Guest guest Posted October 26, 2006 Report Share Posted October 26, 2006 Today for you 38 news items about Mama Earth's trees. Location, number and subject listed below. Condensed / abbreviated article is listed further below.--Alaska: 1) Future of logging in Tongass--British Columbia: 2) Beetles have swept over the B.C. Interior, 3) Bears, wolves and Salmon grow trees, 4) Industry restructuring failed, try again, 5) BC's Caribou plan, 6) Enviros doubt new Caribou plan, 7) Save Mt. Arrowsmith and Mt. Coakley, 8) Expand Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, --Washington: 9) Airport to remove 200 trees from Lincoln park--Oregon: 10) Protecting the loggers from the enviros on USFS land--California: 11) Pacific Forest Trust and 15 sq. miles near Mcloud, 12) Penny Pines, 13) Galitsky makes more efficient stove to slow deforestation, 14) H.R. 5760 suspends laws against logging in giant sequoia forests,--Idaho: 15) Payette National Forest denies WildWest's appeal, 16)Oppose recreation act,--Montana: 17) Rare Larch forest studied, --Utah: 18) Governor Huntsman's federal wilderness land grab, --Wisconsin: 19) Oakdale Electric Cooperative clearcut the neighborhood,--Canada: 20) Turn up the heat on Victoria's Secret,--Congo: 21) Great ape reintroduction--Mexico: 22) Cucapa and Kiliwa indigenous communities are facing extinction --South America: 23) Arauco is the leading forestry company--Brazil: 24) Government goes after loggers, code named Kojima, 25) 110 million hectares protected, --Philippines: 26) Southern tip province of Mindanao says stop illegal logging, --Malaysia: 27) Bakun dam deforestation and relocation--Indonesia: 28) Logging company plans to destroy Niue, 29) TNC: Save Wehea forest in Kutai Timur, --Borneo: 30) Palm Oil company fires rage out of control, --Australia: 31) Loggers must pay enviros legal costs, 32) Loggers say green groups threaten exports, 33) A new alliance in south-west Western Australia, 34) Plantations are not swallowing up family farms, 35) Extreme drought as a result of climate change, 36) Protestors digging-in: Arcadia Forest, --World-wide: 37)Carbon Markets and the World Bank, 38) World Rainforest Week,Alaska: 1) In an effort to secure the future of the logging industry in Southeast Alaska, the Southeast Conference has requested Tongass National Forest officials consider opening more timberland to logging as part of the forest plan update. The nonprofit pro-economic development group's request, however, will cost the Forest Service $100,000 and several weeks of delays, said Forest Supervisor Forrest Cole, who chastised the group in an Oct. 18 letter for not getting involved sooner. In its defense, the Southeast Conference said it made the request only after the Forest Service made necessary information public. Cole wrote in his letter that it would be in the Southeast Conference's best interest to have submitted " timely " input because " the sooner the amendment process is complete, the sooner the timber volume, currently clouded by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision on the 1997 Forest Plan, can be made available to the existing mills of Southeast Alaska. " The U.S. Forest Service is undergoing a review and update of its Tongass Forest Management Plan, which is basically a blueprint for how the forest is run. This includes the allowable limit on the amount of timber that can be harvested annually. In 2005, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a 1997 version of the plan included a timber study that inflated the market demand for Tongass timber. The court ordered the Forest Service to revise the plan. http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/102206/loc_20061022047.shtmlBritish Columbia:2) Like a tsunami that starts as a small swell and rolls over the land as a huge tidal wave, the mountain and western pine beetles have swept over the B.C. Interior, leaving millions of hectares of dead trees and leaving taxpayers and homeowners with huge bills. To this point, efforts have been directed at harvesting the affected lodgepole pine while they are still usable and removing the dead lodgepole and ponderosa pines that pose a fire risk to inhabitants. The City of Kamloops has been very active thanks to funds supplied by the provincial and federal governments in a combined urban fire interface and beetle-affected removal program. The total spent this year, including City funds, total more than $1 million. The program to date has been restricted to City and Crown land within the city, but many residents are now asking for assistance to remove dead trees on their private property. For the past few months we have been investigating pilot programs in Prince George and Kelowna in which crews funded through Services Canada (formerly HRDC) remove the tree once it is cut down by a contractor hired by the homeowner. This typically cuts the cost by about 15 to 20 per cent, which is better than nothing. In August I spoke with Mark Fercho, the environment manager in Prince George in charge of its program. He said the program is not without its challenges, the biggest of which is finding labour. In this economic boom it is difficult to find people to work for $12-$15 per hour so the crews are not working at full capacity. Nevertheless, we have put together a proposal for a similar program and we were in talks with Community Futures (the organization that administers the funds) when we were invited by Mrs. Betty Hinton to put forward any pine beetle projects we were working on. With a six-day deadline given to us on Sept. 18, we packaged up the proposal and have yet to hear back. The Thompson Nicola Regional District has had a similar experience. http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/3) PRINCESS ROYAL ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA — Paul Paquet is an expert on bears and wolves but says salmon are the most critical species in the Great Bear Rainforest. " The real key to the temperate rainforest is salmon; virtually everything depends on them, " said Paquet. He spoke quietly as we stood in the forest beside a spawning stream, hoping a rare white Kermode bear would show up for lunch. " If you went to the tops of these trees, you'd find nitrogen from the salmon, " he said. " They came 4,000 miles from Asian waters, took them two to four years, depending on species. Lot of people think the ancient forests were so large because of that pulse of nitrogen that it gets every year. The wolves and bears are sort of the fertilizer dispensers in the forest. The area has served as Paquet's laboratory for more than a decade because it has populations of wolves, grizzlies and black bears, including the genetic combination that produces the cream-colored Kermode, or Spirit Bear. In his wolf studies, Paquet has found that " wolves, in particular, here are turning out to be genetically unique, " he said. " They have retained their genetic diversity; they have a lot of genes that have not been lost over the years because of persecution. " His research found two other interesting behaviors: The wolves move between the islands, sometimes swimming as far as eight miles in the open ocean. And they eat salmon. " They go into the streams, and a single pack will take 200 fish a night, " he said. Paquet pointed out that logging and commercial over-fishing are threats to the salmon populations, which he said are showing distressing signs of decreases. " We don't know what the consequences are, but it's frightening, " he said. http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/1520854) NDP forests critic Bob Simpson described the Dobell appointment as " a bit of an admission that their current restructuring up until this point hasn't gotten them what they had hoped for. " Simpson said the earlier changes -- specifically clawing back 20 per cent of the timber supply and re-distributing it -- have not worked. Most of the timber is not being harvested, leaving domestic mills scrambling to get enough logs just to remain operational.The initial restructuring ended 50 years of social policies, such as tying access to timber to maintaining jobs in resource towns. As a result, sawmills closed, jobs were lost, logging contractors went out of business.The changes did not create economic recovery and in a recent editorial in Truck Logger magazine, Mike Hamilton, president of the Truck Loggers Association, said some of the government's decisions " have created unexpected short-term problems on the coast. " In an interview, he described the policy changes to this point as a double-edged sword. They created new problems while resolving old ones, he said, citing, the timber take-back. It was intended to put more timber into the hands of independent operators but the result has been " exactly the opposite to what the government hoped would happen. " Everybody has suffered through this thing to try and resolve it but I guess, at the end of the day, if a two-by-four won't pay the bill, then we have a problem. " http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=b7f804a1-6708-4961-b8d8-9d4e75b590b8 5) VICTORIA - To develop a successful mountain caribou recovery plan, the provincial government is seeking input and support from stakeholders regarding the mountain caribou science team's findings and conclusions on the state of mountain caribou in British Columbia, Agriculture and Lands Minister Pat Bell said today. " The science team divided the mountain caribou habitat area into 11 planning units based on geography. The team found that a minimum of 75 to 100 animals are required in a planning unit in order to maintain a resilient population. Currently, only six of the planning units have herds greater than 75, with the largest herd containing approximately 717 mountain caribou. Each of the remaining five planning units has up to 37 animals. According to the science team's research, potential recovery actions could include: 1) Removing predators such as cougars and wolves that are known to kill mountain caribou. 2) Removal of other ungulates such as deer and moose from mountain caribou habitat. 3) Further protection of core mountain caribou habitat from logging. 4) Further management of recreation activities in mountain caribou habitat. 5) Translocation of mountain caribou from larger to smaller herds. Mountain caribou are found in the east of the province from as far north as Mackenzie down through the Kootenays and into the United States. They are listed as endangered by the provincial government. Primary threats to these animals are habitat alteration and increased mortality from predators. To view the mountain caribou science team's findings and conclusions, please visit: http://ilmbwww.gov.bc.ca/sarco/mc/6) BC's Mountain Caribou Science Team has released a heavily spin-doctored and misleading report that will lead to the extinction of the mountain caribou. The report fails to make any real recommendation to recover the mountain caribou; it only offers five options for future management. Only the last and highest option has any significant new habitat protection. This document has provided government, industry and other vested interests with three options under which they can claim to be saving mountain caribou while in fact protecting little or no new habitat. Instead, to create the illusion of maintaining the caribou, these options will unleash long-term slaughter programs for wolves, cougars, increased hunting of black bears, while also opening the door to killing blue-listed grizzly bears and wolverines. " VWW is shocked that the scientists would allow such a document to go out under their names, " says Anne Sherrod, a director of Valhalla Wilderness Watch (VWW). " This science panel must not be confused with an " independent " science panel. The panel is hired by the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands and its puppet department, the Species at Risk Coordination Office (SaRCO). SaRCO is run by a board that includes the ministries responsible for logging, mining, and commercial tourism, all of which serve corporations that make big bucks destroying mountain caribou habitat or running them out of their habitat with snowmobiles and helicopters. " Valhalla Wilderness Watch is calling for the immediate moratorium on logging of all old growth forests 140 years and older and the creation of an independent science panel with conservation biology experts from across the nation. In addition, VWW has released a scientific report entitled " How the Government of British Columbia is Killing Endangered Mountain Caribou. " It can be found on the Internet at ftp site http://community.netidea.com/wildernesswatch/ 7) Now the struggle to have the mountain peaks and ridges of Mount Arrowsmith and the adjacent Mount Cokely protected as parkland has reached a new level with the promise of a meeting between Regional District of Nanaimo directors and staff and environment Minister Barry Penner Since 1998 community members have pressed to have 1,300 hectares, incorporating the lofty peaks, surrounding lakes and lands designated as a park. Consultation among stakeholders included various provincial ministries, mountain climbing clubs and the RDN. Peter Rothermel, an executive member with the Alpine Club of Canada, has been leading hikes in the area for years and been intimately involved in the effort to see it protected. "It's gone to the management level of the Ministry of Environment which is a very good sign," he says. "A class A provincial park is what I'd like to see." Rothermel says Mount Arrowsmith has long been an important training area for local mountaineers. He suggests a joint effort that would see parkland administered by the regional district with stewardship and trail maintenance left in the hands of the mountaineering clubs already responsible for such tasks. That, he says, would be in the best interests of everyone. "There wouldn't need to be a huge cash outlay for the lands," he adds. The alpine area of the massif contains many popular trails. In addition there are three known red-listed and six blue-listed species that have been sighted in or near the proposed area. Significantly, the health of two important salmon rivers, the Englishman and the Little Qualicum, relies upon the Arrowsmith snowpack. http://www.pqbnews.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=50 & cat=23 & id= & more=8) Wildsight says the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park in Alberta and Montana should be expanded to include the valley, saying it would be a natural fit. Wildsight spokesman John Bergenske calls the Flathead the " Serengeti of the North, " because of the diversity of plant and animal life that is unparalleled on the continent. He also notes the valley is home to the largest concentration of grizzly bears in inland North America, and is an important migration route for many animals. " We feel it would be totally appropriate for British Columbia to be part of the International Peace Park, or at very least to have a wildlife sanctuary that protected values comparable to what a national park does, " he said. Mining companies have applied to extract coal from the valley, and the provincial government is not ready to push to have the area turned into a park. Local MLA Bill Bennett, who is B.C.'s minister of state for mining, says the province can safeguard the valley's environment, while allowing responsible mining. " Everyone knows that it has to be managed very carefully, but not everyone agrees that it needs to be a federal park, " said Bennett He notes the province is negotiating a joint management agreement for the valley with Montana, which should be finalized this fall. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2006/10/23/bc-flathead-park.html Washington:9) PORT ANGELES -- As many as 200 trees could be removed from Lincoln Park and the area around William R. Fairchild International Airport for an obstruction removal project. Port Deputy Director Dave Hagiwara said the exact number of trees that must be removed has not been finalized yet. The city's Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission recommended the obstruction removal project at its Sept. 21 meeting. Under Federal Aviation Administration regulations, obstructions including but not limited to trees must be removed from an area 10,000 feet beyond the end of the airport's Runway 826 and 5,000 feet beyond the end of the alternate north-south runway. The approach zones must be clear so planes can circle to make another approach at the runway. The Port hired URS Corp. of Seattle for the obstruction removal project in 2005.The project's first phase was surveying and identifying obstructions, including trees, and the second was project engineering and obstruction removal. But the standard ground survey methods the company used couldn't accurately identify all the trees and other obstructions that might need to be removed. So the consultant surveyed the area again using LIDAR ---- Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging. LIDAR determines the distance to an object by measuring the time between when a pulse of laser light is sent and when it is reflected back by an object. The technology can collect topographic data for steep slopes and canyons as well as inaccessible areas, such as large mud flats and ocean jetties. http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/sited/story/html/264760Oregon:10) SELMA - Three government SUVs guarded a road to nowhere. Nearby, a middle-aged couple camping out in a trailer manned a round-the-clock checkpoint next to a locked gate, on the watch for environmental protesters. A few miles beyond, the drone of chainsaws rose from a deep ravine while a hovering helicopter plucked blackened logs from the floor of the burned forest and ferried them to the nearest road. Begun late last summer, the logging is the first in the country on nearly 60 million acres of remote national forest land protected by a Clinton administration decree that was set aside last year by the Bush administration. The operation was too far along to be stopped by a Sept. 19 federal court order reinstating the Clinton edict. To environmentalists, the Biscuit fire became an excuse for the U.S. Forest Service to pursue logging on thousands of acres of untrammeled wild land studded with virgin, old-growth timber killed by the flames. " Biscuit is a battering ram going through the last best places, some of the most important ecological lands, " said Rolf Skar, the pony-tailed campaign director for the Siskiyou Project, an Oregon conservation group. To the Bush administration, the lengthy environmental reviews and lawsuits that complicated the Forest Service's plans to log a fraction of the burned acreage symbolize all that is wrong with forest regulations. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.forest22oct22,0,7789871.story?coll=bal-nationw orld-headlinesCalifornia:11) McCLOUD -- America is losing more than 1 million acres of privately owned forests annually to development -- the equivalent of paving over an area larger than Rhode Island, year after year. California alone loses more than 35,000 acres a year, said Best. Connie Best hopped onto a 30-inch diameter white fir stump to survey a clear-cut carved into the forest at the base of Mount Shasta. Piles of dead branches and logs littered the ground amid dried grasses and mule ears, rattling in the late September breeze. Best, managing director of the Pacific Forest Trust, beamed with pride at her surroundings. A self-proclaimed conservationist, Best is no ordinary champion of logging. And this is no ordinary clear-cut: It represents a new model its advocates hope will save forest landscapes. The 30-acre block of timber logged two years ago is part of a 9,200-acre tract of prime timberland forever protected from development by a conservation easement. An agreement announced last month allows the owner, Bascom Pacific, to manage the land as a working forest. In addition to sanctioning logging, the easement protects water quality and wildlife habitat and provides public access to the Pacific Crest Trail and along eight miles of famed McCloud River. Mike Chrisman, California's secretary of resources, called the McCloud easement a creative approach to conservation and the protection of fish and wildlife habitat. The McCloud agreement is the largest forest conservation easement west of the Rockies. The coalition of private and public groups that created it is part of a national effort to prevent timberland losses. Key are innovative partnerships that allow forest owners to generate income while managing their land to protect non-timber values, Best said. Under the agreement, Pacific Forest Trust paid Bascom Pacific $7.3 million for the development rights to its land 50 miles northeast of Redding. Bascom Pacific and future owners can continue to log the land but they can never sell it for residential or commercial development. The 15-square-mile McCloud project -- twice the size of Yosemite Valley -- links critical habitat and serves as a wildlife corridor across 2.1 million acres of the surrounding Shasta-Trinity National Forest. http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/43768.html12) Forest officials say 295 acres of so-called "Penny Pines" plantations in Tulare County are overstocked and will be thinned. These areas, located in the Tule River and Hot Springs Ranger Districts in the Giant Sequoia National Monument area of Sequoia National Forest, were planted as early as 1986 to fill in areas where trees were removed as the result of logging activity or wildfire. The areas are called "Penny Pines" based on the public donation program that funded planting the trees. The trees are ponderosa pine, Jeffrey pine, and giant sequoia Originally, the trees were planted with fairly wide, regular spacing but have not undergone the self-pruning typical of natural stands, officials say. Currently there are between 100-720 trees per acre. The desired condition is between 100-150 trees per acre, with irregular spacing that mimics natural conditions. Efforts are currently underway to remove trees, most of which were found to be insect-infested, diseased, dead, or suppressed by other trees to a level necessary that meets the desired conditions, according to forest officials. "Once this project is completed these plantations will have fewer trees, which will improve health of trees that remain," says Priscilla Summers, district ranger. "Competition for water and sunlight will be reduced by removing brush and some of the trees, making the trees less susceptible to dying from insects, diseases, or fire." http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=335913) Galitsky divides her time at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory among devising ways to slow deforestation and protect Sudanese refugees from violence, developing technology to remove poison from water in Bangladesh and helping various industries become more energy efficient. It is all in a day's work for the 33-year-old chemical engineer. " In school I was looking for something that had meaning for me but would also have a positive impact on the world, " Galitsky said. " Not just for me and my family or my generation, but for many generations to come. " Her success at following her dream recently landed her a spot on a prestigious list of the 35 top innovators under the age of 35 honored each year by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Technology Review magazine. On top of that, Galitsky was chosen from the list for the magazine's Humanitarian of the Year award. n Darfur, women in refugee camps have to walk for hours to collect wood for cooking from an ever-receding forest. Each trip outside the camps exposes them to the possibility of rape and sexual mutilation at the hands of roving militia. Gadgil and Galitsky set out to help the women by designing inexpensive, energy-efficient stoves that use less than half the wood the refugees currently use for cooking. This cuts the number of trips outside the camp and also helps slow deforestation in the area. http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/15827108.htm14) Underneath the thinning rhetoric is a common goal. Nobody wants forests destroyed by catastrophic fire. Most agree they must be managed to prevent it. A small group of politicians, environmentalists, foresters and timber mill executives are talking about how. They have to work fast. A recent legal decision froze logging projects that would have fed Sierra Forest Products, the last remaining lumber mill south of Sonora. Some environmentalists fear the mill's closure because fire safety sometimes demands that smaller trees be cut down, they say. " It would not be a good thing to have (the mill) shut down, " said Craig Thomas, director of the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign, a coalition of 98 conservation groups. " You need people to do this work. It doesn't happen by magic. " Meanwhile, Central Valley congressmen are working on legislation to reinstate the logging projects, ignoring what environmentalists' see as important new information about the impact of logging on a little-known relative of the otter called the Pacific fisher. The fact that some of the timber sales would take place in Giant Sequoia National Monument makes them all the less palatable to environmentalists. The situation is a " social dilemma, " Thomas said. All sides can work together on a compromise, or they can dig in, secure their own interests and leave the long-term solution to another day. Kent Duysen, president of Sierra Forest Products, agrees. " The bill is a short-term Band-Aid, " he said. Soon after the logging sales were blocked in August, Duysen hosted a meeting with Thomas, U.S. Forest Service officials and staff from the offices of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Congressman Devin Nunes, R-Visalia and Congressman George Radanovich, R-Mariposa. Nunes and Radanovich are co-sponsors of H.R. 5760, the bill that would re-start logging projects. http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/80216.htmlIdaho:15) The U.S. Forest Service has dismissed an objection from an environmental group that sought to delay salvage logging of thousands of trees uprooted by a rare central Idaho tornado. Bidding on timber sales has begun. Friday, the Forest Service will award contracts for an estimated 18.5 million board feet of downed and buckled timber in the Payette National Forest near the Oregon border, said spokesman Boyd Hartwig. The WildWest Institute, an environmental group based in Missoula, Mont., filed an objection, which was dismissed last week. The group complained the salvage logging would disrupt soils in the forest and clog sensitive waterways with sediments. In June, a rare twister carrying 150 mph winds spun through the forest near Bear, Idaho, carving a 12-mile swath of downed trunks and snapped branches. The cleanup plan was drafted in 82 days. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003319854_timber24m.html16) More than 80 conservation organizations oppose the Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act (CIEDRA) saying it is harmful to Idaho's public lands and destructive to the cause of wilderness. http://www.westernlands.org/html/moratorium_.html. CIEDRA's author is Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) and its most visible proponent is a 501©(3) public charity, the Idaho Conservation League http://www.wildidaho.org/. Like all tax-exempt charities, including Wild Wilderness, ICL is expressly prohibited from making candidate endorsements. Pasted below is a shortened article from today's Boise Weekly. In it, ICL's, Rick Johnson, explains that he will be supporting Congressman Simpson in the upcoming election. In it, we discover that CIEDRA is being politically spun and has been turned into a shining example of Congressman Simpson's dedication to wilderness. We learn that ICL's support for Simpson's CIEDRA-related efforts has been making things difficult for Simpson's challenger in the upcoming Congressional race. I find that a curious situation made even more curious after having viewed Simpson's ratings on the Project Vote Smart website www.vote-smart.org . Here's what I found: " Representative Simpson supported the interests of the: American Wilderness Coalition 0 percent in 2005. Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund 0 percent in 2005. League of Conservation Voters 6 percent in 2005. Republicans for Environmental Protection -8 percent in 2005. American Land Rights Association 86 percent in 2005. " http://www.wildwilderness.orgMontana:17) MISSOULA - To the untrained eye, the rock pile on the side of Carlton Ridge looks about the same as any other heap of boulders. But for Steve Arno and Clint Carlson, the spot marks the heart of an ecological wonder. They have just spent the best part of two hours hiking mostly uphill and dodging downfall in an attempt to follow a trail marked by a few scattered flags hanging from tree branches. Along the way, the pair of forest ecologists pointed out the unique qualities of western larch and its cousin, alpine larch, growing higher up on the ridge. They pondered the historical implications of ancient fire scars scored into the interior of huge stumps. And they noticed the unusual native plants springing from the ground as they trudged through an inexplicable swamp. But their excitement really begins when they hit the bottom of the rock pile about two-thirds of the way up the ridge. Standing near a 400-year old larch - with its unusual mix of western and alpine larch characteristics - the scientists are filled with wonder. " I'm in awe every time I come in here, " Carlson said. " It's such a different piece of real estate than anywhere else. It's very, very unique. " While there are a few other places in the world where the two species of larch crossed traits over centuries, Carlson said this place marks perhaps the only spot where the hybridization occurred in well developed soils. Unlike most of the other rock-capped peaks in the Bitterroot Range, Carlton Ridge escaped being scraped clean during the era of glaciers. As a result, the ridge is covered in a relatively deep soil. " This hybridization appears to have occurred over thousands of years, " Carlson said. " This isn't something that happened overnight once you get this crossover, the genetics get really complex. It's fascinating. " Western and alpine larch are two of the most climactic sensitive species of trees, Arno said. " The way alpine larch is spreading downhill from here is probably a remnant of colder times, " he said. " What we have here really are thousands of scientific instruments recording climatic change over hundreds of years. This is really a gold mine for researchers keyed in on that issue. " The 900-acre plus Research Natural Area was set aside in the 1970s to protect the hybrids, but Arno is quick to say there are plenty of other interesting features to contemplate. http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/10/22/news/state/40-ecology.txtUtah:18) Gov. Jon Huntsman's plan for Utah's 4 million acres of roadless forests is no plan at all. The governor's petition, in response to the Bush administration's policy to turn protection of these last undeveloped national forest lands over to the states, devolves responsibility even further, essentially handing it over to county governments, which have shown much more interest in developing forests than in protecting them. The governor says this petition provides " forest management flexibility. " But his plan to set up advisory committees comprising county commissioners and state public-land officials to tell federal supervisors how to manage forests owned by the American public is a thinly veiled way to expand logging, oil and gas development, grazing and motorized recreation. In doing this, Huntsman is reneging on promises he made during his election campaign and later to the Outdoor Retailers convention to protect Utah's unique outdoor treasures. He told the Outdoor Retailers he wanted to attract 5 million more visitors a year to Utah, adding another " $1.5 billion for the bottom line. " Notwithstanding his near-constant promotion of economic development for Utah, Huntsman seems to have forgotten that the growing outdoor recreation industry pumps $18 billion a year into Utah's economy and relies heavily on protection and wise management of public lands. Huntsman's abdication of his responsibility to protect national forests and other sensitive Utah landscapes is the anithesis of more farsighted actions taken by the states of Colorado and California, which wisely opted to keep most or all of their inventoried roadless areas protected from development. In a September ruling that is being appealed, a U.S. district judge threw out the Bush administration's forest policy. Huntsman's proposal deserves the same fate. http://www.sltrib.com/ci_4537649Wisconsin:19) Until last month, 14 trees separated the home of Brian and Kerry Eirschele from County Highway E. Brian Eirschele isn't happy that Oakdale Electric Cooperative cut them down. "There's an absolutely a noticeable difference with the wind and the loss of privacy," he said. Bruce Ardelt, OEC's chief operating officer, said his crews didn't have much choice. "Trees and powerlines don't mix," Ardelt said. "It's a simple thing." Eirschele and three other homeowners in the Monroe County township of Greenfield believe OEC should have done more to work with homeowners to save the trees. Joyce Stuhldreher, a resident of Spring Bank in Greenfield, can suddenly see Highway 21 from her house thanks to a 44-foot swath cleared by OEC. Now, her home can be seen by passing highway motorists, and she laments the loss of privacy. "They had never clear-cut before," Stuhldreher said. Eirschele said he would have worked with OEC to save the trees. He was even willing to pay from his own pocket to put the transmission line underground. He said he was unaware of OEC's intent until he woke up one morning and saw a crew cutting them down. "Why wasn't anyone informed there was going to be clear-cutting instead of trimming?" Eirschele said. He said OEC has gotten few complaints over the years. "For every complaint we have about brush removal, we have 100 complaints about power outages," Ardelt said. "People don't want to see blinks and outages." Another issue is cleanup. Joyce Witt, who lives on Flag Ave., said her property was still a mess a week after her trees disappeared. "They cut down 15 or more big white pines," she said. "They made it look horrible. They didn't even clean the brush off. They just came back with a brush hog and ran over it."http://www.tomahjournal.com/articles/2006/10/24/news/02trees.txtCanada:20) Thanks to all of you who responded to our recent call to action to help turn up the heat on Victoria's Secret. They've been dragging their feet for more than two years on a decision to select more environmentally-friendly paper for its catalog. It's time for action and action is what we are going to give them! Next month, millions will tune into what Victoria's Secret calls the most celebrated fashion show in the world, the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. Audiences will be dazzled by sexy lingerie and beautiful models, and our forest angels will be right there alongside the red-carpet to show the real price of panties – Forest Destruction. We're sending a delegation of our own angels to Los Angeles, the site for this year's show, and we need your help. Please make a donation to make this event one Victoria's Secret wont' soon forget. Everyday, Victoria's Secret delays its decision, our forest are at risk. We know more than 25% of its catalogs come from the endangered Great Boreal forest – one of the largest remaining forests in the world. The Boreal is crucial as a defense against global warming and for keeping our air and water clean, and it's currently being logged at a rate of two acres a minute, 24 hours a day. An area the size of Manhattan is destroyed every 5 days. Can we count on your support? Please help ensure we have the resources to turn the heat up! Make a Donation NOW! https://secure.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/forestethics/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY =1926Congo:21) With their habitats ravaged by deforestation, conflict, mining and the animal trade, the world's great apes are under a relentless assault which has seen their numbers dwindle from millions to as few as 350,000. But Massabi and Koto are proof that, at least in one place, the slide towards extinction is being reversed. It was announced yesterday that the two apes have become only the second and third gorillas ever to be reintroduced to the wild and produce offspring. The new mothers gave birth approximately 10 days apart in the Lefini reserve in the Republic of Congo, where they have been carefully restored to their natural habitat in a unique project by Britain's John Aspinall Foundation. The two orphaned gorillas, who were confiscated from their captors before they could be sold to foreign collectors, are among a group of 45 of the primates that have been reintroduced to protected reserves in the Congo and Gabon. bAmos Courage, the director of the project, said: " This is enormously important symbolically. These two orphans have been reintroduced in an area that had a good population of gorillas in the 1950s. That population was almost hunted to extinction. Now we have two mothers who were themselves orphans and have been able to breed in the region they once inhabited. http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1919475.eceMexico:22) The Cucapa and Kiliwa indigenous communities are facing extinction. Of the Cucapas, less then 300 remain; of the Kiliwas, 54. While the government does not concern itself with preserving their culture, traditions, and very existence, it is very concerned about the fish they rely on for their very survival. The federal government, with the support of "conservation" organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund and Conservation International (who are notorious for protecting endangered species by kicking endangered peoples out of their land), turned the waters they've fished for generations into the Biosphere Reserve of the Upper Gulf of California on June 10, 1993, because it was "in the public interest," according to the official website of the government's National Commission of Protected Natural Areas. The website also notes that 77 percent of the people who live in and around the reserve rely on fishing for their livelihoods, so it is unclear which public interest the fishing ban in the protTo protect the endangered fish, armed federal soldiers constantly patrol the reserve and accost the fishermen who come to fish. Hilda Hurtado Valenzuela recounted to Subcomandante Marcos how soldiers detained her pregnant daughter, who was trying to fish, by pointing their guns at her belly. Furthermore, the community has approximately thirty outstanding warrants for illegal fishing, including one for seven kilograms of fish. In protest against the forceful dispossession of their lands and the destruction of their culture, the Kiliwas took a death pact. The women have agreed to stop having children, and the Kiliwas will die with this generation. Marcos, however, intends to use the power of the Other Campaign to convince them that they are not alone, and that it is not worth it to die from a death pact when they can die fighting.ected area serves. http://www.narconews.com/Issue43/article2205.htmlSouth America:23) Arauco is the leading forestry company in South America and one of the world's largest forest products companies in terms of plantation holdings, kraft pulp, lumber, and panel production. This accomplishment has been achieved through its extensive forest resources and industrial facilities within Chile, Argentina and Brazil. Arauco's panels are produced in different grades for appearance, structural, forming, and multipurpose uses for many diverse applications. Arauco's total softwood plywood capacity will reach 800,000 cbm by the end of 2007, positioning Arauco as one of the world's top 10 plywood producers. All of Arauco's forestry activities have been ISO 14001 certified and their plantations are certified under the CERTFOR standard, which is similar to the PEFC standard. CanWel will add Arauco plywood to its national network of distribution centers for sale to its retail and buying group customers. http://www.ccnmatthews.com/news/releases/show.jsp?action=showRelease & searchText=false & showText=all & actionFor=618021Brazil:24) During a week-long operation -- code named Kojima -- in late September, authorities impounded nearly 15,000 cubic meters of unlicensed wood in the Amazonian state of Para. The agency said it was probably the largest seizure ever in the state. Para was the state where last year Sister Dorothy Stang, an American nun who worked with rural poor, was killed by gunman associated with local plantation owners. In response to the murder, the Brazilian government sent in the army to quell violence in the region and promised to step up environmental monitoring efforts. The Kojima Operation follows the three-week Guariba Operation which confiscated 8,500 cubic meters of sawnwood and logs in the state of Mato Grosso. Authorities said the Kojima Operation would continue in the region until at least December, according to a report from the International Tropical Timber Organization's (ITTO) Tropical Timber Market Report. 2006 has seen a marked increase in environmental law enforcement in the Amazon. More than 120 people -- including 16 agents of the federal environmental protection agency -- have been arrested for operating illegal logging and timber smuggling in the Amazon rainforest and southern Brazil since the beginning of the year. A number of unlicensed timber operations have also been shut down. http://news.mongabay.com/2006/1023-amazon.html25) In the past four years Brazil has set aside more than 20 million hectares of the Amazon basin from development. The country now has some 110 million hectares, an area twice the size of France, under some form of protection, giving it the largest protected areas system in the world. This, combined with plunging commodity prices and stricter environmental law enforcement, has helped cause annual deforestation rates to drop by nearly 40 percent since 2004. Further progress is expected next month at climate talks in Nairobi, when the Brazilian government will propose expanded rainforest conservation under a plan that would have industrialized countries meet greenhouse gas emissions targets by compensating tropical countries for forgoing forest clearing and replanting trees in deforested areas. While these are hopeful signs, there is an immense threat looming on the horizon: climate change could well cause most of the Amazon rainforest to disappear by the end of the century. Fearnside believes saving the Amazon will require a fundamental shift in perception where the Amazon is recognized as an asset beyond the current price of mahogany, soybeans, or cattle, where its value is only unlocked by its destruction. The Amazon is far worth more than this he says. It can play a key role in fighting climate change while providing economic sustenance for millions through sustainable agriculture and rational utilization of its renewable products. It can serve as a storehouse for biodiversity while at the same time ensuring reliable water supplies and moderating regional temperature and precipitation. In short, maintaining the Amazon as a viable ecosystem makes sense economically and ecologically -- it is in our best interest to preserve this resource while we still can. http://news.mongabay.com/2006/1023-interview_fearnside.htmlPhilippines:26) Religious leaders in this southern tip province of Mindanao on Sunday was alarmed on the alleged continuous illegal logging as they urged the national government to help address the problem. The religious group alleged that Davao Oriental province now became the "Eden" of money-thirsty businessmen sipping the juicy resources of the already remaining forest cover out from its origin. The religious leaders led by Cateel town parish priest Fr. Darwey Clark, has allegedly seen how these illegal cutters and log smugglers destroyed the environment. However, Fr. Clark noted that the people in forest areas, "relied much on the wood just for survival and the never-ending intensification of logging in his town and some nearby municipalities will continue if authorities would still be mum, deaf and blind." The Cateel parish priest said that logging trucks moving around this town and the province reach an average of 20 truckloads of logs a day from Cateel that go out to Lambajon, Baganga, the nearest town after Cateel while about 10 truckloads of logs take the Compostela Valley (ComVal) province route. http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2006/oct/23/yehey/prov/20061023pro1.html Malaysia:27) BAKUN - The wall of Malaysia's huge Bakun dam is almost finished, a towering symbol of the nation's drive to develop. But it represents little more than broken promises to many of the tribal people it displaced. Eight years after the government forced thousands of tribal people from their homes in the jungles of Borneo island, many of them still find it difficult to adapt to a cash economy, a world away from their former life of farming, fishing and hunting. " It's tough to make a living here, " said Okang Lepun, a Kenyah tribesman and father of seven who lives in the dusty resettlement camp of Sungai Asap, 30 km away from the dam wall. The 45-year-old is one of the lucky ones. He earns an income from selling vegetables to the dam's construction workers. But he, too, would prefer to have his old life back. " Over here, you have to buy everything -- rice, meat, fish. There's no hunting ground, there's no river to fish, " he said. " We even have to pay for water and electricity. " Large tracts of rainforests, where the Kenyah, Kayan and Penan people once lived, have been cleared to make way for the Bakun dam, which is set to flood an area the size of Singapore. Malaysia defied fierce environmental opposition in the 1990s to go ahead with the Bakun project, saying its cheap power would lure industry to Sarawak, one of its least developed states. But a decade later, the much-delayed project is still up to four years away from completion. There is still no major customer lined up to take a slice of the 2,400 megawatts of power the dam will be capable of generating and some of the local tribal people feel let down. Indigenous people from the area account for only five percent of the project's total workforce of over 2,000, made up of mostly Bangladeshis, Pakistanis and Chinese. Displaced families -- about 11,000 people in all -- received 1.2 hectares (three acres) each under the resettlement deal. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KLR59284.htmIndonesia:28) A Malaysian logging company linked to the decimation of the Solomon Islands rainforests has got its sights set on Niue. The island nation, which relies almost entirely on aid from New Zealand, is planning on going into business with the group. The Niuan government is allowing a the company to log the rainforest, however no-one told the hundreds of locals who own the land. One of the Malaysian investors in the deal is Steven Fong Hak who was the general manager of a company called Silvania Products in the Solomon Islands. Silvania's been condemned by environmental groups as having one of the worst forest practises in the world. The company had its licence revoked several times in the 1990's for illegal logging. Fong Hak has recently been dumped from the Niue logging project after falling out with business partner Philip Chung, who agreed to be interviewed by One News on the proviso that his face wasn't shown. " We are coming here with sincerity, we want to protect the forest, we cut big tree, turn into money, improve the lifestyle of the people, " he said. Chiung now says he does not recall not having a licence and he is keen to make sure everything is above-board in Niue. " We want our names to be recorded in the history of Niue to do something good for the country, " said Chung. But many Niueans aren't so sure. Local logger Harry Bray says there is only one way a foreign company can make a profit from Niue's forest. " They would just take everything, to be able to do that they would have to take everything and what they didn't take they would destroy in the process of taking the timber that is of size, " says Bray. http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411368/86758129) Samarinda, East Kalimantan - The Nature Conservancy (TNC), a US-based organization engaged in the study and salvaging of natural resources, has recommended the protection of a forested area in Kutai Timur district because of its extraordinary biodiversity, a local official said. " The Wehea forest in Kutai Timur distict urgently needs to be declared a protected area as in a survey jointly conducted by the Kutai Timur district administration and TNC it was found to contain at least 606 nests of orang utan, " Kutai Timur district head Awang Faroek Ishak said here Monday. Besides orang utan (pongo pygmaeus, sp) the joint survey team also found other primates in Wehea forest which covers 38,000 ha of lowland. " Therefore, we and TNC hope the Forestry Minister will give Wehea forest the status of a national park, " Awang said. The survey which was carried out in 2003-2005 also led to the conclusion that Wehea forest was a water catchment area and home to 39 mammals, 81 kinds of birds, 3 kinds of reptiles and 59 species of commercial plants as well. Unlike other forests in East Kalimantan which were in critical condition due to illegal logging and forest fires, Wehea forest was an untapped area, Awang said. The orang utan population of East Kalimantan had drastically decreased to between 10,000 and 15,000 from 100,000 in the past 20 years. Awang attributed the reduction in the orang utan population to land clearing, illegal logging and annual forest fires. http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=22170Borneo:30) Fires, primarily set by palm oil companies, continue to rage out of control in Borneo and Sumatra, sending a thick, choking haze over Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and even as far away as Guam, 3600 km to the east. Schools and airports in the region have been closed, and people advised to stay indoors. The fires now have nearly reached the level they did in 1997-98, which cost the region an estimated US$9 billion in disruptions to air travel and other business activities, and which wiped out as much as a third of the existing population of orangutans. The fires were estimated to have destroyed 5 million hectares -- an area equivalent to Costa Rica. Palangka Raya, the area where our Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Project is located, is the worst hit, with over 2.5 million acres of peatland currently on fire, and with visibility now down to less than 30 meters. The reports from the field are horrendous, and our rescue teams have been working without let up. The area where we released 42 wild orangutans in March is now on fire, as well as parts of the Mawas Reserve. Hardi, the assistant manager at Nyaru Menteng, recently wrote: "There is a big forest fire in the Agro Bukit concession. We believe that it burn by workers under the order of plantation management. Orangutans run burning forest to plantation and many of them killed! Our rescue team works hard to save them by translocate to another area. We got 4 orphaned babies." http://www.savetheorangutan.co.uk/newsletter/breaking_news_2410.htmAustralia: 31) A TASMANIAN timber company must pay legal costs for a group of environmentalists it tried to sue for millions of dollars, a Victorian judge has ruled. Supreme Court Justice Bernard Bongiorno today ruled that Gunns Ltd must pay the costs, which relate to an unsuccessful claim that 20 environmentalists took part in conspiracies against the company. Greg Ogle, the legal co-ordinator for the Wilderness Society, one of the defendants, said the costs would probably amount to more than $1 million. But Mr Ogle said it was unlikely the environmentalists would be given the money for a least one year, while the exact amount was decided. Gunns had tried to sue the 20 defendants, who included Greens Senator Bob Brown and Tasmanian Greens leader Peg Putt, for almost $7 million. Since December 2004 the company has filed three separate statements of claim, which have all been thrown out of court. In August, Justice Bongiorno ruled three of the defendants should be given a total of nearly $87,000, which related to the first statement of claim. Today's ruling relates to the third statement of claim Gunns made against the environmentalists. Wilderness Society spokeswoman Virginia Young welcomed today's ruling but said it would not cover the organisation's total costs. The costs will include the expense of reading and responding to the statement of claim, as well as researching and formulating the legal arguments, and the costs of the three-day hearing in August last year, the society said in a statement. Justice Bongiorno also gave Gunns a deadline of November 2 to return to court to seek leave to file a fourth statement of claim in relation to the alleged conspiracies against the company. http://news.com.au32) The Federal Forestry Minister, Eric Abetz, says a push by international green groups to reclassify the sustainable status of Australian timber poses a serious threat to exports. He says he may set up an inquiry to investigate the disparity between classification systems used to grade old-growth logging in Indonesia, PNG and Australia. Senator Abetz says the Government is determined to resist a push by the Mexico-based Forest Stewardship Council for Australian timber to lose its 'A' rating among some European customers. " These groups are then bad mouthing Australia's forest products in countries like the United Kingdom and Belgium, " he said. " We then have to fight rearguard actions which we shouldn't have to so when these commercial interests are involved in it as well, and that is why I'm giving serious consideration to holding an inquiry and investigation into certification schemes. " http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/2006/s1772292.htm33) A new alliance formed in south-west Western Australia to end all logging of native forests in WA says it may run its own candidate in the next state election. Representatives from the region's forest lobby groups met on Friday in Collie with independent Liberal Member Janet Woollard. Dr Woollard says high conservation forests promised protection by the Labor Government in 2001 are being logged. Kim Redman from the Northcliffe Environment Group says none of the major political parties are doing anything to save the forests, prompting it to consider running a candidate in the next election. Mr Redman says it already has a great deal of community support. " The groups we're representing are basically over the whole south-west region and everywhere we go we're just meeting more and more people who totally agree with us, " he said. " It's time, with global warming and the salt in the wheatbelt and the rivers all being polluted, that we leave nature alone and, you know, just help nature to recover. " Meanwhile, environmentalists in WA's south-west say they are prepared to risk arrest as they take part in a final showdown to stop the logging of a forest near Collie. The Forest Products Commission begins work to log the Arcadia forest today. There has been a long public campaign to stop the logging and several meetings with the Minister for the Environment, Mark McGowan, but with little success. Brian Green from the Arcadia Action Group says police officers visited its camp site yesterday and warned that move-on notices would be issued if it did not leave. Mr Green says the group will stand its ground for as long it can. " It's a jarrah forest, it's extremely diverse, it supports an array of wildlife on the ground, endangered flora and fauna, obviously the mainland species of quokka, barking owl, red-tailed cockatoo and that's all going to get lost just for the sake of Gunns' profits and to be burnt at a silicon smelter, " he said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200610/s1770929.htm34) Federal Forestry Minister Eric Abetz says a new report proves the plantation timber sector is not swallowing up family farms. The Australia's Plantations report by the Bureau of Rural Sciences shows tree farms currently occupy less than 1 per cent of the country's agricultural land. One of the main criticisms of the plantation industry has been that it is taking over prime farm land. But Senator Abetz says the report demonstrates that is clearly not the case. " If we were to achieve our target of three million hectares it would take up approximately 1 per cent of our agricultural land, which really is hardly a takeover in anybody's language, " he said. The report found Australia's total timber plantation estate last year covered 1.7 million hectares, with the bulk of that in Western Australia. The majority of forest plantations are privately owned, and plantations supplied almost two-thirds of the logs harvested in Australia in the 2004-2005 financial year. A separate report released yesterday found farm forestry accounted for less than 1 per cent of expenditure on all chemical pesticides in Australia. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200610/s1772053.htm35) Australia is currently experiencing extreme drought as a result of abrupt climate change, and the nation is undergoing unprecedented discussion of global heating reminiscent of America's own post-Katrina reckoning. Australia's per capita greenhouse gas emissions are among the highest in the world, and Australia's economy is based heavily upon the deadly coal fossil fuel industry which exerts undue political influence. Temperatures in Australia are now expected to rise by as much as 8°C (15°F) in the next century with cataclysmic results. Over the coming decades these soaring temperatures will result in water supplies for millions failing, agriculture becoming unviable over huge areas, rising sea levels destroying substantial coastal areas, powerful extreme weather events including super cyclones and bushfires, and countless environmental refugees overwhelming Australia's ability to cope. To address their current climate caused drought emergency, Australia simply must ratify the Kyoto Protocol immediately and engage seriously in negotiations to further establish global mandatory emissions cuts for all nations that are equitable and adequate to achieve what climate science indicates is necessary to conserve the global climatic system. The best estimate is that emissions must be cut as soon as possible by 60-75%, a level which requires Australia forgoing the burning of their coal resources. Australia must stop its obstruction of international climate policies. Tell them by taking action now: http://www.climateark.org/alerts/send.asp?id=australia_climate36) A group of protesters in the Arcadia Forest near Collie, in south-western Western Australia, is digging in, despite being warned by police to leave the area. The Forest Products Commission is about to log the forest, but the protesters say that will destroy the area and its wildlife. About 20 people are camped in the area to be logged. Police have visited the camp site several times to warn that move-on notices will be issued if they do not leave. But Brian Green from the Arcadia Action Group says protesters are ignoring the warning and have started to build blockades on logging roads and set up platforms in trees. " The game plan is to set up as many things as we can in the forest to try and stop them, get more community support and bring as many people down here as possible to see the forest before it gets trashed, " he said. The Forest Products Commission says its logging operation will start soon. The commission says it is confident police will be able to control any protest action. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200610/s1772999.htmWorld-wide: 37) Cutting down tropical forests often makes people poorer, hurts endangered species and emits greenhouse gases, so perhaps rich countries could pay to help keep trees standing, the World Bank said on Monday. The global carbon markets, set up in response to the Kyoto Protocol and other carbon-limiting arrangements, could offer the way. The markets -- where polluters pay for allowances that let them exceed their limits on carbon emissions -- may be able to put a value on the carbon locked up in jungles and savannahs, according to the new report. When carbon is stored in trees and other plants, it's not being emitted as the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which holds heat close to Earth and spurs global warming. As it stands now, farmers and ranchers might clear an acre of prime rainforest to create a pasture worth $300, and in the process, release 500 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as the trees burn and rot, said Kenneth Chomitz, lead author of the World Bank report. Meanwhile, the European Carbon Exchange on Friday paid about $15 a ton to offset carbon dioxide emissions, Chomitz said at a briefing. " That means that Europeans are paying about $7,500 or $8,000 to avert the emission of the same amount of carbon dioxide that the rancher is releasing, " he said. " In other words, the rancher is destroying a $7,500 asset to create one that's worth $300 ... " Wouldn't it be great if we could get the farmer and the industrialist or utility owner sitting at the same table, figuring out how they can split the difference and make themselves both better off? " Chomitz said. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N23372955.htm38) A big thank you to all of you who decided to take action last week during the fourth annual World Rainforest Week. Over 2,000 of you pledged to take action during the 7 day effort to highlight rainforest destruction all over the world. 1,162 of you lived tree-free on Tuesday, while 1,053 of you supported the Amazon in some way on Wednesday. Almost a thousand people helped make the connections between dirty energy funded by banks like Wells Fargo and global warming and the impacts of those actions on our world's remaining rainforests. The real question we are asking banks who continually invest billions in environmentally unsustainable projects is, are you really investing in our common future? We don't think they are. Over 800 of you took the rainforests to your classrooms! We wanted to help connect teachers in the Rainforest Heroes Teachers Lounge that is open to anyone working in education today. Over 750 of you hosted a Party for the Planet to help raise awareness about rainforest related issues like global warming, dirty energy and oil addiction. We hope we'll hear some news about these parties and that you post your pics to the Flickr account or send them in to us to post to the community! http://www.ran.org Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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