Guest guest Posted August 6, 2007 Report Share Posted August 6, 2007 Today for you 37 new articles about earth's trees! (219th edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com . --British Columbia: 1) Canada devoid of any moral centre, 2) Chapman Creek blockade, 3) Western Forest products backs down, 4) EBM scamanagement, --Washington: 5) Larch lovers, 6) Post logging life in the town of forks, --Oregon: 7) Wallowa-Whitman NF timber sales challenged, 8) Blame it on another owl, --California: 9) Sierra Business Council, 10) A wilderness paradise, 11) Trashing out city owned forest for MAXXAM / PL, --Idaho: 12) New director of the Bureau of Land Management is former Idaho swindler --Minnesota: 13) Preparing for the next Million Acres of family forest land --Colorado: 14) Outbreaks are part of a natural cycle --Massachusetts: 15) Save trees and wetlands in Northampton --New York: 16) Nature Conservancy paying the bills with real estate development --UK: 17) Humans to be 'junk' DNA implanted in trees --EU: 18) Save oaks by sticking a real cork in it --Nigeria: 19) Only 10% of the rainforest now remains --Uganda: 20) Families encroach on forest reserves, 21) Viagra tree threatened, --South Africa: 22) Timber prices to rise due to forest fires --Mexico: 23) Loggers who murdered enviro are jailed --Guatemala: 24) Scarlet Macaw protection attempts via radio tracking --South America: 25) Massive pipeline plans start to fall apart --Guyana: 26) Iwokrama rainforest --India: 27) Meghalayas forests is new US uranium supply, 28) 22 dams for Sikkim, 29) locals outraged at contractors felling trees in the cover of darkness, --China: 30) China a leader in green deserts, 31) Pristine island no longer pristine, --Korea: 32) Man who cut down WWII slogan trees is executed --Thailand: 33) Foiling an attempt to smuggle 1,300 illegal logs, 34) Reforestation, --Borneo: 35) Ulu Segama-Malua forests restoration project gets US funding --Australia: 36) Black Box eucalyptus and river gums are thirsty, 37)Leadbeater possum, British Columbia: 1) It's clear to me now, after hearing the " leaders " and " elders " from Huu-ay-aht and Tsawwassen comment on the ratification votes in their communities, that this issue of treaty-making is far beyond politics or even rationality. These agreements make no political or financial sense from a First Nations perspective, yet they are being ratified nonetheless. Why? Because First Nations will simply do whatever it takes, including surrendering their lands and sacred heritage of nationhood, to shed themselves of their Indigenous past in the hopes of becoming acceptable to the white society. Canadians are once again preying on the original peoples of this land, this time not stealing, raping and brainwashing their children, but lying and manipulating in a different way to the same ends as in previous times: Stealing land and destroying culture. If Canada were a country with a moral centre, its citizens would not be celebrating the achievements of the B.C. treaty process; they would be shouting out in anger against the immoral actions of their governments and the fact that they are taking advantage of weakened peoples who are in the midst of social and spiritual crises to enrich themselves, yet again. --Taiaiake Alfred,, Indigenous Governance Programs, University of Victoria. http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/letters/story.html?id=163db306-\ d98e-456f-bc30-7 cd1563e6ebb 2) More than 40 protesters blockaded a road in Sechelt, B.C., on Wednesday, saying logging in the Chapman Creek watershed threatens their water supply. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2007/08/01/bc-protest.html Angry residents in Sechelt spent Saturday protesting logging in a local watershed. About 300 people crowded the Chapman Bridge carrying signs, chanting and drumming, all in an effort to draw attention to logging in the Chapman Watershed by Western Forest Products. Debbie Lucyk says residents are very concerned about contaminants entering the drinking water, " That's where people's concerns are, and the whole idea of logging in a watershed doesn't sit well with the public. " The Sunshine Coast Regional District will hold public hearings until August 11th to determine if logging in the area should stop permanently. Until that decision is made, Western Forest Products has stopped its operations in that area. http://www.cknw.com/news/news_local.cfm?cat=7428109912 & rem=71660 & red=80110923aPB\ Iny & wids=410 & gi =1 & gm=news_local.cfm 3) Western Forest Products has voluntarily halted its logging operation in the Chapman Creek Watershed. Sunshine Coast Regional District Chairman Ed Steeves made the announcement at 5:00 pm this afternoon to demonstrators waiting outside the Board's meeting room. The SCRD called an emergency meeting at 10:00 this morning to discuss in camera the public's increasing vocal demand that the Board of Health issue an immediate stop work order to WFP. Demonstrators believe the motion passed by Gibsons Town Council earlier in the morning imploring the SCRD Board to immediately iissue a stop work order had an impact. According to demonstrators, the SCRD alternated its role as regional government and as a Health Board throughout the 7 hour meeting. Western Forest Products will now halt all logging operations in the watershed until August 11th when the SCRD Board of Health will meet to make a final ruling as to whether logging in the watershed is a threat to public health. It is felt by many that the young people who have gone up into the logging operation on a daily basis regardless of the injunction has influenced WFP's decision. This first major victory will be celebrated at tomorrow's demonstration at the Chapman Creek Bridge. That demonstration gets underway at 11:00 am. Everyone is encouraged to attend. http://www.saveourwatershed.com/2007/08/western-forest-products-halts-watershed.\ html 4) I just read through the " South Central Coast Ministerial Order " in which the Agriculture Minister??! Pat Bell finally spells out the foundational principles for the exalted " EBM. " This cheesy document is so full of weasel-words it looks like a piece of Swiss cheese. The most common phrase in the whole paper is " to the extent practicable, " - code-speak for " at the logging company's discretion. " A significant chunk of this propaganda paper is devoted to the issue of " culturally modified trees " but there's not a single mention of dates associated with the modifications, so this whole section is a scam. Currently, in BC CMT's are only protectable if they can be proven to have been modified prior to the colonial date of 1846, whereupon they can be accorded archaeological artifact status. Otherwise they are loggable. Having done increment coring of CMT's here on the coast, it is very difficult to prove dates prior to 1846, and of course, the valid cultural use of these forests has never ended. The 1846 date is utterly indefensible, and IMHO all CMT's, even those peeled, planked or resin-bored to this day are forests that must be protected. People, using traditional methods, have been fully functioning participants in these magnificent eco-systems since they began to evolve here, and theirs are the proven, only sustainable management syst ems... I never cease to be amazed by the shoddy depths of this EBM scam which has been designed and endorsed by Greenpeace, Sierra Club of BC, ForestEthics and RAN. Having just travelled by ferry yesterday down Dean Channel between Bella Coola and Bella Bella and seen that dreadful 1980-s style clearcutting that is eating away at the forests to this day, I can only feel ever more contempt for this rotten GBR deal. -- Ingmar Lee ingmarz Washington: 5) There, at an elevation of 6,300 feet, he found the treasure he sought: a grove of burnished larches. " I gave out one huge yell: 'All right!' " said Mr. Harrett, 54, who was leading an outdoors club on a photography tour. Mr. Harrett is not alone in his devotion to the alpine larch, an elusive tree found at high elevations on the east side of the North Cascade Range and in the Rocky Mountains in Washington, Idaho, Montana, British Columbia and Alberta. The typical alpine larch, which is also called Western tamarack and mountain larch, is less than 50 feet tall. With fuzzy needles, gnarled branches and reptilian bark, it sometimes resembles a Dr. Seuss creation. Larches and bald cypresses are the only deciduous conifers in North America; the larch has needles like a typical evergreen but drops them in autumn like leaves. The effect is considered so breathtaking that thousands of hikers in Washington and Western Canada plan annual pilgrimages to drink in the transformation. But what is it about the alpine larch that sparks such passion? " To see the larches, you have to get up to the highest peaks, " said Alan Yen, a 38-year-old software technologist at the University of Washington in Seattle who once hiked 16 miles in a single day — a jaunt that included a 5,000-foot gain in elevation — to see the larches at Enchantment Lakes, a well-known alpine basin also in the North Cascades. Like mountain goats, alpine larches cling to the rocks at the very top of the tree line. And the riot of blueberry bushes, whose leaves turn blood red in October, provide a perfect counterpoint to the larch gold. One recent weekend, I focused on a cluster of five trails that sit between the Rainy and Washington Passes, about three and half hours from Seattle. The trailheads are off the North Cascades Highway, within about five miles of one another. The entire experience feels vaguely foreign, maybe even mystical. You're moving through a remote mountain landscape, putting the inevitable evergreens behind you, and looking out for a tree that has an eccentric shape and color. You almost feel as if you should be in Asia, within striking distance of the Himalayas, where the alpine larch also grows. http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/10/27/travel/escapes/27larch.html?fta=y 6) The town of Forks, Wash., on the rain-drenched western side of the Olympic Peninsula, is a four-hour trip by road and ferry from Seattle. Billing itself as the " Logging Capital of the World, " it was a big-eating, hard-drinking town — one of many in the state that kept Seattle supplied with the timber on which the city's early wealth was based. Seattle's sawmills and shipyards grew fat on logs trucked east from Forks, and when William Boeing built his first planes, their delicate frames were fashioned by yacht builders out of Peninsula spruce. The twin successes of Seattle and Forks went hand in hand, until the city and the town went through a bitter divorce. When I first drove through Forks in 1990, plaintive yard signs read, " This Family Lives on Timber Dollars " ; bumper stickers asked, " Are You an Environmentalist or Do You Work for a Living? " and offered recipes for how best to roast or fry the northern spotted owl. The owl's listing as a threatened species and the subsequent restrictions on logging on federal lands were widely seen on the Peninsula as the heartless work of condo-dwelling zealots in Seattle. The city that Forks had helped make rich appeared intent on beggaring Forks with a doctrinaire belief in the inviolable sanctity of the forest understory. To environmentalists, the forest was ecologically essential, irreplaceable, beyond price; Forks clung ever more stubbornly to the notion that it was a " renewable resource, " to be priced in board-feet, cut down and replanted. Forks slumped. Suddenly there was hardly a logging truck to be seen on Route 101, and the town's once-busy main street became a battered colonnade of crumbling facades and closed businesses. This street is still all that most Seattle tourists, en route to the rain forest or resorts on the coast, ever see of Forks, as they brake for its lone stoplight. I've been asking Seattleites to name the first word that comes to mind when I mention Forks: answers include " forlorn, " " Godforsaken " and " ugly. " Yet turn off the main street, past the small high school, home of the aptly named Forks Spartans, and you find yourself in a pleasant grid of spacious bungalows, fresh paint, trim lawns and palpable neighborliness — exactly the kind of intimate, self-contained rural community (with a huge village store named Forks Outfitters) for which jaded urbanites profess nostalgia. Since the near-collapse of the timber industry in the town, increased tourism and the nearby jail have taken up much slack in the local economy. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/opinion/05raban.html Oregon: 7) Two environmental groups sued the Forest Service on Thursday, seeking to block three timber sales in Union County, the first of which the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest sold Thursday morning to a Central Oregon logging company. The plaintiffs are Hells Canyon Preservation Council of La Grande, and Oregon Wild of Portland. The groups are contesting the Bald Angel project, which consists of three timber sales several miles east of Medical Springs, said Larry McLaud, ecosystem conservation coordinator for the Hells Canyon Preservation Council. Dodge Logging of Maupin bought the first of those sales, called Bald Angel, on Thursday, paying $285,250 for about 3 million board-feet of timber, said Carla Monismith, the Wallowa-Whitman's timber sales officer. Bald Angel is the first of three timber sales the Wallowa-Whitman intends to sell in a 36,700-acre area between Medical Springs and Eagle Creek. An auction for the second sale, called Smith, is tentatively set for mid to late September, Monismith said. Wallowa-Whitman officials intend to offer the third sale, called Cold Angel, next spring. McLaud said the plaintiffs have several concerns about the Bald Angel project, including the Wallowa-Whitman's plan to allow logging in an old-growth forest, and the forest's proposal to build 1.6 miles of road in an area where, the plaintiffs contend, the current road network is so dense that it degrades habitat for elk and other big game animals. According to the lawsuit, the Bald Angel project violates the National Environmental Policy Act and National Forest Management Act because, the plaintiffs contend, the Wallowa-Whitman failed to adequately study how logging could affect several animals, including elk, goshawks, pileated woodpeckers and pine martens. The Wallowa-Whitman, by contrast, concluded in its study of the Bald Angel area that forests there are overcrowded and thus susceptible to insects, disease and wildfire. http://www.bakercityherald.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=5140 8) Last Sunday the Oregonian published an article, " So much for saving the spotted owl. " http://bark-out.org/content/article.php?section=feature & id=387 The focus of the story is the increasing populations of the barred owl to Pacific Northwest forests. The barred owl is displacing northern spotted owls at an increasing rate, but the Oregonian makes it sound like " everybody did the right thing " to try and save the owl, and now we should just throw up our hands. Don't let the Oregonian get away with this! Write a letter to the editor and set the story straight. Before the Forest Service starts promoting killing barred owls, Bark suggests they try: 1) Stop logging spotted owl habitat! Mt. Hood National Forest and surrounding Bureau of Land Management forests currently have plans to log over 2,300 acres of nesting/roosting/foraging habitat for spotted owls. 2) Stop logging old growth! Right now dozens of timber sales in Oregon target old-growth - critical for spotted owls. 3) Stop using spotted owl habitat as a reason for logging! (sound crazy? see hike description below) It's as easy as: 1) Write your letter: You only have 150 words to express your concern about the article, so keep it simple. 2) Send it in! E-mail your letter to letters. 3) E-mail Bark and let us know you sent it! Email a copy of your letter to amy. This way we can keep track of how many get printed. California: 9) The Sierra Business Council begins their Sustaining Sierra Forests Event Series on Thursday, August 16th at Heavenly Ski Resort and joins key players, Bernie Weingardt (Regional Forester, U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region), and Jay Vestal (VP, National Forest Foundation) in an afternoon discussing exciting new partnerships and opportunities, and proactive solutions to the challenges facing the region's forest ecosystems and communities. Celebrate the launch of the new $1 for the Sierra program and the signing of the first ecosystem services MOU between the U.S. Forest Service and non-profit business partner, the Sierra Business Council. In addition, the State of the Sierra Forests report and a new online tool, Thriving Forests Compendium will be presented. The information focuses on the challenges and opportunities for a new forest economy, covering topics such as catastrophic wildfire, rapid residential development, carbon sequestration, climate change, sustainable forest management for timber, small diameter wood utilization, local branding and marketing of timber, biomass, and much more. The Sierra Business Council is the only business organization serving the entire Sierra Nevada region. We are a nonprofit association of more than 700 businesses, agencies, and individual members committed to promoting a new perspective on regional wealth while emphasizing collaboration in planning and policy making. SBC's mission is to secure the social, natural, and financial health of the Sierra Nevada for this and future generations. To help build a prosperous, sustainable future for the region, our projects focus on community-based planning, conservation, leadership development, and sustainable business and development practices. http://www.highsierratopix.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=2162 10) Between these two massive mountain ridges, the Sierra Crest near Mount Whitney to the east above Lone Pine, and the Great Western Divide to the west above the San Joaquin Valley, you can scan across a wilderness paradise that spans more than 1,000 square miles. I call this the " Cradle of the Sierra " because it is nestled between the two crests. Reaching the heart of it requires a long trek, 30 miles from a trailhead. The most remote river canyon in the Lower 48, the headwaters of the Kern runs through this mountain cradle. A trek here can reveal the towering canyon rims, ancient virgin forests, pristine lakes and creeks, waterfalls and hot springs, and wildlife for which each visitor is a curiosity, not a threat. The trout fishing in the remote Kern can be the best of any in the American wilderness. The streams are the purest in California. People are scarce and litter nonexistent. But to get here, you have to earn it. We proposed an expedition into the heart of this landscape: a 70-mile crossing of the Sierra Nevada from east to west, as the first pioneers and trailblazers would have seen it. We would start at the flank of Mount Whitney in the eastern Sierra, hike up the Sierra Crest and down canyons to the Kern River, and then trek up and over the Great Western Divide and down to Mineral King at the foot of the western Sierra. Michael Furniss, a Forest Service hydrologist and time-tested fellow adventurer, would be our science adviser and photographer. Brother Bob " Rambob'' Stienstra, who's saved my bacon on more than one outing, was in charge of food and cookware. We were aware that we would be walking in the footsteps of trailblazers, pioneers and explorers. Imagine coming from the East across the Great Basin in the 1850s, approaching the southern Sierra Nevada at 14,497-foot Mount Whitney, and then saying, " Now what do we do? " For years, Furniss, Rambob and I have been intoxicated by the vision of this Sierra crossing, east to west, searching for the routes of the trailblazers, and hiking, camping, and fishing in the heart of the Sierra Cradle and the Kern River. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/05/SIERRA.TMP 11) ARCATA – For its monthly public meeting last Thursday morning, the Forest Management Committee toured an area of the Arcata Community Forest designated for timber harvest this summer. The harvest will consist of about 200,000 board feet of second-growth redwood, plus about 20,000 board feet of " blowdown " – trees knocked down in heavy weather. Logging will be performed by Ferndale-based Diamond R Ranch for a fee of $34,000. The Pacific Lumber Company's bid of $225,000 bested Simpson Timber's $203,000 offer for the resulting timber, and Palco's bid was accepted by the City Council at the council's July 18 meeting. No specific date has been set for the harvest, which will mostly take place in a sloped area west of Trail 8 and north of Trail 14. Expected to take about five days, it will require closure of Trail 8 during logging operations. Tractors and skidders will remove the logged trees, utilizing skid roads from previous harvests in the ACF, which was first logged in the 1800s.The harvest will be an individual selection cut, which means specific trees have been designated for harvest by Environmental Services Director Mark Andre. Three-fourths of the trees are over 40 inches in diameter, which produces more usable timber and fetches higher prices. Many are double-trees – two trees growing from a common base, with one of the pair marked blue for cutting. Andre said the selected removals will thin out dense areas and open up the forest canopy, allowing in more sunlight and stimulating new growth. Much of the FMC's attention over the past several years has involved re-introducing some semblance of natural " chaos " into the forest, areas of which still suffer from lack of species diversity and even-age tree stands – a legacy from aggressive harvests conducted prior to development of contemporary sustainable management standards. http://www.arcataeye.com/index.php?module=Pagesetter & tid=2 & topic=3 & func=viewpub & \ pid=671 & format= full Idaho: 12) On July 25, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved the nomination of James Caswell to be the new director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Caswell is a noted critic of the Roadless Rule. For the last 6 1/2 years, Caswell has led Idaho's Office of Species Conservation, where he drafted the state's plans for killing wolves and weakening protections for roadless wilderness. A new draft rule from the Bush administration would once again diminish protections for wolves under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and threaten endangered wolf recovery efforts in the northern Rockies. The new rule would significantly broaden the circumstances under which wolves can be killed allowing the states to kill more than half of the approximately 1,300 wolves in the region today prior to their delisting. The new rule is ardently opposed by wildlife conservation groups in the region. The Idaho roadless petition falls far short of the current protection roadless areas enjoy in Idaho under the reinstated Roadless Rule of 2001. http://www.americanlands.org Minnesota: 13) This summer I am working with others to plan a fall conference to check in on progress towards an ambitious goal to increase by one million the number of acres of family forest land under stewardship by 2015. This goal, along with a four-part action plan, was first articulated and adopted in May of last year at the " Next Million Acres " conference held at Saint John's University. On September 12-13, we will reconvene at Saint John's for Family Forest Stewardship: Sustaining our Commitment, Advancing the Agenda to share news and updates on progress, and strategize for the months ahead. I hope you'll join us. We heard at the 2006 conference that success in improving stewardship on more family forest land will require a comprehensive approach that addresses three key challenges: 1) Engaging family forest landowners, 2) Protecting the forest land base from development and parcelization and 3) Assuring stewardship with competent and meaningful advice and assistance. http://vfvc.wordpress.com/2007/08/02/gearing-up-for-the-2007-family-forest-stewa\ rdship-confere nce-and-the-2008-legislative-session/ Colorado: 14) Dominik Kulakowski, professor of geography and biology at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., said the outbreak is part of a natural cycle and people who live and hike in the Rocky Mountains need to get used to the views of dead trees. He said there is a higher risk of a wildfire, but it's due to a long-term, historic drought and not because of the pine beetles. About 44 percent of the state's 1.5 million acres of lodgepole pine are now infested by beetles, or about 660,000 acres. This year, the state will spend $1 million in matching funds to help local projects to remove infested trees, especially those near watersheds, to help prevent wildfires from triggering erosion and from dropping ash in rivers and reservoirs. With all but 100,000 acres of the dead trees on federal land, the bulk of the thinning falls to the U.S. Forest Service, which plans to treat 18,000 acres of dead trees this year. Kulakowski said pine beetles and pine trees have coexisted for centuries and there is no evidence they significantly increase the fire danger. He said the latest wave of pine beetles, which have been moving south since the 1990s, has destroyed about half of the stands of trees. Others who are monitoring the latest outbreak say they expect up to 90 percent of the lodgepole pines will be dead in two years. " We're going to have to get used to the way the lodgepole looks. It will take decades for them to return, possibly even a century, " Kulakowski said. He said homeowners should replace lost trees with trees that are not susceptible to bark beetles and remove dead and dying trees that are near buildings. Fry said it's natural for residents and visitors to want to do something to stop the beetle's march, but he said overreacting could make matters worse by squandering limited resources and compromising the long-term health of forests. He said environmentalists are worried about the roads that would need to be cut to get to the trees and the impact it would have on water quality and wildlife. Fry pointed to a patch of forest that had been clear cut by the Forest Service and noted that about half of the lodgepole pines still died. " It didn't help, " he said. Barry Smith, emergency services director for Eagle County, said it's impractical to cut down the dead trees and that, in some cases, it's banned because of wilderness rules. He said he is also worried about erosion if the trees are cut down. http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070804/NEWS/70804005 Massachusetts: 15) The North Street Neighborhood Association is sponsoring a petition drive to save trees and wetlands in Northampton, Massachusetts. The drive, which has already garnered hundreds of signatures in this Western Massachusetts city of 29,000, calls on the mayor and city council to require public reviews before " significant trees " are cut down. It also calls for new development to leave a 100-foot buffer zone around wetlands unless extraordinary circumstances apply. Despite acknowledging the fragility and value of wetlands, the city is actively considering laws to encourage new development to encroach as close as 10 feet to wetlands in downtown districts. The association's petition asks the following of Mayor Clare Higgins and the Northampton City Council: 1) Pass an ordinance to protect " significant trees " , such that all " significant trees " , whether on public or private land, may not be cut down in whole or substantial part without permission from the Northampton Tree Committee or other appropriate official body. A significant tree is one which is 75 years old or older, or is 3 or more feet in diameter at chest height. The Tree Committee would take into account whether the tree is diseased, damaged, or poses a danger to people or property, and whether not taking action on the tree would impose a hardship on the property owner that exceeds the public's interest in preserving the tree. 2) Revise Northampton's wetlands protection ordinance to emphasize that new development should not occur within 100 feet of a wetland in any part of the city unless exceptional circumstances apply, such as the property owner demonstrating to the city that their hardship in being restrained from development exceeds the public's interest in protecting wetlands. Petition forms and background information are available at http://www.NorthAssoc.org New York: 16) SARANAC LAKE — The Nature Conservancy may sell chunks of the newly acquired Finch-Pruyn lands in an effort to recoup part of the $110 million it borrowed to acquire 160,000 acres. " Part of the long-range planning for the property may include selling some portions of the land, " said Connie Prickett, communications manager for the Adirondack chapter of the Conservancy. Five timber investment management organizations, or TIMOs, have expressed interest in purchasing parts of the land, according to Prickett. " There is active timbering going on now, " she said. What might change, she said, is that rather than hold contracts for harvesting, the Conservancy would sell parcels of the property outright to the TIMOs. She said the Conservancy leveraged the entire purchase, and sought to repay at least a portion of the debt as quickly as possible. Massive fundraising efforts are under way to protect as much of the land as possible according to Prickett, but more money could be needed in less time than fundraising alone can afford. John Davis, conservation director of the Adirondack Council approached the issue with caution. He said that Finch-Pruyn was " exceptionally gentle and sustainable " in their logging activities on the lands now owned by the Conservancy. " (The Conservancy) should probably hold onto all the lands, excepting any the state might want to buy to add to the Forest Preserve until completing careful biological surveys and assessments of the holdings drafting biological conservation plans, " he said. Prickett said that process is under way. " Scientists are in the throes of rapid ecological assessment, " she said. " We're science driven. " http://www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/news/articles.asp?articleID=8077 UK: 17) To replace the unused " junk " DNA in trees with entire human genomes, two art students are planning to grow trees containing the genetic identity of human beings. Scientists have advised the pair that it is perfectly feasible. The " humanised " trees would be unaffected by the change, but still carry the biological essence of the DNA donors. One possibility envisaged is that the trees could replace gravestones as a way of preserving the memory of loved ones, says a report in The Telegraph. According to the report, Georg Tremmel, an Austrian studying design at the Royal College of Art in London and a Japanese colleague, Shiho Fukahara, hope to create the first hybrid trees within a year. " Life is DNA, " said Tremmel, " The basic idea is that if you can pass your DNA into a tree you would have another chance to prolong your life in storage. " http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=fa596806-8104-4986-99c\ 1-0febdc396c69 & ParentID=de8703d4-2bf4-42ce-881e-fb87a9721312 & & Headline=Live+longer+through+tree\ s EU: 18) If you buy a bottle of wine with a metal screw-top or a plastic cork, you won't just be thumbing your nose at tradition. You may also be dooming the world's cork forests. Alternative 'corks' are ever more common, as synthetic and aluminum wine closures have grabbed a 20 percent share of the market, up from just 2 percent in 2000, according to wine industry consultant Stephane Rein of Rein Consulting. She says that could increase to 35 percent by the end of the decade. " Silicone corks are not a problem for quality wines, they'll always use cork, " said Battista Giannottu, an agronomist who works with a consortium representing Sardinia's cork producers. " But the mass market, which is 80 percent of the total, might (use synthetic corks). The way cork is harvested -- shaved off the sides of trees like the way a sheep is shorn -- means forests continue to thrive as they give up their valuable bark. In Sardinia, the only region in Italy that produces cork, the forests are a haven for wild boar, a species of hawk native to the island and Sardinian deer. The highly endangered Iberian lynx roams the cork forests of Spain and Portugal, the global leader in cork production; in North Africa the forests provide a habitat for Barbary deer. A cork oak must be at least 30 years old before the first harvest and, even then, the gnarled, porous 'virgin cork' is not good enough to make wine closures. It will take another 10 years for the bark to grow back and be good enough to make corks. That means a poor rate of return compared with other trees which might be planted in such areas, such as the fast-growing eucalyptus which competes with cork oaks for land. " It isn't a tree which gives a lot of one thing -- it gives a little of a lot of things, " said Nora Berrahmouni of WWF, an environmental group working to protect cork forest habitats. The undergrowth is a patchwork of fragrant shrubs, including ones that produce the myrtle, a berry gathered to make Sardinia's liqueur Mirto -- an extra source of forest income. But cork producers and environmentalists are fighting back. Aiming to cash in on the demand for 'green' products, they have started to produce corks certified 'environmentally friendly' under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) scheme, an 'eco-label' system already widespread for timber products. http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews & storyID=2\ 007-08-05T231854 Z_01_L06637298_RTRIDST_0_LIFESTYLE-CORK-COL.XML Nigeria: 19) " Nigeria is a beautiful, stunning country, with wonderful, friendly people, but there are no supermarkets as we know them here, and no straight, smooth roads to get to them. Nothing is 'just so' in Nigeria as it is here, " said Nicky. After spending two years in Ghana, conserving sacred sections of forest, Nicky decided to dedicate the next four years of her life to working in the Centre for Education, Research and Conservation of Primates and Nature (Cercopan), close to the eastern edge of Nigeria's coast in Iko Easi. The centre, which was also Nicky's home throughout her four years in Nigeria, comprised a 3,000 hectare campsite surrounded by Nigeria's tropical rainforest – an area so rich in wildlife and plant species that it is rivalled only by its South American counterpart. More than half of Nigeria's endangered species live in the forest, as well as 132 species of protected trees and 6,000 different varieties of plants. But despite the area being protected by strict conservation laws, only 10% of the rainforest now remains due to years of deforestation by its indigenous people trying to earn a living in an otherwise barren landscape. In Nigeria, the cost of living is high – basics like school and medicine must be paid for, and cutting down the rainforest provides fertile soil for crops. Yields can double in size using newly-cleared land compared to areas not naturally occupied by the forest or land that was cleared several years ago, and hunting the forest's monkeys provides an income so high that it is difficult for the natives to turn down. And as the natives rarely leave the forest, they cannot see this type of farming and hunting is unsustainable nor the depletion it has caused. Nicky said, " The locals know no other way of life, they have no income. But as Nigeria is a polygamist society, there are often 12 mouths in every family to feed, so who can blame them when they know of no other way to earn a living? " http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_headline=the-monkey-mother & \ method=full & obj ectid=19568005 & siteid=50082-name_page.html Uganda: 20) Over 500 families have encroached on the 15 government forest reserves in Kibaale district, an official has said. Wilson Kyamuhondeire, the district forest officer, on Thursday said between 1,500-2,000 encroachers came from Kabale, Kasese and Bundibugyo districts. He said they had encroached on Kangombe and Gramua forest reserves. Kyamuhondeire was concerned that some of the encroachers had built permanent houses and were grazing animals in the reserves. He warned that the residents had threatened to attack the encroaching families. The district LC5 chairman, George William Namyaka, said the councillors had passed a resolution to evict the encroachers but were awaiting approval by the Government. " We are ready to assist the National Forestry Authority to evict these people, " he said. The lands state minister, Dr. Kasirivu Atwooki, promised that the encroachers would soon be evicted. http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/579672 21) " It [the tree] is like a natural Viagra, " said Hannington Oryem- Orida, a professor of botany at Makerere University. " Because of its enormous medicinal properties, the tree is being harvested faster than it can reproduce, thus threatening its long-term survival. " The " sex tree " , or Citropsis articulata, is popular among Ugandans for its aphrodisiac properties, said Professor Oryem-Orida, who was part of the team that carried out a research study on medicinal plants in Mabira Forest, one of Uganda's most important natural forests. The results of the study were published by both the Uganda Journal in 2005 and the African Academy of Sciences in 2002. Researchers spent months in Mabira forest documenting medicinal plants commonly used in the treatment of various ailments. The Omuboro grows naturally in tropical forests where locals uproot it to extract the roots, its most valuable part. " Locals strip the tree of all its roots, leaving it with no chance of survival, " said Professor Oryem-Orida. " It is hard to recover lost stock because of its slow growth. " The roots are either chewed while fresh or dried and pounded into powder, which is then mixed with water to form an aphrodisiac concoction. Although there have not been any chemical tests by the National Chemotherapeutics Laboratory to determine the effectiveness of the aphrodisiac, local people maintain that they have been using the extraction for ages to boost their sexual prowess. " I take it whenever I feel that my energies have gone down, " said Edward Katumba, a resident of the area. But scientists fear that the tree's medicinal benefits, other than treating sexual impotence, may be lost if the stock is depleted too quickly. Another tree, Prunus africana, locally known as Omulondo, is also facing extinction because it is used to treat prostate cancer. Poor harvesting methods, coupled with slow growth and limited habitats, are the reasons that scientists say are responsible for the ever- increasing depletion of natural medicine from Uganda's forests. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2809200.ece South Africa: 22) Pretoria - The huge fires that raged through forest plantations in Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and Swaziland will worsen the shortage of timber, increasing log prices and building costs. Lance Cooper, the chief executive of timber firm York, said yesterday that log prices at Komatiland Forests (KLF) were due to increase by 23 percent from today. Leslie Mudimeli, a KLF spokesperson, said the firm had an open timber sales process and contract arrangement. Prices were being negotiated but he was unaware of the percentage increase. The increase was driven by the booming construction industry, and was not related to the fires. KLF supplies more than half of the logs for the northern part of South Africa. Mudimeli said KLF estimated that the fires had damaged 15 800ha of its total 129 000ha of forest plantations. Fires were still raging in four of its plantations but the company had managed to " control them within a certain range " . In the long term people would have to accept increased shortages of timber because of the fire, but he declined to comment on the impact of the fires on timber prices. The price would rise if less timber was available and demand remained high. Any increase was dependent on whether the price had reached import parity prices and there was a substitute for the product through imports from other countries, Mudimeli said. http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3961649 Mexico: 23) Mexican police have arrested two lumberjacks accused of murdering an anti-logging activist, authorities said on Thursday, following criticism from environmental group Greenpeace of official foot-dragging. A spokesman at the state attorney general's office said police arrested the two men, who are brothers, on Wednesday. Authorities are searching for two other men in connection with the May 15 killing. Prosecutors called the detention proof the government is tackling illegal logging. This " reiterates our commitment ... to fully combat impunity and delinquency in all its forms, " the state attorney general's office said in a statement. Illegal logging destroys some 64,000 acres (26,000 hectares) of Mexican forest each year, the government says, putting Mexico near the top of a U.N. list of countries losing primary forest fastest. Environmental activists say the figure is far higher. Greenpeace, which has campaigned for the arrest of the loggers since the killing, welcomed the news but urged the government to capture the other suspects and end illegal logging in Mexico. Aldo Zamora was gathering information for Greenpeace when four men identified by witnesses and police as brothers in a logging gang ambushed his car on a forest road in the State of Mexico and sprayed him with bullets. The activists criticized the police for moving too slowly and allowing the suspects to go into hiding. Earlier this year, President Felipe Calderon pledged " zero tolerance " against illegal loggers but environmentalists say the gangs enjoy ever greater protection. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N02343770.htm Guatemala: 24) The exotic Scarlet Macaw is native to the South American tropical lowlands. Concentrated in the jungles of Guatemala, the Macaws are also found in isolated populations across Central America and in the Amazon basin. With its vibrant red, blue, and yellow feathers, this beautiful bird has attracted much undesired attention from poachers. Despite the fact that it is illegal to take them from the wild, poachers rob their chicks and sell them for large sums of cash in black market as pets. They are also under threat from settlers and illegal land invaders who destroy their natural habitat to create settlements and at great risk from armed drug traffickers, who regularly clear out hundreds of acres of jungles to build landing strips to smuggle cocaine. Consequently, with one-third of its jungles destroyed, Guatemala is experiencing a very high rate of deforestation. Endangered as they are by unsustainable human activity, the macaws also have low reproductive rates, which increase their risk of extinction. Today, it is estimated that only 300 Scarlet Macaws are remaining in the jungles of Guatemala. To stem a potentially rapid decline in their numbers a new project hoping to shield these birds is now underway. Using satellite-tracking technology, which has been successfully employed to protect wild creatures including the African elephant and jaguar in their habitats, scientists from the WCS have recently fit two birds with special satellite collars. These collars will allow scientists to track the movement of the parrots in the dense jungles of northern Guatemala and Mexico. The collars will stay on the parrots for a period of nine months and assist scientists to monitor the distances that these migratory wild birds can fly. The information obtained will form the basis of proposals that aim to encourage local authorities to expand areas under conservation. http://www.greendiary.com/entry/endangered-scarlet-macaws-to-be-tracked-from-spa\ ce/ South America: 25) It is reported that plans to build a massive South American natural gas pipeline through the Amazon rainforest from the Caribbean to Brazil have " cooled off " . This was the most atrocious of many inappropriate industrial developments planned for the Amazon [search] which Ecological Internet has publicized and protested against for several years. No rainforest is ever protected indefinitely, as badly conceived projects tend to linger on for a long time. Yet given a one and a half year delay and signs that momentum for the project has been stymied, Ecological Internet is ready to declare this campaign a victory! Congratulations to all those that participated, the Amazon rainforest is safer given your efforts. Ecological Internet's Earth Action Network first brought concerns over the pipeline to a global stage in February of 2006, issuing several alerts, to which 8,792 participants sent 75,765 protest emails over nearly a year. As the international profile of the twisted project grew, so did local protests on environmental and economic grounds. As is our intent, our efforts inspired grassroots global Earth activism. It is vital for the Earth's and humanity's future to protect as global ecological reserves all remaining large contiguous and mostly intact natural ecosystems from industrial development of any type. http://www.rainforestportal.org/issues/2007/08/victory_gas_pipeline_through_t.as\ p Guyana: 26) The Iwokrama rainforest, comprising a million acres, sits right at the heart of Guyana. Iwokrama is an extraordinary place: over 200 lakes, rivers flowing over volcanic dykes, 1,000 metre mountains, lowland tropical rain forests, palm forests and savannah. It is part of one of the last four remaining intact rainforests in the world and home to the Amerindian Makushi people, as well as to some of the world's most endangered species, including the jaguar; the giant harpy eagle; the giant anteater; the giant river otter; the anaconda; the black caiman and the giant river turtle. But Iwokrama is much more than just a beautiful, vibrant place. It's a living classroom, where the world can learn about rainforest management, climate change, eco-tourism and more. The Iwokrama International Centre, founded in 1996 to manage the forest, is home to a unique experiment: to test whether conservation, environmental balance and sustainable economic activity can be compatible. The Prince of Wales is patron of the centre and I'm involved in the making of a short film about Iwokrama. For this experiment, the forest has been divided into two main areas: the part which is cultivated and harvested in a sustainable way and a huge wilderness preserve. Scientists are comparing how they are reacting to being left alone and how they are reacting to human activity. Today it operates a strictly controlled, sustainable and community friendly experiment harvesting 20,000 cubic metres of timber per year. This experiment is even more special because the local Amerindian communities are shareholders in the harvesting operation. Naturally the income goes straight back into promoting conservation, bringing ecological, economic and social benefits to this remarkable place. This is ground-breaking work! Iwokrama has already developed a small but successful tourism operation, welcoming around 1,000 visitors a year. http://liveearthuk.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!16F10A984B50BE5B!349.entry India: 27) As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George Bush finalize an agreement for civil nuclear cooperation far away in a tiny corner in India- the source of nuclear energy has the tiny state of Meghalaya burning. Nearly 900 million tones of uranium are to be extracted from Meghalayas forests. And I am on the uranium trail to find out just why this yellow stone has the people of Meghalaya up in arms. For three months now members of the Khasi students Union ( KSU) has called for a bandh and a road blockade in protest against a uranium mining project. And an otherwise peaceful Meghalaya has been burning. With our camera and equipment on our shoulders we start our trek through the forest to ground zero- to find out just why people are opposed to uranium mining. The uranium site in West Khasi hills district is not easily accessible. We go with the civil engineer from the district council- a government officer who is in charge of the construction of the road to the uranium site. We are a motley group- my cameraperson, me and the engineer with one country rifle flung over our shoulders to protect us- says the engineer from wild animals. It takes us 5 hours to drive from Shillong to the village Domisiat which is where the tarred road ends. After that starts our trek through the forest on foot. We walk through boulders and sand and thousands of trees that have been cut to make way for the road. I am drowned out by the sound of insects, an indicator of the biodiversity that must have been here. As we trek through the forest we stop for some water from a stream- trickling down from the uranium source. Local people from Domisiat village have joined us. They are keen to show us that the uranium poses no danger. So they drink from the stream and exclaim- see uranium water but no dangers. http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/bahardutt/258/2212/on-the-uranium-trail-in-meghalay\ as-forests.html 28) The government of Sikkim is planning to build seven (not one, not two, seven) mega hydro electric power projects on this river at Dzongu in North Sikkim, and there are more than 22 dams in all being considered on river Teesta.. What does common sense say? this project will meet the state's energy needs generating 2 billion rupees every year.. Sense asks, at what cost? Dzongu is a protected area. It is a reserved area for the Lepcha tribal people. The ecology of the Khangchendzonga national park which is just a kilometer away from the project site and is also the home for Himalayan snow leopard and the red Panda will be irreversibly damaged by the hydel power project. Forget the 2 billion rupees.. can any amount of money compensate this large scale destruction of nature? http://hitxp.wordpress.com/2007/08/05/act-of-terrorism-against-nature-by-state/ 29) Contractors here have mercilessly felled thousands of very old trees, all for constructing a new road. ''These trees are felled using JCBs at night and are taken away for sale. The authorities do not check these malpractices. ''Today, a common man has to take permission to cut even a branch and here, the government is indulging in indiscriminate felling of trees,'' said Devvrat Sigh, Congress MP Most of the trees that have been felled are Neem and Tamarind, locals from the area are outraged with the indiscriminate felling. ''These trees are like humans and these felled trees are like dead humans. When they were alive, they used to provide shelter and comfort to many,'' said a villager. However, the PWD minister does not see anything wrong in this. ''We have taken the permission of the Collector and the Forest Dept. Besides, these trees have been auctioned,'' said Rajesh Modat, PWD minister. http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070021415 China: 30) The earth's natural forests evolved to their present state over a very long process. These forests have many properties: they retain water and prevent soil erosion; they moderate the climate; they help prevent pollution and natural disasters; and they support biodiversity. Blindly planting artificial forests can only result in ecologically useless " green deserts " . The blind pursuit of quantity over quality throughout the history of forest-planting in China has created large areas of single-species, artificial forests. Different trees dominate in different areas of the country: firs are common in the south, poplars in the north, red pines in the southeast, and larches in the northwest. These artificial forests are unable to resist natural pests, have poor water retention qualities, do not help prevent soil erosion, and do not support much undergrowth, which leads to more frequent forest fires. Single-species forests, grown to increase coverage alone, not only fail to solve environmental problems, but also create new crises of their own. This has led to enormous economic losses for the country. In the late 1950s, problems arose with the Feibo forest reserve in Sichuan, which consisted of Burma Pines. The forest floor was covered with a thick layer of pine needles, which produced no compost and supported no organisms in the soil. Animals and other plants found it hard to survive in such an environment, leaving the forest floor dry and prone to regular forest fires. The soil was also eroded by rain. Another forest, this time in Heilongjiang and consisting of larches, fell victim to an infestation of pine caterpillars in 2002. A railway operated by the Qiqihar Railway Bureau ran through the forest, and on June 1, several kilometres of the track were covered by a layer of caterpillars two to three inches thick. Passing trains mashed the larvae into a pulp that covered the tracks and stopped the trains. http://www.chinalyst.net/node/19362 31) In the island of Hainan, where people pride themselves on their pristine ecology, things are not in great shape. In seven years, the most southern province has lost 1 million mu of natural forests. The major culprit of the problem has been a rush to plant cash trees, in the wake of rising prices for betelnuts and rubber. In the worst counties, more than 100,000 mu of natural forests have been felled, in less serious ones, 20-30,000 mu. In some recently shaved forest hills, hilltops were burnt black. Another driver to destroy natural forests is the strong demand for pulp trees in China. A Hainan provincial investigation team learned that many farmers wouldn't plant these trees on their own farms as they are not as profitable. But instead, some local governments would fell old forests on state land to make way for pulp trees. Grass-roots forestry officials have been resistant in protecting the natural forests, saying that farmers need to survive, need to develop the economy, destroying the forests is the last thing they can do. http://desertification.wordpress.com/2007/08/02/china-deforestation-in-hainan-te\ chnorati-china- digital-times/ Korea: 32) North Korean cult mythology tells us that Kim Il-sung carved at least hundreds of anti-imperialist or anti-Japanese slogans into trees throughout Korea during his time as a freedom fighter before World War II. These trees – " slogan trees " – are now national treasures in North Korea and many are protected with glass enclosures (see pic below). While Kim Il-sung and other freedom fighters may well have carved a few slogans into trees, it's unlikely they carved all of them, and some have reported that many of the trees claimed to have been carved by him were either too young or simply not even growing before WWII. One North Korean timber trader and apparently a skeptic of the national religion reportedly dared to cut down and sell a number of these trees, and has been executed for it: http://news./s/afp/20070805/wl_afp/nkoreaexecutionsmugglingtimber_07080\ 5063613 Thailand: 33) State Forestry Department officers foiled an attempt to smuggle 1,300 pieces of illegally-logged timber worth RM500,000 into Thailand yesterday. They also seized 10 bulldozers 50m from the border where the logs were piled. The officers were unable to make any arrests as the smugglers escaped before they reached the area. The timber was believed to have been felled at a 50ha area at the Hulu Muda forest reserve. State director Kasim Osman said his officers had identified the syndicate involved. Kasim said: " We may not have been able to catch them at the site where the logs were found, but we know the company which felled the trees illegally and we will take action. " Although the enforcement officers had been tipped off to the presence of the illegal timber, they had to comb the forest for an hour before stumbling on a can of paint used to mark the felled timber. This led to the discovery of the logs and bulldozers. The case is being investigated under Section 15 of the National Forestry Act 1984 (amended 1993). Those convicted could be fined up to RM500,000 and jailed up to 20 years. http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Sunday/National/20070805074140/Article/in\ dex_html 34) This is what has happened in the upper Mae Sa valley, in the heart of Chiang Mai's Doi Suthep-Pui National Park, 1,328m above sea level. Here, a 21 hectare section of the 4,480 hectares of spoiled forest has been brought back to life, thanks to a reforestation programme using what experts call the " framework species method " . Contrary to most state reforestation programmes, which simply fill areas with a single species of tree, this reforestation plot in the upper Mae Sa valley is rich in biodiversity. " The trees we planted have attracted wildlife and accelerated the regeneration of the natural forest, " said Steven Elliot, an expert from the UK at the Forest Restoration Research Unit of Chiang Mai University (Forru-CMU). Forty years ago, the upper Mae Sa valley was an abundant tropical forest that protected the rain-catchment areas of the Sa River, which flows into Chiang Mai's Ping River, a main tributary of the Chao Phraya. The forest, however, was cleared for farming, and subsequently abandoned after it became infertile. Consequently, the rain-catchment area almost died. Since 1996, however, Forru-CMU has been working with local villagers at Ban Mae Sa Mai and the Doi Suthep-Pui National Park officers to save their forest, using the framework species method. The trick is to grow fast-growing pioneer trees together with shade-tolerant climax trees, which not only help accelerate regeneration but also attract seed-dispersing wildlife and birds to accelerate the return of biodiversity to the forest. http://www.bangkokpost.com/Outlook/02Aug2007_out01.php Borneo: 35) The Ulu Segama-Malua forests restoration project in Lahad Datu has caught the attention of the United States. The US government on Wednesday contributed RM69,400 to the project which is implemented under the state government's sustainable forest management (SFM). The contribution was presented to Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman by US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Oceans, International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Claudia A. McMurray. It is in keeping with the announcement made last year by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the US would support projects for the protection and sustainable development of forests in the region.With a combined area of 240,000ha, the Ulu Segama-Malua forest reserve is known for its rich biodiversity and large concentration of orangutans. Regarded as the " orangutan heartland " , the area is also home to sun bears, gibbons, wild buffalo, Borneo pygmy elephants and Sumatran rhinos. http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Friday/NewsBreak/20070803131331/Article/i\ ndex_html Australia: 36) The twisted, ashen-grey branches of the black box eucalyptus and river gums are stark indicators of the region's deteriorating health. These hardy trees require natural flooding to survive. They have done without a decent drink for over a decade, but now there's 'an abrupt change', according to Jensen. 'If we got a flood in the next two to three years we could save the river, but only with enormous amounts of rain.' A mile from Kingston is Banrock Station. More famous in Britain for its crisp white wines than its pioneering conservation strategies, this vineyard pumps profits back into restoring the local wetlands. It has had considerable success in improving the Riverlands' biodiversity, but due to the minimal amount of water in the Murray allocated for the environment, and the rising salinity, they can only achieve so much. Two years ago, the 'Living Murray' programme pledged to recover 500 gigalitres, the equivalent of Sydney Harbour, for the Murray for environmental purposes by 2009. At present they are likely to fall 80 per cent short of that target. For years, the country's most valued artery has been withering, some would say dying. 'In 2002 the river ran out of water,' says Adelaide-based Professor Mike Young, a water expert. 'There are three dredges in the mouth to keep it open and to keep water going into the Coorong wetlands.' This 60-mile stretch of wetlands holds a particularly poignant place in Australian history, as the inspiration for the film Storm Boy, about a young lad who befriends a pelican called Mr Percival. The Coorong is an internationally recognised wetland sanctuary for migratory birds, but it sits on a part of the coast that is now gasping to stay alive as sand pours in. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,2140121,00.html 37) The tiny Leadbeater's possum, Victoria's state faunal emblem, could be extinct in a few years if its numbers continue to plummet. The population of the tiny nocturnal animal has dropped sharply since it was listed as critically endangered in 1996 — despite a decade-long joint federal and state recovery plan to save it. Research by Professor David Lindenmayer, of the Australian National University, has revealed that since the plan was imposed, the Leadbeater's possum population has halved to around 2000. The Australian Conservation Foundation's Lindsay Hesketh says unless logging bans are introduced to protect the Leadbeater's habitat, Victoria will go " the same way of Tasmania, which lost its state emblem, the Tasmanian tiger, years ago " . The possum, found only in a small area in the state's Central Highlands, lives in the hollows of old mountain ash trees that can take 200 years or more to grow. An unknown number were killed earlier this year when VicForests bulldozed large firebreaks through Leadbeater's monitoring stations following the Christmas fires. The firebreaks and other clear-felled coupes prevent breeding with nearby colonies as the possums can only jump from branch to branch in the forest understorey. http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/states-emblem-nearly-extinct/2007/08/04/1\ 185648212901.ht ml Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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