Writ large.

This puts our dead ash problem at home in perspective.  Interesting comments on the dangers of felling large dead (as opposed to living) trees.  Some 3-4,000 tons a year of dead mature ash are to be extracted and replanted over the next 5-6 years on this estate.  Dead ash ceases to be a net fixer of carbon and becomes a net emitter of carbon.  This pile is one of some twenty or so similar piles on the estate waiting to be converted to firewood or chipped for biomass boilers or used for the on-site Combined Heat and Power (CHP) unit.  The CHP unit converts dried chips by pyrolisis to gas to power a 40kw electricity generator connected to the national grid. Excess heat from the gas engine that drives the generator is used to dry chips prior to pyrolisis.   As usual these days there is much debate as to the best array of species to be used for replanting in the face of climate change and the continuing admission of tree diseases to the UK.