Guest guest Posted April 24, 2008 Report Share Posted April 24, 2008 Today for you 35 new articles about earth's trees! (331st edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com --USA: 1) Lieberman-Warner bill, 2) Forest Landscape Restoration, 3) FLAME Act, --Washington: 4) State acquisition of depression era forets, 5) Washington Watershed Restoration Initiative, 6) State Murrelet protection in the Olympics, 7) Loggers don't get what they want, 8) State of Puget sound, 9) RAN hits Weyco, 10) Defazio's legislation is bad news for old forest protection, --Oregon: 11) Community Forestry Plan within city limits, 12) Nine experts say spotted owl plan fails, 13) Corvallis City may oppose BLM plan, 14) Save the Rogue River, California: 15) Wild misleading attempts of an industry, 16) Making money off the Lorax, 17) Ebbets Pass Forest Watch predicts dire future for Sierras, --Montana: 18) 3 logging projects on the Bitteroot NF 19) Stop Beetles by leaving trees alone in Spring, 20) On 50th MWA makes deal with devil, 21) Comment on BD plan, --Idaho: 22) Trees can grow higher up mountain now --Minnesota: 23) Kandiyohi forest is blueprint for state's future forests --Michigan: 24) Loggers' view of forest diversity --Ohio: 25) Neighbors destroyed our wonderful view of trees --Indiana: 26) Bulldozers arrive to build I-69, 27) World's " Preservation Pathway, " --Pennsylvania: 28) Gettysburg Tree Massacre, 29) Allegheny NF to log 1,000 acres, --Massachusetts: 30) New Sudbury Valley Land Trust --Tennessee: 31) 8,200 acres damaged in storm --Tanzania: 32) Norway gives Tanzania $100 million over five years for forest protection --Cameroon: 33) Kagwene Gorilla Sanctuary --Congo: 34) Hundreds of unmapped villages --Thailand: 35) Guarding the crops from forest elephants USA: 1) The Lieberman-Warner proposal would allocate 2.5 percent of the U.S. emissions account to the State Department, which can then distribute its credits to foreign countries. Those countries would then be able to sell the credits, which will represent commitments to avoid deforestation, to companies who need them to offset their carbon production. According to David McIntosh, a Lieberman staff member who helped with the bill, this 2.5 percent would amount to $28 billion in the period from 2012 (when the Kyoto accords expire) to 2020. But beyond this simple transfer payment to forested countries, the connection of U.S. carbon credits to avoided deforestation would, it is hoped, stimulate the development of a global market in avoided-deforestation credits. " Our bill, " McIntosh says, " is essentially calling upon the U.S. to be an early mover in developing this market. " Developing countries tend to be wary of avoided-deforestation programs. But that is changing. Indonesia has been a leader in such programs, and Congo and Brazil have been coming around. For such heavily forested countries, the choice seems to be between entering an infant market in avoided-deforestation carbon offsets — or accepting that their forests will steadily be cut down. The trade-offs are rarely simple: some rain forests are being cleared to make way for palm-oil plantations because of the increased demand for palm oil as a biofuel alternative to petroleum. An avoided-deforestation market relies on stable governments for its functioning — like carbon markets generally, only more so. A government cannot promise to preserve a forest unless it controls that forest. That, to some, is the idea's great weakness. " I'm bearish toward that particular section of the market, " says Cindy Dawes, who trades carbon credits in the European market. " The main obstacle is governance, because most of these activities are in markets that are politically difficult. " http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20wwln-essay-t.html?_r=1 & oref=slogin 2) On February 5, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) introduced the Forest Landscape Restoration Act (S. 2593). Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) introduced companion legislation (HR 5263) in the House of Representatives. The bills aim to restore damaged forest ecosystems by establishing a collaborative, science-based forest landscape restoration program that would prioritize and fund ecological restoration treatments for forest landscapes. The legislation would authorize ten restoration projects, and hopes " to foster community collaboration and involvement in restoration projects while creating jobs in rural communities. " American Lands Alliance worked closely with the drafters of the legislation and was able to secure ecological safeguards, including framing the bill in the context of ecological restoration as opposed to just thinning and requiring scientific review. The bill maintains all existing environmental laws. However, a significant issue with this bill is that the " old-growth " and large-tree protections are lifted from the Healthy Forest Restoration Act. This language needs to be strengthened by eliminating the loophole allowing agencies to implement outdated forest plans instead of protecting old growth, adding dead or downed trees to the definition, and including protection for mature trees. Additionally, American Lands is concerned over the dependence on biomass for funding the restoration projects, which without appropriate safeguards could lead to inappropriately scaled biomass facilities. Click here to read American Lands' analysis of the bill. A hearing on the Senate bill (S. 2593) was held on the bill on April 1, 2008. Click here to view an archived videocast of the hearing. A hearing on the House version has not yet been scheduled. http://www.americanlands.org/index.php 3) The Federal Land Assistance, Management and Enhancement Act (FLAME), HR 5541, was introduced by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Representative. Nick Rahall II (D-WV); Representative Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Chairman of the National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee of the House Natural Resources Committee; and Representative Norm Dicks (D-WA), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies of the House Appropriations Committee. The bill would establish a new fund that the Forest Service could use to suppress certain kinds of particularly costly fires. This would reduce the burden placed on the agency by the ever-increasing costs associated with fighting fires, lessening the amount of the agency's budget it has to take away from other functions ranging from campground maintenance to managing wildlife habitat. This is an important step forward and will hopefully allow the Forest Service to focus on restoration activites, rather than putting all its energy and money towards suppressing wildland fires. However, it is critical that Congress recognizes that wildland fire is part of the natural processes that help build stronger, more resilient forests. The FLAME Act was approved by the House Natural Resources Committee on April 17, 2008. Click here to read testimony from the hearing. Washington: 4) In the 1930s Great Depression, thousands of acres of private forest land were forfeited to the counties for unpaid taxes. The Legislature consolidated management of this " forest board " land into the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR). In exchange for giving up title, the counties were promised timber receipts " in lieu " of the lost taxes. Unfortunately, this arrangement led to an unhealthy dynamic of local pressure for timber cutting for revenue regardless of the environmental impacts. Some counties have become more enlightened. There's King County's world-class recreation and " working forest " at Tiger Mountain and Mt. Si Natural Resource Conservation Area (NRCA); Whatcom County is currently negotiating return of its " forest board " lands around Lake Whatcom for park purposes and to protect Bellingham's water supply. Blanchard Mountain is a unique block of county " forest board " land—the only place in the state where the Cascades come down to the Sound. Blanchard contains the largest intact coastal forest on the east side of the Sound. It provides important habitat for threatened marbled murrelets and other late successional ( " old growth " ) dependent species. Skagit County, beneficiary of the largest acreage of " forest board " land in the state, would not countenance non-timber-focused management on Blanchard Mountain. Local environmentalists have pushed back for 20 years. Under increasing pressure to resolve the conflict, Lands Commissioner Sutherland appointed an advisory committee to come up with recommendations. Excluded from the invitation list, however, were the long-time local activists. Conservation Northwest was appointed to represent them. In short order, DNR, Skagit County, and the other members of the committee, many of them beneficiaries from timber sales, agreed upon a " consensus " recommendation that allocates 1/3 of DNR's land to a core area, and leaves the rest for timber harvest as the primary goal. DNR conducted a minimal SEPA review, and declared that the impacts of the Blanchard " Strategies " would be " insignificant. " number of local activists objected to DNR's conclusions, including the Mt. Baker Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Bellingham Mountaineers, Coast Watch, North Cascades Audubon, Chuckanut Conservancy (Chuckanut), and North Cascades Conservation Council (N3C). After DNR adopted the Strategies without substantial change or analysis, the latter two groups filed suit in King County Superior Court in September 2007. http://olympicforest.org/newsletters/april_2008.pdf 5) The Washington Watershed Restoration Initiative (WWRI), composed of the State Departments of Ecology and Fish and Wildlife and 13 conservation groups, is proud to announce that through the efforts of Congressman Norm Dicks, Senator Maria Cantwell, the WWRI and a number of other conservation organizations in other western states, the Fiscal Year 2008 Omnibus Bill contains $39.4 million for a nationwide program of road/trail repair and maintenance, road decommissioning, removal of fish passage barriers, and road repairs required because of recent storm events. The Olympic National Forest received $1.187 million of the total amount. Although no end date was tied to the use of these funds, the Bush administration, as usual, interfered in what Congress intended. They not only added a stipulation that the money must be used by the end of the fiscal year—September 30, 2008— but they basically ignored the section that focused on allocating the money to national forests suffering the worse aquatic damage. It is thus scattered willy-nilly throughout the United States. http://olympicforest.org/newsletters/april_2008.pdf 6) Back in 1997, when the DNR signed a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries, too little was known about marbled murrelets to write long-term management plans. A five-step Interim Plan for study and protection was initiated (Habitat Deferrals, Habitat Relationships Studies, Habitat Reclassification, Surveys and Release of Some Unoccupied Habitat for Harvest, Long-term Conservation Planning). In the Straits District—but nowhere else on DNRmanaged lands—the first four steps are done. The survey identified more than 14,000 acres of " reclassified " murrelet habitat and released nearly 4,000 acres of low-quality habitat as unoccupied. The remaining 10,000 acres make up the only area protected from harvest (except 18 acres of high-quality spotted owl habitat to be protected until 2014 under the Settlement). At least this level of protection should continue through the Long Term Planning process. My educated guess is that the 10,000 acres protected significantly exceeds what DNR had hoped for a decade ago, when the HCP was finalized. The maximum release allowed was 50 percent, but other protections made it only 27 percent returned for harvest. In the Olympic Experimental State Forest (OESF), all reclassified habitat is protected until the Long Term Plan is complete. What about the Long Term Conservation Planning? DNR started this process by scoping for the EIS in 2007. The Conservation Caucus submitted extensive comments and requested that the process stop pending completion of the interim steps. But DNR has continued, at least partly because reclassification and surveying in other Regions has taken much longer than anticipated and is not yet complete. The Draft Report of the independent Science Team was released in late February and is on the Web at http://www.dnr.wa.gov/Publications/lm_mamu_sci team_ report.pdf. More info will be coming, and the EIS should be out in 2009. OFCO is pleased that Seattle Audubon will be taking the lead in review and comment on the Long Term Plan. http://olympicforest.org/newsletters/april_2008.pdf 7) This past February, the timber industry hastily arranged a meeting at the usually placid Lake Quinault Lodge to discuss their desire to salvage-log old trees from the adjacent South Quinault Ridge roadless area. Portions of this primeval forest blew down during a vicious December storm. The Aberdeen Daily World newspaper covered this meeting in some detail and shortly afterward published an op-ed from the industry to the same effect. This media interest precipitated OFCO contacts with Olympic National Forest Supervisor Dale Hom and District Ranger Lance Koch. Both men assured us that they had no plans or desire to log in this (or any other) Inventoried Roadless Area. As Mr. Hom was quoted in the Daily World, the salvage operation sought by the timber industry would require an act of Congress before it could legally ensue. In coordination with six other regional conservation groups, OFCO followed its communication with the Forest Service by sending a cautionary letter to Senators Murray and Cantwell, as well as to Reps. Dicks and Inslee. It is our understanding that the timber industry has asked the delegation for support to enter South Quinault Ridge. Given that there is no ecological basis for salvage, no increase in fire risk to structures, and little economic benefit to be had, we expressed our strong opposition to entering this—or any other—roadless area. http://olympicforest.org/newsletters/april_2008.pdf 8) I'm going to do my best to keep you from closing your eyes, curling into a fetal position and sucking your thumb. But Puget Sound — not just the body of water itself but the basin, and the ideas it represents — is a subject so large and difficult that it is an act of will to confront it. This is not an easy topic to tackle. Like a subconscious id, Puget Sound is a repository not only of all the runoff of pollutants and problems from the crest of the Olympics to the Cascades, but of the hopes and fears of Pacific Northwest civilization. It reflects, unmercifully, who we truly are: stewards or wastrels, deep thinkers or merely deep-sixers. THE POPULATION OF the Puget Sound basin has doubled since 1960 to 4 million, and we're projected to grow to about 5.5 million by 2025. Never before has nature been asked to absorb this many people, this quickly. An example: Between 1991 and 2001, 190 square miles of Puget Sound basin forest were converted to housing and stores. We also know what flows downhill. Puget Sound is our chemical toilet, and we hope it all sinks out of sight. Except it doesn't. Puget Sound is in danger of becoming a liquid desert, its sun-lit surface hiding the fact that what's underneath is increasingly dominated by ratfish, a bottom-feeding species one biologist estimated now makes up three-fifths of the fish biomass of our waterway. PUGET SOUND SHOULD BE an ecological showcase. It is in a temperate climate zone of incredible biological productivity. Counting the Northwest Straits region of the San Juan Islands, it has 2,500 miles of shoreline, or enough to reach across the United States, and is the deepest estuary of its kind in the Lower 48. Carved by Ice Age glaciers, the Sound averages 450 feet deep and is fed by 14 major rivers and 10,000 small rivulets. The Sound has 2,800 square miles of water but is one arm of an inland sea in which three quarters of the tidal water pouring through the Strait of Juan de Fuca goes north into Canada. To the pioneers, the system must have seemed inexhaustible. The Sound still plays host to a $3 billion fishery, gets 2,500 cargo-ship visits a year and has 30,000 moorage slips for boats. It's a highway and a playground. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2004356032 & zs\ ection_id=2004 078393 & slug=footsound20 & date=20080420 9) The largest logging company in the world was caught off guard on Thursday morning when three activists from Seattle Rainforest Action Group and the Rainforest Action Network locked down together in front of the entrance to the company's annual shareholder meeting in Federal Way, demanding " Native Rights Now! " for the people of Grassy Narrow's First Nation, whose traditional land in Canada is being destroyed to fund Weyerhaeuser's profit margin. Arriving shareholders were shocked to see the blockade while security officers huddled to try and find a way to remove the protest and restore the meeting's deteriorating sense of legitimacy. Meanwhile, other SeaRAG folk went inside the building, chanting and holding a long banner reading " Wake Up Weyerhaeuser! " , just to make sure the message got across. When they were booted by security, the team rallied on the sidewalk to greet more shareholders as they arrived (and the cops even drove by, honked and waved!). Oh yeah, and to top it all off, more of our people attended the actual meeting and directly condemned Weyerhaeuser's top management before the large audience. This is the fifth year that SeaRAG and RAN have made life miserable for Weyerhaeuser at their shareholder meeting. Our concerns stem from the company's use of lumber from the traditional and sacred territory of the people of the Anishinabek people of th Grassy Narrows community who have been native to northern Ontario, Canada, for thousands of years. This logging is occurring despite their protests, including a long-running road blockade, and is destroying their means to gather food and sustain their culture. Amnesty International considers this situation to be a human rights issue. http://www.myspace.com/searag 10) Members and friends, take heed: There's some bad legislation heading our way. We and other conservationists have seen two drafts of a bill from Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) that would dismantle the Northwest Forest Plan, while seeming to keep the Aquatic Conservation Strategy in place. Decisions on timber production on each national forest would be put into the hands of a select group of individuals, known as Resource Advisory Committees (RACs), appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture. You can be certain that groups like OFCO will not be asked to serve on the RACs, but even if we were, we do not believe in cutting the public out of public land decisions. The concerns of citizen activists like us would be heard by the RACs, which would decide whether to accept an appeal on a sale. Of course there would be little expertise on these RACs to even begin to fulfill their mission. Promoted as a way to lower conflict on national forests, this new modus operandi, at least in Washington state, would appreciably raise the level of conflict. While the bill includes language to " protect " old growth, the definition is unclear; on drier eastside forests, old-growth logging would be allowed under some circumstances. The bill promotes a major increase in thinning sales with no protection given to aquatic resources. Thinning, of course, is better than old growth clearcuts, but increased thinning with no real clamp on roadbuilding is very bad news for aquatically damaged national forests. http://olympicforest.org/newsletters/april_2008.pdf Oregon: 11) JACKSONVILLE — Logging and forest management within city limits will be more strictly controlled under a proposed Community Forestry Plan. Council members reviewed the plan — which has been 10 years in the making — and accompanying rules at their April 15 meeting and are expected to pass them with minor changes on May 6, said City Administrator Paul Wyntergreen. He estimated that about 20 percent of the land within the city is forested. About half of that is public land and the other half is private. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Jackson County, as well as the city, own forested lands. " Because of our large woodland area we will on occasions get logging requests, " said Wyntergreen. The current logging code is just one page long. " We've tried horse logging and all kinds of different treatments in the past because it is so difficult to log within a city, " said Wyntergreen. " What we ran into problems with in the '90s was a logging plan so vague you really couldn't control things in terms of erosion and other impacts. We want to get something in place that will protect all the neighbors. " http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080422/NEWS/804220310 12) According to the 150-page review obtained by The Associated Press, a panel of nine experts assembled by the Sustainable Ecosystems Institute in Portland found the draft recovery plan for spotted owls underestimates the importance of protecting old-growth forest habitat, compared with the threat from a competing species, the barred owl. " We view the continued conservation of (old growth) forests to be paramount for Northern Spotted Owl recovery, " the reviewers wrote. The spotted owl was declared a threatened species in 1990 primarily because of heavy logging in the old-growth forests where it nests and feeds. While old-growth forests suitable for owl habitat have increased, owl numbers have continued to decline, recent research shows. The spotted owl faces a new threat from a cousin, the barred owl, that has been invading its territory. In 1994, the federal government came up with the Northwest Forest Plan, which cut logging in Oregon, Washington and Northern California by more than 80 percent while setting up old-growth forest reserves to protect habitat for the spotted owl and salmon. The Bush administration has been trying to boost logging by changing environmental constraints against logging. The new owl-recovery plan was initiated to satisfy a timber-industry lawsuit over owl habitat and is an essential element in Bureau of Land Management plans to scrap the Northwest Forest Plan to increase logging in western Oregon. The review said the draft owl-recovery plan does " not use scientific information appropriately " in some places. " We identified several areas where we thought their science could be improved, " said Steven Courtney, Sustainable Ecosystems vice president, who led the review. " Some of those areas were relatively important. However, in other areas, they did a pretty good job. " The reviewers wrote that it can no longer be assumed that protecting old-growth forests will protect spotted owls, because of the threats from the barred owl, but they added that for reserves to protect owls, they must be places owls are known to inhabit. The review was commissioned by the Fish and Wildlife Service after the draft owl-recovery plan was flunked by two organizations contracted to do a peer review, the Society of Conservation Biology and the American Ornithologists Union. Criticism largely centered on increasing concern over the barred owl and de-emphasizing the need to protect old-growth forest habitat from logging and wildfire. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/359993_owl22.html 13) If local forest advocates have their way, the Corvallis City Council will adopt a resolution criticizing federal forest management plans. Members of the Coast Range Association approached the council in March to build political clout in opposing changes in forest protections. The council sent the matter to its legislative committee, which recommended the council approve a resolution on Monday. Much of the reasoning behind the decision stemmed from the proximity of city property on Marys Peak to federal Bureau of Land Management forests. The Rock Creek Reservoir and treatment plant supply between 30 percent and 40 percent of the city's drinking water. " We've got the land up there, and we manage it with the intention of protecting the water, " said Ward 8 Councilor David Hamby, who is a member of the legislative committee. " I don't want to adversely affect the plan we have in place for our property. " The Coast Range Association argued that revisions being considered by the BLM could increase logging, especially in areas of old growth, while reversing wildlife protections. Monday's resolution is essentially the same as one adopted by the Eugene City Council in mid-February. It calls for the federal government to reject changes to its policy. It also asks Congress to protect mature and old-growth trees while adopting forestry projects aimed at restoring forests. City councilors will also hear public comment at 7:30 p.m. Monday on the city's low-income housing grant programs. The public hearing surrounds a five-year plan setting goals and priorities for how the city will spend $1.4 million in federal funds. http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2008/04/20/news/community/1aaa02_council.tx\ t 14) Oregonians received one of those 3 a.m. phone calls last week when a prominent conservation group listed the Rogue River at No. 2 on its annual list of the most threatened United States rivers. That the iconic Rogue made American Rivers top 10 list, much less was listed in second place behind the Catawba-Wateree River that flows through the Carolinas, should rattle the sensibilities of every Oregonian. That includes those fortunate enough to have boated, fished or hiked along this magical waterway and those who have admired it from a distance as they drove past on Interstate 5 or read about it in a travel guide or Zane Grey novel. The listing was prompted by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's plans for logging in hundreds of acres along key Rogue tributaries in the Zane Grey Roadless Area. If the BLM's Kelsey Whisky Project is allowed to proceed, the construction of new roads and logging of old growth would take a dismaying toll on the main Rogue, silting salmon streams and stripping forests that are integral to the watershed's well-being. The Rogue should not be threatened by the Bush administration's rush to increase logging in the national forests in the final months before it leaves office. The river's remarkable features, including the free-flowing tributaries and the prime salmon and steelhead habitat they provide, must be protected for this and future generations. Oregon Congressmen Peter DeFazio and Earl Blumenauer recently proposed legislation that would help provide that protection. Their wilderness bill would expand the quarter-century-old federal wild and scenic river protections on the Lower Rogue River to include 143 miles of tributary streams, which are vulnerable to resource extraction activities such as the Kelsey Whisky Project. The DeFazio-Blumenauer bill would block roughly half of the planned logging in the Kelsey Whisky project. The lawmakers can ensure that the project is completely blocked and the Rogue more fully protected by expanding the existing Wild Rogue Wilderness by 60,000 acres, as recommended earlier this year by a coalition of conservation groups, including American Rivers and Oregon Wild. The Rogue never again should appear on any listing of America's most endangered rivers! http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=9564\ 7 & sid=5 & fid=2 California: 15) The recent Other Voices by Tom Bonnicksen in " The Union " is a wildly misleading attempt by the timber industry to promote increased logging of California's forests under the guise of reducing wildland fires and mitigating climate change. Bonnicksen fails to mention that logging is one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions (Schlesinger, " Biogeochemistry: an analysis of global change, " Academic Press, 1997). Also, Bonnicksen's Ph.D. is in forest policy, not forest science. The computer model he created, which he discussed in his Other Voices, has not been peer-reviewed or published in any scientific journal. Bonnicksen is not a working scientist but, rather, is a spokesperson for a timber industry group called the Forest Foundation. Predictably, his opinion piece does not cite any scientific studies to support his claims. Bonnicksen's computer model is fatally flawed because it makes grossly inaccurate assumptions. For example, Bonnicksen's model is based upon the assumption that no natural growth of forest will occur after a wildland fire. In fact, some of the most productive forest growth occurs after fire, including in high severity fire areas in which most or all of the trees were killed (Shatford and others 2007, Journal of Forestry, May 2007). The rapid forest growth following wildland fire sequesters huge amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the new post-fire tree growth. Whatever carbon emissions occur from combustion during wildland fire and subsequent decay of fire-killed trees is more than balanced by forest growth across the landscape over time. The California Air Resources Board's data reveals that current emissions from forest fires in California are less than 1 percent of those from fossil fuel consumption in this state, and that carbon sequestration from forest growth far outweighs carbon emissions from fire. Bonnicksen's model also incorrectly assumes that, when fire-killed trees fall and decay, essentially all of the carbon in the wood is emitted into the atmosphere. In reality, much of the carbon ends up in the soil (Schlesinger 1997, see above). Bonnicksen greatly exaggerates the percentage of trees killed by fire, and provides no source for his estimates. He assumes roughly 90 percent mortality of large trees. However, the Forest Service's own data shows that, contrary to popular myth, low and moderate severity effects (where most large trees survive) dominate current wildland fires in the Sierra Nevada (Miller and Thode 2007, Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol. 109; Odion and Hanson 2008, Ecosystems, Vol. 11). http://www.johnmuirproject.org 16) As the world's rain forests disappear, one of Dr. Seuss' most powerful and controversial characters has been summoned back into action to issue a post-millennium warning. The Lorax, the story of a furry-cheeked little creature who fights to save the environment from the greedy Once-ler, has been a perennial favorite of kids and parents since it was published in 1971. Now, Dr. Seuss Enterprises is teaming with Conservation International and Random House to use The Lorax to help save the forests. The book is being reprinted with a special environmental message that describes " The Lorax Project, " which is being launched today in honor of Earth Day. Ten percent to 15% of profits from the book and from Earth-friendly consumer products featuring the Lorax's image will be used to stop deforestation in Madagascar, Brazil and China. It's time to remind people of the Lorax's message, says Susan Brandt, executive vice president of Dr. Seuss Enterprises in California, which owns the rights to the works of author Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904-1991), beloved for such quirky children's books as The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham. http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2008-04-21-lorax_N.htm 17) The report, highlighted in a press conference on Thursday conducted by Ebbets Pass Forest Watch, predicts a dire future for the Sierra's forests, wildlife and water if the logging company continues with its plans to clear-cut and farm trees on plantations cut from the forest. Sierra Pacific Industries, or SPI, is the state's largest logging company, and the company disputes the report's conclusions. SPI recently issued its own study contradicting the ForestEthics' findings. Ebbets Pass Forest Watch and Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center have separate lawsuits against SPI and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), SPI's state regulator, that have been working their way through the state court system. A California Supreme Court decision is expected shortly, but the court decisions will pertain only to SPI's forestry practices on its lands in Amador County. However, the timber clear-cutting issues the lawsuits challenge are the same as those in Calaveras County. The report, " Climate of Destruction: The Impact of SPI on Global Warming, " and the press conference focused on the impacts of SPI's past decade of clear-cutting Sierra forests and the company's stated intentions to continue on the path of methodically converting forests to plantation farms in order to harvest bigger trees. http://www.calaverasenterprise.com/articles/2008/04/19/news/news02.txt Montana: 18) " People have been telling us for quite sometime that they want us to do something to reduce the amount of fuel in the wildland/urban interface around Darby, " said Oliver, the Bitterroot National Forest's Darby district ranger. Last week, the Bitterroot National Forest released three decisions designed to reduce hazardous fuels, provide logs for local mills and improve forest health. The largest of those three is the Trapper-Bunkhouse Land Stewardship Project just west of Darby. Close to three years in the making, the project would use thinning and prescribed burning to reduce fuels on about 4,500 acres. " About 93 percent of that work would be in the wildland/urban interface, " Oliver said. " The 800-acre Tin Cup fire is within the project boundaries. " The project also includes watershed restoration projects and some decommissioning of roads. There is some commercial logging proposed, but Oliver said the volume of logs that will produce hasn't been figured yet. The funds generated from those timber receipts will be used to help pay for non-commercial thinning and other work. " The amount of thinning that's proposed will far exceed the amount of value in actual timber receipts, " Oliver said. At this point, there isn't any other money set aside to pay for the project. " We'll start with the salvage portion from last year's fire and we'll do as much as we can from the funds generated from that, " he said. " We've prioritized the work. " The Rocky Mountain Research Station helped design the fuel reduction portion of the project. " We used a lot of modeling that helped us predict where fires might spread and where fuel treatments would have the most impact, " he said. The project includes a research component put together by the University of Montana-based research station that will look at issues like the response of noxious weeds and soil compaction to thinning and prescribed fire. http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/04/21/news/mtregional/news08.txt 19) Spring burning and thinning pine stands can often breed harmful insect infestations, according to Bitterroot National Forest officials. Agency foresters are warning private landowners that thinning pine stands or burning spring slash may inadvertently provide breeding grounds for insects, specifically, the pine engraver bark beetle. Also known as the ips beetle, the pine engraver bark beetle searches for damp or moist wood to burrow, eat and ultimately breed large numbers. Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Community Forester Kurt Gelderman said the beetle often thrives in spring's newly damp wood. Like the ips beetle, the mountain pine beetle also attacks and kills pine trees under the bark. According to the Forest Service, mountain pine beetle epidemics contribute to widespread tree mortality that can alter a forest ecosystem. " The problem is the ips beetle leaves trees more susceptible to the mountain pine beetle, " Gelderman said. " That only adds to the infestation cycle. " Gelderman said he's received several phone calls from property owners, wondering why their pine trees are dying. More often than not, it's the ips beetle. " Bitterroot National Forest Forestry Program Manager Sue Macmeeken said although the ips beetle is not serious threat, they do cause future damage. " What we generally see is the ips beetle either killing small trees or the tops of large trees, " Macmeeken said. " There are three other bark beetles that often follow the ips, although they concentrate on the bottom-half of the tree. Ips beetles are not considered a serious problem, but because it's been so dry in the valley for consecutive years, there are a number of dead trees that began with ips infestations. " To avoid such infestation, forest officials recommend property owners leave piling and burning of slash to the fall months, allowing time for wood to dry. If property owners are currently thinning pine trees, officials recommend burning materials while thinning, instead of stock-piling wood waste. Waiting to stock pile firewood is also recommended. http://www.ravallirepublic.com/articles/2008/04/23/news/news74.txt 20) As the Montana Wilderness Association gathers in Great Falls next week to celebrate the group's 50th anniversary, some of its members are wondering whether their leaders have sold out the organization's grassroots soul to turn into a million-dollar corporation. Longtime MWA members Paul Edwards and Russ Titus say they're dismayed over activities in recent years, which include the firing of former executive director Bob Decker in 2004, the closing of three field offices in 2006 and a proposed deal with timber companies that would allow logging in portions of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest in exchange for the first wilderness designation in Montana in 25 years. " The character of the board has changed in regards to the hard edge of its drive for wilderness, " Edwards, a former MWA board member, said. " The whole idea has become to ingratiate themselves with those in political power, and do everything they can to court them so they can get some good results. " I appreciate MWA's anxiety and misery with the endless rejection of (new wilderness designations), but I don't think the answer is to collaborate with those who have no desire to see wilderness preserved for its own sake. … I think they've made a deal with the devil. " The Weasel Salvage and Underburn Project would allow commercial logging to salvage bug-killed trees on 249 acres. It also proposes to use prescribed burning on 771 acres and non-commercial thinning on 64 acres. The goal is to restore an open ponderosa pine forest on the site, said Sue Macmeeken, the Bitterroot National Forest's silvaculturist. On the Stevensville District, the Bitterroot forest wants to treat fuels and harvest timber on about 1,396 acres in the Haacke and Claremont Creek drainages in the Sapphire Mountains. The Haacke-Claremont Vegetation Management Project would allow for commercial timber harvest on 715 acres and non-commercial thinning on 447 acres. The project would create some scattered openings less than two acres in size and a few larger ones up to 12 acres where patches of decadent lodgepole pine exist. http://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/04/20/top/top/50st_080420_mwa.txt 21) The comment period for the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Draft Revised Forest Plan has been extended to April 30, 2008. The Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest contains the largest unprotected roadless lands remaining in Montana, as well as some of the most intact critical habitat for sensitive species outside Yellowstone National Park. Advocates of off-road vehicles have pushed for the exclusion of many of these lands from Wilderness designation. Without lasting protection as Wilderness, these landscapes will be overrun by the explosive growth of off-road vehicles that spread noxious weeds, stress wildlife, and wound the landscape with illegal motorized routes. Year after year new illegal routes are carved through the forest.Take Action! Tell the Forest Service to support lasting protections within the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Forest Plan. Click here to send your comments to the Forest Service. http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1158/t/141/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=24337 Idaho: 22) Trees are now surviving at heights in the Intermountain West where scientists previously said they couldn't. For the past 13 years, Idaho State University associate biology professor Matt Germino has planted evergreen seedlings on regional mountain tops, and the evidence he's gathered by studying them shows significant change in Idaho's climate. The speed at which a long-standing rule of nature seems to be breaking down is hard to fathom, even for a researcher who seeks the evidence. When he started his alpine study in 1995, Germino's seedlings required man-made structures designed to bump up the temperature to live in the windy and cold conditions above the tree line. But in more recent years, the seedlings have grown fine without help. Scientific instruments and a spiderweb of wires covered the baked-mud infield of the baseball diamond by ISU's new Rendezvous Center. On a breezy Monday afternoon, the propeller of an anemometer — a device used for measuring wind speed — whirled steadily, sending data to a computer system inside a metal box. The computer also simultaneously recorded radiation levels and 70 different temperature readings relayed by the wires. Several of the wires ran below coffee table-like inventions with clear, Plexiglas surfaces. Germino, an athletic 37-year-old with short brown hair, designed the structures to mimic the effects of global warming. " This is the guts of experimental climate change research, " Germino said, surveying his project. A few of Germino's tables had flat, clear surfaces designed to magnify the infrared radiation enough to generate an extra 30 watts per meter squared of radiant energy. Other devices researchers use to replicate global warming are cumbersome or require electricity. Germino's tables, however, are cheap to make, easy to transport and particularly useful in remote areas. Since 1995, when he started climate research at tree lines within the Snowy Range of Wyoming, the design has served Germino well. But he pointed out one major deficiency: The solid, flat top doesn't allow rain or snow to penetrate to the seedlings covered by the structures. http://www.idahopress.com/news/?id=7692 Minnesota: 23) Frelich stated, " The Kandiyohi forest at the edge of the prairie, with its elms, oaks, American basswood, hackberry and Kentucky Coffeetree, is the best blueprint we have for future forests in Minnesota under a warmer climate. These tree species also grow in eastern Kansas, which has a climate like that we think Minnesota will have by the end of the 21st century with a 'business as usual' scenario. " Elaborating on how the climate change would affect the southern region of Minnesota, Frelich spoke of how the invasive species and high deer populations will transform our forests over the next century. His comments explained that exotic earthworm invasions are creating new forest ecosystems in Minnesota by altering the structure of the soil. " European earthworms are the master invaders in our ecosystems because they change the structure of the soil so that it is warmer, drier, and has low nutrient availability, " commented Frelich, " Earthworms exacerbate the impact of warming climate on forests and a warmer climate will help exotic earthworms spread faster. " The extensive research Frelich has done on boreal forests in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and his work in the area of patterns of tree height in the eastern United States set him in a position to recommend strategies for Minnesotans to consider. --Mary Whalen, Spring Grove Herald http://www.selco.info/programs-services/rural-sustainability/>www.selco.info/pro\ grams-services/r ural-sustainability/ Michigan: 24) Selling timber is not the only reason for understanding some basic ecological characteristics of a forest. Certainly, species composition, wood volume, and forest density are key components of establishing a timber sale, but they are also essential to assessing forest health and condition. There are practical ways for a forest owner to learn more about their forest. Species composition means, in part, an ability to identify the trees. It's rather difficult to fully appreciate a forest when you don't know who lives there. Michigan has some of the most diverse forests on the planet. Composition also includes factors such as ages, relative species abundance, variability across the landscape, and where a forest lies in the time continuum. Kinda cool stuff, and it gets better. Traditionally, the volume of wood in the trunk up to a specified top diameter has been considered " merchantable " . Of course, merchantability also depends upon nearby markets. Diverse markets translate to better merchantability, improved tree utilization, more management options, and healthier forests. http://www.gtherald.com/columns/local_story_113183045.html?keyword=secondarystor\ y Ohio: 25) Sometimes we don't know the impact a few well-chosen words to a friend can have. Mojo's letter got me through the logging, got me through the snarling chainsaws and the shrieks and cracks of dying trees. Did I enjoy it? No. Would I allow it to be done to our forest? Never. But I repeated Mojo's wisdom to myself over and over throughout February and March; I repeated it to Bill and the kids; kept it in my head as I spoke respectfully to my neighbor, and it truly got me through. This old earth is a renewable resource, bouncing back after unthinkable injury and insult. Our neighbor is logging his woods. We listened as the bulldozers and chainsaws moved closer each day. One by one, the big trees fell. The loggers were taking everything over 18 " in diameter, leaving the smaller trees to mature. After three weeks, there was only one giant left, the tulip tree we called the Privacy Tree. We called it that because it shielded our house from the road, made it feel like a secret. I knew the logger was saving the biggest tree for last. He couldn't have overlooked it. It was time to say good-bye. I walked out through the snow, meaning to wrap my arms around it, and had to spread them for a good-bye hug. I know, I'm a tree hugger. But it's something, in this cut-over, degraded forest, to find a tulip tree that's 36 " at breast height. " Can't we ask them not to cut the Privacy Tree? " asked Phoebe, her voice plaintive. " Doesn't the logger have a heart? " Well, no, honey, we can't ask him. A 36 " tulip is worth money, and it's on our neighbor's land, and that, dear, is that. http://www.juliezickefoose.com/blog/2008/04/for-mojo-man.html Indiana: 26) The Bulldozers have arrived, and clearing has begun in preparation for the construction of I-69, the NAFTA superhighway, in Southern Indiana. Under contracts totaling more than $25.3 million from the Indiana Department of Transportation, Gohmann Asphalt and Construction of Clarksville, Indiana, has demolished homes and trees along the first 1.77 miles of the proposed mega-highway, and will soon begin the actual road construction. This is the same Gohmann Asphalt and Construction that was fined $8.2 million this past December for defrauding the public with false asphalt density tests on road projects. This Earth Day, April 22nd, Please take the time to call Gohmann at (812) 282-1349 and politely ask them why they are accepting the state's blood money to build a highway that 70% of Indiana residents don't want -according to INDOT's own research! Or fax them at (812) 288-2168 and remind them of the 400 families, 5,300 acres of farmland, 1,510 acres of forest, 400 acres of unique underground karst features, and 95 acres of wetlands that will be lost to this gigantic government pork project. If the phone at Gohmann is busy, try calling the Indiana Department of Transportation at (317) 232-5533 and question their wisdom at spending $3.5 billion to reduce travel times between Evansville and Indianapolis by a mere 10-15 minutes. Of course, they might tell you about the need to provide multi-national corporations a more cost-effective way to move goods and capital throughout the continent, and allow them to cheaply exploit the natural resources of Latin America with a network of massive infastructure projects of which I-69 is only the first step. Call Early, Call Often! Really, call often. Visit http://stopi69.wordpress.com for info and updates… 27) Gurney and co-author Leigh Raymond, a Purdue associate professor of political science, detailed the Preservation Pathway approach in a paper that was published March 24 in the journal Carbon Balance and Management. Raymond, who also is an associate director of Purdue's Climate Change Research Center, said the approach allows countries to choose what will work for them and provides an incentive for participation. " The Preservation Pathway allows countries to select how much of the existing forest it will save, " he said. " The greater the amount of forest preserved, the more credits the country earns. A country must also show a deceleration in deforestation of forest not set aside. " Raymond said the paper is a commentary to start discussion on the policy recommendation. " Carbon emissions and stored carbon are the two big issues of climate change policy, " he said. " The big question is how to deal with stored carbon in forests. Should a country get credit for the forests that exist on its land? Is that fair? " The ultimate goal of the Kyoto treaty is to have the whole world involved and actively working to reduce emissions that cause climate change, he said. " The emissions and practices of one country affect the entire world, " Raymond said. " We must get the developing countries on board. This approach enables that and also opens up the credit trading system. This will help the developed countries obtain the carbon credits they need and will improve the success of policies because more players are involved. " Gurney said the approach has technical advantages over current proposed deforestation policies that would create a baseline and compare deforestation rates relative to it. The Preservation Pathway approach would use satellite imagery to measure success. Satellites could be used to monitor the forests' canopy cover, which allows for measurement of relative change from one year to the next. " The Preservation Pathway would only require a relative rate of change and not precise measurements, " Gurney said. " It is extremely difficult to reliably measure the emissions from large forest expanses. To accomplish that would require someone on the ground taking measurements, and there are tropical forests where few people have ever set foot. " This approach relies on the tools we have now and what we know, and it avoids what we don't know, " he said. " It gets around some of the technical problems and scientific uncertainties that often slow policy-making. " http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080422115016.htm Pennsylvania: 28) Even though he spends his time guiding tourists through the nooks and crannies of a Civil War-era house, retired librarian Harry Conay believes that nature can trump history. He's watched in horror as the National Park Service has tried to make the Gettysburg National Military Park look more like it did on three July days in 1863. Officials are nearly a third of the way through cutting down 576 acres of trees that didn't exist back then. Another 275 acres will be replanted with trees and orchards that disappeared over the past 15 decades. But it's not enough to please Mr. Conay, who says the battlefield's history is partly told through the healing of the earth. After all, the trees managed to thrive on land ravaged by a deadly struggle between two immense armies. " During those 140 years, this has become something more than a battlefield lesson, " Conay says from behind the gift-shop counter at the historic house where he serves as a guide. But the trees continue to fall, despite a flurry of protests amid preparations for this month's opening of a $103 million visitors center and museum. And as the 150th anniversary of the Civil War approaches, at least one other battlefield is poised to restore history by chopping down countless trees. The park, in southern Pennsylvania, draws about 2 million visitors each year to marvel at a crucial and bloody battle. The South, which had come close to forcing the North to the bargaining table, lost the battle and never recovered. Dozens of tour buses traverse the 6,000-acre military park each day, bringing visitors to admire hundreds of statues and monuments and view battle landmarks such as Little Round Top and the Peach Orchard. http://civilwarcavalry.com/?p=745 29) The Forest Service is proposing to log over 1,000 acres near a section of the Allegheny River populated by the critically endangered northern riffleshell mussel. This mussel survives in less than 5 percent of its former range. Dams and reservoirs have flooded most of the northern riffleshell's habitat and intensive logging and oil and gas drilling pose serious additional threats. Erosion caused by logging and road construction for oil and gas drilling adds silt to streams and rivers which can clog the mussel's feeding siphons and even smother it. Oil and gas drilling has already taken a heavy toll over the past several years in this area. Nearly 1,000 oil and gas wells have been drilled in this area and some portions of the project area have an oil or gas well every seven acres. This has resulted in average road densities exceeding 9 miles of road per square mile of land in some drainages. The Forest Service even admits that many of these oil and gas roads " are contributing large volumes of sediment to the streams. " Frankly, it is reckless for the Forest Service to propose more intense logging within watersheds that have already been so heavily impacted by previous logging and drilling. What this area needs is immediate restoration to protect and restore water quality in an effort to recover the northern riffleshell mussel as well as the clubshell mussel which is located downstream of the project area. Please contact the Forest Service and tell them to withdraw this senseless proposal and instead develop a comprehensive watershed restoration plan for this area. http://www.heartwood.org/action.html Massachusetts: 30) Bill and Ann Rawstron own 101 acres of these wooded hills, meadows and fields, parts of which are visible from nearby Rte. 290. The Rawstrons put 62 acres of their land into permanent conservation trust through Sudbury Valley Trustees, and hired Plourde to prepare a stewardship plan for the entire property. " I think our feathered and furry friends appreciate it, " said Bill Rawstron Privately owned forests, like the Rawstrons', make up 78 percent of the 3 million acres of forests and woodlands throughout the state, according to the Council of Massachusetts Foresters. However, only 17 percent of those land owners use licensed foresters to evaluate the land and implement forest management plans, said Council of Massachusetts Foresters director John Newton. " There's an awful lot of misunderstanding and lack of awareness of what a forester actually does, " he said. Plourde knows how many acres of woodland he works with (7,000 to 8,000) better than he knows how many land owners he works for (maybe 100?) throughout Worcester County. He has been a forester for 17 years and works for Broad Arrow Forestry out of Worcester, which does land management, conservation, development and design. The Rawstrons found Plourde through advice from the Sudbury Valley Trustees, and began working with him a few years ago. Plourde evaluated the Rawstron land and wrote a land-management plan that included steps to harvest trees in a healthy, sustainable way on 22 acres. " It's like weeding a garden, " said Plourde. " Really good forestry is trying to encourage the growth of good, quality trees and regenerating the forest. " Foresters look to encourage a diversity of tree species that will be beneficial to the wildlife, said Plourde. The Rawstron land has a mix of oak, maple, hickory, pine and beech trees. Two summers ago, as part of the land-management plan he wrote for the Rawstrons, Plourde marked trees for loggers to remove. Some areas remain thick with trees, while others are less dense, which allows the sunlight to reach the forest floor and help seedlings thrive. The branches and tree debris left by logging break down and provide nutrients for the soil and the young seedlings. The logs were trucked away to be made into saw logs, pulpwood and firewood. And while logging is sometimes looked at in a negative light, thinning the Rawstrons' forest makes it healthier and is being done in a sustainable way, said Plourde. http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/multimedia/x2124111849 Tennessee: 31) On Thursday, the state Department of Agriculture announced that more than 8,200 acres of forest were damaged in the storms. The estimated value of all that timber is more than $10 million, and state officials said they worry that insects and disease could hurt the trees that are left. State workers are holding workshops in Lewis County on Monday and in Macon County on Tuesday to address the concerns. http://www.wsmv.com/community/15914957/detail.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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