Guest guest Posted November 19, 2006 Report Share Posted November 19, 2006 149 Earth's Tree News Today for you 37 news items about Mama Earth's trees. Location, number and subject listed below. Condensed / abbreviated article is listed further below.--Alaska: 1) Forest fires are climate friendly--British Columbia: 2) Save Clayoquot Sound mail-in cards, 3) FSC witnessing, 4) Baikie Island restoration, 5) Forestry and the Blue Grouse,--Washington: 6) Flood damage in Gifford Pinchot NF, 7) RIP: Harvey Manning, --Oregon, 8) White Oak restoration, 9) Developers and trees don't mix,--California: 10) Medicine lake Geothermal surveys shut down, 11) Fires let Oaks replace Pines, 12) Urban forest ambitions rise, 13) Recycled lumber two times around, --Idaho: 14) Idaho wilderness bill update--Montana: 15) Thinning without fire begets more fire, 16) Housing development in the Seeley-Swan area, 17) Smurfit-Stone looking to small woodlot owners,--Colorado: 17) Rio Grande NF logging challenged--Ohio: 18) Logging Dean State Forest, 19) Museum of Natural History saves l2 parcels, --Louisiana: 20) Campaign to discourage sale of cypress mulch, 21) Cypress forest loss,--Georgia: 22) Arson fire coincides with legal challenge--Maine: 23) Plum Creek often violates laws--Virginia: 24) Deer vs. Trees in George Washington NF --USA: 25) Wildfire and Americans, 26) USA in pact to stop illegal logging Indonesia,--Canada: 27) FSC winds of change claim for most all loggers--Russia: 28) More on forest code--Germany: 29) Half a football-field sized forest is missing --Kenya: 30) Save Lake Nakuru--Uganda: 31) European Union-funded grants scheme has cut funding to sugar exploiters--Ethiopia: 32) Dead Acacias and famine in Magado village--Uruguay: 33) Protest of World Bank project, --Brazil: 34) Two huge dam projects proposed--Thailand 35) More patrolling for Tha Chana forest reserve,--Indonesia: 36) Most logging in Indonesia is done illegally,--World-wide: 37)140 billion trees annually must be planted to neutralize impacts Alaska:1) The study looked at the Donnelly Flats fire in central Alaska, which burned 16,549 acres in 1999. Researchers measured incoming and outgoing radiation, carbon dioxide being absorbed or emitted by plants, wind speed and other conditions. They took similar measurements on nearby land that burned in 1987 and on land that burned around 1920. They found a lot of carbon dioxide was indeed released in the fire, there were increases in ozone levels and ash fell on icy areas, causing more light to be absorbed. But the following spring, the land was brighter than before the fire because fewer trees shaded the ground. Snow was more exposed and reflected more light back into space. The dark spruce trees of the forest were replaced by lighter-colored deciduous trees such as aspen and birch. When these trees lost their leaves in winter, more snow was exposed. The younger trees also take in carbon dioxide faster than the older conifers, the researchers said. It took some 80 years before the dark conifers dominated the forest again, they reported. " The reflectivity effect in the long run is larger than the carbon effect, " Michelle Mack of the University of Florida, a co-author of the paper, said in a statement. The report indicates that forest management strategies may need to be reconsidered. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_Cooling_Fires.htmlBritish Columbia: 2) This past summer, environmentalists all over Canada were shocked to learn that Clayoquot Sound - now designated as an UNESCO Biosphere Reserve - is once again under threat from BC government-approved plans to log in the region's pristine valleys. The Wilderness Committee has teamed up with several other environmental groups (Greenpeace, Forest Ethics, Friends of Clayoquot Sound and the Sierra Club) to produce several thousand Clayoquot Sound Opinion mail-in cards addressed to Premier Gordon Campbell. We need your help to distribute the cards to people who will register their vote, then mail the opinion card in to the Premier. We believe the overwhelming majority of Canadians are in favour of protecting Clayoquot. Are you able to get a few into the hands of family, friends, co-workers and neighbours? If so, then email us at clayoquot and tell us how many opinion cards you would like and what your mailing address is and we'll get them right out to you. http://www.wildernesscommittee.org3) Since the beginning of the Forest Stewardship Council many forest conservationists worked hard to prevent the bar from being lowered during the BC Standards development process. I had great hope that it would be a powerful lever to pressure industrial forestry to become sustainable. Although FSC did become a force in the forest sector, with 20 million hectares certified in Canada to date, the question remains, does meeting the FSC standard really assure long term sustainability? In my search for sound forester-in-training work I read through the FSC documents for TEMBEC, as they are considered to be one of the greener large forest companies. I came to the sobering conclusion that the FSC standard do NOT really assure sustainability. I have been wrestling with the issue of sustainable rate of cuts for many years. The large TEMBEC tenure certified by Smartwood to the BC Standard in 2006 is government by the rate of cut discussed in " Invermere Timber Supply Area Timber Supply Review #3 Analysis Report Version 3.0 May 12, 2004 " . Several graphs in this report are very telling: The AAC may be permanently sustainable, but AVERAGE AGE of trees harvested drops from 160 today to 80 in a few decades, and the Age Class Distribution over time shows that most of the area will turn into young forest. FSC p5.6 is satisfied, but NOT the biodiversity and sustainability of old trees, caribou critical lichens, etc -Geza Vamos geza4) The act of creating an Old Growth Forest ecosystem from scratch may be a science, but the crew working on Baikie Island have turned it into a work of art. In the last two weeks of October, Dave Cunning, Terry Hale and workers from the Campbell River Mental Health and Addiction Services Vocational program have transformed the sterile top of the bank around the back-channel into a tapestry of textures and shapes. " A healthy natural forest ecosystem invariably has an abundance of woody debris in a diverse range of sizes, shapes and stages of decay, from standing snags to limbs, trunks and upturned root wads laying on the ground " says Irv Penner, a local professional forester, arborist and project advisor. " These elements provide essential habitat, the foundation of biodiversity, for all manner of life native to the forest; from tiny soil dwelling organisms, insects and mushrooms, to plants and animals. " The natural development of old-growth forest characteristics takes many years. Starting with the bare ground that follows a disturbance, a century or more might pass before today's grandchildren would see the beginnings of old-growth structure. Contrary to this " natural " scenario, Baikie Island has an overwhelming presence of two invasive species, Scotch Broom and Himalayan Blackberry. These plants pose formidable challenges to both natural and human-driven restoration efforts. Without human intervention, the establishment of a natural native forest would be stalled for years if not indefinitely. Planting a mixture of early and late stage native trees and shrubs and removing invasives " jumpstarts " the natural restoration process on this former industrial site. It is an exciting and dynamic process that will evolve over the coming years. There will be plenty of opportunities for pulling broom and blackberries from among the young plants, opportunities that will be available for volunteers and school work projects. http://www.campbellrivermirror.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=6 & cat=46 & id=771802 & more= 5) The blue (sooty) grouse, named for the male's sooty-grey plumage, is the coastal species of mountainous regions spanning California to Alaska. The males are recognizable by their distinct low-pitched hooting sounds, heard when attracting females or marking territory. Thirty years ago ideal forest conditions allowed for a boom in blue grouse numbers. Vancouver Island hunters snagged 26,000 grouse then, as opposed to 5,000 grouse five years ago, found Hartwig. "Many local people remember hunting blue grouse right in rural residential areas near towns in the past," she said. While hunting, predation and climate are all influential to the blue grouse slump, they're not enough to justify the substantial lapse. Hartwig spent two years studying the situation for the Habitat Conservation Trust Fund, which spends millions in wildlife research in B.C. She puts most of the blame on forests being clear-cut too quickly. Add fire suppression tactics, and we've created a forest blue grouse don't like. The thick, closed canopies of second-growth forest don't let sunlight in for shrubs and other herbs, which the ground-dwelling blue grouse depend on for survival. Edge habitats ¡X areas in the forest that open up after logging and natural fires in mature forests are the young blue grouse's preferred domain. This is why the less-intense logging practices and natural forest fires of the '50s created a population boom of the blue grouse. http://www.cowichannewsleader.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=9 & cat=43 & id=772087 & more= Washington:6) A deluge of storms carrying heavy rains and strong winds have battered the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Forest Service staff believe that the storms' impacts are far worse than the '96 floods, which caused widespread damage. Numerous mud slides, failed roads, and downed trees and limbs have forced the Forest Service to close a large number of Forest Service roads to the public. The Forest Service is encouraging the public to avoid the Gifford Pinchot National Forest until further notice. To see a list of closed roads, please follow this link to the Forest Service web site: http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/recreation/current-conditions/special.shtml#gpnf_info While the damage and subsequent ecological impact of the storms is unfortunate, it does offer us with unique restoration opportunities. Following the '96 floods, Congress appropriated additional money for road decommissioning projects. We hope they will do the same following the November storms. The recent storms have washed out numerous roads that the Task Force views as priority roads for decommissioning. These roads either were having significant on-going water quality impacts or separated large blocks of roadless areas. We hope to turn the negative impacts of the storms into positive restoration opportunities by convincing the Forest Service to decommission these roads rather than reconstruct them. We'll keep you posted on our progress. http://www.gptaskforce.org 7) Always a reclusive writer, Mr. Manning didn't tell his family he had been working on an autobiography. Penelope Manning said the family hopes to complete it and publish it. As he grew up and graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in English literature, Mr. Manning developed an early love of the outdoors. And Mr. Manning, who died Sunday, Nov. 12, at age 81, forged a 50-year publishing partnership with photographer Ira Spring. Yet he abruptly and famously severed the friendship in a feud over a simple book-title change. " He was loud and he was obnoxious, " said daughter Claudia Manning of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. " You either loved him or you couldn't stand him." For decades, Mr. Manning collaborated with Spring on two dozen volumes of the " Footsore " and " 100 Hikes " series, including " 100 Classic Hikes in Washington " and " Hiking the Great Northwest. " The books have become bibles for two generations of outdoor lovers. All in all, the books " didn't make much money, " said his eldest daughter, Penelope. " It was more of a cause. " " He was the spokesman for the environmental movement and its driving force, " said Jim Whittaker, of Port Townsend, the legendary Northwest mountaineer who was the first American to summit Mount Everest. Mr. Manning, Whittaker said, worked to protect the planet with an outsized passion matched only by his girth. The loss of Mr. Manning's singular brand of advocacy comes at a time when people are increasingly educated about the cost of environmental harm yet keep losing daily touch with nature, his friends lamented. The North Cascades National Park, the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area and Cougar Mountain Regional Park all owe their existence to him, they said. The Issaquah Alps were nameless foothills south of Interstate 90 before Mr. Manning christened them, in 1976. And he was one of the original advocates of the Mountains-to-Sound Greenway, now a publicly owned 100-mile corridor of woods along I-90. In fact, anyone who has hiked or simply soaked in the swath of nature between Lake Washington and Snoqualmie Summit benefited from Mr. Manning's combative but effective style, said Doug Simpson, president of Issaquah Alps Trails Club. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/traveloutdoors/2003425376_manningobit14m.htmlOregon:8) The limbs ¡V from downed Douglas-fir trees ¡V are not a reflection of recent storm damage, but rather a restoration effort to preserve the habitat of Oregon White Oak trees at Camassia Natural Area in West Linn. The 27-acre preserve is located within the Sunset Neighborhood, tucked between Wilderness Park, West Linn High School and Sunset Park and firehouse. Volunteer crews from AmeriCorps as well as youth teams and region high schools have worked for almost a month to cut down Douglas-fir trees and remove branches and debris. The project will continue for the next year. "Our goal is to recreate this area as it would have been 150 years ago ¡V before settlers came here. Part of that (process) is saving these oaks, and making sure that they are able to have a habitat," said Jason Dumont, Portland-area preserves steward with The Nature Conservancy (TNC), heading-up the restoration project. Camassia is home to more than 300 plant species, including several rare species. http://www.westlinntidings.com/news/story.php?story_id=1163622685663843009) This is for the Statesman Journal staff and for those Salem residents who wish to save all the existing trees in Salem. I understand the desire to save trees, but please take a closer look at what that means. On property slated for development you will likely find one to three species of existing native trees that are big-leaf maple, white oak and Douglas fir. All three are a poor choice for landscaping on small urban lots. Maples grow to huge sizes and spread their limbs far and wide. They also happen to be a very brittle tree that will lose large branches under heavy snow and ice. These large branches can easily crush a house, car or human. Douglas fir trees grow to immense sizes. They are shallow-rooted, making them susceptible to blow down in high winds, especially if the soil is saturated after heavy rains. Like maple, they have brittle branches that snap off under the weight of ice and snow. White oak is a good, sound tree that likes dry, well-drained soils in the summer months. Chances are good that on a suburban lot the oak will receive more water than it needs, which will result in root rot and ultimately the death of the tree. Planning developments around existing trees also is a problem. Construction sites move around lots of earth and bury sewer, water and electrical lines. This disruption cuts through the roots, buries roots or exposes roots to the air. As a result, existing trees often become weakened and susceptible to disease, wind-throw and death. If we really want more trees in Salem, why don't we come up with better solutions? Good landscaping in an urban setting will allow the planting of trees that will last for years and fit nicely into the landscape. If an existing tree happens to fit into that plan, great -- save it! But to require developers and current residents to make existing trees fit into a landscape that is not accommodating makes no sense at all. http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061114/OPINION/611140323/1049 California:10) In a Nov. 6 decision, the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the 40 year extension of leases in 1998 awarding Calpine Corporation the right to build geothermal plants at Medicine Lake violated federal laws and are null and void. The decision reversed an earlier district court decision. The opinion, written by Judge J. Clifford Wallace, found the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service failed to consult with the Pit River Tribe and undertake appropriate environmental reviews before deciding to extend the leases. Medicine Lake is located approximately 30 miles northeast of Mount Shasta, and Calpine had begun preliminary work on a 49 megawatt geothermal plant near Fourmile Hill, including digging exploratory wells and land clearing. Calpine has plans for an additional plant in the area that has also been challenged in court. The project's decades long history includes a lease suspension due to environmental concerns, reinstatement of the leases after a $100 million Calpine suit, a finding by the Federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation that the projects be cancelled, numerous environmental assessments by federal, state and county agencies, and other court challenges. The current suit was brought by the Pit River Tribe, Native Coalition for Medicine Lake Highlands Defense, and Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center. The group was represented by the Stanford Legal Clinic at Stanford Law School. Among the court's reasons for invalidating the leases were a failure to recognize the historic and cultural values of the area and not completing an Environmental Impact Statement before extending the leases. In addition, the court found the 1981 and 1984 Environmental Assessments were insufficient. http://www.mtshastanews.com/articles/2006/11/15/news/02geothermalhalt.txt11) Three years after the largest wildfire in California history wiped out whole forests and disrupted native animals, there are signs the ecosystem is slowly recovering, scientists reported Tuesday. " Recovery seems to be good regardless of how severe the fire was, " said Jon Keeley of the U.S. Geological Survey U.S. Geological Survey's Western Ecological Research Center. One of the hardest hit was Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, a 25,000-acre natural oasis 40 miles east of San Diego. The park was temporarily closed to the public after the Cedar Fire leveled almost all pine and conifer trees. Oak trees were burned from the ground up, but their bases mostly survived. What is worse, scientists said, pine trees have not regrown. Some fear that without restoration projects, forests will be dominated by oak trees and shrubs for decades to come. The Cedar Fire scorched more than 273,000 acres and was historic for its size and intensity. Started by a hunter who lit a signal fire in the Cleveland National Forest east of San Diego, the fire was fanned by Santa Ana winds through dry brush and trees. It killed 15 people and destroyed nearly 3,000 buildings, including some 300 homes. Both mice populations have since come back. But woodrats, which build nests out of sticks, are still scarce. The Cedar Fire also disrupted birds' migratory paths. After the fire, researchers collected data in the coniferous forests in the Cuyamaca Mountains to record bird species. Nonnative birds, such as the mourning dove and house finch, immediately came to the burnt forests once vegetation grew. But small nonmigratory birds like the mountain chickadee, California thrasher and pygmy nuthatch that make nests in shrubs or trees fared worse. Their presence decreased after the fire, but scientists were confident they will return. http://www.newsone.ca/piercelandherald/ViewArticle.aspx?id=26150 & source=212) During his 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan famously blamed trees for emitting 93 percent of the nation's nitrogen oxide pollution. Trees were worse for the environment than automobiles, he said, a statement that fueled decades of " killer tree " jokes. Twenty-six years later, cities in Reagan's home state of California are trying to live down his dendrophobic reputation. In October, Los Angeles kicked off an effort to plant 1 million trees, part of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's election campaign promise to become " the biggest, greenest city " in America. Civic leaders in the Sacramento area are considering an even more ambitious effort: planting 4 million trees over the next 40 years. " Trees in cities have long been undervalued, " says Greg McPherson, a research forester at the Center for Urban Forest Research in Davis, Calif. " Cities have done easy things to be green and conserve energy. And it's not working. So almost out of desperation they are looking at trees as green or bio technology. " In Denver, Colo., the mayor wants to plant 1 million trees over the next 20 years. Seattle, Wash., plans to add 695,000 trees over the next 30 years. And Albuquerque, N.M., is adding 10,000 over the next five years. All this, however, takes time ¡X most trees don't provide full benefits until they are 25 to 30 years old ¡X and it takes upfront capital, which many cities lack. " It is damned expensive, " says Ray Tretheway, executive director of the Sacramento Tree Foundation, noting that the Sacramento Municipal Utility District pays $2 million a year for its tree program. Los Angeles plans to spend $70 million on its tree program. The city has partnered with five nonprofits that pledged to plant 875,000 trees, with the city planting the remainder. About half the trees will be planted on private land. The mayor promised to focus on low-income communities, which tend to have fewer trees; one neighborhood, for example, has only a 5 percent canopy cover, compared to the national average of 27 percent. http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=1668013) The giant fir timbers that kept the building upright for decades are astronomically valuable, as sought-after as 18th century secretaries or Victorian dolls. So as the building is deconstructed to make way for new condos, the structural lumber is being set aside for future use. New timbers of similar size and quality are largely unavailable because there are no commercial tracts of virgin Douglas fir forest left in the country. If you want gargantuan beams, you have to salvage them -- or pay somebody to do it for you. The market for old, big-dimensional lumber has thus skyrocketed in recent years, driven by millionaires who covet the wood for vacation homes and corporations that use it in resort lodges. The sheer size of the timber coming out of the Esprit building -- vacant since the company closed it in 2001 -- is impressive. Many of the beams are 18 by 14 inches in width and breadth, and 40 feet long. In today's market, such timbers could fetch about $6,400 each. Eli Krainock, a general contractor working on the Esprit project, said the lumber coming out of the site could sell for a total of $1 million. This is the second time that the massive Douglas fir timbers at Esprit -- a clothing company that was a style-setter in the 1970s and 1980s -- have been recycled. Lumber dealers point out that the trade is environmentally sound as well as lucrative. When Esprit's founders, Doug and Susie Tompkins, refurbished a fire-gutted edifice at 900 Minnesota St. in the early 1970s for their headquarters, they used timbers salvaged from an old sawmill in the Gold Country hamlet of Baxter in Placer County. The lumber was milled about a century ago from trees cut from the Northwest's virgin forests. " Doug and Susie were at least 20 years ahead of their time, " said Richard McFarland, co-owner of TerraMai, a Siskiyou County firm that is buying much of the structural lumber from the Esprit project. " They saw the great value in this wood well before anyone else did. " http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/11/14/BAG4JMCA9B1.DTL Idaho:14) The issue is really not whether to stick with the GOP's Idaho wilderness bills. 80 grassroots organizations formally asked ICL and TWS to withdraw their support for these dreadful 'quid pro quo' bills long before the election. On September 12th they send an open letter to the entire conservation community which began as follows: "The undersigned organizations call on the conservation community to support a moratorium on bills currently pending in Congress that combine wilderness designation with harmful land and water development provisions." CIEDRA and the Owyhee Initiative were bad bills before the election. They were bad for wilderness then and they remain bad for wilderness today. The grassroots community worked hard to prevent these bills from becoming law when the GOP controlled congress and when anti-wilderness forces dictated terms and demanded extreme concessions in exchange for their support. Now that the Democrats have gained control of Congress, we should CONTINUE to oppose bad bills and work toward the passage of BETTER bills.... as we have already been doing. In this regard, nothing has changed. http://www.westernlands.org/html/moratorium_.htmlMontana:15) MISSOULA ¡X Thinning forests without also burning accumulated brush and deadwood may increase forest fire damage rather than reduce it, researchers at the Forest Service reported in two recent studies. The findings cast doubt on how effective some of the thinning done under President Bush's Healthy Forests Initiative will be at preventing fires if the forests are not also burned. The studies show that in forests that have been thinned but not treated with prescribed burning, tree mortality is much greater than in forests that have had thinning and burning and those that have been left alone. Another study, on Blacks Mountain Experimental Forest in Northern California, had similar findings. "We need fire on the ground," said Dr. Ronald H. Wakimoto, a professor of forestry at the University of Montana who studies fire. "The only thing that stops fires is previous fire or prescribed fire."A study of a 500,000-acre wildfire in Oregon in 2002, called the Biscuit fire, showed that the mortality rate of trees in forests that had neither thinning nor prescribed burns was a little more than half. The study, published in late 2005 in The Canadian Journal of Forest Research, found that 80 to 100 percent of the trees in forests that had only been thinned died in the blaze, while 5 percent of the trees died in forests that had been thinned and burned. A 2003 study of another large blaze, the Hayman fire in Colorado in 2002, published as a case study by the Forest Service, showed that fires killed 50 percent of the trees in a natural, unthinned forest but killed 90 percent in a thinned forest, because the fire on the ground was hotter. A 1996 federal study, the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project, was conducted by a team led by Dr. Don C. Erman, emeritus professor of ecology at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Erman said thinning could be effective only if it was repeated as often as every two years, which would be prohibitively expensive. "It's a treadmill you have to be on all the time," he said. Prescribed fire may extend the period between thinnings, he said, but not by much. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/14/science/earth/14fire.html16) Roads can be closed and trees will grow back. But subdivisions just keep popping up in every valley of the west, causing loss of habitat, displacement of wildlife, and eventually, dead animals, said Chris Servheen. Our actions in guiding subdivision growth over the next 10 years will determine the fate of such sensitive wildlife species as the grizzly bear, lynx, wolverine, and bull trout, he said. He recommended that development be restricted in known wildlife linkage zones. If it must occur, the home sites should be concentrated to preserve open space and to reduce the area of ecological disturbance, he suggested. Chris, the regional grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, offered a quick overview of his research in the Seeley-Swan area. He offered the guidelines for the commissioners because they have the final say in approving all subdivisions within the county. His slideshow included dramatic maps showing actual grizzly movement data, and left those at the meeting wishing for similar data for all of western Montana. He said his data set included 27 different grizzlies and 12,992 distinct data points. Even with the large tracts of Forest Service and Plum Creek land in that area, 2,163 points--about 16 percent--showed the grizzlies moving across private lands. His data, superimposed on Google Earth relief images of the Seeley-Swan area, shows that the bears do not stay at high altitudes as once thought. About 55 percent of those points showed the grizzlies at elevations below 5,200 feet. They routinely criss-cross the valley floors as they move through the four identified linkage zones between the Swan and Mission ranges. The data shows that they also sometimes spend weeks within those zones, he said. http://www.clarkforkchronicle.com/article.php/2006111512312658317) Smurfit-Stone is trying to attract more private landowners close to its Frenchtown location, he said. It's just not economically feasible to haul from farther away. The timber industry is, in fact, a location-based industry. Any cost savings associated with buying forest resources have to take into account the expense of shipping all that material from one place to another, noted Ironwood Manufacturing Inc. president Brandon Knudson. Ironwood is a Missoula corporation that makes school and office furniture for sale throughout the nation - and it's increasingly competing in a global economy, Knudson said. Therefore, it's constantly searching for ways to maintain a competitive edge, and one of those ways is to reduce costs. And one of those costs is waste disposal. Ironwood already grinds its particleboard waste to reduce the total volume needing disposal, but it's a shame to pay someone to haul material to the landfill when there's an eager local market for it. "There's people out there in the market that need wood refuse as their main raw material," he said. Knudson's problem is reaching that market. He makes furniture, so he looks first and foremost for people buying furniture - not wood waste. He hopes that TimberBuySell.com will help him reach those buyers he simply doesn't have the time and resources to solicit himself. "What makes the TimberBuySell Web site unique is it allows me an avenue to market some of our byproducts without having to go out and find locally who would be interested," Knudson said. Ironwood was one of the first to post a notice on the new site, for î¡-yard Dumpsters of clean refuse from dust collector and grinder. 2-3 containers in winter months and 5-7 containers in the summer months." The ad has already generated interest from a couple of potential buyers, Knudson said. http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2006/11/16/news/local/news02.txtColorado: 18) Opponents of one of the largest logging projects in Colorado in decades asked a federal judge today to put an end to the project, saying the U.S. Forest Service violated environmental laws when it approved the plans. The project covers 2,282 acres in the Rio Grande National Forest. The area is adjacent to the South San Juan Wilderness Area, two miles northwest of Cumbres Pass. According to attorneys for environmental groups Forest Guardians and Colorado Wild and for two neighboring landowners, the project could cause " irreparable harm " to streams and to wildlife such as Rocky Mountain elk, the Rio Grande cutthroat trout and mule deer. It also could make the area susceptible to landslides, they said. The project, known as the County Line project, should be stopped because the Forest Service did not fully study the effects of logging on those species, the soil or area landowners, as required by law, attorney Nick Persampieri said. Forest Service attorneys argued, however, that under an updated plan for the Rio Grande forest, such studies are not required. " It is difficult to understand how Plaintiffs' 'recreational, wildlife viewing, aesthetic and conservation purposes' are served by a forest of dead spruce trees, " Taylor wrote. " Certainly, each of Plaintiffs' stated purposes will be significantly damaged if a forest fire reduces the County Line Analysis Area to a charred landscape. " http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5143512,00.html Ohio:Two recent timber sales in the Dean State Forest netted Lawrence County agencies a total of $114,000. Of that amount, the county and Decatur Township will each take $28,730. The lion's share, $57,461, will go to the Rock Hill Local School District. "We don't want you to forget us," Boyles told the commission. "We're still there and we're still trying to clean up after the ice storm and will be for the next 10-15 years." The Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division of Forestry operates the "Trees to Textbooks" program, which forwards a portion of revenues from state forest management activities, such as timber sales, to area governmental agencies. The division of forestry is responsible for management of 185,000 acres of Ohio woodlands. According to a statement from the ODNR, 18 school districts throughout Ohio will share $953,383 this year; roughly the same amount will be handed over to county and municipal governments through the forestry management program. Timber sales are conducted to improve the health of the forest by culling damaged or diseased trees, which are removed by logging companies on a competitive bid basis. http://www.irontontribune.com/articles/2006/11/14/news/news241.txt19) Cleveland Museum of Natural History - The museum has already acquired 12 parcels around the county that are home to a wealth of ecological enchantment, and recently obtained option agreements on land that will expand it's holdings in North Kingsville. " There is so much significant diversity (in the county), " said Bissell, curator of botany at the museum and director of the Center for Conservation and Biodiversity. The latest treasure are habitats totaling 56 acres that adjoins the North Kingsville Sand Barrens, a unique feature the museum obtained more than 15 years ago. The new arrivals will serve as an important buffer to the Sand Barrens, but also contains some significant features. For example, a 12-acre parcel between Route 20 and the CSX Railway tracks is home to a sizable hemlock forest, boasting trees of considerable age and size. Trees towering more than 100 feet are not uncommon. The hemlocks grow on a dry, upland ridge - - the only such setting for the trees in Ohio, Bissell said. Three endangered plants can be found beneath the canopy, and the entire forest has sunk it's roots into pure sand. " There's a lot of value under our feet, " Bissell said. The forest is also home to a rare beetle and other fauna. " There are some great birds here, " he said. Locals have known about the property for years, dubbing it the Harmon Hemlock forest. Once in the museum's domain, it will remain open to the public, although sections of fence may be constructed to protect plants from hungry deer, Bissell said. The land flanks the Sand Barrens, a habitat once found in Lake and Cuyahoga counties and western Pennsylvania, Bissell said. Today, the Sand Barrens " is the only high quality example of Black Oak Savannah on beach ridges between Erie, Pa., and Sandusky, " he said. http://www.starbeacon.com/local/local_story_318072317Louisiana: 20) NEW ORLEANS -- Environmentalists here launched a campaign Wednesday to discourage the sale of cypress mulch, saying use of the aromatic wood slivers, popular with gardeners, may endanger the comeback of cypress stands along Louisiana's fragile coast. The " Save Our Cypress " campaign, which will use radio ads and student activists to spread its message, opens up a new public relations front in a simmering row between loggers and environmentalists in Louisiana over the culling of the once-abundant cypress. The campaign aims to dissuade three of the biggest retailers _ Lowe's Home Improvement, Wal-Mart and The Home Depot _ to stop selling cypress mulch that's harvested from Louisiana's coastal forests, which they say are endangered. Leslie March, the chair of the Delta Chapter of the Sierra Club, called on the retailers " to live up to their corporate policies of sustainability. " A number of factors have coincided to make Louisiana a prime spot for cypress logging. Cypress forests are finally coming back after being cut wholesale a century ago _ it takes about 100 years for cypress to mature to the point where it makes good wood _ and demand for cypress is steady. About 150,000 trees are cut a year, according to state figures. So, loggers, who've gotten most of their cypress from Florida in recent years, are setting their sights on Louisiana.But making mulch out of Louisiana's cypress, environmentalists say, is the last thing Louisiana needs because the trees keep storm surges from hurricanes down and are a vital aspect of healthy swamps _ something Louisiana is losing rapidly. http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=568784221) Recent revelations indicate that the information offered by both the environmentalists and the timber industry -- which opposes a moratorium -- are questionable. The industry says most of the cypress forest loss is a result of non-logging factors such as coastal erosion -- and logging accounts for only about 2 million board feet annually. There is a new analysis, however, that shows harvesting of some 30 million board feet. On the other hand, it appears environmentalists have released questionable information of their own. Writing in the New York Times recently, a spokesperson for the Waterkeeper Alliance claimed the Louisiana has "stripped away 1,900 square miles of cypress swamp" in the past century. Federal reports show, however, that most of those losses were in saltwater and brackish water marshes, not in the controversial cypress swamps. We support protecting the cypress forests, but until more dependable information is offered, it is almost impossible to accurately assess the threat. http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061116/OPINION/61116011 Georgia:22) SAVANNAH - A wildfire near Statesboro spread through about 250 acres of wetland forest at the center of a lawsuit by environmentalists trying to halt logging of cypress and other trees by the landowners. Firefighters said Wednesday they thought the blaze had been contained to the dry bed of Cypress Lake three days after it started Monday, the same day the suit was filed in U.S. District Court. The cause of the wildfire remained under investigation, but there was no evidence Wednesday of any connection between the fire and the lawsuit, said Alan Dozier, forest protection chief for the Georgia Forestry Commission, the agency in charge of fighting the blaze. " About the only natural cause we have in Georgia is lightning, but I don't believe we've had any thunderstorms, " Dozier said. " It could have been caused by electric fences or power lines falling or people using machinery in the area. " Created 60 years ago by damming a creek off the Canoochee River, Cypress Lake covers about 350 acres outside the Statesboro city limits. About 40 homes surround the lake, where stands of cypress, water tupelo and swamp blackgum grow from the water. Firefighters said no homes had been damaged by the flames, though they set up firebreaks to protect at least two houses nearest the blaze and doused the yards with water. http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/local/16019735.htm Maine:23) The $57,000 fine imposed in June was in addition to a $9,000 fine the company paid in 2003 for a clearcut that violated the Forest Practices Act. The review of the eight-year period found that Plum Creek violated the law at 48 previous harvest sites throughout its more than 900,000-acre property. The discovery of so many past violations shows how difficult it is to monitor logging and enforce the law in a 10-million-acre forest, officials said Lehner, the Plum Creek manager, said the violations were the result of not precisely measuring cuts as required by changes in the law in 1999. " We were interpreting those rules incorrectly. It was a huge mistake for us, " he said. The company has since retrained its foresters, he said. Plum Creek Timber Co., one of Maine's largest owners of forestland, repeatedly violated environmental standards in the years before 2003, the Natural Resources Council of Maine said Wednesday. The advocacy group, which issued a report citing state records related to the company's logging practices, also said the company continued to destroy established deer habitat until early this year Maine. " This is really a systematic avoidance of Maine's environmental laws, " said Cathy Johnson of the Natural Resources Council. The group has been a leading critic of Plum Creek's plans for two resorts and about 1,000 house lots in the Moosehead Lake region. The company's logging record, Johnson said, indicates it shouldn't be trusted to develop sensitive areas in the North Woods. Plum Creek's general manager in Maine, Jim Lehner, said the company has taken responsibility for its violations and works with the state agencies to avoid problems. " Whenever an issue comes up, we address it immediately, " he said. " We're proud of our record. " The company is certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, he said. " Does it mean we don't make any mistakes? No, we do make mistakes. " http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/061116plumcreek.htmlVirginia: 24) Some members of the hunting community want the agency to do more logging to create more browse area. They say deer harvest is declining so we need to increase the population. They point to Rockingham County -- with 25 percent of its land in the George Washington National Forest -- where the number of deer killed has declined in the last couple years. In addition to being a hunter, I'm a biologist and understand that there are many variables affecting wildlife and population trends. I disagree that the Virginia deer population is on a worrisome decline and that we should increase logging on the national forest to produce more deer. The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries draft Deer Management Plan (2006-15) shows that, for a decade, deer populations have remained stable on almost all public lands, and are stable or increasing on most private lands. The department's goal for the next decade is to keep it that way and even reduce deer on some private lands in all but a few counties. Here in Virginia, at the Mountain Lake Biological Station in Giles County, studies show negative impacts of deer browse on the growth of white oak forests. By increasing white tail deer populations, we would be accelerating the decline of valuable Eastern tree species and impairing future acorn crops. On another point, timber production is not at a standstill in Virginia's national forests, so ample browse area already is being created there. In 2005, the George Washington and Jefferson national forests harvested 26.1 million board feet of timber, 35 percent more than in 2003. As a hunter who uses the forests, and a biologist who is interested in how they function, I believe we must maintain mature and old-growth forests that provide habitat for many species, such as the ecologically important saw whet owl, and the cow knob salamander found only in this part of Virginia, not to mention numerous migratory songbirds and other wildlife. National forests, Eastern national forests in particular, represent unique, invaluable resources where we can take a holistic, responsible approach to wildlife management. http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/commentary/wb/wb/xp-91936USA: 25) When 14 firefighters died in a wind-fanned inferno near Glenwood Springs, Colo., in 1994, Roger G. Kennedy was struck by the senselessness of the tragedy. " They were not fighting to protect an ecosystem or even a railroad or a highway, " he recalled. " Those people went to their death protecting a real estate development. " Kennedy, National Park Service director under President Clinton for four years in the 1990s, is the author of a new book, " Wildfire and Americans: How to Save Lives, Property and Your Tax Dollars, " that contends that government policies have placed millions of residents in the path of wildfires. Southern California has recently experienced two severe wildfires. The Day fire, which started on Memorial Day, burned more than 600,000 acres in the Los Padres and Angeles national forests and took a month to contain. Then the Esperanza fire destroyed property and killed five firefighters in Riverside County. Are America's firefighting resources adequate? The U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service are essentially the national fire department, drawing people from other activities they are supposed to carry on¡K. The Forest Service budget is systematically distorted by more than $1 billion a year to accommodate the fact, which is stupid¡K. The equipment tends to be obsolete; air tankers [owned by contractors] get old. The planes used would never be permitted in combat¡K. People are sent to the fire lines ¡K who are not always as well trained as they should be, because it is not the primary thing they do. It is very heroic but ¡K wrong¡K. This is like fighting in Iraq with the National Guard and no regulars. http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-kennedy14nov14,1,6900054.story?coll=la-hea dlines-pe-california26) WASHINGTON - The United States has signed a pact to help stop illegal logging in Indonesia, home to most of the world's orangutans and many other endangered species, the U.S. Trade Representative's office said on Friday. " A core part of our international trade agenda must be combating illegal trade, including protecting endangered species, " U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said in a statement. " The United States and Indonesia are partnering to combat illegal logging and the trade associated with it. " Schwab signed the agreement with Indonesian Minister of Trade Mari E. Pangestu and Minister of Forestry M.S. Kaban on Thursday in Hanoi, which is hosting this year's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. The agreement sets out a plan for United States and Indonesia to share information on illegal lumber trade, including the manufactured products driving demand for the wood, and cooperate on law enforcement. The United States has committed an initial $1 million to fund supporting projects, such as remote sensing of illegal logging activities and working with conservation groups and others to stop illegal timber harvests. http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=N17381497 & WTmodLoc=World-R5-Alertnet-3 Canada:27) Cascades isn't the only forestry company to jump on the environmental bandwagon. Domtar is embracing the movement as well. The company, already known for its EarthChoice line of environmentally friendly papers, has partnered with STAPLES Business Depot/Bureau en Gros to offer consumers a complete line of high quality, environmentally responsible papers certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. Domtar was recently awarded the FSC Winds of Change award, in recognition of its efforts towards environmentalism. Now, the company feels the time is ripe to make its efforts widely available to Canadian consumers. " This is an important step in our quest to address customer needs for products that come from well-managed forests and have the support of both Rainforest Alliance and WWF-Canada. " http://www.pulpandpapercanada.com/issues/ISArticle.asp?id=62051 & issue=11062006 & btac=no Russia:28) Russia's new Forest Code can be compared to a bestseller ¡V it has been read and reread for nearly three years, resulting each time in an updated version. But on Nov. 8, the Duma finally put an end to the heated debate surrounding the document, approving it in third and final reading. Now it must pass through the Public Chamber and the Federation Council, after which it will be sent to President Vladimir Putin to be signed into law. For Russia, home to roughly 20 percent of the world's forests, the wood has symbolic importance as an inhabited environment, a spiritual space and an idea that has a special place in Russian identity. By far the most sensitive part of the new Forest Code is the issue of ownership. The spirit of the market reforms that have taken place in Russia over the last 15 years calls for liberalization. As a result, the original version of the Code clearly outlined the right to privatize many of the country's forests. Introducing private ownership of forests could significantly raise the capitalization of the related industry enterprises, including their ability to get credit and increase their share prices. So far, however, lack of a proper system of control, combined with deep-rooted ideas about forestry, has thus far hampered private ownership of forested land. As soon as the idea of private ownership began to be applied to forests, popular protests erupted all over Russia. President Vladimir Putin's office was flooded with millions of letters, telegrams, phone calls and emails asking him to reject the Forest Code. Putin sent the bill back to the Duma, publicly saying: "I will not sign a new Forest Code that grants the right of private ownership of the forests." Although 70 percent of Russia's vast territory is forest, the country receives less profit from these areas than Finland. While the new Forest Code could not include provisions for ownership, Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref, a reform-oriented liberal, encouraged the development of other pro-market aspects as a way out of this situation. The most intransigent opposition to the Code came from scientists, who called the situation "dramatic," and cited the possible consequences of ill-thought-out legislation. Now that the Code has been approved by the Duma, they are drafting new appeals to the president.http://www.russiaprofile.org/politics/2006/11/15/4710.wbpGermany:29) Thieves in southern Germany made off with an entire forest, police said. The theft was discovered by the 56-year-old owner when he went to check on the trees in the Hunsrueck region south of Frankfurt. The man was shocked to find they had disappeared over an area of 2500 square metres - about half the size of a football field. Police said the thieves appeared to be professionals who used different cutting devices to chop down the fir trees and drive away with them. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20759907-1702,00.htmlKenya:30) The U.N. Environment Program will soon undertake a comprehensive Lake Nakuru study, said the Nairobi-based agency's Nehemiah Rodich, a former director of the Kenya Wildlife Service. The water catchment area around Nakuru has been heavily deforested, and its rivers are running dry. Years of drought have further reduced the water supply. African temperatures, like global temperatures, are rising. Sewer and industrial runoff from nearby Nakuru town pollute the lake. And its blue-green algae, the flamingos' food, has diminished with the lake. Where just six years ago as many as 1 million flamingos fed in Nakuru's shallows, in vast rosy carpets of plumage, hooked beaks and curved necks, as few as 30,000 stay-behinds hug the equatorial lake's receding shoreline. The carcasses of many hundreds of dead flamingos litter newly dried and caked sections of lakebed. Nakuru, whose recent maximum size was less than 20 square miles, may have lost half its water in the past few years, residents say. "Something must be done," said Jackson Kilonzo, manager of the Lake Nakuru Lodge. "People have to come together and decide to do whatever it takes to bring the water level back up." Ancient Egyptians revered the impossibly graceful bird. In her classic 1938 memoir, "Out of Africa," Karen Blixen told of a vast flamingo flock alarmed by duck hunters: "At the first shot they rise in a cloud, like dust from a beaten carpet; they are the color of pink alabaster." Such sights have drawn 200,000 visitors a year to Lake Nakuru, long home to what was believed to be the bulk of the global population of lesser flamingos, one of two species, with greater flamingos, inhabiting Nakuru, in the Rift Valley 100 miles northwest of Nairobi. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20061116-0955-flamingofarewell.htmlUganda:3!) KAMPALA - A European Union-funded grants scheme has cut funding to a Ugandan sugar company because it plans to destroy 7,000 hectares of scarce natural forest to expand its sugar estate, the EU scheme said on Wednesday. President Yoweri Museveni ordered an assessment in August of the feasibility of giving away a quarter of the protected Mabira forest reserve to the Sugar Corporation of Uganda (Scoul) for clearing to widen its neighbouring sugar plantation. The plan has proved hugely controversial, critics saying the deal threatens hundreds of unique species confined to dwindling patches of rainforest and may affect the rainfall in a region already suffering from drought linked to climate change. Privately owned Scoul, one of Uganda's biggest sugar companies, has been receiving funding from the EU-funded Sawlog grant scheme, which promotes the planting of pine trees to relieve pressure on natural forests. Scoul uses parts of its estate that are too hilly or stony for sugar cane to grow pine trees. This was subsidised by the EU, but the programme has now refused to renew a grant because of Scoul's plans to clear a swathe of Mabira. " We're saying there's no contract at all. We don't want to be linked with deforestation, " Paul Jacovelli, Sawlog's chief technician, told Reuters. " The EU certainly doesn't fund clearing natural forest for plantations. " Jacovelli said Scoul had potentially lost up to 300 million Uganda shillings ($165,000) in grant money. Scoul officials were not immediately available for comment. " The EU have put a lot of money into the conservation of that forest in the last 15 years. They are undoubtedly disappointed that that might be wasted money, " Jacovelli said. http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=L15694226 & WTmodLoc=World-R5-Alertnet-2 Ethiopia:32) The skeletal acacia trees that surround Magado village are testimony in more ways than one to the drought that has destroyed the lives of its inhabitants. The bare branches and parched earth are evidence of the six months of rainless heat that has wiped out up to 70 per cent of the livestock owned by the 11 million nomadic pastoralists spread across the Horn of Africa in the worst drought for a decade. But in Magado, a tiny isolated community of herdsmen deep in the arid bush of southern Ethiopia, the acacia trees have helped extract a terrible price for the drought and the failure of the outside world to react quickly to their plight.Humanitarian aid to Africa has grown almost six-fold in the past eight years from $946m (¢G556m) to $5.6bn (¢G3.3bn). Magado's share of this windfall came too late. One day, three months ago, Worish Catalo, a 60-year-old herdsman from the village, walked out to one of the acacia trees under which he had regularly watched his herd of 80 cows from dawn to dusk. He slung a rope over the tree's thorny branches and hanged himself among what were by then the wasted corpses of his starved cattle. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article1919465.eceUruguay:33) This Thursday, November 16th, local organizers will join Argentinean-Uruguayan civil society groups at Murrow Park to protest their opposition to a World Bank project that threatens to destroy the pristine beaches of the Uruguay River. The beaches, located on the Argentine side of the border, are home to a thriving tourist industry. The World Bank's private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) is financing two paper mills on the Uruguay side of the river. Botnia, a Finnish company, is behind the investment and claims to be developing a state of the art mill industry. Locals, however, consider these mills incompatible with the existing tourist industry. " This project is moving forward in violation of the IFC's own Environmental and Safeguard Policies, " said Oscar Bargas of the Citizen's Environmental Assembly of Gualeguaychu, in Argentina which has mobilized tens of thousands of local residents against the mills. " First the companies failed to do cumulative impact studies, and ignored site studies because they have already purchased the lands long ago. The IFC was complicit with these violations and continue to ignore the concerns of thousands of local stakeholders who fervently oppose the mill construction at the present site. " " An international conflict has ensued because of these negligent and irresponsible actions by IFC and the companies, " said Medina Cocaro of Movitdes, a local environmental movement in Uruguay. http://www.globaljusticeecology.orgBrazil:34) RIO DE JANEIRO -- Environmental experts are sharply criticizing Brazil's government for failing to assess the impact of two dams proposed for construction in the Amazon rain forest, as regulators on Tuesday announced new public hearings on the projects. The dams are part of a four-dam cascade to generate electricity and permit barges to navigate 2,600 miles (4,200 kilometers) to the Amazon's upstream tributaries in Peru and Bolivia. The dams would flood hundreds of square miles, and experts worry about the destruction of wildlife and rain forest, as well as problems from mining pollutants and human parasites. Glenn Switkes, Latin America Program Director of the International Rivers Network, said the environmental impact assessment was inadequate for the construction of the Santo Antonio and Jirau Dams on the Madeira River, a major tributary of the Amazon River. " The experts' review demonstrates that a poorly conceived project with the potential of devastating one of the Amazon's most biologically diverse regions is being railroaded through by the Brazilian government, " Switkes said in an e-mail. Brazil's environmental protection agency is holding public hearings in Rondonia, the Amazon state affected by the project, and will then make a decision on whether to approve construction of the dams. The agency announced Tuesday it would resume public hearings to determine whether the project is viable socially and environmentally. http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/11/14/brazil.amazon.ap/Thailand:35) Surat Thani - The Forestry Department will propose that an operational base be set up in Tha Chana forest reserve to crack down on illegal logging. Sunthorn Watcharakuldilok, head of the department's prevention and suppression section, said the agency would soon submit its proposal to Natural Resources and Environment Minister Kasem Sanitwong. There are 72 plots of forest land in the reserve covering 300,000 rai. Of this, some 50% have been encroached on, according to the minister. Local influential figures, working in collusion with corrupt forestry officials, have turned the encroached land into plantations in bids to obtain Sor Por Kor 4-01 land ownership documents under a land reform scheme, Mr Sunthorn said. Once an operational base is set up in the forest reserve, officials could then be mobilised from relevant agencies to crack down on forest encroachers, he said. Plots with Sor Por Kor 4-01 documents that are found to be encroached forest land will be seized back, and legal action taken against the landholders, he added. So far, five people have already been arrested and charged with illegal logging in the forest reserve, including Pongsak Suwan, an assistant village head in Tha Chana district. Surat Thani governor Niwat Sawatkaew said warrants were expected to be issued soon for the arrest of other suspects. The Forestry Department has recently transferred two of its officials based in the area following the arrest of the five illegal logging suspects. http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/17Nov2006_news14.phpIndonesia:36) About 70 to 80 percent of logging in Indonesia is done illegally on public lands, the World Bank said in a recent report. Inadequate law enforcement and the ruthless methods of the loggers are part of the problem. " There have been numerous cases where forest police, park rangers and and members of NGOs have have been injured or killed for attempting to suppress illegal timber theft, " the World Bank report said. The island of Borneo, which is shared by Indonesia and Malaysia, is home to more than three-quarters of the world's remaining 50,000 to 60,000 orangutans, which once numbered in the hundreds of thousands across Southeast Asia, according to Orangutan Foundation International. An estimated 7,000 to 7,500 orangutans living on the Indonesian island of Sumatra have been identified as critically endangered by the World Conservation Union. Illegal logging, mining and forest fires have been rapidly destroying orangutan habitat. http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=N17381497 & WTmodLoc=World-R5-Alertnet-3 World-wide:37) To neutralize the destruction caused by human beings on forests and other wooded areas of the planet, it is estimated that 1.3 million square kilometers must be reforested ¡V equivalent to the size of Peru ¡V and covered with 140 billion trees over a period of 10 consecutive years; that is, 140 billion trees annually must be planted. Trees are powerful natural filters that capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the element responsible for the global warming underway, bringing the planet closer to an environmental catastrophe. Global warming is directly threatening agriculture and food production, as well as fish reproduction in the sea. For that reason, warned an FAO representative at the conference, climate change could reduce the planet's ability to feed its population, and famines could break out in diverse regions. Africa, despite being the least responsible for environmental pollution and global warming, is the continent that could suffer the most as a result of the negative effects of these phenomena. http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2006/noviembre/mar14/47arboles.html38) The Gaia Foundation, Global Forest Coalition, Global Justice Ecology Project, Large Scale Biofuels Action Group, the STOP GE Trees Campaign and World Rainforest Movement held a press conference today during the 12th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The event addressed the socially and environmentally devastating impacts of large-scale biofuel production, genetically engineered trees and crops, and carbon sink plantations, and explained why these schemes will not solve climate change. The promotion of large-scale biofuel production as an alternative to fossil fuels, and of tree plantations to store carbon is becoming very popular at this year's UNFCCC. Genetically engineered (GE) [also called transgenic or genetically modified] crops and trees have also been promoted as a way to implement these co-called " solutions " to climate change. " Not only will large-scale use of biofuels and genetic engineering technology not help to alleviate climate change, they may in fact exacerbate the problems of global warming while also causing environmental degradation, social inequality and poverty, particularly in developing countries, " stated Teresa Anderson of the London-based Gaia Foundation. Using important agricultural land and water to grow biofuels instead of food for domestic consumption will have a detrimental effect on food security, especially in poor countries. In 2006, an increase in the use of grain worldwide for conversion to biofuels led to a 60% increase in global grain prices. " Soya plantations in Latin America and palm oil plantations in Indonesia, being developed for biofuels, are driving deforestation and pushing hundreds of thousands of farmers and indigenous peoples off of their lands, " stated Miguel Lovera of Global Forest Coalition. " Once again the developing countries of the South are being asked to pay the price for the unsustainable lifestyle of the North. " http://www.globaljusticeecology.org Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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