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Prototype Root Harvest Contract -- Black Locust Initiative, Fall 2000
Landowner receives 10% of the value of the tree. Tree volume measured
per UDSA table (attached). Unit price = $200/mbf (thousand board feet).
Payment is in return for 10% of roots from the tree, obtained only in
the following manner:
- Tree is numbered, photographed, and data are collected regarding
bark morphology (taxonomy), height, diameter at breast height (dbh),
and log straightness.
- A marked buttress root in a cardinal direction is excavated using
air tools, and the azimuth is recorded in the photo, so that future
researchers can determine the time it takes for the tree to replace
harvested roots, and whether the young, regrown roots are more easily
propagated. (A fair sized tree has approximately 10 buttress roots,
so harvest of one should yield about a 10% harvest).
- Roots are always tagged before cutting with sterile tools and removing
from context.
- A bucket of sandy loam is added to replace lost material at time
of backfilling.
- Roots are instantly heeled-in in moist, sandy peat (neither
wet nor dry), with redundant tagging and labeling, and stored in appropriate
conditions (35 deg F) until planing in early spring.
- When cutting roots to length for planting, they are arranged anatomically
and keyed and photographed.
Landowner still has the capital (the tree) and has received a dividend
and a database to determine the rate of increase of the capital (tree
volume over time), and may choose to continue this procedure, or to
ethically harvest this tree when 10 progeny have been securely established.
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