Guest guest Posted July 10, 2008 Report Share Posted July 10, 2008 --Today for you 34 new articles about earth's trees! (370th edition) --You can now RSS tree news in a regional format at: http://forestpolicyresearch.org --To Subscribe / to the world-wide email format send a blank email to: earthtreenews- OR earthtreenews- In this issue: PNW-USA Index: --Alaska: 1) Destroying National Park forests by giving 'em to native corporate loggers --Washington: 2) Restoring 2,500 acres of urban forest, 3) Giving up a strong Spotted Owl court case in exchange for a weak partially secret " settlement, " --Oregon: 5) Corrupt timber thieves finally take over 9th circuit court of appeals, 6) BLM's forest protection and how Reagan shut' em down, 7) Mount Pisgah logging planned, 8) WOPR politics continue, 9) More on Lying timber thieves taking over 9th circuit court of appeals, 10) Thinning younger forests too often increase fire hazards, 11) Blowdown logging is all that's left of the industry? 12) New state panel to " save " owls outnumbers enviros 7-4, --California: 13) Sierra Pacific tries to take over PL/Maxxam's bankruptcy trial, 14) Berkeley treesit confrontation escalating every day! 15) Treesit at UCSC continues! 16) Tree kills human, now humans want to kill too many trees in San Francisco, 17) What is a " climate-change refugia? " is it fantasy or fiction? --Montana: 18) Great Montana Land Swindle of 2008, 19) More on Smith Creek timber sale lawsuit, 20) More on great land swindle, --Colorado: 21) Outlawing forest ecosystems in the name of fighting beetles --Illinois: 22) Shawnee National forest destruction needs you written opposition! --Ohio: 23) Emerald Ash Borer expands range & tree destruction plans fail to stop it! 24) Climate change lets tree-killing Kudzu range expand, --Indiana: 25) Timber sale program on Indiana's State Forests needs your comments --Tennessee: 26) Logging, burning & herbicides is wrong plan: comments needed! --Georgia: 27) Tree protest in Savannah --Massachusets: 28) Thoreaus notes on 400 Plant species leads to thorough research! --Vermont: 29) James Madison's Montpelier forest --Pennsylvania: 30) State squish and maim land to be logged --USA: 31) How to get rich investing in stolen forestland, 32) They feed my soul as surely as if the roots were joined to my own veins, 33) USFS kids in the woods fraud, 34) Wildly misleading attempts to increase logging, Articles: Alaska: 1) JUNEAU — An Alaska Native corporation will receive tens of thousands of acres of federally owned land — including prime timberlands and sacred tribal sites — under legislation being advanced by U.S. Rep. Don Young. Sealaska Corp., which represents 17,000 shareholders across Southeast Alaska and beyond, claims it was shorted of land given to the other 11 Alaska-based regional Native corporations under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. A 13th regional corporation, based in Seattle, did not receive any land. Under Young's bill, the corporation will pick and choose about 125 square miles from public lands across the region, bypassing a pool of land already set aside for the purpose — some of which is marine waters. The land deal has upset some Southeast Alaska Natives, communities and sawmill operators, and corporate officers with Sealaska are busy — holding more than 150 meetings across the region so far — trying to smooth the way for its passage. Hoonah tribal members worry about Sealaska's interest in a dozen cultural sites in Glacier Bay National Park, which is the ancestral home of the Hoonah people. In Sitka, residents were alarmed to see several sites selected for small enterprise development where locals like to hunt and recreate. Sawmill operators near Thorne Bay fear the transfer of what are now federal timberlands will put a squeeze on the amount of logs available for local mills. Some of the dozens of small selections were just puzzling. Hoonah Indian Association Executive Director Johanna Once the lands are transferred to Sealaska, the bill would allow the original available pool of land to revert to U.S. Forest Service management. Federal land managers have concerns about the proposed changes to public lands. " I think our biggest concern is the implication of removing sites from a national park. That's kind of major, " said Glacier Bay Superintendent Cherry Payne. Payne also pointed to the Department of Interior's written testimony at a November bill hearing in the House Resources Committee, which warned against setting " undesirable precedents " and said the time and cost of processing the transfer of many small parcels would be significant. http://newsminer.com/news/2008/jul/05/sealaska-looks-legislation-help-settle-lon\ g-standi/ Washington: 2) The Forest Stewards Program of the Green Seattle Partnership, an effort by the City of Seattle and the Cascade Land Conservancy to restore 2,500 acres of urban forest by the year 2020, harnesses the energy and passion of the community to contribute to the effort. Forest stewards act as leaders for small areas in our local green spaces and natural area parks. In turn, the Green Seattle Partnership provides assistance so that individual community-based restoration groups don't have to " reinvent the wheel. " By supporting and enhancing the capabilities of volunteer groups, the Green Seattle Partnership provides an opportunity to establish a foundation for the long-term stewardship and health of our city's forested parklands. For more information on the Partnership, please see http://www.greenseattle.org/ In collaboration with the Green Seattle Partnership, the Washington Native Plant Society has just completed the second year of an annual 10 week training program for Forest Stewards. The 2007 Native Plant Forest Stewards put all they learned to work to restore selected areas in six Seattle parks. For more information about Forest Stewardship, please visit the wnps web site: http://www.wnps.org/ http://www.westseattleherald.com/articles/2008/07/04/interact/columnists/column0\ 4.txt 3) A settlement has been reached in a 2006 environmental lawsuit that sought to block logging on 50,000 acres of private timberland to protect the threatened northern spotted owl. On Thursday, the affected parties announced that a policy working group on spotted owl preservation would be established by the Washington Forest Practices Board. According to a state Department of Natural Resources news release, the working group will look into using private land to contribute strategically to areas already protected by the state and federal government, with the goal of conserving a viable northern spotted owl population. The Seattle and Kittitas Audubon societies filed suit in federal court in Seattle, asking the court to bar logging on certain private timberlands west of the Cascades. The lawsuit targeted four sites owned by the Weyerhaeuser Co. in southwest Washington where spotted owls have been seen, citing them as examples of sites where the court should order the state Forest Practices Board to ban logging. The environment groups said state rules offered no " meaningful protection " for the owls outside 13 " special emphasis " areas where the state offers specific protections. The owl is listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. Along with loss of habitat, the northern spotted owl also faces competition from other owl species. Weyerhaeuser spokeswoman Kristen Sawin said Thursday that scientific research will determine how private land can strategically contribute to protection of the spotted owl's environment. The settlement maintains habitat around the four owl site centers that were the focus of the Audubon action against Weyerhaeuser, the state news release said, adding that other settlement details between the forest products company and the plaintiffs were confidential. The goal is to create science-based solutions to the spotted owls' needs, said Patty Henson, a state Natural Resources spokeswoman. The working group will include representatives of private companies, conservation agencies and a broad array of state offices, including the governor's office, Henson added. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008032916_apwaspottedowl.html Oregon: 4) The timber harvest last year was down twelve percent compared to 2006. State, federal, and private land in Oregon produced three-point-eight billion board feet of timber last year. The historic low is three-point-four billion board feet. Gary Lettman is a forest economist with the Oregon Department of Forestry. He says the demand for timber is down, along with the housing market. Gary Lettman: " You know, overall the industry has done quite well given the demand shocks it's had, but I think there's some areas where we really need to focus on keeping the mills operating and you know keeping jobs for the Oregonians in these more rural communities. " Lettman says mills in eastern Oregon are especially vulnerable because they aren't receiving as many logs. And he says the timber harvest this year is expected to be even lower than last year. http://news.opb.org/article/2537-oregons-timber-harvest-continues-decline/ 5) Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., has always been a champion of the timber industry and logging on federal lands in his nearly 12 years in the Senate. But it has turned out to be his brother, Milan Smith, who has made the big difference in the logging debate. Milan Smith, a Bush appointee to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, persuaded his fellow judges to rule that the courts need to step back and provide more deference to the logging plans developed by public agencies. As Michael Milstein of The Oregonian explains: The ruling redefines the standards for when federal judges in much of the West can stop a logging project, tilting the playing field against critics of logging on public lands. Smith, the oldest of 10 children and a mentor to his brother, played a crucial role in the case, which stemmed from an Idaho timber sale that environmentalists have sought to block. A year ago, when the Idaho case first came before the court, Smith angrily criticized the 9th Circuit court - widely seen as particularly friendly to environmentalists - for meddling too much in decisions made by the Forest Service. This " blunderbuss " approach has devastated the Northwest timber industry, he said. Typically, the 9th Circuit hears cases in three-judge panels. But Smith persuaded the court to reconsider the case, resulting in Thursday's rare " en banc " decision by the full court adopting his reasoning. http://blog.oregonlive.com/mapesonpolitics/2008/07/this_smith_brother_made_the_d\ i.html 6) I was the BLM's forestry planning chief through much of the 1970s and early 1980s. I'd like to set the record straight. We completed a forest inventory and a proposed land use plan revision in 1980. It had become quite clear by that time that the old growth ecosystem was about to disappear throughout Western Oregon. It already had been essentially liquidated on industrial forest land. Given then-current levels of sustained-¬yield timber production, the old growth ecosystem was within a decade or two of being liquidated on much of the BLM lands. The Endangered Species Act was in place at that time, but the spotted owl had not yet been listed as endangered. An interagency task force was convened to determine the minimum number and distribution of owl habitat sites that would need to be protected if the spotted owl were to be kept from being listed as officially endangered. The BLM's allocation was a total of 90 sites. We used those 90 sites as core locations for a distribution of old growth stands that we thought sufficient to maintain the old growth ecosystem. As part of our plan, we included connector corridors to provide for genetic flow among the sites, as well as extended harvest rotation areas and other provisions to manage for a reasonable distribution of the old growth ecosystem over time. We took our new proposal back to Washington, D.C., where we presented it to the newly minted Reagan political appointees that made up the top echelons of the Department of Interior and the BLM. Their responses still are indelibly fixed in my mind: " The spotted owl will not be listed during this administration, " they said. " This administration will raise timber production, not lower it. " As to the first, they were correct in that the spotted owl did not become listed as officially endangered until the early days of the first President Bush's administration. As to the second, they were badly off the mark. Rather than accept a reasonable 20 percent reduction in timber output, which would have provided a reduced but still reasonable level of receipts back to the counties, the Reaganites set us off on a tortuous path that eventually led to a 90 percent reduction in timber output and the resultant need for fiscal help from Congress. http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=1234\ 93 & sid=5 & fid=1 7) If you start seeing trees getting logged close to the summit trail on Mount Pisgah in the near future, don't freak out. It's a white oak restoration project, and it looks like local enviros are willing to sacrifice a couple of Douglas firs for the greater good of Oregon's endangered oak savannas. Chris Orsinger, executive director of Friends of Buford Park (FBP), the conservation group that oversees the 2,300 acre Howard Buford Recreation Area, is excited about the approximately 60 acre restoration project. But Orsinger worries that unprepared hikers on Pisgah might mistake the " thinning " of Douglas firs that is part of what's called a " habitat restoration project " designed to benefit native wildlife for nonbeneficial, for-profit logging. The project, Orsinger says, will remove mainly 10- to 15-year-old Douglas firs that have encroached into the white oak habitat. The oldest trees to be cut are guessed to be about 75 years old. " There are no 'old-growth' conifers in this demonstration area, " says Orsinger. The taller Douglas firs overshadow the oaks, but once they are removed, the oaks are able to develop broader canopies, improve their acorn production and provide habitat for 189 at-risk species including endangered Fender's blue butterfly, threatened Kincaid's lupine and endangered Willamette Valley daisies. Less than 2 percent of Oregon's native white oak savannas remains, according to the Nature Conservancy, which calls the Willamette Valley a " crisis ecoregion " and " critically endangered. " Oak savannas are also home to Oregon's state bird, the western meadowlark, as well as northern pygmy owls and western bluebirds. Oak savannas were once supported by frequent fires through the valley set by the native peoples who encouraged the oak habitats and prairies that provided acorns and camas to be harvested for food. The Oregon White Oak Pilot Project will involve not only removing the Douglas firs but controlling invasive vegetation and using prescribed burns to maintain the habitat. Members of the project are still debating what will be done with the Douglas firs that have been logged. There are three possibilities: The trees can be girdled and turned to snags that will host woodpeckers and other species. The logs might be moved to stream restoration projects at the park. http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2008/07/03/news2.html 8) The final details of a logging plan for 2.2 million acres of public Oregon forests are still being drafted, but 13 elected officials from Multnomah south to Jackson County aren't waiting to see the final document. They've sent a letter to the governor asking him to make sure it protects the oldest trees in the woods. The letter, sent on Monday, asks Gov. Ted Kulongoski to use his power to change the direction of the Western Oregon Plan Revision, known as the WOPR, the document describing Bureau of Land Management plans to increase logging on its forests. " We believe there are a variety of reasons why the WOPR is heading in the wrong direction for Oregon. These include WOPR's inadequate attention to the values BLM lands provide for the quality of life for Oregonians, in¬accurate economic assumptions about county revenue, and ignoring impacts from climate change and the potential for public land management to mitigate those impacts, " the letter reads. Those who signed it include Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy, along with Eugene city councilors Bonny Bettman and Betty Taylor, and Lane County commissioners Peter Sorenson and Bill Fleenor. For the past 15 years, management on BLM forests was governed by the Northwest Forest Plan, which severely curtailed logging in order to protect at-risk species. But a settlement between the timber industry and the Bush administration required the BLM to come up with a new plan emphasizing its original mandate to manage its forests for timber production. http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=1232\ 54 & sid=4 & fid=1 9) " The common understanding of the term 'live' is, quite simply, 'not dead.' " It may sound like something out of a Monty Python movie, but the above is actually a portion of the plaintiff's argument in a U.S. Court of Appeals case decided last month in the Ninth Circuit. Environmentalists had issued a challenge to salvage logging on the Umatilla National Forest in eastern Oregon following a 2005 fire. The appeals case hinged on two points, one concerning so-called uninventoried roadless areas and the other — believe it or not — having to do with the definitions of " live " and " dead. " The plaintiffs — including The Lands Council and Oregon Wild — argued that there's really not much of a grey area between alive and not so alive, but the Forest Service claimed " live " is a technical term that doesn't include dying trees. The court ruled in the agency's favor, with the result that the Forest Service can make the call that a tree is likely to die and thus legally log it as salvage. (The ruling only applies to the specific salvage project that followed the 2005 fire in the Umatilla.) But on the other matter — uninventoried roadless areas — environmentalists won the day. The court ruled that the agency failed to take the " hard look " required under the National Environmental Policy Act when it chose to conduct salvage logging on several of these areas following the Umatilla fire. (Inventoried roadless areas are Forest Service lands without roads or development that the government identified in one of two reviews conducted in the 1970s. Uninventoried roadless areas are similar pieces of land that were missed in those reviews.) In Oregon alone, three million of the five million acres of roadless areas are uninventoried (and all swathes of land 1,000 acres or greater). Prior to the decision, the Forest Service's activities on these lands were often not subject to public review. Now, says Ralph Bloemers, attorney for the plaintiffs, uninventoried areas in the Ninth Circuit will be subject to the same public review process as the inventoried. " It's not a prohibition on going into these areas, " Bloemer says, " but it shines the light of day on the Forest Service's operations. " http://blog.hcn.org/goat/2008/07/08/wanted-dead-or-mostly-dead/ 10) Claims are being made that " thinning " Oregon's younger forest will reduce wildfire risks and restore " forest health " . The timber industry and Forest Service call these forests " overstocked " . National and regional environmental groups – including Oregon Wild – have signaled that they can live with " thinning " as proposed by Wyden and DeFazio if Old Growth is protected. But, while the claimed benefit of " thinning " have been endorsed by major environmental organizations, both forest research and experience on the ground indicates that " thinning " - as proposed by Wyden and DeFazio - will not reduce the risk from wildfire or " restore " federal forests. That's because the bills would rely on the traditional timber sale contract to " thin " federal forest. The US Forest Service timber sale contract is a great tool if the task is getting logs to the mills. But it is a very poor tool if the task is to restore our forests - reducing the risk to people, communities and wildlife from catastrophic wildfire. Here's why: In order for a federal timber sale to attract buyers, the timber companies must be able to make money on the sale. But most federal forests are remote and steep. This means high logging and log hauling costs. As a result, in order to create a timber sale that will actually attract buyers, Forest Service planners must either log the larger trees or they must reduce the forest canopy radically by having loggers removing most of the trees. But when you remove that much canopy shade small trees and brush sprout and grow prolifically. Within 5 years or so the risk of catastrophic wildfire has dramatically increased. Also, immediately after logging the open canopy increases sunlight and wind on the forest floor. Forest fuels dry sooner and this also increases fire risk. Furthermore, economic considerations often cause Forest Service planners to forgo requiring the timber company purchasing the timber sale to remove or burn slash - that is, the limbs and small trees left on the forest floor after logging.The increased wildfire risk which result from excessive " thinning " will persist for 30 or more years until slash decomposes and trees grow enough to form a closed canopy which once again shades out highly flammable brush. The Wyden and DeFazio forest bills would deliver federal logs to the mills and end Old Growth logging on federal forests in Oregon. But they would increase rather than decrease wildfire threat to people and communities near federal forests. http://blog.hcn.org/goat/2008/07/09/oregon-federal-forest-bills-won%E2%80%99t-re\ duce-fire-ris k-or-restore-forests/ 11) TILLER — It was the perfect scenario for a timber blow-down: Gusts of wind ripped through the southern section of the Umpqua National Forest at speeds between 70 and 80 mph, toppling Douglas firs anchored by shallow root systems in the loose soil already saturated with rainwater. The windstorm that passed that November night claimed possibly thousands of acres of timber on the Tiller Ranger District. U.S. Forest Service officials are still unsure how much fell. " It was quite catastrophic, " said Tiller District Ranger Roshanna Stone. Instead, Forest Service officials are focusing on salvaging trees from a 250-acre area of Tallow Creek, part of the Jackson Creek drainage area, so the timber can be sold and delivered to mills at market value. The more quickly the Forest Service gets the sale moving, the more money it will be worth. Stu Carlson, the Forest Service's team leader for the Tallow Salvage Sale, said that a logging crew could begin removing up to 4 million board feet of timber by early fall. Paul Beck, timber manager for Herbert Lumber in Riddle, said the value of timber quickly decimates after trees lay on the forest floor for about three years — " it's pretty much toast " — and it's no longer salable to stud mills or veneer mills. http://www.nrtoday.com/article/20080709/NEWS/974363482 12) This week, the state's Forest Practices Board approved the formation of a working group to wrestle with matter of how to increase the Northwest's owl numbers. The owls -- which have been protected under the Endangered Species Act since 1990 -- have seen their numbers slip, rather than rebound. In 2006, environmentalists sued to stop logging on 50,000 acres of private timberland to protect the birds. As their settlement, this working group was formed and everyone promised to hold off on lawsuits for three years. The group will have at least 11 members, including four enviros, four timber folks and three representatives of state government. They're supposed to have recommendations completed by November 2009. Some of the stuff they'll be considering: 1) Creating incentives for landowners to survey for owls and protect them on their property. (Right now knowing about and saving owls comes at a price -- namely, limits on logging.) 2) Discussion of the role of barred owls, a larger more aggressive competitor, suspected of driving out spotted owls. More information is needed, but even Shawn Cantrell, executive director of Seattle Audubon, said his group is willing to talk about trapping and/or killing the invading barred owls. 3) What to do about " owl circles " -- the protected habitat around known nesting sites. http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/environment/archives/142969.asp California: 13) This week, in what we hope are the final days of the Pacific Lumber (PL) bankruptcy proceedings, Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) inserted itself into the process. Archie " Red " Emmerson, SPI's owner and chief executive, was in the Corpus Christi, Texas courtroom pressing his offer to purchase PL's Scotia mill, an offer buttressed by 10 declarations from local timber luminaries like Dennis Scott and Bob Barnum. Opinions differ as to what SPI actually intends to achieve, but any student of California timber will tell you it's not a great idea to get between Red Emmerson and something he wants. We at EPIC think it's unlikely SPI will prevail this time. The Scotia mill is not for sale, and would only be sold if bondholders manage to derail the Mendocino Redwood Company (MRC) plan to reorganize Pacific Lumber with a new argument that the value of the timberland has declined during the bankruptcy process. It's unlikely the bondholders will win, not least because they are arguing against their own previous claim that the land was worth more than MRC's offer. SPI has earned a reputation for sharp elbows. In the Sierra counties where SPI appears to be systematically converting thousands of acres of timberlands to massive housing developments, citizens are organizing to resist the harm rural sprawl does to their communities. According to Cal Fire officials, after the 2002 Sour Grass fire in Calaveras County caused by an out-of-control SPI burn pile, the state of California had to take SPI to court to recover only $500,000 of the more than $940,000 taxpayers spent fighting the fire. In April 2007, SPI settled a class-action suit filed on behalf of hundreds of SPI truck drivers for $2.4 million; drivers alleged they had been forced to work 15-hour shifts without the breaks the law requires. SPI seems to have a hard time taking pollution control laws seriously. Just last year, SPI was assessed a $13 million fine for air quality violations, one of the largest penalties ever levied by the California Air Resources Board. The charges included " falsification of emission reports as a result of operator tampering with monitoring equipment, " as well as repeated violations of emissions limits and other serious violations. SPI even has the gall to package old-growth liquidation and clearcut forestry as a panacea for global climate change. http://www.times-standard.com/opinion/ci_9815116 14) Tensions escalated outside UC Berkeley's Memorial Stadium Sunday, following a confrontation between Berkeley City Council-member Dona Spring and campus Assistant Police Chief Mitch Celaya. Spring, who uses a wheelchair because she has severe rheumatoid arthritis, demanded access to the city-owned sidewalk on the west side of Piedmont Avenue, where university police have blocked off the sidewalk. To police, the sidewalk is now an ongoing crime scene, so declared after supporters of the 18-month-old tree-sit in the adjacent grove used to it re-supply the protesters in the branches above. " I want access to the sidewalk, " said the councilmember. " You don't have the right to keep me off the sidewalk. " " It's a matter of public safety, " said Celaya. " You're endangering my safety, " Spring replied. Moments later, Celaya backed away and the crowd of protesters surged forward. What happened next wasn't visible to a reporter, but someone breached two sections of the police barrier, triggering a tug of war between protesters¬ who hoped to force their way in with food, water and other supplies for the tree-sitters¬and Celaya and his officers. It was Celaya himself who led the counter-charge, struggling to bring the two now widely separated barriers together with the help of other officers while protesters struggled to pull them apart. In the midst of the fray, police arrested Matthew Taylor inside the barricade, where he joined the ranks of prominent supporters arrested in recent days for their attempts to send food to the nine remaining tree-sitters. He was followed to the pokey a little more than an hour later by Terry Compost, another activist prominent in her support of the arboreal activists. Police earlier had arrested Ayr, perhaps the most visible of the supporters, and at least five other supporters have been arrested in recent days. Following the confrontation at the barriers, protesters managed to block the northbound lane of Piedmont Avenue, forcing hapless motorists caught in mid-protest to back out of the scene. Meanwhile, lawyers for both sides in the ongoing struggle over the university's building plans for the Memorial Stadium area were rushing to prepare rival documents for Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara J. Miller, who will issue her conclusive order after reviewing both submissions. http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2008-06-26/article/30374?headline=Confr\ ontation-at-Sta dium-Triggers-New-Arrests 15) Summer Get-together at Science Hill Tree Sit Monday, July 7th, starting at 3:00pm -- Dear Friends, It's mid-summer now, and this coming Monday, there will be another gathering in the Parking Lot below the Tree-Sit. This will be a space to show support for the tree-sitters and an opportunity to discuss current and future resistance to the Long Range Development Plan. We will also hear the latest from the imperiled Berkeley tree-sit. Please consider bringing food, music, art and encouragement in any form to share with each other and send up to the trees. We are still in need of non-perishible food, sealed 5 gallon jugs of water and clean/empty buckets with lids. Many thanks. Now in its 8th month of persistance, the tree-sit at Science Hill will continue to hold fast until the development plans in Upper Campus are called off. - Ground squirrels lrdpresistance 16) Three months after a large branch snapped off a Stern Grove tree and killed a woman, San Francisco officials said Thursday that there are still more than 100 hazardous trees that need to be removed there - and probably thousands of others throughout the city that need to be pruned or cut down. Work to trim or remove the trees at Stern Grove and elsewhere is under way, but it has been slow because the city doesn't have enough forestry staff, said Dennis Kern, director of operations for the Recreation and Park Department. There are 100,000 trees spread among the department's 3,500 acres of parkland, Kern said, and only three tree crews. Each crew is made up of two or three tree climbers and one laborer. One of the crews is now working fulltime on Stern Grove's 2,600 trees. The agency isn't likely to hire more tree trimmers anytime soon because the city faces a $338 million budget deficit for the 2008-09 fiscal year. However, the department may get some help with equipment and planning through a recently passed park bond: $4 million of the $185 million issue is earmarked for the urban forestry program. At the hearing before a Board of Supervisors committee, which was called in response to the death of Kathleen Bolton in Stern Grove on April 14, Kern said decades of neglect have made the problem more severe. The department doesn't really know how many trees in the city would be considered hazardous by arborists because only three areas - Stern Grove, Park Presidio and Washington Square - have undergone recent assessments, he said. " Over the decades, had there been a larger or more regular effort dedicated to tree management, it could have put the entire city in better position, " Kern said. Storms and other unforeseen events also strain resources. A January windstorm felled more than 350 trees on city parkland and took months to clean up. Some speakers at the public hearing, however, decried trees' health at many parks, including Stern Grove, SoMa's South Park and Buena Vista Park in the Haight-Ashbury. To completely catch up at Stern Grove will take years, said Kern. But he insisted that the dangerous trees are not located near the park's most popular spots, including the meadow where free concerts are held every Sunday in the summer. Marilyn McAllister, a friend of Bolton's, said the department is overstating Stern Grove's safety. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/03/BASP11JLCN.DTL 17) The authors identified several " climate-change refugia " scattered around the state. These are places where large numbers of the plants hit the hardest by climate change are projected to relocate and hang on. Many of these refugia are in the foothills of coastal mountains such as the Santa Lucia Mountains along California's Central Coast, the Transverse Ranges separating the Central Valley from Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Mountains east of Los Angeles. Many of these areas are already under increasing pressure from encroaching suburban development. " There's a real potential for sheltering a large portion of the flora in these refugia if they are kept wild and if plants can reach them in time, " Loarie said. The authors argue that it's not too early to prepare for this eventuality by protecting corridors through which plants can move to such refugia, and maybe even assisting plants in reestablishing themselves in new regions. " Part of me can't believe that California's flora will collapse over a period of 100 years, " Ackerly said. " It's hard to comprehend the potential impacts of climate change. We haven't seen such drastic changes in the last 200 years of human history, since we have been cataloguing species. " Ackerly, Loarie and colleagues at UC Berkeley, Duke University in Durham, N.C., California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo and Texas Tech University in Lubbock report their findings in the open-access journal PLoS ONE, which appears online June 25. The researchers spent four years mining the data from more than 16 plant collections around the state, in particular from the University and Jepson Herbaria of UC Berkeley, to assess the climatic ranges of more than 2,000 California endemic plants. These represent almost 40 percent of the 5,500 native plants in the California Floristic Province, which includes most of the state except for the deserts and the Modoc Plateau in the northeast, and also includes parts of southern Oregon and northern Baja California. The plants assessed include individual species, as well as subspecies and varieties. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080625073809.htm Montana: 18) The Great Montana Land Swindle of 2008: On June 30 Senator Max Baucus announced the purchase of 320,000 acres of Plum Creek Timber Company-owned land by two conservation groups, The Nature Conservancy and The Trust for Public Land. It is the biggest Montana land swindle in many years, perhaps since the days of the 19th Century railroad barons. The so-called Montana Legacy Project will use $500 million in taxpayer monies to enrich Plum Creek, TNC, and TTPL and will provide no significant change in actual land management or environmental stewardship. In fact, stewardship will diminish. The funds will come from the U.S. Treasury through a slick earmark Baucus inserted into the recent Farm Bill, passed by Congress over President George W. Bush's veto. In addition to the $500 million to be given to the above named corporations, the Farm Bill also gave a $182 million tax break to the Weyerhaeuser Corporation. " Spokesmen for the conservation groups said the deal will preserve the land for wildlife habitat, public recreation and sustainable forestry. " Unfortunately, the land deal will do no such thing. What it will guarantee is catastrophic fire, the destruction of wildlife habitat, the elimination of public recreation, and conversion of forest to brush. Just as Plum Creek's holdings came from U.S. Government giveaways, so to do those of The Nature Conservancy and The Trust for Public Land. Our quasi-socialist system of giving land entitlements to billion-dollar corporations does not lead to stewardship because it removes all private incentive for asset care and improvement. Furthermore, such actions rob the public of funds and of any substantial use what were once public lands. http://westinstenv.org/sosf/2008/07/06/the-great-montana-land-swindle-of-2008/ 19) Groups against logging planned in the Gallatin National Forest north of Livingston have sued the Forest Service, eight days after naming it in a lawsuit that challenged logging planned southwest of Butte. The case filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court by the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council says the Gallatin logging would violate the forest's overarching plan and its provisions for Yellowstone cutthroat trout, big game, old-growth trees and dead trees. The Smith Creek Timber Sale would be on 692 acres in the Crazy Mountains, according to the suit. Sharon Hapner, a resident of the Smith Creek area, joined the two groups as a plaintiff. Steve Kratville of the public affairs staff at the Forest Service regional office in Missoula said Wednesday the case had not been reviewed by the agency and it had no immediate comment. On June 23, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council sued over plans for logging [correction — fuel removal and treatment] in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest about 10 miles southwest of Butte. Both cases were filed in Missoula. http://westinstenv.org/news/2008/07/06/enviro-groups-sue-forest-service-over-gal\ latin-vegetatio n-treatment-project/ 20) In a Washington Post piece entitled, 'Closed-Door Deal Could Open Land In Montana–Forest Service Angers Locals With Move That May Speed Building', we learn that the Bush regime has been instrumental in pimping some virgin forest land to a logger-turned-developer named Plum Creek Timber Co. Bush's 'gumba' in this operation was Forestry Servce Undersecretary Mark Rey, who has distiguished himself, prior to this appointment, with decades of lobbying service to the logging industry. Former Republican President, Theodore Roosevelt spent a great deal of energy setting up the forestry service, this regime wants to auction, EBay-style, all of the Federal Government's forrestry assets. As a citizen, one can't help but feel betrayed. But the whole boondogle begs a bigger question: Don't these guys watch the news? Is there more room in the country for pressed-board castles, bought with cut-rate mortgages in far-flung places? http://bryoung.wordpress.com/2008/07/05/montana-forests/ Colorado: 21) Steamboat Springs — City officials are asking Steamboat Springs property owners with trees infected by the pine bark beetle to remove the dead trees as soon as possible. Employees with the Steam¬boat Springs Parks, Open Space and Recreational Services Department are mailing, and in some cases hand-delivering, letters to residents with infected trees on their property, asking them to remove the trees according to city law. The letter contains a copy of Chapter 24 of the Steamboat Springs Municipal Code, which requires corrective action be taken to remove infected trees within 15 days of being notified. Wilson said dead trees pose a fire hazard and can fall into creeks and rivers. Limbs also can break off, causing damage to nearby houses and cars. He said infected trees can cause the epidemic to spread to other trees that haven't been infected. http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2008/jul/05/beetle_causing_fire_hazard_urban_\ forests/ Illinois: 22) The Shawnee National Forest is proposing an over 5600 acre prescribed burn, using both ground and aerial (helicopter) ignition, (napalm) in the Illinois Ozarks west of Carbondale. This is way beyond any proportion of any natural wildfires that have occured in the area. In fact, the agency's own documents admit that there has been almost no wildfires in the area for decades. This kind of burn is going to devastate the forest. It will fragment the habitat, kill non-target organisms, cause increased soil erosion, degrade air quality, and probably most significantly, create heat and release stored carbon into the air. This is just more of the Forest Service's " make work " programs - spending up money that should be going for fire prevention in high risk fire areas out west. Please help us stop this crazy idea. For more information: http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/forests/shawnee/projects/projects/ea/2008/buttermilk/ Please fill out all blanks in the form and then press the " send comments " button at the bottom. If you have time, please modify this letter to reflect your personal concerns. http://heartwood.org/action.html?id=154 Ohio: 23) Four years ago, agriculture officials descended on Hicksville, Ohio, cut down every ash tree in sight and reduced the logs to mulch in huge chippers. The scorched-earth policy was part of a desperate attempt to halt the spread of the emerald ash borer, an Asian beetle that got into the U.S. on wooden boxes loaded onto freighters and proceeded to destroy millions of ash trees in Michigan and other states. It didn't work. The emerald ash borer continued to spread. Eventually, the practice of removing all the ash trees from infested areas was abandoned, and news about the insect, once a crisis, faded. Now, Fort Wayne, 40 miles from Hicksville, is infested, too. Fourteen of the sixteen townships in Allen County have been invaded by the bug, some the result of infected nursery stock planted at a new shopping center and most because people hauled ash logs containing the insect into the townships for use as firewood, says city arborist Bill Diedrichs. Most people probably have a so-what attitude toward the problem. They don't seem to realize that 25 percent of all the trees lining Fort Wayne's streets, nearly 14,000, are ash, and that doesn't count the thousands of ash trees found in parks, woods and private yards around the city. http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080706/LOCAL0201/8070\ 60407/1002/LOCAL 24) ATHENS — Kim Brown doesn't have to travel far across Ohio to hold climate change in her hand. Standing along a road in Athens, she pulls at a leaf from a voracious plant that has swallowed entire forests in the south. " Kudzu is limited by the cold nighttime temperatures, " said Brown, a former environmental and plant biologist at Ohio University who now works as education manager at Franklin Park Conservatory. " Until recently, it couldn't grow in Ohio. " But kudzu isn't the end of it. " There will be winners and losers in global warming, " she said. Brown and Jyh-Min Chiang, her former doctoral student at OU who now teaches Earth sciences at Tunghai University in Taiwan, are among a number of researchers predicting how forests might look (and act) under different climate-change models. Chiang looked at sections of forests in southeastern Ohio, northern Arkansas, northern Wisconsin and central Maine for his doctoral dissertation, which he hopes will be published in a research journal this year. Not only will Ohio forests change in terms of species, but rising temperatures probably would reduce their ability to lock and hold carbon. All plants remove carbon dioxide from the air and release oxygen during photosynthesis. At the same time, they absorb oxygen and release carbon dioxide during respiration, Brown said. Photosynthesis rates are not affected much by warming, but respiration rates increase at higher temperatures. That means plants increase carbon-dioxide output, she said. Louis R. Iverson, a research landscape ecologist at the U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station in Delaware, Ohio, sought the carbon study. http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/science/stories/2008/07/08/sci_hot_\ forest.ART_ART_ 07-08-08_B4_1HAL6NH.html?sid=101 Indiana: 25) The Indiana DNR Division of Forestry has released its Environmental Assessment of the timber sale program on Indiana's State Forests. Entitled, Increased Emphasis on Management and Sustainability of Oak-Hickory Communities On the Indiana State Forest System, the DoF proposes to increase logging an additional 2000 acres a year, to double the amount of clear cutting, and to burn thousands of acres of forests. This is an alert from our friends at Indiana Forest Alliance, and we fully support this effort. They are suing the Indiana Division of Forestry over their failure to comply with the Indiana Environmental Protection Act. To try and get around the lawsuit, the Division is trying to slide by with a superficial environmental assessment (EA) for their plan to increase logging on the Indiana state forest system by up to 5 times the current level. The justification for this plan is that Oak-Hickory forests are declining, and must be cut down to save them. They claim that the increased logging will be beneficial for endangered and threatened species, even though they do not have the scientific studies to back up this claim. This is happening even thought the vast majority of the public in Indiana oppose the commercial logging of public lands. Please take a moment to send a comment to the Indiana State Forester. http://www.indianaforestalliance.org Tennessee: 26) The U.S. Forest Service at Land Between the Lakes National Recreation area (LBL) is proposing to allow industrial logging, burning, and herbicide use in the Devil's Backbone natural area in the southern part of LBL. They are proposing this because they claim there are not enough baby shortleaf pine trees coming up. Instead of collecting seed and raising up seedlings and planting them in the understory, they claim that logging with skidders, burning, and then herbiciding trees that didn't get logged will help the shortleaf pine. We don't think so. We also think that this a major federal action that requires a full blown environmental impact statement. Please help us tell the FS to try another way to accomplish this goal. Please fill out all blanks in the form and then press the " send comments " button at the bottom. If you have time, please modify this letter to reflect your personal concerns. Thanks! http://heartwood.org/action.html?id=157 Georgia: 27) SAVANNAH - Several people are upset about a project on the southeast corner of DeRenne Avenue and Abercorn Street. People living nearby were protesting at the busy intersection early this morning. Abercorn and DeRenne is no doubt one of Savannah's busiest intersections. To reduce some of the traffic, the Department of Transportation is adding another turn lane for people turning right from Abercorn onto DeRenne. This project is upsetting some people like Susu Cox and Beth Kinstlar because the expansion is causing a reduction in trees at the corner. Five have already been removed, and the trees marked with tape are going to be cut down as well. " We are passionate about preserving the trees in the area and the residences and the homes and anything that hurts that is detrimental to all residences along DeRenne Avenue, " said Cox. Both Cox and Kinstlar are members of the grassroots effort called Project DeRenne that helps decide what's best for the corridor. The group says they had no idea there were plans for another turn lane. " It was my understanding that nothing would be done along this corridor until the group had the chance to sit down and come up with an alternative, " said Kinstlar. Susan Broker, the director of the citizens office for the city of Savannah, is coordinating Project Derenne. She tells WTOC that the Georgia Department of Transportation has been planning this for years. " It was put into a long range transportation plan 7 maybe even 8 years ago, by the city, county, and the MPO, and now the funding was there and the Georgia Department of Transportation was going to do this, " said Broker. http://www.wtoctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8642209 & nav=menu89_2 Massachusetts: 28) By retracing this young naturalist's footsteps, not once but twice in the past century, researchers have been able to chronicle the fate of hundreds of plant species as the New England climate has changed since Thoreau's time. Using that data, Harvard University graduate student Charles Willis and colleagues have detected a disturbing pattern, one that he described last week in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the Evolution 2008 meeting. By building a flora family tree that incorporates the " Thoreau " species and mapping onto the tree each plant's response to the 2°C increase in the region's average temperature since the famed author was at Walden Pond, the researchers have discovered that climate change has placed whole groups of plants at risk and that the more charismatic wildflowers that prompt conservation efforts, such as orchids, are among the most vulnerable. The study is " an intriguing combination of historical data sets and modern molecular methods to address in a very novel way climate change effects, " says Carol Horvitz, a plant evolutionary ecologist at the University of Miami, Florida. " I think it's brilliant. " Many studies have looked at how global warming may cause shifts in where plants grow, but very few have examined how specific traits, such as flowering time, are affected. The necessary long-term records rarely exist. But for 6 years, Thoreau tracked the life histories of more than 400 plant species in a 67-square-kilometer area. Another researcher covered the same ground at Walden Pond and its surrounds circa 1900. Then from 2004 to 2007, Boston University (BU) conservation biologist Richard Primack and his student Abraham Miller-Rushing regularly visited the area to make similar observations of about 350 species and to check how the abundances of these plants had changed through time. Their data, published in February in Ecology, revealed that many flowers were blossoming a week earlier than in Thoreau's time. They noted also that about half of the species studied had decreased in number, with 20% having disappeared entirely. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/321/5885/24b Vermont: 29) From the first step into the landmark forest at James Madison's Montpelier in Orange County, a visitor knows there's something different about these woods. The shade is thick, and the trees that make it are giants. Tulip trees grow tall and straight for 80 feet before spreading their limbs out to hog the sunlight. Some top out at 120 feet. Their trunks are so wide three long-armed people might barely be able to circle them and touch fingers. Oaks, too--mostly red oaks and white oaks--tower over the forest floor. Walking into these woods is an uncommon experience, because the woods have an uncommon history. For at least 300 years, since the days of James Madison's grandfather, this 200-acre span of forest has been left to grow as it grows, without being widely cleared for farmland or divested of its timbers. Just one main road cut through the forest in the old days, wide enough then for ox-pulled wagons that carried wheat and corn to and from a gristmill. Now that road is no more than a broad path that slopes gently upward, past trees too big to describe with small words. At Montpelier, this forest is known simply as the Big Woods, and visitors to the property this Sunday are invited to take a guided walk through, led by chief horticulturist Sandy Mudrinich and senior interpreter Pat Dietch. It's not considered a virgin forest, but it can accurately be called old-growth, Mudrinich said. The longest-lived of its tree species, the white oaks, have been allowed to grow undisturbed until they die of old age, up to 300 years from their acorn beginnings. No one knows why this area was left alone, especially since over the years nearly every other inch of Virginia woodland has been cleared or logged at some point in its history. Maybe the Madisons didn't want to cut down trees so close to their home, some speculate. It's known that James Madison, the fourth president, bemoaned " injudicious " destruction of woodlands. http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/072008/07072008/392584 Pennsylvania: 30) More than 50 acres of Pennsylvania Game Commission land just south of Mount Gretna in Lebanon County will be logged late this year or in 2009. The trees to be cut include many dead and dying oaks that have been damaged by gypsy moths, said David Henry, forester for the Game Commission's southeast region. The area to be logged lies along the south and east boundaries of the 3,000-acre Game Land 145, including trees on the west side of Pinch Road, which runs from Mount Gretna into Lancaster County. After a bidding process, the Game Commission expects to award a contract for the logging by the end of September, Henry said. The logger will have a year to finish the job, he said. In the meantime, Game Commission staff will mark trees to save, about 15 to 20 per acre, with red paint. In September, herbicide will be applied to kill ground cover plants that would make it difficult for seedlings to grow. " It's going to look bleak for a couple of months, " Henry said, but he said clearing the dead trees is necessary to start new trees. The Game Commission will plant 1,000 oak seedlings, Henry said. When the seedlings grow to maturity, there will be a lot fewer oak then there are now, Henry said. While about 70 percent of the trees in the affected area are oak, most of the new trees will be maple, beech or tulip poplar, trees common in the rest of that area. http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1215395757111620.x\ ml & coll=1 USA: 31) Investing in timberland has been popular among pension and endowment funds. But individual investors now have access to two U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds offering a play on wood. The iShares S & P Global Timber and Forestry ETF (WOOD-Nasdaq) started trading recently on the heels of the Claymore/Clear Global Timber ETF (CUT-AMEX) launched in December. While the ETFs have appeal because timberland does not move in concert with stock and bond markets, investors should examine their holdings to determine the forest from the trees. " If you are buying these because you think you are getting a good proxy for owing land with farmable trees on it, you are not, " said Scott Burns, a Chicago-based Morningstar analyst who covers ETFs. " There is some of that in there. But it really is timber, forestry, paper and sawmills. " Investing in purer plays such as U.S.-listed timber real estate investment trust (REITS) would be a better bet, he said. Timberland is gaining popularity among long-term investors. Revenue flows from sales to lumber and paper companies. When timber prices are low, owners can stop cutting to let trees grow and increase in value. Land sales also make this asset a real estate play. " If you look at the long-term returns of private timberlands over the last 35 years, it beats all other investment classes by two or three percentage points, " said analyst Richard Kelertas of Dundee Securities. Institutional and wealthy investors can invest directly in timberland through timber investment management organizations, but it costs millions. An individual would need $5-million (U.S.) to invest through Manulife Financial Corp.'s U.S.-based subsidiary, Hancock Timber Resource Group.While the new ETFs offer an easy play on timber, the problem is that they include stocks like struggling U.S. forest-products giant Weyerhaeuser Co., Mr. Kelertas said.Weyerhaeuser, whose stock is off 41 per cent from its 52-week high of $84.28, " has done terribly " because it owns businesses other than timberland that are doing poorly, he said. http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080708.wrtimber08/BNStory/\ SpecialEvents2/ ?cid=al_gam_nletter_maropen 32) The woods still fascinate me. To drift in thought in the presence of the trees and the proximity of the earth is much of what I feel when I'm up in the Citabria. In it I get a sense of the truly spiritual. Not as Christ in the wilderness, but in the ablution that comes from placing ones self at the alter of the planet, and for just a moment picking out a little infinity from the perpetually crushing teeth of time. I wouldn't say I was a tree hugger. I do not think the trees are the home of sentient druid spirits, nor do the trees speak to me. However, I am pleased to take shelter under their branches, reinforced in the smallness of my form next to their trunks, smiling as the branches separate me from the chatter of the world that echoes outside the woods. There is comfort in my smallness, for I am stricken by the thought of tremendous roots threading their way under the ground beneath me, knitting themselves to the earth, embracing the soil in a way we poor ground dwellers never will. Such gravity. So sitting on the trunk of one of their fallen I rest, and they feed my soul as surely as if the roots were joined to my own veins. " If you are a liberal vegetarian, this is probably not the blog for you. " http://mausersandmuffins.blogspot.com/2008/07/hunter-and-hunted.html 33) Chief Abigail Kimbell of the U.S. Forest Service wrote a guest commentary in the June 13 Denver Post which I respectfully take vigorous exception to. She extolled the virtues of the " Kids in the Woods " program co-sponsored by the USFS and the American Recreation Coalition (ARC). This program is a whitewash of today's out-of-touch-with-reality USFS. Under the heavy hand of the anti-environmental Bush administration, Mark Rey (Kimbell's boss) and Kimbell, much damage is being perpetrated upon environmental quality and the sensibilities of the American Public. Some examples: 1) A 1,400 acre phosphate mine expansion into an inventoried roadless area has been approved in eastern Idaho on the Caribou National Forest. Phosphate mining produces Selenium — a horrible water pollutant and fish killer and also highly toxic to humans (Source: Idaho Statesman June 11). The corporate benefactor, of course, is the multibillion-dollar JR Simplot Company. So much for Kimbell's assertion of the importance of clean water. 2) The forest supervisor of the Lolo National Forest in Montana recently approved aerial weed spraying with 10 deadly chemicals including Natrazine, a proven cause of cancer in humans (Source: retired FS employee Dick Artley, Grangeville, Idaho). 3) In western Montana, Plum Creek Timber Company owns over 1 million acres of private land in a checkboard pattern and plans on selling much of it for land development. Historically the primitive roads built on National Forest parcels were for the express purpose of timber hauling only. Mark Rey wants to throw out the rules with zero public involvement and grant unrestricted legal access to Plum Creek. Affected Montana counties are understandably angry and distressed over the impending burden on emergency services and road maintenance. Rey refuses to respond to their letters. http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_9767457 34) Recent editorials by timber industry spokespersons are a wildly misleading attempt to promote increased logging of western U.S. forests under the guise of reducing wildland fires and mitigating climate change. The timber industry fails to mention, however, that logging is one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions (Schlesinger, " Biogeochemistry: an analysis of global change " , Academic Press, 1997). A recent scientific study found that completely protecting our national forests from all commercial logging would significantly increase carbon sequestration and reduce greenhouse gases (forests " breath in " CO2 and incorporate the carbon into new growth), while increasing logging on our public lands would have the opposite effect (Depro et al. 2008, Forest Ecology and Management, Vol. 255). The logging industry also makes numerous scientifically-inaccurate assumptions about fire. For example, the industry would have us believe that little or no natural growth of forest will occur after wildland fire. In fact, some of the most vigorous and productive forest growth occurs after burns, 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). Fire converts woody material on the forest floor from relatively unusable forms into highly useable nutrients, which aids forest productivity and carbon sequestration. The rapid forest growth following wildland fire sequesters huge amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2). 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 timber industry also incorrectly claims 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), and is assimilated into the growing forest. Moreover, the timber industry falsely claims that logging facilitates permanent carbon sequestration ostensibly by converting living forests into lumber. In fact, most of the carbon from a felled tree is either burned as slash or as " hog fuel " from mill residue; only about 15% becomes some type of durable wood product (A. Ingerson, 2007, The Wilderness Society, Washington, D.C.). The half-life of these " durable " wood products is less than 40 years (Smith et al. 2005, U.S. Forest Service Northeast Gen. Tech. Rpt. 34). http://www.counterpunch.org/hanson07092008.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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