Israel, Palestinian Reforestration, and You

The Jewish National Fund is always going to be controversial. Their stated goal is to acquire and hold land for Jewish development in Palestine. Their first land purchase in Ottoman Palestine in 1903 predates by more than four decades the successful establishment of Jewish Israel after the Second World War. The JNF has been instrumental in the continuing political and economic operation of the Jewish state.

Free shipping, and $5 to the JNF. Mr. Linden is their American Spokesman.

Politics and history notwithstanding, I’m quite interested in the JNF’s active tree-planting operations. Many of the reforestation projects have come under some fire due to the incorporation of some non-native species. Additional claims of logistical military strategic plantings of these areas have been levied. Taking the politics completely out of this analysis is next to impossible, but I don’t much care WHY the JNF is planting trees where they are. I want to look at the ecological and economic effects of the program over time.

Bedouin overgrazing has been an issue in these arid lands for some time. Additional population additions to the area over time have compounded the strain on the resources of an already stressed area. Many of the JNF’s tree-planting programs have turned around once barren wastelands into sustainable forest locations. Cypress is heavily planted in Israel by the JNF.

The reforestation of pines carries an economic benefit for the JNF and the people of Israel over time. Turning non-productive lands into productive ones is always a sound economic model. Say what you want about the politic or intention of the issue at hand, the landowner is the landowner. I’ve seen many landowners do much worse with productive lands…

It has been estimated that the JNF, all holdings calculated, owns up to 13% of land in Palestine. So the West Bank issues still on the table for discussion are nothing new here. Sometimes forgotten or unknown are the years of capitalization and holdings growth that took place in the decades leading up to WWII. Much of the paperwork was already in place for that transaction.

Hal gets down and dirty with reforestation.

The JNF has been active in reservoir building, parkland establishment, and something in the neighborhood of 240 million trees have been planted, and over a quarter-million acres of land have been developed. They build roads. They build infrastructure. This is an essential piece to understand the current- and long-standing conflicts over the interests at work in any peace negotiations to even be conceivable. The overthrow of Israeli law could lead to massive disputes over property rights. And a hell of a lot more fighting.

Recent political turmoil for the JNF focused on the leasing operations to non-Jewish leaseholders, such as the Bedouins mentioned above. In Israel, like in the US, internal domestic debates over policy and practice eat up a lot of legislative time. Thus much continued discussion for another time.

A Post-Bubble Hangover

Once in a while, a person has to wonder about the learning processes of Americans. A massive bailout of our banking system was necessitated almost three years ago by the inability of our biggest (and smallest) banks to properly regulate their own activities. Lending practices over the decade leading up to our housing meltdown could do nothing but lead to a market bubble. Home “ownership” rates were at an all-time high, and the corresponding failures of those being foreclosed upon now is a simple market correction of the banks’ collective inability to make accurate risk analyses.

An obese housing market slims down by wearing smaller pants.

The Weekend Journal had a good write-up by Nick Timiraos and Maurice Tamman about big banks’ response to being saved by the American taxpayer. After letting lending standards slide so far toward loose money, the banks, it seems, are overcorrecting a bit now. The tightening of the current money supply helps to indemnify lenders against future error, but the multiplier effect of funds available to lend and stimulate economic growth are now tied up in possibly overcautious rates of credit denial.

Today’s lending market is more heavily reliant on borrowers with ample cash, which creates kind of a vicious cycle here. Those who don’t need to borrow money have ample means and historically low interest rates with which to attain credit, while those people and areas that need credit the worst are now unable to acquire it.

If the banks were “too big to fail” three or four years ago, they are every bit as big or bigger today. Furthermore, their books are still polluted with toxic assets—a number of properties stagnated in limbo between foreclosure and renewed marketability. The banks can’t release all the foreclosures they should back to the market at one setting, or the entire pricing structure would become devalued. Every bank would be stuck with piles of worthless paper.

So now it appears our banks, and perhaps our housing market, are “too big to succeed.” Fun stuff, knee-jerk pendulum politics...

Goodbye, Holocene?

The cover story of last week’s Economist suggests we may have seen the last of the Holocene. (The most recent geological epoch) It’s a little concerning to be among those actively participating in this transition. The article suggests that 90% of all plant activity in the world is reliant in some way upon people. The advances to worldwide food production have pretty much forced the issue upon our earth. It’s just not possible to expect the world to remain a similar place supporting ten times its population of three centuries ago.

Can the Robocene be far behind?

That responsible forestry has become a more acceptable practice worldwide is encouraging. Since we are already pretty much in the middle of an “Anthropocene Era,” we should do our best to not cause some sort of mass extinction, I suppose. Population swells will have to be managed with the available resources.

Meanwhile, people are certainly living longer. So the strains on the system increase incrementally with each generation, even if there were an effective zero population growth. This has been established already in much of Western Europe, but not so elsewhere in the world. China is already questioning its one-child policy as it is experiencing its most remarkable economic growth period in its modern history.

Again, we’ll see if we make responsible decisions home and abroad. International mandates have certainly become more common, and rogue nations are experiencing just a little bit of difficulty worldwide…in case anyone hadn’t noticed quite yet. Now we can root for a simple little epoch change instead of the end/beginning of a new era.

The May Jobs Report

Still struggling a bit in the USA, it appears. The latest jobless numbers came out last week, and the consensus was fairly gloomy. Oh, well. This article by Justin Lahart in the Weekend Journal kicks this ball around in the dirt a bit. China is quite predictably selling off their short-term US Treasury holdings, and the Dow has ticked backwards for five consecutive weeks.

It appears we have room for improvement, eh? The housing market, for better or worse, is a crucial indicator of our nations’ economic strength. As I’ve mentioned before, we’ve got quite a way to go here. The final tally still isn’t even racked up on the total number of homes underwater. Part of the reason is that the banks left holding the paper aren’t in the position to absorb all the losses at this time. Furthermore, immediate liquidation of all delinquent properties isn’t possible—the devaluation of those currently making their payments would make virtually every home in the country unaffordable.

So we’re stuck for a bit. There is some good news, however. From May’s jobs report, Educational services, health care and social assistance, and mining and logging were sectors showing a net positive overall growth from January 2008 through May 2011. So…someone out there is still harvesting some trees. Construction still hasn’t made a complete recovery, but there are signs of this trend leveling out, and possibly rebounding pretty well in the next couple of years.

There is definitely development going on—it’s just a little more selective, and one hopes quite a bit better thought out than the practices of the first decade of this century. We will see. I remain optimistic. Growing pains are inevitable when an entire generation hadn’t seen a substantial letdown in economic growth. The measure of our character will be demonstrated, I suppose, in the nations’ response over the coming years. I’m cheering for consumer confidence!

Balata Balls: A Golf Flashback

I was informed earlier today by Charles that we were playing in a golf tourney next Friday. If I could hit the ball at all right now, that would be one thing. Unfortunately, there’s much work to be done…So I hit the links.

A member's snapshot of the BGA the morning of the Open Championship.

The local golf course in my town is the Baldwin Golf Association, a nine-hole, 2833-yard sand greens remnant of the 1950s. Someone playing immediately before me left a treasure-trove of circa-1990 golf balls sprayed around the first hole of the club. (It’s a local custom to fire as many balls possible strewn randomly across the course, so that someone else can pick them up.) I was a well above-average player in 1990. Today, I don’t bother even handicapping myself. But the discovery of this golf-ball time machine took me back a bit.

One of my all-time favorite golf balls was the Titlist Tour 90 compression. It had a balata cover, offering the best feel one could accomplish for players who can work the ball a bit. I used to be one of those players, but I haven’t committed the time recently to make that happen again quite yet.

The balata cover used in the manufacture of these and many other popular balls of the era was derived from the sap of the Massaranduba (Manilkara bidentata) tree. These balls haven’t been made in quite some time, due to the more recent advances in Surlyn and other synthetic covers.

The diversity and wide range of uses for many tropical hardwoods is astounding. Medicines, latex, and many other raw materials are derived from responsibly harvested forests.

The earliest golf clubs were often produced with Hickory shafts. Persimmon was the wood of choice, back when they were making "wood" clubs. They were stiff, yet flexible. It was the best-suited shafting material for these earliest tools. With the industrial revolution came the advent of more predictable metals, and the consistency and mass-production capabilities of steel would later be supplanted with titanium- and graphite-alloyed creations.

None of this is very interesting if one can’t even properly strike the ball. I have a little work to do.

Proper Acclimation: A Necessity

Too often in the contracting field, unnecessary and easily avoidable errors are made due to deadlines and impatience. I’ve been a culprit of this myself. Needing to have a job done by date X, corners are occasionally cut, and it almost always shows.

When a commitment is made to a high-end decking material such as Ipe, Cumaru, or Tigerwood, it’s essential to remember that with the solid durability and resilience of these species come a few concessions. The most important allowance any contractor or homeowner can make to assure the highest quality installation is proper acclimation of the building materials.

If I were contracting an exterior siding or decking job, I would certainly allow the delivered wood to be sorted, spaced, and stacked with adequate spacing to assure proper air-drying for all four surfaces of the material. Cover it, forget about it for a week or two. Catch up on some other projects. It’s so easy to get anxious for delivery of the stock and immediately start pounding through the inventory to finish the contract. Sooner than later, this oversight will show up.

It doesn’t always necessarily happen. But I wouldn’t want to assume the risk of anything but the highest-quality installation. If the homeowner/project manager is already investing several dollars per square foot for a high-end material, the project should likely be budgeted to allow for this crucial acclimation of the lumber. Especially in the instance of finish boards, risers, skirt boards, and other applications which require direct fastening and/or plugging, having as close to a fully acclimated lumber member will prevent splitting from shrinkage or swelling of the stock when it has not yet fully adapted to the local climate.

Less splitting, a truer feel of the finish presentation of the product, and a happier customer are what can be gained by simply exercising just a bit of prudence, and sometimes allowing a job a week or two allowance providing the stock, the builder, the architect, and the homeowner a proper chance at the highest-quality overall installation.