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--Today for you 32 new articles about earth's trees! (382nd 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:

 

BC-Canada World-wide

 

Index:

 

--British Columbia: 1) Tourists want more out-of-the-way places, 2)

Destruction of Mt. Arrowsmith, 3) Many first nations don't live on

land they want to destroy, 4) WFP defies CRD and continues to develop

forest land for illegal housing, 5) 2010 Olympics legacy is anything

but green, 6) Road Blockade in East Kootenays prevents Jumbo

development, 7) Will the Clayoquot blow out happen? 8) Gov lies about

stepped up monitoring of logging free for all, 9) Interfor's Adams

Lake is so innovative they can log way more forest than previously

allowed, 10) Who's behind the Immoral support for Ecotrust's

heli-logging and highgrading? 11) Like losts forest famous pin oak on

skyscraper's roof reaches 200 feet above the ground, 12) More on

Clayoquot Sound, 13) Ancient forest hikes in the Prince George area,

14) Sliammon First Nation sues loggers in Toquana reserve, 15)

" Sustainable " degradation of forested valleys, 16) Forest Practices

Board upholds Sierra Club complaint regarding endangered northern

goshawk habitat, 17) WFP stats, 18) More on Clayoquot Sound, 19) Cont.

20) Minister of Forests' light footprint logging only destroys largest

rarest ancient trees, 21) Forestry is here to stay?

 

--Canada: 22) Legacy of timber crib celebrated, 23) One quarter of all

intact forests remaining on the planet, 24) Northern Boreal protection

promise may not mean very much, 25) Early Researcher Awards program,

26) Immediately stop exports of raw timber from public forest!

 

--World-wide: 27) Shift from poverty-driven to industry-driven

deforestation, 28) Indigenous people attacked for forestland all over

the world, 29) Half a billion tonnes of tropical carbon emissions

could be avoided with $1Billion in annual bribes, 30) Understand:

Green Carbon, Brown Carbon, Gray Carbon, Blue Carbon, 31)

Carbon-eating super tree fantasy, 32) Half world's monkeys and apes

facing threat of extinction,

 

Articles:

 

British Columbia:

 

1) " A lot of people are interested in these more out-of-the-way

places. It will be very good for tourism, " Barrow said. The website

will be expanded to include more maps, photos, descriptions and sites,

she said. As more people visit the big trees, WCWC hopes the base of

support for wilderness protection will become wider, Wu said. " This

will be a precursor to our fall mobilization, " he said. " Once people

have seen these huge, Jurassic Park-like trees, they'll become strong

supporters of legislation to fully protect the remaining tracts of

ancient forest on Vancouver Island. " WCWC is planning a major campaign

to protect ancient forests this fall, with rallies, petitions and

letter-writing campaigns, Wu said. The aim is to get the ear of

government before the spring election, he said. WCWC wants the

provincial government to enact firm timelines to end old-growth

logging on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland by 2015, with an

immediate end to old-growth logging on the south and east of Vancouver

Island and in valley bottoms. The environmental group also wants to

see sustainable logging of second growth, with mills retooled to

process second growth and a ban on raw log exports. To check out the

WCWC website go to http://www.oldgrowthplaces.org

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/capital_van_isl/story.html?id=f\

ef23684-dbb4-4

79e-b7da-af9ff8c89b5b

 

2) One of my favorite places to hike has always been Mount Arrowsmith.

The first time that I ventured up the mountain I was eleven years old

and hiked up to the 'Saddle' between Mt. Cokley and Mt. Arrowsmith,

with 2 friends and one adult. We tried to hike up to the main massif

but snow made it too difficult so we resorted to sliding down the

steep slopes, which was lots of fun. The hike up to the alpine ridges

is through forests that are shadowed by the steep mountain slopes,

have extremely short growing seasons, and are covered by snow through

much of the year. Yellow Cedar (Cypress), Mountain Hemlock, and Alpine

Fir are the dominant tree species. At higher elevations the rocky

ridges are dotted with very old trees that take on the appearance of

Bonsai, due to the extreme conditions and short growing season. A

small park exists with the name of Mt. Arrowsmith Regional Park, but

it is located on Mt. Cokeley and does not protect any of Mt.

Arrowsmith. The entire forest surrounding these two mountains is

privately owned by Island Timberlands who continue to log higher up

the slopes each year. In 2006 senior management from Island

Timberlands assured the public that they would buffer the important

hiking routes to Mt. Arrowsmith. Since then they have heavily logged

the areas in question with no regard for preservation of the trails.

The slopes beside the Judge's route have been clear-cut extensively in

the past year and the slopes of Mt. Cokeley, beside a small lake on

the road to the old alpine ski lodge, have also been heavily logged.

Almost half of the trees that were cut down appear to have been left

behind. Much of the wood debris that is being left to rot has suffered

the fate of long butting, a logging practice where only the prime part

of the trees is taken, leaving the rest behind in order to save on

transportation costs. This practice is not allowed on publicly owned

land but there are no penalties for this type of waste on private

land. The European Union has stipulated that they will only buy lumber

that is certified as meeting with environmental standards. Island

Timberlands claims they are meeting these standards but do the buyers

really know what is happening on the slope of Vancouver Island's

mountains? Trees being cut on Mt. Arrowsmith are over 4000 feet above

sea level, with a growing season so short that it takes hundreds of

years for a tree to reach only 18 inches in diameter. For more

information and to support the preservation of Mt. Arrowsmith check

out: http://www.mountarrowsmith.org

http://islandlens.blogspot.com/2008/08/island-timberland-logs-mt-arrowsmith.html

 

 

3) You might not realize that MANY First Nations people do not live on

the land that they claim as their Traditional Territory. Wet'suwet'en

that live in Moricetown are logging out the Buck Creek watershed right

now. They have to drive two hours, one-way, to get out here and take

the trees. The permutations and complications of " First Nations'

Stewardship " in many cases in BC represents an " absentee landlord "

arrangement. This means that some of them view these lands as their

" pantry " , or... it seems to me that they can exploit resources on

these lands and not be directly impacted in their daily lives, as I

am....as Buck Creek is.....as the forest ecosystems disappear. For the

past two decades, ENGO's have tried and in many cases succeeded.... in

manipulating First Nations, particularly Elders to oppose ALL economic

development. The relationship has always been one of patronage and

placing the Elders in harm's way, while the " instigators " remain

behind the scenes. Community-, Band- and Nation-decision-making for

First Nations come in many forms....most manipulations by-pass the

real consensus models and create conflict within FN communities. Who

has told you that FN " stewardship " means " wilderness " and preservation

ONLY? First, " wilderness " is a human-oriented word, up here measured

with a " distance-to-nearest-road " designation. Healthy ecosystems can

retain attributes even with a " human " footprint. Second, nothing is

really " preserved " in our BC ecosystems; everything is in constant

flux...Old Trees are not the main value on-the-ground. Conservation of

function and recognition of retaining resilient systems is an

objective that may well be achievable. ENGO's have tried in recent

past to emulate /imitate " government " with large sums on money,

Central Coast, to create a new power-structure where development, even

Land Use Decisions, are made that will " create new ways of doing

'business' " . ENGO's and the rest of " us " should STOP being false to

our core values and get back to being

environmentalists/conservationists. bcenvirowatch

 

4) Western Forest Products is pushing ahead with building roads meant

for a housing subdivision, even though the Capital Regional District

insists the company doesn't have the right to do so. In late July, the

CRD sent the company a letter demanding it stop building roads on

forest land around Jordan River and Shirley. The CRD says the work

contravenes development permit rules. However, Western has replied

that it does not need a development permit for road building as the

land is still private managed forest land and comes under provincial

regulations, not CRD rules. " Western does not agree that it requires a

development permit for any activities that are currently being

performed on the lands, " says a letter signed by the company's chief

operating officer, Duncan Kerr. That does not mean the roads are being

built for forestry purposes, Kerr said in an interview. " If the

subdivision application is not approved, then we will likely use these

roads for part of our future logging operations, but there's no

question that the preparation work underway now is absolutely for

subdivision purposes, " he said. Bob Lapham, CRD general manager of

planning, said the regional district is getting legal advice on

whether the road-building violates development permit rules. It is a

tricky question, as the company is claiming exemption because the land

is still classified as private managed forest land, even though it has

applied to subdivide. " There's not a lot of case law testing this, "

Lapham said. " The legislation was not developed with the idea that

forest companies would become land developers. " The relationship

between the CRD and Western has been strained since the regional

district rezoned forestry land in the southwest corner of Vancouver

Island to 120-hectare-minimum lot sizes. That move restricts the

number of houses that can be built.

http://forestaction.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/crd-wfp-tangle-over-forest-roads/

 

5) Bruce McArthur, who headed up The Coalition to Save Eagleridge

Bluffs, is taking me on a tour of what will be the 2010 Olympics

legacy in his community of Horseshoe Bay. " It's been chopped in half

and mowed down, " McArthur says of the wilderness that lay right over

and above his house. " That's a problem. " What he's showing me is the

result of re-routing the Vancouver–Whistler Sea-to-Sky Highway that

joins 2010 Olympic venues between the city and the ski-resort town.

Officials want to shave a few minutes off that trip, and increase

capacity on the road, but that's meant a shortcut through a rare

forest ecosystem, fragmenting a section of it beyond repair. That

flies in the face of Vancouver's green and sustainable bid for the

2010 Olympics that won it the gig back in 2003. " That's one of the

reasons Vancouver won [the Olympic bid] was because we pitched that

we'd be the greenest Olympics ever, " says Boyd Cohen, from Simon

Fraser University's Center for Sustainable Community Development. The

74 mile (120 kilometer) Sea-to-Sky Highway is beautiful but

treacherous. The first half of the road snakes up Howe Sound, clinging

to mountainsides that drop straight into the ocean below. The single

lane highway is rife with blind curves and few chances to pass; it

suffers three-times the province's average number of collisions per

kilometer per year. The province decided to expand the existing

highway in time for the Olympics in an effort to increase its capacity

and safety, all except for a stretch of the highway in West Vancouver.

Here in Horseshoe Bay, they decided to build a new four-lane highway

through Eagle ridge bluffs and the woods behind. It was this stretch

of nearly two miles (three kilometers)—home to the vulnerable,

blue-listed red-legged frog, the rare coastal bluffs arbutus

ecosystem, a mature Douglas fir stand, and flanks the Larsen creek

wetlands—that attracted community and environmental opposition, led by

McArthur, a retired project manager for non-road work.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=highway-of-good-intentions

 

6) Concerned East Kootenay citizens have set up a blockade

approximately 50 kilometres from Invermere on the Farnham Creek Forest

Service Road. People committed to keeping the area wild intend to halt

road construction inside the Jumbo Glacier Resort Controlled

Recreation Area. The road construction is taking place through the

Farnham Creek headwaters in an alpine area near West Farnham Glacier,

which is adjacent to Jumbo Glacier. If built, the road would allow

resort proponents the chance to build a 'temporary surface lift'-yes,

a ski lift-inside the proposed boundaries of the resort. However, the

resort hasn't been approved yet. Opponents of the development claim

the lift would be an unacceptable invasion into the Proposed Jumbo

Glacier Resort Controlled Recreation Area. " Wildsight and the Jumbo

Creek Conservation Society are appalled by this attack on the alpine

and on due process, " said Dave Quinn, Wildsight's Purcell Mountain

program manager. " Machines are tearing up the alpine in Farnham Creek

headwaters as we speak-just so that a collection of resort proponents

can lay claim to some territory. Well, that's not acceptable. It's not

fair play and some individuals have gathered and intend to stop the

game. " The road construction is occurring without public consultation

and without an approval to proceed for the Jumbo Glacier Master Plan.

The master plan has not received any form of local government

rezoning, nor has it received local First Nations approval, nor has

the provincial government signed off on it as a final Master

Development Agreement. Local activists suspect the activity is an

attempt to keep alive a " stale " agreement between Jumbo Glacier resort

proponents and one arm of the B.C. government. " The proposed Jumbo

Glacier Resort's controversial Conditional Environmental Assessment

certificate expires in 2009, " said Dave Quinn, a program manager with

Wildsight. " If the resort proponents show no progress by that time,

they'll have to go back to square one. So this appears to be their

attempt to squeeze in any progress they possibly can-and keep a very

outdated certificate alive. " Quinn said the road and proposed lift is

" a desperate attempt by a desperate developer for a doomed project. "

He notes that after 20 years the Jumbo Glacier Resort proposal still

doesn't have the necessary rezoning it needs to go ahead.

http://www.wildsight.ca

 

7) From his home on Wickaninnish Island, just off Tofino, he sees the

Clayoquot conflict not as non-native versus native but as a clash of

values. " [it's] this conflict between economic development that is

sound and has a future, and the short-term destructive approach, " Mr.

Lawson said. He thinks there is too much cutting in Clayoquot Sound,

and that a scientific logging plan that was drawn up following the big

protests in 1993 is badly flawed. " I honestly didn't support the

science panel [report] because I read it as soon as it came out and I

don't think the environmentalists read the whole thing. There were

holes in there big enough to drive 1,000 logging trucks through ...

and we're seeing the result of that now, " he said. Mr. Lawson said no

matter who wields the saw, it can't be right when swaths of

800-year-old cedar trees are cut down. Many native people feel the

same way, he said. " There is a split within the native communities.

.... Everyone isn't on the same page, " he said, although that internal

conflict hasn't emerged publicly. " It takes a lot in a native

community for people to stand up and go against their leadership. " But

he thinks that may happen because Clayoquot, a UN biosphere reserve,

is facing increased development pressure with a proposed open-pit

copper mine on Catface Mountain, a proliferation of salmon farms in

the protected inlets, and proposed dams on two rivers. " Things are

going to hell right now. ... This biosphere thing is not working. It's

been hijacked [by development interests], " he said. Mr. Lawson would

like to see natives, environmentalists, government and industry

working together on a vision for Clayoquot. " People have to look into

their hearts to make it really work, " he said. " It's not about

political manoeuvring or ego or crusading. It's about making a

connection with the land itself, the way the old people did.

Communicating with the land and creating a long-term vision. If it

can't happen here, it's hard to say where or how it could ever

happen. " Few people would disagree with that. But the path to the

future may yet be marked by anti-logging protests in which there will

be natives and non-natives on both sides of the barricades.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080802.CLAYOQUOT02/TPStory/En\

vironment

 

8) Provincial employees from natural resource ministries are working

together to increase environmental monitoring and protection in the

province's northwest, Forests and Range Minister Pat Bell announced

today. " British Columbians have a history of working together to

improve environmental management, forest health and stewardship, " said

Bell. " Allowing the Ministry of Forests and Range's compliance and

enforcement staff to respond to resource management issues covered by

other ministries' legislation, and vice-versa, results in increased

monitoring and protection of our natural environment. " Under the

Resource Management Coordination Project the ministries of Forests and

Range, Environment, Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources and the

Integrated Land Management Bureau share inspection and enforcement

staff and equipment to ensure specific environmental standards are

being upheld. Staff from each ministry are able to investigate and

enforce things such as open burning regulations, land and mine

inspections and waste management practices covered under the

Environmental Management Act. The project currently includes staff

based in Prince Rupert, Dease Lake, Kitimat, Terrace, and Smithers.

" This approach should be welcomed by law-abiding British Columbians as

it will result in increased inspections and enforcement of

environmental standards, while improving the amount of direct

assistance available to the public, " said Environment Minister Barry

Penner. " In addition to more training, co-operation between ministries

and enhanced enforcement, the Ministry of Environment is hiring five

more year-round conservation officers this year to increase our

presence on the ground. " The project also aims to prevent conflict

between humans and wildlife by providing residents in areas

experiencing increased wildlife encounters with advice on managing

garbage, yard fruit, pet food and compost – items known to attract

wildlife.

http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news_releases_2005-2009/2008FOR0111-001202.htm

 

9) KAMLOOPS – The allowable annual cut increase for Interfor's Adams

Lake innovative forestry practices agreement has been set at 15,000

cubic metres based on the results of the company's forest inventory,

site productivity and deer winter range management projects. The

Southern Interior Forest regional manager determined the increase

after reviewing the company's application, forestry plan, timber

supply analysis, and considering public and First Nations input. The

company collected extensive forest inventory and site productivity

data, which was used to support the increase in their allowable annual

cut. Interfor has also developed a strategy that increases the area

managed as mule deer winter range by 500 per cent. The determination

follows the extension of Interfor's innovative forestry practices

agreement to Aug. 31, 2011 and is similar in amount to the previously

awarded increase of 14,870 cubic metres that expired at the end of

2007. The area in the Adams Lake innovative forestry practices

agreement makes up about 180,000 hectares in the Kamloops timber

supply area and includes land in both the Headwaters and Kamloops

forest districts. The primary tree species are Douglas fir, Engelmann

spruce, lodgepole pine and subalpine fir. Under the Forest Act, the

regional manager can award an increase to the allowable annual cut of

an innovative forestry practices agreement-holder. Licence holders

must comply with conditions of the increase, the agreement, the Forest

Act, the Forest and Range Practices Act and other relevant

legislation. Under these agreements, licensees conduct activities

above their basic obligations of forest management with a view to

improving timber productivity. Copies of the regional manager's

rationale are available on the ministry's website at:

http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/rsi/IFPA/IFPA.htm

 

 

10) Green cover and immoral support for Ecotrust's heli-logging and

highgrading of ancient cedar from the Clayoquot remnants and refugia

is precisely the same logging targets and approaches in mind for the

GBR. This critical cedar based ecosystem complex functions to

arbitrate a marine nitrogen flux which, even in the event of massive

disruption and damage to surrounding upland forests, can function

naturally to restore species diversity, ecosystem complexity and

impact resilience. The small but incredibly valuable alluvial forest

interface can restore these logging damaged ecosystems provided it is

left alive and fully functioning with all of its constituent types and

species. But heli-highgrading the alluvial cedar zones rips the living

beating cedar heart from our forests and guarantees that biodiversity,

reslience, complexity and function in these and neighbouring areas

will be conceded forever. Heli-highgrading the alluvial cedar

compromises the marine forest nitrogen chain and it does so in the

forest in precisely the same way that fishing down the trophic oceanic

food web provides high catches and revenues just before it crashes in

phase transition and stagnation. It is tragic and sickening that these

would-be ethical environmentalists are so little concerned with the

ecological and environmental consequences of their final industrial

solution for our forests. bcenvirowatch

 

11) The pin oak, Quercus palustris, is technically the highest, if not

tallest, tree in Vancouver, thanks to its lofty placement. And, it is

actually a tribute to the Beach Avenue neighborhood's past, according

to architect Richard Henriquez. A man with a love for history, he says

he designed Eugenia Place to include details reflecting the site's

storied past. A cluster of cabins stood on the site around the turn of

the twentieth century. They were razed more than 60 years ago to make

way for a four- story apartment building, which stood until the late

1980s. Footprints of those former structures can be found surrounding

the present high rise. " I'm interested in history. I thought it would

be really neat to have on the site representations of everything that

had ever been on the site prior to us building the building, " says

Henriquez, who founded Henriquez Partners Architects in Vancouver in

1969. The oak is a nod to the site's purest, earliest existence: the

old-growth trees that stood on the shore of the English Bay before

loggers made their mark on the land. " In order to round out the

history, I thought it would be good to have a tree up at the same

height as where the old-growth forest (reached), " says Henriquez.

" It's sort of a poetic kind of response to the history of the site. "

Old-growth (also referred to a " first-growth " by Henriquez) cedar,

spruce and Douglas-fir were commonly 200 t 250 tall – some even

taller. Understanding that the old-growth tree were likely Douglas-fir

and cedar, the architect deliberately chose a non-native deciduous

oak, realizing that he needed tree able to withstand the strong winds

an wild weather likely to accompany life 200 feet. The pin oak was 15

years old when construction began on Eugeni Place, Henriquez says. The

tree was planted on the roof in 1987 and packed dow with 100,000

pounds of soil. But, while Henriquez spent a good deal of thought on

the tree itself, there was on piece of the vision he admits he

neglecte to consider: the chore of caring for it. " I never thought

about it, " Henrique says simply. http://www.jpmtree.com

 

11) Some of B.C.'s best-known environmentalists and their supporters

gathered Saturday to protest against future development plans for

Vancouver Island's Clayoquot Sound. But aboriginal leaders said their

people should have the right to decide about the future of their

traditional territories. Federal Green Party deputy leader Adriane

Carr and the Watershed Watch Salmon Society's Vicky Husband said

logging, mining and hydroelectric power plans for the virtually

untouched wilderness are wrong. The two sides squared off at the rally

in Tofino on Vancouver Island Saturday. About 150 people attended. " Is

this what we want in our pristine valleys of Clayoquot Sound? " asked

Husband. " I would say no. I would absolutely say no. So, I think we

have to oppose all of these projects. " Currently, Coulson Forest

Products, of Port Alberni, and First-Nations owned MaMook Natural

Resources Ltd. have plans to log an untouched watershed north of

Tofino. As well, Selkirk Metals Corp. and the Ahousaht First Nation

are exploring Catface Mountain, located 13 kilometres northwest of

Tofino, for copper. And, Synex Energy Resources Ltd., of Vancouver,

plans to apply for a licence of occupation for a water project on

Bulson Creek, located northeast of Tofino. Frank said until a treaty

is settled, Ahousaht's traditional territory still belongs to the

hereditary chiefs. " I never go to Europe. I never go to the Queen and

tell her how to be in her territory. What gives the right of any other

society to come here and say that to me and my chiefs? " " Give us a

chance to do what we need to do on our own, " Frank said. And, while

Carr and Husband support aboriginal rights and title in the area, Carr

said if development must take place in the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO

Biosphere Reserve, it must respect nature. Holding up a photo of a

clearcut near Hesquiat Point Creek, Carr questioned current logging

practices. " This is not world-class forestry standards, " she said.

" This is a clearcut, like the old-fashioned clearcuts that everybody

knew would destroy watersheds, would lead to erosion, would lead to

the siltation in our oceans, in our rivers. "

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gQkBUDRWXGDhGJ66paXVe761wNeg

 

12) In Clayoquot Sound, where a towering rain forest has achieved

iconic global status, the first logging protests saw environmentalists

and natives standing shoulder to shoulder.

At Meares Island, Sulphur Passage and Atleo River, natives and

non-natives faced arrest at blockades more than 20 years ago, while

forging an alliance that would go on to change the face of British

Columbia. But in that tangled, temperate jungle, where deer ferns

stand waist-high and giant trees blot out the sky, environmentalists

are now threatening to block a native-owned logging company from

cutting trees. The alliance of natives and environmentalists not only

brought a halt to logging on Meares Island in 1984, but in 1993, after

a massive protest that drew international media coverage, it

celebrated a resounding victory - the stoppage of clear-cutting in

Clayoquot Sound. Is that powerful partnership now over? On the surface

it might appear so. But nothing is ever as it seems in Clayoquot

Sound, where dense fog banks can suddenly drift in from the Pacific to

completely obscure the rugged, green mountains on Vancouver Island's

west coast, near the resort town of Tofino. The split between

environmentalists and natives emerged two years ago when ForestEthics,

Greenpeace and other groups attacked two logging companies -

native-owned Iisaak Forest Resources Ltd. and Coulson Forest Products,

of Port Alberni - for cutting in pristine areas. The dispute has

simmered in backroom negotiations since then, but last week it boiled

over as environmentalists threatened blockades and international

market boycotts if logging isn't stopped. " The situation is very

serious, and very sensitive, " said Valerie Langer, spokeswoman for

ForestEthics and a veteran of the 1993 blockades, which resulted in

more than 800 people arrested and saw the band Midnight Oil playing to

a dancing crowd in a clear-cut.

http://forestaction.wordpress.com/2008/08/02/clayoquot-partnership-rotting-away/

 

13) Once again, it's time to visit some of British Columbia's

established treasures and unexpected pleasures. The Ancient Forest and

other hikes in the Prince George area: A forest that plant biologists

estimate to be between 1,000 and 2,000 years old envelops us. These

trees, cedars mostly, have massive trunks up to 16 metres in

circumference, upper limbs that reach for the sun's rays, and lower

limbs draped in moss. We are in the Ancient Forest, one of British

Columbia's rare and hidden treasures, about an hour's drive east of

Prince George. Though most temperate rainforests are found by the

coast, this is the only known rainforest to exist so far (over 1,000

kilometres) from the ocean. About a dozen interpretive signs along the

well marked, but unobtrusive 2.5-kilometre trail explain the

significance of this 29-hectare ecosystem that has lain virtually

undisturbed for centuries. One of the boreal giants, the aptly named

" Big Tree " is a massive Western Red Cedar that measures five metres in

diameter, and was likely a sapling when the Roman Empire was at its

peak. A connecting trail leads through the dense forest, and after a

mostly gentle 104-metre elevation gain, to a lovely waterfall.

Treebeard Falls drops through a narrow notch in the escarpment and

plummets 34 metres over a moss covered rock wall. The Ancient Forest

is part of the Rainforest Conservation Corridor, one of the last

places in the world where mountain caribou, wolverine, lynx, cougar,

grey wolf, and both black and grizzly bear coexist. And it's one of

many places in the Prince George area where nature and wildlife are

easily accessible.

http://www.canada.com/topics/travel/story.html?id=28f666bb-112f-4a38-abc8-5b4f23\

aa1cdc

 

14) The Sliammon First Nation in Powell River filed a lawsuit against

a northwest forestry company and the provincial and federal

governments on Tuesday " to compel cleanup of damage caused to its

Toquana Reserve " in a 1995 landslide. " It was mud and debris and

everything else, " Sliammon First Nation Chief Walter Paul said. " The

slide came down through the valley and took out a lot of our reserve. "

Mr. Paul said the slide happened because a provincial forestry road

wasn't properly decommissioned. A culvert on the road jammed, creating

the slide that " washed out access roads, damaged reserve buildings and

destroyed fish habitats. " Plaintiff lawyer Murray Browne said the

Sliammon have waited patiently for a resolution. " The Sliammon kept

hoping that there would be efforts made to do a final cleanup, " Mr.

Browne said. " There were some initial efforts but it hasn't really

been completed. " Merrill & Ring, a forestry and land management

company operating out of the Pacific Northwest since 1888, is named as

a defendant. Merrill & Ring spokesman Norm Schaaf said he was not

aware of any lawsuit. Mr. Paul said the landslide has had a severely

detrimental effect on salmon stocks. " The landslide changed the course

of the river, " he said. " A lot of the salmon fry got stuck in ponds

that dried up. " Documents filed by the Sliammon in B.C. Supreme Court

ask the defendants to " develop and implement a remediation plan in

consultation with the [sliammon] to remediate damage caused to the

lands, structures, waters and fish habitat. " The documents also allege

that the province " negligently authorized or carried out road

construction, decommissioning and remediation of logging roads and the

bridge upstream. " The Sliammon are asking for " damages for economic

loss, " as well as " exemplary and punitive damages. "

http://www.bark-out.org/content/article.php?section=news & id=503

 

15) One of its sillier interviews was conducted this morning on CBC in

Victoria. Guest host David Lennam interviewed a logger who supports

" sustainable " degradation of forested valleys, in this case mandated

by a native band. But trees will be replanted, asks the interviewer?

So NOW what's the problem about logging in Clayoquot Sound? And will

we get to see any more celebrities and rock bands? After all these

years, after all the ink spilled and websites launched and interviews

given, some media people STILL don't get the difference between

cutting down trees and not cutting down trees. Preserving unspoiled

ancient forests means NOT CUTTING -- not tampering, not roadbuilding,

not polluting the air with heavy machinery, not in any way interfering

with the processes of nature. Re-growth of a forest does not take 50

years' " turn-around " between logging sprees; it takes over a thousand

years for the complexity of an old growth forest to achieve full

biodiversity, and Clayoquot Sound is one of the few places in North

American where a scrap of the primeval forest still exists. Whether it

is undermined by " native " interests or by international logging

companies makes no difference to the species wiped out by logging. The

CBC host thanked the logger who promotes selective logging and

sustainability, for " painting this picture for us " . If only he would

interview someone from the Friends of Clayoquot Sound

http://www.focs.ca , the Wilderness Committee, the Sierra Club or

Global Canopy.

http://www.naturalit.ca/2008/07/selective-interviewing-on-cbc-about.html

 

16) The Forest Practices Board has upheld a Sierra Club BC complaint

that the endangered northern goshawk's habitat is under threat from

logging on the Queen Charlottes. " The board's recommendations fully

support our concerns about the destruction of goshawk foraging

habitat, " said Jacques Morin, a biologist and chair of Sierra Club

Haida Gwaii. Mr. Morin filed the complaint in September 2006, after

the Forest Practices Board urged cautious management of northern

goshawk habitat on the Charlottes to ensure the hawk's long-term

survival. In the final report released August 1, the board agreed with

Sierra Club BC that " there are no interim measures in place to

conserve or protect foraging habitat " pending the release of an action

plan from the federal goshawk recovery team. Goshawks are large hawks

that rely on mature forests for nesting. The Haida Gwaii subspecies is

nationally listed as " threatened " , which means that its immediate

nesting territories are protected. However, the Haida Gwaii goshawk

subspecies requires large tracts of foraging habitat that is not

protected under either provincial or federal legislation. Scientists

say that without swift action the Haida Gwaii goshawk could become

extirpated within 10 years because the population is genetically

isolated. In February 2005 the province said its goal was to lead the

world in sustainable environmental management. Today's report

demonstrates that three years later, endangered species in BC continue

to be at risk. " This case underscores the need for BC to follow

Ontario's example and pass stand-alone legislation to protect

endangered species, " said Sierra Club BC Director of Campaigns Susan

Howatt. " BC is at the back of the Canadian pack when it comes to

protecting at-risk species like the northern goshawk. "

http://forestaction.wordpress.com/2008/08/02/islanders-complaint-upheld-by-fores\

t-practices-bo

ard/

 

17) Western Forest Products: Western is an integrated Canadian forest

products company and the largest coastal British Columbia woodland

operator and lumber producer with an annual available harvest of

approximately 7.5 million cubic metres of timber of which

approximately 7.3 million cubic metres is from Crown lands and lumber

capacity in excess of 1.5 billion board feet from eight sawmills and

four remanufacturing plants. Principal activities conducted by the

Company include timber harvesting, reforestation, sawmilling logs into

lumber and wood chips and value-added remanufacturing. Substantially

all of Western's operations, employees and corporate facilities are

located in the coastal region of British Columbia while its products

are sold in over 30 countries worldwide.

http://www.stockhouse.com/News/CanadianReleasesDetail.aspx?n=6994677

 

18) A two-week truce has been called to cool a brewing dispute over

logging a pristine rain forest in Vancouver Island's Clayoquot Sound.

The last-minute truce was called yesterday, on the day declared a

deadline by environmentalists. They had given notice to two logging

companies to get out of Clayoquot Sound or face blockades. The break

is intended to give environmentalists a chance to continue discussions

with MaMook Natural Resour-ces Ltd. and Coulson Forest Products, said

chief executive officer Wayne Coulson. " Dialogue is good, right? " said

Coulson from his Port Alberni office yesterday. " Everybody needs to

re-engage in the history and hopefully everybody will find a way

through this. " MaMook is owned by local First Nations while Coulson

Forest Products has headquarters in Port Alberni. Clayoquot Sound is

on the west coast of Vancouver Island and includes land between

Bark-ley and Nootka Sounds. Tofino is within the area. Coulson said

he's optimistic a peaceful resolution is possible. Environmentalists

also seem cautiously optimistic. Stephanie Goodwin of Greenpeace said

yesterday there has been an effort over the weekend to come up with a

forward to reach a meaningful resolution " because nobody wants to be

in a place of conflict. " The environmentalists and forest companies

focused discussions yesterday on developing a framework for future

discussions, Goodwin said. " We're hopeful, " she said. Maryjka

Mychajlowycz of the Friends of Clayoquot Sound said yesterday she felt

there were opportunities to avoid a head-on conflict with forest

companies. " We want to give that a full chance to succeed. … We are

hopeful, we are optimistic. " The valley became a world focus in 1993

when 12,000 protesters gathered there. The 350,000-hectare area known

as Clayoquot Sound was named a United Nations Biosphere Reserve in

2000. Still, some logging is allowed. The Scientific Panel for

Sustainable Forest Practices in Clayoquot Sound, implemented by the

B.C. government in July 2005, " is probably the most stringent

eco-based forest management in North America, " said Coulson. " It's

there to protect the old growth forest ecosystem and if we can't make

it work here it will never work anywhere. Everyone has a

responsibility to make it work. "

http://forestaction.wordpress.com/2008/07/29/truce-called-in-clayoquot-logging-d\

ispute/

 

19) The heart of Clayoquot's intact forest is composed of a series of

pristine valleys, many of which remain unprotected. Large valleys such

as the Sydney Inlet are cradled by smaller but equally important

stretches of wilderness like Hesquiat Lake Creeks. In the ocean

channels lie impressive islands carpeted in old-growth forest.

Clayoquot Sound's magnificent landscape supports some of the

continent's largest predators such as wolves, bears and cougars;

numerous shell and finfish populations, including five species of

Pacific salmon; hundreds of thousands of migrating waterfowl and

shorebirds; and marine mammals, including two types of whales and the

second largest shark. Forty-five endangered, threatened or vulnerable

animal species live in Clayoquot's undisturbed wilderness. Some of

these animals have never seen a human or crossed a road. In 1993

Friends of Clayoquot Sound maintained a blockade of logging

operations, which with 12,000 people and arrests of 900 peaceful

blockaders, was the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian

history. Ecological Internet (then Forests.org) and many others around

the world rallied to their support using the then new Internet to

successfully globalize the protest. The protests were largely

successful in ending industrial logging. A voluntary moratorium on

logging in pristine valleys in Clayoquot was observed after the

protest while a scientific panel reviewed how the areas could be

logged in an " environmentally sustainable way " . In the meantime,

old-growth timber has continued to be harvested from previously

developed areas, though not from the untouched valleys. This is about

to change. In March, First Nations-owned MaMook Natural Resources Ltd.

and partner Coulson Forest Products began building logging roads into

Hesquiat Point Creek with plans to start logging as early as this

fall. This will be the first time a company has begun logging in such

a " pristine " valley in nearly 20 years. Some things have changed since

1993, as a company owned by five local aboriginal bands now plays a

role in cutting the ancient forests. Local groups are threatening a

return to blockades in the sound and other types of protests and

global marketing campaigns. Some of the logging ramping up is even

" FSC certified " as well-managed, falsely implying sustainability.

Triumph Logging Co. in partnership with environmental group Ecotrust

Canada has setup a native shell company named Iisaak that has gained

FSC certification to industrially high-grade log old growth ancient

forests for their valuable cedar. The damage to ecosystems has been

acute, demonstrating industrial forestry practices can never be

ecologically sustainable. It appears the logging industry is using

native involvement as a means to advance projects that might otherwise

be politically unpalatable. http://forests.org/

 

20) Pat Bell, Minister of Forests, says: " It is a very light-footprint

form of log harvesting, a very small amount of timber that would be

removed, " Yeah, helicopter highgrading the best red cedar from these

ancient coastal forests removes 15% of forest timber volume but 70% of

forest timber value and severely compromises the ecological interface

and nutrient pathways arbitrated by huge ancient red cedar trees and

the fish forest ecosystems they host. As usual, the Fake

Environmentalists are taking this " negotiation " behind closed doors to

buy off logging interests and bribe First Nations bureaucrats. The

First Nation angle in this conflict is a red herring. There are no

jobs on a dead planet and the threat to liquidate the balance of the

sustaining forest unless enviro money and jobs are produced is simply

a demand that they be compensated according to the same basis that

Fake Environmentalism promised to compensate GBR FN's from their

illusory foundation funded $300 million sustainable bribery cache.

FN's are calling the FE bluff and exposing the celebrity enviros for

the corporate couriers they have become. The celebrity enviros are

going to fall flat over this and that means they will need to extend a

public funded secure confidential 5 year planning frame over this

fiasco to transact and obscure the outcome with some careerist

solutions. stoneboat

 

21) Bell says, " It just doesn't seem to matter where I go in the

province, whether it's union leaders that I'm speaking with, industry

executives that I'm speaking with, woodlot owners, salvage loggers,

log harvesters, silviculture folks, community leaders, First Nations,

everyone of them says: We need to send a very strong message that

forestry is here to stay and that it has a bright future. Forests and

Range Minister Pat Bell's plans for the future of B.C.'s forest sector

is old news. Recently appointed to the position, Bell laid out what he

saw as his four-point plan for the forest sector's future success,

during a telephone conference with media, but according to Columbia

River–Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald there is nothing new.

" Traditionally we have been the best in the world at cutting trees

down and certainly I was part of that, in my previous career as a

logger. We're the best in the world at taking round trees and making

flat boards, but we really never turned our minds to growing trees and

the value that can be created from growing trees, " Bell says. But

Macdonald wasn't convinced of the efficacy of his plan. " The fact is

with this government's policies they've lost over 20,000 jobs, more

than 50 mills, and you have companies in this area on reduced shifts

including here in Golden. There are things that need to be done that

are dramatic, and I would characterize it as nothing substantive has

been done by the government. " Macdonald said the current government

has removed a lot of the tools that were there to work with the

industry, and to make sure forestry would be strong after the down

cycles finished. " You have these cycles constantly and this is not the

worst down cycle we've had. And what governments have always done is

made sure when the cycle was tough like it is now you maintain the

capacity. " What, he said, this government has done is to remove so

many of the tools they used to have..you don't have pertinence–a

social contract between a community and the surrounding forest, so if

you had wood coming out of an area than it had to be milled in that

area.

http://www.bclocalnews.com/kootenay_rockies/thegoldenstar/news/26070569.html

 

Canada:

 

22) Except for glimpses in old photographs and anecdotes of the log

driving days, few people know of the timber crib -a massive raft made

of squared logs- and the vital role it played in the settlement of the

Upper Ottawa Valley. It thus made perfect sense the arrival of one at

the Pembroke Marina, along with a replica of the famous Cochrane

Pointer Boat, would be used as the kickoff for " From Roots to Rock, " a

week-long celebration of 180 years of settlement at the site of the

City of Pembroke. On Sunday, approximately 2,000 people crowded the

banks of the Ottawa River to watch the historic moment as the crib

reached the shoreline. In a year of anniversaries, it has been exactly

100 years since the last commercial timber crib travelled the Ottawa

River and it was felt it would be ideal to recreate the structure and

the experience to mark the event. Made of two dozen white pine logs,

and weighing 21,000 kilograms, the timber crib has gotten around all

summer, heading as far south as the Canadian Museum of Civilization in

Ottawa, making stops along the way to give people a chance to admire

it. For Sunday's journey, the crib was assembled near Petawawa Point

on Friday, then launched around 9:30 a. m., carrying a crowd of around

70 people. Among them were Pembroke Mayor Ed Jacyno, MP Cheryl

Gallant, MPP John Yakabuski and people and their families who have

been involved in the project from the beginning such as John and Dana

Shaw of Herb Shaw and Sons Limited, Tom Stephenson who oversaw its

construction, city councillor Terry O'Neill, Fred Blackstein and

others. http://www.thedailyobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1142845

 

23) The boreal forest stretches across the northern part of Canada,

touching almost every province and territory and covering 35 percent

of the country's total land mass. It represents about one third of the

world's circumpolar boreal system and one quarter of all intact

forests remaining on the planet. The region supports three billion

migratory songbirds and more than 200 species of animals, including

dozens of threatened or endangered species such as woodland caribou,

grizzly and polar bears, wolverine, lynx, and white pelican. Ontario's

northern boreal region makes up 43 percent of the province's land

mass, extending from the northern limits of the Great Lakes–St.

Lawrence forest to the Hudson Bay Lowlands. Under the plan, half of

this massive region would be protected in an interconnected network of

conservation lands. The announcement is significant not just in terms

of conservation, but also because it marks the first time a government

in Canada has explicitly recognized the role nature conservation must

play in combating global warming. The boreal's forests and peatlands

absorb and store massive amounts of carbon, making them a hedge

against global warming caused by emissions from human activity.

Scientists estimate that Ontario's northern boreal alone absorbs 12.5

million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year. It's difficult to

describe the global significance of Canada's boreal forest. It's one

of the last places on earth where human activity hasn't yet upset

critical predator-prey relationships, natural fire regimes, and

hydrological cycles. As significant as the Ontario government's

announcement is, we have to be cautious in our optimism. For one

thing, we don't know if protecting 50 percent will be enough to

conserve the region's biodiversity, particularly species like caribou

that depend upon vast tracts of intact habitat. And we have yet to

learn what areas will be put off limits to development. Fortunately,

the government has committed to working with First Nations in the

region to develop comprehensive land-use plans. We must also ensure

that the government doesn't use its announcement to protect the

sparsely populated and largely unthreatened northern boreal as

justification for further expansion of industrial development in the

southern boreal, which is far more attractive to industries such as

forestry and mining.

http://www.straight.com/article-156469/david-suzuki-other-governments-must-follo\

w-ontarios-br

ave-step

 

24) Dalton McGuinty's promise to set aside half of Ontario's northern

boreal forest for permanent protection may not mean very much. It's

hard to say, because the promise is so vague. For instance, he could

protect only the Hudson Bay Lowlands, which make up more than half of

the northern boreal. Logging is unlikely to occur there in any event;

so if that's what he's promising, the more desirable western half of

the region would remain open to forestry companies. The forest in the

Lowlands – the area that wraps around James Bay and stretches inland

100 to 350 kilometres – is transitional: the entire area is fragile,

trees are small and can take 250 to 350 years to mature and replanting

has a high failure rate. Nevertheless, protection in the Lowlands

would still be useful in restricting access roads for mining, and in

controlling corridors for power lines. The western half of the

northern boreal is continuous forest. If McGuinty had promised the

protected area would include at least half of it, it would have meant

that no logging would probably occur on 75 per cent of the northern

boreal, but protection would be assured where needed. In any event,

the public will have to wait up to 15 years to get details on what

will be protected. McGuinty expects research and the planning process

will take that long. Not everything is off in the future, however. The

Premier has promised no new mining or logging projects will be allowed

until local land-use plans have been implemented with full support

from native communities. This sounds a lot like a moratorium until an

agreement is reached, which is what Indians have been seeking. This

should put a brake on development while the protected areas are being

earmarked and give the public the chance to see how the Premier

follows through on this promise. McGuinty made a similar promise five

years ago, but never kept it.

http://blogs.greenpeace.ca/2008/08/01/cameron-smith-says-proceed-with-caution-on\

-boreal-promise/

 

25) In an effort to spark innovative forest management strategies, the

Ontario government is pouring $140,000 worth of funding into the

province's Early Researcher Awards program. The program is directed at

research that tackles methods to manage Ontario's boreal forest, and

is part of an overarching goal to build an innovation economy in the

province. The money will go to Lake Head University's Dr. Han Chen, to

facilitate his research on ways to mitigate the impacts of rapid

environmental change to Ontario's forests. Dr. Chen will develop

monitoring strategies designed to improve forest management, while

enhancing quality, biological diversity, and the ability of Ontario

forests to serve as carbon sinks.

http://www.pulpandpapercanada.com/issues/ISArticle.asp?id=87605 & issue=07282008 & r\

ef=rss

26) The Conservation Council is calling on the N.B. government to

immediately stop exports of raw timber from the public forest after

learning that the province's three largest license holders – Fraser

Papers, UPM Kymmene and J.D. Irving – have been given permission to

export wood from their Crown licenses. The government has exempted the

companies from a clause in the Crown Lands and Forests Act that states

that companies with licenses to cut wood from Crown land must process

the wood in that region. Meeting the wood allocations of the

sub-licensees operating on Crown land is the reason being used to

justify the exports. In light of this, the Conservation Council is

calling on the government to enforce selective cutting to supply the

needs of the sub-licensees. Trees should be left standing to provide

wildlife habitat. Trees should also be allowed to grow to a volume

that provides a higher quality resource for local communities. Since

only select tree species of certain grades and sizes are marketable at

the moment then selective cutting only makes sense. Clearcutting and

conversion to plantations simplifies our forest and destroys future

opportunities for benefits from a diverse forest economy. " By

exporting raw logs, we lose the opportunity to infuse our forest

resources with our own labour. We are exporting New Brunswickers' jobs

while increasing the burden on our forests. Continuing to clearcut on

Crown land for export is merely forest liquidation and is not a

practice of any sane forest management. Forest management needs to

change if we are to have any healthy and diverse forest stands in this

province, " stated Tracy Glynn, Acadian Forest Campaign co-ordinator at

the Conservation Council.

http://bugleobserver.canadaeast.com/editorial/article/364655

 

 

World-wide:

 

27) A shift from poverty-driven to industry-driven deforestation

threatens the world's tropical forests but offers new opportunities

for conservation, according to an article coauthored by William

Laurance of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.

" New Strategies for Conserving Tropical Forests " will be featured in

the September issue of the leading journal Trends in Ecology &

Evolution. Rhett Butler of Mongabay.com, a leading tropical-forest Web

site, and Laurance argue that the sharp increase in deforestation by

big corporations provides environmental lobby groups with clear,

identifiable targets that can be pressured to be more responsive to

environmental concerns. " Rather than being dominated by rural farmers,

tropical deforestation is increasingly driven by major

industries—especially large-scale farming, mining, and logging, " said

Laurance. " Although this trend is pretty scary, it's also much easier

to target a handful of global corporations than many millions of poor

farmers. " The United Nations estimates that some 13 million hectares

(33 million acres) of tropical forest are destroyed each year; but

these numbers mask a transition from mostly subsistence-driven to

mostly corporate-driven forest destruction, say Butler and Laurance.

http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=104362

 

28) Indigenous peoples and farmers faced multiple attacks in Guatemala

last month; while in Brazil, the government began preparing to station

military forces on indigenous lands circling the border. In Canada,

the Takla Lake First Nation continued blocking access roads on their

territory, and in Fafak, 46 West Papuans were arrested, beaten, and

humiliated for holding a flag-raising ceremony. Meanwhile, Indigenous

People in Guam, Papua New Guinea, Peru, India, America, Bolivia and

elsewhere, positioned themselves to resist a series of new development

projects that threaten to devastate their lands, contaminate their

waters, and help destroy their way of life.

http://ahniwanika.gnn.tv/blogs/28996/Underreported_Struggles_16

 

29) New research done at Ohio State University and published in the

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences indicates that if

wealthy nations spent collectively $1 billion annually to pay

landowners in tropical countries not to cut down forests half a

billion tonnes of carbon emissions could be avoided annually and

deforestation reduced by one-tenth. Science Daily has the complete

story, but this is the gist of it: Using three different forestry

models, researchers assigned dollar values to each tonne of carbon

which could be saved through 'avoided deforestation' in different

parts of the world. Each has different economic and biological

assumptions and calculated different values for carbon credits to

calculate how much it would cost to avoid different emission levels.

For example: The cost to achieve a 10 percent reduction in global

deforestation through 2030, resulting in between 0.3 billion and 0.6

billion metric tons of reduced carbon emissions annually, would cost

between $2 and $5 per metric ton of carbon credit – or between $0.4

billion and $1.7 billion per year. Achieving a 50 percent reduction in

deforestation, and a corresponding 1.5 billion to 2.7 billion metric

ton reduction in emissions each year, would cost $10 to $21 per metric

ton, or between $17.2 billion and $28 billion per year, according to

the model calculations.Ultimately, " compared to other options, an

avoided deforestation program would be relatively cheap and practical

for the United States. It would save American taxpayers money and

provide a huge transfer of funding from one region of the world to

another, giving developing countries a large chunk of the world's

economic pie to use as they see fit, " study co-author Brent Sohngen

was quoted as saying.

http://www.treehugger.com2008/07/one-billion-dollars-could-slow-deforesta\

tion-reduce-ca

rbon-emissions.php

 

30) Green carbon occurs in natural forests, brown carbon is found in

industrialised forests or plantations, grey carbon in fossil fuels and

blue carbon in oceans. Untouched natural forests store three times

more carbon dioxide than previously estimated and 60 percent more than

plantation forests, said a new Australian study of " green carbon " and

its role in climate change. The scientists said the U.N.'s

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Kyoto

Protocol did not distinguish between the carbon capacity of plantation

forests and untouched forests. Yet untouched forests can carry three

times the carbon presently estimated, if their biomass of carbon stock

was included, said the ANU report released on Tuesday. Currently,

forest carbon storage capacity is based on plantation forest

estimates. The report " Green Carbon, the role of natural forests in

carbon storage " said a difference in the definition of a forest was

also underestimating the carbon stock in old-growth forests.

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSSP255954

 

31) Carbon-eating trees could convert most of the carbon that they

absorb from the atmosphere into some chemically stable form and bury

it underground. Or they could convert the carbon into liquid fuels and

other useful chemicals. Biotechnology is enormously powerful, capable

of burying or transforming any molecule of carbon dioxide that comes

into its grasp. Keeling's wiggles prove that a big fraction of the

carbon dioxide in the atmosphere comes within the grasp of

biotechnology every decade. If one quarter of the world's forests were

replanted with carbon-eating varieties of the same species, the

forests would be preserved as ecological resources and as habitats for

wildlife, and the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would be reduced by

half in about fifty years. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21494

 

 

32) Almost half the world's monkeys and apes are facing a worsening

threat of extinction because of deforestation and hunting for meat, an

international report showed. " We have solid data to show that the

situation is far more severe than we imagined, " said Russell

Mittermeier, president of Conservation International and head of the

International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) primate

specialist group. An assessment for an IUCN " Red List " of endangered

species found that 48 percent of the 634 known species and sub-species

of primates - humankind's closest relatives such as chimpanzees,

orang-utans, gibbons and lemurs - were at risk of extinction. In a

previous report five years ago, using different yardsticks, just 39

percent of primates were judged at risk. The IUCN includes

governments, scientists and conservation groups. Habitat destruction,

led by burning and clearing of tropical forests for farmland, and the

hunting of monkeys and apes for their meat were the main threats. Some

species were " literally being eaten into extinction, " a statement

said. " Gorilla meat, chimpanzee meat and meat of other apes fetches a

higher price than beef, chicken or fish " in some African countries, Mr

Mittermeier told Reuters. He said that deforestation was aggravating

hunting. Roads cut to help loggers and burning of forests to create

farmland were opening previously inaccessible regions to poachers.

Primates were suffering most in Asia, with 71 percent of all species

at risk, against 37 percent in Africa. The report was to be released

at a conference in Edinburgh, Scotland. In southeast Asia, human

populations were higher than in Africa and habitats for orang-utans,

gibbons or leaf monkeys were getting ever more fragmented. Demand for

pets and Chinese hunger for traditional medicines were adding

pressures. Among species most at risk, or " critically endangered " ,

were the Bouvier's red colobus, an African monkey which has not been

seen in 25 years, and the greater bamboo lemur of Madagascar totalling

only about 140 in the wild.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24130810-23109,00.html

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