1. Trees as wood producers

1.1 What is wood, or woods?

The tree is the wood factory. This chlorophyll plant protects and regulates soils, climates, water regimes, air quality, biodiversity and more. Trees are also natural biorefineries, producing materials and molecules using only water, mineral salts, carbon dioxide and solar energy. The wood in trunks and branches is an efficient store of solar energy and atmospheric carbon.

It also plays a role in the tree's mechanical performance. The trunk alone, from which most of the timber will be extracted, must be able to support the crown (all the branches and foliage) –, i.e. several tons of material subjecting the trunk to compression –, and to withstand the winds whose hold is accentuated by the crown's canopy. The trunk is a kind of cylindrical...