Guest guest Posted August 8, 2008 Report Share Posted August 8, 2008 --Today for you 33 new articles about earth's trees! (381st 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: --PNW: 1) Forest Defenders: The Confrontational American Landscape --Washington: 2) Economics of Olympic NF turned upside down, 3) Since 1980 17 percent of forest land turned into other uses, 4) The big dig in the Skokomish, 5) Seattle's Plum Creek a leader in REIT, --Oregon: 6) Stop the South Umpqua Harvest Plan, 7) Wood river restoration for Rainbow trout, 8) Western Stewardship Summit Sept 24-26, 9) Radical fairies say save Wolf creek, 10) Spotted Owl doesn't need any more logging, --California: 11) Salmon Extinction not as important as logging, 12) Poster contest to protect desert forest interface, 13) Violations of Health Forest Restoration Act (HFRA), --Montana: 14) Logging stopped by judge to protect grizzlies, 15) Severely burned forests are essential to wildlife, 16) Legacy Project in Lolo and Seeley Lake, --Colorado: 17) Photos from 1860 of " historic forest conditions " are photos of logging sites, not natural stands, 18) Big meadow campground's bug-based-logger invasion, --Wisconsin: 19) Life's work includes 100-acre nature area along the Chippewa River --Texas: 20) Texas Land Conservancy sells out! 21) Bee Cave Apartments builders going to trial for cutting 150 protected trees, --Iowa: 22) Great Ape Trust focuses on saving habitat in SE Asia --Indiana: 23) Subdivision developers not interested in enabling loggers anymore --Georgia: 24) City arborist fired for protecting trees rather than enabling developers --Pennsylvania: 25) If a tree fall towards you you'll be scared enough to want logging, 26) Slap on the wrist for stealing 11 trees in Allegheny NF, --New Hamshire: 27) Logging the storm damage slow & unsafe, 28) Last 12 old groves, --Maine: 29) High oil prices driving up demand for cord wood --Virginia: 30) Judge halts Logging on Ison Rock Ridge in Wise County --New York: 31) Kershner Old Growth Forest Preservation and Protection Act --USA: 32) Opening the Appalachian trail to ATVs ? 33) Farmers conservation reserves will stay protected because crop production isn't as bad as first thought, Articles: PNW: 1) Chris Lamarca, Forest Defenders: The Confrontational American Landscape (PowerHouse). Lamarca's name might be familiar to you; he shot the " Mulch Madness " story in the March/April 2008 issue of Mother Jones. As the title suggests, this book takes a frontline view of the war being waged between loggers and activists. Lamarca spent five years documenting the lives of the Forest Defenders, those who responded with action against the Bush administrations policy of opening National Forests to logging. With a well choreographed mix of 35mm black & white images and rich, color medium format shots, Lamarca takes us deep into the woods, camping out with the activists, eating, sleeping, fighting with them. If it's not clear from the title alone, the book shows a real sympathy for the (mostly) young people with dirt-caked hands and feet, bandanas sometimes hiding their faces, who fight and work as hard as the loggers to keep the forest standing as is. Not just in the number of images on that side of the battle lines, but the in the intimacy and closeness of the photos. Less frequently and with less attachment, Lamarca also gives us a somewhat sympathetic look in the working lives of the loggers. With a handful of dignified, if not timeless, portraits and brief interviews, Lamarca humanizes the loggers, men who are often portrayed as heartless monsters, or at the very least, calloused men who carelessly sacrifice our natural resources for a paycheck. What's more, some of the most beautiful shots in the book are of the loggers at work, including the fourth photo of the book in which a worker stands with his back to the camera at the base of a freshly cut tree, drowning in a Midas-like pool of sunlight. It's a knockout. Like any well-done, long-form, documentary project that's able to stretch its legs over the course of a book, Lamarca gets across many of the complexities of the issue at hand, brings you into the lives of the subjects, gives you a few nice eye candy photos along with more workman-like documentary shots and excellent environmental portraits. http://www.motherjones.com/photos/2008/07/photobook_friday_forest_defend_1.html Washington: 2) The economics of Olympic National Forest has been turned upside down. The forest was once the wood basket of the Northwest, generating enough money from the sale of massive fir and cedar trees to build roads, trails and campgrounds — and more roads. The forest generated enough money to support a large staff of foresters and forest rangers and have money left over to support other forests. Over the years, experts have come to realize that natural systems were often ignored in the effort to get the wood out. And this isn't just the view of tree-huggers and spotted-owl lovers. Farmers and residents in the Skokomish River Valley have paid the price of too much logging and road-building in the upper watershed. Shellfish-growers and others who depend on natural resources have suffered, along with fish and wildlife best suited to old-growth conditions. And so the economics has turned. Now, much of the logging involves commercially thinning second-growth forests to restore old-growth conditions at a faster pace. Under new stewardship programs, the money can be used to decommission roads that are still sending massive amounts of soil and gravel downstream into the Skokomish River and other waterways. Congress is now putting money back into the forest for ecosystem recovery rather than taking money out. There is a lot more to this story than I was able to tell in today's Kitsap Sun. It's a story I'll be telling for a long time to come. http://pugetsoundblogs.com/waterways/2008/08/03/olympic-national-forest-is-now-o\ n-the-flip-side/ 3) Since 1980, 17 percent of forest land in the state has changed to development or other uses. Properties are worth up to 20 times more for development than for timber production. The forests near Arlington and Granite Falls are incredibly vulnerable to development pressure, state Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland said. It took the state five years to find the money to buy the Taylors' land. The property was targeted under a new state initiative to link up blocs of state forest land and halt encroaching development.Taylor, who turns 64 this year, looked out across the rolling hillside east of Arlington near Jim Creek earlier this week. Much of the farm's 985 acres are covered with young, third-growth fir trees. It's time for the Taylors to part with the land, a place where they cultivated memories since the 1950s. They raised two daughters here, and Lee Taylor built his own log cabin home -- octagonal with two wings, like a bird flying south. It's hard for him to think he won't be stomping around on the property any more. " Change is inevitable, " he said. " We had a good run here. " Taylor and his two sisters, Nancy Taylor Mason and Mary Ellen Hogle, could have sold to housing developers. They didn't. The state Department of Natural Resources bought the land for about $4.1 million with plans to harvest and replant trees forever. " The deed is done and we're glad for it, " Taylor said. " We could have gotten more money if we developed it, but how much do you need? " It's a legacy Taylor hopes will keep churning out oxygen for city dwellers. Also, as trees come and go, the land will sustain an industry that provides jobs for loggers and cash for the state school construction trust fund. Knowing that, Taylor finds himself at peace. He and state officials said they are watching as forests disappear around the world, including in British Columbia, where disease and infestation are rampant. Forests become more valuable as others are cut down and redeveloped, they argue. http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20080712/NEWS01/667315824 & SearchID=733238524486\ 26 4) The Skokomish River is sick, experts say, and intensive care is needed for any hope of recovery. Part of the problem is the unimaginable quantity of soil, sand and gravel collapsing from aging logging roads in the Olympic Mountains. The material washes down numerous tributaries, spills into the South Fork of the Skokomish River and eventually pushes out into the estuary in southern Hood Canal. In some places, the river is essentially filled with gravel. During winter floods, the Skokomish is mentioned in news reports more frequently than any other river in the state. During summer months, river flows decline and sometimes disappear into thick layers of gravel. Fine sediment in the water further degrades water quality and can suffocate fish. While experts work on strategies to heal the river, major efforts are under way to eliminate the sources of stray gravel. That work includes removing old roads and pulling out culverts before they blow out in a storm. " This is a watershed in need of a lot of help and repair, " said Kathy O'Halloran, natural resources officer for Olympic National Forest, during an inspection of work under way this summer. O'Halloran credits a multitude of organizations, working together as the Skokomish Watershed Action Team, for keeping the restoration effort on track. One project under construction this summer is nicknamed the " Big Dig. " It involves removing 36,000 cubic yards of earth that completely filled in a 120-foot-deep canyon along a tributary of LeBar Creek. That much material would fill 3,600 normal-sized dump trucks — although contractor Sam Bickel is using trucks at least twice that big. Under two contracts totaling $625,000, work crews are eliminating a section of LeBar Road, removing a 10-foot culvert at the base of the canyon and restoring the slope to a more natural condition. At the time these logging roads were built, high points were blasted or dug out of mountainsides to maintain a gradual slope. The resulting material was used to fill in the low points, including canyons where the roads cross various streams. Despite ongoing efforts to stabilize the fill slopes, the material often breaks loose during storms and slides into the streams. More than 1,000 landslides have been linked to roads in the South Fork watershed. In last December's deluge alone, more than 20 road segments and several culverts washed out, sending sediment downstream. What should be done to nurse the river back to health is the subject of a multiyear investigation headed up by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2008/aug/02/taking-out-the-high-roads-to-save-the-\ skokomish/ 5) Seattle-based Plum Creek Timber restructured itself as a real-estate investment trust in 1999. Since then it has become a giant of the forest. President and CEO Rick Holley says that growth wouldn't have happened if Plum Creek hadn't become a REIT. The company now is the country's largest private landowner, with 8 million acres of timberland in 18 states. Since 1999 its revenues and assets have more than tripled. Its stock price has climbed 56 percent since it first announced its planned REIT conversion 10 years ago, far outpacing the major indexes. Plum Creek's profits have shrunk lately, a consequence of the housing downturn. Still, in a bear market, its share price is up nearly 6 percent so far this year. No wonder Wall Street is pressuring slip-sliding Weyerhaeuser to follow Plum Creek into REIT-dom. REITs are companies that own, and usually manage, income-producing real-estate. Congress authorized them in 1960 to open commercial real-estate investing to those without the wherewithal to buy a big property by themselves or invest in a limited partnership. REITS have restrictions. At least 75 percent of their assets must be in real estate, and that property must produce at least 75 percent of their gross income. They must pay at least 90 percent of their profits to shareholders as dividends. But REITs can deduct those dividends from corporate taxable income. That means they pay little or no tax, which in turn means more money to reinvest, or return to shareholders. And REITs generally pay sizable dividends, making them attractive to investors. Timber REITs have another advantage. While the bulk of most other REITs' dividends is taxed as ordinary income, timber REITs' dividends qualify for the lower capital-gains rate. " The tax implications are pretty big, and pretty appealing, " said Daniel Rohr, an analyst at research firm Morningstar who covers Plum Creek and other timber companies. Most of the 200 or so REITs traded on the major stock exchanges own apartments or shopping malls or office buildings. Timber REITs are rare: There are just three. Plum Creek was the first. It had been organized as an publicly traded " master limited partnership " (MLP), which, like a REIT, is largely exempt from corporate income taxes. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008088337_reit03.html Oregon: 6) Hello Umpqua Watersheds supporters, The Roseburg BLM is proposing to clearcut 236 acres of our old-growth forests in the Days Creek area. The sale name is South Umpqua River Watershed Harvest Plan. The BLM has asked for public comments before the end of August 7. That's Thursday! If you can't write before then, it's OK because you can write to your public servants at BLM anytime. Roseburg BLM is proposing to clearcut, leaving as few as 6 trees per acre, 236 acres near the town of Days Creek. Some of the clearcuts are proposed off of Woods Creek Road and others are in the in Coffee Creek watershed (unit 25G pictured above). Roseburg BLM is also proposing to thin almost 1,500 acres of old clearcuts -- dense, overstocked, fire-prone tree plantations. This is a GOOD thing. Thinning will produce 15 mmbf (3,000 log truck loads) to provide local jobs and wood products. But Roseburg BLM claims they are required to clearcut beautiful, old, native forests and convert them into new tree-plantations. The 1936 O & C act requires the BLM to manage our lands by " protecting watersheds, regulating stream flow, and contributing to the economic stability of local communities and industries, and providing recreational facilities " . The BLM claims that clearcutting old growth is the proper way to do this. Someone needs to tell the BLM this is twisted logic. Email BLM at: OR100MB For more information and pictures, see: http://www.umpqua-watersheds.org/blm/southumpquaRegen.html 7) In August, biologists from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will begin restoring habitat in the headwaters of the Wood River where rainbow trout from Upper Klamath Lake migrate to spawn. " We believe that 100 percent of the rainbow trout that spawn in the Wood River use the mile and a half stretch below the headwaters, " said Bill Tinniswood, assistant fish biologist for ODFW's Klamath Watershed District. " It's one of our key spawning habitats for rainbow trout that come out of Upper Klamath Lake. " Historically, the upper reaches of the river held large numbers of logs and other natural in-stream structures that provided the fish with good spawning habitat and cover to hide from predators. However, over the years people have removed much of the wood and cut streamside vegetation to create pasture for cattle. To remedy that situation, ODFW biologists will place a variety of wood debris into a half-mile section of river about one mile downstream from its headwaters that will provide habitat for all trout life stages. " We think this project will have a positive impact on the rainbows, " said Tinniswood. " We've done other projects to improve spawning habitat on the Wood River in the past and have had huge success. " The project is located on private land in cooperation with the landowner and should be completed by the end of September. ODFW biologists hope to eventually restore the remaining upstream mile spawning area. The project was funded by a $9,646 grant from the ODFW Fish Restoration and Enhancement Program. Other partners in the project include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Klamath Guides Association, Bureau of Land Management, Klamath Basin Rangeland Trust and the Oregon Department of Forestry. http://www.katu.com/news/outdoors/news/25909834.html 8) September 24-26th in Sun River, OR. ---- Collaborative approaches that restore the western landscape and foster resilient economic models for rural communities are beginning to influence policymakers and federal investment. By forging common ground and moving past conflicting interests, these efforts are restoring watersheds, sustaining working landscapes, honoring local culture and tradition, and providing economic opportunities for rural communities. The Western Stewardship Summit will create strategic connections among dispersed rural leaders in the West and between urban-based interest groups -- where distance can be a formidable barrier -- and provide opportunities to extend restoration and community impacts through new initiatives, and strengthen and diversify mechanisms in communities where restoration and stewardship efforts are currently practiced. The Western Stewardship Summit will: 1) Strengthen the network of people working on collaborative restoration across various sectors and issue areas; 2) Increase the rapid diffusion of concepts and approaches to collaborative restoration by providing a venue for participants to share their stories of success and lessons learned; 3) Identify political, financial, and technical approaches that can increase support for and investment in place-based restoration and stewardship across the West; 4) Document the priority tools, techniques, and other lessons presented and disseminate those findings to attendees and other practitioners who could not attend the Summit; 5) Strengthen the collective voice and presence of collaborative restoration approaches in local, state, and national decision-making processes. http://www.sustainablenorthwest.org/wss/wssglanceagenda 9) Radical Faeries—counter-culture, earth-loving queer folk who have a sanctuary in Wolf Creek, Oregon, among other places—are confronted with the very real threat of BLM-endorsed logging of over 2,000 acres, 500+ of which of old-growth forest. The logging project, according to the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center's website, risks endangering creek-based water sources and wildlife in the area. Wolf Creek Sanctuary depends on natural streamwater for its summer water supply. The BLM's deadline for public commentary requires letters be in hand by August 8. I will be in Southern Oregon at Wolf Creek this weekend and will let you know what I hear in the community. Click the link below to see a call to action and sample letter for the Governor and the BLM from a Faerie who brought the issue to one listserv's attention: http://blogout.justout.com/?p=1018 10) The Wildlife Society, the Society for Conservation Biology and the American Ornithologists Union said in peer reviews to be released Monday that the final plan adopted in May was better than the draft they flunked a year ago, but there was still no scientific basis for allowing more logging of the old growth forests where the threatened bird lives. " Given that the northern spotted owl has been experiencing about a 4 percent annual rate of population decline for the last 15 years, any reductions from current levels of habitat protection cannot be justified, " the joint review by the Society for Conservation Biology and American Ornithologists Union said. The reviews estimated the recovery plan allows for destruction of 20 percent to 56 percent of the spotted owl habitat currently protected. The spotted owl was declared a threatened species in 1990 due primarily to heavy logging in the old growth forests where it nests and feeds in Washington, Oregon and Northern California. Lawsuits from conservation groups led to a reduction of more than 80 percent in logging on federal lands. Working with the timber industry under a lawsuit settlement, the Bush administration has been trying to increase logging levels, but has repeatedly been stymied by court rulings. The owl recovery plan produced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is a key underpinning of plans by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to ramp up logging in Western Oregon old growth forests. A new threat from the barred owl, a native of the Eastern United States that has pushed spotted owls out of their territory, has led to arguments from the timber industry that it is no longer necessary to protect so much old growth if there are no spotted owls living in it. The Wildlife Society warned that going ahead with this recovery plan would dismantle the Northwest Forest Plan, adopted in 1994 to protect national forest habitat for the owl, salmon, and other species, and would likely lead to a " nightmare " scenario of more species going on the endangered species list and Fish and Wildlife losing its credibility. The Society for Conservation Biology and American Ornithologists Union said the latest recovery plan was an improvement over the last effort, but was still inadequate for restoring healthy spotted owl populations because it would allow the loss of more habitat to logging. http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-26/12178337455\ 9420.xml & sto rylist=orlocal California: 11) The petition before the state board of forestry comes as California salmon are at historic lows, requiring regulators to suspend all salmon fishing on the coast this year - a first. The request came from California Trout, the Sierra Club, and the Environmental Protection Information Centre. It targeted coho salmon in coastal streams between Santa Cruz and Humboldt counties. For several years, the National Marine Fisheries Service has cautioned the board that its forestry rules are not only inadequate to protect salmon, but actually threaten fish. That's because, among other things, state logging rules allow too much erosion into spawning habitat. The forestry board regulates logging on private land. Last year it required new stream protections if the state's department of fish and game ruled that a logging plan will kill salmon. But fish and game has never made such a ruling. The petitioners want the stream protections required without such a finding. As justification, they cited new reports by the federal fisheries service, which protects coho under the Endangered Species Act. The agency reported in February that coastal coho populations plunged 73% compared with the previous spawning season. In April it said extinction may be close at hand. " Emergency action is necessary to prevent the morally unacceptable situation that certain populations of coho may go extinct, " said Bill Yeates, attorney for the petitioners. The nine-member board, appointed by the governor, is weighted toward the logging industry. Most members said there wasn't enough evidence to support more regulation. " What we're asking of landowners is a huge financial hardship, " said board member Doug Piirto, a forestry professor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and former Forest Service timber management officer. Charlotte Ambrose, species recovery coordinator at the National Marine Fisheries Service, said her agency supports additional coho protections. Piirto and other board members pressed Ambrose for proof that salmon are threatened by in-stream conditions and not just ocean forces. " Do you honestly feel it's an issue of (in-stream) carrying capacity? " said board member Lloyd Bradshaw, forest manager for Hearst Corporation. " I do, " said Ambrose. " We believe action by the board at this time will help coho salmon. " The board rejected the petition in a 6-3 vote that reflected its industry ties. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/07/endangeredhabitats.endangereds\ pecies 12) The California Desert Coalition held a poster contest as a way to draw more people to the utility's first public meeting about the proposal, said April Sall, coalition chairwoman. " We wanted to make it more interactive than just a meeting, " she said. The coalition is opposed to the corridor options that would slice through desert preserves in the Morongo Valley and elsewhere. Other potential routes could string power lines through the San Bernardino National Forest and potentially raze homes in the more urbanized areas of the Inland region. The longest route would stretch 313 miles. Officials for the Los Angeles utility have stressed that no corridor options have been chosen, and said during Saturday's meeting that power lines may be buried in some sensitive areas. Ramallo said Thursday that agency officials believed it was a productive meeting and they will hold additional meetings in areas along the corridor options. Livingston has donated use of his image to the coalition for use in fliers or protest signs. " There doesn't seem there is any concern for the aesthetics of the place, " he said. " It really kind of mystifies me why they would even think of it. " http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_E_poster02.3e7e7f9.html 13) Four leading northwest conservation organizations have written a letter to Congress to alert legislators that the Orleans Community Fuels Reduction and Forest Health Project (OCFR) violates the intent of the Health Forest Restoration Act (HFRA) by targeting too many big trees and not doing enough to prevent catastrophic wildfires and protect forest health. The letter, sent today to members of Congress, precedes a Congressional tour of the Orleans plan area next Tuesday, August 5. The OCFR lies in the district of Rep. Mike Thompson, who has agreed to send a member of his staff for the tour. The four groups sending the letter are: the Environmental Protection Information Center, Klamath Forest Alliance, the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, and the Northcoast Environmental Center. On July 15 these groups, as well as the Karuk Tribe of California, the Mid-Klamath Watershed Council, and the Orleans/Somes Bar Fire Safe Council filed a formal Objection to the OCFR with Region Five of the United States Forest Service. The Objection represents a unique collaboration, and unanimity, among proponents of projects that promote forest health and sustainable forestry. The groups have worked for nearly three years to bring the Orleans plan into compliance with HFRA. The original OCFR contained 14 miles of new roads and logging in riparian reserves. To its credit, Six Rivers National Forest has worked with local and regional groups and individuals to remedy many of their concerns. The plan now proposes less than one mile of new permanent roads, and 2.7 miles of temporary roads that are slated to be decommissioned after the project is completed. Yet a major stumbling block for the groups is that the OCFR still proposes logging 444 trees larger than 32 inches in diameter. Logging these trees will in no way improve forest health or reduce fire danger, and would clearly violate the intent of the Healthy Forest Restoration Act, which requires that agencies " maximize retention of large trees. " This is not the only remaining problem with the project, but it is the most significant. http://humboldtherald.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/leading-wildland-groups-alert-con\ gress-to-abuse- of-healthy-forest-legislation-on-klamath-river/ Montana: 14) A federal judge has halted a small portion of a northwestern Montana logging project, saying its effect on grizzly bears hasn't been adequately addressed. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula said the U.S. Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to sufficiently consider the effects of helicopter logging on " core " grizzly habitat in the Kootenai National Forest. The July 30 ruling stops the helicopter logging on about 100 acres pending an " adequate assessment. " Molloy said other logging included in the nearly 1,800-acre project, northeast of Troy, can move forward. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies filed its challenge to the Northeast Yaak timber sale in December 2007. It cited documentation for two timber sales in Idaho in which the Fish and Wildlife Service determined helicopter logging was likely to harm grizzly bears. Molloy ruled the Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to distinguish the helicopter logging in the proposed Northeast Yaak timber sale from the Idaho sales to arrive at the conclusion that it wouldn't harm bears. The judge noted estimates show there are only 30 to 40 grizzlies in the Cabinet-Yaak grizzly bear recovery zone, where the timber sale is located. " The Fish and Wildlife Service determined that the Cabinet-Yaak grizzly population was low enough to warrant reclassification from threatened to endangered in 1993 and reaffirmed its finding in 1999, " Molloy wrote. Since then, agency scientists have determined there is 91.4 percent probability that the population is declining. Michael Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, praised Molloy's ruling. http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080801/NEWS01/8080\ 1010/1002/news01 15) As summer wildfire season begins in earnest throughout much of the West, it's important for the public and policymakers to recognize the important role that severely burned forests play in maintaining wildlife populations and healthy forests. Severely burned forests are neither " destroyed " nor " lifeless. " From my perspective as an ecologist, I have become aware of one of nature's best-kept secrets--there are some plant and animal species that one is hard-pressed to see anywhere outside a severely burned forest. Consider the black-backed woodpecker. This bird species is relatively restricted in its distribution to burned-forest conditions Everything about it, including its jet-black coloration, undoubtedly reflects a long evolutionary history with burned forests. This (and many other) woodpecker species rely on the larvae of wood-boring beetles, some of which are so specialized that they have infrared sensors allowing them to detect and then colonize burning forests. Many additional bird species, including the mountain bluebird, three-toed woodpecker, and olive-sided flycatcher, also reach their greatest abundance in severely burned forests. And then there's the fire morel, which occurs only in severely burned forests. This has been a boom year for morel mushrooms at the local farmer's market precisely because of last year's severe forest fires in western Montana. An appreciation of the biological uniqueness of severely burned forests is important because if we value and want to maintain the full variety of organisms with which we share this Earth, we must begin to recognize the healthy nature of severely burned forests. We must also begin to recognize that those are the very forests targeted for post-fire logging activity. Unfortunately, post-fire logging removes the very element-dense stands of dead trees-upon which many fire-dependent species depend for nest sites and food resources. With respect to birds, the effects of post-fire salvage harvesting are uniformly negative. In fact, most timber-drilling and timber-gleaning bird species disappear altogether if a forest is salvage-logged. Therefore, such places are arguably the last places we should be going for our wood. We need to change our thinking when it comes to logging after forest fires. http://www.clarkforkchronicle.com/article.php/20080802113305363 16) LOLO - The Nature Conservancy, the Trust for Public Land and the Plum Creek Timber Co., received praise but also some pointed questions the past two nights during public meetings about the Montana Legacy Project in Lolo and Seeley Lake. Many people praised the general intent of the project, which has been billed as the largest conservation land purchase deal in U.S. history. But some also sought specific details that project officials repeatedly said had not yet been determined or that were a private matter between the timber baron and two conservation groups. " This all sounds good, but I don't want to give so much and get so little " if the land has been degraded by clear cutting, and Plum Creek isn't required to set aside restoration money, Wendy Sturgis said at Thursday's meeting at the Lolo Community Center. Several people expressed concern about Plum Creek's logging practices. Others supported the project, but said they wished more details were available. " Even if this deal is less than perfect, it's still better " than having the land developed, said Sterling Miller, who was among about 25 people at the Lolo meeting. The Legacy project, which was announced June 30, involves Plum Creek selling 320,000 of its forest acres in western Montana for $510 million to the two conservation groups over the next three years. The deal is meant to prevent large-scale development, while allowing some logging and preserving wildlife habitat, public recreation access and a rural way of life on a working landscape. The Nature Conservancy, the Trust for Public Land and Plum Creek are holding a series of public meetings this summer in an effort to explain the project, gather suggestions and build rural community support for the deal, which would require $250 million in tax dollars and another $260 million in private donations. Meetings were held last week in Evaro and Condon. On Wednesday, when some 75 people at the Seeley Lake Community Center sought specific details about the Legacy proposal, project officials repeatedly said they wouldn't or couldn't discuss them. " Please excuse us, but we're still working out some of the details, " said Caroline Byrd of the Nature Conservancy at Wednesday's meeting. " If it seems like too good of a deal, it might not be. Be careful. Be vigilant. " Project officials said the public wasn't included in the negotiations because the deal was a business matter between private entities and because Plum Creek was a publicly traded company. http://www.themontanalegacyproject.org Colorado: 17) " They're talking about 1860 like that was some magical period in which the forests were in perfect condition, " he said. " But if you look at the pictures, you'll see that there's hardly a tree left. " The dense forests are unnatural and unhealthy, according to the county's Parks and Open Space Department, leaving the trees vulnerable to catastrophic fires and pine beetles. But the alternative — cutting down as many as 70 percent of the trees to recreate historic conditions — has some county residents wondering if the cure is worse than the disease. The county, with the blessing of the state Forest Service and researchers at the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute at Colorado State University, is embarking on a relatively radical forest restoration project at Bald Mountain Scenic Area, about five miles up Sunshine Canyon. Foresters there are cutting down hundreds of trees in an attempt to return the area to its pre-settlement state. On Monday, county staff members met with about 20 residents of Sunshine Canyon who are concerned that the project has devastated the land. In the early 1800s, ponderosa pines grew in densities as low as 30 trees per acre, according to scientists, oftentimes clumped together in groups. On north-facing slopes and at higher elevations, the forests were likely much thicker, but sites like Bald Mountain are now overgrown with trees, according to the county. But the restoration project, which is removing about 70 percent of the trees on 40 acres of land, looks more like a devastation project to neighbors. " ...Clearly they intend to destroy almost everything, " Don Dick wrote in a letter to fellow neighbors in Sunshine Canyon. " It will take a very long time for the forest to recover from this devastation. ... Bald Mountain will be an open sore in our canyon which fades very gradually. " Most of the neighbors at the meeting voiced similar concerns. Frank McGuire wondered if the forests in 1860, the reference date chosen as a snapshot of what a healthy forest should look like by the county, were really all that healthy or if miners had already taken their toll on the land. http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/aug/04/restoring-forest-rankles-neighbors/ 18) BIG MEADOWS CAMPGROUND - The trees here are dead, dying or mangled, the victims of aerial attacks by two tiny armies. Red paint splotches mark the dead trees that loggers and foresters will cut down within a year. Spruce beetles hit the big trees, killing the centuries-old giants. And budworms descended on the young, small ones that make up the forest's next generation, says Paul Hancock, a forester trainee at Rio Grande National Forest. There's a budworm now. Hancock points to a tiny yellow thing, about the size of a piece of long-grain rice, descending a hundred feet down from the canopy on an invisible cord that it spun out of its body like a spider. Unlike the beetles, which bore into a tree and cut off its circulatory system, the budworms land on the needles and munch away, leaving an unhealthy tree, but one that often survives. Little trees fare the worst as the budworms descend from on high. Together, the two bug species are attacking the high-altitude forests of Southwest Colorado. The changes they bring will affect the forests for decades to come. Southwest Colorado's own outbreak. This is a different outbreak than the piñon beetle plague earlier this decade, or the beetle explosion that has ravaged the lodgepole forests of Northern Colorado. http://durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news & articl\ e_path=/news/08 /news080803_2.htm Wisconsin: 19) When he was a boy Jum Dahl's uncle would take him fishing on Marshmiller Lake. They would strap cane poles to the car. Usually they would fish from shore, sometimes climbing out on logs, he said. If they were feeling extravagant they rented a row boat for 50 cents a day. " We didn't do that too much, " he said. In rural Chippewa County in the early 1930s, that was a considerable sum. His uncle owned a farm on McCann Creek, which was where he learned to trout fish. Again, a cane pole was his tool of choice during those early years. From those childhood experiences, a conservationist was born. Later, as a member of the Trout Committee of the Conservation Congress, he helped win approval of a new set of trout regulations that matched the size limits and bag limits of trout with the size and productivity of the stream. He represented Chippewa County on the Conservation Congress for nearly 50 years. As a member of the Chippewa County Board for 16 years, he was on committees that developed the Quality of Life fund to buy County Forest land and the county stewardship program to partner with conservation groups to preserve key environmental parcels. Both funds come from a portion of the county sales tax.He served on the Duncan Creek Citizens Advisory Committee and was involved in the program to clean up nonpoint sources of pollution to the creek.One of the most interesting panels he served on was the one that negotiated with Xcel Energy on relicensing the Lake Wissota dam. " We finally got rid of that 10- to 12-foot drawdown on Wissota, " he said.For years the power company dropped the lake level during winter to the detriment of the lake's ecology. Making a 100-acre nature area along the Chippewa River from the former county farm was one of the county's finest moments, he said.He frowned when our discussion turned to an innovative shoreland zoning ordinance the county failed to adopt that would have given more protection to sensitive lakes. The real estate interests that derailed it never understood it, he said. http://www.leadertelegram.com/story-news.asp?id=BHBEFCV9E47 Texas: 20) Tonight, I discovered that a TLC (Texas Land Conservancy) Board Member has exposed TLC to serious potential legal problems (in my opinion) due to the fact that he has become a JUDAS from within, absolutely violating his fiduciary duties to TLC by taking money to work to cause IRREPARABLE HARM to TLC Preserves and Sanctuaries including the FRITZ-RUSSELL WESTERNMOST LONGLEAF PINE PRESERVE. Jung, instead of working to help TLC protect our preserves from a power company that swore UNDER OATH that there were viable alternative routes in clearcuts and cow pastures that would be ok with them and also swore UNDER OATH that they had no need to clearcut a swath 2.7 miles through our TLC preserves and future preserves, has joined the ENEMY of our environment for MONEY to help SHECO ILLEGALLY condemn 2.7 miles of our Preserves including human graves in AMERICA'S first " Green Family Cemetery " . If Jung prevails in working for SHECO (Sam Houston Electric Power Cooperative) to damage our Preserves, his job will have been also to make sure that TLC gets as little in monetary damages as possible, thus depriving TLC of money that by the terms of our Conservation Easements, is earmarked to purchase more adjacent lands to make up for any lands lost to LEGAL condemnation. This condemnation attempt is patently in VIOLATION OF STATE LAW!!! Jung himself approved the language of our easements that mandated that any monies derived from condemnation proceedings be used to mitigate the damages. His fiduciary responsibility therefore would be to fight to MAXIMIZE the damage award rather than work for the enemy to MINIMIZE a damage award!!! If Jung and his entire firm do not divorce themselves from working FOR THE ENEMY of TLC and then join pro-bono on behalf of TLC then NO ONE IN THE FUTURE WILL EVER TRUST TLC or will want to work with TLC or grant Conservation Easements to a Land Trust whose Board Member, lauded for his legal expertise, is behind the scenes working as a JUDAS to destroy ENDANGERED SPECIES HABITAT, WETLANDS, GREEN CEMETERIES, and rare and threatened ecosystems. My great fear is that in the event Jung is not called to task in a most immediate and public way, the media will cast such a pall of doubt about TLC's mission that the Land Trust that I helped Ned Fritz establish, in the early 1980's, could be irreparably harmed. The only way to overcome that fear is for TLC to dedicate its resources to the final battles in the epic war against SHECO and that Jung either join us or be forced into exile as an OUTCAST. George H. Russell ghr 21) AUSTIN -- Subcontractors of the Bee Cave Apartments being built near State Highway 71 and Old Bee Caves Road told a municipal court judge Wednesday morning they would like to go to trial in lieu of paying a fine for cutting down nearly 150 protected trees in June. Some of those trees were hundreds of years old, and they are facing fines of up to $21,500, plus court costs. It is not clear when the trial will be. Oak Hill residents told KXAN in June they lost their urban forest, calling the incident " The Oak Hill Tree Disaster. " " This is a fairly unique and unacceptable event, " said Michael Embesi, an Austin arborist. " We haven't had an event of this nature since I've been with the city. " Area resident and civil engineer Bruce Melton said 20 trees between 19 and 36 inches in diameter were destroyed. " We'll soon be known as Oak-less Hill, " said Melton. The tree have become just a couple of piles of mulch. " There were approximately 140 trees that were removed without a permit ranging anywhere from 8 inches to beyond our protected size tree, which is 20 inches and larger, " said Embesi. Embesi explained how a company made this kind of mistake. " A contractor misinterpreted the plans, " Embesi said. A subcontractor came in on a weekend and illegally took the trees out. Even though new trees are now growing in their place, they may also have to be dug up and replanted. http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=8797991 & nav=0s3dVXbQ Iowa: 22) Serge Wich, a scientist at the Great Ape Trust in Iowa (United States) says that there are 6,600 on the island of Sumatra (Indonesia), a 14% decline compared with 2004, while there are no longer any in the province of Aceh. In Malaysian Borneo, since 2004 they have declined by 10%, to 49,600. In Indonesia and Malaysia, the only countries where these apes still live, illegal forest clearing is widely practiced. Moreover, there are increases in palm oil plantations, driven by the great demand for biofuel. Wich asserts that " there are still declines even though there have been quite a lot of conservation efforts over the past 30 years " , and that " unless extraordinary efforts are made soon, it could become the first great ape species to go extinct " . The study notes that Indonesia has announced initiatives to save the species, at the UN conference on climate change in 2007, while Aceh has declared that it will stop forest clearing. To protect the habit, it would be important to provide economic incentives that would stop deforestation. http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en & art=12912 & size=A Indiana: 23) Greg Koontz never used to have trouble scouting for landowners willing to see some of their hardwoods cut, stripped, sawed and sold. But the latest generation of Hoosiers who own forestlands are either selling them to residential subdivision developers or are far less interested in letting loggers slice into what's left of their little pieces of heaven in the woods. About 85 percent of the state's 4.5 million acres of trees are now controlled by private owners, an estimated 205,000 individuals and business investors. Ten years ago, that number was closer to 100,000. The average size of a private forest has dropped from 22 acres in 1993 to 16 acres today. Liz Jackson, who heads the Indiana Forestry and Woodland Owners Association, says it's a troubling trend. The resistance by private owners to cut down their trees, loggers say, is one of the biggest threats facing Indiana's hardwood lumber industry, a $17 billion-a-year business that is bigger than corn. And because there's less harvesting or replanting occurring, Indiana's privately held woods, after years of growth, may be shrinking. The state, which controls about 153,000 acres of public forests, has responded to industry concerns by cutting down more than five times as many trees as it had in years past. In announcing the move two years ago, DNR said it intended to rejuvenate aging forests that had become too congested to allow trees to properly mature. The big challenge ahead, those in the lumber industry say, is educating Hoosiers about the value of regularly harvesting healthy forests. " We are a crop. . . . We just have a longer growing cycle, " said Ray Moistner, executive director of the Indiana Hardwood Lumbermen's Association. Moistner will get a chance to broadcast that message at this year's Indiana State Fair, which is giving lumber top billing to help promote the state's No. 1 agribusiness, as measured in jobs. http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080803/LOCAL/808030403 Georgia: 24) So proud are Atlantans of their sprawling canopy of dogwoods, magnolias and pines — and, of course, peach trees — that builders must pay hundreds of dollars for every tree they uproot, even with the city's permission. The penalty for violators is far heftier: One developer was recently fined $24,000 for illegal tree clearance, and Tyler Perry, the movie actor and director, was penalized $177,000 for unauthorized deforestation on his property. But in the contest between trees and the area's rampant development, the bulldozers have often won. That may explain why many tree lovers were upset last week when Tom Coffin, 64, the city's senior arborist, was fired without explanation. Mr. Coffin, a vigilant defender of the city's trees, said in an interview that he had complained to his superiors about the " almost total lack of enforcement " by other arborists. Before being fired, Mr. Coffin had issued 70 citations for illegal tree removal this year, while the five other arborists in his division issued a total of 29 citations. " There's essentially no enforcement going on, except in my region, " Mr. Coffin said. " We need to account for why. " Last Tuesday, Ibrahim Maslamani, the director of the Bureau of Buildings, called Mr. Coffin into his office and told him the city " no longer required " his services, Mr. Coffin said. The city's Department of Planning and Community Development released a statement calling the dismissal a " personnel matter, " but residents have been asking Mayor Shirley Franklin's office to investigate whether Mr. Coffin's dismissal resulted from his stern treatment of Atlanta developers. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/us/06atlanta.html?_r=1 & adxnnl=1 & oref=slogin & re\ f=us & adxnnlx=1 218063773-oeFXEMhE23hhNS5bQjCZmQ Pennsylvania: 25) " We were backpedaling, trying to get away. We probably had about four seconds and the tree kind of shifted, hitting other trees in the canopy, " Mrs. Pearce said. Although the trunk fell near where they stood, they avoided major injury. " We were hurt, but not seriously. The tree left scratches; we could immediately see what looked like brush burns and scratches on our necks, on my hands. " My 8-year-old took the worst of it, and she can't remember much. She must have thrown her arms up; she had bruises on the insides of them. " In the days that followed, part of the fallen locust that crossed the footpath was chopped up and removed by the municipal public works department. The rest was left where it fell, as per the policy of the Mt. Lebanon Nature Conservancy, which acts as consultant to public works. Mrs. Pearce said that while she is grateful no one was badly hurt, she feels more should be done to cull sick and weakened trees. Fallen trees and brush, she said, should be removed because they pose a hazard. " I've been told that the Nature Conservancy wants nature to be nature, so if a tree is damaged or dead, it should fall on its own. " I, for one, have spent a lot of time in the woods in my life and I had always assumed there had to be a catastrophe like a lightning strike or high wind to topple a tree. " There was no wind that day; it was gorgeous, " she said. The Conservancy doesn't maintain the parks, but it acts as an adviser, said Tom Kelley, director of public works. " Regarding the situation in Bird Park in particular, I have talked with Lori. " http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08220/902396-55.stm 26) An Elk County man hoping to make a cash crop out of valuable mature black cherry trees had his plans fall apart when he tangled with the trees' owner: the federal government. Joseph M. Harvey, 40, was sentenced to three years of probation, to start with six months of house arrest, for cutting and stealing 11 of the trees from the Allegheny National Forest in September 2004. U.S. District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin, who sentenced Harvey on Thursday at the federal courthouse in Erie, waived a fine but ordered Harvey to pay restitution of $9,020 -- or the value of the trees, which ranged from 14 inches to 3 feet in diameter. " Chopping down 11 cherry trees isn't the equivalent to breaking into Fort Knox, but it is still a theft, and if everyone wanted to clear trees, there wouldn't be anything left in the national forest, " McLaughlin said. Harvey, who pleaded guilty in May to one count of theft of government property, repeatedly apologized to McLaughlin. He said a difficult divorce contributed to financial woes that led him to steal the black cherry trees, which were of veneer quality and prized for making furniture and other wood products. http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080801/NEWS02/808010406 New Hampshire: 27) It's a dangerous job. Trees that have fallen one on top of another are under tension. Make the wrong cut and a tree can kick back or swing in an unexpected direction. " The wood almost explodes, " said Karen Bennett, Cooperative Extension forestry specialist. Eames said his crews have had to work at about half the speed they normally do. " We've got to be careful, " he said. But time is a factor. Some species can begin to rot in a matter of weeks, although trees that were toppled with their roots attached can last as much as a year. Because of the danger, cleanup is slow and complicated. In many places, it requires heavy machinery that can be expensive to run. Many of the landowners will see little money, if any, for the wood cleared from their property. Some affected towns are considering easing timber taxes on trees downed in the storm. Typically, landowners pay a 10 percent tax on harvested timber, with exceptions including cutting trees immediately around one's home or cutting firewood for personal use. Foresters with the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests hope to view the damage by plane next week. Spokesman Jack Savage said several of the nonprofit's protected lands, particularly the 1,700-acre High Watch Reservation in Effingham, are located near the tornado's path. There have been no reports from the state so far about habitats critical to endangered or threatened species being damaged by the storm. Experts said the forest will have little trouble bouncing back. Trees will quickly reseed or sprout from broken trunks. " Ecologically, it's no big deal, " Bennett said. " But it's a huge deal for people whose home and woodlots have been blown over. " In the West, Bennett said, fire shapes the forest, clearing out swaths of trees and making way for new growth. In the East, that agent is wind. New Hampshire has a history of blowdown events changing the look, health and species composition of forests. " This wind event is definitely different, " she said. http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080801/FRONTPAGE/8080\ 10303 28) How much old growth remains in the state? According to a 1986 study by Lee Carbonneau while an undergraduate at UNH, there were only 12 well-documented old growth stands totaling 3,000 acres ranging in size from two acres to more than 400 acres. Modest new areas of old growth have been discovered since 1986, including approximately 75 acres in Mount Sunapee State Park. With 83 percent, or 4.8 million acres, of the state cloaked in forest, 3,000 acres is a small percentage. To determine whether a tract is a mature forest or qualifies as rare old growth, we needed to answer four questions. What is the human history? Which tree species and ages are present? Are the heights, diameters and presence of standing dead and large down rotting logs consistent with old growth? Is there any evidence of historical management activity including cellars, stonewalls, wire fence, cut stumps, skid trails, nearby roads or missing tree age classes that would disqualify the stand? In the forest, the oldest trees are spruce, yellow birch and beech with an abundance of old trees. The oldest trees exhibit age characteristics, including large prominent root structures, deeply furrowed or plated bark, trunks showing a twist that develops with age, long trunks free of lower branches, large thick limbs, flattened crowns with protruding dead limbs and the presence of " super-canopy " trees. http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Forest+Journal%3A+Old+growth+is\ +more+than+big +trees & articleId=8359d78f-45dc-4532-9640-88ed99c70b11 Maine: 29) Rising energy prices are driving up demand for cord wood and creating a shortage in some areas of northern New England. Firewood sellers say they can't keep up. " Right now I'm refusing work, " said Bob Baker. " I had one customer who wanted 14 cords of tree-length wood. I said, 'Good luck.' " Baker, a retiree from Ryegate, Vt., has been running a small-scale firewood operation for six years on his land. He estimates he's running about 30 cords behind. In Orford, N.H., Stacey Thomson worries about having to turn away new customers. Karl Nott of Hartford, Vt., eagerly awaits his next shipment of felled trees. Dealers and timber industry experts attribute the firewood shortage partly to competition. Paper mills in Maine and Quebec are offering around $180 a cord for pulp logs that make good kindling, according to Stephen Long of Corinth, Vt., co-founder and coeditor of Northern Woodlands magazine. That makes it tougher for local vendors to find wholesale supplies, he says. Woodcutters also say the demand is coming at what normally is a slower time of year for production and sales. " Peak buying is normally in March and April, and this year the panic started in June, " said Sarah Smith, a forest industry specialist with the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension. " This is a different dynamic, and (sellers) weren't ready. They have a sort of rhythm, and this year it just got blown out of the water. " http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2008/08/03/cord_wood_becoming_pr\ emium_in_maine/ Virginia: 30) ABINGDON – A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Monday that will stop logging on Ison Rock Ridge in Wise County. The ruling came after a Friday hearing in which two environmental groups requested that the work be stopped. " This court ruling is a huge victory for the communities of Appalachia that have suffered for far too long from the devastating effects of mountaintop removal mining, " said Aaron Isherwood, staff attorney for the Sierra Club. " If it stands, I think it will have major repercussions throughout the region. " In the ruling, Senior U.S. District Judge Glen M. Williams ordered U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne to issue cessation orders immediately. These orders would be " … to ensure that Penn Virginia Operating Company, LLC, Mountain Forest Products, Inc., or any other entity acting in concert with them cease removing vegetation, clear-cutting timber and constructing or improving roadways or conducting any other 'surface coal mining operations' on the property… . " Isherwood said the court's decision is clear on what is currently an open question of law: whether mining companies must obtain a mining permit before clear-cutting the proposed mine site. At issue is whether logging after applying for a mining permit is defined under mining regulations as " surface coal mining operations. " A surface coal mining permit for the site is pending for A & G Coal Corp., the same company that paid a fine and settled a large civil lawsuit after a boulder dislodged by a bulldozer killed a sleeping child in his bed in 2004. On Ison Rock Ridge, the company has a contract with the landowner, Penn Virginia Operating Co., which also has contracted with Mountain Forest Products to remove timber from the site. Neither A & G nor Penn Virginia had any comment on the Ison Rock Ridge case. Karl Kindig, one of the owners of Mountain Forest Products, referred to court documents filed by the company when asked about the case. " Mountain Forest Products has no interest in the proposed surface mine and has no involvement with A & G concerning the mine, " according to its motion to intervene – a request to be added as a defendant in the case. " Mountain Forest Products intends to cut and remove the timber whether or not a surface mine permit is issued to A & G. " http://www.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/judge_halts_wise_county_logging/\ 12362/ New York: 31) The Bruce S. Kershner Old Growth Forest Preservation and Protection Act, which will be delivered to Gov. David Paterson for his consideration, calls for a state ``trustee'' to recommend that old-growth forests be added from state-owned lands to the state Nature and Historical Preserve. Hoyt initially wanted to bar cutting of old-growth on private lands, which drew opposition from logging industry lobbyists. Hoyt's revised bill amends the state's land acquisition program to add old-growth forests. And the bill also would authorize the state Department of Environmental Conservation to " protect privately-held old growth forests of willing sellers, either by fee acquisition or through a conservation easement. " About 2.2 percent of the state's forests about 400,000 acres are old-growth and the state owns about 20 percent of that, according to Ancient Forests of the Northeast, a 2004 Sierra Club guide co-written by Kershner, who died of cancer in 2007 at age 56. Private individuals own about a third of old-growth forest stands, the guide estimates. Not-for-profit nature preserves own 25 percent and local parks own 20 percent. About 300,000 acres of old-growth are in 50 stands in the Adirondacks, while the Catskills has another 70,000 acres in 20 stands. Another 5,000 acres are scattered in 110 stands around the rest of the state, and the rest are isolated patches. In the Capital Region, old-growth forests can be found at: 1) Lisha Kill Natural Area, 112 acres in Niskayuna, between Troy, Rosendale and River roads just southwest of Lock 7, with about 30 acres of hemlock, white pine, northern red and white oak, and beech. 2) Old Maids Woods, Schemerhorn Road, Schenectady, a 21-acre city-owned forest that contains 220-year-old pitch pines, some of the oldest examples of the species in the U.S. 3) Little Nose and Big Nose, near Sprakers, Montgomery County, where 500-year-old northern white cedars cling to limestone cliffs visible from the state Thruway between mile markers 188 and 190. 4) Schoharie Escarpment and Vrooman's Nose, near the village of Middleburgh, Schoharie County, where red cedars up to 900 years old hold fast to sandstone cliffs. http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=708733 USA: 32) The Appalachian Trail and other traditional backcountry areas in our national parks and forests may be opened to All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) and other power-driven mobility devices. We face imminent danger of a fundamental alteration to our backcountry trails including the A.T. WE NEED YOU TO ACT SOON to tell the Department of Justice that this initiative is potentially devastating to the silent, challenging and primitive ideals and standards of the A.T. and other trails and backcountry areas in our national forests and parks. On June 17, 2008, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). We are writing our clubs and partnering agencies to urge that you respond to the NRPM by August 18. Your own, personal responses will be most effective. Be sure to point out that we would never want the Department of Justice or others to misconstrue our opposition to other-powered devices as opposition to persons with disabilities. The hiking community encourages and is inspired by the achievements of hikers with disabilities who seek quiet and nature on footpaths. Several, including blind AT thru-hiker Bill Irwin and his service-dog Orient, have completed thru-hikes on the Appalachian Trail. Indeed, these hikers inspire us to appreciate the challenge of a backcountry trail that is not compromised by All Terrain Vehicles or by machinery that will compromise the A.T's silent, challenging and primitive values. http://sectionhiker.com/2008/07/24/federal-rule-may-open-national-parks-and-fore\ sts-to-atvs/ 33) Amid improving harvest expectations for this year, the United States agriculture secretary, Ed Schafer, said Tuesday that he would not lift penalties for farmers who plant crops on land set aside for conservation. Bakers and livestock owners had mounted an intense lobbying effort to erase the penalties in order to increase the harvest and lower high crop prices. The pressure intensified in June after floods washed away farm fields in the Midwest, leading to fears of a poor harvest. But Mr. Schafer said recent forecasts indicated a larger crop than had seemed likely in the days and weeks after the flooding. In addition, he said that corn prices had plummeted 25 percent from record highs earlier this year, while soybean prices were down 14 percent. " We don't feel that the corn and soybean crops will be as bad as we originally feared, " he said. The ruling was a major victory for conservationists and hunting groups, who had argued that lifting the penalties would have gutted the Conservation Reserve Program, which pays farmers not to cultivate marginal land. Currently, 34.7 million acres are enrolled in the program, much of it in the Great Plains. Under the terms of the program, farmers sign contracts for up to a decade or more. Farmers who terminate the contract must reimburse the government, with interest and a 25 percent penalty on the total rent payments they received. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/business/30conserve.html?partner=rssnyt & emc=rs\ s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.