Guest guest Posted November 28, 2007 Report Share Posted November 28, 2007 Today for you 32 new articles about earth's trees! (259th edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com --British Columbia: 1) Bear mountain treesit, 2) New Coastal strategy, --Washington: 3) Study of this season's mass cone production, 4) Federal roads, --Oregon: 5) Thinning differences --California: 6) Wildland-urban interface, 7) 40-50% of carbon emissions, 8) Aerator ants need less fire and less thinning, --Montana: 9) Elliston Face logging withdrawn, 10) Big Sky Coalition, 11) Green smear, --Arizona: 12) Illegal changing of rules for Goshawks --Utah: 13) Spruce and Mountain Pine Beetles affect 200,000 acres --Missouri: 14) Wilderness wars --Maine: 15) Chemical versatility of wood --Hawaii: 16) Koa reforestation --Armenia: 17) An accident while logging illegally --Israel: 18) Twenty-four Oaks of Mount Meron reserve cut down --Ghana: 19) Over-logging of illegal chain-saw operators --Guyana: 20) Offering up the entirety of its remaining forest --Mexico: 21) Curbing logging to protect millions of monarch butterflies --Bangladesh: 22) Moving wildlife or letting it adapt? --India: 23) Forests of Uttarakhand valued at $2.4 billion --Nepal: 24) Bardia National Park --Vietnam: 25) 46 deaths due to logging induced slides and floods --Philippines: 26) President plays musical chairs, 27) Opposed to logging in Sierra Madre, 28) More on Samar island, --Malaysia: 29) $10 million given by Sydney-based New Forests --Indonesia: 30) Mangrove growing, 31) Knasaimos people of Papua, --Australia: 32) New Blockade in theUupper Florentine British Columbia: 1) Last week, the City of Langford and the Ministry of Transportation announced that they are about to proceed with their $32,000,000 Bear Mountain Interchange project. They are slated to start cutting trees in December. We believe that government machinations about what to do with the treesit blockade are currently underway. Last week I met with MOT -Partnership and Project Development Manager Ed Storm and asked him for information about these machinations. I explained to him that we needed to know if they were planning to arrest people under the ample existing laws, or if they they will be trying to get a court injunction. I won't be surprised if the judiciary is having injunction-fatigue of late, thanks to the work of Betty Krawczyk, but if they have to arrest us through non-injunction means, then all their collusion, deception and lack of consultation will be elaborated in court. This terrifies governments apparently. There is a precedent at Cathedral Grove, -when the judge refused to grant an injunction, they refused to just arrest people, which resulted in the 2 year stand-off. The Campbell government was too chickenshit to hear the truth in court because it would have cost them big-time. The Bear Mountain treesit is now preparing for a more robust direct action, non-violent civil-disobedient defence of the forest. A spectacular new platform was raised last week and people are busy expanding other aspects of the forest defense infrastructure. The camp has been winterized, platforms are being stocked, and traverse lines are being rigged throughout the forest. Recently, someone leaked us a copy of the top-secret Golder " Environmental Assessment " (EA) (it hasn't been made public since it was released in 2006 –what's the secret?) and as suspected, it is a totally inadequate greenwash stamp of approval. The report is nothing but a list, gleaned from internet research, of all the potential species, at risk or otherwise, which could inhabit that sort of BGZ. There has been no examination of the environmental consequences of the Interchange project, and more disturbing, -no mention of the very significant cultural and speleological resources that will be destroyed. ingmarz 2) The old-growth forests of Vancouver Island are among the most spectacular landscapes anywhere on Earth. They're home unique wildlife and are a fundamental part of Vancouver Island's tourism economy. They are also of great cultural importance to the First Nations of the Island, most of whom never gave up ownership over their forests through any treaties. Currently 75% of the original productive old-growth forests have already been logged (including over 90% of the valley bottoms with the largest trees). A new Coastal Old-Growth Strategy is needed and needs to include: 1) Enact concrete timelines and targets to reduce and quickly end old-growth logging on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland where old-growth forests are now scarce. 2) Ensure that our second-growth forests are logged sustainably instead. 3) Ban raw log exports from private and public lands. Come out to the next critical mass and show the government you care about saving the remaining Old-Growth forests!! For more information on Old-Growth forests see: http://vancouvercm.blogspot.com/2007/11/upcoming-ride-for-old-growth.html Washington: 3) Suspended 20 stories in the air, Ken Bible looks down on the crown of a 500-year-old Douglas fir and ponders a mystery. It's not the obvious one: How does a man without superpowers hover above the treetops? That's easy. The University of Washington forest ecologist rose to his lofty perch in a metal gondola hoisted by a 285-foot-tall construction crane. The vantage point allows Bible to study the upper reaches of this old-growth forest, where a reproductive orgy is under way. " We've never seen anything like this here, " he says, reaching over the edge of the open-air gondola to grasp a limb laden with cones. He counts at least 30. " Normally, a branch like this would have about three, " he says. " Why so many this year? We really don't know. " Maybe global warming nudged the trees to procreate. Perhaps it's a natural cycle. In either case, Bible wants to pinpoint the trigger. Did the forest crank up cone production in response to temperature? Is moisture the key? Or could the flush of fertility be traced to high spring winds that whipped up a sexy cyclone of pollen? The work is part of a bigger effort to figure out what climate change, both natural and man-made, will mean for the Northwest's iconic forests. The UW's Wind River Canopy Crane, erected in 1995 near the Columbia River, is proving an ideal tool. The crane and the research area that surrounds it have already helped answer several fundamental questions about forests and their ability to counteract global warming. A cooperative venture with the Forest Service, the crane is the largest in the world dedicated to forestry research, and the only one in North America. It was here that scientists put to rest the myth that mature forests are biologically moribund. By rising above the treetops, they were able to take measurements that showed old forests continue to grow and act as a sink for carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas. Studies here also proved it doesn't make sense from a global-warming perspective to cut older forests and replace them with seedlings, which grow faster and had been thought to absorb more carbon dioxide. Old forests are storehouses for such vast amounts of carbon that it would take many decades for new forests to catch up on the carbon balance sheet. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004037053_trees27m.html 4) The Bush administration estimates that repairing deteriorating logging roads in national forests in Washington state could cost as much as $760 million. The roads need to be upgraded to comply with federal clean water standards so that they no longer threaten endangered salmon habitat. The estimate, described as very preliminary, was included in a letter to the state's congressional delegation. In the letter, Mark Rey, the Agriculture Department undersecretary who oversees the Forest Service, suggested some of the roads could be reclassified so that they didn't have to meet such stringent maintenance standards, and others could be turned over to the counties. The letter has fueled lawmakers' concerns that the administration has failed to adequately confront the logging roads problem, refused to seek adequate funding and will simply turn what could be a ticking budgetary time bomb over to the next administration. " I don't see eye to eye with Mark Rey when it comes to management of the forests, " said Sen. Maria Cantwell, DWash. " We don't trust him. " Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., agreed. Washington state eventually may have to sue the Forest Service to force its compliance with the federal Clean Water Act, he said. " I have been concerned about this for years, " said Dicks, who as chairman of the House's Interior Department appropriations subcommittee had jurisdiction over the Forest Service. " We need an administration more sympathetic to Forest Service programs besides just fires. " For his part, Rey defended the administration's efforts and insisted in a telephone interview that the Forest Service was not trying to shirk its responsibilities. " It's a problem we are taking seriously, " he said. " It's a top priority. " http://www.bellinghamherald.com/102/story/244467.html Oregon: 5) As an ecologist with 15 years experience restoring forestlands, I find Tim Hermach's " one size fits all " views on thinning as misguided as industry's. In his Nov. 8 Viewpoint, Hermach says the forest can take care of itself. In the wet forests west of the Cascades, this argument has merit. Logging these rain-drenched forests to reduce fire hazard is a dubious objective. In the dry pine forests of Oregon's east side, a completely different situation exists: 100 plus years of fire suppression and logging the biggest trees has left a tangle of small trees many times denser than a century earlier. Old growth trees are being choked out by this unnatural ingrowth and, as a result, are at high mortality risk from beetle epidemics and wildfire. These fires burn much hotter and more destructively than the historic frequent, low severity fires that removed small trees in favor of larger ones. The recent Davis Fire near Davis Lake is a stark example of this catastrophic effect. Nearly all the old pines were killed, soils were cooked and essential habitat was lost, and industry enjoyed a salvage logging bonanza. No informed person physically reviewing this kind of burn would characterize this fire as " natural. " In the dry forest, preserving native ecosystems requires prudent understory thinning and use of prescribed fire to restore ecosystem function. Without this kind of active management, the stage is set for dysfunction and more destructive fires. Hermach's uninformed blanket rejection of thinning as a forest restoration tool does the struggling dry forests of the West a great disfavor. http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2007/11/21/letters.html California: 6) It's a nerdy, wonkish phase, and based on the acronyms, WUI, it's pronounced woo-wee. That stands for the wildland-urban interface, and it's a big, big deal in much of the West, where people have been flocking to stake out homes next to the trees, away from town centers. There are several reasons to be concerned about the settlement pattern, but most prominent is the potential for fire. This year's classic case was at South Lake Tahoe, where a campfire gone awry destroyed 254 homes in June. For years, land managers had worried about an aging forest, and the subpar winter in the Sierra Nevada — the latest in a string of drought years in the West — left the forest tinder dry. Nationally, the Forest Service now spends 41 percent of its budget on either fighting fires or reducing fuels. In California, it's 50 percent. There, firefighting costs have jumped from $10 to $20 million per year during the early 1980s to $100 million to $252 million in recent years. Loss of life is also at issue. Seven firefighters have died this year, but during the decade an average 18 per year have died as a result of heart attacks, airplane crashes, or being burned to death. Until recently, firefighters " saluted and went out and did it, " U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokesman Don Smurthwaite told a team of reporters from the Associated Press. Now, " we will not ask a fire crew in a dangerous fire to defend a structure that has not taken precautionary steps. That's definitely a change. " Still, firefighters continue to die. In the case of Lake Tahoe restrictions on thinning projects of less than 100 acres have been loosened since last summer's fire, as have regulations regarding defensible space. Whether those changes will be of value is unknown, reports the Sierra Sun. But the verdict is in regarding work done since 1985 by a large subdivision called Tahoe Donner. It's a very large subdivision, with 6,000 properties. Each property is assessed $1,000 per year for thinning and other work on the 3,474 acres of common area. Other neighborhoods, including one at the Northstar ski area, are beginning to fund their own forestry efforts, if on a smaller scale. Meanwhile, settlement in these semi-rural areas continues, and geographers and economist continue to issue projections that forsee even more of this exurban — or perhaps it should be called " exural " — living. http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20071126/NEWS/71126003 7) The careful clearing of fuel loads and underbrush in our Stanislaus Forest is admirable. We have seen up close and personal how effective these measures have been. There is much more to learn about forest preservation, however. According to Laurie Wayburn, president of the Pacific Forest Trust, writing in the October 18th San Francisco Chronicle, forest loss and depletion accounts for about 40 to 50 percent of excess atmospheric carbon dioxide. Forests store carbon dioxide as the trees grow, and release it when disturbed or harvested. Trees (and all plants that photosynthesize) use carbon dioxide as their " fuel. " By absorbing carbon dioxide from the air, energy from sunlight, and water from the ground, trees create sugars to use in their metabolic processes (thus " locking up " carbon) and release oxygen into the air for us to breathe. Locking carbon molecules into a permanent structure, in this case the cellulose of wood, is referred to as carbon sequestration. The new landmark California legislation AB 32, Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, proposes to make conservation and restoration one of the tools to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in California. The " protocols " were developed over a four year period—including a public process—and were approved by the California Assembly and Senate in August, 2006 and signed by the Governor in September, 2006. AB 32 specifically refers to carbon sequestration as one technique for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. AB 32 also refers to " Market-Based Compliance Mechanisms. " http://www.mymotherlode.com/News/article/kvml/1195690829 8) A tiny insect appears to be linked to two big problems at one of the West's most famous lakes. The insect? The aerator ant. Various species range in length from a quarter of an inch to a half-inch and are black or brown. The problems? Clarity, which Lake Tahoe's water is losing, and wildfires, which are a growing threat in the area. Lake Tahoe, which straddles the California-Nevada line, is the country's largest alpine lake. Its crystal waters are among the biggest attractions for the lake's 3 million annual visitors, according to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. Scientists at the University of Nevada, Reno, are studying aerator ants, and Dennis Murphy, a lead biologist in the research, said the role of the aerator ant reminds him " that we tend to overlook the little things that run the world. " The ants are believed to play an important role in protecting lake clarity, Murphy said. That's because the nests and extensive tunnel networks they dig help water soak into the forest floor rather than run directly into the lake, polluting it with clarity-robbing sediment, he said. Research suggests ant populations plummet in areas of extensive human-caused disturbances, such as removing woody debris on the forest floor to reduce fire danger, Murphy said. That's the rub. Preventing catastrophic wildfires has been the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency's No. 1 priority since 2004, a mission given added urgency by a major wildfire in June that destroyed 254 homes. The lake's clarity has been diminishing for some time, said Julie Regan, the agency's spokeswoman. One could see 100 feet into the lake's depths in 1968 but only 68 feet in 2006, she said. Now, the planning agency and the U.S. Forest Service are leading a $200 million effort to reduce fire danger in areas closest to Lake Tahoe's communities by thinning forests — including cleaning debris off forest floors. " A forest dense with fuels is at great risk of fire, but a forest stripped of all those fuels loses the ants that contribute to that highly desirable blue lake, " Murphy said. http://www.mywire.com/pubs/USATODAY/2007/11/27/5043524?cl=false & pbl=261 Montana: 9) A dispute over elk winter range near Elliston has prompted Helena District Ranger Duane Harp to withdraw his decision to log public lands outside the small community west of MacDonald Pass. Harp said he plans to pursue the 763-acre Elliston Face Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project, but first will consider addressing issues raised in a lawsuit filed by two environmental groups. Michael Garrity, the Alliance's executive director, said he's pleased Harp withdrew the project because, in his opinion, the proposed commercial logging on 475 acres would destroy winter range for about 100 elk. That range is outlined on maps included in the Helena National Forest Management Plan, and Garrity said it's supported by a former FWP wildlife biologist. It was one of the issues contained in the lawsuit. " Elk hunters should be upset by that, " Garrity said. " You can't remove the thermal cover and say you care about elk. " Harp argues that those forest management maps aren't as site-specific as necessary, and the Forest Service's wildlife biologist, as well as a FWP biologist, told him the area isn't an elk winter range. " But in court, it's not a wildlife biologist making the decision. It's a judge and you're always at risk you'll lose — or you could prevail, " Harp said. So Harp withdrew his decision, which along with the commercial logging involved hand treatments on 144 acres, 29 acres of mechanical thinning of non-merchantable material on 29 acres and fencing aspen on 115 acres. Instead, he said they're considering amending the forest's management plan, in which they could remove the winter range designation. But that plan can't be amended without additional analysis. http://www.helenair.com/articles/2007/11/25/helena/f01112507_02.txt 10) A week hadn't yet passed since Robak and others had hosted a meeting in Hamilton earlier this month that drew close to 650 people on a sunny Sunday afternoon. The crowd had come to learn about the new group - Big Sky Coalition: Environmentalists with Common Sense - that planned to challenge forest management policies it believed were causing catastrophic wildfires. When Robak turned the key, he was shocked to see his box stuffed full of letters supporting the coalition. The envelopes contained almost $3,500 in donations. " We had no idea when we started if this was something that people would be interested in, " Robak said. " Now we know there are people out there who want to see something different happening on forestlands. " All around the state, people from all walks of life are looking for answers to the complicated question of just what should happen on the millions of acres of national forests in Montana. Some call for more logging to thin the forests. Others want a hands-off approach, allowing nature to take its course. Some say timber cutting should pay for restoration efforts to rebuild streams, control noxious weeds and improve wildlife habitat. The 600-member Friends of the Bitterroot has been monitoring the Bitterroot National Forest's timber sale program since 1988. It's challenged the forest's timber sales with both administrative appeals and litigation. " There was a huge amount of timber being cut in an unsustainable manner starting in the 1960s and continuing right through the '80s, " Miller said. " A large part of the forest is still suffering from that industrial logging era. " Today's focus on wildfire doesn't change that, Miller said. " There's a lot of science that tells us that climate change is impacting the way wildfires burn, " he said. " There have been a lot of wildfires that have burned right through areas that have been managed with logging. " The lesson we see is that regardless of the treatment on the landscape, when the conditions are just right - when days are hottest and driest - you're going to have large landscape wildfires. " http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/11/25/news/local/news02.txt 11) This claim was printed in the paper without any evidence and despite the fact that the newspaper was previously given information that of 500 plus timber sales on the Bitterroot National Forest since 1985 0.03% have been litigated. Folks, while it is true that organizations such as the WildWest Institute make sure the federal government follows the law and best science when managing our public lands, the reality is that the vast majority of timber sales and fuel reduction projects in Montana go forward without litigation. Currently, there is only one timber sale – ONE – in the entire state that's under a court ordered injunction. Are we really expected to believe that this one injunction on a small timber sale is the reason that 800,000 acres burned in Montana this summer? While a handful of other timber sales may currently be under litigation, there is nothing preventing the Forest Service from moving ahead with these logging projects and in nearly every case they are. Ironically, however, the Forest Service is even having a hard time selling these timber sales because logging companies are simply not bidding on them. Reasons for this are varied, and while it may be politically convenient to blame environmentalists, the logging industry is faced with the lowest lumber prices in 35 years, a nation-wide slowing of home construction and potential bursting of the " housing bubble " and cheap lumber imports made possible by questionable trade policies. The Forest Service is even having a hard time literally giving away timber. For example, the Forest Service's logging plans following the arson-caused Gash Fire in the Bitterroot National Forest have gone un-bid upon despite a bargain basement price of $1,497 for over 9 million pounds of timber. There is also plenty of evidence that logging contractors are sitting on numerous timber sales currently under contract in hopes of riding out the historically low lumber prices. http://www.newwest.net/citjo/article/keep_debate_about_wildfires_and_forest_poli\ cy_bracketed_by _reality1/C33/L33/ Arizona: 12) " The Forest Service actively ignored criticisms from state biologists and unilaterally changed the rules behind closed doors, " said Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity. " It failed to disclose those criticisms in Freedom of Information Act requests. " Responding to two Freedom of Information Act requests by the Center, the Forest Service claims that it neither offered nor received feedback on draft copies of the rule from state and federal wildlife agencies. But records obtained through requests to Arizona's Game and Fish Department contradict Forest Service claims. Those records show that state biologists repeatedly expressed concerns to the Forest Service over the new rules' impact on wildlife. The new rules substantially change a 1996 rule governing forest management in all Arizona and New Mexico national forests — a rule that protects northern goshawks and their prey from logging. The previous rules, known as the Goshawk Guidelines, were developed in response to Center litigation and affect the vast majority of ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forest in the Southwest. The new guidelines would reduce the overall amount of forest cover retained and would increase the amount of large trees and mature forest that can be logged. The new guidelines can reduce forest-cover requirements to as little as 10 percent when measured according to the previous rules' methods. " We have grave concerns about the consequences of the new rules for forest wildlife on a regional scale, " said McKinnon. Pointing to the 1996 rule, which resulted from an extensive public and environmental review, conservationists assert that the Forest Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Forest Management Act when it modified the old rules without a similar analysis. " If the Forest Service wants to retool regional wildlife rules, it must initiate a formal environmental and public review process, " said McKinnon. " The law simply doesn't allow the agency to make unilateral changes. " http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/ Utah: 13) For the Spruce bark beetle, for instance, a life cycle that used to take two years now often takes just one year. For the Mountain pine beetle, a different species, winter nights don't get frigid enough, long enough to kill off many beetle communities the way they sometimes did in the past. Between the longer summers and warmer winters, there are many more beetles, more insect mandibles chewing on the forests, strangling the trees by cutting off the food and water that nourish them. More than 200,000 acres of Utah pine, fir, spruce and Douglas fir trees are in various stages of death because of beetles. Ultimately, foresters would like to know what needs to be done to stop the slaughter. But they have not discovered any simple answers. " It's so complex, " said Hebertson. " There is so much we don't know. " An entomologist for the U.S. Forest Service's Forest Health Protection office in Ogden, she spends her days cruising western forests, tracking the marauding insects and huddling with other foresters on how to stop the devastation. She looks scientifically at both the forests and the trees. But the " carnage " she studies is not easily overlooked by anyone who spends time in Utah's forests or anyone who looks up at its forested mountain landscapes. The dead zones appear as dappled patches of bright red and gray trees - even in the green of spring. Up close, she can easily spot trees in peril. Some, like the green-needled Ponderosa pine she approached one recent morning, are already dying. Hebertson looks for dribbles of clear or cloudy sap that pour from holes in the bark. She looks for piles of woody dust at the base. Both are signs that beetles have already burrowed in. But the dust piles mean the beetles have already killed a tree. http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_7556417 Missouri: 14) Intent on tracking the six-point buck he had wounded, Tony Lakey carried his lever-action Winchester into dense woods on a sparkling Saturday morning. Lakey walked through drifts of leaves down a hollow, one of dozens forming a corrugated blanket of wooded ridges and ravines leading to Swan Creek, some five miles to the west. He knew he'd have a tough time hauling the carcass uphill using only a few pieces of rope and his own muscle. In a way, it's the same kind of uphill task a St. Louis environmental group faces in trying to win federal wilderness status for 9,400 acres on the Mark Twain National Forest in eastern Christian County, including the Swan Creek area. They're also seeking that status for six other areas encompassing 50,000 acres in the national forest and the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. An outdoorsman who spends a lot of time in the Swan Creek area hunting deer, trapping and hunting mushrooms, Lakey said he's heard about the wilderness proposal and hasn't formed an opinion. Even without an official wilderness designation, the Swan Creek forest between Chadwick and Garrison is as close to wilderness as possible, he said, adding, " I always pretty much thought it was, the way it is. " Others, like horseback rider Shannon Campbell, seem surprised at the proposal and reject it at once. Standing at the Bar-K Wrangler Camp five miles west of where Lakey tracked his buck, Campbell worried that while a wilderness designation won't prohibit horseback riding at Swan Creek, it might restrict his ability to drive horse trailers into the forest. And seeing the proposal originate in St. Louis is aggravating, he said. http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071125/NEWS01/711250400/\ 1007 Maine: 15) The time will come, in two or three decades, when we will look at the days of only sawing boards and making paper as the Dark Ages, " says Robert G. Wagner, professor of forestry at the University of Maine. " The chemical versatility of wood is so great, we will cringe at the idea we were once wasting it. " Wagner is one of more than 20 scientists involved in the Forest Bio-products Research Initiative, the largest public research project in Maine's history. The project brings together some of the brightest people in the state to answer two core questions: Can we do more than make forest products with the vast quantity of wood harvested in Maine each year? If so, what would the impact be on the state's economy and environment? " This project leverages Maine's traditional strengths in forestry and forest products, " says Stephen Shaler, professor of wood science at the University of Maine, and scientific director of the research initiative. " We understand the existing forest-products industry, and we understand forests. It was strength on strength. " In a world where oil prices are at record levels, production has reached its peak and supply is threatened by developments beyond our control, wood has become the focus of intense scrutiny. This seemingly simple material, used for thousands of years to make fires and build shelters, might one day provide plant-based fuels, chemicals, plastics and a host of other products. In the process, it could transform Maine's manufacturing base, with pulp and paper mills becoming centers for the production of a wide range of " bio-products. " Scientists believe the mills could make the new, high-value products without increasing the amount of wood they buy, and without reducing the amount of paper they produce. That could substantially improve the financial picture for Maine's paper industry, which is under increasing pressure from foreign competition. http://waldo.villagesoup.com/Sports/story.cfm?storyID=103586 Hawaii: 16) If you replant a koa forest, how soon does it become useful habitat for native creatures? It seems to be a matter of, if you build it, they will come. But both age and location also matter, according to research by Steve Goldsmith of Austin College in Texas. Goldsmith worked in the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, where more than 30,000 acres of a native forest sweep up and down from an elevation a mile high on the windward slopes of Mauna Kea. Some of that forest has never been logged, but other sectors were converted a century or more ago to pasture and are being replanted in koa in other species. Goldsmith's work was on the density of beetles in the koa trees. The beetles, while they are pests to the koa trees, are a part of the native ecosystem, and they're a food source for native birds, notably the 'akiapÅlÄ'au, whose Latin name is Hemignathus munroi.. These yellow native forest birds are remarkable in part because their beaks form two separate tools. A stout, short lower beak is used woodpecker-like for excavating trees, while their longer, slender and curved upper beak is used for probing and pulling out food items, like beetles. Among their prey are a pair of longhorned beetle species found only in Hawai'i, Plagithmysus claviger and Plagithmysus varians. These bore into dead branches of koa trees. The goal of Goldsmith and fellow researchers Hayley Gillespie and Cole Weatherby was to determine how the age of the forest affected the population of the beetles. Their work was published in the September 2007 edition of The Southwestern Naturalist. They studied young koa plantations that were planted 3 to 8 years earlier, middle-aged plantations with trees 12 to 15 years old, and then compared those with ancient trees that formed the canopy in native forest. http://raisingislands.blogspot.com/2007/11/forest-birds-beetles-and-koa-trees-si\ ze.html Armenia: 17) Levon Karyan, Lori Section Chief of the Republic of Armenia's Natural Protection Inspectorate, states that the road accident victims had removed wood from Teghut. Might this be the reason then that both the Director of Lalvar and its Chief Warden claim to know nothing of the matter? One cannot rule out the possibility that the illegal felling of trees has already begun in the wooded areas owned by the Vallex Group, a mining concern recently given the go-ahead to mine copper and molybdenum and build a tailings dam on those lands. Seeming to be engaged in a conversation with himself in an attempt to answer those questions that continue to haunt him, Koryun Sargsyan, his arm in a cast and with blood-filled eyes as a result of the accident, states that, " The accident occurred on Sunday around dusk. We were transporting the wood down from Gogdakh Mountain in the Noyemberyan district, far from Teghut. It was all dead wood and we had the necessary permits. " Next to him was a child, only a few months old, wrapped in diapers. The mother was blessing the child as if to say that God saved the life of her husband for the child's sake. The brother of the deceased Suren Norekyan contradicted Koryun and declared, " The accident happened on the road to Teghut. " Rudolph Stepanyan, Chief of the Investigative Unit of the Tumanyan Police, states that, " An examination of the circumstances surrounding the accident is in the preliminary stage and so far no criminal charges have been brought. According to the information we are privy to the accident took place on Mount Gogdakh but that's not to say that a on-site inspection will bear this out. " Many in the village of Shnogh blamed the accident and the cutting down of trees as the reason for their poor quality of life. While attempting to describe the difficult life of the villagers Garnik Beroyan observed that, " The villager lives from hand to mouth, the soil's dried up and doesn't bear fruit. People just sit around all day doing nothing. There's no fertilizer. The kids haul water from Vardan spring. The pigs have gotten sick and are dying. I'm 74 years old. I get the bucket and head off. Where else can I get water to drink? " http://www.hetq.am/eng/ecology/7307/ Israel: 18) " These trees have seen history pass by the joys, the sorrows and in a single moment they were cut down. It is a crime against nature, " Uri Ehrlich, the Galilee District director at the Israel Nature and National Parks Authority, says of the 24 big oaks cut down in the heart of the Mount Meron reserve early last week. Beit Jann council head Yusef Qablan was also inconsolable. " When I saw the felled trees, I began to cry, " he said. " I consider this an act of violence, like assaulting old people, vandalism. " The oaks were decades old, some more than a century. Qablan recounted how the villagers used to gather in their shade for holidays. Nearby, they built a monument to Salah Tapash, an army medic from Beit Jann who was killed in South Lebanon in 1992. The police have no suspects yet in the case. However, this comes in the wake of tension between the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and some area residents who have been damaging the nature reserve. Some people view the oaks' felling as an explicit provocation and defiance of park rangers. Qablan says this is a direct insult to Beit Jann: " Whoever was behind this has vengeful intentions and a desire to sully the atmosphere. This wasn't done on private land, but rather in a place that symbolizes Beit Jann. Our image has been badly hurt, precisely at a time when we are getting on the tourism map. It's a heavy blow. " He added that the village had recently succeeded in improving relations with the INPA, which had granted many villagers permits to thin trees. Dozens of dunams of trees in the Mt. Meron reserve have been chopped down in recent years, mostly intended for heating in place of expensive fuels, the INPA reports. The current tension stems from the complex relationship between the parks authority and Druze residents. After the reserve was set up 40 years ago, the villages Beit Jann and Hurfeish found themselves surrounded by a nature reserve, which they felt limited the villages' development. Some of the private agricultural lands remained within the reserve. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/927544.html Ghana: 19) Madam Esther Obeng Dapaah, Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines has said Ghana's forest cover of about 8 million hectares at the time of the country's independence had dwindled to less than 2 million hectares. She said the problem had been compounded by over-logging of illegal chain-saw operators and timber contractors in the country. She said excessive surface mining, conversion of natural forest into agriculture land, annual bushfires, expansion of infrastructure and changes in land uses also contributed to the dwindling. Madam Dapaah was addressing members of the Ghana Timber Association (GTA) at their Annual General Meeting under the theme: " Helping to Build Ghana through the Conservation of Our Forest, " at Akyawkrom in the Ejisu-Juaben District of the Ashanti Region. She said the current state of the nation's forest resources should be a major concern to all Ghanaians since it is very critical to the survival of the forest reserve adding that the Ministry had stepped up efforts to reclaim the lost forest belt. Madam Dapaah charged the Forestry Commission to comply strictly with the provisions of the existing statutory legal regimes in granting timber harvesting rights, to stem the tide of unhealthy practices. She said this would ensure that foreigners who had sited timber processing facilities in various tree plantations and forest reserves in the country without the requisite approval from the authorities were barred from operating. http://allafrica.com/stories/200711261078.html Guyana: 20) Guyana has offered up the entirety of its remaining forest cover as a giant carbon offset, reports The Independent. Guyana's President, Bharrat Jagdeo, has offered to place the country's extensive rainforests under the control of an international body in exchange for " development aid " and " technical assistance needed to make the change to a green economy. " " We can deploy the forest against global warming and, through the UK's help, it wouldn't have to stymie development in Guyana, " President Jagdeo told The Independent. " We are a country with the political will and a large tract of standing forest. I'm not a mercenary, this is not blackmail and I realize there's no such thing as a free lunch. I'm not just doing this just because I'm a good man and want to save the world, I need the assistance. " While President Jagdeo is hopeful that Guyana can be rewarded for conserving its forests, he says that the country is poor and will do what it is necessary to improve living conditions for its people. Climbing prices for gold and timber, coupled with surging demand for biofuels derived from sugar cane are increasingly attractive options relative to forest preservation. A proposed Brazilian would build a paved highway that would connect X to Georgetown, transforming Guyana's capital into a major port for commodities from the Amazon region. " Maybe we should just cut down the trees. Then someone would recognize the problem, " said President Jagdeo. " But I want to think we can fulfil our people's aspirations without cutting down the trees. " Globally, deforestation and land use change accounts for 15-20 percent of total emissions, a larger source of greenhouse gases than the entire transportation sector. http://news.mongabay.com/2007/1126-guyana.html Mexico: 21) President Felipe Calderon unveiled a sweeping plan Sunday to curb logging and protect millions of monarch butterflies that migrate to the mountains of central Mexico each winter, covering trees and bushes and attracting visitors from around the world. The plan will put $4.6 million toward additional equipment and advertising for the existing Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, covering a 124,000-acre swathe of trees and mountains that for thousands of years has served as the winter nesting ground to millions of orange- and black-winged monarch butterflies. Calderon said it would help boost tourism and support the economy in an impoverished area where illegal logging runs rampant. " It is possible to take care of the environment and at the same time promote development, " the president said. The new initiative is part of ongoing efforts to protect the butterflies, which are a huge tourist attraction and the pride of Mexico. In some areas, officials can even be found standing guard along highways and slowing cars that might accidentally hit a butterfly flying across the road. The plan also meshes nicely with one of Calderon's main policy planks: protecting the environment and combatting global warming. He has drawn up a national anti-global warming plan and committed to plant some 250 million trees in 2007. While the monarch butterfly does not appear on any endangered species lists, experts say illegal logging in Mexico threatens its existence in North America because it removes the foliage that protects the delicate insects from the cold and rain. " By even taking a single tree out near the butterfly colony you allow heat to escape from the forest and that then jeopardizes the butterflies, " said Lincoln Brower, professor emeritus of zoology at the University of Florida and at Sweet Briar College in Sweet Briar, Va. Brower, who has studied the insects for 52 years, described the Mexican nesting grounds as " the Mecca of the whole insect world. " The reserve already receives some $36.4 million in government funding, and its staff includes a team of park rangers who patrol the area equipped with assault rifles and body armor searching for armed gangs of lumber thieves. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gYigM299eT8-JDIPTeDcLNPqGPyQD8T4VUI81 Bangladesh: 22) Bengal tigers are dangerous neighbors for people living in the Sundarbans, a lush wetland area of Bangladesh. As the wetland mangrove forests are reduced -- due to both man and rising sea levels -- the tigers' habitat shrinks, pushing them closer to people. Climate change is driving thousands of animal and plant species into new environments. Now biologists are debating whether it makes sense to help them make the move. Indian and Bangladeshi fishermen appeal to Bonobibi, the goddess of the forest, before they set out into the swamps. They also send their prayers to heaven to placate Daksin Ray, the tiger god. But no amount of prayer can deter the Bengal tiger. People are killed by tigers almost weekly in the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, located in the delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers. The region is one of the last refuges for Bengal tigers. Though still the masters of the forest, a gas could prove to be the tigers' undoing. The gas is called carbon dioxide, and it's warming the earth. The Sundarbans are one of the first ecosystems on earth that could be destroyed by the effects of climate change. According a report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), three-quarters of the region, a World Heritage site, could be underwater by the end of the century. All it takes is a 45-centimeter (1.5-foot) rise in sea levels for the Bengal tiger, also referred to locally as the " man-eater, " to become one of the first victims of climate change. And if scientists' predictions are right, it will not be the last. According to a report issued in April by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 20 to 30 percent of all species would face an " elevated " risk of extinction if the average global temperature rises by more than 1.5 to 2.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 to 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit). And a study published in the journal Nature, concluded that by 2050 up to two-thirds of all animals and plants could be forced to move to new habitats in order to survive. Given these dire predictions, a hotly debated issue among biologists is whether man should lend a hand, moving species when their habitats become too hot. Or will animals and plants manage to save themselves after all? http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,519271,00.html India: 23) The forests in Uttarakhand region have been valued at $2.4 billion (approximately Rs 10,700 crore) per year in terms of the services they provide. This needs to be recognised and compensated, according to a study released here on Saturday. Globally, it is estimated that the current economic value of the services provided by the earth's ecosystems is at least $33 trillion per year. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2003, has defined Ecosystem Services (ESs) as a wide range of conditions and processes through which natural ecosystems, and species that make them up, sustain and fulfil human life. Thirty-two such services, including carbon sequestration, climate management, hydrological regulation, timber, firewood, soil conservation, pollination and other non-timber forest produces (NTFPs) have been identified so far, the study said. In the forests of Uttarakhand, the average value of about $1,150 per hectare per year for the services provided needs to be reflected in our economic planning and compensated for, said the recent study, 'Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Forest Governance, in Uttarakhand, as a scoping study'. Uttarakhand has nearly 70 per cent forest cover, of which 40 per cent is 'good forest'. While the entire Himalayas are hailed as the water towers of the world, this State is particularly crucial from the ecosystem services aspect, as it has sustained the lives of millions of people (nearly 500 million people living in the Gangetic plain currently) for the past 5,000 years, said ecologist Prof S.P. Singh. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/11/26/stories/2007112651020200.htm Nepal: 24) The Bardia National Park was initially a Royal Hunting Reserve. It was in 1976 that it was gazetted as royal Karnali Wildlife Reserve with an area of only 368 sq km and was also declared a wildlife sanctuary, in 1982; it was renamed as Royal Bardia Wildlife Reserve which also includes the Babai valley. But the villages were located in Baghaura phanta and Lamkoili phanta before the establishment of hunting reserve and were relocated outside reserve boundary. When villages have been resettled outside the reserve boundary, the farming has ceased. Since then natural vegetation is regenerating, making it an area of prime habitat for wildlife. It was only in 1988 that it granted a status of National Park in order to preserve the dwindling species of rare ecosystem, including flora and fauna, particularly the tiger and its other prey spices. With the help of seven political parties including Maoist, the Royal word has been avoided in 18th May 2006, after a big demonstration. Black Buck can be seen only in Bardia National Park, in Nepal This park is the largest and most untouched wilderness area in the terai providing excellent habitat for most of the endangered spices of wildlife and birds. The park now covers an area of 968 sq km and is divided into several regions- each with their own diverse flora and fauna. It was only in 1994 that basic facilities existed for independent visitors. It has extensive and varied wildlife -all endangered rhinoceros, wild elephant, the Bengal tiger, swamp deer, black buck, gharial and mugger crocodile, gangetic dolphin. The Bardia National Park is one of Nepal's finest tiger reserve an is best known as the home of Nepal tigers, but this beautiful park is also a black buck sanctuary as well as mixture of contrasting geographical zones comprising parts of Nepal's south western plains, churia hills and inner valleys with tropical dry an deciduous forests which are dominated by hardwood sal, grassland, and riverine forests featuring gigantic simal trees. The park and its adjacent areas are famous region to provide an excellent wilderness experiences for visitors/wildlife researcher as well as important attractions indigenous culture of buffer zone are. http://www.travbuddy.com/travel-blogs/19931/Bardia-National-Park-West-Nepal-West\ -Nepal-1 Vietnam: 25) Party leader Nong Duc Manh called yesterday for preserving upstream forests to mitigate the impact of floods during a visit to the flood-ravaged central province of Quang Nam. Forty six people died and three went missing in the province, the country's highest toll in the recent floods triggered by heavy rains. Floods submerged 212,000 houses and other structures, nearly 1,000 of them centuries-old, in the tourist town of Hoi An. Manh told the provincial authorities to ensure supply of food, blankets, and medicines to all residents and quickly rebuild schools so that children could return to classes. He also directed them to keep an eye on environmental problems and prevent the spread of diseases. http://www.thanhniennews.com/politics/?catid=1 & newsid=33717 Philippines: 26) " As long as the President plays musical chairs with the secretary of environment and natural resources' post, the Philippines [cannot] save remaining forests, " wrote William Granert of Soil & Water Conservation Foundation. " We need a professional who understands community-based management. One who'll put energy into long-range programs, not PR, like planting trees along highways. " " Logging whatever is left of Samar's natural forests could be the last nail to seal the coffin of a biodiversity wonder, " forestry specialist Oscar Gendrano wrote. " Loggers will be the main beneficiary, not workers, nor the environment. " " Our virgin, natural dipterocarp forests dwindled from 6 million hectares, in the 1980s, to 800,000 hectares today. Implemented for 60 years, 'scientific' selective logging hasn't stopped forest decimation, first by loggers, then by kaingineros and land settlers. We've become a net importer of logs and other wood products. Millions of farmers eke out a living on eroded hills of mainly cogonal land. " The community-based forest management program (CBFM) would lease, for 25 years, more than 2.5 million hectares of former forests to upland communities. Organized into people's organizations by the Cooperative Development Authority, these must register with the Securities and Exchange Commission. http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=\ 103230 27) A group opposed to continued logging in Sierra Madre renewed a call for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to cancel a 25-year timber license that allows the cutting of trees in the mountain range. The Task Force Sierra Madre (TFSM), a group of local officials, religious leaders, tribal folk and nongovernment organizations, asked Environment Secretary Joselito Atienza to use its police power to stop logging in the already balding mountain range. In a letter to Atienza, the TFSM said the DENR itself has already acknowledged the destruction brought by deforestation in the Sierra Madre in the form of floods and landslides that left hundreds in Quezon and Aurora provinces dead in 2004. " The act of the state through the DENR of canceling or suspending all logging and logging permits was in the exercise of police power which is superior to the sanctity of contracts, to assert the right of the state and of the people to self-protection and self-preservation, " the group said. The Integrated Forestry Management Agreement (IFMA), or timber license, covers more than 36,000 hectares in Sierra Madre and was granted to Timberland Forest Products Inc. (TFPI), owned by Bulacan-based logger Wilson Ng, on Nov. 12, 2002 by then Environment Secretary Heherson Alvarez. Alvarez's successor, Elisea Gozun, revoked the IFMA on Jan. 13, 2004, saying " fraud, misrepresentation and omission of material facts " surrounded the process by which the DENR granted the contract. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view_article.php?article_\ id=103240 28) How serious is the Arroyo administration in its promise to protect the country's thinning forests and maintain ecological balance? If the order of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza, stopping the cutting of trees in a 50,000-hectare logging concession in Samar island is to be a gauge, then it can be said that there is hope in seeing the arrest of denudation of the forests, and consequently, the regeneration of trees in this resource-rich archipelago. In a courageous, drastic step that was cheered by the public, Atienza on Nov. 17 ordered the Basey Wood Industries (Baswood) to suspend its logging operations in the island-province. " It is the height of irony to allow the cutting of hundreds of thousands of trees to benefit a few individuals when we are prodding millions of our citizens to plant and nurture trees, " he said. In effect, this overturned a June 21 order by then-Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes allowing Baswood to resume cutting of trees in the areas covered by its timber licensing agreement. The Reyes order extending Baswood's TLA by six more years virtually lifted the logging moratorium in Samar, which was originally imposed in 1989 by then-President Corazon Aquino. In a similar move, Atienza last month cancelled a permit, also issued by his immediate predecessor, authorizing a mining firm to cut about 70,000 trees in Sibuyan Island, Romblon, ostensibly to make way for movement of heavy equipment including trucks and bulldozers to be used in extracting and transporting gold and copper ores. This was the second known attempt to circumvent the logging moratorium in Samar—one of the few areas in the country that continues to have a thick forest cover. If you will recall, then Environment Secretary Michael Defensor last year approved the application of San Jose Lumber Co. to resume logging in Eastern Samar after several years of suspension. The SJLT boasted of having successfully reforested logged-over areas, and claimed it was entitled to harvest mature trees in its timber concession. But Defensor was forced to withdraw the logging permit in the face of strong resistance from Samareños, who staged protest actions led by Catholic bishops. http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=felMaragay_nov26_2007 Malaysia: 29) An Australian investment firm announced Monday that it would spend about $10 million in an agreement with authorities in Malaysia to protect more than 30,000 hectares (74,130 acres) of forests that is home to orangutans, pygmy elephants and other endangered species. But in an innovative twist, the Sydney-based New Forests will be granted authority by the Sabah government to recoup its investment by turning around and selling stakes in the protected site. The government will retain ownership of the forest, which will become known as the Borneo Orangutan Conservation Bank and encompass the Malua Forest Reserve. No commercial activity will be allowed and investors will essentially be buying into its long-term protection. Potential buyers will be companies that are in the business of producing and using palm oil, an industry that has faced increasing scrutiny from European governments and environmentalists for its practice of destroying rain forests mostly in Malaysia and Indonesia to make room for vast plantations. " The objective of the Sabah government and New Forests is to create a winning situation for all, " says David Brand, managing director of New Forests who signed the memorandum of understanding with Sabah authorities Monday. " Palm oil companies can help protect rain forest, private investment can make a return from rain forest rehabilitation and conservation, and the government can offer a solution to current concerns around oil palm plantation, " Brand said. Authorities in the state of Sabah, who have agreed to ban logging in the area by the end of the year as part of the agreement, said the allure of this proposal is that a portion of the money earned from selling credits would be returned to their coffers. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5329245.html Indonesia: 30) Bako National Park in Kuching is world famous as a travel destination for watching proboscis monkeys which are endemic to Borneo. Mostly, these primates are found in the mangrove areas within the National Park because they rely on the mangroves as a major food source. Moreover, the mangroves, which function as a marine nursery, are responsible for ensuring the health of fish population so that fishery activities can take place. And as fisheries are among the major income sources, the destruction of the mangroves will adversely affect the economy. Mangrove forests have also attracted attention as important research resources. Among the areas of study on mangroves are medicinal development, ecological and geological research. As mangroves are important to mankind and wildlife, conservation efforts have constantly been made, especially after the 2004 tsunami. Ali said under the Ninth Malaysia Plan, RM5 million has been allocated for mangrove protection, involving research and development and rehabilitation of mangrove forests in the State. " What we do is plant mangrove species on empty mudflats, " he said. During the recent conservation project themed " Treasure the Mangrove, " some 400 mature propagules (seedlings)from the species bakau kurap (rhizophora mucronata) and bakau minyak (rhizophora apiculata) had been planted. According to Sarawak Forest Corporation mangrove project researcher, Sylvester Tan, the propagules must at least germinate eight leaves to mature before they can be planted. " The propagules collected from the mother tree have to be kept in a nursery until they are mature enough to be planted. If not, they will die, " he said. Tan explained there were many factors affecting the successful growth of mangrove trees. Care for the propagules has to be taken from the moment they drop from the mother tree. " The propagules are sensitive. Even slight damage during transportation can spoil them. " Tan said post mortems were carried out on propagules that did not germinate to find out whether it was due to insect attacks or physical damage. There are specific planting methods to ensure the propagules germinate into trees. http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=88470 31) For the Knasaimos people, living in the Indonesian province of Papua, we do not see nature as something to be destroyed. The forests here provide for our needs. For building houses we take rattan, bamboo and other woods, for lighting fires we take damar, and for food we process sago taken from the forest in the traditional method. The forests give us wood for fishing boats, gaharu trees for trade, and many fruits which we can sell. The relationship between our people and their nature is important, and it's become our pride and part of our traditional wisdom. That's why we manage the land in a simple way. The way we manage our land, however, has been disturbed by outsiders coming here to log trees. It started in 1999 with meranti wood being taken, and once that was finished in 2002 they started to cut merbau trees. This created problems for our community. Before, there was a sense of working together, a feeling of togetherness. Then, when some people are attracted to the wood company they refuse to work on the sago any more. They think that because the company promises money, they don't want to do the traditional work in the forest any more. New values appear, like wanting to have more than your neighbour and putting a price on everything, instead of valuing what we already have. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7109375.stm Australia: 32) Forest protection activists have set up a blockade in Tasmania's southwest to stop bulldozers from rolling in to the Upper Florentine Valley forest area. About 15 activists from the Still Wild, Still Threatened group on Sunday night re-established a blockade called Camp Florentine, following the end of a six-month logging moratorium on the Upper Florentine area on Saturday. Blockade spokeswoman Jess Wright said activists had agreed to the moratorium in May as a step towards formal forest protection and now it had ended, blockaders would stay as long as necessary to protect the area. " We are calling on Forestry Tasmania to extend the logging moratorium for several reasons, " Ms Wright said. " The Upper Florentine is high conservation value forest and deserves immediate formal protection. " Ms Wright said the World Heritage Committee also was planning to assess the impact of logging in the Upper Florentine next March, because it was bordered on three sides by Tasmania's wilderness World Heritage Area. She said activists were meeting with Forestry Tasmania on Monday afternoon to discuss extending the logging moratorium. Forestry Tasmania Derwent district forest manager Steve Whiteley said no logging was scheduled for the Upper Florentine Valley before Christmas. http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Activists-blockade-Tassie-forest-area/200\ 7/11/26/1196 036771716.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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