No hot air here

I know a lot more about trees that I did 24 hours ago.

I know that mensuration is about measuring trees and that discounting isn't just something that happens in supermarkets [supermarkets? I meant superstores] towards the end of the season. How exactly it works in terms of forecasting and quantifying the economic performance of forestry systmes I just about grasped after a ten minute explainer over tea and welshcakes with former Cardiff Central MP and present-day Chair of Forestry Commission Wales' National Committee, Jon Owen Jones.

There was an awful lot I didn't follow during the Commission's conference on climate change and forests at the appropriately wood-laden Wales Millennium Centre but I learned one other thing which I'll share with you here 'without comment' as they say:

The Senedd building doesn't just use wood to great effect to wow visitors. It's also fuelled by wood - a biomass, wood-burning boiler down in the depths of the building.

And Dr Robin Cotton, a wood energy consultant, proudly told the conference that the Senedd's boiler was the kind that - once it got going - gave off no emissions at all. In fact it's seemingly inactive so that it's hard to tell whether it's working or not.

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