Book Description

How can cutting down a tree be good for the environment? Why do we assume trees can only be grown for EITHER conservation OR profit, but never both? What if there was a way that landholders could profit from harvesting timber from the trees they plant for stock shelter, biodiversity, soil erosion control and beautification - whilst also helping control climate change? In Heartwood- The art and science of growing trees for conservation and profit, Rowan proposes a radical new approach to forestry and Landcare that challenges the idea that harvesting trees for timber is always bad for the environment. In fact, using real examples from his own farm and others around Australia and overseas, he proves that cutting down trees for firewood, furniture and building timbers can not only be good for the environment, it can also help pay the cost of large-scale landscape restoration. This book offers landholders, governments and the conservation movement a practical commercial solution to their environmental problems. Heartwood will fundamentally change the way people think about the future of forestry and in doing so it will encourage more landholders to grow more trees for the benefit of their land and all that depend on it.