Guest guest Posted August 18, 2006 Report Share Posted August 18, 2006 Today for you we have 37 news items. The number and subject is listed below. The condensed article is listed further below.--British Columbia: 1) The last Spotted Owls, --Washington: 2) Recovery plan for the Pacific fisher --Oregon: 3) Timber harvest levels, 4) Red Tree Voles not protected,--California: 5) Sagehen Forest designated for research, 6) Fire issues in Big Bear--Nevada: 7) USFS closure of logging area in Ward Canyon --Idaho: 8) Fire ecology--Missouri: 9) Windstorm changes Tower Grove Park--Wyoming: 10) Aspens age and wither--Minnesota: 11) Fire Ecology in reopened recreational area--Virginia: 12) fight against logging in the Jefferson National Forest --Pennsylvania: 13) Cyclists claim timbering has destroyed park trails--North Carolina: 14) Increased C02 makes Loblolly pines ice storm resilient --Florida: 15) Lightning striked pine explodes debris over a 2 block radius --USA: 16) USFS Shift to all season burn plans, 17) Large scale public land sell offs,--Canada: 18) Slash for power generation, 19) timber production as a byproduct, 20) Weyerhaeuser lies about Grassy Narrows, --England: 21) Cameras installed to discourage vandals in tree cemetery--Russia: 22) Logging of Russia ends subsistence living, 23) measures to stimulate timber industry--Kenya: 24) Shamba system is food crops in the forest, --Nigeria: 25) Mangrove decline,--Peru: 26) Arankartuktaram! Indigenous take legal action against polluters--Brazil: 27) Selective eco-logging opens the door to clearcutting, 28) . It's their culture that is rich and ours that is bankrupt. 29) Acai Palm trees--Bangladesh: 30) Need for increased forest cover--China: 31) Strengthening efforts to crack down on illegal logging--Philippines: 32) Demis and rise of shade grown coffee, 33) Sierra Madre Logging plan --Indonesia: 34) Deforestation in Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, 35) orangutans population has fallen 43 percent in 10 years, 36) largest protected heath and peat swamp forest, --World-wide 37) $33 trillion is the price tag on benefits provided by nature?British Columbia:1) The number of known mating pairs of Canada's rarest bird, the northern spotted owl, has dropped to three from six and the overall population to 17 from 22 since last year, says the Sierra Legal Defence Fund. The organization is urging the B.C. government to act immediately to save the endangered species. " If 17 birds doesn't constitute an imminent threat to survival, nothing does, " staff lawyer Devon Page said in an interview. " If they don't step in to save the spotted owl, they won't step in to save any species. " Spotted owls are the " most studied bird in Canada, " said Page. " It's time to do something. " Page said the province continues to allow logging of spotted owl habitat while failing to protect proven nest sites, failing to expand monitoring for spotted owls, and failing to implement a strategy to augment the population, perhaps through captive breeding or relocation of birds from the U.S. " If this is what the most endangered bird in Canada gets, how will all the other endangered species fare? " Page said only two of the three known mating pairs had offspring this year, and one of those chicks died when the tree containing its nest fell over in the wind. Historically, 300 to 500 pairs of spotted owls are thought to have lived in B.C. Sierra Legal is among a coalition of environmental groups now before the Federal Court of Canada, trying to force the federal government to step in and save the owl under the Species At Risk Act given the provincial government's unwillingness to do so. Page noted the spotted owl also suffers because it is the responsibility not of the Environment Ministry but of Agriculture and Lands. " It's a divide and conquer thing, " he said. In April, the B.C. government announced it would spend $3.4 million on a five-year spotted owl recovery program that focuses on captive breeding and releases to the wild.Environmental groups said the government plan does not do enough to protect the forest habitat of spotted owlshttp://www.canada.com/vancouversun/voices/story.html?id=03d545c9-9fe3-4da3-8a57-c78ffb1b 70e4Washington:2) Comments are needed by August 15 (next Tuesday) to support the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's (WDFW) recovery plan for the Pacific fisher. Historically, fishers were widely distributed in lower elevation old-growth forests on the Olympic, Cascade, and Selkirk Mountains. They have been nearly lost from the state as a result of over-trapping in the late 1800s and loss and fragmentation of mature and old-growth forest habitat from logging. A 2004 WDFW study, jointly funded by Conservation Northwest, determined that the biggest and best fisher habitat currently exists on federal lands on the Olympic Mountains, and that additional habitat suitable for fisher reintroductions occurs in the Cascades. More studies are needed to guide fisher recovery in the Kettle and Selkirk Mountains. Take action to support fisher recovery! Please contact the WDFW and tell them you support plans to re-establish self sustaining populations of Pacific fisher into the Olympics, Cascades, and Selkirks recovery areas. In particular, let the department know that you support fisher reintroduction, protection, and restoration of the fisher's old-growth habitat; surveying, monitoring, and other research to improve recovery efforts; and public outreach and agency coordination. Please send a comment through our action center: http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/Conservationnw/campaign.jsp?campaign_KE Y=4983Oregon:3) Among 2005 timber harvests for Oregon counties, Douglas County had the second-highest yield as timber harvests in eastern Oregon declined 14 percent from 2004 levels, according to an annual timber harvest report provided by the Oregon Department of Forestry. Logging on national forests in eastern Oregon drove the decline by falling as much as 37 percent. Eastern timber harvests added up to 569 million board feet this year, compared to 658 mbf in 2004. Statewide, timber harvests declined slightly in 2005 by 2 percent, leveling at 4.4 billion board feet. Low interest rates in 2005 and strong housing starts drove western Oregon timber harvests to the 2004 level of 3.79 billion board feet. Lane County once again led Oregon counties in timber harvests, with 586 mbf. Douglas County harvested 476 mbf, Coos County ranked third with 357 mbf and Clatsop County ranked fourth with 345 mbf. Klamath County topped eastern Oregon with 190 mbf. Oregon's forest industry accounted for the largest portion of the statewide timber harvest -- 68 percent -- with 2.97 billion board feet, a slight decrease from the 2004 harvest volume of 3 billion board feet. Non-industrial private forest landowner's harvests remained robust with a harvest of 525 mbf. The U.S. Forest Service dropped 62 mbf, cutting 275 mbf on national forests in 2005 compared to 337 mbf in 2004. Harvest increases in western Oregon were offset by decreases in eastern Oregon. State agencies boosted timber harvest on state-owned lands by 17 percent, cutting 341 mbf compared to 291 mbf in 2004. Bureau of Land Management harvests increased by 26 percent, from 96 mbf in 2004 to 121 mbf in 2005. The trend of increased timber harvest in western Oregon continued in 2005, where 87 percent of the statewide harvest occurred. http://www.newsreview.info/article/20060813/NEWS/1081300454) Despite Judge Pechman's recent ruling that the Bush administration's elimination of the the Survey and Manage Program is illegal, Willamette National Forest Supervisor Dallas Emch and District Ranger Mary Allison refuse to acknowledge the population of threatened red tree voles now known to inhabit the Trapper Timber Sale in the McKenzie River District. Last month N.E.S.T. volunteer climbers documented 30 red tree vole nest trees in the Trapper sale. Some nest trees were subsequently climbed and confirmed by leading scientist Dr. Eric Forsman of Oregon State University, and James Swingle, a Master's student and author of a thesis on red tree vole habitat. Under the Plan each active nest tree would be surrounded by a ten acre buffer, but Forest Service officials have so far refused to modify this controversial Old Growth sale to protect an important food source for the Northern Spotted Owl. LOGGING COULD BEGIN ANY DAY. Forest Service administrators cite a precedent for refusing to modify a harvest plan after a logging contract has been awarded, despite the introduction of significant new information, and despite the fact that the McKenzie District is currently required to " protect known sites " for red tree voles under the Northwest Forest Plan. Contact Mary Allison at 541-822 3381, mallison and Dallas Emch at 541-225 6312, demch and ask why the Forest Service refuses to obey the law and protect the red tree vole as required under the Northwest Forest Plan. http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/08/344114.shtmlCalifornia:5) Now that the Sagehen Forest is permanently designated for research, it's quickly on its way to becoming the most heavily instrumented forest in the world. That means science and research will get priority over all other activities in the area. The Sagehen Forest is in the Lake Tahoe Basin, eight miles outside of Truckee. Prof. Phil Ward, UC Davis: " There are about 600 families of insects in North America and we have recorded about 340 of them just within the Sagehen Creek Basin, so that's more than half of all the families of insects in North America are found just within this one basin. " That kind of diversity has drawn scientists to the Sagehen Forest for decades. The area includes stunning meadows, rich marsh land, mountain creeks and a huge expanse of forest. Jeff Brown, Sagehen Creek Field Station Manager: " This place is a little slice of heaven. It's a great spot, but it was actually designed in the late 1940s to set aside a place to do research and education over the long term. " The original Sagehen reserve was about 400 acres. The forest service is now increasing that to 8,000 acres. Sagehen has been designated as an experimental forest which will preserve the land as a living laboratory for future generations. Jeff Brown: " We need places that we can leave alone to study. " Jeff Brown: " Each one of these black pipes is like a little shallow well that goes into the ground. " This network of pipes and temperature sensors indicates what's happening to water underground. Jeff Brown: " By looking at it every 15 minutes, you can actually see when the vegetation is drinking the water and when the vegetation is not drinking the water, which is pretty cool. " Other instruments give detailed information about climate changes and air pollution. A sap sensor measures how the sap flow inside the tree is affected by solar radiation. http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=assignment_7 & id=44613696) As the Sawtooth Complex and Millard fires burned around the Valley, creating defensible space gained popularity. Residents and property owners hurried to trim weeds, cut back or eliminate ladder fuels, move the wood pile and cut down the dead trees in the yard. That's good, say Dana Van Leuven and John Morley, but defensible space and creating a healthy forest need to be concepts taken seriously year-round not just during the excitement of a brush fire. Van Leuven is the chief for Big Bear City Fire Department and Morley is the chief at Big Bear Lake Fire Department. During the early days of the Sawtooth Complex Fire, they sat down to talk about creating a fire safe community. Defensible space is a lifestyle that especially those who choose to live in the mountains must to, Van Leuven and Morley say. It's more than thinning dead trees from the forest. "We have to change the mentality of what a healthy forest looks like," Van Leuven says. "It's OK to cut live vegetation." Morley agrees. "Live trees and brush burn, too," Morley says. The problem is that people believe by removing the trees in the forest damaged by the bark beetle infestation and drought, the problem is solved. It's a total package, and a healthy forest doesn't stop at the boundary. "Homes are built into it," Van Leuven says. "It's all one thing and there isn't a magic break." http://www.bigbeargrizzly.net/articles/2006/08/12/news/dspace.txtNevada:7) In the interest of public safety, the U.S. Forest Service Monday ordered the closure to the public of an area in Ward Canyon that is being logged. The project, located between Tahoe Woods and Big Pine, is aimed at reducing forest density. The unnatural tree thickness and heavy fuels accumulation poses a risk of wildfire, according to Forest Service reports. High recreational use along with the safety risk resulted in the forest order prohibiting walking, biking or driving into the area. "It's a safety concern," said Rex Norman, the spokesman for Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit of the Forest Service. "People keep entering the area, and with the potential for injury." The contractor doing the logging reportedly has had several close calls with the public while thinning trees and treating slash, according to the Forest Service. Newspaper and Web site releases in efforts to educate the public about the dangers of the operations have done little to decrease the number of people entering the project area, Norman said. http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/SS/20060815/NEWS/60814010/-1/REGIONIdaho:8) When Nate Benson walks through charred forests checking out the singed scenery, he sees nature doing what it's supposed to do. Benson, a fire ecologist with the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, might tell you beauty among blackened trees is in the eye of the beholder. Lush green grass soon will sprout among the ashes of the Red Eagle Fire, which ignited two weeks ago in Glacier National Park and roared to 32,000 acres. Crumbling and scorched trees will attract beetles and other bugs. Woodpeckers and other fauna will feast on the insects. The soil is adept at recovering from repeat disturbances. Arnica, dragontail mint and pine grass will poke its way through the soil. Red-stemmed ceanothus and Bicknell's geranium, which thrive in post-fire conditions, will add to the plant collection. " I spend a lot of time wandering around burns and looking at the changes that occur, " Benson said. " I see fire as an opening and opportunity that in most cases is beneficial. " While the east side of the park is still suffering from a loss of tourism and other problems because of the Red Eagle Fire, the west side provides an example of fire's natural cycle, he said. In Glacier National Park a record 145,000 acres burned in 2003, primarily on the west side. " If you go to the west side and walk through the areas that burned, it's just tremendous from the standpoint of the vegetation you get, " Benson said. With the heavy canopy gone, more lush vegetation sprouts in historically shaded areas. Almost immediately fireweed, with its signature magenta-pink blossoms, starts flowering. As more sunlight pours in, huckleberries flourish. That's good news for grizzly and black bears. " There is so much life going on there, " Benson said. When fires burn in meadows, green grass can return within two weeks. Areas of the park that burned in the 1988 Red Bench Fire are home to lodgepole pines that are 9 and 10 feet tall, he said. The 38,000-acre Red Bench Fire roared through Polebridge and burned in Glacier Park. http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060813/NEWS01/608130302/1002Missouri: 9) John Karel knew Tower Grove Park had to lose scores of trees as part of an effort to bring the 137-year-old park in line with its original design. But Karel, the director of the St. Louis park, envisioned the process taking decades. Then came the storm July 19; more than 100 of the park's trees were toppled in minutes. " We would have liked for them to have had a slow, dignified decline, " Karel said. " Instead, the storm blasted them into tree heaven. . . . If you want to be optimistic, I suppose you could call it a very painful leap forward. " The hurricane-strength wind knocked over 114 trees and hacked off thousands of branches in the 289-acre park. As many as 100 severely damaged trees may need to be chopped down. Tower Grove suffered more storm damage than any other park in the region, and it lost about as many trees as the city's other 105 parks combined. Shaw became a millionaire in 19th-century St. Louis by selling hardware to the pioneers setting out from the city to settle the West. His 1,800-acre country estate - called Tower Grove - included what is the park, the nearby city neighborhood that bears his name, and what is now the Missouri Botanical Garden. Shaw gave Tower Grove Park to the city in a curious arrangement. The park is operated by an independent board appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court, and it is supported in large part by donors who appreciate its Victorian statues and pavilions and the one-of-a-kind urban forest - the most scientifically diverse in the nation. If last month's storm had a silver lining, it was that many of the fallen trees were unremarkable and unhealthy specimens that didn't fit in the park's plan. Those trees were planted in the first few decades of the last century, when the park struggled with finances and vision. The trees would have been phased out to make room for oaks, Osage oranges and other stately varieties more in line with Shaw's original vision. But that process was supposed to take 20 years, not 20 minutes. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/C91910313CBA9004862571C80011C538?OpenDocument Wyoming:10 )JACKSON - Aspen stands are in decline in Wyoming just as they are in other Western states, State Forester Bill Crapser says. " It's partially because as aspen stands get older, conifers take over aspen stands, " Crapser said. " That's just the succession of the forest. " Most aspen stands in Wyoming are on federal land, so there are limits to what state officials can do, Crapser said. He said some stands are being thinned to encourage new growth and prescribed burns can help. " The extended drought has also had an impact on overall aspen health, " Crapser said. In Aspen Alley, a large stand of aspen on the Medicine Bow National Forest between Encampment and Baggs, trees are getting old and decaying. " Really the only thing we can do is cut down old aspen and foster new trees, " Crapser said. http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/08/15/news/wyoming/35-aspen.txtMinnesota: 11) Campers are seeing plenty of green in the fire zone. Many hillsides came out unscathed, and some were only singed. Even in the most heavily charred areas, tiny shoots for aspen and birch trees are starting to emerge. Small sprigs of grass, ferns and wild geraniums already are pushing through blackened soil. Most of the area that burned since the Cavity Lake fire began July 14 is once again open to the public. But 46 of the approximately 110 campsites in the fire zone remain closed because they're damaged or unsafe. Seven small lakes also remain closed. " We're expecting a lot more people, " forest ranger Steve Schug told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis. " Just like after the blowdown in '99, a lot of people will want to see the impact of the fire. " Halfway up a hill on a small island, a camper with blaze-orange pants looked out across Sea Gull Lake. Passers-by had an equally panoramic view of him as he sat on a newly installed latrine. " We've taken down the dangerous trees overhanging the campsites, " Schug said. " But we can't do much to protect the modesty of campers who used to be screened by the trees, " he said. " People may want to string a tarp around the toilets. " http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_225132735.htmlVirginia:12) ROANOKE -- Environmentalists are vowing to continue their fight against logging in the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia despite new U.S. Forest Service rules they say will increase timber cuts. Various environmental groups had filed appeals two years ago to stop proposed land-management plans for five Southern national forests, including the Jefferson, arguing that the Forest Service ignored conservationists' analysis that the plans would allow logging to destroy wildlife habitat and choke pristine streams. Last month, the Forest Service chief upheld the plans, which establish guidelines for managing about 2.7 million acres of national forestland in the South for the next 10 to 15 years. Having lost the war over the management plans, the Charlottesville-based Southern Environmental Law Center responded last week by saying it will still battle to shut down particular logging jobs. " We will continue to file legal challenges to stop the worst projects on these public lands, which citizens increasingly value for recreation and environmental values than for timber, " law center staff attorney Sarah Francisco said. The old plan allowed logging on 302,000 acres, she said, while the new plan permits logging on 258,000 acres. Brown added that logging actually occurs on only 0.5 percent of Jefferson land annually. But the Wilderness Society, Sierra Club and the Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition, all represented by the law center, contend the 21 million board feet allowed is too high because loggers have typically cut about 11 million board feet from the forest in past years. " The plans allow roughly double the level of logging compared to recent harvest levels, which means more roadbuilding, loss of prime wildlife habitat, threats to water quality and ruined recreation experiences, " according to a written statement from the law center. http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle & c= MGArticle & cid=1149189966188 & path=!news & s=1045855934842Pennsylvania:13) "There are roots, and you go over rocks, and you're squeezing between trees. That's where you're having your most fun." Behind him, snaking back nearly imperceptibly through the dense, cool forest, lay the park's so-called orange trail, the winding, narrow backbone of Merli-Sarnoski's 25-mile trail network. Ahead, where the orange trail used to continue, a broad logging road yawned into woods before branching off in two directions. The logging roads, a legacy of the timbering at the Lackawanna County-owned park last winter, have been reseeded. Here and there along the roads, tiny oaks have sprouted. Mr. Gregory is not moved. "We like the forest as it is," he said quietly. "We don't want people coming in and doing what they did here. Our trail used to run through here. Now it's completely lost." At Merli-Sarnoski, an 840-acre, mostly wooded enclave off Route 106 in Fell Township, a conflict older than the most majestic oak rising from its mountain slopes has been rejoined. It's an issue, quite simply, of where preservation should end and responsible stewardship should begin.Earlier this year, a Moscow company, RGM Hardwoods Inc., wrapped up a logging operation that removed more than 2,000 trees — some valuable, some not — from a 90-acre section of the park and pumped $59,400 into the county treasury. More timbering may follow. http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17048680 & BRD=2185 & PAG=461 & dept_id=416046 & rfi=6North Carolina:14) The increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere predicted for later this century may reduce the damage that future ice storms will cause to commercially important loblolly pine trees, according to a new study. Researchers working at a Duke University outdoor test facility found that loblolly pines growing under carbon-dioxide levels mimicking those predicted for the year 2050 -- roughly one and a half times today's levels -- fared somewhat better during and after a major ice storm that hit the area than did loblollies growing under current concentrations of the gas. The results came as a surprise, the researchers said. " Before the storm, I was absolutely certain the pines would be more susceptible to ice damage under elevated concentrations of carbon dioxide, " said Ram Oren, an ecology professor at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences who directs the test site and participated in the study. " My impressions were absolutely wrong, " he said. " Instead of increasing the sensitivity to ice-storm damage, carbon dioxide decreased the sensitivity. " The researchers reported the findings August 8, 2006, in the Journal of Geophysical Research. The first author of the report is Heather McCarthy, a Nicholas School graduate student. Ice storms now are major barriers to the northward migration of loblollies, which are susceptible to cold temperatures and ice damage. But according to the results of this study, Oren said, climate changes under global warming would tend to favor the spread of such fast-growing trees. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-08/du-mcd081506.phpFlorida: 15) A lightning strike in the Florida city of Cape Coral caused a dead tree to explode in a massive blast that sent debris flying over a two-block radius and damaged 17 houses, the local fire department said Wednesday. " In 18 years with the fire department, I've never seen anything like that, " Deputy Fire Chief Christopher Mikell told AFP. He said the 12-meter (40-foot) pine tree was hit by lightning during a thunderstorm on Monday and exploded " almost like a bomb. " The tree had already been struck by lightning last year, apparently during a hurricane, causing decay that may have produced pockets of gases, said Mikell. One person was lightly injured and treated on the spot, and 17 houses were damaged, " two to the point of being uninhabitable, " said Mikell. " Sections of the tree were found as far as 500 feet (150 meters) away. .... There was damage within two blocks of the location, " he said. Lightning kills more people in Florida than any other US state, with 85 deaths recorded in the 1995-2004 period. " We see a lot of lightning damage. That's not unusual, " said Mikell. " But I've never seen a blast effect like this. " http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Lightning_Blows_Up_Tree_Damages_17_Homes_In_Florida_999.html USA:16) U.S. Forest Service has announced that they are going to " All-Season " prescribed burns on our public lands. They will not be limiting their extensive burning to late fall, winter, and early spring. The National Park Service conducts broad burns, too. The USFS brushed aside the reasonable comments and alternative plan of the Newton County Wildlife Association and other conservation and environmental groups on intentional burns of the forest floor. The new 10-year plan for the fauna and flora covered by the Multiple-Use Act of 1960 and subsequent Acts of Congress is a mockery. We must respond to this damage of outdoor recreation, water quality, and wildlife and its habitat. We need to inform and educate the people also about the threat of heavy smoke and particulate matter spreading from intentional fires which endanger thousands of Arkansas families who have one or more members suffering from asthma, emphysema, heart conditions and other threats to public health. Therefore, we the members of NCWA call a meeting to address these issues. The terms of our Board of Directors and officers expired last month. We will be meeting Saturday, August 19, at 4 p.m. sharp at the home of Dave Spencer in Murray, Newton County. We will elect new Board members who shall elect new officers for the coming year under our by-laws. " Barry Weaver " brweaver17) With the recent pronouncements of Idahos own Dirk Kempthorne, now Interior secretary, and Republican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho that large-scale federal land sell-offs are politically dead, it might appear that the latest attempt is finally over. Maybe so, but there are a couple of trends that bear watching as they lead to privatization of our birthright. The first trend has to do with land transfers done in the name of economic development. In some cases, these transfers, small in acreage, may make sense if important public purposes are met. But in southern Utah, for example, its much messier. There, booming development in St. George has led to a proposal to sell off 40 square miles of federal land, while at the same time protecting some wilderness, much of it in Zion National Park, and desert tortoise habitat. Environmentalists oppose the bill; developers and the county support it. Its main purpose appears to be making more land available for the " New West " phenomena of second homes and footloose retiree money. This is not a small-scale transfer to allow an economically disadvantaged place like Salmon or Challis, Idaho, get some help. Just Imagine the cascade effect as other booming towns seek to dig deeper and deeper into our common estate. Trend number two may be worse. Its the outsourcing virus that is sweeping agencies like the U.S. Forest Service. Here, an idea that made sense in the past when applied to urban services such as trash collection may be focused on 75 percent of all the jobs in the agency, including fire suppression. If we do this long enough, and the ideologues push for this hard enough, its going to go like this: Why do we need the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, even the Park Service or U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service? So much of what they do has been outsourced; lets just get rid of them. Put some private sector, beltway, politically connected, market-mantra-chanting consulting firm in charge. It can manage the land, or else we could transfer the land to states. This move could make trend number one easier to accomplish. http://www.headwatersnews.org/wotr.landsale081506.html Canada:18) A small company in Ottawa, Canada, says it has developed an economical way of turning North America's vast supply of forest waste, called " slash, " into a carbon-neutral liquid for power generation and chemical production. Its approach is built around a modular, quick-to-assemble pyrolysis plant that can follow logging companies into the bush and directly convert their leftover trimmings into a clean-burning renewable fuel. The trimmings, also known as forest slash, are the unwanted branches, tops, stumps, and leaves that are removed during logging and typically burned in piles at the sides of roads. It's a tremendous amount of wasted energy. In the United States alone, 16 percent of wood resulting from logging activities is slash, or 49 million tons in 2004, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The problem has been that forest slash is bulky, low-density material usually located in remote logging areas, says Peter Fransham, president of Advanced Biorefinery. This abundant, essentially free feedstock is too expensive to collect and transport, he says, particularly if the nearest refinery is more than 60 miles away. http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17298 & ch=biztech19) Through my eyes, healthy forests are complex ecosystems, full of beauty and incredibly valuable. Some of these values are difficult to measure, including cleaning air and water, storing carbon both in the woody material and in the soil, providing homes for a wide variety of wildlife species, moderating stream temperatures and wind speeds, and providing places for recreation and relaxation. We overlook these values because we lack the vision to see or the skills to measure. So we pretend they don't exist. That is why so many people see forests simply as wood to be harvested. As soon as there is some economic value, however slight, the cutting begins. This view is shortsighted and has serious negative effects on the social, economic and environmental web that holds our province together. Dr. Ken Lertzman, who teaches forest ecology at Simon Fraser University, has a different view of what forest management should be. He says: "New Forestry is an attempt to define forest management with timber production as a byproduct of its primary function: sustaining biological diversity and maintaining long-term ecosystem health." How refreshing to think that we could actually be starting to learn how to value the ecosystem and not just the wood products. If we looked very closely at all the values provided by healthy forests, we'd be doing an amazing amount of restoration. And to be very clear, I'm talking about creating forests, as opposed to planting one or two species of conifers in rows. http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/index.cfm?sid=3583 & sc=1720 Dan Dedo General Manager, Ontario Forestlands. Thank you for your letter regarding Weyerhaeuser's use of wood products sourced from the Whiskey Jack forest in Ontario, Canada. Grassy Narrows is an aboriginal community located on the Whiskey Jack forest in Northwestern Ontario. Weyerhaeuser does not operate in this forest. --(It's an unnecessary racist and derogatory distinction to make, that the community of Grassy Narrows is " aboriginal, " as though there would be a difference in attitude if it weren't. Even so, the correct terminology is " First Nation. " Logging companies don't like to use the term " First Nation " because it clarifys true ownership issues. According to Weyerhaeuser, the people of Grassy Narrows live " on " the forest, while logging companies operate " in " the forest)-- However, some of the wood supply to our plant in Kenora is sourced through a Memorandum of Agreement with Abitibi-Consolidated Inc.on the Whiskey Jack Forest as directed by the Province of Ontario. --(possession of stolen property is a crime, and whether or not Weyerhaeuser is directly involved in the stealing. Weyerhaeuser is a major corporate financier of sleazy, careless pro-logging governments in Canada, and around the world, and as such, the " direction " of the Province of Ontario confers no respectable authorization for this theft.)-- The Whiskey Jack Sustainable Forest License is managed by Abitibi. It is developed and approved under regulation and guidelines of the Province of Ontario, which require extensive public consultation. -- (Weyerhaeuser's slick PR-scam " public consultation " processes, are a total farce, where company lackey " professional foresters " use power-point presentations to hoodwink the public about their forest-destroying operations. Public input may be solicited, by it is never considered and never makes the slightest difference to the original plan) -- janine bandcroft eternityEngland:21) Four CCTV cameras are to be installed at Marklands memorial forest in Horwich. It follows the destruction and vandalism over the last six months of nearly all of the 210 trees planted at the forest in memory of people who have died. Only 30 trees remain untouched at the site, which opened in 2003. Plaques erected by friends and family in memory of people whose ashes are scattered at the site have also been torn out of the ground and stolen. Bosses at the Life for a Life charity, which runs the site, installed one camera in March and established a rota of volunteers to patrol the site following the first reports of damage. Norman Armstrong-Kersh, founder of the charity, which raises funds for Bolton Hospice, has written to families with memorials at the Marklands site, vowing to install security measures - including the four new cameras - to combat the vandalism. " We are currently installing the cameras at the site, " said Mr Armstrong-Kersh. " This vandalism has caused such heartbreak to me and my team as well as the people who have memorials at the site. To see the devastation these families are suffering is just awful. " http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/news/localnews/display.var.878245.0.cameras_for_trees_hit_b y_vandals.phpRussia:22) Russian forests represent a lucrative expanse of flat-pack furniture and building materials to neighboring China - but what is the cost of this devastating timber trail? THEY say one man's meat is another man's poison, and it couldn't be more true of Yuri Kostin and Baokui Yang. In a dimly lit log cabin near Dalnerechensk, a timber town in the Russian far east, farmer Kostin serves me a wild boar stew, pickled mushrooms and pungent liquor made from Korean pine nuts. Meals like this, gathered from his smallholding, will soon be a thing of the past, he says. " If you'd come to this district 10 years ago, you'd have seen ash trees a metre in diameter and plenty of mature Korean pine. But all the big trees have gone. " A huge, bear-like man with piercing blue eyes, Kostin spreads the blame for this among a range of authorities: the district's Forest Service for not clamping down on illegal logging; local politicians for colluding with the illegal loggers; and the Chinese for fuelling the trade in timber. http://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg19125641.500-fell-a-forest-build-a-nation.html 23) The commission for timber industry, set up by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE), held its first session yesterday. The lobbyist group of the RUIE is set to press for further amendments to the Forest Code and participation in drafting the federal program on timber industry development program at the Finance and Economic Development Ministries. The first session of the timber industry commission discussed a set of measures to stimulate the industry as well as thorny points in the adoption of the Forest Code. http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?idr=529 & id=697900Kenya: 24) A forestry expert yesterday asked the Government to re-introduce the shamba system, in which people are allowed to grow food crops in forests. A consultant on forest matters, Mr Benjamin Wamugunda said the system helped the forest department start 170,000 hectares of forest plantations in the country before it was abandoned in the late 1980s. Mr Wamugunda was speaking to members of the Kenya Forestry Society (KFS) attending their first scientific conference and annual general meeting in Nakuru yesterday. The society, which was registered in 1979, had been dormant until last year when some members revived it, said the chairman, Mr Emilio Mugo, adding that 400 individuals and organisations had joined the society. The Forest Act 2005 had made communities and interested individuals take an active role in forest management, said the KFS boss. Mr Wamugunda said the forestry sector should play a key role in the economy as it did more than a decade ago. Then, 100 forest stations were created and more than 300 sawmills and one pulp and paper mill were set up. " We have to ask ourselves what went wrong as we are now talking about non-residential cultivation. Why are we not talking about the shamba system whose success we already know? " http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=1 & newsid=79150 Nigeria:25) In the mangrove swamp forest areas, diurnal tidal movements result in floods exacerbated by rising sea levels, coastal erosion and land subsidence. The floods cause continual modification of river courses in the area, rendering the rivers useless as modes of transportation. This also has significant impacts on the pattern of human life and economic activities. Focus group participants claimed that flooding and erosion have destroyed their food and cash crops in addition to destroying arable and fertile farmlands.Siltation and occlusion happens when silt carried down the Niger River system is deposited as water velocity slackens in the more sluggish waters of the Niger Delta. Siltation reduces channel capacity, narrows creeks and reduces water depths. This increases the rate at which aquatic plants grow on waterways. The weeds occlude the navigable sections of waterways and hamper fishing. Erosion, both river bank and coastal, is prevalent due to natural and human causes. Communities have been displaced and forced to relocate as a result of it. http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/viewpoints/vp614082006.htmlPeru: 26) LIMA -- Arankartuktaram! This Achuar cry sums up what indigenous communities in the heart of Peru's Amazon jungle region are demanding from the State and multinational oil companies -- a little respect. For thirty years the Achuar people in the Corrientes River basin were unable to stop outsiders from polluting their environment. Now, the indigenous group is about to become the first in Peru to take legal action, as it plans to file suit against the companies it blames for the damages. Oil drilling on indigenous land began in the 1970s with the arrival of U.S.-based Occidental Petroleum Corporation (Oxy). In 1996, Pluspetrol Norte, a local subsidiary of Argentine-based Pluspetrol, began to operate in the upper basins of the Pastaza, Corrientes and Tigre rivers, and expanded its operational area in 2000. At the most recent indigenous assembly, held Aug. 5-6, the apus (chiefs) accused oil companies of endangering the Achuar people's health and environment. This group comprises 8,000 inhabitants of 31 communities in the northern department (province) of Loreto. Of these, 3,000 to 4,000 are direct victims of oil drilling, says Racimos de Ungurahui, a non-governmental organisation that works on behalf of the Achuar in Peru's Amazon jungle region. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34380Brazil:A team of scientists, led by Greg Asner of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology, has discovered an important indicator of rain forest vulnerability to clear-cutting in Brazil. Their five-year study is the first to quantify the relationship between selective logging, where loggers extract individual trees from the rain forest, and complete deforestation, or clear-cutting. They found that 16% of rain forests, which had been selectively logged, were completely clear-cut within one year and 32% of logged areas were completely cleared within four years. Virtually all of this double damage occurs within 15 miles (25 km) miles of major roads. Practically no selective logging takes place at distances greater than 15 miles from the roads. The results, published during the week of July 31, 2006, in the on-line early edition of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,** come on the heels of recent Brazilian legislation to regulate logging for better sustainability and the announcement by the Brazilian National Space Research Institute (INPE) to develop a remote sensing system to monitor logging in collaboration with the Brazilian non-governmental organization, IMAZON. The on-going work of the Carnegie-led team could bolster the long-term timber management goals and monitoring efforts of the government. The scientists used their novel high-resolution, remote-sensing techniques to measure logging and combined that information with the deforestation maps that Brazil makes publicly available through the INPE PRODES program. " We surveyed an area that is about three times the size of Texas from 1999 to 2004, " explained Asner. Diane Wickland, Manager of the Terrestrial Ecology Program at NASA Headquarters, who funded the study, hailed this work as " a compelling demonstration of how satellite data can be used to provide quantitative information over large regions--regions too large to measure effectively in any other way. " http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/08/060816024836.htm28) The Brazilian stereotype of the Indian is of a lazy good for nothing. But the " opposite is true " , says Philipson. " They are the entire underpinning of the forest. It's their culture that is rich and ours that is bankrupt. " Katia Luisa Yawanawa is standing on a ship's deck, thousands of kilometres upstream on the Amazon, where the great river divides into the black water of the Rio Negro and white water of the Solimoes. Yawanawa is offering a prayer called a Shuanka. It involves singing to the Yawanawans' ancestors for guidance and protection. Although only 26, she is among the most important members of her tribe. She is a wise woman, a xinaya, and the Yawanawan tribe's first woman shaman. The young healer is also a living symbol of the resurgence of Brazil's indigenous population and their delicate balancing act between adapting to the modern world while holding on to a traditional world view. Across the so-called " arc of destruction " , the logging, ranching and farming operations that are deforesting the Amazon basin, it is indigenous groups fighting for their lives who offer the best resistance. For the Yawanawans this has meant casting aside traditional objections to allow a woman to become a shaman. Taska Yawanawa, 29, their chief, explains how attitudes were changed. " We said no. The spirit is the spirit, it has no sex, so a woman can be initiated into the spirit. " When the Europeans first reached the Amazon, there were seven million indigenous people from as many as 2 000 distinct tribes or nations. By 1950 the number had plummeted to just 100 000. The Yawanawans, whose homelands are in the dense jungle of Acre in south-eastern Brazil, had their first contact with the outside world 100 years ago. Taska, the chief of the tribe, tells of the disastrous impact that followed. " Our first contact was with missionaries. They wanted to change everything about us. We struggled to survive, to hold onto anything from our original education and culture. We had traditional methods to deal with the Yawanawan diseases, but we had no method to deal with the occidental diseases. " To make matters worse, they were then infiltrated by the Christian fundamentalist missionaries, who called themselves the New Tribes mission and arrived from Florida in the 1960s. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=14 & click_id=418 & art_id=vn20060815101659590C773040 29) IT TASTES LIKE blueberries and dark chocolate. It packs a wallop of a healthy punch. And it's rapidly replacing pomegranates as the hot fruit of the moment. It's the Brazilian acai (ah-sigh-EE), a dark purple berry that grows wild in thousands of 60-foot-tall palm trees that line the lush flood plains of the Amazon River. The fruit is known as one of the most powerful and nutritional foods on the planet with a nearly perfect blend of antioxidants, essential fatty acids, protein and fiber. " I look at acai as a tool in the tool belt of good, health eating, " says Chicago-based dietitian Dave Grotto, spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. Research suggests that acai has healing properties. Its purple pigment is loaded with anthocyanin, powerful antioxidants also found in red wine and blueberries. These may be helpful in lowering one's chance for heart disease and fighting cancer. Acai has up to 30 times more antioxidants than red wine and at least double that of blueberries. The wonder berry also contains phenolics, an antioxidant found in chocolate. " For years, dietitians have talked about all foods can fit in a healthy diet, " Grotto says. " Acai is a great example of how some foods may fit better than others. " http://www.presstelegram.com/entertainment/ci_4180207Bangladesh:30) Leaders of Save Environment Movement, a voluntary organization, yesterday said there is a need for about a minimum of 25 per cent forestland in a country, but Bangladesh has only 7 to 8 per cent forestland. They said this while addressing a rally held in the city as part of its continuous movements against the felling of 'Ashwath' (old Banyan) tree under the banner inscribed " Stop logging of trees and Save Your Mother" and demanded proper care and preservation of the trees on the city's Minto Road. They said Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, on one hand, was calling upon all to plant trees and save the environment, but on the other hand, the government departments, have been continuing cutting of trees across the country on different grounds. "The authorities concerned were playing a mysterious role and today the conscious people of the society were harassed by police when they go to protest the felling of trees," they said. They said the country would be treeless and we would reach the last limit of environmental disaster in near future if such practice continues to go on unabated. They also put forward a charter of demands including, providing proper care of the 'Ashwath' tree by the Forest Department, preservation of all kinds of trees above 30 years, introduction of formation of a policy for tree care and a national committee for the preservation of trees. http://nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/article_29897.shtmlChina:31) China has strengthened efforts to crack down on illegal logging and timber trading, the State Forestry Administration (SFA) said yesterday. Spokesman Cao Qingyao denied accusations of plundering the world's rainforests to meet booming demand for wood. " The statement concerning the question that China's large demand for timber assists illegal logging and smuggling from Asia is groundless, " Cao said at a news conference. " China consistently upholds and puts into practice collective international responsibility, opposing and cracking down on illegal logging and illegal wood imports, " Cao said. " We have very strict import controls. " He also urged relevant countries to take preventative measures to cope with illegal activities. Cao cited a survey showing that middle-aged and young trees account for about 67.85 per cent of China's forestry resources, indicating that the country's timber supply is rich and sustainable. http://english.people.com.cn/200608/16/eng20060816_293489.htmlPhilippines:32) From 1970 to 1986, the production of coffee in Barangay Canlusong was abundant but the companies that bought coffee from the villagers shifted to importation in the mid-80s and prices plummeted. The villagers, during the same period, abandoned their coffee fields that had thrived beneath the canopy of trees in the forest 29 kilometers from the town proper where the near extinct Negros spotted deer, warty pigs, Golden Crown Flying Fox bats still live. And some resorted to charcoal-making to survive at the expense of the trees in Canlusong's forest, E.B. Magalona Mayor Alfronso Gamboa says. Farmers Morlito Isidro, now, 49, became a commander of the New People's Army in northern Negros, and Fernando Porras, 53, headed a Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit team as many of the coffee fields were abandoned and the trees in the forest that protected their crop fell victim to poachers. Gamboa, a strong environment protection advocate, last year urged the villagers to resume producing organic coffee after he had the economic potential of each barangay in his town assessed. Gamboa says that while it is important to protect the environment, one cannot eat it unless one finds a livelihood that hits two birds with one stone. Gamboa says they have counted 98,000 coffee trees in Canlusong, but the number could be as high as 250,000. That is because 107 farmers plant coffee on 295 hectares in Canlusong, with each hectare having a capacity for 900 trees, he said.The trees are of the best five varieties of coffee: Exelsa, Robusta, Barako, Arabica and Brazil, but most of the trees are Robusta, Gamboa says.The coffee plants in Canlusong do not use chemical fertilizers and pesticide, they just grow with pruning and tender loving care, Gamboa says. http://www.visayandailystar.com/2006/August/12/topstory7.htm33) LUCENA CITY—A license to cut trees in more than 36,000 hectares of land in Sierra Madre was approved by unidentified Palace officials after it had been cancelled earlier by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, according to environment groups fighting logging in the logged over mountain. The Quezon Provincial Multisectoral Forest Protection Council (QMSFPC) and two other environment NGOs said a forestry contract of the Timberland Forest Products Inc. (TFPI), owned by Bulacan logger Wilson Ng, was reinstated on orders of Palace officials. Johnny Glorioso, QMSFPC committee on information chair, said he was stunned when he got the information from DENR regional executive director Antonio Principe during the launching of Green Philippine Highways in Lucban town Thursday. He said the controversial Integrated Forest Management Agreement (Ifma), or license to cut trees, has long been opposed by residents and local officials of Real, Infanta and General Nakar towns. "And now here comes this final Malacañang decision allowing it to proceed operations."The 25-year Ifma, covering 36,660 hectares in the Quezon province part of Sierra Madre, was granted to Ng on Nov. 12, 2002, during the term of former Environment Secretary Heherson Alvarez. Alvarez's successor, Elisea Gozun, revoked the Ifma on Jan. 13, 2004, saying "fraud, misrepresentation and omission of material facts" surrounded the process by which the DENR granted the Ifma contract. In a past interview with Ng, he admitted that he appealed his case to Malacañang. Based on DENR records, TFPI's Ifma was reinstated by the Office of the President on March 4, 2005, four months after the tragic flash floods and landslides in the three Quezon towns. http://newsinfo.inq7.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view_article.php?article_id=14971Indonesia:34) Pemerihan village, established in the 1950s, borders the park and was previously a vast forested area. Its population of about 4,000 mostly originate from Cawang Ara village inside the park area. In the 1970s, they were evicted and relocated to Pemerihan. Squatters from areas outside Pemerihan openly clear forest land to make way for the cultivation of coffee, pepper, cacao and vegetables without any fear of being caught by forest rangers, while those from Pemerihan usually play cat and mouse with forest rangers, disappearing whenever they sense the presence of rangers and outsiders. Rasidi said he decided to cultivate land within the national park to seek a sustainable livelihood. According to Tatik, she and her husband moved to Pemerihan a few years back. They previously lived in Kalianda, South Lampung, working as farm laborers. " We had to move here to survive. But, we don't own a farm here, and we built this house on this land with permission from our neighbor, " said Rasidi. The pace of deforestation in Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park is about 1,630 hectares per year. Tens of thousands of people like Rasidi who live within the park area cultivate crops on state land. Data at the park's office showed that no less than 26,242 squatter families cultivate land inside the park. They began to cultivate 53,000 hectares of land after illegal loggers had finished removing the timber in the area. The highest extent of damage occurs in Sekincau, Suoh and Rantauagung areas (bordering Bengkulu province). " We are actually benefiting from what is left... rather than leaving the areas barren, " said Rasidi. Head of the park's office Tamen Sitorus said that the largest deforested area was in the Sekincau area in West Lampung, where more than 21,353 hectares had been turned into coffee farms. Besides the threat of deforestation, the area which has been listed as a world heritage site is under constant threat of theft of trees with high market value, such as meranti, a mahogany-like hardwood. http://www.thejakartapost.com/misc/PrinterFriendly.asp35) The Wildlife Conservation Society-Indonesia Program (WCS-IP) said that Indonesia's population of orangutans fell nearly 43 percent in the past decade, from 35,000 in 1996 to 20,000 today. The decline has been caused by ongoing forest destruction and poaching in Kalimantan (Borneo) and Sumatra, the only two islands that still support wild orangutans. According WCS-IP, in 1996 there were around 35,000 orangutans in Indonesia -- 23,000 in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo, and 12,000 in Sumatra, but the massive 1997 forest fires cut the population of orangutans in Kalimantan by about one-third, bringing Indonesia's total population to around 27,000. Since then, continued deforestation has taken a heavy toll of the species which shares 95-97 percent of the genetic material found in humans. Environmental groups have warned that red ape could be extinct in the wild without urgent conservation measures. Recently WWF has launched the " Heart of Borneo " campaign to pressure Indonesia's government to protect orangutan habitat by establishing reserves and cracking down on illegal logging and oil palm plantations. http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0814-orangutans.html36) At 400,000 hectares (988,000 acres) Tanjung Puting is the largest protected expanse of coastal tropical heath and peat swamp forest in southeast Asia. It's also one of the biggest remaining habitats for the critically endangered orangutan, the population of which has been great diminished in recent years due to habitat destruction and poaching. Orangutans have become the focus of a much wider effort to save Borneo's natural environment. Why is oil palm replacing tropical rainforests. Recently much has been made about the conversion of Asia's biodiverse rainforests for oil-palm cultivation. Environmental organizations have warned that by eating foods that use palm oil as an ingredient, Western consumers are directly fueling the destruction of orangutan habitat and sensitive ecosystems. So, why is it that oil-palm plantations now cover millions of hectares across Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand? Why has oil palm become the world's number one fruit crop, trouncing its nearest competitor, the humble banana? The answer lies in the crop's unparalleled productivity. Simply put, oil palm is the most productive oil seed in the world. . http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0814-orangutans.htmlWorld-wide:37) So, what's the price tag on benefits provided by nature? In 1997, the University of Vermont's Robert Costanza and his co-authors put the answer at $33 trillion per year in a now-famous paper in the journal Nature. In the decade following, the science of " ecosystem services " has bloomed. This young discipline studies how nature-through climate regulation, soil formation, crop pollination, flood protection, and so on-supports human welfare, and estimates its value in economic terms. Now, Costanza and his colleagues at UVM's Gund Institute for Ecological Economics have launched a project to solve a central problem that this young science faces: creating a fast way for policy-makers to understand the specific ecosystem services in their area-and the impacts of different land use decisions-whether looking at a local watershed or whole continent. Over the next year, with an $813,000 grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Costanza and his team will create a set of computer models and tools that will give a sophisticated portrait of the ecosystem dynamics and value for any spot on earth. " Land use planners, county commissioners, investment bankers, anyone who is interested, " Costanza said, " will be able to go on the Web, use our new models, and be able to identify a territory and start getting answers. " For example, if a town council is trying to decide the value of a wetland-compared to, say, building a shopping mall there-these models will help them put a dollar value on it. If a country wants to emulate Costa Rica's program of payments to landowners to maintain their land as a forest, they'll better be able to figure the ecosystem value of various land parcels to establish fair payments. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Whats_Nature_Worth_New_Computer_Models_Tell_All_999.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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