Guest guest Posted December 8, 2007 Report Share Posted December 8, 2007 Today for you 36 new articles about earth's trees! (263rd edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com --British Columbia: 1) FSC standards must improve, 2) More on the Tzeporah Berman era, 3) Endangered Species scandal, , 4) Save Salt Spring Rainforest Appeal, 5) Spencer Road Treesit 6) Ongoing Wolf kill revealed - 41 down, --Oregon: 7) Thinning is ineffective, 8) Are enviros overly agreeable? --California: 9) Pacific Lumber and the Mattole, 10) Gail Kimbell defends her agenda, --Montana: 11) Northeast Yaak timber sales challenged, 12) Paradox of Yaak activism, --Nevada: 13) As much as 35 years in jail for man who chopped trees. --Minnesota: 14) Poor Loggers need relief from housing bust? --Illinois: 15) Study: Less domestic violence when trees are near --Vermont: 16) Forest land shifts to make logging secondary --Kentucky: 17) Sit-in to save Robinson forest --USA: 18) Plum Creek - Nature Conservancy write their own laws, 19) Forest aid cut, --Canada: 20) Boreal is world's largest terrestrial carbon storehouse --UK: 21) Kids replenish oaks, 22) Land for sale if you save it, --Poland: 23) Save Bialowieza forest --Switzerland: 24) Cutting trees to stabilize a slope? --Russia: 25) Current threats to Russian forests --Kenya: 26) Eucalyptus dreams go bust --Pakistan: 27) Prime minister takes strong exception to illegal deforestation --China: 28) Setting up a regional network on forest rehabilitation --Papua New Guinea: 29) First Palm Oilers now cyclones --Papua: 30) Ban on log exports announced --Aceh: 31) Life after the moratorium --Australia: 32) Lockdown to the logging machine, 33) 'Lawyers for Forests' go for the Gunns, 34) Save the Daly River, --World-wide: 35) Routine failure to grasp the root cause, 36) Forest loss is more carbon emitted than all the world's autos, British Columbia: 1) It is hoped that those reviewing FSC standards – whether it be First Nations, environmental groups or logging company – will end the approval of old-growth forest products here, in South America or Indonesia. How enviros and First Nations and industry gave the approval to log Clayoquot Sound old-growth forests is a real question of ethics. We cannot continue to kill the planet in a " nicer " way. We have to turn this game around and say " no " to industrial commercial extraction of resources where people and the planet and other creatures are harmed. How did old-growth coastal cedar forests, the very same ones that managed to put First Nations rights and Aboriginal title in the history books and recognized in the courts, get approved for commercial logging? This important history is now going out in bundles of logs destined for commercial use somewhere else, and it is once again the industrial giants that are making the profit with a few jobs and payoffs thrown in for some people, mostly those who have already been logging for years and who fought the protection of the forests here in Clayoquot throughout the '80s. How an old-growth coastal tree thousands of years old can get certified as " sustainable " logging is beyond me. Everyone knows that when these trees are gone, they will never be again, not in anyone's lifetime, so what is sustainable about that? Let's hope that in reviewing this unsustainable system, at the very least, old-growth coastal forests, and for that matter, old-growth forests everywhere, which are such a rare item in this world now, will not be carrying the FSC label, no matter who is doing it nor how it is done. For All Our Relations, Susanne Hare, Tofino, B.C. http://www.westcoaster.ca/modules/AMS/article.php?storyid=3175 2) Environmentalists are putting B.C.'s forests on the map at international climate talks in Bali. Veteran B.C. environmentalist Tzeporah Berman of ForestEthics is hand-delivering a policy brief to delegates in Bali that quantifies the carbon stored in B.C.'s old growth forests and reveals the connection between current deforestation levels and a net loss in the province's ability to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. Aimed at policy makers at home and abroad, including the premier's own Climate Action Team, the brief recommends large scale conservation of B.C.'s intact old-growth forests and inclusion of the full life cycle impacts of logging in any new provincial emissions reduction plan. " B.C.'s forests store an estimated 18 billion tonnes of carbon, and are home to some of Canada's best-known species, " says Berman. " Unfortunately, annual logging in British Columbia releases 51.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, more than half that released by all light-duty cars, trucks and motorcycles every year in Canada (96 million tonnes). " Central to Berman's contention are recent warnings that the international community must slash emissions by 80% by 2050 to avoid irreparable climate change. She sees B.C.'s forests as playing an important role in achieving those reductions and is asking the government's Climate Action Team for a meeting to ensure forest protection is part of any new emissions reduction plan. " The international community needs to hold British Columbia and Canada to account when it comes to making one of the simplest and most powerful contributions to the fight against global warming: protecting old-growth forests. " Forests are on the agenda at this year's international conference and a day will be given to discussions aimed at developing new forest rules. http://www.forestethics.org 3) Wilderness Committee and Ecojustice, formerly Sierra Legal, today released a confidential government document which reveals British Columbia government political interference with endangered species recovery strategies. The internal document, provided through a Freedom of Information request, directs BC endangered species recovery teams, which are established to provide expert scientific advice on recovering species at risk, to not identify critical habitat in species recovery strategies. The document instructs them instead to say in the recovery strategy that there is insufficient scientific knowledge to identify critical habitat. The identification and protection of habitat is essential to the recovery of endangered species. Over 80 percent of species at risk in BC are at risk because of the loss and degradation of their habitat, largely as the result of land development, resource extraction and logging. Under the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA), a recovery strategy for a species at risk must be developed in order to plan for the species survival and recovery. A key requirement of recovery strategies is that recovery teams must identify critical habitat to the " extent possible " , based on " the best available information " . However, the confidential BC government document directs that " it should be made clear that critical habitat is not being proposed at this time " . Not surprisingly, critical habitat is not identified for over 90 percent of species with BC-led recovery strategies. The exact wording found in the BC government document is often used to explain this failure to identify critical habitat. " The BC government document instructs recovery teams to ignore the habitat that endangered wildlife need to breed, forage and raise their young, " said Gwen Barlee, Wilderness Committee Policy Director. " Not a lot surprises me, but this directive is astounding. This is a blueprint for extinction for BCs endangered species. " The situation in BC echoes developments in the United States where wildlife regulators are revisiting government decisions on endangered species and critical habitat after allegations of political interference by Bush-appointees. http://media.wildernesscommittee.org/news/2007/12/12455.php 4) The Save Salt Spring Rainforest Appeal is gaining momentum, with its sights set on achieving the $1-million mark by the end of the year. Campaign coordinator Maureen Moore said her organization has raised almost $200,000 for the 19-5-acre Cusheon Creek property so far, thanks to generous support from islanders. " I'm getting a fantastic response from the community, " she said. " More and more people are joining the campaign every day. " The campaign is now running in high gear as it tries to beat the clock. The first December fundraiser is the Reading for the Rainforest event at ArtSpring on Friday, December 7. A lush-as-a-rainforest writers list includes Arthur Black, Chris Smart, Kathy Page, Mona Fertig, Peter Levitt, Murray Reiss, Shirley Graham, Sandi Johnson, Derek Lundy, Kelsey Mech, Elizabeth Woods, Briony Penn, Nadine Shelley, Pat Barclay and Brian Brett, all reading from work with some connection to the natural world. Another benefit set for ArtSpring is an art show and silent auction running from December 15 to 21. Award-winning photographers Steven Friedman, Birgit Bateman and Janet Dwyer are among a throng of donating artists, and items as diverse as a gourmet feast, firewood and book art can be purchased to benefit the cause. Moore urges people to experience the property for themselves to see why it should be saved. " This is a key riparian area sheltering Salt Spring Island's second largest salmon-bearing stream, " she said. " It's vibrant with life, supporting Blue-listed and threatened species such as red-legged frogs, rough-skinned newts, flickers, kingfishers, pileated woodpeckers, varied thrushes, sapsuckers, winter wrens, owls, bats, red squirrels, and other creatures and plants. " If the property is subdivided and developed for residential use, which is what will occur if it's not purchased through the campaign, the land will never recover, she said. The Save Salt Spring Rainforest Appeal is supported by The Land Conservancy of B.C., Salt Spring Island Conservancy, Island Stream and Salmon Enhancement Society, Friends of Salt Spring Parks and the Salt Spring Water Council. http://www.gulfislands.net/features.asp?ID=609 5) Towering above the forest floor, volunteers on wooden platforms stand watch for the machinery that will eventually start clearing land for the Spencer Road Interchange. At least half a dozen tree-sit platforms are salted through the forest between Leigh Road and the Trans-Canada Highway, in what activists say are strategic locations to maximize problems for breaking ground on the project, due to roll forward this month. Since the camp and tree-sit began last spring, activist Carl Stephens, 24, says they have tied treetops together to make tree falling too dangerous. It's unlikely anyone of the dozen-or-so people at the camp knows where all the lashed trees are, said. Stephens, who grew up in Langford and has been at the camp since the summer. " Many trees are lashed together at the top. We've been doing it for a while, " Stephens said. " It's kind of a booby trap but we'll let them know that they are there. There will be a sign saying trees are lashed together. " Sitters crewing sky-high platforms and bound trees are part of an effort to halt or reroute the $32-million Spencer interchange, which would see Leigh Road extended as an overpass across the TCH. At issue near Leigh Road is local ecology such as Spencer's Pond and a limestone cave under the forest. Langford planners have routed the interchange to avoid both the pond and the cave, but the activists, among others, would like the forest to remain intact. " Until they untie all the trees and remove the platforms, it's not safe (to work). " Stephens said an injunction will trigger a nonviolent blockade of the forest from a network of people around Greater Victoria. http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/goldstreamgazette 6) At least 41 wolves have died over about the past five years in an area east of Quesnel where the B.C. government is quietly engaged in a predator-control program aimed at boosting herds of threatened mountain caribou. Agriculture and Lands Minister Pat Bell released a recovery plan for the caribou in October that called for habitat protection, reduced impact from backcountry recreation, relocations and management of predators. His ministry promised " changes to hunting regulations increasing cougar and wolf harvests, supporting non-lethal control measures such as wolf sterilization, and the targeted removal of individuals or packs where there is a scientific determination of immediate threat to recovery of mountain caribou herds. " When The Vancouver Sun asked Bell, the minister responsible for endangered species, how many wolves the province has already killed to benefit caribou, he said none, but that one cougar had been destroyed. Minutes later, however, he called back to clarify there had been " a total of 41 wolves killed " through the Ministry of Environment, but the kills were not associated with caribou recovery. " It's not to do with caribou control, but it is a wolf program, mainly around the ranching industry. As it relates to the mountain caribou program, there has been none [killed] yet. " Freedom-of-information documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun suggest a different story, detailing Ministry of Environment efforts to reduce wolves and boost caribou across a 10,000-sq.-km study area. The program, co-funded by the timber industry, cost about $400,000 between 2001 and 2004, with another $200,000 expenditure projected for 2006-07. In the Horsefly area, heart of the wolf-control program, caribou numbers in one of the most depressed herds in the study area increased to just 40 from 30 animals. The documents also show that a temporary suspension of the program allowed wolves to increase. By 2004, wolf densities in the region had declined to between 5.4 and 6.7 animals per 1,000 sq. km from 7.2 to 9.8 animals. When program funding was cancelled from March 2004 to November 2005, the wolf populations rebounded to 7.4 to 9.6 animals. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=376306f8-ced6-4daa-9bf1-41\ 18c5b5be53 & p=1 Oregon: 7) I'm convinced that thinning is ineffective under climatic conditions that are responsible for our largest fires such as the Biscuit Fire that burned across southwest Oregon in 2002. Indeed, climatic conditions drive all big fires — not fuels. All substantial fires occur only if there is extended drought, low humidity, high temperatures and, most importantly, high winds. Wind, in particular, is critical. Wind increases fire spread exponentially. When conditions are " ripe " for a large blaze, fires will burn through all kinds of fuel loads. By contrast if the forest is wet like Oregon's coastal forests, you can have all the fuel in the world, and it won't burn. For this reason, most fires go out without burning more than a few acres. By contrast, when you have drought, low humidity, high temperatures and wind, a few blazes will grow into huge fires. For this reason, approximately 1 percent of all fires are responsible for about 95 to 99 percent of the acreage burned. Even if thinning works to slow or reduce tree mortality under low and moderate fire conditions, what is becoming increasingly clear is that thinning doesn't stop the very largest blazes that occur under severe fire conditions. If you subtract out the acreage burned by these few large blazes, the total land area affected by all other wildfire that can be influenced by thinning is relatively small. However, when severe fire conditions exist, nothing can stop a blaze. Under severe conditions, fires burn through all kinds of fuel loads including thinned / logged forests and even natural lightly stocked tree stands. For instance, under the severe conditions that dominated the Biscuit Fire, many of the low-density, widely spaced Jeffrey pine growing on serpentine burned up even though their natural stand density is much lower than what you are left with under even aggressive thinning. There is growing evidence that thinning can actually acerbate fire spread and mortality — at least under severe fire conditions. Thinning increases solar radiation, leading to greater drying of fuels, and also contributes to greater moisture stress in trees. Thinning also allows wind to penetrate a forest stand with greater velocity, which in turn increases fire spread. We may be trying to fix something that " ain't broken. " http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2007/12/06/views3.html 8) They're anything but friends. Tim Lillebo, Scott Melcher and Maret Pajutee trail decades of hostility as they tramp through the forests that slide east off the Cascades into central Oregon. Yet, here they are -- an environmentalist, a logger and a Forest Service manager -- side by side amid the towering ponderosa pines along Indian Ford Creek. The three have joined forces in an unusually friendly effort to repair a 1,200-acre patch of fire-prone forest just east of Black Butte Ranch. " This is a great opportunity after absolute war, " said Lillebo, an advocate with the conservation group Oregon Wild. Each knows things could turn ugly in an instant. Titan struggles over clear-cuts, spotted owls and salvage logging have made the three more comfortable with controversy than cooperation. But their alliance speaks to a growing trust between traditionally antagonistic groups and, if successful, could be a model for more forest projects. And it could show others that lawsuit-free consensus is possible in even the most fractious natural resource battles, whether over forests, fisheries or skies. On this cold fall morning, Lillebo, Melcher and Pajutee tramp through pines, bitterbrush and aspen that make up the Glaze Forest Restoration Project. When Lillebo and Oregon Wild began putting together the Glaze proposal two years ago, they didn't immediately go to the Forest Service, the obvious sounding board. They went to the timber industry. Lillebo hooked up with Calvin Mukumoto, project manager for the Warm Springs biomass project, an endeavor of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. Mukumoto was eager to explore ways to reduce the fire danger in the overstocked forests that crowded the reservation. The two gathered $70,000 in grants and in-kind contributions. Most of the cash came from the federal sources, including the National Forest Foundation, a nonprofit partner of the Forest Service. Word began to spread that an innovative restoration project was in the works. So far, Melcher hasn't made much money on restoration work, but he hopes Glaze will smooth the way for more lucrative contracts. Then, he said, he might have a stable business to turn over to his two sons. " You have to get over what happened 20 years ago and move forward, " he said. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/119691512256800.xm\ l & coll=7 & thispa ge=1 California: 9) As winter storms arrive, Pacific Lumber and their major creditors are in a mediation ordered by the Judge overseeing the PL bankruptcy case. The outcome of the mediation will probably have a huge effect on the future of the North Fork and Upper North Fork of the Mattole River. About 2,000 acres of Oldgrowth Douglas Fir forest stand in the North Fork Drainage, much of the Upper North is blanketed in healthy, large second growth firs and hardwoods with scattered smaller Oldgrowth stands. The Oldgrowth trees here are known to reach 400 years old or greater. Prior to this, PL submitted a reorganization plan calling for the selling of 22,000 acres sudivided into 160 acre parcels and labeled as " trophy " homes or " kingdoms " . This was met with outspoken resistance from residents and the Humboldt County Supervisors that don't live on PL land. Pacific Lumber has yet to complete their " Watershed Analysis " that was begun over a year ago. We have every reason to believe that PL is trying to build an arguement for the reduction of stream protection buffer zones. These buffer zones are supposed to protect watercourses, and their inhabitants by keeping soil disturbance far from the creeks and keeping the creeks shaded and cool. The greatly diminished salmon and trout need cold clean water to survive. Downstream human residents also benefit from watercourse buffer zones as they reduce the risk of landslides and flooding. There are unusually high amounts of year-round streams here in the rainbow Ridge area which results in a large amount of forest being protected. http://mattolewild.blogspot.com/2007/12/no-new-logging-plans-this-year.html 10) Gail Kimbell cited " some real vivid examples " in California where the agency's practice of logging without first analyzing its effect on the environment protected homes and spared lives. " The hazardous fuels treatments were instrumental saving thousands of homes " in southern California during recent wildfires near San Diego and Lake Arrowhead, Kimbell said. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the practice Wednesday, saying it violated the National Environmental Policy Act. Kimbell said the Bush administration was considering whether to appeal. The rule allowing expedited logging was " not a blanket to go through all of California " to thin forests, Kimbell said. " We are very specific where we do it.' While the 2003 rule allows logging of up to 1,000 acres without environmental review, most projects are closer to 40 acres or 50 acres, Kimbell said. " It's surgically selected " in areas with low environmental risk, she said. The 2003 rule was billed as a way to reduce wildfires. It exempted from environmental review logging projects up to 1,000 acres and prescribed forest burns up to 4,500 acres. In its opinion Wednesday, the three-judge appeals court panel said the Forest Service had failed to properly analyze the rule, causing " irreparable injury " by allowing more than 1.2 million acres of national forest land to be logged and burned each year without studying the ecological impacts. The court ruled that the Forest Service no longer can exempt such projects from environmental analysis until the rule can be analyzed properly. The ruling sided with the Sierra Club and Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign. The groups said the ruling would protect millions of acres of national forest from destructive and unnecessary logging projects. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hqugpNA3cLiPKDTF-WbQdz_Rh1ywD8TC8DE80 Montana: 11) A Forest Service plan to move forward with a timber sale in northwestern Montana jeopardizes grizzly bears and should be blocked, an environmental group contends in a lawsuit filed Wednesday. The suit the Alliance for the Wild Rockies filed in U.S. District Court in Missoula says the Forest Service arbitrarily advanced the Northeast Yaak timber project, calling for removal of trees on 1,777 acres north of Libby. The suit names both that agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which the alliance says should not have agreed with the Forest Service that the logging and related road construction would not harm grizzlies. The bears are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. The area in dispute is part of the federally designated Cabinet-Yaak Grizzly Bear Recovery Zone about 30 miles north of Libby. The zone covering 2,600 square miles has 30-40 grizzlies, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. Willie Sykes at the Kootenai National Forest headquarters in Libby and Sharon Rose at the Fish and Wildlife Service's regional office in Denver said their agencies had no comment on the lawsuit. " The Kootenai National Forest is now attempting to rely on outdated road management standards to say that the proposed logging and road building will not adversely impact grizzly bears in the area, " Liz Sedler of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies said in a statement. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20071205-1358-wst-grizzlieslogging.htm\ l 12) Back in the fieriest part of my life, the black-hole anger-sump of watching one clearcut after another march across the Yaak Valley of northwestern Montana where I live, I wrote an angry book critical of that destruction. Mills began closing around the region not long after The Book of Yaak was published. The book had nothing to do with the mill closings; it was simply synchronous with the destruction wrought by unsustainable logging and the awakening breath of what is referred to euphemistically as " the global market " —a polite term for other countries beginning to liquidate their wildlands at the same pace with which we once liquidated our own. But as the mills in Lincoln County began to topple, I found myself, for reasons not fully understood, pulled into the efforts to try to keep them alive—particularly the local independent mills. Perhaps it was my oil-man's background, or my hunter's background, or my status not just as an environmentalist but as a consumer of resources. For how could I, who lives in a wood house, and who has cut firewood for money, as well as for my own use, and who has logged for hire—contracting, at various times, half a dozen different loggers—turn away from the human consequences of my actions, my voice, and my needs? How could I offer criticism without proposing alternatives? To me, it was not the criticism that reeked of hypocrisy—for none are pure—but instead the failure to dream or imagine a solution. The failure to dream at all. I still lobby on citizens' energy week fly-ins, still tread (while our democracy yet allows this earned right) the halls of Congress, despite not having the increasingly requisite briefcase full of dollars. I've been working on community conservation projects in Namibia and British Columbia, and on mining issues in the Cabinet Mountains. I haven't yet found a fully logical rhythm and focus, and I still find it easier to say yes than no when a friend or associate asks if I would like to ride off to war with him or her. And despite the maddening nearness of the goal, the moderation of the ask—to protect as wilderness the last little roadless areas in one little million-acre Eden—and despite the frustration of one connection and possibility always leading to another, ripplelike, I suppose the eternal limbo of a seemingly infinite array of connections that have never added up to anything is better than the benumbed alternative: the fragmentation defined by disconnectedness and the absence of hope. http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/461/ Nevada: 13) A jury just convicted the Nevada retiree on 10 charges in the destruction of more than 500 trees, the Los Angeles Times reports. He now faces up to 35 years in prison. Hoffman, who had moved with his wife into an upscale retirement community just south of Las Vegas five years ago, had complained to the homeowners committee that the greenery was blocking his view of the Strip. At one point he even asked if he could swap out the rapidly growing trees marring the couple's view for shrubs. He was told no. So he took matters into his own hands. Call it arboricide, vigilante-style. In 2004, the tops of 60 trees were lopped off. Homeowners thought it was maybe teenagers. Over the next year, more trees - some worth $1,450 - were felled. The developer hired a private security firm. Upset residents posted photos of the carnage online. He severed some, but other he sliced just enough so that they would slowly die. In a year's time, authorities said, he wiped out more than 500 trees. Then one November night in 2005, one resident - who just happened to be a retired sherrif's deputy - was driving home when he noticed a freshly cut tree and a figure disappear into the darkness. He grabbed a golf club and gave chase. He found Hoffman, patted him down, and found a single-blade saw under his clothes. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/12/04/the_skinny/main3571887.shtml Minnesota: 14) " It doesn't serve anyone to see loggers go out of business, " Oberstar said. " This really demonstrates the need to make the contract system more flexible, so it can adapt to the changing market place. " A housing slump helped force layoffs at wood products plants, including the Ainsworth Lumber Co. Ltd. board plant near Bemidji which laid off more than 100 workers when it shut down one of two production lines. Some counties and the state of Minnesota responded with a program to allow loggers to turn back their contracts with lowered penalties, and rebid tracts at hopefully lower stumpage prices. The US Forest Service, which has jurisdiction over both the Chippewa and Superior national forests in Minnesota, instead decided to extend the terms under contracts in the hopes prices would improve. That hasn't happened, and Monday's decision will give loggers another year to pay off contracts to harvest timber on federal lands, or spread out harvesting of high-priced sales. " Many of these contracts were drawn up when the housing market was booming and demand was high, " Oberstar said in a statementForest Service officials advise loggers to get in touch with their contracting officer to see if they are eligible for the extension. The timber harvest target of 27 million board feet in fiscal year 2005 was increased 7 percent to 28.9 mbf for fiscal 2006, according to a Chippewa National Forest management report released in September. According to the report, the amount actually harvested declined between the years, from 26.8 mbf in fiscal 2005 down to 20.6 mbf for fiscal 2006. The volume offered and sold for 2006, however, was 28.93 mbf. The Chippewa National Forest report also stated there was 53.1 million board feet of timber under contract at the end of the 2006 fiscal year. " Competition for the Chippewa National Forest timber volume was strong although there was a decrease in the number of bidders by approximately 25 percent, " the report said. " There were 21 bidders during FY 2006 compared to 28 in FY 2005. On average, there were 1.9 bidders per sale, which compared to 4.4 bidders last fiscal year. " The US Forest Service's strategic plan for 2007 to 2012 calls for an increase nationally in sustainable timber volume for sale from a 2006 baseline of 5.4 billion cubic feet to a 2012 target of 8 billion cubic feet. http://www.parkrapidsenterprise.com/articles/index.cfm?id=10284 & section=Business Illinois: 15) Plant a tree, save a spouse. That's the word from Chicago, where a two-year urban-forestry study found that trees deter domestic violence. Hard to believe? Judge for yourself: " We are finding less violence in urban public housing where there are trees, " the study reads. " Residents from buildings with trees report using more constructive, less-violent ways of dealing with conflict in their homes. They report using reasoning more often in conflicts with their children, and they report significantly less use of severe violence. And in conflicts with their partners, they report less use of physical violence than do residents living in buildings without trees. " Now for the rationale: " Imagine feeling irritated, impulsive, about ready to snap due to the difficulties of living in severe poverty, " the study says. " Having neighbors who you can call on for support means you have an alternative way of dealing with your frustrations other than striking out against someone. Places with nature and trees may provide settings in which relationships grow stronger and violence is reduced. " That's good news for Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon -- whom Republicans recently rebuked for funding an urban forester while District Attorney Lohra Miller had to settle for cutting a domestic-violence-warrants coordinator. But, with a million tree plantings planned over the next 10 years, Corroon may be cracking down on domestic violence after all. http://blogs.sltrib.com/utahpolitics/2007/12/trees-help-root-out-domestic-violen\ ce.htm Vermont: 16) As we envision a greener Vermont, a state that's more carbon neutral and more self sufficient, one would think that local wood could play a large part. Fuel is just a start. Instead of local roofers using plywood made from Russian fir, why not a future with plywood made from local pine? Instead of flooring made from South American mahogany, why not local oak or maple? Now the catch, here, is that 83 percent of Vermont's timber land is in private hands; one third of this land is in tracts less than 100 acres. These small tracts of land are primarily home sites, often second home sites, where logging is often a secondary landowner objective, if it's even considered at all. This is the reality of the state we live in. And so any renewed emphasis on wood is going to have to come from state or federal lands. This is where, logically, the Green Mountain National Forest could play a key role. As recently as the 1980s, the GMNF used to provide a backbone for the local wood industry. In the 1960s, when the national forest was only 125,000 acres in size, loggers harvested an average of 17 million board feet (mmbf) of timber each year. The GMNF parcel has since grown to 385,000 acres in size, and yet over the past six years, loggers have averaged an annual cut of only 300,000 board feet. http://www.benningtonbanner.com/ci_7629666?source=most_viewed Kentucky: 17) A group of about 15 people, mostly students, sat on the floor of University of Kentucky President Lee Todd's office Tuesday, saying they wanted answers about the controversial plan to log part of Robinson Forest. Todd wasn't there. Douglas Boyd, his chief of staff, said Todd was on his way to the airport. Garrett Graddy, a geography graduate student who is spokesman for the group, said they would wait until they got answers to a list of questions they presented to Boyd. The questions included why the research logging project includes some trees that will be sold commercially, and what happened to the $37 million generated from mining and logging outlying areas of the forest several years ago. Graddy also gave Boyd a list of signatures on a petition and what she said was a list of concerns that some scientists have about the logging. Boyd told the group that the office usually closes at 6 p.m., and he was concerned about leaving them in the office overnight. About 2:15, the students sat on the floor and in chairs, and Boyd went into his office and closed the door. The college of agriculture wants to cut trees on nearly 1,000 acres of the forest to research ways to protect streams from commercial logging. The UK Board approved the plan in 2004, but it has recently renewed protests. The board is scheduled to consider the matter again next Tuesday, and a protest is planned before that meeting. http://www.kentucky.com/181/story/249268.html USA: 18) A provision in the Energy Tax Bill on the House floor today seems to be a targeted earmark to help the Plum Creek Timber company and the scandal-tarnished " environmental group " the Nature Conservancy. Because we had so little time to examine the legislation, details are sketchy, but the legislation creates $500 million worth of " forestry conservation tax credit bonds. " These bonds, however, will only be available to protect forests that have fish. Uhm, yeah. Fish. To qualify for the tax-credit bond program, the parcel of land to be purchased must: 1) Be adjacent to U.S. Forestry Service Land; 2) Have a portion of that land turned over to the U.S. Forest Service; 3) Include at least 40,000 total acres; and 4) Must be subject to a " native fish habitat conservation plan approved by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. " -- An Internet search found only one " native fish habitat conservation plan " approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It is a parcel of land owned by timber giant Plum Creek in Montana, portions of which – according to a press account – will be sold to the Nature Conservancy. The Nature Conservancy, ostensibly an environmental group, has come under scathing criticism for a score of questionable practices, including selling " conservation " land to developers for housing projects.Why is it possible to add this provision, which looks an awful lot like a targeted earmark, to the bill? Well, the anti-earmark rules only apply to bills or Conference reports. What are we considering today? Technically, it's an amendment to the Senate bill, which was an amendment to the original House-passed bill. So the earmarks rules are thrown out the window. http://www.clubforgrowth.org/2007/12/a_fish_in_trees_earmark.php 19) The Tropical Forest Group says that an October decision to expand the TFCA's mandate to conserve coral reefs means that the bill currently under consideration in Senate (Senate Bill 2020) will contain the smallest congressional authorization ($20 million) for saving tropical forests in the entire history of the TFCA. In previous years, congress authorized up to $100 million per year, though the Bush administration has yet to fund projects at this level. The new legislation means that tropical forests and coral reefs will " compete " for limited U.S. funds. Meanwhile the Australian government has announced more than AU$200 million in new funds for tropical conservation, while the British government recently set aside $100 million for protection of rainforests in the Congo basin. " Saving tropical forests is the most important immediate solutions to combat climate change. The rest of the world gets it. The US, already sidelined by its refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, continues its slide into obscurity " said Jeff Metcalfe, director of the Tropical Forest Group. " Saving the rainforest is something nearly every American supports. If the Senate passes this bill (Senate Bill 2020) — scheduled for a vote any day — it will turn America’s back to international diplomacy, climate change, and the environment " . http://news.mongabay.com/2007/1206-forests_us.html Canada: 20) Breakthrough maps released today at the United Nations conference on climate change in Bali, Indonesia, illustrate the vastly important role of Canada's Boreal Forest as the world's largest terrestrial carbon storehouse. Three maps, presented during a larger overview of climate change and the Boreal Forest, detail the distribution of peatlands, permafrost, and organic carbon in soils across Canada's Boreal Forest. " The Boreal Forest is to carbon what Fort Knox is to gold, " said Jeff Wells, the Senior Scientist at the International Boreal Conservation Campaign (IBCC), an initiative of the Pew Environment Group. " It's an internationally important repository for carbon, built up over thousands of years. The maps released today document where and how these vital carbon reserves are distributed across Canada. We should do everything we can to ensure that the carbon in this storehouse is conserved. " With 50 percent of the world's remaining original forests stretching across Canada, Alaska, Russia and Scandinavia just below the Arctic, the Boreal is the largest land reservoir of carbon on Earth. Globally, the Boreal Forest houses 22 percent of the total carbon stored on the world's land surface, and almost twice as much carbon per unit area as tropical forests. This is largely because in boreal climates, the colder temperatures reduce decomposition rates, resulting in deep organic soils that are thousands of years old. http://cpaws.org/news/archive/2007/12/boreal-forest-is-worlds-carbon.php UK: 21) Giant oaks will grow from little acorns collected by Corby schoolchildren to help preserve an historic genetic line of trees in the town. Youngsters from Hazel Leys Primary have gathered 400 acorns from the ancient Hazel Wood that will be used to replenish local stocks depleted by town centre building developments. Hazel Wood, part of Rockingham Forest, sits between urban developments in the centre of Corby. Contractors building the Parkland Gateway civic hub and pool area have had to cut down trees to make way for the facilities and to provide access to the site. So pupils have been drafted by Corby Council and Northamptonshire Library Services to ensure that lost trees are replaced. The trees will be planted locally and raised as saplings before being placed around the new development. Some of the acorns will be planted to tie-in with the Forest School's allotment project in Eskdale Terrace, Corby. Forest schools project worker Rebecca Bishop said: " The whole ethos surrounding the allotment project focuses on both raising environmental awareness and promoting healthy well-being within the children. " The acorn planting will not only help to enhance this, but the whole community will also benefit in future generations, which is an extremely valuable project to be a part of. " http://www.northantset.co.uk/news/Pupils-plant-acorns-to-revive.3555302.jp 22) Kingfisher Wood would be a lovely wood for a family to adopt - it has some excellent Douglas Fir and prolific ground flora. There is also good Hazel coppice as well as some lovely Oaks and Beeches along with Holly, Birch and Spindle. There is a resident Hare (seen each time we have been to the wood!) along with signs of Red Deer using the wood and an active badger sett. Umberleigh is a quiet village set around the old three-arched Umberleigh bridge, by the river Taw (home of Tarka the Otter). Umberleigh has a village Post Office, Tea Rooms, Railway Station and a popular pub. The woodland is only 6 miles from Barnstaple on the A377 with the towns of South Molton and Torrington 8 miles away on the B3227. Umberleigh is served by the Tarka line train with wonderful views to Umberleigh Station. Trains run from Barnstaple to Exeter every hour. The villages of Chittlehampton, Chittlehamholt and Atherington are only two miles in each direction from the bridge, and all well worth a visit. The purchasers of the woodland will be asked to enter into a covenant to ensure the quiet and peaceful enjoyment of adjoining woodlands and meadows. http://www.woodlands.co.uk/buying-a-wood/devon/kingfisher-wood/ Poland: 23) Members of an international environmental group on Wednesday asked President Lech Kaczynski to take steps to prevent the logging of centuries-old trees in Poland's primeval Bialowieza forest, an activist said. Last year alone, a large number of trees were cut in Bialowieza, including " some 1,000 large spruces and two 160-year-old maples, " according to a report by World Wildlife Fund. Polish WWF members handed a petition with 100,000 signatures to a presidential aide, demanding that " logging be stopped " in Bialowieza forest and that all of the pristine woodland on Poland's territory be legally protected as a national park. As of now, only 17 percent of the area in eastern Poland is under such protection. The petition, which was also sent to Prime Minister Donald Tusk, says the forest is " the last natural lowland mixed forest in Europe " whose " priceless, natural and cultural values are perishing irretrievably. " The Bialowieza forest, spreading over an area of 62,000 hectares (153,202 acres) in Poland and 150,000 hectares (370,650 acres) in neighboring Belarus, is home to more than 5,000 species of plants and more than 12,000 species of animals, including some 350 rare wild bison and 250 species of birds. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/05/europe/EU-GEN-Poland-Pristine-Forest.p\ hp Switzerland: 24) The scene was something you might expect to see in the mountain forests of British Columbia, Canada. Instead, the helicopter logging happened near the heart of Geneva's city center. A chopper soared above the steep cliffs of the Saint-Jean neighborhood on Tuesday as it transported by cable 100 felled trees from the area. The operation was part of a program to stabilize the eroding banks that overlook the Rhone River. The K-Max helicopter hovered over the wooded area where a team of loggers from a private forest company cut the trees before attaching them to the 50-meter cable carried by the aircraft. The chopper then airlifted the timber to the nearby Bois de la Bâtie, where 250 cubic meters of firewood was cut from the timber hauled away. The K-Max, capable of lifting 3.5 tonnes, operated in an area just 50 meters from the imposing stone apartment buildings that stand above the cliffs. The forestry operation to remove dangerous trees continues today but work will continue until May 2008 to complete stabilization of the cliffs. A wire net will be installed in January to prevent soil from eroding. http://www.tdg.ch/pages/home/tribune_de_geneve/english_corner/news/news_detail/(\ contenu)/167329 Russia: 25) Q: What poses the greatest threat to the forests in the Far East? A: Well, if you ask any forester, they would say that the main threat to forests stems from first, fires, second, timber exploitation. I would name timber exploitation as the primary threat. Fires existed anyway, even before human interference with forests. They are a mixture of anthropogenic and natural factors, and mostly fires do not cause complete forest destruction. Human activities are in the first place. Unsustainable timber exploitation is the main threat. And virtually all the timber exploitation is unsustainable. The government has completely lost control over what is happening in the forest. It has let go of all controls, has completely ruined the system of state forest management. Everything is farmed out to timber companies. " Timber companies " is too sonorous a phrase as most of them do not deserve it. For most part they resemble gangs with skidders and saws, which either without any documents at all or using forged ones log whatever they like. Q: So the key part of activities in the framework of the forest programme is countering unsustainable forest exploitation? A: Yes. In the past, in the end of the 1990s after the catastrophic fires in the Khabarovsk Territory, we had a big project on supporting government bodies in fighting forest fires. We received a big grant for acquisition of equipment for forming large state fire-fighting squads in the Far East. Now we are not involved in such large-scale operations in fire fighting for a number of reasons, one of them is that, I think, the government has enough money for it, so why should we solve these problems using mainly foreign money. http://vladivostoktimes.ru/show.php?id=18186 & p= Kenya: 26) Expectations were high as Peter Wamiti, 45, led his workers in planting eucalyptus trees on his newly acquired five-acre farm near Kitengela in Kajiado District. Wamiti's enthusiasm was borne of the high expectations that the trees would soon turn him into a millionaire. For a moment, Mr Wamiti's mind wandered off amid dreams about his fortunes. He expected the Kenya Power and Lighting Company to buy his trees upon maturity. He had seen truck-loads of logs along the Kitengela-Kajiado road and had been informed that the power company was importing the logs due to a shortage in the country. That was two years ago. Today Wamiti's optimism has waned after his precious trees failed to register quick growth as he had anticipated. The trees appeared weak and had no semblance of the giant logs that support power lines. His neighbours, on the other hand, are accusing him or precisely his trees, of drying up their boreholes, saying they suck a lot of underground water. In short, Mr Wamiti has no peace of mind today and he is wondering if the investment was worth it. He is not alone in this dilemma. Many other enterprising Kenyans, who had heard about the fast-maturing eucalyptus camaldulensis species, had moved with enthusiasm to make money in the reportedly lucrative tree farming. Today, plantations of the trees dot parts of Isinya, Ngong', Namanga and the Central divisions. http://allafrica.com/stories/200712061241.html Pakistan: 27) ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro has taken strong exception to the illegal deforestation in the Northern Areas and other parts of the country. Deforestation, he said, not only damages the environment but is also a big loss to the national exchequer and would not be tolerated at any cost. In his letters addressed to the Chairman of Northern Areas Council and Provincial Chief Ministers, the Prime Minister directed that illegal trade must be brought to an end and strict action be taken against officials and heavy penalties be imposed on the individuals/timber merchant involved in this illegal deforestation. http://www.onlinenews.com.pk/details.php?id=121592 China: 28) An UN official here on Thursday hailed as " fantastic move " an initiative by China to set up a regional network on forest rehabilitation and sustainable management. " It is a fantastic move if the network is put in place and in practice, " said Dr. Wulf Killmann, chairperson of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations's Inter-departmental Working Group on Climate Change in an exclusive interview with Xinhua. At the 15th Economic Leaders' Informal Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Sydney, Australia, in September, Chinese President Hu Jintao put forward an initiative to set up an Asia-Pacific Network on Forest Rehabilitation and Sustainable Management aimed at coping with climate change. The Network is expected to contribute to the implementation of the REDD proposal and help to reduce deforestation, Wulf Killmann said. The REDD -- Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries, involves creating new financial incentives for developing countries, empowering them to slow down their rates of deforestation. The Network is set to contribute to sustainable management of forest in Asia and Pacific, and reduce carbon emissions from deforestation, said the official, who is here attending the ongoing United Nations Climate Change Conference. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/06/content_7209592.htm Papua New Guinea: 29) Papua New Guinea's Oro Province - home to Lynette Hambuga, a small scale farmer who traveled across the U.S. last month with RAN's Rainforest Agribusiness Campaign - is ground zero for massive palm oil agribusiness expansion in tropical rainforests. Now the region faces an even more urgent disaster. Over the past two weeks, the province has been battered by cyclones, torrential rains and floods. More than 143,000 people have been affected by this disaster. Our partners at the Center for Environmental Law and Community Rights (CELCOR) in Papua New Guinea have issued an urgent plea for help and we're doing everything we can here at RAN to support our allies. Lynette is fine, but her community and friends need our help. Please, donate now and help support the relief efforts. I'm asking you to join us in providing emergency assistance to a community in desperate need. Every dollar will go directly to emergency relief for the affected areas. RAN has been working in partnership with these communities through our Rainforest Agribusiness Campaign to keep Cargill from seizing land and ignoring community rights in Papua New Guinea. Now these same communities need our help to recover from catastrophe. Please donate now. http://newsblaze.com/story/20071204060749tsop.nb/newsblaze/TOPSTORY/Top-Stories.\ html Papua: 30) Papua will ban all log exports from next month, in a radical move to preserve one of the world's largest remaining tracts of untouched forests. Governor of the Indonesian province, Barnabas Suebu, told The Age that the Bali climate change conference should endorse funding the anti-logging moves, due to its impact on reducing global warming. Mr Suebu said he had already imposed a moratorium on issuing new logging licences and would present legislation next month withdrawing all licences, as loggers had been destroying Papua's forests illegally. Licences would only be reissued under strict conditions, he said. All forest concession holders would have to develop wood processing facilities in Papua, as the ban on raw log exports would remain in place. They must also agree to plant five trees for every one they cut. The " Chinese mafia " , operating out of Malaysia and mainland China were responsible for rampant illegal logging in Papua, Mr Suebu said. " I think the mafia of illegal logging is well organised. " http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/papua-moves-to-ban-all-log-exports/2007/1\ 2/05/119681282 9442.html Aceh: 31) Banta, 36, is one of the lucky few who left the family's logging tradition: " I was an illegal logger, " he confesses, " But after the moratorium, I was able to get a chocolate field. " There are many around him who need to find a substitute now for lost logging incomes. The World Bank–administered US$635m Multidonor Fund for Aceh and Nias (MDF) took up this challenge as part of its efforts to preserve the environment from the demands of reconstruction. The MDF, in partnership with the NGO Flora & Fauna International (FFI) and Leuser International Foundation is implementing the Geumpang project as part of the $ 17.5 million Aceh Forest Environment Project to create public awareness of 2.3 million hectares Leuser and Ulu Masen forests, the largest contiguous forest area in Southeast Asia. Those living in and around the forests are also encouraged to know their rights to get optimal use from forest resources. The People-Based Forest Management Program focuses on two main projects: forest and village borders mapping and commercialization of forest products. The mapping clearly demarcates borders between forests and the six village habitations to help monitor encroachments and create forest zoning. Mahdi Ismail, of FFI says, " We help people to understand that they are not forbidden to utilize the forests, but they must preserve it by not clearing new land and they should plant a tree for every tree they cut. " http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:21576161~pagePK:3437\ 0~piPK:34424~th eSitePK:4607,00.html Australia: 32) Anti-logging protesters have locked themselves to heavy machinery today at forest coups in East Gippsland in south-east Victoria. The protesters from the Australian Student Environment Network and the Goongerah Environment Centre walked into coups north of Orbost this morning. Department of Sustainability and Environment officers have declared the coups as public safety zones, making it illegal for the protesters to remain at the sites. A spokeswomen for the environmentalists, Molly Williamsons, says the State Government has broken its promise to protect old-growth forest. " So we're calling on VicForests and the department to stop sending contractors into these areas where their work will be disrupted because they are very important old-growth forest areas, high conservation value forests and water catchments for the local area as well, " she said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/06/2111653.htm?section=business 33) The Wilderness Society today welcomed a new legal challenge to Gunns' proposed pulp mill announced by the group, Lawyers for Forests, and said that it would be a serious test for new Federal Environment Minister, Peter Garrett. Lawyers for Forests will serve papers on the Minister today to start the Federal Court case in Victoria. The case challenges the previous Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull's decision to approve the pulp mill and focuses on the impact of mill on the marine environment and the inadequacy of the decision and the conditions placed on the mill in relation to the marine environment. Spokesperson for The Wilderness Society, Greg Ogle said. This is a very different case to the one brought earlier by The Wilderness Society which challenged the fast-tracked assessment process for the mill. That case did not challenge the mill itself, but we are pleased that Lawyers for Forests have now challenged the decision to approve this carbon polluting mill. Despite the previous court verdict that the Commonwealth processes were within the law, the Federal and state process to approve the mill were so rushed and so extraordinary that they have guaranteed that the mill would be mired in litigation for some time to come. Sorting out this mess left by the abandonment of the existing assessment processes to rush approval of an environmentally damaging pulp mill will be a major challenge for Peter Garrett as the new Environment Minister. The mill should never have been approved. The Minister must ensure that the environmental impacts of the mill are properly assessed, and we believe that if that happens, this pulp mill will fail that assessment. The question is, will Peter Garrett act to protect the environment and ensure this assessment happens, or will he just buck-pass and hide behind the farcical existing approval? http://www.wilderness.org.au/campaigns/forests/tasmania/gunns_proposed_pulp_mill\ /newEM/ 34) From its headwaters nestled in Kakadu and spectacular Katherine Gorge, the Daly River winds on a 500 kilometre journey through the Northern Territory to the Timor Sea. Along the way are vast stands of forests and woodlands, where an abundance of wildlife relies on its life-giving waters, which flow year-round, making the river even more special. The Daly has more different types of freshwater turtles than any Australian river system. It provides ideal living conditions for the threatened pig-nosed turtle and other species such as whip-rays, sawfish and barramundi. The Daly is also the traditional homelands of Indigenous people, who retain a strong connection to the river. In 2005, the Northern Territory Government placed a moratorium on the Daly River catchment to protect it from land clearing. Today, they're considering lifting the ban to allow land clearing and Murray Basin-style irrigation schemes along this magnificent river. The future of the beautiful Daly River is at stake! Land clearing in the Daly region will allow large scale irrigation, destroying habitat and altering the delicate balance between the river, groundwater and surrounding habitats. Let's not repeat the mistakes of Southern Australia. Today we are wiser and wealthy enough to choose a sustainable path. Let's choose a future for Northern Australia that looks after Country while supporting its people and wildlife. Please sign this cyberaction today and send your message to our leaders urging them to protect the Daly for the future. https://secure.wilderness.org.au/cyberactivist/cyberactions/07_12_daly_river-cyb\ eraction.php World-wide: 35) A new study by one of the world's leading forestry research institutes warns that the new push to " reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation, " known by the acronym REDD, is imperiled by a routine failure to grasp the root causes of deforestation. The study sought to link what is known about the underlying causes of the loss of 13 million hectares of forest each year to the promise—and potential pitfalls—of REDD schemes. Based on more than a decade of in-depth research on the forces driving deforestation worldwide, the report by researchers at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) found that there is ample opportunity to reduce carbon emissions if financial incentives will be sufficient enough to flip political and economic realities that cause deforestation. The report was released today at the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP-13) in Bali, where environment ministers from 190 countries are meeting to plot a long-term strategy for combating global warming. High on the agenda is reducing the 1.6 billion tons of carbon emissions caused each year by deforestation, which amounts to one-fifth of global carbon emissions and more than the combined total contributed by the world's energy-intensive transport sectors. " After being left out of the Kyoto agreement, it's promising that deforestation is commanding center-stage at the Bali climate talks, " said CIFOR's Director General, Frances Seymour. " But the danger is that policy-makers will fail to appreciate that forest destruction is caused by an incredibly wide variety of political, economic, and other factors that originate outside the forestry sector, and require different solutions. " http://www.cifor.cgiar.org 36) Deforestation puts more carbon dioxide in the air than all the world's automobiles, yet it wasn't even considered in the Kyoto Treaty. With carbon capture technologies like ocean fertilization and ground sequestration still experimental, and farmers in developing nations cutting forests to make room for biofuel and food crops, the future looks bleak — unless, that is, a forest protection system is established in Bali. Fortunately, that could very well happen. Indonesia — where rain forests are being replaced with palm oil plantations — has proposed a plan called REDD, or Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation. It's simple: pay people not to cut down trees. Figure out the value of forests, how to pay people for them and how to make sure the forests are still standing, and it might just work. So how about those pesky details? A few studies supporting REDD have come out in tandem with the Bali meetings. The Partnership for the Tropical Forest Margins pegged the profits of deforestation in Peru and Indonesia at between $1 and $5 per ton of carbon released, and Cameroon at $11. The Woods Hole Research Center put Amazonian deforestation profits at $1.2 per ton in the short term, and $3 per ton thereafter. Woods Hole also teamed up with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and European Joint Research Center to assemble radar image mosaics of forests in the southeastern Amazon and the isle of Bali. These are, they claim, the best such maps in existence, and can be put together rapidly and accurately for any region in the world, even if it's covered by clouds. http://redapes.org/news-updates/making-deforestation-unprofitable-is-key-to-bali\ -success/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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