Review of speed limits on rural roads, submissions now open
HDC in its infinite wisdom has done a review of speed limits on rural roads, most of these changes are an absolute joke. On the vast majority of these back roads the hazards are self managed and have been that way for many, many decades with very rare serious crashes on them, let alone fatalities. They performed a stacked survey a month or so ago, not allowing submitters to tick a "keep the status quo box". So here's your chance to submit to their biased review.
Some of my points I am going to submit on are the policing of these back roads which is pretty much non existent so lowered speed limits are meaningless, some of these roads have incredibly long straight sections (E.g. Wylies Rd is around 10km long and has one single slight kink in the road), these roads have been self policed for decades (I.e. slow down when near small bridges, hidden rises and corners etc), we have been given no data on serious or fatal crashes on any of these roads to make our decisions on.
You might be in support of lowering the speed limits on your little piece of road which is fair enough, but entire roads? It looks like every single back road is going to have a lowered speed limit if council gets its way!
www.horowhenua.govt.nz...
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SLASH BESIDE THE TRACK UP TO TRIG
I question the wisdom and the morality of an industry which creates so much waste, waste which is also a cause of widespread and devastating damage. So, I searched the internet for potential uses of slash. It was easy to find.
I recommend a visit to nzbioforestry.co.nz. I quote from the website:
OUR SOLUTION:
NZ Bio Forestry proposes to develop a sustainable renewable forestry model that increases the economic value of the NZ- Aotearoa forestry sector, simply by integrating bio-technologies augmenting the forestry, wood manufacturing, and petrochemistry industries into one model.
Specifically, our strategy is to utilise the whole tree and convert the tree’s sugars into bioenergy, biomaterials, and biochemicals. This means using slash, off cuts, pruning, and wood waste to produce biofuel via bio pellets and biochemicals. It means optimising logs through the whole process….logging, manufacturing freighting, and refining process to serve the many Asia-Pacific markets with high-value products….not just exporting raw logs to one or two large dominant markets! (End of quote)
NZ Bio Forestry then contrasts the financial return from the present exports of raw logs with the potential return from utilising the WHOLE TREE.
In US dollars, the return from exporting logs is between $50 - $140 per log.
Using the whole tree including the slash and other waste for wood processing would return $200 - $800 per tree, and,
Using the bio-refinery process to convert the wood waste into fossil-free biochemicals would return $2,500 - $11,200 per tree.
I can’t help but conclude that our current focus on exporting logs is a pitiful failure of industry and government policy compared with the potential benefits of processing THE WHOLE TREE. And to complete the argument, this not just theory. In Scandinavia, SCA, which owns Europe’s largest private forest with 2.7 million hectares, has built a well-invested value chain that maximises the value of each individual tree and all of the forestry’s resources.
A SUMMARY OF POTENTIAL ADDITIONAL PRODUCTS:
Wood Pellets and Chips: Slash can be collected, dried, and processed into hog fuel or wood pellets for use in industrial boilers, as a replacement for coal, to generate heat and electricity.
Biofuel Production: Research is underway to convert forest residues into marine biofuel to help decarbonize the shipping sector.
Gasification: Advanced, small-scale, on-site processing plants can turn slash into renewable energy products like bio-oil, ethanol, and hydrogen.
Biochemicals: Specialized refineries can convert woody waste into sustainable alternatives to plastics, chemicals, and industrial products.
WAKE UP Aotearoa, New Zealand!!!
🧩😏 Riddle me this, Neighbours…
I am an odd number. Take away a letter and I become even. What number am I?
Do you think you know the answer?
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