Guest guest Posted September 13, 2007 Report Share Posted September 13, 2007 Today for you 34 new articles about earth's trees! (231st edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com . --British Columbia: 1) Harper gets harped on by Aussies green, 2) Loggers come home to roost, 3) Save owl habitat please! --Washington: 4) Clearcut a park so loggers have a place to stash dirt, create usable space --Oregon: 6) Homebuilders to thwart logger, 7) Cooper Salmon and Mt Hood wilderness bills, 8) Post-fire loging affects some birds, --California: 9) Pacific Lumber Maxxam sells town, 10) Thinnings don't stop fires, --Montana: 12) Fires about weather not firefighting or fuel reduction, 13) Save the Fisher --Wyoming: 14) Rockefellers give the ranch up for conservation --Texas: 15) Save the coast live oaks, --Indiana: 16) Snags are giant batteries that power ecology --Massachusetts: 17) Grim news from bird counts --Louisiana: 18) Cypress Deenders --USA: 19) Forest Service Chief preaches biofuel foolery --UK: 20) Lesson learned from '87 hurricane --Finland: 21) Save Northern Finland Forests --Palestine: 22) Isreal Terrorists' are cowardly killers of Olive trees --Kenya: 23) Farms vs. Forests, 24) Kenyan coast forest hosts Pipit, --Uganda: 25) 80% of Kibaale forest is gone --Brazil: 26) Slash-and-burn agriculture --Argentina: 27) New Treesit in Yungas forest --Pakistan: 28) Government plans to stop logging by making it less illegal --India: 29) Once thought extinct 20 Siberian tigers found in Maharashtra --Sri Lanka: 30) Deforestation and efforts to reforest --Indonesia: 31) Orchid forest, 32) Politicians claim say Save the Kalimantan, --Australia: 33) Privatization bonanza, 34) Queenslander Highrise to be built in rainforest, British Columbia: 1) Mr Harper became the first Canadian prime minister to address Australia's parliament. Senator Brown used the opportunity to hand a wedge-tailed eagle brooch to Mr Harper in the House of Representatives Chamber in Canberra. He said the threatened giant eagle was a symbol of the campaign to save Tasmania's wild forests from the Gunns Ltd pulp mill earmarked for the Tamar Valley, north of Launceston. The project has been approved by state parliament and is waiting on a federal environment report for final approval. He called on Mr Harper to end the destruction of British Columbia's ancient forests. Mr Harper said Canada had protected some of the forests but Senator Brown, a colleague of Canadian Greens Leader Elizabeth May, told Mr Harper he had not completed the job of saving the forests. Australia and Canada have both agreed to aim for the end of forest destruction to help halt climate change. Both nations need to get their own backyard in order first, Senator Brown said. http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Brown-lobbies-Canada-PM-to-save-forests/2\ 007/09/11/1189 276704915.html 2) Wayne Crowley is proud to call himself a logger, but when he looks at the logged slope immediately above his Beaver Creek homestead, he can't contain his anger. The mountainside, part of the Beaufort range that hems the eastern side of Alberni Valley, was logged in 2005 by TimberWest Forest, which owns the land. The logging was done by a contractor, and the timber was mostly exported. Winter rains have since sent six debris flows down the mountainside, spreading destruction over the eastern portion of his 66-hectare homestead site, says Crowley, a contract logger. From his home, a washed-out stream bed halfway up the logged slope is plainly visible. There is no sign of a riparian zone of trees to protect the stream. Logging in the Beauforts has put sharp focus on an issue in this resource town that many residents see as the direct result of the seismic changes that have shaken the coastal forest industry. The clearcut slopes offer a visible reminder of just how much control over their own lives they have lost. The forests around Port Alberni, both private and public, were at one time dedicated to manufacturing pulp, paper and lumber at plants in the central Vancouver Island town. Today, those forests are fragmented by lines drawn on maps, and timber that once all flowed to a central point now travels outside the valley, leaving unemployment in its wake. Different regulations are in place on the private lands, creating a perception in the community that public interests are not being protected, according to a report by Macauley and Associates commissioned by the government and released last June. " The concern is that standards prescribed are not sufficiently developed to permit effective enforcement, " says the report. It takes no side on whether the perceptions are accurate. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=11071298-fa83-436\ 0-b4b8-3688175 97dc1 & p=2 3) Local governments can order halts to logging in nearby watersheds in B.C. if they believe there is a health hazard to downstream communities, according to a court filing by the office of the attorney-general. Lawyer Edward Gouge filed the statement in a last-minute intervention in the high-profile legal battle that begins today between the Sunshine Coast Regional District and Western Forest Products over who can regulate logging in watersheds used by communities for their water supply. The forest company has asked the B.C. Supreme Court to decide whether the district was acting within its authority when it used a little-known portion of the Health Act to stop logging in the Chapman Creek watershed. Observers are watching the case closely because it could set a precedent by empowering local governments to protect their water supplies at the expense of the provincially-regulated forestry industry. " The Health Act confirms that local boards may act on a risk even absent proof that the risk probably exists, " wrote Gouge in a submission filed Friday. But if a " sober second look " determines that there is no real substance to that belief, the court should quash the order and let logging continue, he wrote. " It would therefore make sense to permit the board to make decisions on a precautionary basis, then subject those decisions to a 'sober second look' by the courts, " he said. On Aug. 12, the regional district labelled logging done on steep slopes in the Chapman Creek watershed a " health hazard " -- a first in B.C. The district's $7-million water treatment plant, which was opened in 2004, has had frequent problems from turbidity that it claims can be traced back to the silt dislodged when steep slopes are logged. Acting as a local board of health under the Health Act, the district ordered logging stopped on slopes of 60 per cent or greater -- some 47 acres in the 7,000-acre Chapman Creek watershed. Some 23,000 people live in the communities, including Langdale and Earl's Cove, that use the water. Some $2-million worth of timber is at stake for WFP; the regional district has warned it has a $1-million war chest for the legal battle. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=71c537ed-4cd\ 9-4d97-a438-c11 8148b6e76 & k=6471 4) During a routine investigation of one of BCs last few remaining Spotted Owl sites at S & M Creek near Pemberton, BC, Wilderness Committee staff scientist Andy Miller discovered an ongoing logging operation. The first of 14 BC government-approved cutblocks at S & M Creek has recently been felled and a network of new logging roads have been built through critical spotted owl habitat. All of the logging is within a BC government designated Spotted Owl Management Zone. As a result of the violation, today the Wilderness Committee has established a research camp along the Green River logging road, in a small meadow directly adjacent to the owls forest home. " We are setting up the research camp to attract public attention to this BC government-approved logging operation which is damaging this endangered species site. We will also be photographing and documenting on video the destruction caused by the road construction and tree felling, and each one of the planned cutblocks so we can show the world the spotted owl habitat that is at risk. Our aim is to get this logging stopped, " said Miller. In May, the Wilderness Committee learned of the BC governments intention to capture at least half and perhaps all of Canadas remaining spotted owls for an experimental captive-breeding program. A Freedom Of Information request obtained by the Vancouver Sun also confirmed that the government would not reduce logging to preserve habitat for the owl, therefore jeopardizing their recovery chances. S & M Creek is no ordinary spotted owl site. When the BC government first began studying this endangered species back in the 1980s they identified 40 spotted owl sites to monitor. These owls were visited annually, and they were given a degree of habitat protection. The S & M Creek site is one of the last of those original 40 sites that is still occupied by a spotted owl. Most of the rest of the sites have seen owls disappear as a result of habitat fragmentation caused by BC government-approved logging. http://media.wildernesscommittee.org/news/2007/09/12438.php Washington: 5) To Issaquah city administrators, the 600 trees in Central Park were never meant to be permanently saved. But to some residents living near the wooded area in the Issaquah Highlands, cutting them down has sparked one primary emotion: anger. Which side will come out on top remains to be seen. After a city land-use committee meeting listens to more public comment today, the ultimate decision rests with the City Council, which could vote as early as its next meeting on Sept. 17. The controversy has been brewing since midsummer, when the city recommended removing the trees as part of a park-improvement partnership with Port Blakely Communities, developer of the Issaquah Highlands. In the past several weeks, residents, most of whom live along 24th Avenue Northeast, have met with city officials, development-review teams and the parks board. They circulated a petition " against the destruction of the forest " and argued that cutting down the trees would destroy habitat and the scenic beauty that drew them to the neighborhood. Last week, city administrators held their ground. An executive summary of their recommendations — made public on the city Web site Monday — states that the city should move forward with the tree removal, because that area " was never envisioned to remain permanently forested. " The issue first came to the council's attention in late June, Mayor Ava Frisinger said. Port Blakely had previously met with city officials to talk about a need for space to dump 250,000 cubic yards of excavation dirt, she said. By clearing the forest, a mix of evergreens and deciduous trees, the developer would save hauling costs associated with trucking the dirt to South King County, Frisinger said. In exchange, Port Blakely would pay for about $600,000 in park improvements, such as improving drainage on the lower-level sports fields, paving and adding parking, and replanting 500 trees, city documents state. The area to be cleared is 1.7 acres of the more than 40-acre park. Removing the trees would add 1.3 acres of usable park space, said Frisinger http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003878749_centralpark11e.html Oregon: 6) It's not the threat of wildfires, or a beetle infestation or even swings in worldwide demand for lumber. Rather, it's a proposal by a homebuilder to develop land across from his property with dozens of home sites. LeTourneux envisions conflicts with neighbors upset by the sight of clearcuts, the aerial spraying of herbicides and the noise generated by a tree farm. " Logging operations and residential areas just make for a bad mix, " he says, standing on a 1,000-foot rise on his land, and scanning the rolling hills of Yamhill County, in the lush Willamette Valley. Yamhill County is the center of Oregon's wine country, which annually draws thousands of visitors to sample its rural delights, and, increasingly, more people wanting to move to the country. But longtime landowner Mary Holtan worries that she's going to be thwarted by government in her effort to subdivide 120 acres she co-owns east of Newberg. Holtan, 65, whose husband died three years ago, still is commuting daily to her job at a Portland insurance company but hopes to retire someday with income from subdividing her property — which is zoned as farm land — into 15 home sites and selling them. " I'm tired. I would like to quit commuting and have a decent retirement income, " she says. LeTourneux, Holtan and others like them will have a lot riding on the outcome of the Nov. 6 special election, when Oregon voters will be asked to scale back a property rights law they passed three years ago. http://www.dailytidings.com/2007/0910/stories/0910_valley_property.php 7) Twin bills introduced in Congress on Monday would put 13,700 acres of coastal forest filled with centuries-old trees and rushing salmon streams off-limits to roads, logging and other development, creating Oregon's newest wilderness area. The proposed Copper Salmon Wilderness, encompassing the headwaters of the Elk River near Port Orford, has been on the wish list of local communities and environmental groups for nearly a decade. But Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Peter DeFazio, Oregon Democrats who introduced companion bills in the Senate and House to create the wilderness, think this is the year the wish may finally come true. " Now that the Republicans no longer control the Congress, there's a possibility of doing a meritorious wilderness bill, " DeFazio said Monday. He said former Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., who was the gatekeeper for wilderness bills before he lost re-election last year, " hated wilderness with a passion. " Wyden chairs the Senate committee that will consider the bill. DeFazio also predicted a strong chance the bill for the Copper Salmon Wilderness will be combined with another Senate bill protecting 125,000 acres around Mount Hood as new wilderness, creating an all-encompassing Oregon wilderness bill. The Copper Salmon region is part of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, and its centerpiece, the Elk River, is considered one of the healthiest and most productive salmon streams in the Northwest. It has generally escaped logging and development, and its protection is vital to maintaining a healthy fishing and tourism industry on Oregon's south coast, Port Orford Mayor Jim Auborn said. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1189477534271130.x\ ml & coll=7 8) Previous research examining the influences of post-fire salvage logging on abundances of birds has focused primarily on the response of cavity-nesting species. There is limited research in regard to the impact of salvage logging on a broader range of bird species. In addition, little is known about how different intensities of salvage logging influence bird abundances. I compared densities and relative abundances of bird species among two different intensities of salvage logging and an unsalvaged treatment in a post-fi re forest of mixed conifers at Davis Lake, Oregon. I also examined the potential of vegetation variables that describe habitat structure to predict densities of birds and the use of snags for foraging by two species of woodpeckers. Salvage logging influenced the density or relative abundance of seven species of birds, though the pattern of the influence varied. Five species (black-backed woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, western wood-pewee, brown creeper, and yellow-rumped warbler) had greater densities or relative abundances in the unsalvaged treatment than in either treatment of salvage logging. Two species (dark-eyed junco and fox sparrow) had greater densities in salvaged treatments than in the unsalvaged treatment. Salvage logging did not significantly influence density or relative abundance of eight species (red-breasted nuthatch, white-breasted nuthatch, dusky flycatcher, house wren, American robin, western tanager and chipping sparrow) and one genus of swallows (Tachycineta). Densities of yellow-rumped warblers increased with increasing density of snags. Densities of fox sparrows and dark-eyed juncos increased with increasing volume of shrubs. Vegetation variables did not strongly predict densities or relative abundances for twelve species and one genus of birds. Diameter of snags selected for foraging by black-backed and hairy woodpeckers did not differ between species of woodpecker or among treatments of salvage logging. Both species of woodpeckers selected snags for foraging with larger diameters than the mean diameter of snags in both unsalvaged and salvage treatments. Salvage logging influenced densities or relative abundances of some noncavity nesting birds and cavity-nesting birds. Maintaining unsalvaged areas in burned forests will provide habitat for species of birds negatively influenced by salvage logging. Retaining large snags after salvage logging will provide foraging habitat for woodpeckers. http://www.fsl.orst.edu/cfer/pdfs/Vol7_2.pdf California: 9) Maxxam, a Houston-based corporation, bought PALCO in 1986, then fought environmentalists in the 1990s over plans to trim debt by harvesting thousands of acres of old-growth redwoods. In 1999, PALCO signed a landmark deal that protected most of that timber. The company remains mired in debt, despite state-of-the art retooling of its mill and downsizing from 1,200 workers here to fewer than 500. The market for its Douglas fir lumber collapsed in the recent housing slide, says PALCO Vice President Pierce Baymiller. What's happening here in the world's premier redwood region has happened over the decades to Appalachian coal towns, California citrus towns, Hawaiian pineapple towns, Carolina chicken towns and New England mill towns. Company towns faded as the culture changed, not least of which was workers who could afford cars to commute and not have to live next door to the boss. A lot of towns dried up in the upheaval of the Great Depression and post-World War II years. Sometimes a town's reason to exist — timber, gold, silver — played out. Towns such as Richland and Grand Coulee, Wash.; Brookings, Ore.; and Potlatch, Idaho, lost their company identities but adapted and survived. Scotia's likely fate — sold off by PALCO — has been the fate of other towns, says Linda Carlson, a Seattle consultant and author of Company Towns of the Pacific Northwest. But with some mill towns especially, companies sometimes simply picked them up and moved them on rails to new forests to harvest. Many towns weren't built to last more than a decade or two. They had cesspools instead of sewers, no foundations under the houses, crude street infrastructures. " When environmental controls became a big issue, it was easier to shut a lot of them down, " Carlson says. She thinks a handful still operate on the traditional formula with a church or two, a school, company stores, maybe a post office and Boy Scout troop. " Very few were incorporated, " she says. " It might literally have been a stretch along a river. " http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070911/a_companytown11.art.htm 10) Much debate has centered around the effectiveness of thinning as a tool to reduce fire severity. However, thinning prescriptions vary substantially and in practice on public lands often involve relatively intensive mechanical thinning. For example, this is currently the standard prescription on national forests of the Sierra Nevada. Recent research has indicated that low thinning, in which small trees less than 20-25 cm in diameter at breast height (dbh) are cut, can reduce fire severity (Omi and Martinson 2002, Perry et al. 2004). Conversely, evidence from the Biscuit Fire in Oregon indicates that more intensive mechanical thinning, which involves removing many young and mature trees, can increase fire severity (Raymond and Peterson 2005). Potential causes of increased severity include fine-fuel loading from slash debris, faster wind speeds due to a reduction in the buffering effect of mature trees, accelerated brush growth from increased sun exposure, and desiccation and heating of surface fuels due to insolation (Raymond and Peterson 2005, Rothermel 1991). Other authors have reported reductions in fire severity following mechanical thinning in modeled simulations of wildland fire, and in a circumstance in which a wildland fire burned through plots of a silvicultural study on the Blacks Mountain Experimental Forest in the northern Sierra Nevada (Skinner et al. 2005, unpublished data). However, localized experimental conditions may not reflect actual or feasible management practices on federal lands, and the effects of wildland fires may differ from modeling assumptions, especially after several years of post-thinning brush growth. The hypothesis of this study was that mechanically thinned areas on national forests would not differ in mortality from unthinned areas. (Hanson, C.T., Odion, D.C. 2006. Fire Severity in mechanically thinned versus unthinned) Montana: 11) As heroic and skilled as our fire fighters are, it is almost always weather that determines how bad a fire season is going to be and when the fires will be successfully contained. A record series of 100 degree-plus days, near zero rain fall, lightning storms, and winds are what kicked off the fires of 2007 and allowed them to run. In those conditions, our fire fighters were largely able to protect structures, but not to stop the expansion of the fires. Nature controlled that. Many of the fires will not go out until the cold, rain, and snow of fall finally smother them. The caustic and gagging smoke that settled over the valleys of Western Montana this last month with grimy layers of ash settling out on everything reminded me of the aftermath of the 1980 Mt. St. Helens eruption. The distressing difference is that a volcanic eruption is not expected every year, but there is the very real possibility that late summer in Western Montana may well be regularly smoky, as widespread wild fires become a summer fact of life. From the 1930s to the 1980s our summers were cooler and wetter than the long-term weather history suggests was typical. Add in trends in global warming, and it is clear we face future summers that will be different from the summers most of us remember. The lazy or vigorous enjoyment of our mountains, streams, and lakes under blue bird skies may become the exception rather than the expectation. We may find our selves planning to flee to less flammable landscapes in the summer just as residents of our large urban centers regularly flee to cooler climes in the heat of summer. There are some who still cling to the belief that all of this wildfire is avoidable if we would just let our timber industry back into our forests to remove a good number of the trees before they catch fire and burn. That, they argue, would reduce the fuels that are feeding the fires that threaten our homes and choke our valleys with suffocating smoke. The foolishness of that position can be seen in some of the largest and most threatening fires in Western Montana. Consider the Jocko Lakes fire that periodically has threatened hundreds of homes in the Placid and Seeley Lakes areas. That fire has been ripping through some of the most heavily logged and roaded Plum Creek and US Forest Service lands in all of western Montana. The landscape has a scalped look and is honey combed with logging roads. That has not kept the fire from sweeping towards hundreds of homes and forcing repeated evacuations. http://www.mtpr.net/commentaries/434 12) It is Martes pennanti, the fisher. Montana and Idaho may hold several hundred in scattered mountain settings. Then again, they may not. As part of his graduate studies, Vinkey collected records from Montana sites where fishers were reported and was unable to find evidence of a major population stronghold. Only a single enclave-in the northern end of the Bitterroot Range, whose crest defines the Idaho/Montana border-seemed to harbor enough individuals to have a good chance of sustaining itself over time. Elsewhere in the region, Oregon has an estimated 100 fishers and California has fewer than 500. That's about it, making the fisher not only perhaps the rarest forest carnivore in the Rockies south of Canada but also one of the rarest and most vulnerable creatures in the entire western half of the nation. Female fishers weigh 5 to 8 pounds and males at least twice as much. Some approach 20 pounds and stretch more than three feet from their nose to the tip of their bushy tail. More active at night than during the day, they hunt among the tangles and crannies on the forest floor and up among the branches. As Vinkey puts it, " This is an animal that makes its living poking its nose in holes. " For her den, a female will generally choose a cavity fairly high in a tree. As the young begin exploring, they take full advantage of the species' special ability to swivel its hind feet 180 degrees and descend tree trunks head-first, anchored by their backward-pointing claws. Logging of old-growth forests in the West has significantly degraded and fragmented the places that fishers call home. As the years passed, trappers began to call for the return of this valuable furbearer. Timber companies wanted fishers back as well because their absence appeared linked to an upsurge in porcupines, which in turn girdled and killed young trees. " We call this the Cathedral Trap, " Schwartz says. " We've caught more fishers here and at a similar site than anywhere else. " The fisher hotspots we move on to explore prove to be more stands of big, old conifers. Yet it isn't strictly the size or age of the trees that counts so much as it is the structure of mature forests: fallen trunks, broken stumps and accumulations of branches and other woody litter on the ground, together with plenty of interlacing branches and hollow snags overhead. They all add up to more holes for fishers to search for food in or to hide from predators, including hawks and owls. http://newsblaze.com/story/20070908061226tsop.nb/newsblaze/TOPSTORY/Top-Stories.\ html Wyoming: " There are seven different natural environments on the ranch, " James enthuses, " from open meadows to lakefront to woodland. It's rich with huckleberries and hawthorns. Elk migrate through here. You can see moose, eagles, coyotes, black bears. There are grizzlies in the area. " In fact, nature seems to have orchestrated my visit for maximum effect. It is a classic summer's morning in this part of Wyoming, crisp and clear and, as the trail rises, the trees suddenly part to reveal Phelps Lake, glassy green and framed by sheer granite cliffs. Crystal water ripples over pebbles as smooth and pale as eggs; an osprey cruises high overhead. We pause at an overlook where lurid purple wildflowers are bursting between bare rocks. " This is where the main lodge building once stood, " explains James. " The Rockefellers' guests would gather here before dinner to enjoy the view. " The donation of the JY Ranch is a poignant coda to the family's involvement in Jackson Hole since the millionaire John D.Rockefeller Jr, then America's richest man, first visited in 1926. It's a largely forgotten saga that is inseparable from the creation of the present-day Grand Teton National Park in 1950. (John Jr was the son of the " robber baron " John Rockefeller, a Baptist from Cleveland who rose from poverty to found Standard Oil.) The JY Ranch was the only land the magnate held on to when he donated more than 13,350ha to the US government, ending decades of local wrangling and establishing the park as we know it today. Just over 50 years later, in 2001, the magnate's son, Laurance, then aged 90, announced that this last piece of land would also be given to the park. This final gift includes a state-of-the-art, 605 sqm visitors' centre crafted from recycled douglas fir and a 7km loop trail to Phelps Lake. What visitors won't see are the 30 log buildings that once made up the JY. Even before the Rockefellers bought it, the property had operated as a working ranch. The buildings were carefully removed in 2005, along with 11km of asphalt roads and 1500 tonnes of building materials, to return the lake to its pristine natural state. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22375323-5002031,00.html Texas: 15) The dense live oak forest that envelops Rockport is one of the bustling coastal town's big draws. Of course, to make room for new people, builders need land. And that land often is covered by the trees, presenting a bit of a dilemma. " The thing that's particularly distinctive about the trees that grow down to the waterline here, (is) the windswept oaks, " Mayor Todd Pearson said during a drive around the seaside town. " The salt spray and prevailing winds have affected those trees, and they lean, with vegetation on one side stunted and gnarled. " A year ago, Rockport enacted an ordinance protecting the trees, some of which are hundreds of years old. It requires a permit to remove trees, along with a plan to preserve as many as possible and replace those that are cut. Pearson said the city is especially protective of its signature windswept oaks, which largely sit within a block of the waterfront. He expects developers to have a very good excuse for cutting any down. But all the protections in the world could be moot if the dreaded tree disease known as live oak decline gets a foothold here. That's why the city also encourages planting of other species in the mix, just in case a natural die-off ever occurs along the 3-mile-wide greenbelt that crosses the aptly named Live Oak Peninsula. Pearson also encourages land reuse, such as an abandoned downtown supermarket site that will be replaced by a mixed-use development. The more that new construction takes place on top of old, his reasoning goes, the less need there will be to topple trees in a city that sets new building permit records every year. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/5121288.html Indiana: 16) The most fire proof trees in any forest are the older more mature trees that have thicker bark and less lower branches that can carry a fire from ground-level to the canopy. Older more mature trees, especially dead ones, are like the batteries that drive the whole forest machine. Standing dead trees rot and that rot holds lots of moisture as well as ideal habitat for fungi and bugs that fuels healthy soil which in turn grows healthier stronger disease-resistant trees. Additionally dead trees offer birds and bats and other cavity nesters a place to live, and these creatures, if they have plenty of homes, will eat many of the bugs that too often kill trees in areas where there is little habitat for cavity nesters. Forest ecosystems are enormously complex and for centuries foolish simplistic ignorant people who primarily care about making money have turned our landscape into baby trees and bare ground that dries out quickly and burns completely when a fire comes along. Relative humidity and wind are the primary driver of catastrophic wildfires. The older a stand of trees, the higher the systems humidity and insulation from wind are. Thus those who advocate removal of older more mature trees are much like the Christmas grinch who takes the batteries out of child's toys so the child has no idea of what the toy is, or what it is supposed to do! http://www.topix.com/forum/source/indianapolis-star/T9H1NHAFMEELK247M/p6#lastPos\ t Massachusetts: 17) This year, the U.S. Geological Survey's annual Breeding Bird Survey and the Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count both indicated a decline in bird numbers... According to a 2003 Mass Audubon report, development in the state ate up 40 acres of land per day between 1985 and 1999. That's 31 acres of forest, seven acres of agricultural land and two acres of open space developed each day during that period. And the pace isn't exactly slowing down. The results are widespread. Forest becomes fragmented -- pockets of trees rather than extensive contiguous ecosystems. There are more roads. Bird predators like house cats, raccoons and skunks tend to thrive in proximity to human beings. But Petersen [Wayne R. Petersen, the director of Massachusetts Important Bird Areas Program] cautions against drawing simplistic conclusions from that kind of data. Fragmentation, for example, doesn't harm all birds and can even encourage some. One of the species that has profited from forest fragmentation is the brown-headed cowbird. Formerly denizens of the prairies, cowbirds can now be observed practically throughout the United States. They're brood parasites -- the female lays her eggs in the nests of other birds... Cowbirds are historically predisposed to open spaces, and forest fragmentation has enabled them to thrive in New England forests and gain access to the many songbirds that live there. " This has had a highly pernicious effect on songbird populations, " says Petersen... " The more involved that we get, the more likely we are to put information out there about issues like conservation and protection, " says [birdwatcher Betsy] Higgins. http://northassoc.org/2007/09/08/hampshire-life-development-of-forests-and-open-\ fields-impacts- birds.aspx Louisiana: 18) As a swamp tour guide and professional environmental activist, Dean Wilson spends a lot of time observing Louisiana's iconic coastal forests and bayous up close. On a recent hot, muggy August morning, he was staring down at wetland forests in Ascension and Livingston parishes near Lake Maurepas from more than 800 feet in the air, looking for illegal logging of cypress trees. " If you see a clear cut on a bayou, let me know, " Wilson says to Dan Luke, who is piloting the Cessna Skylane while Wilson takes digital photos from the passenger side. Wilson spots what looks like an instance of " mat logging, " a process by which trees are felled to make a path for machinery that cuts down trees on either side of the path, after which the mat logs are typically removed. Mat logging has recently come under scrutiny from the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, although the logging industry defends the practice. " That's a violation. We got them here, " says Wilson, as Luke lowers the plane in concentric circles to get a better look. Wilson gave the coordinates to the Corps, and he says the Corps is interested in the site but has not yet determined its owner. Still, there didn't seem to be much cypress logging going on, legal or not, which Wilson attributes to ongoing efforts to discourage the sale of cypress mulch commonly used by gardeners. Wal-Mart recently announced that it will no longer buy mulch from Louisiana starting Jan. 1, and activists like the Save Our Cypress Coalition are pressing other retailers to follow suit. Lowe's has declared a moratorium on buying mulch harvested south of the interstates 10/12 corridor, but Save Our Cypress says a statewide ban would be easier to enforce, claiming suppliers have lied about their sources in the past. Jim Chambers, a forestry professor at LSU's School of Renewable Natural Resources, chaired the Governor's Science Working Group on Coastal Wetland and Forest Conservation and Use, which came up with 14 recommendations in 2005 that were not adopted. He says loggers should be required to have written forest management plans that deal with sustainability and that the state needs to regulate lands where regeneration is almost impossible, or at least ask for voluntary non-harvesting in those areas. http://www.businessreport.com/news/2007/sep/10/logging/ USA: 19) The U.S. Forest Service chief Abigail Kimbell is proposing replacing 15 percent of the United States' gasoline with ethanol made from wood obtained from thinning unhealthy forests, while doubling the amount of carbon dioxide emissions absorbed by public and private forests. Kimbell presented the proposal in a speech before the Society of Environmental Journalists in San Francisco. These are ambitious goals, and they would take a concerted national effort to reach. According to Kimbell, with the technologies now becoming available, the U.S. could replace as much as 15 percent of its current gasoline consumption with ethanol from wood — and not just any wood, but 'unhealthy' wood that is not being used for other purposes and that must be removed from forests to prevent wildfires. Second-generation biofuel technologies capable of converting this type of woody biomass consist of biochemical and thermochemical conversion techniques. Of these technologies, the thermochemical pathway known as pyrolysis is most advanced and cost-effective. But biochemical conversion techniques, based on enzymes that succeed in breaking down lignocellulosic biomass, are receiving a great deal of research and investment. Alternative routes consist of gasifying wood and converting the syngas via Fischer-Tropsch synthesis into ultra-clean synthetic biofuels. The wood for ethanol would come mainly from undergrowth that the 'healthy forests' law now requires to be removed to prevent wildfires. The Healthy Forests Initiative contains a variety of provisions to speed up such hazardous-fuel reduction and forest-restoration projects on specific types of Federal land that are at risk of wildland fire and of insect and disease epidemics. http://biopact.com/2007/09/us-forest-service-ethanol-from-forests.html UK: 20) On the evening of October 15, 1987, I'd driven south along the Old Kent Road towards a lurid sky of angry, tropical purple. The lank air twitched like an assassin's finger teasing the trigger. Dust hissed in the gutter. Through an unsleepable night of pulsing fear, wind speeds reached 94mph in London and 110mph in Kent. Our sturdy Victorian house, anchored deep in the south London clay, groaned like a galleon. Death and destruction did not end with the storm. From every direction into the devastated southeast came a mercenary rabble armed with chainsaws. There was money to be made from clearing the debris, and more to be made from the timber. Traumatized forestry professionals watched in horror as the cowboys went to work. Damaged trees were clumsily lopped; undamaged ones killed by the assault on their fallen neighbors; ground compressed and trampled by lorries and bulldozers. From out of disorder came chaos. Some of the mercenaries paid a horrible price. In the hands of novices, chainsaws do not cream smoothly through yielding timber; they buck and twist like cats. The accidents were horrific. Untrained men would hack at the upper branches of bent or leaning trees, oblivious to the laws of physics. " There is a huge tension when a tree falls, " says Ray Hawes. The important thing to remember is that order in nature is not the same as order in the human mind, which has an exaggerated respect for tidiness. At Box Hill, for example, the blitzed areas were replanted with beech and oak, but you now have to look very hard to see them. Squirrels are a particular problem. For them, young beeches are irresistible fast-food joints, where they strip off the bark to reach the sugars in the sap. At best this cripples the trees; often it kills them. The very worst enemies, however, are other trees. " Most of the planting that was done, " says Peter Creasey, " has been overwhelmed by trees just seeding themselves naturally. " It is this process of force majeure that has brought the change of policy — in effect, a willing surrender to a needless enemy. Instead of nurturing the planted beeches, says Creasey, " we decided to let natural succession take place. It happens in a natural sequence. First you get pioneer trees like birch and, to a certain extent, ash. The birch will last for about 60-odd years and then will be overtopped by the longer-lived trees like oak and beech. Eventually you get a natural broad-leaved mixed woodland, but it does take time and patience. " That was Lesson One. If you want a natural outcome, then the best architect is nature itself. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2393102.ece Finland: 21) The Finnish government is destroying the largest unprotected ancient forests despite strong national support for their protection and despite several international biodiversity declarations signed by Finland. The state owned logging company Metsähallitus started huge loggings in old-growth forests of Northern Finland in November 2006. These unique ancient forests with up to 500 year old pine trees are being logged mainly for pulp and paper. The mills that use the ancient forests are Stora Enso pulp mill in Kemijärvi, Stora Enso paper mill in Veitsiluoto and Botnia pulp mill in Kemi. Logging and road construction has already started or is being planned in at least six areas. These loggings would permanently destroy unique natural values. The possibilities for reindeer herding and nature tourism in these areas would also be severely damaged. As the forests are situated in relatively high altitude in northern taiga the regeneration of the forests is also in doubt. All of these loggings are not even economically sustainable. Only 4,4 percent of finnish forests are classified old-growth forests. Still only about half of them are protected. More information and photos http://www.forestinfo.fi/forestlapland Palestine 22) Throughout the centuries, Palestinian farmers have made their living from olive cultivation and olive oil production; 80 percent of cultivated land in the West Bank and Gaza is planted with olive trees. In the West Bank alone, some 100,000 families are dependent on olive sales. Today, the olive harvest provides Palestinian farmers with anywhere between 25 to 50 percent of their annual income, and as the economic crisis deepens, the harvest provides for many their basic means of survival. But despite the hardships, it is the festivities and traditions that accompany the weeks of harvesting that have held Palestinian communities together and are, in fact, a demonstration of their ownership of the land that no occupation can extinguish except by the annihilation of Palestinian society itself. Since 1967, the Israeli military and illegal settlers have destroyed more than one million olive trees claiming that stone throwers and gunmen hide behind them to attack the settlers. This is a specious argument because these trees grow deep inside Palestinian territory where no Israeli settler or soldier should be in any case. But, Israel is intent on appropriating even the last vestiges of land left to the Palestinians and so turns a blind eye to any methods used by settlers and soldiers alike to terrorize the farmers away from their farms and crops, even if that means razing their land. Farmers are constantly under threat of being beaten and shot at, having their water supplies contaminated (already scarce because 85 percent of renewable water resources go to the settlers and Israel), their olive groves torched and their olive trees uprooted. On a larger scale, the Israeli military brings in the bulldozers to uproot trees in the way of the " security " wall's route and where they impede the development of infrastructure necessary to service the illegal settlements. Some of these threatened trees are 700 to 1,000 years old and are still producing olives. These precious trees are being replaced by roads, sewerage, electricity, running water and telecommunications networks, Israeli military barracks, training areas, industrial estates and factories leading to massive despoliation of the environment. Their willful destruction has so threatened Palestinian culture, heritage and identity that the olive tree has now become the symbol of Palestinian steadfastness because of its own rootedness and ability to survive in a land where water is perennially scarce.If Israel has its way, neither the trees nor the Palestinians who have cared for them will survive the barbaric ethnic and environmental cleansing of Palestine. http://www.countercurrents.org/karkar070907.htm Kenya: 23) Renowned environmentalist and Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai dismissed the minister's assertion that farmers would only be allowed to cultivate on the periphery of forests, where lantana, a wild flowery weed akin to the water hyacinth, grows. She insisted that the system was vulnerable to abuse. " Natural biodiversity cannot be protected if human activity like growing of farm produce is going on, " she said. She dismissed the Government's strategy to use free labour as colonial mentality that should be done away with. " The Government does not provide money for the management of forests. Instead, it relies on free labour from farmers. This is an ancient way of doing things and is retrogressive to efforts to conserve the environment. " But squatters applauded the minister's announcement. Mr Samuel Muhoro Gachoka, the chairman of Ragati Squatters Association, said forest cultivation would improve food security. He said he had farmed in the Ragati area of Mt Kenya Forest for more than 15 years and had inherited the forest plots from his fore fathers. Squatters resettled " Since the Government threw us out in 1989, we have been living by the road side, " said the 39-year-old father of two. He said only a few people benefited from former President Daniel Moi's directive that squatters be resettled at Dathi settlement scheme in Kieni East. " The rest live on road reserves and rely on relief supplies. Children have dropped out of school and families live in squalor, " the squatter lamented. Although he welcomed Mr Mwiraria's proposal, Mr Gachoka said re-introduce of the shamba system should be only a temporary measure and the squatters should be permanently settled. Mr Fred Ogombe, the Central Province forest officer said the re-introduction of the shamba system would benefit the squatters. He lauded the system as a noble idea that could help the landless earn a livelihood but had been misused by politicians to woo voters. The officer explained that politicians pressured the provincial administration to carve out larger chunks of land than agreed, resulting in destruction of indigenous trees. http://allafrica.com/stories/200709110628.html 24) The Kenyan coast is a biodiversity hotspot and among the near-endemics are a few rare & obscure pipits. These are not birds to set the heather alight but they do have some quiet charm whilst their range restriction/rarity make them sought after species. A recent family holiday to coastal Kenya provided a brief opportunity to catch up with two of these desirable pipits. Getting images of Sokoke Pipit proved particularly difficult as these birds are now almost effectively confined to Arabuko-Sokoke forest where they occur at low density in dense evergreen woodland. The birds are either in low vegetation or on the forest floor which is only dimly lit. SOKOKE PIPIT (Anthus sokokensis): A small forest pipit with heavy black-streaking of both upper & underparts. There is very little information available about the biology of these rare birds. The birds we found were either single birds or pairs -the latter maintaining contact with high-pitched calls. Our birds walked briskly across the leaf-litter of the forest floor tossing leaves aside like small thrushes. On a few occasions we saw these pipits eat small snails which they deftly removed from their shells. This species favours dense stands of evergreen forest dominated by Afzelia trees. Sokoke Pipit can also be found in adjacent Brachystegia woodland where it is much less common. Both these types of woodland are under considerable pressure from logging & forest clearance. http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=96071 Uganda: 25) The Kibaale forest officer, Wilson Kyamuhondeire, has said about 80% of forests in the district have been cleared for cultivation. Addressing journalists at the forestry headquarters last week, he said the forests were being cut down for timber and charcoal burning. " The rate at which forests are being lost to cultivation is alarming, " he said. Kyamuhondeire said they had impounded 1,500 pieces of timber, 20 pitsaws and two power saws from the culprits this year. He added that two trucks loaded with timber were also seized. He appealed to local leaders to support the forestry department in sensitising residents on the importance of preserving forests. http://allafrica.com/stories/200709100321.html Brazil: 26) When Pereira needs more land for his crops and cattle, he cuts more virgin jungle and sets the vegetation ablaze. When the nutrient-poor soil has been depleted, he moves on and cuts down more jungle. Such slash-and-burn agriculture has helped Pereira, 51, and millions of other farmers and ranchers scratch out a living from the forest, but it has put Brazil at the heart of the environmental challenge of the century. As vast tracts of rain forest are cleared, Brazil has become the world's fourth-largest producer of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, after the United States, China and Indonesia, according to the most recent data from the U.S.-based World Resources Institute. And while about three-quarters of the greenhouse gases emitted around the world come from power plants, transportation and industrial activity, more than 70 percent of Brazil's emissions comes from deforestation. Burning and cutting the forest releases tons of carbon dioxide, methane and other gases that the vegetation had trapped. Those gases collect in the atmosphere, prevent heat from escaping and help raise the Earth's temperature. Keeping greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere has become crucial to saving the planet from catastrophic climate change, scientists say. However, stopping the destruction of the vast Amazon rain forest means confronting lawlessness and persuading Brazilians to leave the forest alone. " Brazil has a huge amount of forest that's still there, and that means Brazil has a much greater role in terms of future deforestation, " said Philip Fearnside, a research professor at Brazil's National Institute for Amazon Research. " Any changes that happen here have great influence on whether the Earth gets warmer. " The 1.5-million-square-mile Brazilian Amazon, larger than India, contains more than 40 percent of the world's rain forests, and about a fifth of it already has disappeared, mostly in an " arc of deforestation " along the forest's southern and eastern edges. The effects of the Amazon's continued destruction could be especially severe in southern Brazil, where much of the country's agriculture, industry and population are based. About 40 percent of the precipitation there comes from moisture evaporated off the rain forest's tree cover. Cutting back more of the Amazon could mean starving the area of water. http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=83771 Argentina: 27) Greenpeace activists are camped out in the treetops in the Yungas forest in northwestern Argentina to press the Senate to pass a new law that would curb the heavy logging of native forests, and to draw attention to the destruction. " Night time is spectacular, when the temperature drops and the wind picks up. But the heat is suffocating in the day time, " Romina MacGibbon, one of the Greenpeace campers, told IPS. The tents are hanging 25 metres above ground in trees in the Yungas Biosphere Reserve in the northwestern province of Salta. The area in the high Andes of northern Argentina has a wide variety of landscapes, from subtropical mountain forest characterised by high biodiversity to cloud-swept grasslands. It was declared a biosphere reserve by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 1992. But the reserve is under threat from agribusiness interests and their bulldozers, which have been authorised by the government of Salta to carry out logging in the reserve. In recent weeks, provincial authorities gave permission to owners of nearby farmland to log 1,670 hectares of forest within the borders of the reserve. The environmentalists called an assembly of local people in the area, who voted against the logging and staged roadblocks to keep trucks from reaching the site. And now MacGibbon, Nidia Barrientos and Roxana Florelli, all of whom have received training in jungle survival techniques and who have the back-up of a Greenpeace team in the town of Orán, 20 km from the reserve, have been camping out in the trees since Saturday to keep the bulldozers from advancing any farther and to urge the Senate to pass the forest protection law. The landowners cutting trees in the area did not attempt to keep the members of Greenpeace Argentina from setting up the treetop camp. But the camp, which will be occupied by rotating teams, is far from comfortable. The area is not only home to pumas, jaguars and tapirs, but also to snakes and a large variety of insects. And temperatures climb above 30 degrees Celsius during the day, and plunge at night, MacGibbon described. According to the Secretariat of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Argentina has 33 million hectares of native forests. But in the last decade, the expansion of the agricultural frontier, driven largely by the boom in transgenic soy, has led to the destruction of 250,000 to 300,000 hectares a year, even in protected areas. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39223 Pakistan: 28) The Provincial Minister for Environment and Finance, Shah Raz Khan has said that the Federal government has agreed in principle to remove the prolonged ban on forest cutting as it is the major reason for the forest depletion in NWFP. He expressed these views while addressing a day-long seminar on " Preservation of Environment-Challenges and Opportunities " here at the regional Headquarters of NAB (F). Director General National Accountability Bureau (F), AVM Tahir Rafique Butt was also present on the occasion. Shah Raz Khan said that the provincial government has taken a number of measures for elimining the corruption at the top level in every sector adding that new forest policy has been framed to check illegal cutting of trees in the province. He said that government alone cannot protect the vast forest cover and collective efforts were needed to control the rapidly degrading forest cover. Moreover, he went on to say that forests should be handed over to the owners in order to clip the wings of timber mafia and check other illegal practices in this connection. DG, NAB (F), AVM Tahir Rafique Butt warned timber mafia to restrain their illegal practices or to get ready to face the music. He said that human beings have taken environment for granted for centuries and is engaged in abusing it adding that tsunami like incidents, which are caused by environmental degradation, could have been averted had timely measures been taken. Terming poverty and lack of education as the two main reasons for cutting of trees and forests, DG NAB said that unaware of the damage caused to the atmosphere people cut a tree for few hundred rupees or for making a cup of tea. He said that keeping in view the growing environmental threat and its hazardous effects on the earth, NAB has provided a platform to bring together all the stakeholders including forest owners, MPAs, NGOs, foresters and officials of the concerned departments to find a viable solution to the problem. http://www.app.com.pk/en/index.php?option=com_content & task=view & id=16202 & Itemid=\ 2 India: 20) At least 20 tigers have turned up in a survey of a forest in Western India nearly thirty years after they were thought to have been driven to extinction by poachers, reports Reuters. The Wildlife Institute of India says the tigers in the Sahyadri mountain range in the western state of Maharashtra were discovered during a nationwide tiger census. " There was good forest cover, an ideal habitat and an ideal prey base but tigers were not sighted in the Sahyadri range since the late 1970s, " Vishwas Sawarkar, former head of the state-run Wildlife Institute of India, told Reuters. " My estimate is there are at least 20 of them now. " India is believed to have half the world's remaining wild tigers, though populations have declined from more than 40,000 in the early 20th century to less than 1,500 today due to habitat loss and poaching. Chinese demand for medicinal products made from tiger parts are presently one of the biggest threats to wild tigers. Conservationists say the trade in tiger parts must be banned if tigers are to survive in the wild. There are fears that a Chinese move to reopen the trade in tiger parts from farmed animals could undermine conservation efforts. http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0911-india.html Sri Lanka: 30) Over the past 15 years, Sri Lanka has experienced one of the highest deforestation rates of primary forests in the world. The country has lost more than 35 percent of its old-growth forest cover, while total forest cover was diminished by almost 18 percent. Worse, since the close of the 1990s, deforestation rates have increased by more than 25 percent. Industrialization, cultivations, encroachments and destruction of forests in the war area, illegal felling of trees and a host of other factors are taking their toll on the forests in this land, creating a very alarming situation. Of the required rate of 15% minimum rainforest cover, Sri Lanka now has only 2%, reveals Dr. Ranil Senanayake, Chairman of Rainforest Rescue International(RRI). Dr. Senanayake, an environmental scientist who has done extensive studies in ecology for over 40 years has been working towards finding a solution to the crisis. Dr. Senanayake has been a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne where he worked on the development of land care strategy and a Senior Lecturer at the Monash University at Melbourne where he taught Applied Forest Ecology. He is currently doing projects in Equador, Peru, Guatamala, Costa Rica, Zimbabwe, Philippines, Vietnam, Canada, Sri Lanka and is a visiting Lecturer in Australia. Q: Apart from the British colonial era clearing thousands of acres for cultivation of coffee, tea, rubber and coconut, what other factors destroyed our forests from post-independence time onwards? A: " Wrong economic policies. It is the acceptance of open-ended consumerism as 'development' and the inability to take a long term view. Development progammes like the Mahaweli, the on-going war and mindless borrowing of money to squander in non productive areas have all had its impact. " Q: Apart from the national wild life parks and sanctuaries which are the only visible large green areas when one peruses a map, are the strict natural forest reserves counted as part of rainforests? A: " Only if one considers montane forests on high mountains. Otherwise none. In a forest in terms of bio-diversity, only 1%is comprised of trees - in terms of bio-diversity 99% or more are the shrubs, bushes, birds, insects, animals, micro-organisms - all that. In Pinus forests there is no undergrowth. If you plant only trees you do not have a forest. It is just a monoculture. In the present approach to forestry we have lost the forest for the trees. " http://www.sundaytimes.lk/070909/Plus/plus0011.html Indonesia: 31) Imagine an orchid forest with more than 45 different species including dancing and dragon scale varieties, sambas breeding deer, flying fox, short- and long-tailed macaque birds, wild boar and 40-meter-high, 150-year-old bangkirai trees. A forestry student's dream come true and a native bird-watcher's paradise. And now it's accessible to those of us without hiking boots. This is one of the world's most beautiful virgin conservation forests -- and it is at Jakarta's front door, in East Kalimantan. It is the Bukit Bangkirai forest and conservation parkland, located in Samboja district, Kutai Kartanegara regency. There are three roads that lead to this incredible 1,500-hectare wonderland as well as wide-ranging accommodation to suit just about anyone. Bukit Bangkirai forest is internationally recognized yet still one of Indonesia's best kept tourism secrets. http://www.tourismindonesia.com/2007/09/bukit-bangkirai-rainforest-wonderland.ht\ ml 32) " Kalimantan means ... an island with land so hard it is burning, and that literally is what is happening too frequently, " Dr Yudhoyono said. The 30-year project is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 700 million tonnes. The Australian and Indonesian governments, as well as mining giant BHP Billiton, are going into partnership on the project, which is being funded from the federal government's Global Initiative on Forests and Climate. The project will preserve 70,000 hectares of peat land forests in the Kalimantan region, re-flood 200,000 hectares of dried peat and plant up to 100 million new trees on rehabilitated peat land - and, the government believes, could cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than Australia's total annual output. Australia will contribute up to $30 million of the $100 million initiative. The two nations are expecting to raise the rest of the money from the private sector, other countries and non-government organisations. Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo, is said to contain one of the world's largest intact areas of forest and is home to a large proportion of Indonesia's peat lands, which store up to six times as much carbon as forests on mineral soils. " We are losing our precious peat lands not because of spontaneous combustion but because of imprudent economic activity and poor management. " This is a trend we are determined to reverse. " Mr Downer said the partnership program was yet another sign of the vibrant relationship between Indonesia and Australia. " We work together on so many projects with such success that for all the inevitable difficulties that arise from time to time in diplomatic relations we have been able to, nevertheless, achieve great things, " he said. http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Climate-partners-share-birthday-at-APEC/2\ 007/09/09/11892 76520874.html Australia: 33) Investment banks and private operators are bracing for a privatization bonanza in the next two years as various state governments, including NSW, Queensland and Tasmania, look to raise money to pay for their big infrastructure plans. The investment banking community is abuzz with talk that NSW is looking at outsourcing and outright sell-offs in the energy, forestry, gambling and transport industries. States like Queensland and Tasmania are also selling key assets. Last year, the Beattie Government sold $3 billion worth of retail energy assets and more recently put its windmill operations up for sale. There is also talk of the sale of its power generation plants, including CS Energy, Stanwell and Tarong Energy, for at least $10 billion. NSW Lotto could raise between $200 million and $300 million, and Forests NSW could fetch $400-600 million, according to one investment banker who has been looking at the asset for a client. The state's forests have been the subject of calls for privatisation and corporatisation several times in the past. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22381246-643,00.html 34) The Queenslander Highrise, an innovation in urban building in rainforests, is being designed in Australia. The lowest apartment would be on the seventh floor, leaving plenty of vertical space below for a nature preserve, according to a story in today's Sunday Mail. Parking would be buried underground. The vision of an unbroken coastal rainforest, studded with sky scrapers poking out of the top is striking. Besides wildlife habitat, the scheme would protect the population against storms and coastal erosion, since vegetation naturally holds the beach in place and buffers against storm surges. http://www.thedailygreen.com/2007/09/09/australia-plans-high-rises-over-rainfore\ st/6354/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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