BBE 1002 Unit 3 Blog


 Wood: the Good, the Bad, and the “Neutral”




FOREST TO LUMBER: 

Everyone has seen a tree before, obviously, but they might not think about all that goes into the growing process of a tree, and how it gets used for so many things. A seedling is planted into fertile soil with lots of water and sunlight and then takes a while to grow into the big trees we see all over. After those trees have matured, people can harvest them into different types of wood products, like furniture or planks for housing. But, it is so much more complicated than that, there are so many steps that people don’t see or know about, shown here:            →

(Lesson 13). Of course, you always start out with growing the trees, which is consistent every time, and after that is the more intricate part. In order to harvest the trees, you have three options of harvesting: selection harvest, clear-cutting, or shelter wood harvest (Lesson 13), each of which is just a different method to cutting down the trees. Next, you now have your tree trunks cut down and ready to be milled, the tree being cut into lumber (Lesson 13). For this step, you need to think about what the lumber will be used for after in order to get the best sizing and price for it. Lastly, the lumber can then be sold to wholesalers who will use it or sell it themselves to others who need it for building a house, furniture, or etc. If anyone ever tells you that this process is simple, let them know that: Trees are the best people to argue with because they are so good at throwing shade so go talk to them! 


ENGINEERED WOOD PRODUCTS:

STEAM Lesson Plan: Three Little Pigs Design Challenge - Inventionland Education“Oh great, now we’re talking about different types of wood, how boring.” You’re wrong! Knowing about different types of wood is something that is really good to know about because, while not everyone will build their own house or furniture, you will still most likely be purchasing furniture or some sort of housing and you will be able to know if it is safe to use or live in. One well known example of knowing how to build your house well is the three little pigs: they each built their homes the way they thought it would hold up best, and two out of the three were blown over by the wolf. With that being said, different wood is used for different things, like plywood is thin wood layers glued together and best used for flooring and roofing, particle board and fiberboard are small wood pieces glued together and mainly used for furniture, while glulam is a stronger wood that can be sized and shaped more than any other, which can be made into many different things (Lesson 15). I have had the dream of building my own tiny house for years now, and knowing what kinds of wood should be used for what is a really good thing to know. 


PAPER PRODUCTS:

Paper can be made from recycled materials or scraps from sawmills, meaning it is not taking anything that wasn’t already cut down, but some paper is made from whole trees - taking a whole tree down just for this thin slice of paper that will most likely be thrown away anyway. 




From this pie chart found in our Lesson 16 lesson, you can see that the sources from which paper is made are equal among the three groups. Paper is used so much all over the world, in classrooms where each student gets a packet of twenty pages each, which could be thirty students times twenty pieces of paper per equaling six hundred pages of paper, and who knows how many times they get those packets.

Making paper is a process that uses pulp, wood that has been grinded or chemicals have been put on it to get the smooth paper and lots of water. The use of paper has diminished recently because of the pandemic, but not eliminated, and to make the paper does have consequences, from more water usage to even deforestation. Overall, wood is a big part of everything we do and use, and in order to maintain the forests we have all over and Earth, we need to find a better way to sustainably use it and recycle it without harming ourselves and others who call this planet home. 





Works Cited 


Lesson 13 Forest to Lumber, BBE 1002, UMN


Lesson 15 Engineered Wood Products, BBE 1002, UMN


Lesson 16 Paper Products, BBE 1002, UMN


Steam lesson plan: Three little pigs design challenge. Inventionland Education. (2019, March 29). Retrieved 

November 7, 2021, from https://inventionlandeducation.com/steam-lesson-plan-three-little-pigs-design-challenge  



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