Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Trees of Mexico Red Gumbo Limbo Medicinal Uses for Skin affections Pain Colds Flu Sun Stroke, Blod Purifyer

By Liliana Usvat    
Blog 350-365


Red Gumbo limbo (English), Chakah or Sip' che' (Maya), Bursera simaruba, Burseraceae family. Red Gumbo Limbo is native to the Americas; a deciduous tree most notable for it’s peeling deep reddish bark, and soft wood, nowadays use by Maya carvers.  Chaca's small white bloom clusters grow in spring and winter. 















This Gumbo limbo can be propagated by just planting young branches to the ground, Maya people use it as posts for fencing their parcels that with time become mature trees.  The Red Gumbo limbo or Chaca tree has a high salty soil tolerance and many medicinal qualities used by Maya healers in tea fusions, oils and anti-inflammatory ointments.

This large deciduous tree is most notable for it’s peeling reddish bark.
 
People use its resin as glue, varnish, water-repellent coating, and incense. Gumbo-limbo is considered medicinal nearly everyplace it grows.

TRIBAL AND HERBAL MEDICINE USES


Rosita Arvigo reports that the bark is a common topical remedy in Belize for skin affections like skin sores, measles, sunburn, insect bites and rashes. A bark decoction is also taken internally for urinary tract infections, pain, colds, flu, sun stroke, fevers and to purify the blood.
 
 A strip of bark about 4 -5 cm x 30 cm is boiled in a gallon of water for 10 minutes for this local remedy and then used topically or drunk as a tea.

When someone sprained an ankle or pulled a muscle, gumbo limbo resin was applied to the affected area.  I guess you just spread the sap on your skin and stick some leaves to it, twice a day, with meals.



WORLDWIDE MEDICAL USES
Bahamas for aches(back), debility, hunger, impotency, rashes, strains; as an aphrodisiac
Belize for colds, blood cleansing, fevers, flu, insect bites, measles, rashes, skin sores, sun stroke, sunburn, urinary tract infections
Dominican Republic for cystitis, intestinal problems, nephritis
Guatemala for aches(stomach), bite(snake), gangrene
Haiti as an antiseptic diuretic, insect repellant; for calculus, diarrhea, nephritis Sore, Vulnerary
Mexico for asthma, bite(snake), colic, dropsy, dysentery, enterorrhagia, fevers, stomachaches, swelling, venereal diseases, yellow fever; as an diaphoretic, diuretic, expectorant, purgative
Peru as an analgesic, blood purifier, diaphoretic, expectorant, insecticide; for rheumatism
Venezuela for cancer(stomach), corns, debility, hernia, rheumatism
Elsewhere for aches(stomach), muscle fatigue, obesity, renitis, rheumatism, tumors, venereal diseases, wounds

Reforestation

One reason the tree is so commonly encountered is that it's a tough, adaptable species able to endure many abuses. Just poke a stick of it into the ground, it roots, and makes a new tree. 


Cut off a branch, stick it in the ground, and it will grow.  People still make photosynthesizing fences by planting a row of branches.
 
Propagation is by seed which germinates readily if fresh but, most often, gumbo-limbo is propagated by cuttings of any size twig or branch. Huge truncheons (up to 12 inches in diameter) are planted in the ground where they sprout and grow into a tree. 

Be sure to properly prune and train a tree grown in this fashion, since many sprouts often develop along the trunk after planting. A tree left to grow in this manner usually develops weak branches which may fall from the tree as it grows older. Space major branches out along the main trunk to create a strong tree. It is probably best to plant seed-grown trees or those propagated from smaller, more traditionally-sized cuttings. 

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Trees of Mexico Guadalupe Palm

By Liliana Usvat    
Blog 349-365















Guadalupe Palm, Brahea Edulis, Arecaceae family. An endemic palm to Mexico, this lush small fan palm has shiny green fan-shaped leaves, usually with indentations along the midrib. Guadalupe palms grow to 9 meters high showing a highly fissures trunk 1-1/2 feet in diameter. Endangered in its own native habitat in Mexico, the Guadalupe Island, this beautiful palm is grown successfully nowadays in many palm farms, specially in the United State as an ornamental palm.
 
Named “edulis” for its edible fruit.

Brahea edulis (Guadalupe Palm, Palma de Guadalupe) is a palm endemic to Guadalupe Island, Mexico; a few stands have been planted elsewhere. It is a fan palm which grows 4.5–13 meters tall. It grows between 400 and 1000 meters above mean sea level. 
 
The entire native population consists of old trees with little successful recruitment for 150 years or so. Until recently, Guadalupe Island supported a large goat population (estimated at 100,000 in 1870, and 5,000 in 2000). 

The presence of these goats prevented regrowth of the native trees, including B. edulis, and as a consequence, the ecosystem was drastically altered: the once verdant island turned into an almost barren rock, with weeds replacing the former forests. Below 800–900 m ASL, the palm is essentially the only remaining tree, occurring in a major sub-population and scattered groups in sheltered locations.
 
 Above that, there used to be a band of mixed woodland where the palm was accompanied by Island Oak and Guadalupe Pine. This habitat has now all but disappeared due to the other trees becoming pushed back into higher regions. 

The species was probably declining slowly since the mid-19th century. Its range might even have expanded a bit until the mid-20th century however; part of it was shared with other trees as noted above; especially the pine, it's a towering species that presumably grew in many sites now occupied by the palm. 
 
In addition, a forest of Guadalupe Cypress and California Juniper shrubland existed in the palm's present range; the cypress forest was eventually destroyed by the goats and the juniper is nowadays completely absent from the island. Although endangered in the wild, B. edulis is cultivated, especially in California.  

Reforestation



Trees are quite wind and salt hardy. They thrive in drier subtropical conditions and don't do as well with constant humidity. Grow in almost any soil type, water is need infrequently, and once established, the plants need little or no care. Propagation: By seeds, which take 3-6 months to germinate. 
 
Guadalupe palms grow amidst indigenous Monterey pine, Pinus radiata var. binata; toyon, Heteromeles arbutifolia; sword fern, Polystichum munitum; California juniper, Juniperus californica; and members (some endemic) of such typically Californian genera as Cupressus (cypresses), Eschsholzia (California poppies), Ceanothus (California lilac), Arctostaphylos (manzanita), and Eriogonum (buckwheats).

To be accurate, Guadalupe palms used to grow with these plants, but many became endangered or were extirpated by more than a century of feral goat browsing. The destruction has now ended with the removal of the goats as part of a restoration project, and plants are responding with rapid growth.

Monday, August 24, 2015

Statistics Canada - Logging Industry

By Liliana Usvat    
Blog 348-365


Statistics Canada give a view about logging industry and ownership of the forests in Canada.

Forest area by classification (hectares)
Forest land 347,575,750
Other land with tree cover 8,498,940
Other wooded land 40,865,660
Total area 396,940,350
Forest area change (hectares, 2013)


Deforestation 45,800



Forest ownership
Provincial 76.6%
Territorial 12.9%
Private 6.2%
Aboriginal 2.0%
Federal 1.6%

Disturbance

Insects (hectares, 2013)
Area defoliated by insects and containing beetle-killed trees 20,129,334
Fires (2014)
Area burned (hectares) 4,563,848
Number of fires 5,127

Forest management

Harvesting (2013)
Area harvested (hectares) 738,836
Volume harvested (cubic metres) 152,076,000
Regeneration (hectares, 2013)
Area planted 387,395
Area seeded 10,492
Third-party certification (hectares, 2014)
Area certified 160,856,360
Protected forest (IUCN categories)
Ia Strict nature reserve 0.10%
Ib Wilderness area 1.90%
II Ecosystem conservation and protection 4.20%
III Conservation of natural features 0.50%
IV Conservation through active management 0.20%
V Landscape conservation and recreation 0.02%

Greenhouse gas inventory

For forest lands affected by land-use change (2013)
CO2e removals from the atmosphere due to afforestation (megatonnes) 0.6
CO2e emissions due to deforestation (megatonnes) 3.1
For managed forests (2013)
Area of managed forests (hectares) 232,000,000
CO2e net removals due to forest biomass and dead organic matter (megatonnes) 143.0
CO2e net emissions to the atmosphere (megatonnes) -19.0

Domestic economic impact


Links: https://cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/statsprofile






Contribution to real GDP (constant 2007 dollars, 2014)
Forestry and logging industry 3,830,000,000
Pulp and paper product manufacturing industry 6,998,000,000
Wood product manufacturing industry 9,308,000,000
Total contribution to real GDP 20,136,000,000
Employment (number, 2014)
Labour Force Survey 232,700
Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours 185,659




Wages and salaries (dollars, 2012) 8,656,795,000
Capital expenditures (dollars, 2013) 2,173,700,000
Repair expenditures (dollars, 2012) 2,710,900,000
Revenue from goods manufactured (dollars, 2012) 53,159,908,000

Trade

Balance of trade (total exports, dollars, 2014) 20,713,209,235
Value of domestic exports (dollars, 2014)
Primary wood products 1,301,203,443
Pulp and paper products 16,839,424,399
Wood-fabricated materials 12,633,143,321
Total value of exports 30,773,771,163
Value of imports (dollars, 2014)
Primary wood products 474,245,946
Pulp and paper products 6,528,638,374
Wood-fabricated materials 3,057,677,608
Total value of imports 10,060,561,928