Guest guest Posted January 9, 2008 Report Share Posted January 9, 2008 Today for you 34 new articles about earth's trees! (278th edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com --Washington: 1) Urban forest campaign! --Oregon: 2) Two Eugene Activists and the NC, 3) Wreckcreation Rally, 4) Landslides, --California: 5) Virtual forests can't be logged, 6) Treesitting in a wind storm, 7) Deciding fate of 140,000 acres of PG & E land, 8) Logging history contest, --Arizona: 9) Original trees of Sedona --Montana: 10) 800 acres donated near Blue Mountain to the U.S. Forest Service --Minnesota: 11) Wood Pellet from scraps --New York: 12) Nature Conspiracy logs 161,000 acres --New Hampshire: 13) Logging instead of condos --Georgia: 14) No other land use protects water like our forests do, 15) Timber market, --Tennessee: 16) Last of the old Hemlocks --USA: 17) Toxic Fertilizer is good for you, 18) Sustainability photo contest, --Canada: 19) Some forest / paper stocks set to shine, 20) $6 million for Beetle logging, --UK: 21) " restoring " ancient woodlands? 22) Palm Oil Industry banned from advertising, 23) Sunnyhurst Wood is one of the biggest woods near Blackburn --Poland: 24) Save Bialowieza Forest --Peru: 25) Forests east of Machu Picchu --Guyana: 26) They just gave another 391,892 hectares to some loggers --India: 27) Severe deforestation in Meghalaya, 28) Tiger population declining, 29) Herd of elephants trashes town, --Thailand: 30) Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary --Malaysia: 31) Save Malua forest Indonesia: 32) Secret logging highway builders caught by WWF --Australia: 33) Stay out of North Weld Valley, 34) Road blockade arrests, Washington: 1) OLYMPIA -- Environmentalists have made saving urban trees one of their priorities for the session of the Washington Legislature that begins next Monday. The Evergreen Cities campaign is pushing a $1 million program to establish a statewide inventory of city trees and promote conservation. Research by the University of Washington's College of Forest Resources found that 47 percent of communities have ordinances to protect trees, 12 percent have management plans and 10 percent have up-to-date inventories. http://www.bellinghamherald.com/northwest/story/282894.html Oregon: 2) It's really no surprise that the house with the " Save the Amazon Headwaters Forest " sign in the front yard would belong to David and Judy Berg. The couple have been cultivating an environmental ethic throughout their 40-year marriage, long before they retired and moved to south Eugene in 2002. " We found environmentalism to be a way to bring us closer together, " David says. " It's something we both believe in and could do together. " Over the years, the Bergs have contributed time and money to a variety of environmental causes, but have lately embraced The Nature Conservancy as the one most aligned with their priorities. The conservancy is probably best known for preserving natural lands by obtaining easements or buying properties outright. In Oregon, the group has been party to negotiations to secure 1,200 acres of property owned by the Wildish Co. near Mount Pisgah, and last year was tabbed by John and Robin Jaqua to manage the 1,244-acre Coburg Ridge Preserve that the couple placed in a permanent conservation easement, meaning it can never be developed no matter who owns it. The Bergs have found innovative ways to volunteer their talents to their favorite cause. David, who has more than 35 years' experience as a database programmer, has given more than 1,800 hours of computer expertise to the conservancy. First, he developed a pair of software databases to assess the environmental progress of two Oregon preserves owned by the conservancy. The first measured the rate of recovery of a short-grass prairie following a controlled burn at the Cascade Head Preserve north of Lincoln City. The second assessed stream flow and temperatures in the Sycan Marsh Preserve located in southcentral Oregon's Klamath Basin. n appreciation of his efforts, the Nature Conservancy last March presented David with its first-ever Global Conservation Impact Award. Not content to rest on those laurels, David is currently devising a desktop tool that will allow the largest conservation groups from around the world to employ the same definitions and standards when measuring the viability of natural habitats. http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=4528\ 1 & sid=4 & fid=1 3) Oh geez, I just talked to a reporter at our local TV station channel 5, and they are reporting that " thousands " showed up at the pro-WOPR/OHV " Recreation Rally " in Medford today. They had great weather. Check out Kobi5.com, then go to " video on demand " and download their report. Scary, and very well organized. They had lots of professional banners and booths from all the businesses and groups listed on their flyer below this note; food, rows of ATV's and motorcyles, all manner of off road machines and bumperstickers that say " Save John's Peak from Mean People " (John's Peak is a popular " proposed BLM OHV emphasis site " that also plunders adjacent private property). The worst thing was that channel 5 reported at the end of its broadcast that " the BLM is no longer accepting comments, but will be working on the issue for next 5 years " . But the WOPR comment deadline is not till the 11th (I straightened them out on that point). Sure hope we get a big turn out on the 8th for our WOPR Rally at BLM HQ's on Biddle rd. @ 11:00 am. It's happening: rain, snow or shine!! I've attached the press release, send it out anywhere you want (some of you guys have better media lists than I do) and if the media outlets get it numerous times, good, let them see our position and support level is BIG...!?!... Great Mother and Dear God: give us decent weather, numbers, and most of all, endurance...hope to see you there on tuesday morning, -- Annette Rasch -- from: Stumps 4) Today, I traveled out that way to see how the clean-up is going, and to assess the situation along the highway through the coast range. What I saw was a disaster in the making. I saw peoples' homes and all their worldly possessions, still buried in mud and debris. I saw steep mountains denuded of their protective trees, from Ranier all the way out to the ocean. And I saw many more slides in the making. It is only a matter of time. Workers in bright orange vests were working furiously along the highway in several different places, desperately trying to stabilize the shifting banks. The road was lined with bright pylons, and large equipment blocked the highway, here and there, just outside of Ranier and out near Clatskanie. Newly open wounds were obvious along the banks, all along the highway. Huge boulders, slag, and mud lay in heaps next to the road, where they had tumbled from the hills over the course of the past month. It was obvious to me, traveling down this highway, that the slides are not over with. We can only pray that the next slide, too, will be detected in time to evacuate the people who might be in its path. And, we can hold the logging companies responsible for the damage that they have caused. I have traveled this highway many times, and I remember when it was forested all the way through the coast range. I have watched those forests slowly being eaten away. But I have never seen it like this. The forests are all gone. Even the strips along the road, the ones that are supposed to blind us to the predations of the timber industry, " beautifying " the corridor along the roadway, even these have shrunk in size, until the highway is no longer shaded by a canopy of trees. Not just in places, but all the way to Astoria, the canopy is gone. And as predictable as rain, the terrain below the cuts is littered and muddied with the eroded remains of the forest floor. For decades after a cut, the possibility of a slide lingers. Some of the research in this area was actually carried out by OSU, and yet irresponsible logging by their own forestry program, along with other cutting by other timber companies, caused this recent slide. Haven't we had enough of this? Isn't it time to stop the cuts? http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2008/01/370703.shtml California: 5) Trees, like almost all objects in virtual worlds, whether in video games or Internet social communities like World of Warcraft or Second Life, are enormously difficult and expensive to build. " There is a very, very tiny community of people around the world who are skilled at creating three-dimensional objects, " Koltun said. " And they are the ones who do it all. Which is one of the reasons why you don't see three-dimensional content on the web. " The inability of casual computer users to build 3-D objects—you practically have to be a sculptor, Koltun says-is an anchor holding back the promise of virtual worlds. When Koltun, an assistant professor of computer science, set out with his Stanford Virtual Worlds Group to prove that object construction can be sophisticated without being difficult, they began with trees. Why trees, instead of buildings, animals or humans? Because, it turns out, botanists have already cataloged and categorized the trees of the real world in great detail. Koltun's group has incorporated that data into a powerful mathematical engine that creates trees using about 100 different tree attributes, all of them almost infinitely variable. How thick is the trunk? How big the leaves? How are the limbs spaced? The result is a new, intuitive way for individual users to create unique trees by simply using a mouse to seamlessly navigate through the entire " space of trees, " changing appearances by changing direction. Koltun's software, Dryad (a tree nymph in Greek mythology,) lets users move through the 100-attribute tree space in a fashion similar to navigating city streets on Google Maps. " With Dryad, you navigate the space of all trees and simply choose the one you want, " Koltun said. An important feature of Dryad is an information-sharing technique that improves the software every time someone picks a tree. As in real life, not all trees are equally desirable. Since no single user is capable of mapping out the best parts of the enormous tree space, this mapping of desirability is done collaboratively, leading to continuous refinement of the software. Dryad trees are truly 3-D; they can be spun around or viewed from any angle. They also can be downloaded in the OBJ format and loaded into any major modeling program. The Dryad software is available, at no cost, at http://dryad.stanford.edu. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080108100024.htm 6) With gusts up to 55 miles per hour, it takes a lot of courage and dedication to stay HUNDREDS of feet in the air during hail, thunder, lightning, and severe winds. Even though mother nature and her fury tests treesitting activists, they stay strong in their cause. These high altitude villages can be blown sometimes 15-20 FEET in both directions as winds test the strength of these Ancient Redwoods, as well as the strength of their protectors. The villages remained occupied throughout the past week, even through the strongest winds, as the storm slammed into the North Coast. It is dangerous simply to be on the ground during high winds in the woods, especially in forests surrounded by clear-cuts. Normally, the winds would be buffered by surrounding trees, acting as a wind shield, and protecting the inner woods. However, Nanning Creek and Fern Gully lack the protection that a normal, " healthy " forest has due to excessive logging. The feeling is comparable to being in a very small " dingy " boat caught in a squall, only this boat was suspended high in a Ancient Redwood tree. As the storm got progressed the second day and trees began to fall around us, I began to trust " Spooner " the tree and accept my situation. I chose to protect a being that was over two thousand years old and my place was to " go down with the ship " if by chance that this was " Spooner's " last storm. Imagine, the storms that " Spooner " experienced these past two millennia. Spooner has seen earthquakes, floods, fires, and greater storms than we or our children will ever see, hopefully. This brought a sense of peace to me and helped reaffirm my presence. " Spooner " was never going to drop us. As I was thinking this, all of a sudden, my treemate and I hear a loud cracking and popping sound. I thought we were about to fall 160 feet, crashing to the forest floor below. My treemate helped keep me calm and collected as the sound got louder and closer. BOOOOOOOOM! " Spooner " shook as if there was a large earthquake. My first thought was that we were safe but also I believed our tree " Spooner " was hit by another tree. Luckily, this was not the case. After inspecting the damage in the morning, we discovered that a large second growth tree had fallen over 500 feet away from " Spooner " , on the edge of the grove and the clear-cut. http://humboldtforestdefense.blogspot.com/2008/01/super-heros.html 7) After three years of work, an array of interest groups are poised to determine the future of more than 140,000 acres of some of California's most ecologically rich and endangered watershed lands, among the largest swaths to be preserved in decades. At stake are lands owned by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. spread throughout 22 counties in the Sierra Nevada and Upper Cascade mountains that add up to roughly the size of Chicago and include some of the state's prime fishing, hunting and wilderness areas. The preservation of this acreage is touted as a huge conservation coup. But roughly 40,000 acres are underwater, while at least 65,000 acres are used for logging and agricultural purposes, including grazing. Interspersed are a number of hydropower facilities that will remain in PG & E hands. " There's not much land that has these kinds of qualities that could be set aside for public use, " said Nancy Ryan, a representative of the California Public Utilities Commission on the board of the Stewardship Council, the group deciding the fate of the lands. " Some of the land is really spectacular. " The Stewardship Council is a private nonprofit organization created in 2004 to conserve and dispose of lands belonging to PG & E after the utility's bankruptcy reorganization. In November, the council's board of directors approved a two-volume, 1,106-page, 11-pound, 3.5-inch-thick land conservation plan that outlines the lands, and reaffirms its pledge to conserve or improve them. " Quite frankly, it's been a labor of love, " said Mike Chrisman, California secretary for resources and president of the board. As many as 100 land management plans representing nearly 1,000 lots will have to be created within six years. And all the details of each of these plans will have to be worked out by consensus among all 18 board members. " You're basically looking at lots of free real estate, " said Bill Stewart, a forestry specialist in the cooperative extension at UC Berkeley. The board has selected four areas to work on first: Kennedy Meadows in Tuolumne County, McArthur Swamp in Shasta County, Bucks Lake in Plumas County and Doyle Springs in Tulare County. It hopes to create detailed management plans and legal transfer papers by the end of the year. PG & E, and then the Public Utility Commission, have to sign off on each deal. Each area presents a set of policy predicaments that the board will have to tackle in another planning unit. http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-me-conserve6jan06,1,5222570.s\ tory?coll=la-ne ws-environment & ctrack=1 & cset=true 8) My Forest's Logging History, a contest sponsored by a program of Shasta College's Forestry and Natural Resources Department and the Sierra-Cascade Logging Conference, encourages high-school-age students to fan out, do research and create a display. The deadline to file an entry form is Friday. Projects will be presented at the annual logging show, which runs Feb. 7 through 9 in Anderson. Missey Dunaetz, who through a grant from the state community college's chancellor's office helps recruit students to Shasta's forestry and resources programs, said the contest aims to achieve at least two things. " My job is to get the word out there and share the opportunities (in those fields) with students, " she said. But also important, she said, is giving young people a better understanding of their home forests and their past. " Many of our old-timers are passing away and we're losing some of that history, " Dunaetz said. " Maybe they'll get a fresh realization and appreciation of those older community members. " Contestants will track down photographs from early logging projects, document how timber was harvested and visit forest agencies. But most of all, Dunaetz said, " We want them to go out and do oral interviews. That's really the big thing. " For Nadine Bailey, the conference's executive director, this is only the beginning. She and her colleagues have been devouring Dave Isay's " Listening is an Act of Love, " a bestselling book that contains interviews from the StoryCorps founder's nonprofit, national oral history project. http://www.redding.com/news/2008/jan/06/shasta-college-holding-history-research-\ contest/ Arizona: 9) Sedona straddles desert and forest, thus is home to a diverse range of vegetation. The presence of Oak Creek adds to the diversity of our plants and trees. Old-timer Don Willard poetically wrote about Oak Creek in the book. Those Early Days, " with its sycamores, alders and oaks and greenery of juniper and manzanita. " And while these trees indeed add beauty and romance to this place, they added much to the daily lives of our pioneers. Children were often dispatched to gather needed firewood. Ponderosa Pines don't grow in the lower Oak Creek area, but Arizona Cypress did. Pioneers sometimes called this tree a " yew " tree. They are tall and straight and suitable for log cabins. Sedona's first Ranger Station was built of Arizona Cypress logs. While there wasn't a big timber industry in the Sedona area, the Sedona ranger's duties included timber work - including wood sales. In the early 20th century, Mexican woodcutters cut wood and packed it to Clarkdale for sale. Every three or four weeks, the ranger made a trip there and measured the wood. Payment for the sales was left at the Lyons Grocery store in Jerome and the ranger would pick up the payment and leave new contracts. Of course, local men also cut wood to sell in Jerome. Homesteader Frank Owenby was one who cut cedar cord wood and hauled it to Jerome, delivering for seven dollars a cord. It took him a day to cut the wood and two and a half to three days to make a round trip to sell. Cattlemen and cowboys welcomed the shade of the big cottonwood trees that grew around water tanks. But, the dense cedars in our rugged terrain were more than an inconvenience when hunting strays. Mack O. Dumas remembered often driving cattle off the mountain, down through the thick cedars, and, occasionally, in the dark after a stampede. In both cases, the cedars could tear up a horse and rider pretty badly. After catching wild steers and strays, cowboys tied them to trees one at a time. Once they'd caught all they could find, they back-tracked and gathered up the " anchored " cattle and led them in. Many stories exist of pioneers seeking sanctuary in trees, away from bears, including kids on their way to or from school! http://ilovesedona.com/articles/jan07/oak-creek-trees-0107.htm Montana: 10) Missoula veterinarian Dr. Earl Pruyn has donated nearly 800 acres near Blue Mountain to the U.S. Forest Service, preserving a prominent ridgeline west of the city. The land will be managed for logging, recreation and wildlife habitat, as is the adjoining Blue Mountain Recreation Area, Lolo National Forest officials said. Pruyn, the second largest private landowner in Missoula County, said he donated the 782 acres to preserve it permanently as open space for public use. In the past decade, land preservation has taken on a growing urgency in the Missoula area as forests and farmlands are replaced by urban sprawl. A number of public and private initiatives have used conservation easements to protect Mount Jumbo, parts of the South Hills and Bitterroot Valley, and other areas. Pruyn said he hoped the Forest Service would use his donated site for timber harvesting and public recreation. " I don't like seeing one being opposed over another, " he said. The land is near the O'Brien Creek drainage, just north of the Blue Mountain Saddle and about three miles northwest of the Blue Mountain Recreation Area trailhead. Pruyn logged the entire site after sustaining a multimillion-dollar loss when the 2003 Black Mountain fire destroyed most of its timber. He replanted the site with larch, pine and native grasses. Compared to some land contributions the Forest Service has received in Montana in recent years, Pruyn's donation is relatively small, and the tract is mostly steep, rugged terrain that made widescale development unlikely. But Pittman said the acreage has horse trails, elk wintering grounds and intrinsic value as open space - all of considerable worth to the Missoula community and general public. She said a developer might have carved up the tract, which is in the wildland-urban interface, into a few large homesites that fragmented wildlife habitat, precluded timber harvesting, shut out recreationists and made wildfire protection more costly. " It's a hugely important donation, " Pittman said. Nationwide, the Forest Service has identified loss of open space as one of the four biggest threats to its public lands. More than 34 million acres of open space were lost to development from 1982 to 2000. http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/01/06/news/top/news01.txt Minnesota: 11) MARCELL — Tink Birchem believes she has a solution to high heating prices as well as all the pollutants they produce. She and other investors are putting millions of dollars into making what they believe is the heating fuel of the future: wood pellets. The pellets are made of wood from sawmill waste and wood species that have no markets. Eventually, Birchem said, the plant also will take excess biomass from logging operations. Nothing is added to the pellets, such as fillers or glues. Birchem has plans to make pet bedding from waste wood and in 2009 Valley Forest will begin working with Xcel Energy and North Dakota State University to experiment with making methanol from waste wood to generate electricity. European countries are far ahead of the United States in use of pellets fuel. If Birchem's new company, Valley Forest Wood Products, can't sell at home its 50,000 ton capacity, she'll sell the pellets abroad, she said. Eventually, though, she's sure there will be a big market for them domestically. " The United States is going to catch on, but when? " Birchem said. Opening of the plant in Marcell is a new chapter for Tink Birchem and her husband, Jerry Birchem, who also own Birchem Logging of Mountain Iron and are founding members of a logging cooperative, Forest Management Systems in Buhl. The investors include other loggers, family members and a Spanish company. Tink Birchem is the company's CEO. Valley Forest Wood Products began producing pellets on Dec. 29 and is the first of what Birchem expects will be several wood pellet manufacturing plants. Already she plans to build an $8.5 million plant with a 100,000-ton capacity from the ground up in Mountain Iron. Construction will begin when the state approves air quality permits. That plant will have a 100,000-ton annual capacity. Both the Marcell plant, which was bought for $800,000 last summer, and the Mountain Iron plant are in tax-free JobZ zones. The Marcell operation has been updated with $2 million worth of equipment since it was purchased. It has 13 people on the payroll working around the clock and Birchem said wages are $14 an hour and up, with benefits. http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/articles/index.cfm?id=57674 & section=Business & fr\ eebie_check & CF ID=80867062 & CFTOKEN=91151514 & jsessionid=8830de3bd0485e21c335 New York: 12) The Nature Conservancy announced this past summer that it plans to log trees on 161,000 acres in the Adirondack forest in New York to preserve the forest. The conservancy says that the logging will help pay off the debt incurred buying the land from a private owner, pay taxes, supply logs to a local sawmill and protect " a unique jewel of nature from fragmentation and development. " In Washington, the Cascade Land Conservancy has acquired 140,000 acres of " working forests " with a similar goal — to prevent development. The land conservancy also has plans to log sustainably, in keeping with the idea that the forest " works " when it provides logs and jobs — and income for the conservancy to manage the forest. One might ask, how did the conservationists become tree-cutters? Protecting the forests from development has turned conservation leaders into working-forest proponents. They've teamed up with old enemies and other strange bedfellows to keep sustainable timber operations in business, and they're stopping forests from being converted to subdivisions the old-fashioned way, by buying the land. The forest industry isn't the same one your grandparents knew. The so-called industrial forest is disappearing. Weyerhaeuser is the last big corporate owner in the Northwest and its future is uncertain. Other former industrial forests are now owned by pension funds and investors and valued as financial investments, not for their tree values, and are swapped from landowner to landowner to rebalance portfolios. Family forest owners eke out a living while fending off pressures from neighbors who live in subdivisions that used to be forests. Any forest landowner may find it expedient to sell as Washington's urban areas grow and subdivisions are permitted. The money from a developer fattens a retirement portfolio faster than the money from trees that can't be harvested for 30 years. But, a forest thick with houses ceases being a working forest, a shelter for wildlife and a protector of streams. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2004110796_brianboyle07.html New Hampshire: 13) Anyone driving down Route 108 lately who has been concerned about the loads of timber being trucked out of Champlin Forest can relax. The woods are still lovely, dark and deep, and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests has promised to keep them that way — condos do not feature in their plans, although a few passing motorists have feared so. " A working forest is a key component of our strategy. It is about generating revenue over time so that conservation land can support itself, " said the Forest Society's Vice President of Communications Jack Savage. " That way it doesn't have to be sold for lots. " Thus the 180 acres of white pine, red pine and hardwoods, while undergoing a thoughtful timber harvest that will pull out about 230,000 board feet, is intended to remain healthy. Younger trees, over the coming decade, will fill in where mature trees have been removed, sapling growth will be encouraged, and reseeding will be no accident. To do the timber harvest, the Forestry Society engaged the respected Strafford father and son logging team of Jack and Jake Bronnenberg, who were nominated for the National Outstanding Logger of the Year award of 2006, and who are highly regarded by conservation groups. Jake Bronnenberg took a break from sawing logs stacked in a clearing of the Champlin Forest recently to list the timber that is being extracted: 175,000 board feet of white pine saw logs; 20,000 board feet of white pine box logs; 15,000 board feet of hardwood saw logs; 10,000 board feet of red pine saw logs; 150 tons of pulp and 100 cords of firewood. " By releasing the pine in Champlin, there will be regeneration, and medium sized trees can grow faster. So we can go back in 10 to 15 years (for another timber harvest), " said Field Forester Wendy Weisiger. http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080107/GJBUSINESS_01/6523985\ 94 Georgia: 14) No other land use protects water like our forests do. And for this valuable service, these forests charge us not one red cent. Forested watersheds not only contribute to higher levels of water quality and supply than other land uses, but many nonforest uses of land —major developments, for example — actually can add to the pollutants entering our water sources. Forests reduce the amount of treatment that would otherwise be necessary if trees were replaced by development or other land use types. For example, by controlling erosion, forests filter rainfall and thus reduce the amount of pollution in our streams that must be removed or treated. Cleaning our water naturally makes far greater economic sense than having to build and maintain the water treatment plants that cost millions of dollars and add to an already painful tax burden. Despite the many environmental benefits provided to us free of charge by our forests, Georgia stubbornly clings to an archaic tax policy that is killing our forests and fragmenting our rural land. Ultimately, this policy conflict poses a threat to forests and the environmental benefits they provide to society, water security included. Georgia's property tax system is like an ax being put to every tree in Georgia. Large, nonfragmented tracts of timberland will soon be a thing of the past. Unlike every other Southeastern state, Georgia allows property taxes on timberland to rise to what is essentially a " highest and best use " level rather than taxing the resource based on its actual use. These same forests use scant local services that are funded via the property taxes levied on them. Nevertheless, they just keep on giving, at no charge to us — clean water, pure air, wildlife diversity and recreation, not to mention tens of thousands of home-grown Georgia jobs. The bottom line is this: If we do not soon bring a measure of sanity to the rapidly escalating property taxes on forestland, Georgia's water management policy will continue to resemble someone using a sieve to bail water from a sinking ship. While the right hand is forcing water conservation measures, funding and building reservoirs and holding hundreds of local planning meetings, the left hand will be taxing forestland out of existence. http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2008/01/07/forestsed_0108.htm\ l 15) MOULTRIE — While drought may have instigated more insect problems for the county's pine timber in 2007, there was some swap-out by allowing cutting crews to get into areas that previously were too wet. Timber grower and lumber executive Victor Beadles described some advantage and some disadvantage. He said dry weather is not good for setting seedlings, which usually happens in December. But recent rains may have eased that problem a bit. Also, the insect issues often associated with dry weather, because the pine tree does not produce enough gum, are not as prevalent on long leaf and slash pines in this area as they are for loblolly pines in North Georgia. " We saw some stress, but not all that much, " Beadles, who owns Beadles Lumber Co. in Moultrie and 75 percent of Balfour Lumber Co. in Thomasville, said back in 2005 the pressure came from overbuilding. Now, he said, it's the home loan (primarily the adjustable rate mortgage) issues that have caused the prices of lumber to drop. said he feels some of this pressure will ease in late 2008 or early 2009, but noted that the dynamics of the situation make it hard to project. Meanwhile, high fuel prices have affected his industry in regard to hauling lumber and logs, but his kilns are fired by shavings and sawdust, minimizing energy costs. A federal conservation program that helps land owners with cost sharing and even makes payments to them for planting pines has been in effect since 1986 with almost 5,000 acres of former croplands in the county being converted to long leaf pine forests. An enhanced conservation program this past year saw 23 land owners enroll, totaling 570 acres. They received a $100-per-acre sign-up fee and about 90 percent of the establishment costs via this federal Conservation Reserve Program. As well, the landowner collects $60-plus per acre payments, depending on soil types, said Joe Hester, representing the Colquitt County Farm Service Agency. Sign-up for that program has been extended to March 15, 2008. http://www.moultrieobserver.com/local/local_story_005223936.html Tennessee: 16) There are a few areas remaining where hemlock groves still stand and are as yet free of the infestations that have destroyed their more easterly counterparts. The Cumberland Plateau of middle Tennessee so far seems to be relatively untouched by the hemlock wooly adelgid. We can only hope that some of these amazing stands of Eastern and Carolina hemlock trees can be treated against the insect pest and saved until such time as a clever team of biologists can conceive of a biological way to eliminate the invasive species that has done so much harm to our Southern forests. If you can find the time, at least go to visit such a grove of trees before they're gone. At least you will have the memory of them and can tell others of what you once saw. If you feel more strongly about it, write to your senator or congressman or governor and ask that these forests be aided by the application of an insecticide that can halt the spread of the adelgid's march across the South. And, if you truly wish to help, you can purchase the Bayer Company insecticide Imadacloprid (commonly sold as Merit), and treat hemlock groves on your own, at your own expense. But, as I said, at the very least, go to see these groves before they're all gone. Some places where hemlocks still stand in great, old growth splendor are: Bridgestone-Firestone Wilderness - Virgin Falls Pocket Wilderness - Fall Creek Falls State Park. http://tilthelasthemlockdies.blogspot.com/2008/01/big-trees.html USA: 17) In order to increase productivity, forest practices have become more intense in recent decades. Forest fertilization increased by 800% in the southeastern United States from 1990 to 1999, and the total acreage fertilized in the Southeast exceeds the forest area fertilized in the rest of the world. This has generated concern that intensive forest practices, including fertilization, may negatively impact water quality in forest streams. In a recent study, hydrologists at Stephen F. Austin State University (SFASU) investigated the effects of intensive forestry on water quality in the timber-producing region of eastern Texas. The results are published in the January-February 2008 issue of the Journal of Environmental Quality. This study was funded by SFASU and the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement. Temple-Inland Forest Products Corporation also provided funding and the research sites. The research was presented in Ft. Worth, TX at the 2005 Society of American Foresters annual meeting and the 2006 annual meeting of the North American Benthological Society in Anchorage, AK. The full article is available for no charge for 30 days following the date of this summary. View the abstract at http://jeq.scijournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/37/1. http://jeq.scijournals.org Note: This industry backed study objective is to argues that Fertilizing has no significant impacts thus there is little if any need for regulatory control. I've seen with my own eyes green slimy algae form all over the rocks in a whitewater stream soon after the first rains after nearby plantations were fertilized by helicopter in the Breitenbush River drainage. After a few flushes, the algae disappeared. The USFS was contacted and they admitted it was from the fertilizer (no people live upstream); but, claimed it was innocuous. Pahtoo 18) The Rainforest Alliance, an international nonprofit conservation organization, is inviting US residents to submit photos illustrating sustainable agriculture, forestry and tourism in its first " Picture Sustainability " photo contest. With sponsorship from companies including Fujifilm, the organization is launching this contest to raise awareness about conservation issues while expanding its collection of photos for use in its publications and on its Web site. " Images connect the general public to conservation, " said Tensie Whelan, executive director of the Rainforest Alliance. " We hope this contest will engage people in sustainability, take them out of their back yards and foster emotional connections with some of the world's most sensitive ecosystems. " One grand-prize winner and a guest will receive a seven-day trip to the legendary Galapagos Islands – including airfare, four nights on a cruise ship and two nights in Guayaquil, Ecuador. http://www.ewire.com/display.cfm/Wire_ID/4444 Canada: 19) Several Canadian forest and paper products stocks will likely shine in 2008 although cloudy market conditions are expected to continue with the currency floating near parity and U.S. housing demand slumping, an analyst said Wednesday. Pierre Lacroix of Desjardins Securities has a buy rating on Canfor Pulp Income Fund, Cascades Inc., Catalyst Paper Corp., Domtar Corp. and Stella-Jones Inc. Desjardins is forecasting that the Canadian dollar will remain near parity with the U.S. dollar in 2008, and the currency " remains the biggest obvious threat (and opportunity) for the paper and forest products sector, " Lacroix wrote in a report. He added that a weaker U.S. dollar would boost the American exports, which should bring some support to commodities in the sector. The U.S. housing market isn't expected to recover before late 2009, he added, and American residential construction spending is forecast to fall 12 per cent this year. Canfor Pulp is expected to benefit from strong pulp prices, and Lacroix expects monthly distributions will remain stable at 12 cents per unit for most of the year. " We expect the units will experience upside price movement when the market realizes the fund can sustain distributions in 2009. " http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hwtJ3tjSItQLAOi0FHHedE4PAhBA 20) The federal government is committing $6 million to fight the Mountain Pine Beetle in Alberta and the Peace Region of British Columbia. Alberta will receive $4 million in the 2007-08 fiscal year, as well as an additional $2 million to be shared by British Columbia and Alberta for the Peace River region. " This investment further demonstrates our government's commitment to fighting the spread of the mountain pine beetle eastward into the boreal forest and across Canada, " said Peace River MP Chris Warkentin. " This funding will give Alberta greater capacity to initiate targeted control actions in priority infestation areas. " Natural Resources Canada has partnered with the provincial ministries in Alberta and B.C. to develop a Mountain Pine Beetle Threat Assessment to identify priority areas for spread control activities. This funding follows an earlier commitment of $1 million to Alberta last fall for detection work conducted to assist with the assessment and identification of priority areas. " We are now presented with a critical window of opportunity during which we must continue with targeted spread control measures to further reduce beetle populations in areas at risk, " said Warkentin. " The federal provincial funding and tools will ensure resources are used effectively to slow the spread of the beetle infestation. " Last year, the Government of Canada introduced the Mountain Pine Beetle Program with a $200 million investment to slow the eastward spread of the mountain pine beetle epidemic, to recover economic value from impacted forests and to protect forest resources and communities. To date, $46 million of the program has been invested in controlling the eastward spread. http://www.centralpeacesignal.com/story.php?id=201278 UK: 21) I am concerned about claims by conservationist organisations such as the Woodland Trust and others that they are " restoring " ancient woodlands. My understanding is that " ancient woodland " is a term used in the UK to refer specifically to continuous natural woodland dating back to 1600 or before in England and Wales and from 1750 in Scotland. So, unless conservationists have some method of time travel unknown to the rest of us, it would appear that restoring ancient woodlands is quite impossible. However, never underestimate fertile minds of those seeking to make a few bob out of bending the rules. From an information enquiry to Natural England, I have been told that the term " ancient " refers to the history of the site and not the trees themselves. I find it incredible this term has been manipulated to discount the age of the trees or even their direct descendents – such as offspring growing naturally from the original seed or roots. The idea of planting new trees to restore an " ancient " woodland seems as fraudulent as shady antique dealers trying to pass off reproduction furniture as genuine antiques. Meikle Boturich near Balloch, Dunbartonshire http://news.scotsman.com/opinion/Woodland-fraud.3644871.jp 22) The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) censured Wednesday commercials for Malaysian palm oil, saying they break the rules and are misleading. Two television advertisements for the Malaysia Palm Oil Council, which promotes the market expansion of Malaysian palm oil, wrongly imply the product is good for the environment, the authority said. The ASA said the commercials breached rules on misleading advertising, evidence and environmental claims. The first commercial shows a palm oil plantation while a voice-over says: 'Its trees give life and help our planet breathe, and give home to hundreds of species of flora and fauna.' This is likely to mislead viewers about the environmental benefits of oil palm plantations in comparison with native rainforest, the ASA said. The claim about flora and fauna is also likely to mislead, it said. The second ad's voice-over says: 'Its trees give life and help our planet breathe. Its fruit provides vitamins for our bodies and energy for our daily lives. The authority upheld two complaints about the second commercial lodged by the environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth. 'Because there was not a consensus that there was a net benefit to the environment from Malaysia's palm oil plantations, we concluded the ads were misleading,' the ASA said. The Malaysia Palm Oil Council said plantations do not typically replace native rainforest, that they are customarily sustainable and that they support biodiversity. Friends of the Earth biofuels (OTCBB:EBOF) campaigner Hannah Griffiths said: 'It is a complete lie to advertise palm oil as sustainably produced. It has devastating impacts on the environment and on local communities.' http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/AFX-0013-22119528.htm 23) Ben Hargreaves, local nature reserve manager for Lancashire Wildlife Trust, said: " Sunnyhurst Wood is one of the biggest woods near Blackburn town centre and has some very ecologically important upland oak woodlands. " This kind of woodland is in quite short supply in the UK as a lot of uplands are moorland and managed for agriculture. " A lot of the surveying has been completed already, and we will be going through areas and removing and replanting vegetation to how it would have been in Victorian times. " There has been so much influence from species such as sycamores and rhododendrons and the woodlands have become fragmented. " At the moment the upland oak woodlands are small, isolated thumbprints on a map and we intend to make a corridor of birch and oak trees to link the thumbprints. " The climate and steep incline of the upland areas in Sunnyhurst Wood make it an ideal location for the oak woodlands and unsuitable for agriculture. The large scale work will start in the coming months and will involve teams from Lancashire Wildlife Trust's environmental task fund, New Deal and local volunteers. There are no precise figures for the total extent of this woodland type, but it is believed to be between about 70,000 and 100,000 hectares, mainly in the north and west of the UK. For some of the distinctive species present, Britain and Ireland hold a substantial part of the world population. Upland semi-natural woods have declined by about 30 to 40 per cent in area over the last 60 years as a result of replanting, mainly with introduced conifers, clearance for quarries or other developments in some areas, and from conversion to rough grazing. President of Friends of Sunnyhurst Wood, Denis Gillibrand, said: " I knew some work was going on in the upland area, but wasn't aware the funding had come through. " It's good news for Sunnyhurst Wood, but unfortunately even £25,000 doesn't stretch very far. " http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/news/headlines/display.var.1950648.0.25_000_vi\ ctorian_woodlan d_scheme.php Poland: 24) Situated on the Polish/Belarussian border, the Bialowieza Forest is a priceless relic of lowland European forests, a place where the last fragments of primeval temperate old-growth forest on the Central European lowland have survived. It is home to many species extinct elsewhere including the European Bison, the largest terrestrial mammal of Europe; and also contains lynx, wolves and other threatened wildlife and plants. Yet approximately 90% of the forest remains unprotected... For many years environmental NGOs, scientists, concerned citizens in Poland and abroad have asked successive Polish governments to protect the forest, asking them to ban cutting of old growth and for enlargement of the Bialowieza National Park to protect the whole forest complex. Until now there has been little success. After the autumn elections Poland has a new government, so we are trying anew. Please help influence Polish politicians by sending the protest email below. After doing so please note the exciting update on our New York City rainforest timber campaign. http://www.ecoearth.info/alerts/send.asp?id=poland Peru: 25) Machu Picchu was carved into mountainous terrain by Incan civilizations in the 1400s as a royal estate and religious retreat. The vast forgotten complex, rediscovered in 1911, now ranks as a World Heritage Site and the country's premier tourist attraction. But beyond the mountains, east into the Amazon rainforest, lies yet another world. As the geography tips from vertical to horizontal, the fog-shrouded high-mountain forest levels to steamy jungle. Rock-clinging mountain shrubs are replaced by vine-draped rainforest giants such as kapok and rubber trees and prehistoric tree ferns. Narrow tumbling mountain cascades, home to torrent ducks and black phoebes, calm to wide rolling rivers, home to herons, egrets and kingfishers. Cloud-forest fog amplifies flutelike songs of Inca wrens and hermit thrushes while the rainforest turns a musical page to raucous chatter of parrots and monkeys. Llamas roaming the high Andes are replaced by pink dolphins cruising the Amazon. The Peruvian rainforest is a land of wonder, from dazzling birds to deadly parasites, cute woolly monkeys to stormy cumulous clouds. Every day we marveled at exotica — saucer-sized blue morpho butterflies, 8-foot-diameter Victoria water-lily leaves, noisy troops of squirrel monkeys, bright orange-and-blue fingernail-sized poisonous frogs, furry tarantulas, sleepy sloths, fish-eating bats and an 18-foot anaconda. One day we saw more than 1,000 parrots. But as natural resources change, so does the culture. Poles and thatch replace stone for homes. Slightly smaller than Alaska, Peru boasts coastal deserts so dry that no one there has ever recorded rain, tropical waters so chilled from the Arctic-fed Humboldt Current that surfers don wet suits, mountains so new that they're still growing, seismic activity so frequent that buildings rarely exceed a few stories, glaciers so near the equator that they're called " tropical, " jungles so dense that rivers afford the only access. Every villager's life follows the river, so much that a young man yearns for the Amazon emblem of success — not a Mercedes, but a dugout canoe. It's his transport, his fishing boat, his bathtub, and sometimes his inheritance. http://www.courierpress.com/news/2008/jan/06/peru-land-of-extreme-contrasts-is-a\ lso-place-of/ Guyana: 26) The government through the Guyana Forestry Commis-sion (GFC) has granted a State Forest Exploratory Permit to American wood processing outfit Simon and Shock Inc (SSI), after months of due diligence and some tension between the company and the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest). The company had indicated its earlier frustration with the lengthy process, which had been stagnated for some months. To this, the government said that the time was spent performing due diligence background checks to ensure that the company had the capacity to implement what it said it would. The company, started by CEO Kelly Simon and Mike Shock, will set up a sawmill in Linden with the aim of revitalising Guyana's lumber industry. The two company executives are expected in Guyana next week for further talks. The company has been awarded concessions totalling 391,892 hectares in Regions Six and Nine. SSI expects total employment to exceed 112 with at least 85 per cent local hire ranging from senior management to starting positions. The company plans to invest over US$26 million in three years. Simon said SSI has spent the last three years formulating and implementing a new and practical approach to sawmilling in Guyana. He said there are five other such mills: four in the US and one in Europe. " We propose to build the sixth, and most advanced in Guyana. " http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_general_news?id=56536578 India: 27) The green hilly regions of North-East are witnessing rampant deforestation off-late. What makes the issue a more serious one is that as hill cutting activities take place on private land, the state governments have become helpless spectators to an impending environmental disaster. According to latest reports, severe deforestation activities are taking place in regions of Meghalaya that are close to Guwahati in Assam. Commenting on the issue, MN Mukhim, Environment & Forest Minister, Meghalaya, told TIMES NOW, " All these areas where cutting of earth takes place belongs to private parties. Hence the government cannot say anything against this. " While the rampant cutting of hills has give rise to a visible construction boom in Guwahati, it has also created an illegal industry. Men are being deployed instead of cranes to cut and flatten the hills in Meghalaya. These activities fo on barely two kilometres away from the Assam Chief Minister's home. However, just like the Meghalaya state government, the Assam government is also currently unable to guard the deforestation activities in its backyard. However, the Assam government is now contemplating taking steps to handle the issue. Speaking to TIMES NOW, Himanata Biswa Sharma, Health Minister, Assam said, " We are thinking of approaching the Guwahati High Court to get directives on what we can, or cannot do. We will also be bringing out a legislation in April against allowing hill earth from Meghalaya into Assam. " Meanhwhile the frequent incursion on wild cats into Guwahati goes on to testify the environmental damage that is taking place in the North-East. http://www.timesnow.tv/NewsDtls.aspx?NewsID=5320 28) Last year I was fortunate enough join a tiger tracking expedition in India. (well we took pictures of the experts who tracked the tigers) So when I just heard on NPR that the tiger population is half of what they estimated (less than 1500), I decided to share my experience. First off, this isn't a safari, teeming with wildlife. For two hours, we saw little more than dirt, and tiger tracks, and dirt. (backdrop of great scenery though) We were just about to give up when we saw the above pic less than 15 feet away. So what did I do? Just about the cheesiest thing you can do – take a pic with a Bengal tiger. What was strange was that the Bengal didn't respond to the nearby watering hole with several tasty anteloped creatures. The tiger slipped back into the tall grass. We waited and thought that was it. Then someone spotted him in the forest. The expert explained that tiger was avoiding giving off its scent because of the direction of the wind. Soon the tiger hid in the grass on the other side of the watering hole. So the tiger is about to pounce, when we here warning calls behind us. Apparently, some deer were in the woods while the tiger was trying to avoid the wind. And poof, we saw like 50 deer scatter off from the watering hole. Pretty amazing. Two main reasons why the Bengal tiger, who shrank from 100,000 to less than 1500 in just a century. Poaching (unforgivable) and deforestation (fixable). Tigers need a lot of space, that's their nature. Deforestation, that's in our control. http://blog.greendimes.com/i_give_a_dime/2008/01/bengal-tiger-mo.html 29) Four persons were injured and around 40 mud houses damaged in Bankura district by a herd of elephants, Forest department sources said today. According to sources, a herd of 72 elephants has entered Bankura from Dalma forest. While 50 elephants are roaming in the Barjora jungle, another 22 entered Beliatore and injured the villagers. Early this morning, several elephants entered the Chakurdanaga village under the Barjora police station area and created panic among the villagers. Forest officials said the herd was no longer migratory but had set up base in the forests of Sonamukhi in Bankura and Midnapore. " They stray out of the forests at night in search of paddy. With the onset of the harvesting season, the elephants are now entering human habitats. After eating the paddy, they go back to the forests, " said Barjola Range Officer J L Patnaik. Locals complain that elephant attacks are a regular feature now. " Earlier, they used to migrate from the Dalma forests in Jharkhand thrice a year during the paddy season. But now they have made the neighbouring forests their base, " said a villager. http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Tuskers-injure-4-villagers-in-Bankura/25\ 8229/ Thailand: 30) A recent project in Northeast Thailand has motivated local communities to play an active role in protecting their forests and could serve as a model for other areas. Wirat and Thongjan Sidaduang farm a small plot adjacent to the boundary of the Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary in Thailand's Chaiyaphum province. They have a few acres of rice, some fruit trees, a fish pond where ducks are feeding and a mud kiln for making charcoal. The rice is a beautiful, translucent green as the afternoon sun lights it up towards the end of the rainy season. " Our farm does not make us rich, " Wirat says, " but we can manage. " It was not always like this. Not long ago Wirat spent much of his time inside the sanctuary, dodging the rangers and making his living by hunting birds and small animals, cutting trees and collecting bamboo shoots. Even his charcoal kiln was inside the boundary. The change has been dramatic, not only for Wirat and Thongjan but also for many of the 11,000 households who live in the Phu Khieo 'buffer zone.' " Until a few years ago our forestry officers never reached out to the villages beyond the sanctuary boundaries, " says Dr Kanjana Nitaya of the Wildlife Conservation Bureau. " The farmers did their best to avoid them and hamper their work. Villagers attacked and burned down two of our protection units. " Dr Kanjana and her colleagues spearheaded a project designed to engage with local communities and encourage them to understand the importance of protecting the sanctuary while at the same time addressing the livelihood issues that led to their encroachment. In 2006 the Department of National Parks recognised Phu Khieo as its best-managed sanctuary, welcome recognition for Dr Kanjana and her staff that helps promote their approach and methods in Thailand's 54 other wildlife sanctuaries. The extent to which it is copied will ultimately be the measure of the project's success. Much remains to be done before the future of Thailand's environmental heritage can be considered safe; but showing how to turn some of the sanctuary's enemies into its allies, poachers into gamekeepers, has been an important step forward. " We have really changed now, " says Wirat. " The patrols are more difficult to avoid, and the project helped us improve our farms to meet our basic needs. But to be honest, after attending the meetings and demonstrations we all feel a bit ashamed about our past activities and we don't want to damage the forest any more. " http://reforestation.suite101.com/article.cfm/saving_thailands_forests Malaysia: Trees here are so tall, " notes a journalist during a media trip to Danum Valley Conservation Area (DVCA) recently. She was probably mesmerised by the many majestic tualang trees that rise at least 40m above the ground. Even as we were admiring the last tract of virgin lowland forest in Sabah, logging continues in Malua Forest Reserve, just next to this 43,800ha conservation plot. DVCA is part of the one million hectare forest concession allocated by the state government to Yayasan Sabah to finance the state social development by utilising its timber resources. Fortunately, thanks to the foresight of scientists on the importance of pristine lowland forests to science, a part of the valley was set aside by Yayasan Sabah for conservation. In 1995, it was elevated to Class One protected forest. Danum has long served the research interests of foreign scientists who make up more than 90% of the research community in the world-renowned tropical forest research station. Way back in 1985, the Royal Society of Britain saw the potential of the valley. It entered into research collaboration with Yayasan Sabah to establish the South-East Asia Rainforest Research Programme (SEARRP), with Danum being the primary focus. It is hoped that by gaining a scientific understanding of tropical rainforest systems, ecology and dynamics, a significant contribution could be made to their sustainable management and conservation. Located 75km from Lahad Datu on the east coast of Sabah, Danum Valley Field Centre is the focal point of the research programme. Hundreds of senior scientists, young researchers and university undergraduates have conducted over 200 research projects in relation to tropical forests ecology over the last two decades, resulting in more than 370 scientific publications. " In its 350-year of history, the Royal Society has never stayed this long with one programme. It usually goes in (to a place), build the research capacity and leave, " says SEARRP programme manager and senior scientist Dr Glen Reynolds who had earned his doctorate based on his research in Danum. That is because of the high quality research work made possible by the rich bio-diversity of the area. Last checked in 2002, the virgin forest hosts 110 species of mammals, 328 species of birds, 72 species of reptiles, 56 species of amphibians and 57 species of freshwater fish. http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2008/1/8/lifefocus/19811681 & sec=\ lifefocus Indonesia: 32) An investigative report released today by World Wildlife Fund revealed that paper giant Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) and its affiliates are in the process of constructing a massive highway for logging vehicles that threatens one of Indonesia's most important forests. The highway, described by WWF in the report as being " legally questionable, " would cut an enormous swath through one of Sumatra's last remaining large forest blocks, home to two tribes of indigenous people and endangered elephants, tigers and orangutans. With more than 250 mammals and bird species, the Bukit Tigapuluh Forest Landscape in central Sumatra contains some of the richest biodiversity on Earth. It is also the location of a successful project to reintroduce orangutans, which now reside in an area currently proposed for protected status but that is already being cleared by APP-affiliated companies. " APP shows a total disregard for the ecosystem in their quest for cheap sources of raw materials, " said Adam Tomasek, Director of WWF's Borneo and Sumatra Program. " Their customers around the globe should demand that they responsibly manage these forests to protect the wildlife and people that rely on them. " Construction on the highway, which would allow logging trucks easier access to APP's pulp mills in Jambi Province, took place after APP's forestry operations in neighboring Riau Province were halted in 2006 due to a police investigation of illegal logging. APP partners have cleared about 50,000 acres of natural forest in the Bukit Tigapuluh landscape and some of the clearing appears to be in violation of Indonesian law. " We urge APP and its partners to transparently evaluate ecological, environmental and cultural conservation values prior to cutting any natural forests and to stop sourcing any of its purchased wood from such forests, " Tomasek added. " We also call on the government to ensure an end to all forms of forest clearance found to violate national Indonesian laws and regulations. " Evidence found during the investigation indicates APP-affiliated companies converted hundreds of acres of forest without correct licenses, professional assessments or stakeholder consultation, thus violating Indonesian law. http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS10209+08-Jan-2008+BW20080108 Australia: 33) The Tasmanian Greens today called for Forestry Tasmania to abandon plans to build a controversial bridge into the remote wilderness of the North Weld Valley to enable the area to be logged. Greens Opposition Leader and spokesperson on Forest Conservation, Peg Putt MHA, said that this forest area is of World Heritage value, and that concerns over the threat posed to its future would not evaporate, even if protestors are removed from their current tree sits. " The remote wilderness forest of the North Weld is of spectacular conservation value, and it is an outrageous use of taxpayer resources to build a bridge into the area to enable its logging destruction, " Ms Putt said. " This special place is adjacent to the World Heritage Area, has been assessed by scientific experts to be also of World Heritage value, and simply must be protected. " " Extracting protestors from the area will not end concerns over the forest destruction plans of the Lennon government. " " Instead of spending millions of dollars to get access to this beautiful place for the bulldozers and chainsaws to wreak their havoc, Forestry Tasmania should abandon their plans for this controversial bridge construction. " http://tas.greens.org.au/News/view_MR.php?ActionID=2742 34) A 23-year-old woman involved in a forestry protest in Tasmania's south has been plucked by a crane from her forest perch, arrested and charged. A Tasmanian police search and rescue squad arrived at the protest site in a remote forest in the state's south about 10am (AEDT) Tuesday to break up a four-day activist vigil. The woman was sitting atop a 10-metre tall tree trunk which had been concreted into the middle of a major access road. She has been charged with trespassing, obstructing police, and disobeying directions, Inspector Mark Mewis of Kingston Police said. She will be bailed to appear in court at a later date. Two protesters remain sitting in trees at the Weld Valley site, which activists say is under threat from logging. Police continue to negotiate with the protesters while cables which had connected the tree-borne activists to the road below have been removed. Huon Valley Environment Centre activists say about 1,000 hectares of untouched " wilderness " could be logged, with plans by Forestry Tasmania to build a bridge across the Weld River to access the area for the first time. Spokeswoman Jenny Weber said Forestry Tasmania had indicated it planned to start building the bridge before Christmas, and although work has yet to start, it could begin any day. About a dozen people were at the protest when it got underway on Saturday. Six people left on Monday after a Forestry Tasmania helicopter hovered over the area and another woman left on Tuesday morning. The conservation group says the North Weld wilderness includes some of the best examples of ancient forests in Tasmania. Forestry Tasmania said vast areas of the Weld were already protected. It said 88 per cent of the valley was protected, with only 12 per cent of the area, in forests outside these zones, available for logging. It said the designated forestry area would be logged for special timbers to be used for crafts and design, an important industry for the state. http://news.smh.com.au/woman-arrested-at-tas-forestry-protest/20080108-1ksf.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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