Welcome to The Green Tangent!

Last year I started a blog named “The Vulcan Arborist” where I posted some observations concerning urban forestry. However, I soon realized that atrocities in landscape maintenance was a bit too narrow a focus for some of the thoughts I’d been a-thinkin’ so “The Green Tangent” was born. Anything “green industry” related (and more) is likely to show up here. Tangential thoughts are the “and more” …

My definition of a green industry is an old one: businesses, sciences, and interests related to plants. Forestry, botany, agronomy, landscape and golf course maintenance, nursery management, turf care, floriculture, arboriculture, and all those other fill-in-the-blank-icultures that deal with plants of commercial value are all facets of the lustrous emerald that is “Green Industry.”

Google “green industry” and you’ll find a half-million web links to groups and companies concerned with Land Care. I really like that term because it describes not only the services and sciences but, more importantly, the emotional attachment of green industry people to the land. Folks who daily scrub some of that land out from under their fingernails, whose sweat helps nourish the plants they care for, these are the original environmentalists. Besides forestry and urban forestry issues, I may explore some of these other avenues and post my musings here.

Current marketing buzz attempts to put some “green” into an industry not normally thought of as being, shall we say, Environmentally Friendly. Do a green industry blog search and you end up with entries dealing with flex-fuel and hybrid vehicles, energy conservation and alternative sources, carbon credits, and so-called “green-collar” workers. Recycling, converting to CFLs, bumping the thermostat up/down, fixing drippy faucets, airing up your tires, telecommuting, and other ways of reducing our personal environmental impact are all great and wonderful things – and they generally save money. There are plenty of blogs like this one that address the so-called “green issues” – you might even read about them here, another tangent.

Whatever the subject, I hope to inform a bit, entertain a bit, maybe cause you to think a bit. I welcome your comments.