Don's Question: I am interested in how plants lift water. I walked by one of my wife's tomato plants this week end, and it was wilting. So, I watered it. I walked by again about 10 to 15 minutes later, and it was standing upright. It had lifted the water about 5 feet. How does this plant or a tall tree do this?

Steve's Answer: All plants depend on root osmosis, hydrostatic pressure, capillary action and transpiration. Non-woody plants (like tomatoes) depend on all those, plus turgor pressure, to stay rigid. Trees are a little more complicated and create their own rigid structures called roots, trunks and limbs.

Tree roots seek out water and absorb soil solutions through osmosis. Negative hydrostatic pressure attracts nutrient-filled water through a wick, made up of xylem cells (using capillary action), to limbs and leaves hundreds of feet high. Leaf pores called stomata open to capture carbon dioxide for photosynthesis but necessarily lose massive amounts of water from evaporation into the Earth's atmosphere. This water loss from plants is called transpiration.

This loss of water starts the effect all over again...

Gas Exchanging Stomata Pore - Getty Images/S. Lowry/Univ Ulster

Rare Pignut Hickory in Maritime Forest - Photo by Steve Nix

Most of the Atlantic and Gulf coast is bordered by a "sand strand". The profile of this border is a landscape starting at the sea's edge and developing inland from beach to dunes to zones of woody vegetation called the "dwarf maritime forest". As the name suggests, there can be stunted tree growth due to the harsh conditions that trees constantly undergo surviving severe weather, salt and poor soil.

Atlantic maritime dune woodlands and maritime uplands are an overlooked, misunderstood forest community and under significant threat from both natural and man-made causes. Maritime dune forests are composed of deciduous, coniferous, and broadleaf evergreen trees. These trees include live oak, sabel palm , magnolia, holly, loblolly pine and a rare pignut hickory at Nags Head Woods.

Nags Head Woods is one exception to the idea of an upland ancient dune being stressed. Find out more about our beautiful maritime forests and especially the Nature Conservancy's Nags Head Woods Ecological Preserve.

Since the beginning of the 2007 economic downturn, forest industry sector mills have closed and terminated jobs with major local and regional economic impact. If you live in US timber country you have seen the result of the downturn with 1009 sawmill closures, 15 pulp mills down  and 148 major secondary mills shut down, resulting in the loss of  294,000  full-time jobs. Nearly all timber regions in the United States have been effected.

An article,  Forest Sector Reeling During Economic Downturn, written by United States Forest Service Inventory and Analysis (FIA) experts and published in The Forestry Source suggests that both global and domestic issues have caused worsening economic conditions in the forest industry.

This article reports that the "paper side of the forest sector has been most heavily influenced by global economic trends and (a decrease) in global markets for pulp-based products. The solid-wood side of the forest sector has been influenced primarily by domestic driving forces--the principal components being the drop in new residential construction from 1.7 million units annually to 450,000--and a decline in home remodeling as residential mortgages tightened and home sales dropped."

Lumber production is now down by 40% and equals recession burdened 1984's output. One "bright spot" seems to be a North American increase in timber-based exports to China, but even this will not support the industry until the US housing market rebounds.

Seasoned wood always starts best when aged for at least 6 months. Properly stacked firewood does not necessarily need to be under a shelter but may need a tarp during very wet seasons.  You need to burn wood only when its moisture content has dropped to less than 20 percent. This lower moisture content is almost assured when split wood is exposed to daily drying conditions typical in summer and fall. Storing fire wood outdoors is perfectly fine when stacked and slightly off the ground.

Start stoves or fireplaces with newspaper and dry, resin saturated, coniferous kindling. When using this method, increase  wood size from ignition until the largest split piece easily ignites. Stoves burn best and stay clean when the fire is hot.  Remember that proper airflow is critical for maintaining proper burning. Proper airflow requires regular ash removal from your wood-burning stove.

• Building a Fire in a Wood Stove - Tips on Starting a Fire With Wood

Fireplace Image, Digitalshay/Flickr.com