Guest guest Posted June 27, 2007 Report Share Posted June 27, 2007 Today for you 36 new articles about earth's trees! (207th edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com . --British Columbia: 1) Search for unknown species, 2) Exporting the future, 3) Blue Mountain-Kanaka conservation efforts falter, 4) Two giant trees, --Pacific Northwest: 5) Marbled Murrelet protection is supposedly too expensive, --Washington: 6) view protection may cause landslides, 7) Ueland tree farm, 8) Weyco writes the rules and the letters that write the rules, 9) You own federal land, --Oregon: 10) 39 sq. miles of old growth threatened, 11) Tree climbing, --California: 12) 150 years of mismanagement, 13) Mapping old growth redwoods, --Montana: 14) An Earth First!er with a chainsaws, 15) Frenchtown face management, --Southwest: 16) petition seeking federal protection for 475 species --Illinois: 17) Olney City Council to decide fate of 10 acres of forest --Wyoming: 18) Logging project on the Bighorn NF, --Hawaii: 19) 70 scientists to study 38,885-acre Pu'u Wa'awa' and 12,343-acre Laupahoehoe, 20) Huge biodiesel plant planned, --USA: 21) forest protests and counter protests --Canada: 22) Grassy Narrows protest legislature --Palestine: 23) More Olive trees dug up and replanted --Tanzania: 24) China illegally exports 90% of their logs --Kenya: 25) Forests Act 2005 implementation means many new forest guards --Cabinda: 26) is a very small country --Congo: 27) ready to cancel more than half its timber contracts for aid --Sudan: 28) Must address extensive and accelerating environmental damage --Equatorial Guinea: 29) volcanic crater hosts rare species --Colombia: 30) stunning photographic exhibition --Panama: 31) Threats to La Amistad International Park --Brazil: 32) 14 years in prison for Forest Defender --Peru: 33) immense wave of tree-cutting --India: 34) biodiversity under threat in Uttarakhand, 35) guards beat people to death, --Bangladesh: 36) head conservationist for Sundarbans arrested for corruption, British Columbia: 1) The Province is investing $213,000 in a research project that will help discover unknown species of Canada's plants, fungi and insects, and improving environmental management of the country's biodiversity, announced Advanced Education Minister Murray Coell today. The funding will go toward the $20 million Canadian University Biodiversity Consortium project, which includes 12 universities that will create a networked database of all biodiversity-related information held in Canadian institutions. The B.C. contribution is being led by the University of British Columbia at the UBC Botanical Garden and the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, where areas of research include the evolution of jumping spiders and the sex life of sunflowers. " This research consortium will aid Canadian conservation efforts by helping to preserve the genetic diversity of plants, fungi and insects, " said Coell. " It will help establish and promote the best means for a sustainable use of this natural wealth. At the same time, it will allow Canada and Canadian university scientists to maintain and improve their standing as world leaders in the field of inventorying, understanding, protecting and promoting biodiversity. " Canada's capacity to identify new species and preserve existing collections has declined in recent years but there are several important collections in universities, museums and botanical gardens. The consortium will gather the information in these collections and the expertise of more than 40 research participants to create a web-based, information-rich database that can be accessed by anyone with an interest in Canada's animal and plant life. http://www.gov.bc.ca/bvprd/bc/channel.do?action=ministry & channelID=-8376 & navId=N\ AV_ID_province 2) Coastal forest companies are shipping away our future while the provincial government stands and does nothing to stop them. That's just one of the disturbing findings of a recent study of the effects of recent government and corporate policies on the community of Port Alberni. Similar effects are being felt across Coastal British Columbia. The April 2007 report by Macauley and Associates for the B.C. Ministry of Forests and Range says almost 80 per cent of timber harvested on private lands in the Alberni Valley was second-growth Douglas fir, for instance. Most of it was exported. This is the highly valuable timber on which B.C. has long planned to build its future forest industry. Instead, big companies are shipping millions of cubic metres to the U.S. and Asia. And Ottawa's recent lumber deal with the U.S. makes things worse by ensuring these logs enter the U.S. duty-free while subjecting our lumber to a 15-per-cent duty, actively encouraging even more log exports. Premier Gordon Campbell and the CEOs of major forest companies claimed the government's " new " so-called Forest Revitalization Program would bring billions in new investments. But the report clearly shows that second-growth Douglas fir is still " not the type of logs being consumed by local mills which utilize primarily old-growth cedar and hemlock. Government and corporate policies have not overcome companies' failure to build mills that process second-growth Douglas fir or kiln-dried hemlock for Japan. There was an eight-per-cent rise in the volume of timber scaled and a 19-per-cent rise in lumber output from 2000 to 2005, at the same time that jobs per unit of output fell by 77 per cent in timber harvesting and 16 per cent in manufacturing. Fewer workers are producing higher volumes of logs, lumber and wood products. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/index.html 3) " I don't think you'll see a park up there, period, " said Mike Peters with the Ministry of Tourism, Sports and the Arts on Wednesday. " I don't see any park coming. " Peters is in charge of the latest attempt to work out a recreation plan for the mountain, which lies north of Dewdney Trunk Road at 272nd Street. Neither will motorcycles be vanishing in a cloud of two-stroke smoke, another of the wishes of the Blue Mountain-Kanaka Creek Conservation Group. " They've been there for 25 years … so we're not about to say, 'Sorry, you can't come back,' " Peters said. That, though, only bodes well for bikers on the mountain, said Jim Bradshaw of the Blue Mountain-Kanaka Creek Conservation Group. Motorcyclists and loggers fit well, he said, because the former aren't as demanding critics as a group of environmentalists would be of logging activities. Bradshaw admits the mountain's fate is sealed. " It won't become a park, that's finished. " It's all been turned over to the logging. " The best the group can hope for now is a division of the mountain so hikers, mountain bikers, horsemen and motorcyclists can somehow share the trees and hills. But Bradshaw doubts that will happen, too. The motorcycle lobby is too large, too well-organized and has been there too long, he said. He added that Peters is not consulting with the groups that favour preserving the mountain, but instead is talking only to those who are now active on it. http://www.mapleridgenews.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=46 & cat=23 & id=1012167 & m\ ore=0 4) The two trees are almost 5 meters (16 feet) in diameter. The " Castle Giant " measures 4.84 meters (15 feet, 9 inches) and the " Tolkien Giant " is 4.76 m in (15 feet, 7 inches) in diameter. This makes the two trees the 6th and 7th widest known trees in Canada, according to comparisons with trees listed in the BC government's Big Tree Registry http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bigtree/ . The 5 other wider trees, all western redcedars, are found in Clayoquot Sound by Tofino and near Cheewhat Lake by the West Coast Trail. A Registered Professional Forester is now needed to officially measure the two Walbran trees for the entries to be listed in the Big Tree Registry. " We've known about these two enormous trees for almost 15 years, but we never measured them using BC government methodology or compared them to the BC Big Tree Registry. Well, it turns out that in terms of their sheer widths, they outmatch virtually all known trees in the country! " notes Ken Wu, Campaign Director of the Wilderness Committee in Victoria. " It's also worthy to note that all of Canada's widest trees listed in the BC Big Tree Registry are on Vancouver Island. You could count on your fingers the number of countries on Earth that still have trees as wide as your living room. So why the hell should we squander the last remnants by cutting them down? Ancient forests are not only vital for sustaining endangered species and our climate, but also for BC's multi-billion dollar coastal tourism industry. " The two, newly-measured western redcedars grow in the spectacular " Castle Grove " of ancient redcedars in the 7500 hectare Upper Walbran Valley, an unprotected old-growth forest adjacent to the West Coast Trail and the Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park (which protects the Lower Walbran Valley). The Castle Grove is Canada's most geographically extensive stand of cathedral-like giant western redcedars, yet the entire Upper Walbran Valley remains unprotected in Tree Farm License 44 and 46. Distrubingly, the Wilderness Committee team discovered two, giant new clearcuts logged this spring by Surrey-based Teal-Jones, only a kilometer away from the Castle Grove. http://www.wildernesscommitteevictoria.org/gallery_castle_giants.php#1 Pacific Northwest: 5) Protecting habitat critical to the endangered marbled murrelet could cost between $69.4 million and $1.4 billion over 20 years, according to a new federal report. But that's improbable because restrictions for murrelet protection largely apply only to federally owned land that is considered " critical habitat " for an endangered species such as the murrelet. " What I've been told is this is unlikely, " said Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Doug Zimmer. Kristen Boyles, an attorney for the environmental law firm Earthjustice, said such restrictions have never happened. " I look at these numbers with great skepticism, " she said. Boyles also questioned whether the report takes into account the benefits of habitat protection — such as water and air that are cleansed by old-growth forests. Zimmer said the benefits were not studied because leaders in the Interior Department recently ordered such studies look at costs only. The federal government is already considering significantly scaling back the acreage marked as critical habitat for marbled murrelets, from 3.9 million acres to slightly more than 221,000. That stems from a 2003 settlement between the timber industry and the federal government in which the government agreed to review critical habitat. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003763929_murrelet27m.html Washington: 6) During closing of the sale, the couple reluctantly signed a paper agreeing to protect the view of neighbors at the top of the cliff. It was a single paragraph, a few words, almost an afterthought. Hagen and Hansen built their house and began commuting to Seattle daily on an early-morning ferry. They joined with several other families to form Friends of Wilson Creek, launching a long-term effort to restore the stream that winds down through their property to Driftwood Cove. In September 2004, Steve Wistrand of Northwest Forestry Consulting in Poulsbo was hired by the uphill owners to develop a cutting plan. He noted that maple trees near the top of the bank had been cut to the ground at one time. He suggested cutting those trees, which he estimated at 30 feet, down to four or five feet. Taller maples downhill would be topped to a height of 15 to 20 feet. Alder trees, about 25-feet tall, would be chopped about halfway up. Two large conifers would be left alone. Wistrand assured everyone that his plan would not affect bank stabilization. Hagen and Hansen were horrified, but they believed the county would help protect them. According to Hagen, when they bought the property, they were unaware that the slope was listed as " a geologically hazardous area " in Kitsap County's Critical Areas Ordinance. County planners reviewed Wistrand's report. Based on his safety assurances, they said the cutting could proceed with approval of Hagen and Hansen. The couple refused to sign off on the Wistrand proposal, pointing out that topping is " an unacceptable pruning practice " under recognized standards of the Tree Care Industry Association. In March 2005, upland property owners Jon and Lynn Danks joined with Frank and Barbara Ault to sue Hagen and Hansen over the tree-cutting agreement. After the lawsuit was filed, Hagen and Hansen hired other experts, who disagreed vehemently with Wistrand. " The deep cutting of maple trees, particularly if repeatedly performed, can weaken and possibly kill the trees, " wrote Theodore Hammer of Western Geotechnical Consultants in Ferndale. Hammer had visited the site with Elliott Menashe of Greenbelt Consulting in Clinton. " If any of the trees die, the root strength will diminish and the stability of the slope will be compromised, " Hammer wrote. " Also, drastic trimming may cause damage to the understory vegetation, which could reduce the stability of the slope. " http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2007/jun/23/battle-over-trees-pits-sk-couple-again\ st-their/ 7) To maintain a diversity of wildlife habitat, the 1,700-acre Ueland Tree Farm west of Kitsap Lake will spread out the timber harvests over time, with no single logging operation larger than 30 acres, according to consultant Rick Fackler. Plans, to be discussed at a public meeting Saturday, include new drafts of a conservation plan, a wetland study, a public access proposal and details about possible gravel- and rock-mining operations. Fackler said Craig Ueland, owner of the former Port Blakely property, is taking time to understand the environmental values before proposing any logging, gravel mining or other resource extraction. It's a rare approach, designed to generate money from natural resources with the least damage to the forest. A conservation plan shows wide buffers for tributaries of Chico Creek, considered the most productive salmon stream in Kitsap County. In all, Ueland owns about one-fifth of the entire Chico Creek watershed. Because of natural values associated with a potential gravel site near Dickerson Creek, Ueland says he will not extract minerals from that site. Instead, he will pursue permits for a gravel mine to increase the value of the property before donating a conservation easement that will keep the land in forest. The timber-harvest plan proposes to keep about one-third of the forest land in trees up to 20 years old, another third in trees 20 to 40 years old, and the remaining third in trees 40 to 60 years old, Fackler said. http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2007/jun/21/sustainable-logging-planned-for-1700-a\ cre-tree/ 8) The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offered a Weyerhaeuser Co. executive the opportunity to edit a letter the agency was sending the timber company regarding " concerns " about Weyerhaeuser logging harming spotted owls. And an internal Weyerhaeuser memo prepared for a meeting with a Bush administration official shows the company wants to do as little as possible to get environmentalists off its back while still cutting as much timber as possible. Those two documents emerged at a four-day hearing this week before U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman of Seattle in which the Seattle Audubon Society attacked Weyerhaeuser's alleged transgressions of the Endangered Species Act. Audubon, calling government regulators too cozy with the timber industry, is asking the judge to halt Weyerhaeuser's logging near spotted owls. It also is asking her to restrict Washington Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland's ability to approve logging on about 50,000 forested acres near where spotted owls have been seen. The land belongs to Weyerhaeuser and others. Unless the judge steps in to halt the logging before the case can go to a full trial in several years, Audubon attorney John Arum predicted, " The state will issue scores of permits ... and thousands of acres of this habitat will be destroyed. " State and timber industry lawyers disagreed. Environmentalists' lawyers pointed to a 44 percent loss of owl-friendly forests in Southwest Washington, where Weyerhaeuser dominates the timber landscape, from 1996 to 2004. Statewide, in eight years the state allowed 17,000 acres of owl-friendly forests to be cut -- a " rape of over 2,000 acres a year, " Arum said in closing arguments. The case centers on four 6,000-acre areas in Southwest Washington where environmentalists contend Weyerhaeuser has violated the species-protection law by taking too much timber in areas used for nesting by spotted owls. But it represents a broader challenge to the state's entire timber regulation system. Records from the case show that federal officials suspected at least as early as 1991 that Weyerhaeuser might be violating the Endangered Species Act. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/321051_weyco23.html 9) If you're a citizen, you own it — about 565 million acres. The deed on a big part of this public land inheritance dates to a pair of Republican class warriors from a hundred years ago: President Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot, first chief of the Forest Service. Both were rich. Both were well-educated. Both were headstrong and quirky. Pinchot slept on a wooden pillow and had his valet wake him with ice water to the face. Teddy and G.P., as they were known, sometimes wrestled with each other, or swam naked in the Potomac. In establishing the people's estate, they fought Gilded Age titans — railroads, timber barons, mine owners — and their enablers in the Senate. And make no mistake: these acts may have been cast as the founding deeds of the environmental movement, but they were as much about class as conservation. Pinchot had studied forestry in France, where a peasant couldn't make a campfire without being subject to penalties. In England, he had seen how the lords of privilege had their way over the outdoors. In the United States, he and T.R. envisioned the ultimate expression of Progressive-era values: a place where a tired factory hand could be renewed — lord for a day. " In the national forests, big money was not king, " wrote Pinchot. The Forest Service was beloved, he said, because " it stood up for the honest small man and fought the predatory big man as no government bureau had done before. " A century later, I drove through the Gifford Pinchot National Forest on my way to climb Mount Hood, and found the place in tatters. Roads are closed, or in disrepair. Trails are washed out. The campgrounds, those that are open, are frayed and unkempt. It looks like the forestry equivalent of a neighborhood crack house. In the Pinchot woods, you see the George W. Bush public lands legacy. If you want to drill, or cut trees, or open a gas line — the place is yours. Most everything else has been trashed or left to bleed to death. http://select.nytimes.com/2007/06/23/opinion/23egan.html?hp Oregon: 10) The Oregon BLM is an out of control and rogue agency. Over the last 3 years the Oregon BLM has been found guilty of breaking federal law by 9th Circuit courts on six separate occasions over timber sales in southern Oregon. This was without the current agenda of gutting the Northwest Forest Plan proposal called the Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR) yet implemented. Over 25,000 acres or 39 Square Miles of Oregon's Native and Ancient Forests Await Slaughter. More than 25 thousand of acres of ancient forest on western Oregon's public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are on the chopping block. As terrible as these existing timber sales described below are, if the BLM gets away with it's current plans of throwing out key provisions of the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) this will be just the tip of the iceberg. The Medford, Roseburg and Coos Bay BLM have over 33 timber sales or more than 25,000 acres of native old growth forests planned to be logged. This is not even taking into account tens of thousands of acres of under-story clear-cut treatments or so-called " fuels treatment projects " in native and old growth forests throughout southern Oregon! The Medford District has the bulk of these with 25 timber sales alone or more than 20,000 acres of native public forests on the chopping block. http://www.kswild.org 11) Most of us travel through life without ever getting to know our inner monkey. But that's not the case for the folks who have climbed high into a canopy of trees soaring above an old-growth forest in Oregon. I'm traveling around the Pacific Northwest this week, and while looking through guidebooks and such, I came across the Pacific Tree Climbing Institute, based in Eugene, Oregon. The group offers an eco-adventure that's sure to appeal to tree-lovers and thrill-seekers alike: Ascending an ancient, massive fir, hemlock, or big leaf maple tree some 300 feet high in the Oregon wilderness. They scale massive trees, using traditional climbing gear, such as ropes, harnesses, and helmets. By taking tourists high into the tree crowns, the guides teach people about a tree's ecosystem, as well as expose them to old growth forests. Old growth forests, which I'd never heard about until this trip, are ancient forests that haven't been disrupted by humans, through logging, clear-cutting, roads, and similar measures that endanger forests. Tree climbers can choose how long they'd like to spend sitting above the forest floor. Some elect to spend a few hours kicking back in the outfit's " treeboats " (canvas hammocks strung from the branches.) Others decide they want to spend a night suspended from a tree. (Personally, I'd be too scared to toss and turn knowing that I was dangling some 300 ft. in the air.) The expeditions are priced from $200-$575. http://www.lime.com/blog/savasthi/13652/how_to_hug_a_tree California: 12) The raging fire that is denuding hillsides and darkening the clear blue waters of Lake Tahoe is the final product of 150 years of mismanagement of the Sierra Nevada ecosystem, fire management experts said Monday. From Gold Rush clear-cutters to modern home-builders, people have brought changes to the Tahoe basin that have fueled the intensity of the 2,500-acre Angora fire near the town of South Lake Tahoe. By Monday night, 178 homes had fallen casualty to the 2-day-old blaze, which was only 40 percent contained. Ecologists and local residents said they saw such a disaster coming. " It's the fire we've been anticipating for 20 years, " said Patsy Miller, who owns a residence at Fallen Leaf Lake, about a mile from where the flames had spread by late Monday. " People have interjected their homes into a system that has a natural tendency to burn very frequently, and where we have suppressed the frequency of those fires for so long, there's an ungodly amount of fuel there, " Forest Service regional ecologist Hugh Safford said. The immediate cause of the Angora fire was under investigation Monday. But the fire's beginnings can be traced all the way back to the Gold Rush and the Comstock-era mining boom. " They clear-cut about two-thirds of the basin, " said Shane Romsos, science and evaluation program manager for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. Mixed-growth forests of fire-tolerant species like the self-pruning Jeffrey pine were replaced by uniform stands of dense white fir and undergrowth, which grew rapidly in the unusually wet years of the early 20th century. Then came the vacation homes and ski areas. As development spread, land managers focused on fire suppression, allowing the fuel load to build every year. Federal officials began to shift fire-management policies in the mid-1990s and in recent years have sought to clear away dense underbrush and thin trees in the forests around Tahoe and in the rest of the Sierra. U.S. Forest Service officials said those efforts probably saved at least 500 homes that otherwise could have been engulfed by the Angora fire. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/06/26/MNGMDQLP6E1.DTL 13) For the past several months, a twin-engine plane has slowly soared over Redwood National Park in search of the world's tallest trees. Five government agencies and conservation groups have pitched in to pay the Sanborn Mapping Company about $183,000 for an extremely detailed 3D image of the rugged wilderness area. The plane is equipped with LIDAR, light detection and ranging, a new type of equipment that can be used to create digital maps that contain far more information than an aerial photograph. " The LIDAR measurements will give us a highly accurate depiction of the forest floor and tree heights, " said Dan Porter, of the Save-the-Redwoods League. " This application of LIDAR is fairly new. It's pretty cutting edge. " Porter said that the map will be used for far more than a search for tall trees. It will reveal all sorts of information that will be useful to conservationists. When it rains, a mudslide can choke up a river and kill endangered salmon. Scientists can use the maps to identify areas that are particularly vulnerable and then plant trees or take other measures to retain looming hillsides. " We can learn more about old growth and the biodiversity that is there. Forest restoration takes the second growth forest to old growth (characteristics) by actively manipulating it, " said Porter. Once the mapping flights have been completed, the raw data will be put in the public domain and given to Steven C. Sillett, a professor of forestry at Humboldt State University. Then, sort of digital treasure hunt for those giants can begin. LIDAR data is very hard to look at. When one off these is loaded into graphical software without any processing, it looks like a psychedelic moonscape. For that reason, playing with the unprocessed files will be great fun for forestry students and hobbyists but not the general public. " Steve will look at this depiction of tree heights across the landscape and pick out hotspots, " said Porter. Professor Sillett will then send his students or venture out into the forest himself to measure the heights of the trees in those areas, with the hope that a new giant can be found. http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/06/mapping_a_redwo.html Montana: 14) As the forest fire season is upon us, and there are hearings on the Hill about preparations, we recall a time, back when he was with Earth First, when environmental activist Jake Kreilick was going to jail in Idaho and Malaysia for his efforts to protect old-growth forests. His current group, WildWest Institute, is engaged in three administrative appeals and two lawsuits against the Forest Service's policies in Idaho and Montana on logging and fuel reduction - that is, clearing brush and smaller trees. But then there's Jake Kreilick, owner of a home on about 25 acres in the woods outside of Missoula. That Jake Kreilick, chainsaw in hand, has been clearing dozens of trees and brush in the past couple of years to reduce fire dangers around his house, the Missoulian newspaper reported earlier this month. He's even a leader in an organization devoted to such activities around homes in wildland areas. " There's been a shift toward a more cooperative attitude, certainly on approaches involving " fuel reduction efforts around homes, Kreilick said this week. " We went from a policy of 'no cuts' on federal lands " to acknowledging the need to cut, " especially near communities. " " We need to get past polarity, and we've reached out to landowners and forest services to find common ground, " he said. So does that mean dropping the litigation with the U.S. Forest Service? Well, no. " The change doesn't affect any of those cases, " he said, but the tactics of the old days may be gone. After all, chaining yourself to a bulldozer or camping up in the branches are uncomfortable pursuits. http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/07/06/23/100wir_a4trees001.cfm 15) Earlier this month, the Forest Service presented its latest plan to reduce fuels along the Frenchtown Face. The plan also proposes to decommission unneeded roads, spray thousands of acres of noxious weeds and add some recreational facilities. The idea for the plan has been around for years, but it's taken the agency some time to develop something officials believe can stand up to legal challenges, said Gary Edson, the Lolo National Forest's Ninemile District ranger. The agency's first attempt at the project was challenged by the Ecology Center (now the WildWest Institute) and the Alliance for the Wild Rockies in 2006 on grounds the Forest Service hadn't done sufficient analysis on soils. Since then, the agency completed a survey of soils in the area and added a supplement to the environmental record. " We're really excited about this project, " Edson said. " We're looking at treating about 10,000 acres of vegetation. It's a big project. ... We've made some compromises based on issues brought up by the public. .... We're trying to make this project less confrontational and contentious. We've tried very hard to listen and react to the public's concerns. " Alliance for the Wild Rockies executive director Michael Garrity said the agency made the right adjustments to address that group's concerns. " We don't have a big problem with it, " Garrity said. " They made a bunch of changes we asked them to make. ... It's not a sale we're going to oppose. We appreciate that they listened to our concerns. " There were a number of timber harvest units dropped from the final project as a result of the public's concerns over soil compaction, old growth and entering areas that are currently without roads, Edson said. " The standards we use to administer timber sales have evolved a long ways from what we did 20 to 25 years ago, " Edson said. " Loggers used to, 25 years ago, just bring in their log skidders and go wherever they wanted. They now use designated roads. There's a much higher level of stewardship of the land now. http://missoulian.com/articles/2007/06/26/news/local/znews03.txt Southwest: 16) A petition seeking federal protection for 475 species in the Southwest - from plants to insects and fish - is intended to " kick the door back open " on efforts to save species from extinction that environmentalists say have nearly halted under the Bush administration. Santa Fe, N.M.-based Forest Guardians said its petition, submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week, was prompted by " the mass extinction event rapidly unfolding on this planet " that could, by some estimates, wipe out 20 percent of existing species by 2020. The species in the petition are found mostly in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Oklahoma. Forest Guardians conservation director Nicole Rosmarino said she expects the government to " drag its heels " in responding but believes federal officials need to be prodded. NatureServe, an independent group of scientists that works with government and private organizations, considers all the species in the petition to be among the world's most imperiled, Rosmarino said. " There's a really glacial pace for listing species under George W. Bush, " Rosmarino said. " We hope to give it a jump start by underscoring to Fish and Wildlife the magnitude " of the problem. While acknowledging that few species have been added recently to the Endangered Species List, a federal spokesman blamed some of the holdup on lawsuits by the very groups complaining about the pace. And a law professor and former Interior Department official said it's highly unlikely the Fish and Wildlife Service will consider a mass listing of species. " There's really no way under the statute to deal with this other than species by species, " said Mark Squillace, director of the University of Colorado's Natural Resources Law Center and an Interior Department official during the Clinton administration. Rosmarino said the Bush administration has listed roughly eight species a year and none under Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, who replaced Gale Norton more than a year ago. The Clinton administration added 62 species a year and President George H.W. Bush's administration added 56 a year. http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Breakthrough-on-Tassie-logging-impact/2007/0\ 6/26/11826239032 65.html Illinois: 17) Olney City Council is facing a decision concerning what to do with approximately five to 10 acres of wooded area behind the East Fork Lake dam. The choices range from leaving it as it is, turning it into an area for the public, or allowing it to be logged for profit. City Manager Dave Berry brought the issue before the council at its May 29 meeting, explaining that Hites Hardwoods of Noble had offered the city around $8,500 to harvest the land's trees while it was logging another non-city-owned area nearby. When Councilman Pete Weber heard this, he recalled the area and saw some potential. " I thought to myself, 'That's a pretty nice woods from what I remember,' " he said. Driving back to the area, which is northwest of the shooting range where Olney Police Department trains, Weber saw some of the old oak and walnut trees marked for harvest and walked some of the grown-up paths along a long spillway that cuts through woods. Echoing the opinion of Mayor Tom Fehrenbacher that if the land were his he would log it, Weber said that he might do the same if he owned the land. However, he said the woods is city property and he did not feel right making such a decision himself. He said if the woods is logged, it will be another 150 to 200 years before the area would grow to look the same. Weber said the area is scenic, with tall trees surrounding a land that rises and slopes and the occasional spotting of a turkey or deer. He thinks the area could possibly be developed into a public park-like area and it could be a potential Eagle Scout project. Berry said he felt obligated to bring Hites' offer before the council after the company approached him. At the May 29 meeting, Councilman Bill Weems wondered if Hites Hardwood would clean up the area when it is finished. Berry said at the time that he thought the company would clean up as much as it could and noted the area where trees would be removed is not utilized often. Only trees 18 inches in diameter or larger would be removed, he said. Berry said he has since learned the plan would be to log the area with no clean up afterward. http://www.olneydailymail.com/articles/2007/06/22/news/news01.txt Wyoming: 18) Proceeds from a logging project on the Bighorn National Forest will be used to help pay for various conservation and trail projects on the forest. Tongue River District Ranger Craig Yancey said timber receipts from the Woodrock logging project, located five miles southeast of Burgess Junction in north-central Wyoming, will provide $215,000 for projects in the Tongue River District. " This is a great opportunity because it allows you to do work that we normally wouldn't be funded for, " Yancey said. RY Lumber of Livingston, Mont., is logging about 6 million board-feet of timber in the area, Yancey said. Logging began in August, and about 2 million board-feet are expected to be logged this summer, with completion due this year, he said. One of the major projects paid for by the logging will be the closure of about 40 miles of old logging road. Many of the roads have creek crossings, which cause sedimentation. The roads can also drive away elk, Yancey said. In addition, seven miles of old road will be converted into off-road-vehicle trails, and 10 miles of off-road-vehicle trails created by forest users will be added to the official trail system, he said. Other projects include closing about 50 dispersed campsites located too close to streams and expanding dispersed trailer camping, Yancey said. The Bighorn forest is conducting an environmental analysis for a separate proposed logging project that, if approved, would be advertised for bids in 2010, he said. The proposed project would allow logging of 3 million to 4 million board-feet of timber, located adjacent to the Dome Lake Club near the northern tip of the Cloud Peak Wilderness Area. http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/06/20/news/wyoming/60-logging.txt Hawaii: 19) The Hawaii Experimental Tropical Forest will combine the expertise of the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife, the U.S. Forest Service and the University of Hawaii to take an in-depth look at both dry and wet tropical forests over the next 35 years. " This will have benefit for all the Hawaiian islands, but also benefits for other Pacific islands and for all tropical ecosystems throughout the world, " said Boone Kauffman, director of the Forest Service's Institute of Pacific Island Forestry on the Big Island. " Just last month, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) said near-equator islands are especially vulnerable in terms of impacts on biological diversity, " Kauffman said. The Forest Service recently announced that it will kick-in $300,000 to get the program started. Eventually, more than 70 scientists will participate in work at the 38,885-acre Pu'u Wa'awa'a dry forest in West Hawaii and the 12,343-acre Laupahoehoe forest in East Hawaii, Kauffman said. Both areas are state land managed by the Forestry and Wildlife Division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, said division Administrator Paul Conry. Step one of the project is to do " base-line biological surveys " to determine what animals and plants are living in the forests and how they are doing, Conry said. " This basic information will be very useful for managers to take forward programs to protect and preserve those resources, and to restore them where it is needed, " he said. The Laupahoehoe section also is part of the National Ecological Observatory Network, a 30-year project to monitor vegetation, animals and climate at 20 sites across the U.S. " It's exciting to see the establishment of the Hawaii Experimental Tropical Forest, because it adds a missing component to our nation's network of climate change sentinel sites, " said Ann Bartuska, Forest Service deputy chief of research and development, in a DLNR release about the program. " It will be the 80th experimental forest in the Forest Service network, and the site is among the biggest, farthest west and south, and with the highest rainfall. " http://kauaian.net/blog/?p=695 20) The electric company, Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO), is proposing a large biodiesel plant -- apparently larger than most existing plants in the US. They are attempting to convince our Governor to sign a $59 million bond issue to support this plant. There are deep concerns that Hawai`i could become a large importer of palm oil. Palm oil companies are destroying rainforests and threatening local comunities all over the world. Please click on and ask those responsible for the project to drop these plans. Many thanks. Yours sincerely, Reinhard Behrend http://www.regenwald.org/international/englisch/ USA: 21) A small protest is staged to try to save some forests. Only a small fraction of what is needed and environmentalists point this out and protest. I watch on tv as they unfurl their banners and others hold up glasses of poison to publicize the fate that awaits the native animals as forests are felled and wood-chipped and the land burnt and seedlings planted and wildlife destroyed with poison baits. And then I blink and there are forestry people protesting that their access has been restricted in any way to any forest, and farming groups chanting slogans about how their property rights are being taken away by any restriction on tree clearing, and then I blink and the environmental groups are back, trying to show how little forest is going to be left, then the foresters and farmers again, and on and on alternating until my mind grows dizzy and I must close my eyes. There is no longer, if there ever was, an agreement on the basic facts about the environment but a disagreement on how, or whether, to respond to those facts. Now there is not only total disagreement on the facts but the opposing groups who alternate across our tv screens have no common frames of reference with which to even begin discussions on the facts. The fundamental proposition by environmentalists, that humans live in the environment and if we allow it to be destroyed we will all suffer, is not a view shared with far Right groups including farming and forestry and mining organizations, or with the Left wing groups of the union movement. Such groups believe that humans live outside of the environment, in something called the economy. That the environment is something to be exploited, not the process and structure which provides life support. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-horton/coyote-falling_b_53700.html Canada: 22) Activists from two northern Ontario First Nations groups erected a nine-metre teepee on the front lawn of the Ontario legislature Monday, four days before a planned national aboriginal day of protest. Members of the Grassy Narrows and Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nations said they were using the teepee to draw attention to the continued logging and mineral extraction on their traditional lands. " Our traditional territory has been destroyed by forestry operations, " said Grassy Narrows Chief Simon Fobister. " All the trees are gone, all the animals are gone, and there's been no compensation for our people. " Fobister also said the demonstration was intended to educate the public in advance of the day of protest on June 29. John Cutfeet, a spokesman for the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation, said the mining of minerals on traditional lands near Thunder Bay is illegal. " What we're saying is it's now time for this government to recognize our rights and uphold the laws of this land, " he said, noting a Supreme Court of Canada ruling stating that aboriginals must be consulted about resource development on their traditional lands. http://www.westmountexaminer.com/article-cp94113035-First-Nations-groups-erect-n\ inemetre-teepee -on-lawn-of-Ont-legislature.html Palestine: 23) Palestinian and Israeli security sources reported on Saturday that Israeli settlers from " Ami Aad " illegal settlement outpost, near the West Bank city of Nablus, uprooted nearly 300 Palestinian Olive trees, and replanted half of them in the outpost. Abdul-Nasser Badawi, head of the Qaryout village, south of Nablus, stated that the settlers carried their act in front of Israeli peace activists, who reported the incident. The peace activists stated that the settlers replanted at least half of the uprooted trees in their outpost, and near their houses. The outpost is only 2.5 Kilometers away from Shavuot Rachel illegal settlement which was constructed in 1998, and is inhibited by dozens of settler families, including Israeli settlers who immigrated from Russia and Brazil. Badawi also said that carried a similar attack several years ago, and moved the uprooted trees to Israeli settlements. http://www.imemc.org/article/49126 Tanzania: 24) Annually, timber royalty losses amounted to US dollars 58 million during the years 2004 and 2005. According to the findings, China imported ten times more timber from Tanzania than is documented by Tanzania`s export records, implying a 90 percent loss of revenue from this source. Similarly, up to 96 percent of potential timber royalties were lost by central and district governments due to under-collection. The report catalogues how billions of shillings worth of timber revenue is being lost in each year. TRAFFIC Executive Director Steven Broad describes the scenario as `a national tragedy.` Without mincing words, Broad says that `income from a sustainably managed timber industry should be assisting national development and alleviating poverty, not ending up in criminals bank accounts.``We are now in the situation whereby the Tanzanian forestry sector is highly dependent upon donor funding, despite having the clear potential to be self-sufficient from timber revenues,` he observed. Uncontrolled timber harvesting in southern Tanzania grew rapidly starting the year 2003, largely because of increasing overseas demand, especially from China. Driven by greed and profit, some operators broke laws, paid minimal wages and minimal prices for harvested logs - just 1 percent of their export value. Tanzanian hardwoods have commanded high prices internationally, compared to timber from West and Central Africa. The unsustainable harvesting has led to environmental degradation and the loss of commercially viable hardwoods in many areas. http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2007/06/25/93190.html Kenya: 25) The Kenya Forest Service plans to train and employ forest guards across the country to curb continued forest destruction. Consequently, Environment and Natural Resource Minister Prof. Kivutha Kibwana has asked forest officers from 71 districts to be vigilant and take cognizance of the fact that continued forest destruction impacts negatively on the economy. The Minister says the Forests Act 2005 has expanded their mandate in forest management by extending their jurisdiction beyond state forests to include provincial, local authority and private forests. Kivutha says reforms contained in the Forests Act 2005 have also enhanced fundamental changes through the creation of new institutions. Speaking at a Workshop for Kenya Forest Service officers in Nairobi, he said the reforms include the creation of a forest Board to oversee the functions of the new Kenya forest service. Kenya's forest cover is way below international requirements. http://www.forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=78471 Cabinda: 26) Cabinda is a very small country in the world but is blessed with abundant natural wealth including petroleum, diamonds, Rubin, emerald, metal and non-metal, forestland, woodlands, agriculture lands, wildlife and fishing resources and is destined to become one of Africa's richest nations. The country is located between Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Kinshasa and in south by river Congo Angola. The enclave of the Cabinda has a population of approximately 1.600.000 million people and a territory as approximately 13,000 square km; land 11.000square km, water is 3.000 square km- -land area of Cabinda is slightly less than twice that of Gambia. The territory of the Cabinda was annexed to Angola in 1956 by colonial regime of Portugal. Although it gained its independence from Portugal in 1975 Angola was left open for internal conflict and international manipulation. Angola was finally emerged from more than two decades of civil war, which finished in 2002. The level of destruction can clearly be seen by the 22.6% decrease in GDP and the 11-fold decrease in the countries currency (Kwanza) in 1991-1995. In addition to the deterioration of the basic infrastructure the reduction of health services have left Angola with poor water and sewage systems which in turn have led to a huge increase in endemic disease and thus Angola is left with one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world, 209/1000 live births. http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/06/361489.shtml Congo: 27) Congo is ready to cancel more than half its timber contracts to protect the world's second biggest tropical forest but it wants more aid from foreign governments to help do so, the environment minister said. Democratic Republic of Congo is carrying out a World Bank-sponsored review of 156 logging deals, most of them issued during the vast country's 1998-2003 civil war and a subsequent three-year transitional government. Congo issued a five-year moratorium on new logging contracts in 2002 in an effort to stem rampant deforestation aggravated by the conflict. That measure went largely unheeded and companies continued to sign new deals. Around three million hectares (7.4 million acres) of illegal concessions have already been cancelled by Congo's new government, which took office this year after historic post-war elections in 2006. " We have between 24 and 25 million hectares still held by individuals and companies. I would say that I am capable of cancelling another 12 to 15 million hectares of contracts. That's the minimum, " Environment Minister Didace Pembe told Reuters. " Anyone who doesn't conform to the criteria, those that signed logging contracts during the moratorium and are unable to justify how, we are going to cancel their contracts, " he said. " All those who have forestry concessions but don't pay their taxes, we are going to cancel them, " he said in an interview late on Thursday, without citing any companies or individuals. Amongst the biggest timber firms operating in Congo are a subsidiary of Germany's Danzer Group, Siforco, and Portuguese-owned Sodefor, a unit of holding company NST. Together with a third company, Safbois, they account for over two-thirds of the country's capacity, researchers say. Congo hopes to receive up to $6 billion a year under an international conservation scheme which would provide financial incentives to preserve the forests in the future, the minister said. At the G8 summit in Germany this month, leaders from the world's eight richest countries proposed a Forest Carbon Initiative to give developing countries financial incentives to combat global warming. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L22469293.htm Sudan: 28) Sudan is unlikely to achieve a lasting peace unless it addresses extensive and accelerating environmental damage, a UN report said yesterday. The scarcity of resources has been one of the main causes of unrest in Sudan, said the report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), and desertification and deforestation are long-term problems that may worsen " Ignoring these environmental issues will ensure that some political and social problems remain unsolvable and even likely to worsen, as environmental degradation mounts at the same time as population increases, " the report said. A bitter, decades-long north-south war in Sudan killed 2mn people before a peace deal in 2005. Violence continues in the western region of Darfur, where international experts estimate 200,000 have been killed since 2003. Sudan's various conflicts have forced some 7mn people from their homes and a recent index published by US-based Foreign Policy magazine put the country at the top of a list of the world's most failed states. Current farming methods are rain-fed and poorly managed, leading to large-scale forest clearance, land degradation and loss of wildlife. There has been a loss of nearly 12% of Sudan's forest cover in just 15 years, it said. The total cost of the report's recommendations is about $120mn over three to five years. Sudan's government can meet some if not all of these costs, given that its annual oil exports are expected to pass $5bn in 2006, UNEP said. http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2 & item_no=156698 & version\ =1 & template_id =37 & parent_id=17 Equatorial Guinea: 29) In the rainforests of Equatorial Guinea in Central Africa, a mysterious volcanic crater is home to hundreds of animal and plant species, many of which may be unknown to the scientific world. " We may have brought back about 100 new animal and plant species, " estimates Pablo Cobos, a member in a recent expedition of six Spanish and two Guinean scientists who penetrated into the virtually unexplored Luba crater. " There is a lot left to discover " in the crater located on Bioko, an island belonging to Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony of about half a million residents, Cobos said in a telephone interview. Not only did the Spaniards bring back more than 2,000 animal and plant samples, they were the first humans to penetrate into virginal parts of the crater where not even local people had entered. " Young monkeys approached with curiosity, and the sounds of frogs, insects and other animals changed through the night, " describes Cobos, a specialist on forest diseases and plagues. US scientists have investigated primates in the Luba crater, but the team from Madrid's Polytechnic University says it is the first one to have crossed the crater of an extinguished and partly sunken volcano, which rises about 2,000 metres above the ground. The crater measures 3,000 hectares. To enter, the scientists had to climb down more than a kilometre of an almost vertical crater wall, covered by lush vegetation, with the help of ropes. Being inside felt " as if hundreds of eyes are observing you, following you silently in the undergrowth, " said Ignacio Martin, head of the expedition. No wonder that local residents regard the crater as a dwelling place of spirits. Guides used machetes to open the way in the almost impenetrable jungle where the Spaniards and Guineans braved ants, spiders and a huge snake, which almost attacked them. They set up a camp and used lamps and a white sheet to attract insects, which were to form part of their booty. The Luba crater is as close to unspoiled nature as it gets. One of the rainiest places on earth, it is filled with species which have lived practically isolated for centuries and many of which are endemic to the area. The Spanish expedition brought back about 250 different types of butterflies alone. Its findings also include plants, insects, beetles, crustaceans and amphibians. http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=78436 Colombia: 30) Colombian Amazon based charity 'Entropika', is showcasing 'Spirits of the Forest', a stunning photographic exhibition, from 23rd June until 20th July, at The Living Rainforest, Hampstead Norreys. This series of remarkable images, by Colombian biologist and photographer Nelson H. Pinilla Moreno, explores the traditional belief of the indigenous Tikuna people that ancient, spiritual guardians of the Amazon Rainforest, exist within every living creature and plant. Lisa Mather, The Living Rainforest's Events Officer says 'We are delighted to be exhibiting Nelson's photographs, which will be admired by The Living Rainforest's many visitors over the next month. The new exhibition walkway, opened at The Living Rainforest last year, creates a wonderful backdrop for exhibitions of this kind, exploring the relationships between the rainforests of the world and the indigenous communities who live alongside them. We wish Entropika every success with this exhibition and hope that it will not only raise their profile but also further their conservation aims.' Liz Tyson, Director of Entropika, explains, 'This series of images, developed in conjunction with one of the elders of the San Martin de Amacayacu Tikuna community, attempts to show the spiritual world of the forest via means of photography, creating an interesting and unusual convergence of photographic record and the ancient and intangible beliefs of the Tikuna people. With its focus on sustainability and rainforest conservation, I can think of no better place than the Living Rainforest for the photographs to be seen'. http://www.livingrainforest.org/news/item?id=58 Panama: 31) The World Heritage Committee moved to assess threats to La Amistad International Park, a World Heritage site shared by Panama and Costa Rica, from AES Corporation's planned construction of four hydroelectric dams on the park's border. The decision was based on an April 2007 petition from the Center for Biological Diversity and more than 30 other organizations in the United States, Panama, and Costa Rica. La Amistad is home to more than 215 species of mammals, 600 species of birds, 115 species of fish, and 250 species of reptiles and amphibians, including several hundred plant species and 40 bird species that are found nowhere else in the world. It also supports several indigenous tribal communities that live along its border. The petition says that the planned dams will be built on two rivers originating inside La Amistad--the Changuinola River and the Bonyic River (a tributary of the Teribe River)--and will flood the rivers with large, standing reservoirs. Indigenous villages as well as upstream fish migration could be impacted by the projects. " These projects would be detrimental to indigenous cultures which have historically been affected by proposals for supposed ‘development, " said Ezequiel Miranda, a community leader living near La Amistad. " In fact, the reservoirs will flood several villages along the Changuinola River, effectively displacing several hundred Ngobe indigenous peoples. And the dams would have massive negative impacts on many diadromous species of fish and shrimp living in the rivers, which migrate between fresh- and saltwater to complete their life cycles. The dams will end this migration. " http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0626-panama.html Brazil: 32) Monkey researcher Marc van Roosmalen, sentenced to 14 years in prison, seems on the face of it to be a victim of bureaucracy. The primatologist has been living and working for years in the Amazon. He has even discovered several new species of monkey, one of which reminded him of Prince Bernhard. He named it " Callicebus Bernhardi " and five years ago he visited Soestdijk Palace to inform the prince in person. Meanwhile, he was expanding his activities. He no longer merely hunted for new species of plants and animals, but increasingly turned his attention to the protection of the Brazilian rainforest. It is his campaigning activities and his enthusiasm that have been his undoing, says David van Gennip, director of the AAP Foundation, an animal refuge in Almere: he was " a pain in the ass " particularly for logging and soybean companies with major interests in the Brazilian rainforest. Bert de Boer, director of Apenheul, a zoo and conservation organisation in Apeldoorn, describes Mr Van Roosmalen as " A great conservationist, and passionate with it. These are both things you have to be very cautious about in Brazil. " He suspects that the big companies have bribed the government to act against the vociferous biologist. It was easy to find a reason to take legal action against Van Roosmalen. He was accused of failing to apply for a permit for the monkey refuge at his home. This meant that the 28 orphaned monkeys he was keeping there were technically stolen. He was accused of monkey theft and biopiracy and sentenced to 14 years in prison. He is appealing against the sentence. http://www.radionetherlands.nl/currentaffairs/bra070622 Peru: 33) The Herald's Tyler Bridges visits the Amazon basin in Peru for a glimpse at the immense wave of tree-cutting in tropical regions. It is a story many reporters have tackled. Bridges includes all the usual themes of poverty, illegal (as well as unwise but legal) logging, development of vast farms where jungles once stood, and preservationists trying hard to make forest protection a money maker. The main news peg here is that deforestation now accounts for about 20 percent of the extra carbon going into the atmosphere, augmentingt all that fossil fuel exhaust. It's a good and useful story. However, one wonders whether one downside — greenhouse gas buildup — is being over-applied to all categories of deforestation. Reporters need to be careful not to let sources tar too many things with too few brushes. How much, for instance, does logging really contribute to greenhouse gases? Maybe a lot, but surely it is less than felling trees and simply burning them to clear land for agriculture. That is, timber still has some of its carbon somewhat sequestered: as furniture, construction lumber, paper that winds up in landfills, and the like. If one turns a forest into lumber, and then grows crops (or another round of trees) on the land that suck a new load of carbon from the air, that's bad for biodiversity but at least it is a net carbon sink…maybe? http://ksjtracker.mit.edu/?p=3353 India: 34) One of the richest biodiversity zones in Uttarakhand may be under threat due to a ban on recruitment of forest guards, with large tracts of land with exotic flora and fauna being patrolled by an ageing and overworked force. According to sources, the ban on recruitment since 1990 has led to paucity of young and fit guards, forcing the forest department to entrust additional responsibilities to the already overworked 2,300 forest guards, 80 per cent of whom are aged 50 years or more. " Since the ban on recruitments in 1990, no new appointments have taken place, " Additional Secretary for Forests B B Gupta said. A single guard is made to patrol as much as 1,500 hectares of difficult hilly terrain. The guards look after 3,4662 sq km of forests, 24,000 hectares of which fall within reserved forests. Despite the mandatory working time of eight hours a day, the guards sometimes have to be on duty for 24 hours, sources said. The guards are also asked to pay fines for mishaps or any untoward incidents, they said. As the administration drags its feet on new recruitments, lethargy and apathy has set in among the guards, they said. In the last few years, fires engulfed large tracts of forests, according to the forest department. In 2004, around 4,800 hectares of forests were devastated by fire. In 2005, 3,652 hectares were destroyed and another 562 hectares in 2006. This year, 565 hectares of forest land were reduced to ashes till the end of May. Alarmed forest experts from the Wildlife Institute said the situation can improve if a single guard is entrusted the responsibility of patrolling 15 sq km instead of 1,500 hectares. http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/004200706250322.htm 35) Most of the major national dailies missed this news, and it barely registered even in regional papers: On June 18, a tribal, Jeevan Munda, was beaten to death by three forest guards at Hazaribagh National Park in Jharkhand, on the mere suspicion that he may have cut a tree. The 'evidence' of this offence was that Munda possessed (The horror! The horror!) a wooden cot. The forest guards dragged Munda out of his home and into the forest to 'interrogate' him regarding this 'grave offence'. His body, with signs of beating, was subsequently recovered from the woods. Local reports suggest that the Forest Department has 'agreed to pay' a princely sum of Rs 10,000 for Munda's last rites, and a 'compensation' of Rs 200 per month (for an unspecified period) to his widow, Etwaria. That, then, is still the worth of at least some lives in 'resurgent India'. This is not a unique case of excess, though it would be one of the more extreme in the tribal and hinterland areas of this country - particularly in central and eastern India. The quotidian and appalling oppression of the Indian state is so pervasive that the Muria tribals of Bastar have a saying that goes something like this: " Heaven is a forest of miles and miles of mahua trees. And hell is a forest of miles and miles of mahua trees with a forest guard in it. " http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist & file_name=kps\ gill%2Fkpsgill30 ..txt & writer=kpsgill Bangladesh: 36) DHAKA: The head conservationist at the world's largest mangrove forest, the Sunderbans, has been arrested as part of a major anti-corruption crackdown by the Bangladeshi government, police said yesterday. Shaikh Mizanur Rahman, who stands accused of illegally selling timber and other forest resources, was detained during a raid late Sunday on his home in the southern city of Khulna, local police chief Azam Khan said. The Sunderbans is a Unesco world heritage site made up of around 200 lush forested islands separated by a complex network of hundreds of tidal rivers and creeks. The area is home to the endangered Royal Bengal tiger, and covers some 5,800sq km (3,590sq miles), about 40% of which is in India. Reports said Rahman and three other forest officials, who were also detained in raids late Sunday, faced allegations of making millions of dollars in a scam to commercially exploit the protected area. Environmentalists say timber thieves strip Bangladeshi forests of millions of dollars worth of trees each year, sometimes in connivance with forestry officials. An estimated 70,000 hectares (172,900 acres) is lost annually to illegal logging and other causes of deforestation such as urbanisation and the demand for agricultural land. Experts predict that if deforestation continues at the same rate, Bangladesh will have lost all forest cover within 40 years - threatening a range of bird, animal and plant species. http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2 & item_no=157239 & version\ =1 & template_id= 44 & parent_id=24 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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