have to invent, invest, and develop more earth friendly building products for home construction. It is time for Americans to remove their heads from the sand and take a realistic and conservative approach to the construction of new homes.  A few years ago there was a musical group that put out a song called “Where Have All The Flowers Gone” If this keeps up, in two thousand sixty-five, or sooner. Americans will be singing “Where Have All the Trees Gone.”