Guest guest Posted November 29, 2006 Report Share Posted November 29, 2006 152 - Earth's Tree News Today for you 38 news items about Mama Earth's trees. Location, number and subject listed below. Condensed / abbreviated article is listed further below.The newsletter comes out 2-3 times per week and can be viewed below, or on the web at http://www.livejournal.com/users/olyecology or by email if you by sending a blank email message to earthtreenews---British Columbia: 1) Big Timber sues for log export rights, 2) Neighborhood forestry, --Washington: 3) Audubon Society lawsuit for Spotted Owl get industry interveners, --Oregon: 4) Victoria's Secret protest, 5) Save Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument ,--California: 6) 62-mile-stretch of Lower Owens to get water again, 7) Sacramento River restoration is successful, 8) Timber harvest increases fire severity more than any other human activity, 9) New Invasive weed in the redwoods, 10) Green Diamond's HCP, --Michigan: 11) DNR's logging plans for the year--Georgia:12) State's forest industry data--Arkansas:13) OHV restriction in Ozark NF--New Hampshire: 14) State and towns should stop devastating lumber operations --Appalachia: 15) Appalachian Trail Mega-Transect--Florida: 16) Fort Myers-based Forestry Resources uses invasive Melaleuca for wood--USA: 17) Rod Coronado on what Earth First! Means to him, 18) 2 studies: Healthy Forests Initiative is a misnomer, 19) National Park Service gets into bioprospecting, --Canada: 20) Fined $5,000 for illegally cutting white pine trees--Kenya: 21) Squatters, loggers, grazers, 22) Fence solves wildlife-human conflicts,--Africa: 23) Timberwatch - a coalition concerned with the future of indigenous forests --Uganda: 24) Forest destruction campaigners at it again, 25) More palm oil planting,--Central African Republic: 26) Way of life for Bayaka Pygmies is threatened--Malawi: 27) Forests on the verge of extinction due to charcoal trade --Nicaragua: 28) Indigenous Miskitos threatened by logging ban--Brazil: 29) Researching how fires burn the rainforest, 30) IP sells paper division to Nippon paper of Japan, 31) Forest fragmentation research, 32) Soybean frontier,--India: 33) Seeking directions to stop resin tapping from pine trees--Vietnam: 34) National Assembly discusses long term reforestation progress--Indonesia: 35) Logging and corrupt politicians, 36) Aceh drive against illegal logging, --New Zealand: 37) Removing old pines will save money in the long run?--Australia: 38) Twenty protesters removed from the ground, 5 still in the treesBritish Columbia: 1) TimberWest, our biggest forest landowner, has taken the federal government to court, claiming that its restrictions on log exports are illegal. An American company with timber holdings on Vancouver Island has launched an action under NAFTA on grounds that the restrictions are discriminatory. The B.C. government has set up a panel of two experts to hold hearings and make recommendations on its log export controls. And Ken Dobell, recently assigned to find a fix for the languishing coastal forest industry, will have to decide whether our governments' barriers to export marketing of certain products is a help or a hindrance. The federal government applies export restrictions apparently because the provincial government wants it to. And it does so only in British Columbia, which explains the protests of forest owners here against Ottawa's unfair and discriminatory trade policy. The two governments declare, in their protocol on this subject, that their purpose is to ensure an adequate supply of logs for local sawmills. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/index.html2) Cutting down "essentially half a forest" has Willoughby neighours of a 35-acre subdivision concerned about potential future liability for windfall trees. About a dozen residents expressed concerns about the residential development by East Gordon Developments Ltd., at a public hearing before Langley Township council Monday. Some are concerned that tall trees on their own acreages to the east will be weakened by the removal of the trees on the developers' land. The proponent plans to build 70 townhouse units, 106 single-family lots, 95 row-house lots and 28 manor-house units, on 14.25 hectares (35.2 acres) in the Northeast Gordon Neighbourhood. The proposal is the first development application in the new neighbourhood plan. The proposed lots are bounded on the west by 208 Street, and on the north by 72 Avenue. The property's southern boundary is just north of 68 Avenue and the site extends on a small portion as far east as 210 Street. Chris Schneider is the co-owner of land at 7025 and 7063 210 Street, abutting the developer's east property line. He said he is not opposed to the development. "But there are some implications to us that I would like council to consider," Schneider said. His property has very tall cottonwood trees growing adjacent the property line of East Gordon Developments Ltd. http://www.langleytimes.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=47 & cat=23 & id=778230 & more= Washington:3) Pacific County and two forest product associations have asked a federal judge to let them help defend the state and Weyerhaeuser against a lawsuit filed by two chapters of the Audubon Society over the spotted owl. The suit, filed Nov. 7 in federal court, asks U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman to bar logging on all private timberlands west of the Cascades. They say the state's population of northern spotted owls has been reduced by half since the 1990s, when its plight prompted an 80 percent reduction in logging on national forest lands.The Seattle and Kittitas chapters' suit charges that the Weyerhaeuser Co. and the state Department of Natural Resources have caused the spotted owl population to dwindle by not setting aside enough forestland for it in Southwest Washington. Pacific County filed the joint motion to intervene along with the Washington Forest Protection Association and the American Forest & Paper Association on Nov. 22. "If they're successful in this suit, the precedent that the suit might set would undermine all forms of permitting in Southwest Washington, including county permitting," Doumit told The Daily World on Friday. The suit calls into question 50,000 acres of forestland in Grays Harbor and Pacific counties near Elma, Satsop, Lebam and Raymond where the state has allegedly allowed Weyerhaeuser to extensively log within 70 acres of spotted owl nesting areas. The chapters have asked that logging immediately cease on the land. http://www.thedailyworld.com/articles/2006/11/26/local_news/03news.txtOregon:4) On Friday, November 24, the busiest shopping day of the year (also called "Buy Nothing Day"), over a dozen members of Cascadia Forest Defenders and the UO's Forest Action held a protest rally at the Victoria's Secret store in the Valley River Center in Eugene, to call attention to Victoria's Secret's practice of mailing out over 1 million catalogs a day, amounting to 300 trees cut daily from the world's endangered forests, such as the Boreal forest of Canada and Siberia. Some of the protesters were scantily clad in lingerie, some held recycled cardboard chainsaws and cut-out trees, while others held signs saying "How many trees died for your panties?A million catalogs a day cut from old growth forestsYou don't have to cut trees to sell your panties" and "Victoria's Dirty Secret: 300 trees a day sent to landfill for catalogs. A dozen private security officers and one Eugene police officer were waiting at the Victoria's Secret store at noon to stop the legal protest before it happened. One of the protesters was briefly detained by police who required him to show his ID, threatening him with arrest for criminal trespass. Upon leaving, this individual was notified that he is banned from the Valley River Center for 3 years. At least 3 other individuals not associated with the forest groups were questioned by security and police, threatened with arrest for criminal trespass and eventually removed from the Valley River Center. Reporter Josh Schlossberg from the Forest Voice newspaper, a publication of the Native Forest Council, who was present during the rally, was told by security to stop videotaping and was prevented from taking photographs, upon threat of removal from the mall. When Schlossberg asked security if this ban on taking photographs applied to every customer in the mall, security assured him it did. When Schlossberg noticed a customer taking a photograph with their cell phone, he notified security, who then promptly demanded Schlossberg leave the Valley River Center, without speaking to the other customer. --Cascadia Forest Defenders, UO's Forest Action and Forest Ethics http://www.victoriasdirtysecret.net5) MEDFORD -- Federal officials are seeking to calm worries that a 3,500-foot-wide " energy corridor " will be cut through the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, created six years ago to protect native species on its 53,000 acres. Mandated by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, establishing energy corridors on federal land across the West is part of a national push by the federal government to meet growing demands for electricity, oil and gas. Pipelines and other means of energy transmission could be built in the corridors. " This appears to be a quick and dirty approval for thousands of square miles of clear-cuts and a potential taking of private property, " said Dave Willis, a longtime Lincoln resident who fought for decades to create the monument. " And all happening at lightning speed under the radar. " Willis said the monument is an example of why the proposed energy corridors need more public scrutiny. Nada Culver agreed. A senior attorney for the Wilderness Society, she has been tracking the proposed wilderness corridor projects. " This situation with the monument is a microcosm of the issue we're facing across the nation, " Culver said. " People should be concerned that this process is going forward at a rate that for the federal government is extremely quick. " She also said that " once a place is designated as an energy corridor under this process, then we have the opportunity for all types of development in it. " Draft plans for proposed energy corridors are expected to be completed early next year. The public will then have an opportunity to comment on the selections. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1164435944207150.xml & coll=7 California:6) Scattered clumps of cottonwoods clinging to shoulders of land are all that remain of once robust stream-side forests. To enrich the habitat, the DWP plans to match hydraulics with climate and vegetation cycles to create a permanent annual base flow of 40 cubic feet per second that will surge when trees are pumping out seeds. With a goal of helping more water push through habitat areas, the DWP has already replaced or repaired small spill gates, reshaped old ditches that feed water to wetlands and removed obstructions, including beaver dams. If all goes according to plan, within five years the river will be an oasis for wild things, featuring a rich warm-water habitat for fish, crawfish and frogs, edged by galleries of cottonwood, willow and birch trees up to 25 feet tall, according to DWP stream ecologist Brian Tillemans. Nearly a century after Los Angeles' water demands reduced it to a parched wisp of a river, a 62-mile-stretch of the Lower Owens is about to make a comeback in one of the most ambitious river restoration efforts ever attempted. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, fulfilling a long-delayed commitment, plans to put water back into the river on Dec. 6 in hopes of transforming its puddles and ponds into a biological superhighway of trees, fish, waterfowl, songbirds, elk and deer. With the push of a button, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is to open the clamshell-shaped jaws of a specially constructed automated steel gate about 235 miles north of the city, replenishing the river with its first appreciable flows of water since 1913. The redirected water will surge 62 miles south to new storage ponds at the north end of dry Owens Lake. There, four newly installed 600-horsepower pumps will lift it and send it into the aqueduct and on its way to Southern California. The river project will not restore the lake. Because water is being returned to the aqueduct, the project is not expected to affect Los Angeles' water supply nor add additional costs to consumers. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-owens27nov27,0,4796806.story?coll=la-home-headlines 7) Over the past decade, 11 of 20 surveyed species have increased in number along the river, said Tom Gardali, a senior conservation scientist with PRBO. Populations of eight species have remained stable, and only one -- the lazuli bunting -- has shown a decline. Some of the most beautiful and charismatic species have made the most dramatic rebounds. Black-headed grosbeaks are up almost 16 percent, spotted towhees have jumped more than 26 percent and American goldfinches have climbed almost 12 percent. There is a clear cause-and-effect going on, Gardali said. Over the past 15 years, an informal confederation of government agencies and private environmental groups has restored about 4,000 acres of former farmland to the riverside thickets and woodlands -- " riparian forests, " as biologists call them -- that songbirds dote on. " What surprised us was the rapid response of bird populations to the increased habitat, " Gardali said. Riparian forests once covered 800,000 acres of land along the Sacramento River. Only about 2 percent remained by 1990. " There were points between Colusa and Red Bluff where the forest was 5 miles across, " said Joe Silveira, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. " It was like the Amazon, an incredibly rich place teeming with wildlife. " But farmers and ranchers considered the forest a hindrance, and it fell rapidly to their saws and axes, replaced with almond orchards, alfalfa pastures and rice fields. And as the woods disappeared, so did the array of wildlife that depended on them. Now, the growing numbers of the Sacramento River's songbirds prove that habitat restoration is the key to recovering beleaguered wildlife populations, said Greg Golet, an ecologist with the Nature Conservancy. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/11/27/MNGVLMKIAK1.DTL8) I have 10 years of Sierra firefighting experience, 20 years of fuel reduction implementation experience, and currently serve on the Butte County Fire Safe Council. I am skeptical of timber harvest projects that masquerade as fuel reduction. Forest Service projects that include hundreds of 1-2 acre clear-cut units and fuel-breaks that target fire-resilient overstory trees can leave behind flammable slash while eliminating shade. Opening the overstory stimulates rapid growth of underbrush and grass resulting in fires which can burn hotter and move faster. When anti-environmental logging activists cite firefighter fatalities resulting from wind-driven brush fires as an excuse for timber harvest " fuel reduction " the issues are obscured by an emotional smokescreen. The Esperanza fire was fueled by chaparral; dense shrub wood that grows in steep, semiarid southern California terrain. The fire spread rapidly due to strong Santa Ana winds and highly flammable brush. Restoring fire resilient forests and firesafe communities requires the reduction of combustible understory vegetation, not the removal of larger overstory trees as proposed by Quincy Library Group " test " projects on public land. I support projects that target small diameter hazardous fuel located near communities. Land managers need to learn the use of prescribed burning to restore natural forest and shrubland processes. Timber harvest, through its effects on forest structure, local microclimate, and fuel accumulation, has increased fire severity more than any other recent human activity. Jim Brobeck, Chicohttp://www.chicoer.com/letters/ci_47236849) WOODSIDE — In the beginning, no one thought the tall stalks of grass sprouting in the shade of Woodside's redwood groves were anything out of the ordinary. No agency in California had ever seen this type of grass in January 2004, when the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District first noticed thick patches growing on the Thornewood Open Space Preserve. But when tests identified it as slender false brome, district officials knew they had a problem on their hands. The U.S. has only one other known instance of slender false brome, an aggressive invasive weed known to suppress the growth of native plant species. The perennial weed quickly colonized 10,000 acres in Oregon a few years ago and took a major toll on the Fenders blue butterfly, which depends on a threatened prairie habitat. The incidence of slender false brome in Woodside is more contained — so far it has only been found at the Thornewood Preserve and the backyards of several nearby homes along Old La Honda Road and Grandview Drive. But it can spread quickly and takes several years to eradicate, Roessler said. It was on that basis that the district allocated $1.2 million to fight the weed over the next five to 10 years, and recently added another $86,000 to hire a contractor to evaluate and implement pest control recommendations. The weed is removed by pulling up its roots and applying several rounds of glyphosate, a common pesticide. A few weeks ago, at the district's urging, the California Department of Food and Agriculture elevated slender false brome to a major threat to its forest ecosystems, but the problem can be contained, Roessler said. Other, equally threatening invasive weeds such as French broom and yellow starthistle are " C " rated, because they are too widespread to eradicate, she said. Failing to address the problem in time could mean the end of the sensitive redwood ecosystem in that corner of Woodside. Roessler said the weed already demonstrated that it could grow anywhere. http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/localnews/ci_472049010) On Friday, a sweeping plan to manage timber and fish and amphibians on the largest private property in the region was published in the Federal Register. The product of a decade of research and negotiations with federal agencies, the Green Diamond Resource Co.'s new habitat conservation plan looks to radically modify its road system, and change the way it cuts timber on 416,000 acres. Four species of protected -- or potentially protected -- fish, and two amphibians are at the heart of the plan. The company will be covered against incidentally harming them in exchange for putting measures in place to conserve their populations. Toward that end, Green Diamond will improve its most-used roads, but also remove roads it no longer uses. It will also temporarily take out roads that it doesn't intend to use for years. The company's extensive logging roads are its largest contributor of fine sediment to streams and can be a major detriment to the aquatic creatures the plan aims to safeguard. While most stream protection measures, logging methods and road work has previously been done as part of individual harvest plans, the new plan looks to take on a more holistic approach. It divides the property into planning areas from 8,000 to 88,000 acres in size, considering large parts of watersheds over the 50-year life of the plan. The plan also contains strict monitoring requirements, to make sure the measures are working as they're intended. "It's an up-front investment just like planting a tree," said Green Diamond Vice President Neal Ewald. Like many landowners, Green Diamond has roads built 40 to 60 years ago that were abandoned, Klamt said, "and they're a mess." The company's plans to deal with the problems created by those roads, and to retire many new roads right after logging, should be a major benefit, he said. http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_4725043Michigan:12) TRAVERSE CITY — Nearly 8,500 acres of area state land is proposed for logging operations in 2008, including clear cuts on more than 2,800 acres. Officials with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources surveyed 32,745 acres of state forest land in Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska and Manistee counties. The majority of proposed timber cuts are in Kalkaska County, with nearly 5,000 acres to be logged. There are no proposed timber plans in Leelanau County for 2008. David Lemmien, manager of the DNR's Traverse City unit, said all logging proposals are based on how various species of trees regenerate and include plans to maintain open spaces and various processes for replanting. Many of the proposed cuts involve stands of aspen, red and white pines. The largest planned clear cut, nearly 147 acres of mixed northern hardwoods, is about one mile east of the Betsie River in southern Benzie County. Benzie County has 1,019 acres proposed for timber work, including 512 of clear cuts. Grand Traverse has 1,510 acres proposed for cuts, of which 446 would be cleared. Manistee County has 911 acres planned for logging, of which 418 would be clear cut. Kalkaska County's nearly 5,000 acres of state land proposed for timber work has nearly three times the amount of proposed clear cuts as the other counties. There would be 1,447 acres left without trees, if plans are approved. Several sites in Manistee and Kalkaska counties with proposed cuts are near snowmobile trails. Lemmien said state officials don't often get complaints about logging work near motorized recreational trails. Much more criticism arises when planned cuts are near walking or cross-country skiing trails, he said. Areas within the state's 2008 logging plans for the Traverse City unit include: Almira, Colfax and Weldon townships in Benzie County; East Bay and Fife Lake townships in Grand Traverse County; Springdale Township in Manistee County; and Bear Lake, Blue Lake, Cold Springs, Excelsior, Garfield, Kalkaska, Rapid River and Springfield townships in Kalkaska County. The public can comment on the DNR's proposed logging plans during two open house sessions on Nov. 28 in Traverse City and on Nov. 29 in Kalkaska. http://www.record-eagle.com/2006/nov/26log.htmGeorgia:The state's forest industry, a sizeable chunk of which can be found in Middle Georgia, had a $16.1 billion economic impact last year. That's 14 percent higher than in 2004, according to a Georgia Tech report released this month. The industry's nearly 67,700 jobs keep it among the top in the state. " It's a big part of the economy around these parts, " said Scott Thackston, a forester with the Georgia Forestry Commission who works in six Middle Georgia counties. " There's a lot of wood and forest in this area. " The tree business touches private forest owners, land managers, timber companies, forestry consultants, loggers, timber buyers, paper producers, furniture makers, home builders - nearly anyone whose livelihood can be traced back to the available supply of woody raw materials. The industry's total impact last year, including indirect economic effects on local communities, was $26 billion. Among all of Georgia's manufacturing industries, forestry ranks second behind food processing, based on compensation to employees and proprietors. And based on the total number of jobs, it ranks third, behind textiles and food processing, the report said. Although the industry appears to be on sound footing, it also is in a period of transition, Thackston said. Many of the major timber companies are merging or selling off their land to smaller investment groups, he said. http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/16085952.htmArkansas:13) The time when off-road enthusiasts had free reign on the some 4,000 road miles of the Big Piney Ranger District in the Ozark National Forest is soon coming to an end. New policy guidelines have limited ATV recreational areas to about 370 miles of designated trails, effective Jan. 1. This week, a group of about 30 agitated Pope County residents who live on or use the land for recreational purposes gathered at Mack's Pines RV Park on Highway 7 north of Dover to discuss the future of the district, formerly the Bayou and Buffalo ranger districts. Even though the formal public comment period concerning the National Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) Policy ended in September, District Ranger Lew Purcell came to the informal gathering in an attempt to ease the minds of the ones who found out too late. " To be honest with you, I don't think I'm going to satisfy anybody, " Purcell said at the start of the meeting. " But to clear things up, the Forest Service is not closing all of the trails. I'm not sure how many of you heard that, but that is false. " He explained a decision was made on the national level, however, that unmanaged recreation was negatively impacting the forest's natural resources. http://www.couriernews.com/story.php?ID=13153New Hampshire:14) The state and towns should stop devastating lumber operations such as those that were conducted in Webster on property formerly owned by Stanley Olson (original owner, George Little). What lumber was not cut for logs and chips was trampled down. As I see it, there can be no lumber again there for more than 100 years (not so renewable). When I was 12 or 16 years old, my father told me there had once been a state forestry law that stated operations must have two seed trees per acre. It seems to me that it will be next to impossible for hunters to cross over this cutting due to brush and pushed-over young, 4-to-6-inch hardwood trees. This amounts to clear-cutting. Perhaps people from the Division of Forests and Lands can find someone to fly them over this Little Hill property. I suggest that greed is one reason for this deplorable action. Fish and Game should check its northern access to Knights Meadow Marsh, which was Doublin Lane, for brush, etc., off of Little Hill Road. http://www.cmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061127/REPOSITORY/611270338/1029/OPINION03 Appalachia:15) The idea for the Appalachian Trail Mega-Transect is in its infancy but it already has support from the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service, Cornell University, National Geographic Society and the earth-conscious beauty products company, Aveda Corp. It stretches nearly 2,200 miles, a ribbon of mountains and meadows, forests and fauna. But scientists, hikers and land managers say the Appalachian Trail is more than a footpath. Passing through 14 states and eight national forests from Georgia to Maine, it's also a living laboratory that could help warn 120 million people along the Eastern Seaboard of looming environmental problems. That's why a diverse group of organizations has launched a project to begin long-term monitoring of the environmental health of the trail, with plans to tap into an army of volunteer " citizen scientists " and their professional counterparts. Together, they will collect information about plants and animals, air and water quality, visibility and migration patterns to build an early warning system for the non-hiking public. " It's somewhat like the canary in the coal mine in the sense of using it as a barometer for environmental and human health conditions, " says Gregory Miller, president of the Maryland-based American Hiking Society. http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/state/16084217.htmFlorida: 16) Almost 25 years ago, Fort Myers-based Forestry Resources was founded on the idea of taking stands of non-native, invasive melaleuca, and grinding it into harmless — even helpful — landscape mulch. The company since has diversified beyond melaleuca to process and package nearly 30 products, including a variety of wood mulches, barks, soil and stone. Mulch-making, however, is still the main event. During its peak season that typically runs from early fall through late spring, Forestry Resources will pack up to 50,000 bags per day at its 25-acre facility off Michigan Link and State Road 82. This time of year, some trunk-grinding or mulch-packaging is going on 24 hours a day, six days a week. About 65 people are on its payroll. Demand for mulch never has been higher, according to the Mulch & Soil Council national trade group. However, setbacks in weather or key industries keep Florida mulch-makers on their toes. Hurricane Charley in 2004 " brought us a lot of wood, but played havoc with our season, " said Douglas Stewart, Forestry Resources president & COO. The typical patterns of land development and landscaping were disrupted for several weeks after the storm. The company doesn't mess with backyard tree-grinding. It gets its raw materials from others who clear land for major real estate developments or who do environmental restoration and mitigation projects. These days, pine is the major raw ingredient for Forestry Resources mulch. Generally, it's dyed into orange, red or gold hues. Melaleuca mulch, however, stays its natural color of a medium to dark brown. The company gradually is migrating to equipment that grinds and dyes wood in one fluid process. Until it's bagged, the mulch is stored in hills about 35 feet high, giving the east Fort Myers property a look reminiscent of the desert Southwest. http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061126/BUSINESS/611260398/1075 USA: 17) Rod Coronado says: It's hard to judge the radical environmental movement by the last 25 years, but if I had to, I'd say that I'm very disappointed. Twenty years ago, when I discovered the Earth First! movement, I thought that the generation of Earth warriors I shared this country with had a fighting chance. People from all walks of life in the center of the First World were coming together and strengthening an already strong love and affinity for the natural world, shaking off their consumerist upbringing and realizing their wild dreams with creative direct action that marked an allegiance with the Earth instead of the society responsible for her destruction. Monkeywrenching was the ultimate demonstration of our love for Mother Earth, and none among us questioned its historical or practical necessity, let alone its legitimacy. A fellow Arizonan, Dave Foreman, was our firebrand spokesperson, bringing listeners to tears with his stories of seeing the dying green fire in a wolf's eyes, telling us how the chainsaws also tore his flesh when they tore through an ancient redwood, before hoisting the sacramental monkeywrench to the sky and howling like a wild wolf himself. What else were we supposed to do once that fire was lit inside our hearts, but defend the wildness we loved by any and all means? Dave and the gang erected a monument in New Mexico to Victorio, a Mimbres Apache who drove out or killed invading miners in the late 1800s. After years of watching his people die on the dreaded reservations, Victorio had enough of being pushed around by the system. By identifying with the Apache wars of the American Southwest, EF! held up as an example a people whose worldview centered, like most indigenous peoples, on living in harmony with their environment and who, when attacked, fought ferociously to defend their way of life. That is what the Earth needed from the US environmental movement, then and now. That's what I thought was beginning 20 years ago when I first heard Dave Foreman speak, and I knew there was no greater responsibility than the time-honored tradition of fighting against one's Invaders and oppressors. http://justanotherblowback.blogspot.com/2006/11/howling-like-wild-wolf.html18) Findings of two recent studies by the U.S. Forest Service fit with a growing body of scientific evidence that the Bush administration's Healthy Forests Initiative is a misnomer. The administration contends that thinning and logging national forests (and selling off the timber) makes for good forestry and reduces fire danger. But according to recently published studies of two large 2002 wildfires, unless that thinning is followed by controlled burns to eliminate debris, forests are left more susceptible to subsequent wildfires. The resulting wildfires burn faster, hotter and with more destruction. According to a study of the 138,000-acre Hayman fire in Colorado, 50 percent of the trees in a natural, unthinned forest were destroyed; in thinned forest, the toll was 90 percent. A study of the 500,000-acre Biscuit fire in Oregon reported tolls of 80 to 100 percent among trees in thinned forest. In forest that had been previously thinned and where the slash was burned, 5 percent of the remaining trees died. The name notwithstanding, the Healthy Forests Initiative was poorly conceived. It has also been poorly implemented; a report in March by the Agriculture Department's own inspector general concluded the program lacked a consistent process for analyzing which forests are at greater risk for wildfires and failed to set priorities for projects. http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-logging.artnov24,0,384452.story?coll=hc-headlines -editorials19) The National Park Service (NPS) is quietly taking public comment through December 15 on a proposal to allow private companies to " bioprospect " in our national parks: to commercially mine, not the mineral riches of a park, but the genetic resources of plants, animals, and microorganisms in territories specifically set aside for stewardship in the public trust. The proposal is contained in a September 15, 2006 court-ordered Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), an outgrowth of a lawsuit over a similar 1997 proposal at Yellowstone National Park during the Clinton administration. Steady privatization has been underway at the Park Service for more than 20 years, but the requirement that the NPS actually study the effects of bioprospecting seemed to shelve this particular bad idea. And then, magically, seven years later, the EIS appears, laying out three options that would cover not just Yellowstone but all parks. The document, subtly entitled " Benefits-Sharing, " reads less like an environmental study and more like a sales pitch for its preferred choice, " option B, " to allow commercial bioprospecting but require " benefits-sharing " agreements and potentially some degree of public disclosure of those agreements. (Or, potentially, not.) The other two choices the public is to comment on are option A, to do nothing -- thus allowing bioprospecting without so-called benefit-sharing; and option C, which is to only allow this genetic mining for " noncommercial or public interest research. " Not exploiting our parks' genetic treasures at all is not even listed as an option in the document. http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/3359Canada: 20) BLIND RIVER — An Iron Bridge man has been fined $5,000 for illegally cutting white pine trees on Crown land. Steven Errington, 44, pleaded guilty to harvesting Crown timber without a forest resources license. A large quantity of white pine planks and lumber were forfeited to the Crown. Court heard that for the past several years, Errington had been cutting mature, white pine trees on Crown land adjacent to his home and woodworking business. The white pine logs were used to build custom staircases and furniture. Justice of the Peace Paula Nichols heard the case in the Ontario Court of Justice, Blind River, on November 22, 2006. The Ministry of Natural Resources reminds the public that Ontario's forestry laws are intended to ensure the province's forest are healthy and managed sustainably. Anyone thinking about cutting down trees on Crown land should make sure they have the required permits before they begin. http://www.sootoday.com/content/news/full_story.asp?StoryNumber=21098Kenya:21) The squatters, who were kicked out of the forest last year, have trooped back and are destroying the forest through logging, illegal grazing and other destructive activities. A National Environment Management Authority officer in Narok, Mr Samuel Nga'ng'a, said unregulated building of lodges and camps in the Mara had greatly eroded its status as a tourist attraction. Nga'ng'a said his office would not process impact assessment reports of more tourist resorts until a management plan for the ecosystem was carried out. He said there was a need to control establishment of tourist facilities in the reserve to ease the congestion. If need be, he added, some of them would be pulled down. Ewaso Nyiro South Development Authority is currently working in conjunction with tourism stakeholders to formulate a 10-year strategic plan for the reserve at a cost of over Sh5 million. The authority's Managing Director, Mr Francis Nkako, said the plan, to be implemented next year, was part of a regional master plan. http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news_s.php?articleid=114396169522) Since its inception in 1988, Rhino Ark has worked in close collaboration with KWS in the construction of the fence. The building and maintenance team is a joint venture. The fence has proved itself 99 per cent successful in resolving wildlife/human conflict. But what of the fence's success in managing invasive and exploitative human activity inside this indigenous zone? Dramatic reductions in charcoal extraction, illegal logging, and bush-meat hunting can be flagged as successes. But the establishment of gate management policies in areas under Forest Department jurisdiction is what is needed now. It is of utmost importance that a gate access policy be put in place. The Forest Act 2005 is clear on the issue of what should happen in water catchment zones. Rhino Ark's fence makes it possible to regulate access and only for non-destructive uses. Leisure, cultural and essential services to water pipeline off-takes (now also under fiercer scrutiny and conditions) and for re-planting indigenous trees, do fit. Deadwood off-take is depriving indigenous forest of regeneration. Livestock access brings disease and destroys new forest growth. Grass extraction is exploitative, and like deadwood off-take, turns into a money-making exercise that is degenerative to flora and fauna. The Forest Act is clear that revenue generating activities should restrict themselves to non-indigenous zones and totally avoid water catchments. The 2000 sq km of area inside the Aberdare fence must now be treated as a conservation area. Rhino Ark is working closely with both KWS and the KFS (in formation) to create a gate management policy. http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=25 & newsid=86395 Africa:23) Wally Menne, chairman of Timberwatch - a coalition concerned with the future of indigenous forests - points to the fact that every alien tree is denying an indigenous tree its rightful place on our landscape. In his book there is no greater villain than the monoculture plantations marching to the horizon in many parts of South Africa. While he decries his great-great grandfather, Theodor Menne, who planted wattles and oaks in the Greytown area, he speaks with pride about Theodor's son (also Theodor) who planted indigenous trees on the family farm. " Some of them are still standing, " he said. He sees our forefathers' culture of planting of alien trees as a need to dominate, by imprinting a European culture on Africa. One way to do this was to bring in the trees they had grown up with, said Menne. Such colonial ideas were long-since dead and it was time for indigenous trees to claim their rightful place. Unfortunately plantations were still being touted as a solution to rural poverty " Huge plantations are not just damaging our ecosystem. They are also having a negative effect on the traditional economy of the people, " he said. Just one of the reasons he cited was that in many areas agricultural land was being converted to plantations. While government departments and companies such as Mondi and Sappi insist that only land which is not suitable for agricultural purposes is being given over to plantations, Menne does not agree. What's more the World Bank was also pushing for plantations. In Mozambique, he claimed, 7 million hectares was being mooted. " Our government has said 100 000ha is suitable for plantations in the Eastern Cape, " said Menne. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=14 & click_id=143 & art_id=vn20061126113031196C431800 Uganda:24) The forest destruction campaigners are ensuring that the remaining forest cover is decimated in the shortest possible time. At the rate they are operating, it is estimated that there will be no trees worth talking about left in just a decade from today. Uganda will then become a net importer of wood for all purposes, from furniture making to firewood for cooking. But from the way the new FDC is going about their mission, it may be sooner than a decade and their objective of denuding the land that Winston Churchill called the Pearl of Africa will have be accomplished. However, there are some things to thank the new FDC for. Since Independence, we have not seen public servants resigning on a matter of principle. But since the new FDC swung into action, several public servants charged with protecting the forest reserves have resigned rather than cave in to FDC's demands and surrender the reserves for destruction. But maybe the National Forestry Authority officials and staff who are resigning are not doing it on principle but out of fear for their lives. For many NFA rangers have already been assaulted, by forest encroachers incited by New FDC activists, and a couple have died as a result. The most dangerous job in the country now is that of being a forest ranger. In many "protected" forest reserves, once you are spotted trying to assess the situation, you are at high risk of being descended upon by the illegal encroachers, who will beat you to death if you do not flee fast enough. Of course the forest destruction crew are highly motivated because there is a lot of money to be made from their activities. Whether they want to settle in the forest reserves or to carry out some commercial activity there, they first harvest the trees that they never planted and sell the wood for millions if not billions of shillings in the lucrative timber market. http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/Opinion/opinion2711061.htm 25) Gerald Tenywa reports that Olav Bjella, the NFA chief, said pressure was mounting from politicians to give permits to investors like BIDCO who want to change the land use of three forest reserves on Bugala Island in Kalangala into palm oil plantations. He said the Sugar Corporation of Uganda Limited wants to take over part of Mabira forest reserve in Mukono. However, some politicians and investors want to exclude Parliament, which Bjella said was illegal because of its inconsistency with environmental laws and the Constitution. Bjella said Cabinet was advancing the idea of giving a permit to BIDCO so that they could easily get the land by avoiding Parliament, which is widely opposed to the destruction of forest reserves. "Cabinet has pronounced itself several times on this matter, but there is no way the current management is going to grant a permit,'' said Bjella. "If they want to change the land use of the protected areas they should go through the formal Government procedure, which is through Parliament,'' he said. http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/534462Central African Republic:26) Rampant logging and the illegal trade in rainforest animals is slowly eroding the traditional lifestyle of the Bayaka Pygmies in the Central African Republic -- as well as the rainforest itself, according to researchers. The Bayaka are a seminomadic people who traditionally survive by hunting and gathering the animals and plants of the rainforest. Among their more revered traditions are the net hunt and its associated musical ceremony. The net hunt traditionally secured enough meat to feed an entire camp, but decades of logging and a subsequent increase in illegal hunting for the bush-meat trade is emptying the forest of its resources, according to Richard Carroll, the director of World Wildlife Fund's Africa program. Among the Bayaka, alcoholism and disease tend to follow this shift. " This is all related to changes in the forest brought on by logging, " Carroll says. In an attempt to reverse the trend of increased logging and bush-meat trade in the Central African Republic and its impacts on the Bayaka, Carroll and the World Wildlife Fund helped in 1986 to establish the Dzanga-Sangha Dense Forest Special Reserve and the Dzanga-Ndoki National Park. The reserve and park encompass more than 5,500 square miles (8,800 square kilometers). Though hunting and logging are prohibited in the park, " in the reserve, hunting and use of the forest is allowed by traditional means, " Carroll says. Carroll says corrupt government officials and the boom-bust nature of the logging industry stifle progress toward sustainable forestry practices. Instead, the forest reserves are cleared of timber and wildlife and then abandoned, says Jerome Lewis, an anthropologist at the London School of Economics. Lewis studies hunter-gatherer societies in central Africa.http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=hamilton/Layout/Article_Typ e1 & c=Article & cid=1164322251826 & call_pageid=1020420665036 & col=1112101662670Malawi:27) Malawi's forestry reserve are on the verge of extinction due to the flourishing charcoal trade. statistics indicate that the country is loosinf 50,000 hactres of forest each year, however government has not yet found an alternative to charcoal energy. Statistics indicate that about 140, 000 tones of charcoal are produced per year in Malawi. The country loses about 50,000 hectares of indigenous forest every year – the highest deforestation rate in Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. However, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) had raised the alarm over the disappearance of forests throughout Africa, warning that despite the establishment of sound national forestry policies implementation remains weak. In a statement released after the African Forestry and Wild life Commission meeting that took place in the Mozambican capital Maputo in March 2006 FAO indicated that Africa suffered a net loss of forest exceeding nine million acres per year between 2000 and 2005 with Southern African countries "contributing over one-quarter of the African loss". The disappearance of forest in Malawi has also resulted in massive soil erosion and siltation in low-lying areas leading to flooding that has been disrupting operations at the country's biggest hydroelectric dam Nkula Hydro Electric Power Station resulting in frequent power blackouts especially during rainy season. http://www.andnetwork.com/index?service=direct/0/Home/recent.titleStory & sp=l69191 Nicaragua:28) For centuries the Miskito people have defended their Central American rainforest kingdom. They rebuffed invading of the Spanish settlers in the 18th and 19th centuries with the help of British muskets, from which they derived their name, and remained autonomous even when nominally absorbed into the newly formed state of Nicaragua in 1894. During the 1980s civil war, the Sandinista government accused the Miskitos of siding with Contra rebels, using that as a pretext to herd tens of thousands of the indigenous people into camps and destroy their villages. Those who survived rebuilt their communities after the war. Now this unique community, a mix of indigenous inhabitants and African slave descendants, are facing a new threat: environmentalism. A logging ban introduced earlier this year is devastating the economy and fraying the social fabric of remote communities that relied almost exclusively on forestry to survive. 'I can't support my family any more,' said Georo Morris Fox, 29. Mirna Morales, 33, a mother of four, lost her job as a secretary and her boatman husband no longer has logs to navigate, leaving the family penniless. 'We're surviving on rice and natural remedies,' she said. The Miskitos' plight reveals the complex dilemmas facing those who want to save forests from destruction. The value of conserving one of the most biologically diverse regions in the Americas, home to 12,000 varieties of plant and 1,400 animal species, including monkeys, macaws and herons, is unquestioned. And no one doubts urgent action is needed, since in the past 50 years half of the 12,000-square mile forest has been lost to logging and agriculture. The Miskitos played a part, but prominent businessmen, exploiting a weak state and rampant corruption, are thought to have been far more destructive. The issue is whether the logging ban will work and whether there is another way to protect the forests without hurting the Miskitos.http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1957220,00.htmlBrazil:29) After measuring the humidity of the air and the density of the forest canopy, workers pour kerosene in neat trails and torch the underbrush. Researchers, their brows dripping with sweat, measure the height and width of the flames and later determine how far into the forest the fire traveled. A month later, the team counts the remaining trees to determine how many died. The big surprise in initial burns, said the lead researcher, Daniel Nepstad of the Woods Hole Research Center in Falmouth, is " that quite a lot of big trees survive. That's good news: this is a tough forest. " The bad news is that fire-promoting droughts have become increasingly common here, taking a terrible toll on the rain forest -- and eventually, Nepstad and many other scientists believe, on the climate of the rest of the world. Whenever a tree dies and decays, its carbon is taken up by microbes and other organisms in the soil and eventually released as the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. During last year's harshest Amazon dry season in 40 years, drought and accidental fires killed half a billion metric tons of trees in Brazil, according to conservative estimates -- trees storing the carbon equivalent to the annual emissions of California and New York state combined. Brazil is one of the world's 10 worst carbon polluters. In the United States, China, and other countries, fossil fuels are the major source of emissions, but 70 percent of Brazil's greenhouse gases come from clearcutting and forest fires, according to the Amazon Institute for Environmental Research. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/health_science/articles/2006/11/27/amazon_burning/ 30) International Paper's Brazilian division said Monday it will sell an Amazon region tree farm and wood chip export unit to a pair of Japanese companies. The announcement came on the same day that IP said it was selling its corrugated packaging business in Britain to a Spanish company. In the Brazilian deal, International Paper Co. said it signed a memorandum of understanding for the sale of Amapa Florestal e Celulose SA to Marubeni Corp. and Nippon Papers Industries Co. Ltd. It did not disclose the value of the sale.The operation exports primarily to the United States and Europe from Brazil's Amapa state, and includes 135,000 acres (55,000 hectares) where eucalyptus and pine trees are grown and then turned into wood chips, a raw ingredient for pulp, paper and solid-wood products like boards and panels.The Amcel division ships about 1 million metric tons (1.1 million U.S. tons) of wood chips annually from Amapa, in far northeastern Brazil, thousands of miles (kilometers) from Sao Paulo, and bordering French Guinea. Amcel also sells tree bark from the Amapa operation for " biomass " alternative energy production. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/27/business/LA_FIN_Brazil_International_Paper.php31) Chopping up the dense forests of the Amazon lets hot winds blow in and around ancient trees, killing them off hundreds of years early, researchers reported on Monday. Many species of trees, and other plants and animals that depend on them, are disappearing more quickly than most experts anticipated, William Laurance of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and colleagues said. " Rain forest trees can live for centuries, even millennia, so none of us expected things to change too fast, " Laurance said in a statement. " But in just two decades -- a wink of time for a thousand year-old tree -- the ecosystem has been seriously degraded, " he said. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Laurance and his team said fragmenting the forest creates more edges, exposing trees that would normally have been protected by other trees. " When you fragment the rain forest, hot winds from the surrounding pastures blow into the forest and kill many trees, which just can't handle the stress, " said Henrique Nascimento, a team member from Brazil's National Institute for Amazonian Research in Manaus. " Also, winds build up around the fragment and knock down a lot of trees, " Nascimento said. The international team of researchers has been studying Brazil's rain forest for 22 years, covering nearly 32,000 individual trees. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N27482111.htm32) "THE soybean frontier is approaching," warns Virgilio Viana, the secretary of the environment of the Brazilian state of Amazonas. He is predicting an imminent surge in deforestation in the vast and relatively pristine heart of the Amazonian rainforest. First come roads, then illegal loggers, then pioneering homesteaders, and, finally, full-scale land clearance for soybean farms and cattle ranches. The states closer to Brazil's Atlantic coast have already suffered this fate, which now threatens the remoter jungles of the interior. The solution, according to Brazil and 15 other poor countries suffering from deforestation, is for the rest of the world to pay them to leave their trees intact. More specifically, they want "avoided deforestation" included in a list of emissions-reducing activities that rich countries can sponsor to help meet obligations under the Kyoto protocol. The treaty requires industrialised nations either to reduce their own output of greenhouse gases, or to pay for equivalent reductions in more benighted places. Prickly nationalists in Brazil have long resisted internationally inspired measures to stem deforestation, both out of distaste for the notion that outsiders might have any say in how their country is run, and out of the conviction that converting forests to fields is the quickest path to development. But Mr Viana argues that, for the poor indigenous people of Amazonas at any rate, payments for avoided deforestation, along with the harvesting of forest products, such as rubber and Brazil nuts, will provide a better livelihood than deforestation. http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8343294India: 33) The Supreme Court has issued notices to the Uttaranchal and Himachal Pardesh governments on a PIL seeking directions to stop resin tapping from pine trees there. According to the petitioner, Mr J P Dabral of Himalaya Chipko Foundation, the import of turpentine oil and rosin is cheaper than the cost of extraction of these components through exploitation of resins from pine trees. Besides, it is not economically viable. A Bench comprising Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal, Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice S H Kapadia on Thursday issued notices returnable in four weeks after hearing the petitioner in person. Mr Dabral contended that the contractors in collusion with forest officials were also causing heavy loss to the state exchequer through corrupt means and illegal resin tapping. When blazes of pine trees are cut, the practice jeorpadises the very suvival of the tree itself, he added. http://www.indlawnews.com/B8FA47D6F10326E5799D32C49C031766Vietnam: 34) The 10th National Assembly session spent the whole day discussing the reforestation project which runs from 1988 to 2010. A report released by the NA Standing Committee at the session said the implementation of the 5mil hectares afforestation project had not been sticking closely to NA resolutions. The report said that after eight years, the project had reforested more than 1.4mil hectares. This means that an area of more than 3.5mil hectares needs to be reforested in the remaining five years (2006-2010). NA deputies were also told that forest quality remained low and the supply of wood was small. Illegal logging and forest fires were still occurring in many places. Dac Nong delegate Nguyen Lan Dung said the country now had 1,200 timber processing enterprises, with many timber workshops right in the forests. He pointed out that 79,717 ha of forests were destroyed in the last eight years and said the country's forest management force was not working effectively because of poor organisation. While the task of protecting the forest was assigned to commune and district authorities, forest management forces were mostly based in provincial centres and towns, with only a few guarding nearby forests to prevent illegal timber trafficking. If they did seize such timber, forest trees were already cut down, he said. Dung said the residents should be asked to get more involved in managing and protecting forests, and given the task of promoting afforestation. Binh Thuan delegate Ma Dien Cu told the session that more attention should be paid to protecting the forest. http://english.vietnamnet.vn/politics/2006/11/637156/Indonesia:35) Ed McWilliams, who headed the political section of the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta from 1996 to 1999, said: " the Indonesian military poses a threat to the fledgling democratic experiment in Indonesia. It receives over 70 percent of its budget from legal and illegal businesses and as a result is not under direct budget control by the civilian president or the parliament. Its vast wealth derives from numerous activities, including many illegal ones that include extortion, prostitution rings, drug running, illegal logging and other exploitation of Indonesia's great natural resources." Since that testimony, existing limits on military assistance to Jakarta, passed into law after the Indonesian military destruction of East Timor in 1999, were lifted by the Bush Administration. Shortly after Bush left Indonesian airspace this week, McWilliams told us, " Bush Administration support for the TNI has expanded vastly beyond levels seen at any time in the last 15 years. TNI impunity, corruption and violation of human rights has continued and in some ways worsened. TNI involvement in illegal logging continues unchecked in West Papua and elsewhere. Efforts to hold TNI senior officials responsible for their orchestration of the 1999 bloodbath in East Timor have ground to a halt. http://www.counterpunch.org/terrall11272006.html36) Local community groups of Aceh Province must actively participate in the provincial administration`s drive against illegal logging. The people must be active in fighting illegal logging activities in Aceh Province because legal measures were not yet effective in dealing with the problem, Coordinator of the Aceh Forestry Advocacy Working Group Ilham Sinambela said here on Friday. Illegal logging activities were prone in the districts of Aceh Besar, Pidie, Aceh Jaya, North Aceh, Bireuen, East Aceh, Aceh Tamiang and Bener Meriah, he said. He regretted that the illegal logging activities in the districts also involved several community groups. To discuss the crucial participation of the local communities, a seminar on " The Roles of the Community and Local Institution in Stopping Illegal Logging " was organized by the Aceh Forestry Working Group and the Aceh Conservancy, a local NGO, from November 20 to 22, 2006. The three-day seminar promoted a commitment of the local people to community-based sustainable forest management and preventing illegal logging activities.New Zealand:37) The Council's Urban Forest Manager Kevin Reardon says 4.5 hectares were cleared last year but financial constraints meant it was not possible to clear the whole area in one go. The trees – predominantly old pines – in the remaining 2.4 hectare block will continue to come down in storms if they are not removed. " Removing them and replanting the area with natives will save ratepayers money in the long run as clearing fallen, or wind-thrown, trees is more costly, difficult and dangerous, " he says. " There is also a greater risk of slips if trees come down of their own accord because the giant root balls lift out of the ground creating new water channels and making the surrounding area more prone to erosion and instability. " For safety reasons, the Council will also be removing a 1.4 hectare strip of trees adjacent to Finnimore Terrace in Mornington in early December and just under a hectare of trees above Bell Road in Brooklyn in early January. Work in those areas is expected to take two weeks and one week, respectively. A number of the trees are directly threatening homes. " We have had people in these areas tell us they can't sleep at night when it's windy because they a worried a tree will come down on their home, " he says. " If we take a pro-active and systematic approach it also means we can off-set the cost of the operation by selling logs to domestic sawmills and export log markets, which isn't usually possible when the trees crash down of their own accord. " http://wellington.govt.nz/news/display-item.php?id=2793Australia:38) Forest protesters have locked themselves onto logging machines and set up a tree-sit in old-growth forest north of the town of Goongerah in East Gippsland. The Victorian Government has promised to join the Snowy River and Errinundra national parks, and include more areas of old-growth forest if it wins the state election tomorrow. But Fiona York from Goongerah says the area of forest being blockaded has missed out on protection. " This is exactly the sort of forest that Labor has been promising to protect and it has been left out ... and that's why we're there today, " she said. " The public is not going to be satisfied until old-growth forest is properly protected and when this old-growth forest is also in the water catchments it's also more important. " http://www.abc.net.au/news/items/200611/1796734.htm?gippsland Five protesters are still in tree sits and about 20 have been removed from the site. Protester Fiona Yorke says the forest is part of the area the Labor Party promised to protect as part of its election platform. " It is still being logged, on the first day of this new Government they've allowed the logging to continue in this area which will become part of the national park part of the corridor between the Errinundra and Snowy River national parks and it's outrageous that they're logging basically the future national park and it needs to stop immediately, " she said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200611/s1798352.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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