Guest guest Posted January 19, 2008 Report Share Posted January 19, 2008 Today for you 36 new articles about earth's trees! (282nd edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com --British Columbia: 1) High grading fraud uncovered, 2) History of today's land scams, 3) Last of Island's old growth, 4) Failed revitalization plan, 5) Caribou scandal, 6) Secret life of sap, 7) Save Cameron canyon old growth --Oregon: 8) Mount Hood Wilderness Act, 9) Threats of West Wide Energy Corridor, 10) Wyden not using best science for thinning bill, 11) Fisheries rejects WOPR, 12) No logging restrictions prior to appyling for housing and sub-divisions, --California: 13) Santa Monica tree savers prepare for hunger strike and funerals, 14) Treesit supporters pepper-sprayed again, 15) Save 10 old-growth eucalyptus, 16) Redwood saving competition inspired by bankruptcy, --Idaho: 17) Idaho voters oppose a Bush administration plan to open six million acres --Colorado: 18) 1.5 million acres destroyed by Beetle --Wisconsin: 19) 40 timber harvest sales on 4,000 acres this year --Pennsylvania: 20) Save Squirrel hill --Michigan: 21) Northern lands sold to the highest Real Estate developer bids --Ohio: 22) Woodland cover grows 'dramatically' --Maine: 23) So how much carbon does a housing development emit? --Tennessee: 24) Warning: Rock Harvesting Ahead --North Carolina: 25) Waynesville's 8,600-acre watershed is " remarkably healthy " --USA: 26) Poised to restructure the agency? --Canada: 27) Lidaring the Boreal, 28) Absolute Boreal jewel unprotected, 29) A road the Manitoba government is building, --UK: 30) Ancient woodland surrounding the Wrekin will be protected, 31) Creating the Woodland Trust's biggest holding, 32) Save Bechstein's bats, --Yemen: 33) Last of the Dragon's blood trees --Madagascar 34) Palm tree that blooms once in a 100 years discovered --Australia: 35) Road to big tree reserve blockaded, 36) More on Big tree reserve action, British Columbia: 1) A Forest Practices Board investigation has found high-grading of cedar and some spruce trees on the central and north coast of B.C. In an examination of 54 cutblocks, the investigation found that the valuable trees were selectively logged by helicopter, but at the expense of any future harvest opportunity and with no viable plan for regenerating the forest. The harvest method involves selectively removing the valuable cedar and spruce trees, leaving behind mainly old rotting hemlock trees spread across the cutblock. This is commonly referred to as " high-grading. " There is little likelihood that young cedar or spruce will grow well on these sites because of the low light levels under the dense tree canopy that remains. The investigation did find that important social and environmental values such as viewscapes and biodiversity, often cited as the reason for using this method, were protected. The practice is also allowed under current legislation. " This is a bit of a dilemma, " said board chair Bruce Fraser. " On the one hand, government and industry want to extract some economic value from these sites and provide local employment and economic benefits, while also protecting other forest values. But on the other hand, the result is limited prospects for harvesting in the future. " " Government may decide this is entirely acceptable, but it is not consistent with current policy of sustained yield forestry and legislation that requires maintaining a future timber supply, " said Fraser. This news release and more information about the board are available on the Forest Practices Board website at http://www.fpb.gov.bc.ca 2) From 1952 to 1956 Robert Sommers was Forests Minister of British Columbia. On his watch, and with the persistence of Commissioner Gordon Sloan who investigated the logging industry, the Tree Farm License system was established. The basic concept was that large tracts of publicly owned land would be divided and managed by the Ministry of Forests. Each TFL would assure a timber supply for a particular logging company. In exchange the company would have to provide mills, jobs, and stumpage fees. The TFLs were tied to the communities and were supposed to provide sustainable logging and economic security in perpetuity for future generations. In 1958 Robert Sommers was convicted of bribery and conspiracy. He went to prison. Premier W.A.C. Bennett and his Social Credit government were able to dodge accusations that they were involved in the selling of large tracts of publicly owned land sold to individuals and corporations. These sales were made before the lands were put up for public action, as required by provincial laws. Bob learned to tune pianos in prison. The land sales were final. Some people got rich. Forests were clear-cut as far as the eyes could see. The forestry industry boomed for many years. Then the Youbou Mill was shut down after 73 years. 200 people lost their jobs along with approximately 400 people who lived by those people. The village of Youbou, on the shores of Cowichan Lake, was devastated. Clause 7 of the BC government's timber agreement with TimberWest legally tied the TFL to the community. The Ministry of Forests waved that clause in 2001, allowing TimberWest to shut down the Youbou Mill and export raw logs from that TFL. In 2002 the BC Liberals allowed 3.7 million cubic meters of raw log to be exported, this was the highest amount on record and translates to 100,000 full truckloads. According to the Youbou Timberless Society (www.savebcjobs.com) these exported logs would be enough to employ almost 4000 people and run 6 sawmills for a year. Since then many more mills have been shut down around the province. The BC Liberals have been taking apart the TFL system and giving crown land to private corporations. The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that First Nations must be consulted before any land is changed from crown to private, but to date the BC Liberals have not complied with these rulings. Logging companies have obviously realized that their methods are not sustainable even after reducing the harvest rotations from 80 years, as recommended by the Chief Forester of BC, to 40 years. TimberWest, Western Forest Products, and Island Timberlands (Brookfield Asset Management) have all become land developers on a grand scale. http://islandlens.blogspot.com/2008/01/bc-liberal-land-gifts-effect-us-all.html 3) A million hectares of unprotected old-growth forests - one-fourth of what used to be here - still stand on Vancouver Island and the Southwest Mainland of BC, where trees grow as tall as skyscrapers and have trunks as wide as living rooms. These globally significant forests harbour endangered species, support a major coastal tourism industry, sequester more carbon per hectare than even tropical rainforests do, provide clean water for wild salmon, and are important parts of many First Nations cultures. Without your voice, they will inevitably be turned into clearcuts and tree plantations. The BC government's new Coastal Forest Action Plan is being touted as a shift away from logging old-growth forests and into logging second-growth forests. However, the plan places no new restrictions on logging old-growth forests, but simply ramps-up the second-growth rate of cut. As such, it'll simply ensure that BOTH our second-growth and remaining old-growth forests get logged. At the same time, the plan does little to stem the flow of raw log exports leaving the province for foreign mills, and in fact, may actually increase raw log exports by increasing the logging of smaller diameter second-growth trees that few coastal mills have been retooled to handle. Last year, thousands of you wrote letters, signed petitions, and rallied to save Vancouver Island's and the Lower Mainland's remaining old-growth forests. The BC government certainly heard you - as a result, they changed their rhetoric. For the first time, the BC government stated that they plan to ensure the timber industry transitions away from logging old-growth forests into second-growth forests on the southern coast BEFORE the unprotected old-growth forests are logged-off. However, without any new laws and concrete timelines to ensure this transition occurs quickly, at this point their words are simply a public relations manoeuvre. Reality must match their rhetoric if there is to be any " green " in the BC government's plan. A spectacular photogallery of the hugest trees and most beautiful scenery, coming soon to our websites at http://www.wcwcvictoria.org 4) Coastal logging contractors said Tuesday that Victoria's forest revitalization plan transferred too much control to major forest companies, who are now squeezing loggers out of business in the drive to lower costs. The Truck Loggers Association of B.C., which is holding its 65th annual convention in Vancouver beginning today, said that a rash of insolvencies within the sector is exposing a crisis that goes far deeper than the current market collapse. Within recent months two major contractors have sought court-ordered bankruptcy protection, a third has been put into receivership and a fourth is considering its options this week. The 487-member association, which represents the coastal logging contractors, called on Victoria to start all over again with its forest policies. They have failed to deliver a diversified and economically healthy forest sector, the loggers say. The association's annual gathering is the industry's largest event of the year. It is expected to attract 2,000 people during the next three days. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=3ee4dd86-5505-4cb\ 2-8553-70cfa2d6 cf6d 5) If you have been puzzling over how some ENGOS could possibly be celebrating the B.C. government's announced Mountain Caribou Recovery Plan, while others of us observe nothing to celebrate, you will be interested to read the government Caribou Plan Implementation Team " Progress " report. The lid is now obviously off the proverbial can of worms, with the Ministries' own people asking questions like how to spatialize a capped-at--1% Timber Harvesting Land Base reduction for caribou habitat while complying with the government's commitment of " no net loss to industry " ? Really; those of us who sat through months of Recovery Implementation Group meetings, only to see all that detailed work trashed, and replaced by some surprise partnership agreement between government and select ENGOs who had not participated in the process, see our scepticism clearly justified in this report. With due respect to the big funded ENGOs who work behind the scenes, applying political pressure which results in " coarse filter " ecopolitics, there is obviously a very serious disjunct between the celebrated recovery plan announcement and the " fine filter " application. Judging by the confusion expressed in the SARCO " progress report " , any announced " progress " is entirely fictional. Thanks to Valhalla Society's Anne Sherrod and Craig Pettitt for their vigilance; their alarm is vindicated. SARCO ftp site link below; open " Kootenay " folder, then " Final Draft Progress Report Dec 07(fourth icon). glada888 ftp://ftpprg.env.gov.bc.ca/pub/outgoing/requests/SARCO_Mtn_Caribou_Recovery 6) The secret lies in the genetics of complex chemicals within the sticky sap of pine and spruce trees that continuously evolve when faced with climate change and other challenges. University of British Columbia researchers have discovered some of those secrets and published their findings Monday in the U.S.-based Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. " Conifers are some of the oldest and longest living plants, " Prof. Joerg Bohlmann said from Vancouver. " We've opened the book to understanding how they can survive in one location for thousands of years despite attacks from generations of insects and diseases. Figuring out how these naturally occurring defences work has important implications for the long-term sustainability and health of our forests. " Bohlmann said the analysis could eventually lead to the cultivation of insect-repelling trees. In the meantime, the research will help governments and forestry companies ensure that they are planting hardy seedlings. The key to tougher forests is maintaining a diverse compound of natural defence chemicals within trees in replanted areas and plantations so that each tree has a slightly different genetic makeup, he said. " If not, they would be all alike - the same chemical profile. If the insect breaks through that barrier, it can break through every other tree's barrier as well. " What we need to be much more aware of in tree breeding and tree plantations is to use existing genetic diversity. But you have to know what genes to monitor for. And we have found some of these genes. " Insects and diseases cause billions of dollars of damage to coniferous forests. In B.C., 13 million hectares of lodgepole pine forests have been destroyed by the blue stain fungus carried by the mountain pine beetle. Researchers estimate that another 1.5 million trees have been killed or damaged in Alberta. Scientists are worried about evidence that the pine beetle has already jumped from lodgepole pine, which is native to Western Canada, to jack pine - a species that is found right across the country. Coniferous forests are also attacked by other species of bark beetles and different bugs such as the spruce budworm and spruce weevil. The weevil is so widespread in B.C. that companies have given up planting certain species of trees, such as Sitka spruce. http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jMdxToTv7BCoxxuhAKaL_zPeMrDA 7) Massive Douglas firs and cedars tower over Cameron Canyon, where the Cameron River rushes into a gulch, adjacent to the majestic old-growth stands of Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial Park. With Mount Arrowsmith as a backdrop, the only scars on the pastoral landscape was a gaggle of politicians and environmentalists visiting the area, the sounds of a Sikorsky helicopter being used in heli-logging and the fluttering logging tape and spray paint marring the bark of the huge trees, said Scott Fraser, Alberni-Qualicum NDP MLA. " For me, the issue is that this is private managed forest land that was removed from TFL [tree farm licence] 44 four years ago and, right in the watershed, there are huge old-growth trees that are going to be logged, " he said. However, Island Timberlands, the company created in 2005 to manage the private forest lands on Vancouver Island acquired from Weyerhaeuer, says some trees are marked as part of an inventory but that logging is being done only in a nearby clearing, not in the gulch. " We are trying to clarify that we are not logging in the Cathedral Grove area, " said Mike Cass, the company's human resources director. " I am not aware of any logging plans in this area. " Cass discounted claims by Fraser that a spin-off of company shares to a Bermuda numbered company means decisions on local logging are being made in Bermuda. " That is absolutely not true. Decisions are being made locally, " he said. http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/business/story.html?id=eef4a0fc\ -ffc3-41e4-a8d a-03e8c5edfe87 Oregon: 8) What's over 11,000 feet tall, is full of sweeping vistas, huge trees and mesmerizing waterfalls, provides clean drinking water and habitat for wildlife and has the full support of the entire Oregon Congressional delegation? If you answered the Lewis and Clark Mount Hood Wilderness Act, you're right! (We would have also accepted Mt. Hood Wilderness Act, and Columbia River Gorge Wilderness Act--although that's a bit of a stretch). Maybe you have a question too. Why aren't these and other precious lands protected for future generations to enjoy? We think that is a good question and with Congress getting back to business on January 22nd maybe we'll get some answers. So what's been the holdup? You've probably heard us mention Oregon Wilderness a few times before (we like Wilderness, what can we say). A couple of times we've been oh-so-close to passing legislation to protect places like Mount Hood, Copper Salmon, Soda Mountain and the Wild Rogue. Unfortunately, things in D.C. are never simple and rumor has it that one man has been able to hold up all the Wilderness legislation in the country. Luckily, leaders in Congress have figured out a way to get around this problem. That's the first answer. The second one is YOU! The Oregon congressional delegation needs to hear from you. They need to hear that we applaud their efforts and that Wilderness protection isn't going to sit on the back burner anymore. http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1780/t/430/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=22326 9) The West Wide Energy Corridor (WWEC) is a gargantuan environmental threat to the western United States, and yet when KS Wild staff attended the only planned public hearing in Oregon last week, our Legal Director was one of just eight people to speak. What is the WWEC? And maybe more importantly, why doesn't anyone seem to know about it? The WWEC stems from the Dick Cheney energy law. Right now, the plan is undergoing federal environmental review, but if enacted, it would consist of thousands of miles of high-tension wires, oil, gas and hydrogen pipelines and other energy transmission infrastructure stretched across vast areas of the west. These corridors would average 3/4 miles in width, but in some areas would be several miles across. It would cause untold harm to ecosystems throughout the west. Consider the impact such a project would have on the rich ecosystems of Steens Mountain and the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument. Consider the effect it would have on habitat connectivity and proposed wilderness areas. Why are you just hearing about it now? The federal government doesn't want any publicity because of the political implications of their proposal. The Environmental Impact Statement shows lines drawn throughout the west, but leaves gaps wherever the corridor leaves federal lands. After that, it will have to run over private and state property. To use this land, the federal government will have to take it from its current owners. One line runs right down I-5 to Ashland, and then disappears for well over 100 miles. How will it cross the Siskiyou Crest? Will it go through your back yard? Will it bisect your timberlands or your ranch? Whatever your political persuasion, we can agree that the federal government has no business taking our land to benefit energy companies. To paraphrase Dave Willis' comments last week: this is the project that will finally make good on President Bush's pledge to unite America - unite America in opposition to the WWEC. Please submit a comment on the project before the February 14th deadline. Comments may be submitted at http://corridoreis.anl.gov/involve/comments/index.cfm . 10) Dear Senator Wyden; In light of the legislation you are considering, I wanted to make you all aware of a potentially flawed assumption about fire regimes, particularly as it applies to lower elevation ponderosa pine and also secondarily to Douglas fir and western larch. As for my expertise, I am an ecologist who has been studying fire ecology for more than three decades. I am the author/editor of 34 books including of Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy, as well as Yellowstone: the Fires of Change. Thinning to reduce fire hazard or risk in these forests is a waste of time since when forests are ready to burn, they burn with vigor that thinning does not influence. More on that later. However, there is a growing controversy about interpretation of fire history and the influence of fire suppression surrounding even the lower elevation drier forests. Most of the research on ponderosa pine fire dynamics has been influenced by the so called " southwest US " model. This model has held that fires in ponderosa pine, in particular, burned very frequently and seldom experienced stand replacement or high intensity blazes. As such, many believe that fire suppression has caused these forest types, and subsequent fires in them, to be outside of the historic range of variability. I wanted to make you aware that new research that is increasingly questioning this assumption. For one, large blazes we are experiencing today are likely more the consequence of climatic conditions than fuels--in all forest types. And changes in fire behavior and intensity that deviate from past fire regimes such as they are understood, may be more a consequence of climatic change than anything to do with fire suppression or forestry practices--not that these are inconsequential, but that climate and fire weather (wind, drought and low humidity) may be the big driver in all large blazes. This has big implications for what is the appropriate management response. Secondarily recent research--and we are talking about only the past 5-6 years--has begun to question whether even the model of high frequently/low intensity blazes as typically ascribed to ponderosa pine forests is accurate. http://jfsp.nifc.gov/conferenceproc/Ma-01Kaufmannetal.pdf There are other recent studies confirming the same basic conclusion--the historic range of variability in ponderosa pine forests may not be as simple as often implied. Thus management prescriptions based upon this model MAY BE FLAWED. wuerthner 11) The Bush administration's plans to dismantle more than a decade of protections for northern spotted owls and salmon to sharply increase logging in old growth forests is seriously flawed and not adequately supported by science, the federal agency in charge of saving salmon concludes. In a Jan. 11 letter obtained by The Associated Press, NOAA Fisheries told the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that its Western Oregon Plan Revision — known as The Whopper after its acronym — has no coherent or cohesive conservation strategy for salmon and steelhead, and relies on assumptions and models not supported by published scientific studies. Increased logging along salmon streams proposed in the plan are harmful to fish and analyses look only at limited lengths of rivers, rather than the entire watershed as prevailing science calls for, said the letter signed by Michael Tehan, NOAA Fisheries Oregon habitat director, on behalf of Bob Lohn, Northwest regional director of the agency. http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1200622497155770.xml\ & storylist=orlo cal 12) One morning in 2005, the residents near River Forest Road in Oak Grove woke up to find that nearly 200 " old-growth and second-growth Douglas fir trees were being cut down, " said Chips Janger, who lives near the former forested site. " That was bad enough, but the heron rookery, which neighbors had celebrated for years, " was also being destroyed he said, noting that there were 23 heron nests in the trees, and one osprey nest. " The neighbors were incensed — enraged. So Bob Murch [a neighborhood resident] went to the county, but the response from the county was this: 'We understand — but there's nothing we can do,' " Janger said. What occupies that land now? " Four large, closely packed, empty and unsold houses. And they haven't planted trees, " Janger said. " The bottom line — if a person buys a piece of land in Clackamas County that is not next to a river or streambed, [he] can come in and do anything he wants, and the county can't stop him. There is no law to prevent anyone from clear-cutting any area, " he added. When a person applies for a building permit or a zoning change, at that point the county can step in, he noted, but if someone buys land, he can cut down everything legally. " This is a huge loophole — that is what we want to deal with, " Janger said. And he is not alone. Janger and six other local citizens have come together to form Urban Green, and they have put together a proposal for a county tree ordinance which they will present to the Board of County Commissioners business meeting set for tomorrow, Jan. 17, at 10 a.m. in the BCC Hearing Room in Oregon City's Public Services Building on Kaen Road. http://www.clackamasreview.com/news/story.php?story_id=120050698707912500 California: 13) Yes, defenders of the trees have publicly threatened to start hunger strikes, according to the Los Angeles Times, which is reporting that landmark status was denied to the Santa Monica trees on Monday. At the center of the battle: 54 trees between 2nd and 4th streets that are cracking up the sidewalk; the city wants to replace each ficus with two young ginkgo trees. (Always a younger, prettier tree coming up!) Defending the decision, Elaine Polachek, director of community maintenance, tells the paper: " The ficus might be happier in another location and their roots able to run freely as needed. " But the decaying older ficus will be euthanized and Treesavers, the group in favor of protecting the trees, plan to file a lawsuit " contending that the city violated state law by not filing an environmental impact report regarding the tree removal, " reports the paper. In addition to threatening a hunger strike, tree defenders say they will plan funerals. http://la.curbed.com/archives/2008/01/santa_monica_fi_1.php 14) Shortly after the pepper spraying, three treesitters came down to the lower branches of the redwood and discussed some of their motivations with a group of inquisitive supporters. One the treesitters spoke of how he grew up in Santa Cruz and developed a deep passion for the trees at UCSC. Since being in the tree, he has come to more fully appreciate the relationship other animals have with the redwoods. A student stood below the tree and told people in and below the tree that the reason he was there was because he received an email from UCSC telling him to avoid the treesit. The treesitters thanked their inquisitive supporters for the good conversation and encouraged people to stop by anytime with food or for conversation. A few final suggestions from a treesitter were that people should be more casual and come during the day in smaller groups when the police are not around. For more information about the treesit on Science Hill against UCSC expansion and the increased police repression, see: Eyewitness Report of Police Attacking Two People at UCSC : http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/01/10/18471576.php 15) ENCINITAS – After protests from residents, 10 old-growth eucalyptus trees along Leucadia's coastal corridor received a one-day reprieve from the woodsman's ax yesterday. But the North County Transit District has hired a tree-trimming company to chop down the icons that border North Coast Highway 101 today because the district has deemed them a hazard to public safety. The district will send someone to handle traffic control and any protesters, spokesman Tom Kelleher said. The towering, twisted and gnarled eucalyptus trees, native to Australia, were planted in the late 1800s by city founders who named their settlement Leucadia after one of the Greek Isles. The trees stand on railroad right of way between the coast highway and the tracks. They have become integral to the identity of Leucadia, one of five communities within Encinitas. " A big portion of 101 is going to be denuded of landmark trees, " Councilwoman Maggie Houlihan said yesterday. She was one of a group of people who gathered yesterday to watch in dismay as tree trimmers prepared to start work. Houlihan said the city received an e-mail from the transit district late Monday saying the trees were to be removed starting yesterday. The district had already informed the city that the trees were a hazard, but Houlihan said she was surprised that the e-mail said more trees were to be destroyed. Kelleher said five more trees, on a slope just south of La Costa Avenue, were removed yesterday. He said all the identified trees are dead or dying. In 2003, one of the giant trees fell across the tracks, which are used by about 50 trains a day. Officials were able to slow approaching trains in time to avoid hitting the tree, Kelleher said. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20080116-9999-1m16trees.html 16) A coalition including environmentalists and the Bank of America is preparing a proposal to determine the fate of the world's largest privately owned redwood forest, the more than 200,000 acres in Humboldt County owned by bankrupt Pacific Lumber. The plan, expected to be filed later this month in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston, would shift old-growth groves - including the tree in which Julia Butterfly Hill lived in for two years - and other sensitive areas to state parks or publicly owned reserves while continuing sustainable logging on the remaining lands, the Nature Conservancy said. Details have not been formalized and it is unclear how much of the $750 million in Pacific Lumber's debt would be repaid. Still, Nature Conservancy spokeswoman Jordan Peavey expressed confidence that a plan combining environmental protection with profit could work. " We've managed to make this work in the past with similar structures, " Peavey said, noting recent deals in which the conservancy participated to buy private forest land in the Adirondacks and across 11 southern states. The investment partners " expect to make money on this, " she said. The Pacific Lumber land comprises about half of the watershed of Humboldt Bay and about 10 percent of the redwood forests remaining in the world, according to the Nature Conservancy. The plan is one of four that will be considered in the bankruptcy proceedings, said Pacific Lumber vice president and general counsel Frank Bacik. A decision could be made by the court as early as April. One of the competing proposals, put forward by Mendocino Redwoods Company and others, would pay about $500 million of the $750 million in debt, Bacik said. http://www.mercurynews.com/healthandscience/ci_7984913?nclick_check=1 Idaho: 17) A new poll released today finds that a majority of Idaho voters oppose a Bush administration plan to open six million acres, including areas in Idaho's Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, to phosphate mining, commercial logging and energy exploration. " In its final months, the Bush administration is attempting to give logging and mining industries the keys to what is arguably some of the most biologically diverse and valuable fish and wildlife habitat in the nation, " said Robert Vandermark, manager of the Heritage Forests Campaign, a project of the Pew Environment Group. " This is America's last forest frontier -- open the door to industrial use and it could be gone forever. " On Monday, Idaho Lieutenant Governor Jim Risch, called the administration proposal a " good plan, " but raised issues regarding broad exceptions for development that he hopes to address in tomorrow's Roadless Area Conservation National Advisory Committee meeting. Risch previously committed to protecting 95% of the 9.3 million acres of national forest roadless lands in the state from most new roads, logging and industrial development. http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0116logging-ON.html Colorado: 18) Based on recent aerial surveys revealed by the U.S. Forest Service in the region during a press conference in Golden on Monday, more than one million acres of the state's high-latitude forests had been destroyed, including half a million acres last year, since the infestation started in 1996. Affected counties are Boulder, Larimer, Gilpin, Chaffee, Clear Creek and Lake. Susan Gray, an official from the agency, described the infestation as surprising. The Dailycamera.com quoted her as saying, " It was very uncharacteristic for the mountain pine beetle to go that high up in elevation. " She added that the beetles cannot be stopped because the infested area is massive and even the winter hasn't been " cold enough for long enough " to kill the beetles. According to the Associate Press, Colorado State Forest Service forest entimologist Ingrid Aguayo said the lodgepole forest is regenerating and its destruction is actually the beginning of the natural process. But Aguayo said the completion of regeneration will take up to 50 years after the bark beetle infestation. http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7009721921 Wisconsin: 19) Sawyer County Forest administrators plan to take bids on 40 timber harvest sales on 4,000 acres this year, for loggers to cut approximately 35,000 cords of pulp and 1.4 million board feet of sawtimber. Forest Administrator Greg Peterson said 4,000 acres slated for timber harvest is " real close to our allowable cut " of 6,000 acres. " We're trying to shave off our backlog in the next few years. " The majority of the timber on the forest is aspen (41,185 acres) and northern hardwoods (25,272 acres). Peterson said the county and DNR forestry staff's " top priority this year " is to complete a road and trail access plan on the 114,000-acre forest by Dec. 31. Following a public hearing, the plan will be implemented by Jan. 1, 2009, he added. The county works in cooperation with the Sawyer County Snowmobile and ATV Alliance, which grooms and maintains 335 miles of self-funded (gas tax, sled registration fees) snowmobile trails, 96 miles of winter ATV trails and 81 miles of summer ATV trails. The county applies for grant funding for snowmobile/ATV trail improvements, bridge repairs and replacement. Peterson said the re-route of Trail 77 near Camp Smith Lake needs to be completed by the end of June. Also, the county wants to get Trail 31 between Upper and Lower Sissabagama Roads rehabilitated this summer, he said. Peterson said there are now 12 active timber sales on the forest. " Markets seem to be picking up a little bit, " he said. Forestry Committee secretary Delores Dobilas said there are 70 recreational/hunting cabin leases on the county forest, down from 100 at one time. Lease-holders have until Dec. 31, 31, 2010 to remove their structures, as all leases will expire at that time. Those lease holders who have torn down their hunting shacks " have cleaned up nice " on those sites, Peterson said. In 2007, the county received $1,794,806 in revenue from timber sales, Peterson reported. That is close to the $1.7 million anticipated for the year. http://www.haywardwis.com/record/index.php?section_id=34 & story_id=235421 Pennsylvania: 20) The city of Pittsburgh has promised to temporarily halt tree removals in Ward 14, which includes Squirrel Hill. That promise emerged from an open meeting on Thursday evening, Jan. 10, in which residents upset by the city's plan to remove hundreds of neighborhood trees had a chance to air their concerns. " I feel like it was a very important step, " said Terri Glueck, the Monitor Street resident who first brought the tree removals to the attention of her neighbors in November. In addition to the moratorium on tree removals, the meeting gave officials an opportunity to better explain the 2005 Tree Inventory and Management Plan conducted by the Davey Resource Group, with its recommendations for tree removals, pruning and planting over seven years. " We, the city, have to do a better job of communicating this program, " said City Council President Doug Shields. He was one of several city officials who spoke at the meeting at the Children's Institute, which was moderated by the Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition. Employees of the Department of Public Works explained the plan and, along with Shields and Councilman Bill Peduto, answered participants' questions. http://www.pittchron.com/topstories.cfm?fullStory=true & articleID=1581 Michigan: 21) Last summer, as land and housing values crumbled in much of Michigan, Northern Michigan Land Brokers and a group of investors completed a $7.3 million deal to buy 7,300 acres of forest and undeveloped land — 80 parcels in all — along several rivers in the Upper Peninsula. The sale of such a sizable expanse of forest and the modest price per acre were part of an enormous, and for some, worrisome transformation in timberland ownership and use throughout the Upper Peninsula, a territory twice as large as New Jersey, with 312,000 residents, more than 400 wolves and roughly as many counties (15) as stoplights. Since 2005, more than a million acres of timberland have changed hands, most of it bought by just two owners. The investment firm GMO, based in Boston, purchased 440,000 acres from International Paper, and a Seattle real estate investment trust, the Plum Creek Timber Company, spent $345 million to buy 650,000 acres, the largest sale of timberland ever in the Midwest. Another big owner is the Forestland Group, which entered the Upper Peninsula in 2003 and now owns 550,000 acres. Forest industry analysts, among them Steven Chercover of D. A. Davidson & Company, a brokerage firm in Portland, Ore., say that trends in the timber industry, land markets and tax policy are promoting the conversion of timberland to development. Growing numbers of wealthy professionals and baby boomers from Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Grand Rapids and Traverse City are seeking land for second homes or for relocation, according to an analysis of census and land records by Eric Anderson, a senior Marquette County planner. A report on corporate land ownership in the Upper Peninsula, published last month by a consortium of universities and nonprofit conservation groups, found that much of the 8.2 million acres of forest owned by big timber management companies, as well as by the state and the federal government, is likely to remain in traditional use for producing lumber and paper and for recreation and wildlife conservation. But the report, " Large-tract Forestland Ownership Change, " also concluded that the day is approaching when a portion — probably 10 to 20 percent of the 2.1 million acres of commercial forest land owned by corporations — could be developed for housing or recreational use. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/business/16timber.html?_r=1 & ref=business & oref=\ slogin Ohio: 22) Woodland coverage in the Buckeye State is recovering dramatically after being felled over generations of industrial and economic growth. The state's green mantle has more than doubled in acreage -- from about 15 percent of the state's area to about 31 percent since the 1940s, according to the state Division of Forestry. And we might even get some economic bounce from that environmental rebound: There are increasing efforts to get Ohio's forests and logging operations -- both public and private -- certified as " sustainable. " That could make the state's timber and paper products more desirable to increasingly green-minded consumers. " Ohio is greening up at the right time, " said Denise Franz King, director of government relations of Nature Conservancy Ohio, part of a national non-profit conservation group. " The forest industry already employs a lot of people in this state and there is a growing demand for green-certified products. " Anything we can do here to encourage that will be a benefit to our forests and to the economy. " Trees have reclaimed most of southwest Ohio and generally the eastern third of the state, mainly over the last 50 years. " It's interesting, because the primary reason was that people moved out of those areas -- southeast Ohio in particular -- after the Depression to seek jobs and relocate into urban areas, " said Randy Edwards, a spokesman for Nature Conservancy in Ohio. " A lot of them left behind marginal farmland, " Edwards said. Over the years, the land was purchased by the state or by Wayne National Forest, by private buyers or by timber companies. " So the trees just did what nature does, they reclaimed the fields and that's a good thing, " Edwards said.Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland directed the forestry division this month to pursue certification of state-owned forests through two accrediting organizations, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and the Forest Stewardship Council. The state owns about 13 percent of Ohio's 8.5 million acres of woodlands. http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/01/ohios_forests_are_expanding_an.html Maine: 23) So how much carbon does a development emit? Environment Northeast estimates that the plan to clear 14,000 acres of forest to build about 2,300 apartment units and homes could generate up to 500,000 metric tons of carbon-dioxide emissions over 50 years, if emissions of vehicles traveling to the distant site are included. At hearings last month, Maine environmentalists unveiled for state regulators what is being called a first-in-the-nation study of the greenhouse-gas emissions expected from a huge development planned for Maine's Moosehead Lake. Some observers call it a new front in an emerging battle between environmentalists and developers that started in California two years ago. The US emits some 12,000 times that amount in a single year. The developer, Plum Creek Timber Co., disputes the analysis. " Our plan in Maine is very sensitive to the carbon-footprint issue, " says Kathy Budinick, spokeswoman for Seattle-based Plum Creek. " If our plan is approved, more than 400,000 acres of land will be permanently conserved in perpetuity for sustainable forestry, representing the second-largest conservation easement in US history. It's really quite a phenomenal carbon outcome. " At issue is not just the size of a development but the amount of driving it encourages. By being so far from major cities and accessible only by car, the Plum Creek project would produce, conservatively speaking, an additional 9,500 tons of emissions annually, according to the Environment Northeast study. That's the equivalent of putting an extra 1,850 vehicles on the road. http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=91472 Tennessee: 24) A not-so-welcoming sign greets hikers these days in Deep Creek Gorge along the state's Cumberland Trail: " Warning Rock Harvesting Ahead. Dangerous equipment and unstable terrain. … " The forest of hemlock and laurel vanishes just past the sign, and the trail moves onto a muddy mountainside of splintered tree parts and broken chunks of stone where ferns and moss once grew. This is the result of the harvest of decorative rock — Tennessee's latest cash crop — and it's being done on public land. The state hasn't been able to stop it. This piece of parkland, part of the Justin P. Wilson Cumberland Trail State Park north of Chattanooga, cost about $2.3 million in state, federal and private funds. The mining threatens this planned ribbon of green, in the works for decades, which would allow long-distance hiking through some of the state's most scenic terrain. But the state doesn't own the mineral rights to the land. Rock — largely sandstone in this area — is being scraped from public and private land and trucked to Atlanta, Nashville and elsewhere to feed consumer demand for upscale rock facing for homes, fireplaces and landscaping. Several thousand tons of rock have been removed from the park, the state says. " It's not just a few people going in with a pickup truck and picking up rocks, " said Tony Hook, head of the Cumberland Trail Conference. " They've got dozers and an earth excavator and dump trucks. They are strip mining. " A piece of heavy earth-shoveling equipment sat at rest from ripping out sandstone and other rock along the trail. A state report outlines the long-term damage possible to rare wildlife, plants, creeks and the view along the trail, but the Florida-based company doing the work disagrees. " This is a lot more benign than logging is, " said Rick Hitchcock, a Tennessee attorney who represents Lahiere-Hill LLC, which owns the mineral rights in this area. Timbering took place on the land before the state acquired it, he said, adding that the practice is found around the area and includes building logging roads and clear-cutting trees. http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/NEWS02/801160446/1\ 009/NEWS01 North Carolina: 25) Norm Christensen told the Waynesville Watershed Advisory Board (WAB), representatives from the town and a few interested onlookers that despite heavy logging in the past the forest ecosystems in Waynesville's 8,600-acre watershed were, " remarkably healthy " and " remarkably intact. " Christensen, founding dean of Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment and currently professor of ecology at Duke, spoke to the WAB at its regular meeting Jan. 10. Christensen and students from Duke have been surveying the watershed as part of the Western Carolina Forest Sustainability Initiative's effort to come up with a management plan for the property. The WCFSI, under the direction of Dr. Peter Bates, associate professor of natural resources at Western Carolina University, was commissioned by the town in 2006 to create a management plan for the watershed. Researchers hope to have a draft plan by this spring. Christensen told the group that the watershed forest was quite resilient despite having the " heck beat out of it. " He noted that preliminary sampling had recorded 250 species of plants. The surveys found no federally listed species. There are some state listed species and Christensen said there were some unique plant communities and a lot of endemism – plants that grow only in certain habitats or locales and nowhere else. Christensen said plant diversity was particularly rich along streams and in the cove forests. The more unique communities and rarer species were found at higher elevations, in balds and around rock outcroppings. According to the survey, invasive exotic plant species are not as prevalent in the watershed as they are in many area landscapes. Only four or five non-native plant species have been recorded to date. The Duke survey revealed no ecological or environmental problems in the watershed with regards to the quality or flow of water. " The intact character of the watershed will ensure a steady flow of high quality water, " Christensen said. Town Manager Lee Galloway, noting that some citizens feel the watershed should be " untouched, " asked what impact no logging or selective cutting of any kind would have on the forest. Christensen said a hands-off policy would not harm the forest in any way but that there were places in the watershed where selective timbering, done right, could be a " win-win " situation, providing economic benefits to the town and ecological restoration to the forest. http://www.smokymountainnews.com/issues/01_08/01_16_08/out_naturalist.html USA: 26) The U.S. Forest Service is poised to restructure the agency so that land management planning jobs are removed from individual forests, according to Service documents released today by a national association of government employees in natural resources agencies. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, PEER, says the resulting reorganization will affect one in four Forest Service jobs, shrink its firefighting force and " rigidify " resource planning. A feasibility study of the restructuring plan prepared by consultants Management Analysis, Inc. of Vienna, Virginia dated August 10, 2007 projects a nearly 20 percent reduction in environmental positions within the Forest Service. The plan, called a " Business Process Reengineering, " would consolidate virtually all work performed under the National Environmental Policy Act, NEPA, the basic law that shapes agency resource management actions. Nearly 8,000 employees out of the agency's 30,000 person workforce now perform work related to NEPA. Almost all of this work is done at the forest level. Nearly half of all Forest Service employees doing NEPA work - a total of 3,564 employees - also perform all-hazard duties when required. Under the Business Process Reengineering, all functions related to NEPA would be moved into six " eco-based Service Centers " where forest planning would be standardized. The purpose of this study, the consultants wrote, was " to identify ways to improve the United States Forest Service's approach to performing activities related to compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act. " PEER warns that this " agency-wide displacement would remove thousands of employees with fire-fighting responsibilities from national forests and relocate them in service centers. " The Forest Service should first find out why they are losing so many NEPA lawsuits before charging off in an expensive and possibly wrong direction, " said Ruch, an attorney who pointed out that the consultants admit in their report that the Forest Service has no " quality standards " for NEPA work. http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2008/2008-01-14-091.asp Canada: 27) Using LIDAR to assess multi-cohort management, canopy structure, and bird communities of the boreal forest. The technology: LIDAR, which stands for light detection and ranging, is basically radar but it uses light instead of radio waves. The remote sensing system is mounted on a plane that sweeps over the boreal forest in Northern Ontario. Aircraft-mounted laser pulses are sent out at a rate of 20,000 to 30,000 times a second to give Burrell a detailed 3D map of the forest canopy as well as the bird population. Each pulse records elevation measurements for a tiny topographical snapshot. The result: " LIDAR paints a picture of what's in front of you, " says Burrell. He combines the data from flights taken in 2004, by forestry company Tembec, with in-the-field research he did last summer that involved taking ground measurements and conducting bird surveys in the forest. The goal: Burrell wants to see if LIDAR can be used to assess bird populations in addition to mapping forest structure, " so in really remote forests, we don't have to go out bushwhacking. " Although it's logistically much easier to use LIDAR, the lasers, not to mention the costs associated with operating an aircraft, are a bit of an issue. " It's definitely a pretty expensive technology at this point, " says Burrell. However, LIDAR'S mapping of the forest is so detailed and comprehensive that it would be physically impossible for humans to match it. " That would take a lifetime, " Burrell says. Branching out: Separate from the LIDAR research, Burrell is also looking at how forest structure changes in through events such as forest fires or harvesting. http://www.thestar.com/living/article/294590 28) It's too bad that communities like Berens River, Bloodvein and Little Grand Rapids are where they are. If no one lived in the boreal forest on the east side of Lake Winnipeg, we might be in a better position to protect it from development. The east-side forest is an absolute jewel, not just for Manitoba and Canada but for the entire world. I have spent a great deal of time in that forest and can personally attest that it is as pristine a natural environment as exists in the world today. Huge tracts of it are entirely untouched, appearing still today just as they would have hundreds or even thousands of years ago. There is an enormous intangible value to that, and society is only just starting to realize it. The provincial government, though, recently began the process of building all-season roads into the area. The first leg will run from Manigotagan to Bloodvein First Nation along an existing route that already serves as a winter road and logging road. The second leg from Bloodvein to Berens River may or may not follow the existing winter road, while plans to potentially build other legs to Poplar River, Island Lake and the Little Grand Rapids/Pauingassi area are vague and still a ways off. While roads do have a limited negative effect on certain plants and animals that live close to the roadway, the much greater danger of pushing an all-season road into what was previously a pristine, untouched forest is further development. The current NDP government and east-side aboriginal leaders agreed to a framework last year for long-term planning on the east side, but the problem is that today's leaders will not be in power forever, and when changes in government inevitably come at some point in the future, the road will still be there. So too, then, will the temptation to use that road for logging, mineral exploration and other development in the previously untouched forest. That's why it's too bad the people who live on the east side live where they do. http://winnipegsun.com/News/Columnists/Turenne_Paul/2008/01/17/4777858.html 29) Experts who study the impact of human activities on the boreal forest say a road the Manitoba government is building through the province's eastern forest could potentially be worse on the environment than a hydro transmission line it has decided not to build there. But Greg Selinger, Manitoba's finance and hydro minister, said an all-season road to isolated east-side communities is becoming increasingly necessary as climate change makes winter roads less and less viable with each passing season. Selinger also said the government would work with east-side communities to ensure any spinoff development stemming from a road, such as forestry or mineral exploration, is considered carefully and cautiously. According to several researchers at the University of Alberta -- where a group of applied conservation biologists have put the school on the leading edge of boreal forest research -- that kind of spinoff development is the most dangerous unintended environmental consequence of building roads. " If you build a road, they will come, " said Erin Bayne, an assistant professor of biological sciences at the U of A. " That one road leads to another road, which leads to the next road. If you add that up over time, it has a significant effect. " Bayne said that process has repeated itself over and over again in Alberta. " All of a sudden, with economies of scale, it becomes easier to do oil and gas exploration and forestry, " he said. David Schindler, who holds the Killam Memorial Professorship in the same U of A department, said roads also have a " huge " effect on aquatic systems because previously remote lakes have increased human access. While roads and hydro transmission lines both affect wildlife and surrounding plant life, Bayne said roads are harder on the forest and its inhabitants. http://winnipegsun.com/News/Manitoba/2008/01/15/4773357-sun.html UK: 30) Ancient woodland surrounding the Wrekin will be protected under plans to start open-cast mining, UK Coal has pledged. The company has submitted plans to extract 900,000 tonnes of coal at New Works and Huntington, Little Wenlock, in Shropshire. But 180 semi-mature birch trees would be cut down to make way for an access road to transport coal and fireclay. There are concerns over noise, dust, lorry movements and the possible impact on tourism. UK Coal said the 32-month mining plan would create 90 jobs. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/shropshire/7193321.stm 31) A DEAL to create the Woodland Trust's biggest holding in the North of England has now been completed. As revealed in The Journal this month, the plan involves a major extension to Elemore Woods on the County Durham and Sunderland border. In a £1.35m deal, the trust has now acquired and will manage 203 acres of mostly arable land next to its 175-acre Elemore Woods at Easington Lane, Houghton-le-Spring. The purchase has been made with help from local fundraising and grants from County Durham Environmental Trust (CDent), the Heritage Lottery Fund, Sita Trust and Biffaward. The Elemore Woods extension is part of a rare magnesian limestone landscape and includes a small quarry area and site of special scientific interest. Over the next two years the land will be planted with more than 90,000 native broadleaved trees and shrubs to become part of a continuous area of woodland stretching for 2.5 miles between Easington Lane and South Hetton to Littletown in County Durham. About 3km of paths and rides will be accessible on foot from South View, just off the A182 South Hetton Road at Easington Lane. The Woodland Trust aims to involve the community in the creation of the wood and local schoolchildren will be involved in planting trees on the site as part of the trust's nationwide Trees for All programme. Trust regional development officer Sara Lyons said: " We are delighted, and are very grateful to everyone who contributed their efforts to produce such a brilliant result. The extension enables the Woodland Trust to put a large area of accessible woodland within easy reach of thousands of people in the North-East. " CDent chairman John Wearmouth said: " As part of our 10th anniversary celebrations, CDent was delighted to initiate and support this significant project with a grant to start the ball rolling and enable the project to proceed. " We are pleased to see other major funders have come on board and hope others in the region will continue to give it their backing. " http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-news/2008/01/15/woodland-to-\ reclaim-area-af ter-trust-deal-61634-20349836/ 32) Bechstein's bats are one of the UK's rarest native mammals. Present in low numbers from Kent to Cornwall and as far north as Shropshire, they are absent from Scotland and Northern Ireland and have seldom been recorded in Wales. Evidence from the fossil record suggests this woodland specialist was probably more common 2,000 years ago, before Britain's woodlands were cleared for agriculture Although a few individuals are found in underground sites during hibernation, most roost in trees all year round. Their favoured roost sites are old woodpecker holes. These are used as maternity roosts and also by solitary males. Bechstein's bats are medium- sized with long, broad ears that help when feeding on " noisy " arthropods including moths, crickets, harvestmen, earwigs, ground beetles and spiders; the bats often pick these insects off vegetation. They emerge from roosting sites approximately 25-30 minutes after sunset, and set off in pursuit of their prey. They fly relatively low when hunting, selectively picking prey from the ground or within the canopy. The mating season, as with all bat species in the UK, occurs between autumn and spring; nursery roosts are occupied from the end of April, and births occur towards the end of June. One young is usually produced, which is able to fly by mid August. This is an extremely elusive species, rarely found outside the cover of a woodland canopy or hedgerow. They emit very quiet echolocation calls, making them difficult to detect. Their ability to recognise fine detail makes them good at evading capture from licensed surveyors using nets. So how does one, faced with the rarity of this species and the difficulties associated with finding out about it, address the threats which it may be facing, and may be threatening its last pieces of habitat? Technology has come to the rescue. Recent developments in bio-acoustics led David Hill and Frank Greenaway from the University of Sussex to conduct field experiments using a bat call synthesiser. http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/countryside-farming-news/countryside-news/2008/01\ /15/protecting -bechstein-s-bat-91466-20349778/ Yemen: 33) SOCOTRA — " I feel as though I'm walking through a cemetery, " said Paul Scholte, an environmental scientist who is the chief officer for the United Nations Development Program on this arid, windswept island, 200 miles off Yemen. He was hiking over a steep mountainside through the world's grandest stand, and one of its last, of dragon's blood trees, Dracaena cinnabari. The dracaenas were born 65 million years ago on the supercontinent Gondwana. After Gondwana split, forming the Persian Gulf and most of the land masses in the Southern Hemisphere, the trees thrived from the Mediterranean to the Middle East. Now they are down to a few isolated spots in areas like the Canary, Cape Verde and Madeira Islands. But nowhere are they as populous, storied and majestic as on Socotra. Cut a hole in the smooth bark, and it bleeds red, the cinnabar resin of yore, transmuted into a deep scarlet lacquer for Chinese emperors or fired into vermilion for Persian emirs. (It is not to be confused with the other cinnabar, a heavy mineral in the mercury family.) Though dracaenas have survived long droughts in Socotra because they can retain water for years, they are vulnerable to the goats that help sustain the island's livestock-based economy. The population is just 40,000, mainly fishermen and herders who speak an ancient, unwritten Semitic language. Though small in size, the goats eat a lot — including the shoots of young trees. Partly as a result, scientists say, the dracaena area is 20 percent smaller. A recent study projected a further loss of 45 percent in the next 80 years. The only stable tree populations are on high mountain peaks inaccessible to even the goats. Meanwhile, the United Nations and the Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh are helping finance a tree nursery near the coast. No one knows whether those trees will reach adolescence. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/science/15soco.html?ref=science Madagascar: 34) A new species of a self-destructing palm tree which flowers once every 100 years and then dies has been discovered on Madagascar, it was revealed today. The tree, which grows to 66 feet in height and has 16 feet wide leaves, is only found in an extremely remote region in the north west of the island, four days by road from the capital. Local villagers have known about it for years although none had seen it in flower until last year. The bizarre flowering ritual was first spotted by Frenchman Xavier Metz, who runs a cashew plantation nearby. After seeing it he notified Kew Gardens in London.The name of the tree and its remarkable life cycle will be revealed today in a study in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society published. Kew botanist Mijoro Rakotoarinivo: " It's spectacular. It does not flower for maybe 100 years and when it's like this it can be mistaken for other types of palm. " But then a large shoot, a bit like an asparagus, grows out of the top of the tree and starts to spread. " You get something that looks a bit like a Christmas tree growing out of the top of the palm. " There are thought to be only be 100 of the trees that are believed to be about 80 million years old. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23432919-details/Discovered:+The+self\ -destructing+p alm+tree+that+flowers+once+every+100+years/article.do Australia: 35) Forestry general manager of corporate relations Ken Jeffreys said the Upper Styx Road was closed until a safety assessment could be completed. The protest is blocking access to the Big Tree Reserve. " The Big Tree Reserve, which is on state forest is managed by Forestry Tasmania, is a major tourism attraction and one of the state's primary eco-tourism sites, " Mr Jeffreys said. " This disruption is caused by individuals who have locked themselves on to bridge-building equipment on the road. " The road was reopened about 3.15pm after police had attended. One protester was removed by police, Still Wild Still Threatened spokesperson Ula Majewski said community activists were trying to halt work on a new bridge across the Styx River. Ms Majewski said the bridge would provide increased log truck access to the valley. " What this bridge will do is increase the wholesale destruction of some of the island's most singificant carbon sinks, " Ms Majewski said. http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,23055012-921,00.html 36) Forestry Tasmania says five protesters moved into the Styx overnight and two of them have chained themselves to bridge-building equipment on the Big Tree Reserve road. Forestry has closed the road to tourists while it assesses the situation. A spokeswoman for the protest group, Ula Majewski says the replacement bridge would allow for logging on a larger scale. " Forestry Tasmania are planning to build a massive new bridge which will dramatically increase the amount of log trucks that can access the ancient forests located down that end of the Styx Valley, " she said. Forestry Tasmania says a bigger bridge is needed to transport re-growth timber to the Southwood Mill. Forestry Tasmania spokesman, Ken Jeffreys says the protest is a distraction for staff on fire watch, and a hindrance for tourists wanting to visit the popular Big Tree reserve. " It isn't disrupting any forestry operations at all, the bridge is, leads to the Big Tree Reserve, and clearly our staff want to be out there to assess the situation, just to make sure that tourists can pass through there safely, " he said. " Until we're able to make that assessment we'll obviously need to keep the road closed. " It's just the wrong time of the year to be doing it, when we've got a high fire danger in Tasmania, all of Forestry Tasmania staff are on high alert, we don't need protests to disrupt us from that important task, " he said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/15/2138389.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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