Guest guest Posted January 5, 2008 Report Share Posted January 5, 2008 Today for you 31 new articles about earth's trees! (276th edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com --British Columbia: 1) Save Salt Spring Rainforest --Washington: 2) NY Times' apologist piece for landside induced murder, 3) Bigfoot, --Oregon: 4)Defazio: 100's of millions bd. ft. of logging can save old growth, 5) WOPR, --Colorado: 6) After the fires Beetle Poop helps regrow trees --Wyoming: 7) More legislation looks like more forest health shenanigans --Wisconsin: 8) New machine called the Chomper devours hardwoods --Minnesota: 9) Save Mississippi River Headwaters from ORVs --Kansas: 10) State AG school does 'precautionary' logging of stressed trees --Maine: 11) Sinclair's life: A leader in the making of the ruins of the N. woods --Vermont: 12) Forest Watch becomes Center for Biological Diversity --Massachusetts: 13) Harvard Forest research --Kentucky: 14) Woods and Waters Land trust --North Carolina: 15) Hundreds of Barred Owls take over Charlotte neighborhood --Florida: 16) Giant Ancient oaks surrounded by roads, fast food and construction --Kaui: 17) Save the monkeypod trees --USA: 18) Fed land at risk from housing developments, 19) Legal standing of trees, --Canada: 20) White Spruce makes cut and run logging sustainable --Scotland: 21) Forest subdivisions are part of an ancient tradition --Russia: 22) Deforestation in the arctic hurts indigenous tribes --Senegal: 23) Rich land turn to desert and attempts to reclaim it --Brazil: 24) US corn production up by 20% puts the hurt on rainforest --India: 25) Ruthless cutting unabated Kupwara, 26) Tribal forest Rights now enacted, --Malaysia: 27) Tribal chief murdered for defending the forest --Indonesia: 28) Alternative wood from more common trees, 29) 10-year Orangutan plan, --World-wide: 30) Evolutionary dynamics of trees, 31) How to make 2012's deforestation credits credible? British Columbia: 1) As the initial January 4 deadline approaches for the Save Salt Spring Rainforest Appeal, campaign organizer Maureen Moore said now is the time for people interested in the cause to step forward. " As you know, we are at a crucial time and heartfelt community support for the protection of the creekside rainforest has been increasing. Pledges are still being made and people are going on guided walks of the land each weekend, " Moore said via e-mail. By the Driftwood's earlier-than-usual December 28 press time, The Land Conservancy of B.C. (TLC) and Salt Spring's Eric Booth, a representative for the numbered company listed as the property's registered owner, were discussing a 60-day extension of the purchase deadline, said Moore. Then, on January 1, Moore advised via e-mail that the 60-day extension had been granted. The 7.8 hectare (19.5-acre) property is located on both sides of Cusheon Creek and contains a diverse array of plants, animals, birds and fish. With residential zoning, the land was destined for subdivision into three sections before TLC stepped in to broker a deal with the property owners last fall. Both sides agreed if the campaign could raise $975,000 by January 4, the property would be sold to TLC and saved from development. Prior to the holiday season the campaign had raised $200,000 for the purchase. For more information on the campaign or to make a pledge, contact Moore at 538-1732 or visit http://www.savesaltspringrainforest.com http://www.gulfislands.net/news.asp?ID=1889 Washington: 2) " We've got to have a big public debate, and it's got to result in action, not inaction, " said W. Jay Gordon, an organic dairy farmer who is executive director of the Washington State Dairy Federation. " Maybe this will finally provoke that public discussion. It's not just logging. It's not just farming. It's not just development, and it's not just environmentalists. " The storm that caused the flooding has been linked to at least six deaths in the Northwest and the loss of hundreds of farm animals. It instantly updated local building codes that require new development to be above the flood line. It has also prompted competing accusations that logging contributed to the damage and that efforts to protect salmon habitat left the river full of destructive debris. Tension has increased as more people move to this part of Washington, about 100 miles southwest of Seattle, bringing new development pressure and new ideas about how to use the land. Lewis County, which suffered much of the worst damage from the storm, had 59,000 people in 1990, according to the Census Bureau. Last year it had nearly 74,000. Like many other places in the Northwest outside big cities, Lewis County is trying to make its way from a declining economy based on logging and mining to one that meets new needs. Many people who do not farm have jobs in logging. They emphasize their self-reliance, noting how people banded together to buy dehumidifiers rather than wait for government help. Ms. Soto is among those who blame efforts to protect salmon for a buildup of debris that slammed down the flooded river. Others blame logging directly, and some cite a photograph published in The Seattle Times after the flood that showed big mudslides on a recently cut steep slope that drains into a tributary of the Chehalis. Studies have shown that clear-cutting increases erosion and mudslides. And not every advocate for limiting logging is a big-city environmentalist. " If there had been more forest cover, the water wouldn't have run off as quickly and been as destructive, " said Margaret Rader, a board member of the Chehalis River Council, a local volunteer group. " There's no way that it couldn't have had an impact. " http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/us/03flood.html 3) Nodding to the diner's proprietor, he poured himself some coffee and came to our booth. " You fellas must be the timber cruisers, " he said. He'd obviously had his morning whiskey. " There's something you boys should know. A Big Hairy Guy hangs out in these woods. Someday you'll be taping a tree, and a shadow'll fall on you. He'll know you're fixin' to log his forest, and he'll be mad. " He sipped his coffee. " I can show you scratch marks 10 feet high where he tried to get in my barn. I know when he's around by the smell. Whew! But my cats warn me before he gets that close. They go crazy! Edna, my wife, won't go out at night, at all. The Big hairy Guy's passed up many chances to get me, 'cause he knows I'm on his side. You boys, though…. " He shook his head. We figured that Truman was saying he didn't like our being there (I couldn't blame him), while ostensibly warning us about Sasquatch, as some Native Americans call the legendary creature. We considered ourselves duly advised on both counts. But in weeks of beating the brush, we saw no sign of the Big Hairy Guy, though in that mysterious forest of shadowy glens and hulking, mossy trees, believing in such a creature wouldn't have been much of a stretch. In 1890, railroad workers in British Columbia supposedly captured a rock-throwing, apelike creature they called Jacko. It escaped before anyone photographed him. Sometimes they do exist. Former cryptids include gorillas -- discovered in 1847, giant pandas -- found in1869, Komodo dragons -- spotted in 1912, and giant geckos -- found in 1984. One rumor had it that a Bigfoot was shot and secretly buried so " enviros " wouldn't find out and demand Bigfoot refuges with connecting BFRs -- Bigfoot runways -- a mountain myth no less incredible than others that persist. It's interesting to speculate on what might happen after a confirmed Bigfoot discovery. Personally, I'd like to celebrate by taking the discoverer to breakfast at the diner where I met Harry R. Truman. But, of course, the eatery is buried under millions of tons of volcanic debris. As is, apparently, Harry, and perhaps -- who knows -- his Big Hairy Guy. http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?showtopic=21429 Oregon: 4) I have refined my original proposal with input from the timber industry, environmental groups, county commissioners, and forestry experts. I am working to get support for this compromise legislation. The Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management estimate there are more than 10 million acres of forest that need to be thinned, which would produce billions of board feet of timber. My plan would direct the agencies to thin those acres for forest health. Increased logging will generate needed revenues for county governments and bring jobs to the region. My plan for responsible forest management will succeed where the Northwest Forest Plan failed because it thins overstocked and fire-prone forests rather than logging old growth forests. My proposal would produce at least twice the timber volume currently provided by the Northwest Forest Plan. We need sustainable forest management now for the health of Oregon workers, communities, and the environment. --Rep. Peter A. DeFazio http://westinstenv.org/sosf/2008/01/02/defazio-plan-to-protect-old-growth-and-cr\ eate-jobs/ 5) Even though our property taxes are some of the lowest in the state, every time a levy is proposed to fund the police, or the library, or the pool, it is defeated by a wide margin.Part of the problem is the legacy of timber money that goes back to the Teddy Roosevelt era. Because so much of the land ended up in public ownership (In Oregon, it had to be rescued from a huge railroad company scam), the federal government ultimately promised that a portion of the timber receipts could go to fund county governments. On Forest Service lands, it was 25 percent, and on the O & C (Oregon and Californian Railroad Company) lands it was 50 percent. People got used to low property taxes, and even today, some county commissioners are lobbying the federal government to start up old growth logging again to pay for county services. What they fail to realize is that there is no way such a scheme can be sustained. After World War II, logging on public lands accelerated, and by 1990 the timber industry had liquidated about 80 percent of the old growth forests. Public outrage finally stopped most, though not all, of the old growth logging in the early 1990s as a series of protests and lawsuits led to the Clinton administration's Northwest Forest Plan. As logging declined, Congress enacted the Secure Rural Schools program to compensate counties for lost timber receipts. Meant to be a temporary bridge while counties came up with new funding sources, it will finally expire in 2008. Lawmakers from Oregon and other states with forest-dependent communities have tried all year to pass an extension, with no success. Local officials are not thinking about the cost to defend homes surrounded by highly flammable tree plantations. All they can think about is the money that cutting those old growth trees will bring in. There is still some hope that the $1.8 billion Secure Rural Schools program could be renewed before it expires. For the sake of the forests, the streams, our homes and our children, let's hope Congress passes this safety net for rural counties. For the sake of our common future, let's hope that the radical, anti-tax ideologues wake up and realize that liquidating precious natural resources to fund recurring annual expenditures is nothing but a dead end. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010108J.shtml Colorado: 6) " In terms of the economic aspects of a burned forest, this species is considered to be a pest because it gets in there and feeds on the wood and it degrades the quality of the wood very quickly, which drives people to salvage log as quickly as possible before the beetle comes, " said Tyler Cobb, a University of Alberta forestry graduate and curator of invertebrate zoology at the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton. It doesn't help that the beetle is known to bite people, especially fire fighters, and no, the sawyer is not out to get anyone - not like mosquitoes, anyway. It's more a case of mistaken identity. In most situations, the beetle thinks a person they're trying to land on is a tree. " The thing is the beetle is an awkward flier. It flies vertically, straight up and down and it's all legs and antenna. When it lands on a tree it tries to grab on with all of its claws and then when it bounces off, it tries to bite on with its mandibles to hang on. They do deliver a pinch. " The beetles are attracted by these vertical silhouettes, burned trees and, of course, a fire fighter standing in the shadow looks like a burned tree. So they do grab on with their mandible if they are afraid of falling off, " he said. It's a bum rap the beetle does not deserve, Cobb said, as he found in his recently completed PhD research. The sawyer actually deserves our respect for the important ecological role it plays in regenerating burned forests. Well, actually, it's not so much the beetle that plays this important role, as its frass, which is really just a fancy name for beetle dung or droppings. But with no beetle, no frass. he found the beetle and its droppings are a vital part of the process that returns nutrients locked in the wood of a dead tree back into the soil where it is available to nourish new post-fire growth. That's the quick explanation. The full and more complex explanation involves a process that occurs in the soil known as microbial activity. This process converts organic nutrients into different forms of inorganic nitrogen, including ammonia and nitrate, making it available for other plants. " So as the beetle is feeding, it is essentially just breaking up the nutrients, the organic nutrients locked up in the bole of the tree... breaking it up into smaller pieces that stimulates the microbial activity in the soil and (microbial activity) begin to break it up into an inorganic form that other plants can use, " he said. http://www.rockymountainoutlook.ca/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=128 & cat=23 & id=113\ 2138 & more=0 Wyoming: 7) A bill U.S. Sen. John Barrasso claims will " save " Wyoming's forests from bark beetle infestation is drawing skepticism from forest experts who say the measure cannot accomplish the things the senator claims. The Wyoming Forest and Water-shed Restoration Act of 2007 instructs the Chief of the Forest Service to enter into a cooperative agreement with the state " to allow the State of Wyoming to conduct certain forest and watershed restoration services, and for other purposes. " Those forest and watershed restoration services are defined in the bill as " the treatment of insect-infected trees, " " the reduction of hazardous fuels, " and " any other activity designed to restore, or improve a forest or watershed (including any fish or wildlife habitat) as determined by the Secretary [of Agriculture]. " In a press release announcing the introduction of the bill, Barrasso touted the bill as a way to curb beetle infestation. Jesse Logan, an entomologist who spent 30 years studying bark beetles in the Rocky Mountains as a U.S. Forest Service employee and college professor, said Barrasso's claims aren't true. " That kind of language is dishonest, " Logan said. " That is the best I can say about it. " Logan was the project leader for the Forest Service's Interior West Bark Beetle Project based in southern Colorado for 15 years. Though he retired in 2006, he continues to study the impacts of the beetles on alpine environments from his home in Montana. " To say he will save thousands of acres of forest with this legislation is not honest, " Logan said. " To talk tens of thousands of acres of destruction is not honest and its not fair. " Mountain pine bark beetles are endemic to lower elevation forests in the Rocky Mountain West. Beetles and trees like lodgepole pine have co-existed for thousands of years with beetle infestations periodically increasing, due, in large part to climatic factors. Trees that are stressed by drought are more susceptible to beetle infestation, and beetles are more successful at reproducing when winters are mild. Logan said beetle infestations, even ones of epidemic proportions are necessary to renew aging forests and such disturbances are vital for regeneration of species like lodgepole pine. " We have to be very honest about our objectives, " Logan said of any human activity in the forest. " To say forest restoration, let's be clear. The forest has been here far longer than people have been around to manage them. " http://www.jacksonholenews.com/article.php?art_id=2590 Wisconsin: 8) Ken lives about 50 miles north of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Most low-grade logs cut in the region for pulp wood are cut to 8-foot length. He has a skidsteer to move and stack logs in his yard. Initially Ken began processing logs that were somewhat dry. When Ken decided to invest in a firewood processor, he chose a Chomper, which features a shear cutting action. " I wanted to get away from chainsaws as well as all the sharpening and replacements that came with them, " he said. " What I find with this machine is the greener the better, " he said. " In other words, if you can cut it with leaves still on the branches today and run it through the machine, it works better. " The Rainier Hydraulics Chomper machines differ from other firewood processors in that they use a hydraulic shear to buck the logs. The blade does not need to be replaced or sharpened regularly, like a bar saw, and the cutting method produces no sawdust. " The shearing system is unbelievable, " said Ken. " I don't have to worry about stones, dirt, barbed wire, nails or whatever. It doesn't even phase it. Everything just goes right through it just fine with no problem. " There is another benefit to cutting with a shear, he noted. " The wood dries much faster because of the shearing process. It leaves the 'veins' of the wood open. Air can get through better, and it dries quicker. Green oak cut with this machinery can be used for firewood within 90 days. " Three hardwoods commonly used for firewood in the region are oak, hard maple and elm. Elm may burn the longest time, according to Ken, but oak is very popular for firewood. A disease that has spread through some oak forests has resulted in large quantities of inexpensive dead oak. http://www.timberlinemag.com/articledatabase/view.asp?ArticleID=2509 Minnesota: 9) Wilderness of the Mississippi River Headwaters may soon become an ATV destination. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and three counties have a plan for roads and trails for all-terrain vehicles, motorbikes, and 4x4 " mudder " trucks in the Mississippi Headwaters State Forest and the river's designated " wild corridor. " You have the power to prevent it. The state is taking comments until Jan. 22. Please send your email comment on the Mississippi Headwaters State Forest Draft Plan to: 1) DNR planner Bill Johnson at bill.johnson; 2) Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty at tim.pawlenty 3) Superintendent Paul Labovitz, Mississippi National River and Recreation area at paul_labovitz 4) You can mail the comments to Bill Johnson, DNR Division of Trails & Waterways, 500 Lafayette Road, St. Paul, Mn. 55155. Tell them this is a National River! Tell them to keep ATVs out! Tell them to keep the Headwaters wild! AT STAKE: a national treasure, historic canoe route, the last wilderness on the Mississippi River. The 2,552 mile long Mississippi River begins as a trickle at Lake Itasca, in northern Minnesota. The first 47 miles – the " wild headwaters " – are designated a " Wild River " under Minnesota law, and have qualified for designation as wild under National Wild & Scenic Rivers Act since 1977. The Mississippi Headwaters is a recreational gem - a designated canoe route offering silence, remoteness, and solitude. The river here is narrow and it is home to wolf packs, pine marten, fisher, black bear, river otter, mink, bald eagles, and the occasional cougar. The Mississippi Headwaters has deep historic and cultural significance. For millennia it was a major travel and settlement corridor for Native Americans. Explorers sought to find it, and vast fortunes were floated down it during the fur trade era. Kansas: 10) Trees are being felled at the Kansas State University Agricultural Research Center south of Hays. But it's a precautionary move, taking out pines hard hit by the relatively benign tip blight that swooped in and infected older, drought-stressed and hail-damaged trees. The goal, however, is to take out the trees that have the smallest chance of recovery. That way, there's little chance the weakened trees will play host to the pine sawyer -- the dastardly devil behind the spread of pine wilt disease. Already, there have been three confirmed instances of pine wilt in Hays, according to district forester Jim Strine, based at the research center. Two mugo pines located near the Fort Hays State University football field wer determined to have the disease, as was an Austrian pine located in the northeast part of Hays. A fourth tree, located at Fort Hays Municipal Golf Course, tested negative, but was considered a suspicious threat and was removed. All of the pine wilt-infected trees have been cut down and disposed of. Strine said confirmed infections are being allowed at the Hays burn pile. Burning is just one of three approved methods of disposing of infected trees; the other methods are chipping or burying. It's also best to get rid of an infected tree before May 1, prior to the time the beetle starts to emerge for the spring. While it was a concern, until this year, pine wilt had not spread as far west as Hays. Strine also found two infected pines in the Lake Wilson area, one at the state park and one in the park below the dam, and in Lincoln County. That's part of the reason why about 25 trees at the research center have an orange X on them. " We were very lenient, " Strine said of the trees marked to cut down. " We could have taken more. But we wanted to give them a chance. " In August, when Strine surveyed trees at the center, 92 out of 122 Austrian pines had some tip blight damage. The ones selected for removal are those determined to have little chance of survival. It's not pine wilt in those cases, but tip blight, coupled with age. " I imagine some of these trees are over 100 years old, " Strine said. http://www.hdnews.net/Story/pinewilt010108 Maine: 11) While the book may be a more difficult read for those who did not know Sinclair, for those who knew him and of him, it is a trip down memory lane. There were not many things that happened in Maine's woods over the last half-century and more that Sinclair didn't know about or was not involved in. He tells of cutting trees with axes and single- and two-man saws, traveling by foot from one woods camp to another, on snowshoes during the heavy snows of winter, and of the development of policies protecting the Maine woods for generations to come. You quickly learn that Sinclair firmly believed the protection of the Maine woods and its industry was best left to professional foresters and loggers and people whose families had been involved in the woods for generations. He didn't think regulations governing woods-related industry should be developed by part-time legislators and environmentalists, some of whom thought the Maine forest should be left alone. He advocated for people involved in the woods industries to develop policy, thereby preserving one of the state's largest industries. Even in his later years, when Sinclair was not actively involved in the forest industry, there was nothing he liked more than to discuss the industry, where it had been and where it was from, from his personal knowledge. His book, his memoirs one could say, was finished by Rose (Nadeau) Sinclair, with the assistance of Darrell McBreairty of Allagash, after Sinclair's death last year. His published work also included the assistance of Everett Parker, one of Sinclair's friends; Sarah Medina of Seven Islands Land Co.; and Albro Cowperthwaite, executive director of the North Maine Woods. http://www.bangornews.com/news/t/lifestyle.aspx?articleid=158343 & zoneid=14 Vermont: 12) Forest Watch ended its life last month as it had begun: with a determined appeal to protect and restore wilderness and wildlife on Vermont's federal lands. Founded in 1994 to stop logging in an area of prime bear habitat in the Green Mountain National Forest, the group's last act was to urge the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to consider closing popular snowmobile trails in its Northeast Kingdom wildlife refuge to better protect animals. " Forest Watch has been willing to take difficult positions, assertive positions. It didn't always win us friends, " Deputy Director Mollie Matteson said last week. The small, scrappy environmental group closed its doors Monday, worn down by circumstances -- money-raising difficulties, the injury of its leader in an auto accident and the end of a long, only partly successful campaign to protect 80,000 more acres of wilderness in the national forest. Today, Forest Watch will hand over its mission to the much larger, better-funded Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity. Matteson will staff the center's one-person Northeast office in Forest Watch's old digs on Main Street in Richmond. " The idea is to become part of a larger movement to look at forests, not just as timberland or watersheds or wildlife habitat, but as absolutely essential to the whole environment, " said Forest Watch's former board Chairman Carl Reidel of Ferrisburgh. " I think this is a step forward. " During its 13-year life, Forest Watch saw itself as " a voice for wilderness, imperiled species, old-growth forests and all those special, threatened places and creatures that cannot speak for themselves, " as Executive Director Jim Northup put it recently. " We definitely needed to re-vision Forest Watch, " Matteson said. Coupled with Northup's injuries and declining funding from foundations, the letdown led Matteson and the Forest Watch to the Center for Biological Diversity. For some time, the center had wanted for some time to expand its work in the West -- adding dozens of species to the federal Endangered Species List, watchdogging the management of public lands -- to the eastern United States. Peter Galvin, one of the center's founders and its conservation director, said he is committed to applying the center's considerable resources, including a cadre of lawyers, to carrying on and expanding Forest Watch's work. http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080102/NEWS01/80\ 1020304/1009/NE WS05 Massachusetts: 13) A place called Harvard Forest sounds like it should inspire deep thoughts about nature. And in fact, it does. This forest in north central Massachusetts is under a microscope. Throughout the forest, you see signs of research under way. Hundreds of trees are labeled and wear shiny metal belts to measure their growth. Buckets collect falling leaves; holes in the ground yield data on the soil. Slowly, the forest is giving up its secrets. One of the most startling revelations came from instruments mounted atop several towers in the forest. Harvard Forest researcher Julian Hadley leads the way up the steps of one such tower. Eighty feet above the forest floor, we climb into sunlight. The tops of hemlock trees form a blanket of green around us. Above us, suspended on a steel rod like a weather vane, there is a sensor that detects the slightest air current and an intake valve that samples the air going by. This equipment is monitoring the flow of the most important greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. The forest, says Hadley, is " taking in carbon dioxide when it's growing and releasing carbon dioxide at night, when there's no photosynthesis. " When scientists started monitoring the breathing of this stand of hemlock trees, they suspected any carbon dioxide captured by new growth would be canceled out by carbon dioxide released from decaying old trees. This is one of the oldest parts of Harvard Forest. Unlike other sections, it was never cleared for agriculture but was used instead as a woodlot. Some of the trees are 300 years old. But the measurements delivered a surprise. The hemlocks capture a lot more carbon from the air than they give up: about a ton more, per acre, per year. Equally surprising is the carbon's destination: " Only about half of the carbon that gets pulled out of the atmosphere is going into wood, " says Hadley. " The rest must be going into the soil. " The forests of Massachusetts certainly won't continue to capture carbon if they're cleared. And Harvard Forest director David Foster is trying to ensure that they're preserved. Those forests staged a remarkable recovery over the past century. In 1830, 60 to 80 percent of Massachusetts (like most of New England) had been cleared of trees. But when New Englanders abandoned farmland, the forests came back and now cover 60 percent of the state. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17332316 Kentucky: 14) PEAKS MILL -- Frost-covered leaves crunch under Mark Schimmoeller's feet as he walks through a hardwood forest that hasn't seen a logger's saw in more than 80 years. Tree trunks rise 70 feet -- as tall as a seven-story building -- before branching out, and a bandit-faced raccoon huddles atop a white oak, closely watching the humans below as scattered snowflakes fall. These 20 acres tucked into a hollow of Franklin County, and an adjacent 130 acres of other forest land, once were slated for a subdivision. But now they will be protected through a new land trust formed to safeguard forests and bottomlands in the lower Kentucky River watershed. " When I come into these woods, it's transformative, " said Schimmoeller, a co-owner of the land who lives nearby in a solar-powered cabin. " My mind becomes uncluttered. Thoughts will come easier. That's why I want to save it in perpetuity, so others can have that same experience. " Hannah Helm, another member of a group that jointly owns the land, agrees. She lives in Lexington now but plans to build a home on the edge of the property and move there next year, then adhere to a plan to place development and logging restrictions on the property. Helm, a retired state environmental cabinet employee, is a founding board member of the Woods and Waters land trust, an organization that seeks to work with landowners to protect the open spaces of Franklin, Owen and Henry counties. http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080103/NEWS01/801030\ 421 North Carolina: 15) The neighborhoods of Charlotte, lined with graceful houses and arching trees, are home to a booming population of hundreds of barred owls -- adaptable birds as happy in one of the largest cities in the South as in an old-growth forest. They might be just as happy in Portland. The success of the birds within sight of Charlotte's skyscrapers provides a possible glimpse of the future in the Northwest, where barred owls have invaded old-growth forests that were once the exclusive haunt of the closely related spotted owl. They are moving into the Portland metro area in large numbers, according to bird surveys and local experts, and are likely to boom here just as they have in Charlotte. " I think they're going to end up becoming one of our most common owls very quickly, " said Bob Sallinger, conservation director at the Audubon Society of Portland. " In places like Portland and Sauvie Island they're going to become part of the landscape. " Although barred owls have provoked controversy -- federal agencies recently proposed shooting them in the Northwest because of the threat they pose to spotted owls -- they're also interesting and engaging, he said. " They're a wonderful bird -- all the controversy and politics and biology aside, " Sallinger said. " That's what makes all this so interesting. " " The city, as far as they're concerned, is the forest, " said Rob Bierregaard, a University of North Carolina at Charlotte ecologist and ornithologist leading a 6-year-old study of local barred owls that is now one of the most extensive owl studies undertaken. " When he first hooked up the video, I stayed up all night because I didn't want to miss anything, " said Frances Evans, who has grown especially fond of the owls nesting in a box attached to a willow oak towering over her back lawn. It's a point of pride that an owl was once fitted with a radio transmitter in her kitchen. She and her husband, Don, have a friendly competition with neighbors over who has the most owl-friendly yard. Nesting season has gotten as popular as football season as everyone gathers round their TV for owl-watching parties. Barred owls are native to East Coast states but appear to be multiplying, especially in urban areas where trees are now growing large enough to simulate the big trees they prefer in the wild. Barred owls seem to be populating Charlotte much more densely than they do wild forests -- sometimes nesting no more than 300 yards apart. " I can't go anywhere where I can't find them, " he said. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1199238903122450.x\ ml & coll=7 Florida: 16) Suze Peace is one of those DeLandites many would call " tree-huggers. " Peace drives on South Woodland Boulevard, also known as U.S. Highway 17-92, just about every day, and has been watching the progress of road-widening work between Taylor Road and the State Road 472 overpass. hShe's seen the ancient oak standing behind orange netting in the median in the 1800 block of the Boulevard, next to Burger King, and worried about the tree's fate. " There's thousands of people that drive by that every day, " she said. She estimates the live oak's age a " could of hundred " years. Peace added, " A lot of people get depressed when they drive up road, and here's this tree with orange netting around it. " She wanted to make sure the tree would be safe, and contacted the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), the agency in charge of widening the roadway. Steve Nunnery, in charge of constructibility reviews for FDOT, reassured Peace. The tree would be preserved. It's roots are healthy, and the tree is in good condition, he said. The agency strives to save trees, he told The Beacon. The tree in question already has a system installed under the road that allows the roots to get water and air. That system will be improved during the widening project. The roots of such a tree can extend far underground, and this tree's roots reach in a radius as far as Burger King on the west side of the road, and a pawn shop on the east side of the road. " Keep in mind, it isn't the only one, " he added. Another tree next to Checkers Drive-In Restaurant at 2490 S. Woodland Blvd. is also being carefully handled during the construction project. Limbs of that tree, which Nunnery described as at least as valuable as the one next to Burger King, hang over an FDOT right of way. Power lines ran through the tree, and Progress Energy regularly cut the tree's limbs to protect the lines. Encouraged by FDOT, the electric-utility company ran underground lines to nearby businesses, so the tree could be left in peace. Nunnery calls these two trees " trees burgers " because of their proximity to hamburger restaurants. http://www.beacononlinenews.com/dailyitem.php?itemnum=501 Kaui: 17) There was no indication yesterday that the monkeypod trees in Koloa town would be removed — this in spite of a widely suspected Jan. 2 deadline that had been printed on posters and fliers for weeks. The developer of The Shops at Koloa has stated that 30 big trees will be removed due to disease and to make room for the shopping center on the mauka side of Koloa Road. A time line of when that work might take place has not yet been made public. Protestors say the trees are more than a half-century old, but Stacey Wong of the trust says they're more like 40 years old and there's nothing historic about them. He plans to replace the trees with more appealing landscaping. Yesterday a lone individual armed with a camera wandered in the area yesterday where the future shopping area is scheduled to be built, stopping to photograph trees in no orderly manner. One of the leaders of the Save Koloa Town's Historic Monkeypod Trees who chose not to be identified said a representative from the developer will be meeting with community and county representatives to discuss the trees. That meeting is scheduled to take place within the next week, the anonymous representative said, and Louie Abrams, president of the Koloa Community Association, should have some comments once the meeting takes place. Until then, the trees will continue to stand in their current location. Maureen Murphy, a certified arborist and president of The Kaua'i Outdoor Circle, states in a flier posted on shop windows that according to the developer's arborist, 22 of the 30 trees will be removed or relocated, including all of those along Maluhia and Koloa roads. Murphy states that monkeypod trees can live to be upwards of 170 years in age, and some of the trees in the development area are more than 50 years old. http://www.kauaiworld.com/articles/2008/01/03/news/news01.txt USA: 18) Many of America's national forests and grasslands—collectively called the National Forest System—face increased risks and alterations from escalating housing development on private rural lands along their boundaries. National forests and grasslands provide critical social, ecological, and economic benefits to the American public. This study projects future housing density increases on private rural lands at three distances—2, 3, and 10 miles—from the external boundaries of all national forests and grasslands across the conterminous United States. Some 21.7 million acres of rural private lands (about 8 percent of all private lands) located within 10 miles of the National Forest System boundaries are projected to undergo increases in housing density by 2030. Nine national forests are projected to experience increased housing density on at least 25 percent of adjacent private lands at one or more of the distances considered. Thirteen national forests and grasslands are each projected to have more than a half-million acres of adjacent private rural lands experience increased housing density. Such development and accompanying landscape fragmentation pose substantial challenges for the management and conservation of the ecosystem services and amenity resources of National Forest System lands, including access by the public. Research such as this can help planners, managers, and communities consider the impacts of local land use decisions. http://www.docuticker.com/?p=18610 19) In " Trees, " Stone argued that courts should grant legal standing to guardians to represent the rights of nature, in much the same way as guardians are appointed to represent the rights of infants. In order to do so, the law would have to recognize that nature was not just a conglomeration of objects that could be owned, but was a subject that itself had legal rights and the standing to be represented in the courts to enforce those rights. The article eventually formed the basis for a famous dissenting judgment by Justice Douglas in the 1972 case of Sierra Club v. Morton in which he expressed the opinion that " contemporary public concern for protecting nature's ecological equilibrium should lead to the conferral of standing upon environmental objects to sue for their own preservation. " Perhaps one of the most important things about " Trees " is that it ventured beyond the accepted boundaries of law as we know it and argued that the conceptual framework for law in the United States (and by analogy, elsewhere) required further evolution and expansion. Stone began by addressing the initial reaction that such ideas are outlandish. Throughout legal history, as he pointed out, each extension of legal rights had previously been unthinkable. The emancipation of slaves and the extension of civil rights to African Americans, women, and children were once rejected as absurd or dangerous by authorities. These small examples, emerging shoots of what might be termed " Earth democracy, " are pressing upward despite the odds. It may well be that Earth-centered legal systems will have to grow organically out of human-scale communities, and communities of communities, that understand that they must function as integrated parts of wider natural communities. In the eyes of American law today, most of the community of life on Earth remains mere property, natural " resources " to be exploited, bought, and sold just as slaves were. This means that environmentalists are seldom seen as activists fighting to uphold fundamental rights, but rather as criminals who infringe upon the property rights of others. It also means that actions that damage the ecosystems and the natural processes on which life depends, such as Earth's climate, are poorly regulated. In the scientific world there has been more progress. It's been almost forty years since James Lovelock first proposed the " Gaia hypothesis " : a theory that Earth regulates itself in a manner that keeps the composition of the atmosphere and average temperatures within a range conducive to life. http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/500 Canada: 20) Ian Curran's research earned him second place in a national student research competition organized by the Edmonton-based Sustainable Forest Management Network. In a range of recently harvested stands near Grande Prairie, Curran found that white spruce had regenerated without any planting by forestry companies at almost exactly the rate required by provincial legislation. The government has specific rules about replanting of harvested conifers. The regeneration rates Curran found depend on the type of surface a seed lands on, he said. White spruce seeds do not do well when they land on the needle-strewn floor of a conifer-dominated forest. But in a forest made up of mostly deciduous trees they often land on beds of decomposing leaves or exposed soil and do quite well. Companies would have to keep the masting cycle of white spruce in mind. Masting means releasing seeds in one large burst as a way to overwhelm seed predators. Curran said white spruce tend to mast once every five years. By keeping the masting cycle in mind as well as various other factors, Curran said his research provides a way to predict where natural regeneration will take place. " It's not that we're telling companies, 'Stop planting,' " he said. " We're providing companies with the tools and the information and the reasoning behind it so they can make the decision whether to forego replanting white spruce in a harvested boreal mixed-wood. " http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=54d7847b-d038-4fae-8a9c\ -f1df29eb6408 & k=79376 Scotland: 21) Plans to restore the ancient tradition of living and working in woodland areas are being submitted in the Highlands later this month. Scotland's largest public landowner, the Forestry Commission, is behind the scheme to build 32 " eco-homes " . It has chosen Kilnhill wood, near Nairn, for the demonstration project. However, some locals have expressed concern over a new distinct community in their midst. Highland Council will decide whether the project goes ahead. The idea is to have small groups of low-energy mixed housing, including some affordable and some holiday homes, made, where possible, from local timber. Anyone buying a home in the Scots Pine forest would also have to join a trust, signing up to common values, which could include elements such as shared cars and non-car transport. Phil Whitfield, of the Forestry Commission, said: " We're clearly interested in the idea of people becoming much more intimately connected with trees. " Living in a forest, as opposed to some landscaping around a housing development, is really where this idea came from. " But the Friends of Kilnhill group has concerns over the impact on an area used by locals. Chairman Stephen Gray said: " Our community, which is using the woodland, and the Nairn people, who are using the woodland, are going to get that taken away from them and replaced by a community of a certain way of thinking. " Other opponents have also claimed the plan could severely disrupt animals and birds in an area home to badgers, roe dear and red squirrels. However, the Forestry Commission has stressed that its planning application is aimed at creating a sustainable lifestyle and ensuring that the concept of " living in a forest " has minimal impact. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7167107.stm Russia: 22) The indigenous peoples of the Russian North have depended on traditional hunting, fishing, and gathering for thousands of years and, for several hundred years, many groups have practiced nomadic reindeer breeding. Human impacts and environmental transformation in the Russian Arctic have intensified over the last few decades. Significant climate change is also becoming evident, as is the destructive impact of industry. The biggest sources of pollution are the oil and gas industries, as well as mineral extraction and processing, aggravated by poor purification facilities. The main negative impacts of industrial development threatening the livelihoods of indigenous peoples include: 1) the destruction of reindeer pastures and widespread degradation of ecosystems, especially due to the construction of industrial infrastructures and industrial pollution; 2) massive toxic pollution of marine and freshwater environments, affecting the habitats and spawning grounds of fish and causing the destruction of fisheries; 3) deforestation due to the timber industry using concentrated methods of clear-cutting, leading to the destruction of the non-timber forest resources of high cultural and economic importance; 4) large-scale landscape and soil destruction, erosion (especially thermokarst erosion), and the degradation of tundra and taiga vegetation as a result of air pollution from industrial emissions (especially emissions from the non-ferrous metal industry); 5) flooding of valuable subsistence areas due to the construction of hydroelectric power dams; and 6) forest fires, partly associated with poaching and partly with increased recreational pressure around the regions of industrial development. http://www.eoearth.org/article/Climate_change_impacts_on_Indigenous_peoples_of_t\ he_Russian_North Senegal: 23) As a boy, Pathe Kane's family farmed a large plot of land on which sat deep lakes filled with wildlife. In his youth, Ousman Sow wandered the land raising cattle with his Fulani nomad tribe. Over time, sand from the Sahara Desert drove Kane's family from its farm, and drought forced Sow's tribe to forego its nomadic lifestyle. The Senegalese government believes the advance of the desert and the drought are results of climate change that are having a dramatic impact on several countries in Africa — forcing whole communities to relocate, changing entire lifestyles and making it harder for people to make a living. " There were very, very deep lakes where people were doing fishing. All these depressed areas (valleys) were lakes originally, " said Kane, 56, fondly recalling what his home was like during better times. " This area was so beautiful that theShah of Iran visited here and wanted to build a tourist residence. " Farming was much easier, he added. They simply had to sink a well to water their crops of carrots, yams and potatoes. They established a cooperative in nearby Mboro to sell their produce. However, for years, strong winds have covered fertile land with tons of sand and stopped all farming activity. The transformation was hastened by 30 years of drought. " When it rained, there wasn't enough rain and the landscape disappeared, so the land found itself naked and was vulnerable to be taken away by the strong winds and the sand, " said Samba Thiem, regional director of the Senegal Ministry of the Environment, through an interpreter. The Senegalese government said the Sahara was advancing at least 15 feet a year. Concerned it would encroach on more farmland each year, the country began an ambitious program to reclaim land from the desert by blocking the winds and sand. Using fir and eucalyptus trees that withstand drought well because they don't need as much water, the government is planting a " green wall " of trees along the edge of the Sahara Desert. " Thanks to those efforts, we were able to save 12,000 hectares (about 30,000 acres) of land that would have otherwise been lost, " Thiem said. Of particular note was a tree that Thiem pointed out that had been completely covered by a sand dune, now looking more like a large bush growing out of the sand. But there is still more to do, according to Thiem. " We have at least 45,000 hectares (111,000 acres) of sand dunes to be stabilized in this zone alone, " he said. " http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_7870478 Brazil: 24) The law of unintended consequences has struck again and once again corn ethanol is at the center of it. The net benefits of producing fuel ethanol from corn are constantly debated here and elsewhere. Now there is yet another potentially huge cost to America's desire to use maize as a fuel. Dr. William Laurance of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute has released a new study blaming U.S. corn subsidies for a recent surge in the burning of Amazon rain forests. In the past two years, U.S. corn production has spiked by 19 percent, mostly at the expense of soy production. That has led to a commensurate increase in soy prices, as Brazilian soy farmers have sought to increase their production. That extra production requires land which is currently rain forests. Unfortunately soy fields consume a lot less CO2 than rain forests and don't provide the habitat required by the animals that live there. High soy prices affect the Amazon in several ways. Some forests are cleared for soy farms. Farmers also buy and convert many cattle ranches into soy farms, effectively pushing the ranchers further into the Amazonian frontier. Finally, wealthy soy farmers are lobbying for major new Amazon highways to transport their soybeans to market, and this is increasing access to forests for loggers and land speculators. http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/01/02/us-corn-subsidies-aggravating-amazon-def\ orestation/ India: 25) Ruthless cutting of tress is going unabated in forests of Kupwara district but the authorities are watching like mute spectators. The frontier district Kupwara, which was once known for its thick forest cover, is presenting a vandalized look with depleted forest cover, trunks of recently chopped trees and half-burnt stumps. Enter Lolab valley and one finds smugglers chopping deodar, kail and budhal trees in broad daylight under the very nose of forest authorities. Hundreds of trees have been felled during the past three months in Kashirah, Gagal, Warnow, Khurhama, Kandi, Dorsa, Manigah and Batpora villages. Situation is worse in Chowkibal, Kralpora, Awoora and Gulgam areas of Kehmil forest division where large patches of barren forests are seen, with smugglers felling the trees, cutting them into logs with manual run saws and transporting them on trucks, tippers and horse back. Villagers allege that authorities are mute spectators to the plunder of the green gold. " Influential people of the area devastate the forests in connivance with officials. They (officials) receive their share. We are helpless in saving the green wealth as the smugglers are very influential, " many villagers told Greater Kashmir. In Langate division of Handwara, the vandalization of forests is going unabatedly in Bungas, Mawar, Rajwar and Magam. " Forest depots usually lack firewood and timber, that is why the residents of these remote areas resort to deforestation, " said Zahid Iqbal, a local youth. Furthermore, presence of saw mills and brick kilns near the forest areas have added to the deforestation. " Ecology of the forest areas does not permit saw mills and brick kilns, and license of machines running in five-kilometer area should be cancelled and brick kilns be stopped as they help in deforestation " said Zubair Ahmad, a forestry graduate Conservator forests north Kashmir, Manzoor Ahmad told Greater Kashmir that his men seized timber and arrested several culprits in the past few days. " I will instruct all my DFOs to intensify the patrolling of forests, " Ahmad said. He said his department will look into the complaints of deforestation. http://www.greaterkashmir.com/full_story.asp?Date=3_1_2008 & ItemID=39 & cat=1 26) Tribals and other forest dwellers have finally won their battle. They can now rightfully cultivate forest land and dispose of minor produce of forests where they have been living for generations. The tribals' rights have been fully defined through a notification of rules issued by the government for the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (recognition of forest rights) Act, on New Year's Day. An important achievement for the population is the cut-off date of 13 December 2005. The tribals living in forests prior to this date will benefit from the law. The law says tribals who were living in and depending on forests for their livelihood prior to 13 December 2005, and other traditional forest dwellers who were similarly living in and depending on forests for their livelihood, for three generations prior to 13 December, 2005 will have the rights granted by the law. The gram panchayats will call for claims, which will be examined by Forest Rights Committees consisting of 10 to 15 members of the panchayats. At least one third of these members will be scheduled tribes and another one-third women. The committee will visit the forest areas and physically verify the nature and extent of the claims. After satisfying itself, it shall forward its recommendations to a sub-divisional level committee, which will send the proposals to the district level committee for final consideration, the rules say. The salient features of the Act include recognising and vesting forest rights and occupation in forest land to the forest-dwelling scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who have been residing in such forests for generations but whose rights could not be recorded. This would undo the historical injustice done to the forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes. The Act provides for recognition of forest rights of other traditional forest dwellers also, provided they have for at least three generations prior to 13 December, 2005 primarily resided in and have depended on the forest or forest land for bonafide livelihood needs. A " generation " for this purpose would mean a period of 25 years. The Act provides for conferring rights in the National Parks and Sanctuaries also, renamed as 'critical wildlife habitat' on regular basis. The law provides for the right to hold and live in the forest land under the individual or common occupation for habitation or for self-cultivation for livelihood by a member or members of a forest dwelling Scheduled Tribe or other traditional forest dwellers. http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=2 & theme= & usrsess=1 & id=183466 Malaysia: 27) Kelesau Naan vanished Oct. 23 while checking an animal trap near the remote village of Long Kerong in Malaysia's eastern Sarawak state, said Naan's nephew, Micheal Ipa. Villagers last month found what they believed were Naan's remains and his wristwatch in the area, which has experienced tensions over logging activities opposed by the Penan tribal community, Ipa said by telephone. Some of his bones were broken, indicating he had been assaulted, Ipa said. Ipa said he and some 100 other Penans lodged a police report Thursday seeking an investigation into the matter. The delay in reporting the death occurred because the villagers had to trek through heavy forest to the nearest district police station 60 miles away. " We believe he has been killed by people involved in logging, " Ipa said. Police officials in Sarawak's Miri district could not immediately be contacted for comment. Naan, 70, has been a key figure in anti-logging efforts by the Penans, who say the timber industry is destroying their ancestral lands and snatching their customary rights over the forests. State government authorities and many timber companies reject the claim. Naan's disappearance came ahead of what villagers believe are plans by companies to resume logging, which has stalled in recent years in areas surrounding Long Kerong, the village that Naan headed. International anti-logging groups have voiced concerns over Naan's disappearance, saying he was an initiator and key witness in an unresolved Penan land rights court case. " Long Kerong is one of the few Penan communities that, by fierce resistance, has managed to keep the loggers at bay and preserve parts of their communal forests, " the Bruno Manser Fund, a Swiss-based advocacy group, said in a December statement. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/01/03/news/Malaysia-Tribal-Death.php Indonesia: 28) Researchers from the Development Center for Bogor Forest Products recently completed the construction of 10 houses near Cifor forest in Bogor's Sindangbarang Jero village. The stilt houses, made from coconut and sengon trees, form part of the team's research into wood preservation methods. The head of the development center's research evaluation unit, Suhariyanto, said public knowledge about timber varieties was extremely limited, which contributed heavily to deforestation. " People are only familiar with teak, meranti and ramin wood, which they use to build their houses with or make furniture from, and supplies are becoming less and less. " Indonesia has 4,000 types of timber, including trees that commonly grow near homes such as coconut, mango, durian, sengon and acacia mangium trees. These types of timber are good for building houses that would last for at least 50 years if the timber was preserved properly, " he told The Jakarta Post recently. He said some types of timber, including sengon, were resistant to termites. Researcher Efrida Basri, who specializes in wood drying, said if proper preservation methods were used, common types of wood could become reliable substitutes for conventional types of wood taken from endangered forests. " People only collect fruit from common types of trees. This type of mind-set needs to change if we want to see our forests last, " she said. Efrida said the use of better preservation methods could make the export of commonly found trees in Indonesia quite lucrative. She said traditional methods of preserving wood, such as drying it under the sun, resulted in Indonesian wood continuing to be of a low quality. " But wood-steaming machines are relatively expensive for small-scale plantation owners, " she said. Efrida said the center had designed wood steamers for the wider community to use. http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailcity.asp?fileid=20080103.C04 & irec=3 29) Indonesia's new 10 year action plan for conserving orangutans will have important benefits in mitigating climate change, according to WWF. These benefits were underlined by the launch of The Orangutan Conservation Strategy and Action Plan (2007 – 2017) during the Bali Climate Change Conference. Deforestation, for timber, pulp and palm oil plantations, have pushed Indonesia into the status of being a major carbon emitter, while threatening globally significant wildlife populations. " In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050, " said Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the launch of the plan. " The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests ... To save the orangutan we have to save the forest. " As a mostly fruit eating primate, the orangutan also has a key role in forest regeneration as it disperses seeds which help regenerate more fruit trees, which in turn helps keep the forest healthy. Although the main threat to the orangutans – often called " the red man of the jungle " – comes from forest destruction and habitat conversion, orangutans are also still being hunted, traded and also smuggled out of the country for pets. " It's opportune this Action plan is finalized this week, as the world gathers in Indonesia to make critical decisions on climate change " , says Dr. Susan Lieberman, of WWF's Global Species Programme. " Protecting orangutan habitat, especially in the peat swamp forests which contain significant carbon sinks, means both a secure future for the orangutan, and avoiding carbon emissions from the forest. " As part of the orangutan conservation plan developed by the forestry ministry and NGOs, Indonesia will aim to stabilise orangutan populations and habitat from now until 2017 and return orangutans housed in rehabilitation centres to the wild by 2015. http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=90957 World-wide: 30) The importance of trees for sustaining life in general and biodiversity in particular can hardly be overstated. An estimated 27% of the terrestrial surface of Earth is (still) covered by forests (FAO World Resources 2000–2001), and trees make up around 90% of Earth's biomass (Whittaker 1975). Not surprisingly, forests also harbor the vast majority of the world's terrestrial biodiversity. Estimates of global tree species richness range from a low 60,000 (Grandtner 2005) to 100,000 taxa (Oldfield et al. 1998), that is, as much as 15% to 25% of the 350,000–450,000 vascular plants of the world (Scotland & Wortley 2004). Unfortunately, ongoing deforestation (estimated at 9.4 million hectares per year in the 1990s) and other human-induced changes have brought >10% of the world's tree species close to extinction (Oldfield et al. 1998). The impact of global change will depend to a great extent on the reaction of trees and the ecosystems they sustain (e.g., Ozanne et al. 2003; Petit et al. 2004a, 2005b). Mitigating these harmful consequences requires knowledge of tree biodiversity and evolution. However, trees are not only overexploited but also understudied in many respects, because their size and life span make them difficult subjects for experimental investigations (Linhart 1999). The tree growth habit has evolved many times. This is probably the reason why few attempts have been made over the past several decades to consider trees collectively and discuss their mode of evolution. This apparent lack of interest contrasts with a strong tradition in earlier years (e.g., Arber 1928; Clarke 1894; Grant 1963, 1975; Sinnott 1916; Stebbins 1958). The current interest in comparative biology, thanks to the development of accurate phylogenies and powerful analytical methods, should help revive this tradition. Far from representing a problem, the multiple origins of trees will actually facilitate this work, as each distinct tree lineage can be viewed as an independent evolutionary experiment. Comparative analyses should help elucidate if typical tree features such as tallness, longevity, and fecundity affect their evolutionary dynamics. R´emy J. Petit and Arndt Hampe, http://ecolsys.annualreviews.org 31) Under the Kyoto Protocol, the climate-change treaty that sets CO2 emission limits, companies in developed countries that exceed those caps are allowed to buy the right to pollute by funding projects that reduce emissions in poor countries. Investors can also trade these rights -- so-called carbon credits -- on a number of new global exchanges. Policy makers say that the treaty that will replace Kyoto when it expires in 2012 must allow forest-conservation projects to generate carbon credits. Previous efforts to monitor far-flung forests using satellites have faced a major problem: cloud cover. The world's tropical forests are located near the equator, which experiences regular and dense clouds and frequent stormy weather. But since Kyoto was signed a decade ago, technological advances have made it easier to track changes in forest cover. Japan's space agency and the Woods Hole scientists unveiled their latest study on the efforts at the Bali meeting. By analyzing multiple radar microwaves sent from the ALOS satellite, which the Japanese space agency launched in 2006, scientists were able to prepare a detailed, high-resolution map of 160,000 square miles of the Amazon Basin just a few days after receiving the data. Unlike photographic satellite images, radar images can be measured at night and during days of heavy cloud cover and bad weather. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119930286906062833.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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