CO² Sequestration
Carbon capture and storage on a domestic scale.
Much of the firewood for winter heating of Le Moulin du Chemin is cut and seasoned from trees growing on the site. This eliminates the environmental impacts of artificial drying and transportation of the logs. Some of the fire-wood trees are felled by storms, other trees are selected for felling according to expediency, such as trees in dangerous physical condition or trees to be removed for the purpose of land management.
Trunks and branches of felled trees are used as logs for heating. Twigs and small branches are chipped and composted, thus trapping their C0² in eventual soil. This is in contrast to the earlier practice of burning twigs and small branches which released their CO² to atmosphere.
The vigour of new growth that takes place in the first years following felling of trees is said to sequester more CO² than the annual contribution of the original trees. This is due to the natural vigour of the new growth and the benefit to ground plants of additional light reaching ground level.