Biorenewable Resources

Hello again everyone! Last time I tried to give you as much information about corn as possible! This week, we are focusing on wood. Unsurprisingly, wood has a variety of positives and negatives, and I'm here to tell you about them! We first will take a look at how lumber is made, which is a surprisingly interesting process. Next, we'll see how this lumber is used to engineer specialized wood products, which has completely changed the industry. Finally, we will wrap it all up as we look at if wood is truly good or not. Sit back, relax, and try and learn a thing or two :) Let us first take a deep dive into lumber, the main product of wood! In order to make lumber, the trees actually have to be harvested. They are harvested in one of three ways: selection harvesting, clear-cutting, or shelterwood harvesting. Think of these processes as time-dependent, as the maturity of the tree oftentimes makes the decision on how they are harvested. After your trees are harvested, they are the...

 Corn - The Swiss Army Knife of the U.S. Hello everyone! I am back at it for my second blog of the year, and I think I have some very interesting topics for you to hear about! Today, we are going to be talking about anything and everything related to farming! Here in the US, farming is extremely important. However, the ways it is conducted are vastly different. I'm here to show you a couple of different practices for farming in the United States, and I think you'll be surprised by how interesting they actually are! When you hear the term farming, it is most common to think about corn. Corn is the most grown crop here in the US, so that's what we'll be focusing on today. In order for me to tell you anything about corn, you first must understand how it is produced. Corn is an annual monoculture crop, which means a cornfield is strictly a cornfield, and there is one harvest per year. The first step in growing corn is soil preparation. Here in America, this can be done in a...