Guest guest Posted November 9, 2008 Report Share Posted November 9, 2008 --Today for you 32 news articles about earth's trees! (426th edition) http://forestpolicyresearch.org --To Subscribe / to email format send blank email to: earthtreenews- OR earthtreenews- --Deane's Daily Treeinspiration texted to your phone via: http://twitter.com/ForestPolicy Index: --British Columbia: 1) Thousands protest to save ancient forests, 2) Tribes and government reach agreement, 3) Record set in raw log exports to China, 4) Culverts removed to make clearcutting safer, 5) lack of legislative protection for endangered species, 6) Land Claims denied means tribe is going back to court, 7) Mediator ordered by court in tribal dispute, --Washington: 8) Republican lands commissioner thrown out of office, 9) More on Spotted Owl decline, 10) Nature Conservancy announces new FSC certifications even though they don't have to, 11) State to study land swap, --Oregon: 12) New Siskiyou campaign starts in 2009, 13) State thought they could log more trees than then was possible, 14) Walden wants more logging in off limit area! 15) First WOPR lawsuit filed, 16) In response to lawsuit, USFW begins study of dusky tree vole, 17) Meadow restoration turns out to be clearcut of old growth forest, 15) Spotted or Barred owl is still source of arguments to log more or less, 16) County must not let state weaken forest standards, 17) FS eco-restoration is actually just clearcutting old-growth, 18) last of the Spotted Owls on the coast, 19) Directors of Clean Water Services, 20) WOPR appeal period has been granted! --California: 21) Wild Steelhead win 2 lawsuits, 22) UCSC treesit to celebrate one year anniversary, 23) Discovery of Coho fry in restored river is celebrated, 24) Save Underwood Roadless Area, 25) How Sierra club allowed the loss of old growth, 26) defensible space in placer county, 27) Supreme court hears Sequoia arguments, --Montana: 28) Beetle-killed harvest to reduce fire is misguided, 29) Does giving the last old growth away still makes sense? 30) Judge to rule on timber sale near Crazy mtns., --Arizona: 31) No one here has ever even seen a healthy forest, --Colorado: 32) USFS releases Lynx plan, Articles: British Columbia: 1) A million hectares of unprotected ancient forests are still endangered on BC's southern coast, as are the jobs of thousands of BC's forestry workers due to the BC Liberal government's deregulation of the industry. On October 25, several thousand of you took part in just about the largest environmental protest in British Columbia's history. 2700 people came out to the Wilderness Committee's " Rally for Ancient Forests and BC Jobs " in Victoria, calling on the BC Liberal government to protect the remaining old-growth forests on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, ensure that second-growth forests are sustainably logged, and to ban raw log exports. See a NEW VIDEO of the rally by Jeremy Sean Williams at: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=zRmXjq7ZSCI See various media articles about the rally at: http://www.wcwcvictoria.org 2) The Province, Canada and four First Nations have settled agreements that resolve the last of B.C.'s cut-off claims disputes and provide land and financial resources that will assist them in developing their local economies, Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation Minister Michael de Jong announced today. " These agreements with the Seton Lake Indian Band, Gitwangak Band Council, Metlakatla Band and Lax Kw'alaams Indian Band, dating back more than 90 years, grew out of our collective desire to make right the past and achieve lasting reconciliation, " said de Jong. " I can think of no better way to celebrate B.C.'s 150th anniversary than by closing the book on the McKenna-McBride cut-off claims, which stem from the early decades of our province's history. " The agreements bring to a close a difficult chapter in B.C.'s early history dating to the McKenna-McBride commission of 1912-1916, struck to investigate the size of reserve lands throughout the young province. The commission expanded many reserves, but recommended that lands could be cut off from others as long as the bands consented. However, lands were cut off from 22 bands without members' consent. First Nations, Canada, and British Columbia began negotiations over the cut-off lands in the 1970s. With agreements concluded recently with the Seton Lake Indian Band, Gitwangak Band Council, Metlakatla Band and Lax Kw'alaams Indian Band, the McKenna-McBride era cut-off claims era passes into history. " Specific claims settlements are truly important to all Canadians, and today we celebrate several agreements that bring closure to a long series of claims in B.C.'s history, " said Chuck Strahl, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians. www.treaties.gov.bc.ca/overview_accomplish.html. 3) The latest trade statistics indicate that British Columbia softwood exports to China will set a new record in 2008, Forests and Range Minister Pat Bell announced today. Sales data from January to August 2008 show that British Columbia has already exported 689,576 cubic metres of softwood products to China, just shy of the record 727,750 cubic metres exported in all of 2007. " Our long-term objective and main focus is encouraging China to adopt North American wood frame construction in ways that fit the unique mix of housing styles in China, " said Bell. " China is the second-largest wood import market in the world and represents the fastest-growing market for B.C. wood products. " With a declining log supply from Russia (due to a tax on all log exports) and limited alternate sources of logs, Chinese demand for imported softwood lumber has huge growth potential, provided that foreign suppliers can be cost-competitive. " The collapse of the U.S. housing market has emphasized the critical importance of diversifying our markets, " said Council of Forest Industries president John Allan. " We appreciate the effort the government has made in developing the Chinese market, and look forward to working collectively to grow our business there. " Bell will be joined by more than a dozen industry representatives on a Nov. 12-18 trade mission to China. The delegation will view progress on B.C. marketing and demonstration projects, strengthen relationships with construction agencies and government officials, and pursue new sales opportunities. The Province, through Forestry Innovation Investment Ltd. and in conjunction with the Canada Wood Group, has been working over the last several years to diversify B.C.'s markets by demonstrating new uses for softwood products. http://www.gov.bc.ca 4) This week BC Hydro removed the two 1200 mm culverts from the access road to cut blocks 3 and 4 of the contentious Timber Sale License A80259 in Slocan Park in the West Kootenays. BC Timber Sales has sold the logging rights to Porcupine Barabonoff who is planning to extract 550 truckloads of timber from local, highly visible slopes in the watersheds of this steep and unstable area. Block 3 is 21.2HA total with 17.9 HA to be logged, Block 4 is 10.8HA total with 7.8 HA to be logged " This action was apparently in response to a request from a couple of years ago by local residents who were concerned about the potential for blockage of Arvid Creek at the culverts. " said Cal Burton. " I talked to Rick Birnie of BC Hydro today. He agrees with the complainants that the creek is unstable, with large boulders being moved by the water flow during the freshet that could have blocked the culverts. BC Hydro originally had the culverts installed years ago. They now feel that this week's action will clear them of any liability, should a washout or debris flow now occur. " Walter Popoff, candidate for Regional District Area " H " comments, " BC Hydro's removal of the culverts at this particular time is an indication they are concerned that slope instability will increase the water flow in the creek and that the movement of debris down the creek could block the culverts, resulting in a possible slide. " eekbears 5) The lack of any legislative protection for endangered species and their habitat is more proof of the Campbell government's failure to show leadership in defending the environment, the New Democrats said today. The 'Last Place on Earth' campaign launched today by a coalition of environmental groups aims to increase pressure on the government to bring in endangered species legislation. " B.C. is one of only two provinces in Canada that doesn't have stand-alone, science-based species at risk legislation that recognizes the need to protect habitat. It's a shameful situation that has got to change, " said New Democrat environment critic Shane Simpson. Earlier this year, Simpson put forward a private member's bill which would bring in the most comprehensive and effective protection for species at risk in Canada. The Campbell government has refused to support it. " We need real protection for species at risk that also permits other essential uses of the land base, and the bill I put forward does just that. The Campbell government is more than welcome to take the legislation I proposed and move forward with it, but apparently they're just not interested, " said Simpson, the MLA for Vancouver-Hastings. Simpson added that species at risk protection is best achieved through legislation, not regulation. Draft regulations leaked in September indicate that the B.C. Liberal government doesn't plan to recognize the key role of habitat protection, and only plans to give limited protection to a mere 38 animal species and 57 plants, out of more than 1,300 that have been identified as at risk. " Habitat destruction is one of the key causes of species loss, and unless habitat is protected we won't be able to protect these species, " said Simpson. http://bcndpcaucus.ca 6) Tsilhqot'in leaders say they'll take the provincial government to court after negotiators for the province missed an Oct. 30 deadline for an offer in their land claims negotiations. And, said Tsilhqot'in spokesman Joe Alphonse, they could disrupt commercial activity in the area. " If [the province] doesn't come back with something substantial, then we have to protect our interests, " he said. " If that means going out and stopping all the logging trucks in the Chilcotin and all the mining activities in the Chilcotin, then that's what we're prepared to do. Those are our resources, that's what's in question right now. " Xeni Gwet'in First Nations government chiefs accused the provincial and federal governments of not negotiating in good faith the lengthy land claims negotiations concerning 200,000 hectares of land in and around the Nemiah trapline area, northwest of Williams Lake. But B.C. Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation Mike De Jong insisted the province hasn't been able to bring the federal government to the negotiations. Chiefs Marilyn Baptiste, Ervin Charleyboy and Roger William said in a press release they " will relay the message of betrayal once again. " http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/index.html 7) The Supreme Court of British Columbia has ordered that a mediator be appointed to resolve a dispute among a Vancouver Island band, the government and a resource company concerning traditional aboriginal rights on 70,000 hectares of forest land. The court says the mediator is necessary because the government has failed to engage in meaningful consultation with the Hupacasath First Nation (HFN), despite a 2005 court order requiring the B.C. Ministry of Forests to do so. At issue is the aboriginal use of a vast tract of privately owned forest land around Port Alberni that the government removed from Tree Farm Licence 44 in 2004. Madam Justice Lynn Smith said the removal decision opened the possibility for Island Timberlands to sell the property for development, raising Hupacasath fears that their traditional territory could become " cottage country, " destroying traditional access to sacred places and hunting and fishing grounds. In the 2005 decision, the court ruled the government breached its constitutional duty to consult reasonably with the Hupacasath over the removal decision. The court stated there was " a duty to consult [in good faith] and attempt accommodation, " and it set a two-year period for the parties to make progress in discussions. But in a decision released yesterday, Judge Smith said the government had failed to make a reasonable effort at accommodation. " I find that the Crown did not correctly understand what was required, and misapprehended its duty to consult and accommodate in the circumstances, " Judge Smith said. The judge said government officials did meet with the Hupacasath on numerous occasions, but failed to focus on the possible impacts the decision to remove land would have on the band. " The Crown's position essentially was that the removal decision did not significantly change the Hupacasath's position, and that the Crown was not required to consider steps which would accommodate for what the HFN stood possibly to lose as a result of the removal decision. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081105.BCLANDS05/TPStory/TPNa\ tional/BritishColumbia/ Washington: 8) Democrat Peter Goldmark emerged as the winner in the state lands commissioner race Thursday, relying on the support of environmentalists and strong backing in King County to unseat two-term incumbent Doug Sutherland. After more than two days of vote counting, the Okanogan rancher and molecular biologist built an insurmountable lead, 51.1 percent to 48.9 percent. " I am so grateful to the people of Washington for their support in restoring public trust to the management of our public lands, " Goldmark said in a written statement from his 8,000-acre wheat and cattle ranch. " My goal is sustainable management of public resources, transparency in management and reliance on science and law in decision making. " Sutherland declined to concede, saying, " There's a lot of counties where we have pretty strong support that have to be counted. " He said he didn't expect the result to be clear until Friday night, but an Associated Press analysis showed there were not enough outstanding votes in those counties to give Sutherland the win. Goldmark won with the backing of environmentalists and had the support of more than 62 percent of voters in King County. During the campaign he painted Sutherland as too cozy with timber and mining interests, which donated heavily to the Republican's campaign. Goldmark also seized on landslides and widespread floods in Lewis County last winter, saying they were partly the result of irresponsible logging allowed by Sutherland. That stuck with some voters. " I don't know if Sutherland really had anything to do with the landslides and flooding, but if he did he shouldn't be in office, " said 69-year-old Seattle resident Patricia Verrier, who voted for Goldmark. Sutherland spokesman Todd Myers criticized Goldmark for running a " 100 percent negative " campaign and said he represented a " last gasp of extreme environmentalism. " Sutherland won in 33 of the state's 39 counties - including Lewis, where he had more than 65 percent of the vote. The commissioner heads the Department of Natural Resources, which manages 5.6 million acres of state lands. Income generated by harvesting timber or leasing land to farmers is used to pay for construction of schools and other state expenses. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008353356_apwalandscommissioner\ ..html 9) The decline of the birds is forcing a rethinking of long-held strategies to save the spotted owl. Ideas under consideration include the distasteful prospect of shotgunning one owl species to save another. It could also rekindle the old-growth logging debate. Since the bird was a chief tool for environmentalists to block logging, what happens if there are no spotted owls left in a forest? Back in 1994, few could have foreseen things turning out this way. The Clinton administration — spurred by lawsuits, the listing of the owl under the Endangered Species Act, and years of political upheaval over Northwest logging — set aside 24.5 million acres of federal forestland as a haven for the owls. The Northwest Forest Plan was supposed to set the stage for recovery of the football-sized bird, which favors older forests because it nests in the cavities of big trees, and eats forest-dwelling creatures such as flying squirrels. But the recovery hasn't happened. It's unknown exactly how many spotted owls there are. Scientists take the bird's pulse by monitoring huge patches of forest from Washington's Cascades to Northern California. In every one of those places, there are more empty nests today than in 1994. Dale Herter has grown accustomed to disappointment. Every year the wildlife biologist returns to the forests north of Mount Rainier to track spotted owls. All too often, a nest occupied the year before is silent. In the 16 years since he first started cruising the woods, hooting like a spotted owl and listening for a response, Herter has seen the population drop by half. " Within a decade we may not have any in Washington unless they do something, " said Herter, who works for the Seattle environmental consulting firm Raedeke Associates. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008109742_spottedowl13m.html 10) As manager of Willapa Programs for The Nature Conservancy (TNC), he's one of the people that gets to run all over the Conservancy's Ellsworth Creek Preserve, one of the jewels of Southwest Washington. The 8000 acres of forest includes old growth cedar and spruce, marbled murrelet habitat, bear, elk and coho and chum runs, to name a few highlights. This summer TNC made the decision to join Northwest Certified Forestry, enrolling two managed forests in Washington. They include the Ellsworth property, as well as a 640 acre section of forest in the Tieton watershed northwest of Yakima. TNC has an internal mandate to certify timber producing forests they own to FSC standards, a process normally done through their own organization-wide group certificate. Membership in Northwest Certified Forestry is a pilot project that represents a new, potentially more leveraged direction. Fran Price, TNC's Director of Certification Programs, says " With NNRG we saw good value and the opportunity for a strong partnership. When it comes to things like efficient certification, market development, and regional relationships, we recognize that outsourcing has the potential to bring us more net benefit, both internally and for our broader conservation mission. " http://www.nnrg.org/news-events/news/the-nature-conservancy-joins-ncf/ 11) State to study land swap: The State Department of Natural Resources is seeking comment on a plan to exchange state land with Port Blakely Tree Farms L.P. The deal would see the state trading some 8,579 acres of trust land for some 8,579 acres of forestland of equal value owned by Port Blakely. All of the land is located in Grays Harbor, Lewis and Thurston counties. " Combining state trust lands into larger and more efficiently managed blocks through this exchange will mean a solid future for healthier working forests, better habitat for threatened and endangered species and more access to public recreation, " said Doug Sutherland, Commissioner of Public Lands. An informational meeting will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Nov. 10, at the Lewis County Law and Justice Center, 345 West Main St., Chehalis. Oregon: 12) In 2009 Siskiyou Project will seek Congressional designation of a Siskiyou Wild Rivers National Salmon and Botanical Area on one million acres of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. This designation will specify that: 1) Commercial logging, mining, and off-road vehicle use will be restricted, 2) Eighteen Inventoried Roadless Areas will be protected as Wilderness, 3) Nine candidate rivers and streams will be given Wild & Scenic River status, 4) Expanded botanical reserves will provide protection of biodiversity hotspots, 5) The Aquatic Conservation Strategy from the Northwest Forest Plan will be adopted, 6) Carbon sequestration by trees and soils will be maximized, including experiments in new technologies such as bio-char production, 7) Restoration projects will be implemented in overstocked tree farms, fire-suppressed forests and degraded streams, 8) Community-based, fire safety projects (brush clearing, thinning, and prescribed fire) will be prioritized near populated interface zones. -- Management policies that would NOT change under the new designation: 1) Private property rights, 2) Rights-of-way and easements, 3) Water rights, 4) Regulations for hunting and fishing, 5) Permits for jetboats and float trips, 6) Permits for special forest products, such as mushrooms, firewood, floral materials, Christmas trees, etc. -- If there has ever been a good time to obtain this vital conservation it is now. We need your continued support more than ever to reach this bold goal. Please give what you can. Donate online now. http://www.siskiyou.org/join/join_or_donate.cfm 13) Plentiful timber, rich wildlife habitat, diverse recreation opportunities -- a new management plan adopted seven years ago for the Tillamook and Clatsop state forests promised it all. But it hasn't worked. The latest evidence: Calculations by the state show it has been logging more trees than the state forests can sustain under the 2001 strategy that also set ambitious goals for improving fish and wildlife habitat. The findings deal a serious blow to the 2001 blueprint, which was billed at the time as a revolutionary way to satisfy increasing demands on the state lands in the Coast Range. State forest officials are now recommending that the Oregon Board of Forestry lower its expectations for providing large, older trees valuable to wildlife. They say that would allow a small increase in logging, but still not enough to provide as much revenue as cash-strapped coastal counties have hoped for. The Board of Forestry will meet Thursday in Salem amid growing pressure from Gov. Ted Kulongoski and others to decide whether to keep or rework the troubled forest plan. The board has been weighing the issue for years as mounting evidence showed the plan wasn't delivering. Kulongoski " firmly believes that the time has come to make a decision, " the governor's top natural resources adviser, Michael Carrier, wrote in an e-mail to the Board of Forestry last month.The governor and others worry that if the Board of Forestry doesn't set a clear direction for state forests, the Legislature may intervene and mandate logging targets. http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2008/11/state_forests_face_hard_\ choice.htmlv 14) U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., said he has written a sequel to the 2003 Healthy Forest Act. Calling it the Healthy Forest Restoration Act II, Walden said the act would give the U.S. Forest Service authority to reduce fuel loads in certain areas currently off-limits. It also would allow for expedited removal of burned trees. " We need to clean up after these fires, harvest before the value is gone and get a new forest replanted, " Walden said. Walden unveiled his plan during a 3,600 mile, 16-county swing through Oregon's rural 2nd District. The swing included five dozen meetings. Walden, a five-term congressman, is running against Democrat Noah Lemas, who lists his occupation as an entrepreneur, and naturopathic physician Tristin Mock of the Pacific Green party, in the Nov. 4 general election. At a meeting last week in Elgin, Ore., Walden said the timber payments extension that Congress passed earlier this month falls short of providing rural counties long-term relief from the financial crisis brought on by federal logging restrictions. " That was important, " Walden said of the payment extension. " But it's also a little like rescuing the captain and the crew, but not the passengers, who are still struggling to survive in the icy waters. " It's time for us to organize a rescue plan for them by changing federal forest management policy, " he said. In addition to dramatic reductions in timber production in Oregon's forests over the past decade, erratic ups and downs of saw-log harvest has made long-term planning impossible in rural communities, Walden said. http://www.capitalpress.info/main.asp?SectionID=67 & SubSectionID=619 & ArticleID=45\ 799 & TM=72519.76 15) A lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Portland charges that the U.S. Department of Interior and the Oregon office of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management violated federal laws by prohibiting administrative appeals of their Western Oregon Plan Revision. That process would typically add more than a month to final approval, which is slated for late December. " This is really aimed to undo this latest Bush administration attempt to cut the public out of the process in its haste to get their decisions out the door before its administration ends, " said Kristen Boyles, an attorney for the public interest law firm Earthjustice in Seattle. The effort to rush through approval for increased logging comes on the heels of other Bush administration efforts to rush through reductions in environmental protections, including a revision to regulations under the Endangered Species Act. The BLM agreed to boost logging in Western Oregon as part of the settlement of a lawsuit brought by the timber industry. The deadline for meeting that agreement is the end of this year. Known from its acronym as the Whopper, the BLM logging plan dismantles the Northwest Forest Plan adopted during the Clinton administration, which cut logging more than 80 percent to protect habitat for northern spotted owls and salmon. Initiated to fulfill the settlement of a lawsuit brought by the timber industry, the Whopper comes after previous efforts to boost logging on national forests throughout the Northwest by removing habitat protections from the Northwest Forest Plan failed to pass court muster. BLM spokesman Michael Campbell said there was ample time for the public to comment on the draft plan - five months, 170 public meetings and 29,000 comments from the public. The decision to have the final environmental impact statement signed by Assistant Interior Secretary Stephen Allred, bypassing a decision by the Oregon BLM director that would be subject to administrative appeal, reflected the regional importance of the plan, Campbell said. http://forests.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=109376 16) The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is launching a yearlong study to determine whether the dusky tree vole - a tree-dwelling rodent found in the northern Oregon Coast Range - qualifies for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Protecting the vole would likely require restricting logging in Clatsop and Tillamook counties. Dusky tree voles are brownish red, smaller than average house mice and nest on top of older Douglas fir trees and other conifers. They're known to be a significant part of the Northern spotted owl diet, and several Oregon conservation groups say logging and other habitat disturbances are threatening their survival. Last year, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club, Audubon Society of Portland, Cascadia Wildlands Project and Oregon Wild, asked the Fish and Wildlife Service for endangered species protection of the voles, arguing they have low mobility and are unable to respond to the loss of forest habitat. But so far no one has studied the rodents closely enough to determine how many exist on the North Coast or how much habitat they have in the region. " There's not a lot known about the dusky tree vole as compared to other Pacific Northwest forest species, " said Dave Wesley, acting regional director for the Service. Over the next year, the Fish and Wildlife Service will survey the Coast Range for tree voles to determine whether they require federal protection. The agency is accepting public comments and seeking information on the issue until Dec. 29. The status review is only the first step in proposing a listing under ESA, said Phil Carroll, spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service. After the initial study is completed, the agency will either propose a listing or drop the request. If a listing is proposed, another yearlong process begins to accept or reject the proposal. Noah Greenwald, a biologist for the Center for Biological Diversity, said research shows the dusky tree vole spends its entire life in trees, often in the broken tops and snags of trees in older forests, and surveys completed for Northern spotted owl research showed the tree vole may be in serious decline. http://www.dailyastorian.info/main.asp?SectionID=2 & SubSectionID=395 & ArticleID=55\ 494 & TM=8339.491 17) The Forest Service calls Low Meadow a restoration project. The Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center says it's a clear cut. Either way, trees, some four feet in diameter, are coming down as part of a 3.5 million board foot cut in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. The cut is in an inventoried roadless area, a key watershed for salmon, said George Sexton of Ashland-based environmental group KSWC. " So it's always disappointing to us when the Forest Service says, 'We're going to clear cut it.' " " The Northwest Forest Plan didn't say everything had to be managed as old growth or owl habitat, " said John Williams, forester for the Gold Beach Ranger District. " It recognizes these meadows are an important component of the landscape. " The sale, purchased by South Coast Lumber of Brookings, sat for more than 10 years. It was stalled first by court hearings, then by the Biscuit Fire in 2002, which burned about 5 percent of the trees in the sale, Williams said. KSWC and others sued to stop the sale, but in 2007 a federal magistrate ruled that the Forest Service didn't need to update its National Environmental Policy Act analysis. In August, a three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling that the impact of the project was covered in the Biscuit Fire environmental impact statement, and allowed the harvest to proceed.The 200-acre sale is near the Chetco River, a thriving salmon and steelhead river. When the helicopter logging project is done it will look like a clear cut " with some big trees left in it, " about eight per acre, Williams said. He said meadows have shrunk because of fire suppression the past 100 years, and restoration is vital for wildlife habitat. While no trees more than 40 inches in diameter at breast height were supposed to be cut, some are because of growth since the plan was made in 1997. " What prompted our frustration was that in district court the Forest Service attorney said it wasn't a clear cut, and no trees over 40 inches would be harvested, " Sexton said. Sexton e-mailed photos of logs to Rogue River-Siskiyou Supervisor Scott Conroy, saying: " Truth is indeed in very short supply on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, " referring to an op-ed Conroy wrote in 2007 calling " truth a casualty " in claims against the Forest Service during the Biscuit Fire salvage. Sexton says he believes those favoring logging along trails near the Kalmiopsis want to prevent expansion of the wilderness. http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-27/12252308513\ 6340.xml & storylist=orlocal 18) It wasn't that long ago that Oregon's Coast Range was fertile ground for the northern spotted owl. Nowadays, when researchers play recorded spotted owl calls like that one, they rarely get a response. On the other hand, if you play the calls of a relative newcomer, you'll have better luck. The prolific barred owl is expanding its range south from Canada. David Wiens: " When a pair of barred owls gets very excited, this is what you'll hear. It sounds almost like monkeys calling to each other. " Oregon State University doctoral student David Wiens scans the tree canopy after his battery powered megaphone blares those calls into the woods. Soon enough, here comes a big, olí owl in search of intruders. David Wiens: " We call that an eight-note territorial call. " David Wiens knows this bird. It's one of fifty his team has radio tagged since last year. Half are barred owls, like this one. The other half are northern spotted owls. Researchers are in the midst of tracking the competition between these owl species for two years. David Wiens: " There's certainly a lot of interaction going on. At this point, I would say that we have certain areas where barred owls are having a profound effect on spotted owls. " Six government agencies are paying Wiens to gather solid evidence of what exactly the barred owl is doing to its smaller cousin. Pretty much 24/7 throughout the year, he or one of his field crew drive the spider web of logging roads with a radio tracking receiver and log book. Wiens hasn't seen any head-to-head fights to the death. He does wonder if the more numerous barred owls are eating up the spotted owls' food. Or if the newcomers are so aggressive, they're driving spotted owls into hiding. David Wiens: " Some areas I've observed the spotted owls keeping the adjacent barred owls out of their nest area and actually successfully defending their nest areas from barred owls. Then the question becomes if they're having to spend all their energy keeping the barred owls at bay, then they're not focusing that energy on producing young, which over time becomes a major problem. " This year, out of 16 spotted owl territories in the study area, only one produced young. The successful nesting pair is the only one that lives unmolested by nearby barred owls. When it's completed, the study could have lots of implications. The timber industry is prepared to argue for opening more land to logging if it's unlikely the spotted owl will come back. Environmentalists counter that the arrival of the barred owl means spotted owls need more protected habitat, not less. http://news.opb.org/article/3420-owl-vs-owl-radio-tags-track-hostile-takeover/ 19) In their capacities as directors of Clean Water Services, for example, the county commissioners have led stream bank restoration from Banks to Tigard. The expansion of Hagg Lake south of Forest Grove, a regional water supply, remains a priority for them. And the 1,650-acre Stub Stewart State Park, nestled in the foothills of the Coast Range near the edge of the Clatsop State Forest, is a triumph for Washington County, and especially for County Chair Tom Brian, who worked for years to make it a reality. However, logging on the Tillamook State Forest hasn't drawn the attention of our county commissioners. Their voices are particularly important now, because major increases in logging on state forest lands in Washington County are currently being considered by the State of Oregon. Under pressure from Tillamook and Clatsop County commissioners, the Oregon Board of Forestry is poised to significantly increase clear-cutting on the state forests, including those in Washington County. This week the Board of Forestry will meet in Salem to consider weakening the environmental commitments in the current state forest plan. County commissioners from our neighboring rural counties will be at the Nov. 6 hearing, pushing for more clear-cutting. Our Washington County commissioners need to be there, too. The state forests of Washington County are a terrific asset for county residents. Almost 50,000 acres of the Tillamook State Forest blanket the Coast Range of Washington County, providing a wide variety of benefits to our half-million residents. http://www.forestgrovenewstimes.com/opinion/story.php?story_id=12258666404871530\ 0 20) In an interesting turn of events, the Bureau of Land Management sent out a press release yesterday that reverses the agency's earlier decision not to allow a standard 30-day administrative protest period (a process by which individuals or organizations outline to the agency what they believe are legal vulnerabilities of the action). Recall, on October 29, we filed a lawsuit to stop this process that would have left the public out of a critical commenting opportunity. Due to the lawsuit presumably, we now have been granted the opportunity to raise what we believe are legal violations with the Western Oregon Plan Revisions' Proposed Resource Management Plan and have the agency respond to our issues. http://www.blm.gov/or/plans/wopr/index.php California: 21) Ending two cases with one ruling, last week a federal court judge threw out two attempts to strip Endangered Species Act status from wild steelhead trout in California. In the first case, anti-environment group Pacific Legal Foundation, which represents loggers and water users, asked the court to remove federal protections from five separate California steelhead populations based on the presence of hatchery fish, wrongly asserting that Endangered Species Act decisions should be made according to the numbers of hatchery steelhead produced each year. In the second case, a group of Central Valley irrigators argued that ocean-going Central Valley steelhead shouldn't be protected because, the irrigators said, resident rainbow trout might someday replace extinct steelhead populations. The Center for Biological Diversity intervened in defense of the trout with help from Earthjustice. The judge's ruling on the first case acknowledges research by National Marine Fisheries experts that says it would be " biologically indefensible " to eliminate protections for endangered salmon and steelhead based on an abundance of hatchery fish. The ruling on the second case supports a statement made by the Center's own Conservation Manager David Hogan: " The science has shown time and time again that even when steelhead and rainbow trout mix with one another, you have to protect steelhead or you won't have any fish at all. " Get more in the Central Valley Business Times. http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/center/articles/2008/central-valley-busi\ ness-times-10-28-2008.html 22) You are cordially invited to the One Year Anniversary Gathering of the UCSC Science Hill Tree Sit. People will begin to converge at noon under the Tree Sit on Science Hill (next to the Physical Sciences Building) on Friday, November 7th. Festivities, including speakers and a performance by Blackbird Raum, will commence at 1pm. There will be music, food, laughter, storytelling and conversation. This is a time to celebrate the Tree Sit's year of physical opposition to the University's plan to destroy 120 acres of campus. It will also be a time to share memories of Nov. 7, 2007, the day that hundreds of courageous students, staff, faculty, and community members withstood the violence of the UC Police in order to support the Tree Sit. The resistance to UCSC's planned destruction of Upper Campus is not over. It has only just begun. Come together with us on Friday, November 7, to remember the past and plan for the future, show opposition to the degradation of UCSC, and let the administration know that we will not be silenced. Can't wait to see you there! The UCSC Red Hill (aka Science Hill) Tree Sit. lrdpaction.media 23) The discovery of coho in the headwaters of the Garcia River is especially eye-opening because the watershed once was destroyed by logging. Now it is part of a unique experiment that involves what conservationists call sustainable forestry, or selective logging. " As we all know, parks are struggling to manage the lands they already own, and local governments, particularly in rural counties, don't like to see big swaths of private land put into parks because it takes it off the tax roles and takes the land out of public use, " said Chris Kelly, the California program director for the Virginia-based Conservation Fund, which paid the timber company Coastal Forestlands $18 million in 2004 for the 23,780-acre Garcia River Forest. " Why not own it and manage it as a productive forest and use the timber to pay for the restoration and management of the property? " The Nature Conservancy paid $3.5 million for a conservation easement on the property that allows them to conduct studies and monitor fish and wildlife populations in the watershed. The Conservation Fund is in charge of managing the forest by repairing roads, fixing erosion and hiring loggers to selectively thin out stands and remove sick trees. In exchange, the land is protected forever from residential and vineyard development. The forests of Mendocino County are a crucial testing ground for this type of strategy because it is in this region that coho salmon once were extremely abundant. A large American Indian fishing village once was located on the Garcia River, but when white men arrived in the 1850s and 1860s, the native Bokeya, or Central Pomo Indians, were moved out, land was cleared, and lumber production began. By the late 1870s, more than a dozen mills were operating in the watershed. Meanwhile, salmon from the Garcia River were netted by the thousands, smoked and shipped to San Francisco. The Nature Conservancy's Carah estimates that as many as 500,000 coho once squirmed and wriggled their way up California streams every year as late as the 1940s. Old-timers living in Mendocino County remember spearing coho in the Garcia. After the first rains, dozens of young coho could be seen in every pool and eddy. They were so abundant that people simply ignored the 25-fish limit, sometimes just scooping the fish out of the water. The fish began to disappear when the widespread clear-cutting of forests began after World War II. The rampant building of logging roads in the watershed, the removal of riparian vegetation and huge amounts of silt running off into the creeks ruined their habitat.The Garcia River Forest has been clear-cut twice, the last time in the 1940s, according to Kelly.Coho now make up about 1 percent of their historic population on the North Coast. The construction of dams, pollution and the emergence of global warming appears to be making things even worse. So few spawning chinook salmon returned to the Sacramento River and its tributaries this year that ocean fishing for salmon was banned in California and Oregon. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/01/MN5613NOAH.DTL 24) The sudden news of Sierra Pacific Industries salvage logging on private land within the Underwood Roadless Area came too late. EF! activists on site found a recently finished clearcut approximately 10-15 acres in size. The soil was heavily disturbed and numerous large green branches found in slash piles told the tale of big living trees that had been logged under the guise of salvaging the wood from dead or dying trees. A salvage logging exemption allows a company to avoid the environmental review of a " Timber Harvest Plan " (THP), providing for a very speedy and secretive permit process taking mere days. A THP requires months of review and somewhat cryptic public notification as soon as a plan is proposed. Fresh paint and plastic flags in much of the rest of the remianing forest indicate that Sierra Pacific (SPI) plans to file another logging plan in their Underwood inholding. The rest of the 160 acre SPI parcel has not been logged and there are many Old-Growth Pines, Douglas Firs, and Oaks here in the untouched forest. It's not over in Underwood. http://efhumboldt.org/2008/10/news-of-salvage-logging-came-too-late/ 25) Sierra Club destroyed California's chance to save Old Growth Trees. California had a SMART progressive initiative that would have banned the cutting of any tree that was alive in the year 1850 AD. Imagine how smart that is: This law is better than a law that says you can't cut trees 100 years old for example. Because such a law causes timber companies to cut all trees that are 99 years old. SO THIS WONDERFUL initiative lost when Sierra Club went and endorsed the compromise / logging industry bill. scott 26) First and foremost, thank you to all of the citizens of Placer County who did their defensible space treatments! This season defensible space did in fact protect lives and property and firefighters were able to anchor in communities that had completed fuels reduction treatments. The North Tahoe Fire Protection District had to hire a second chipper crew this season to chip the waste from defensible space treatments and Placer County responded to huge piles of slash from defensible space treatments in Foresthill. Defensible space is so important; it protects your home, your community and saves firefighters lives. There is absolute consistency in the message that homeowners are receiving now. If a person calls the Sierra Club or CalFire the message is the same; do your defensible space. I am equally encouraged that more communities have created and begun implementing Community Wildfire Protection Plans. These plans include steps to encourage ignition resistant construction, defensible space and call for the creation of reduced fuel zones around communities. Many communities have received grants to implement projects that retain the large healthy trees and thin the understory that contributes to catastrophic wildfire. These treatments do reduce fire behavior even under extreme conditions and restore the forest to a more natural density. It is also true that because the large fire resistant trees are retained, the treatments are very expensive. To this end Placer County and particularly Bruce Kranz has taken a leadership role in biomass utilization. Bruce has been able to obtain a $1.5 million dollar grant and even more private financing for the construction of a cogeneration facility in the Tahoe Basin. Bruce has also had initial talks with a group of investors who would like to construct a wood pellet mill to utilize the small wood and biomass from fuels reduction efforts and contribute money back to the projects. These new industries can exploit the existing markets for electricity and wood pellets and only the infrastructure needs to be built. Biomass is heavy, bulky and has very little value per pound; in fact a bone dry ton of wood chip is only worth about $40. But wood pellets for heating and electricity production from biomass can provide funding for fuels projects that now solely rely on grant funding. Placer County is taking a leadership role in implementing a key recommendation of the Tahoe Basin Blue Ribbon Fire Commission's report and that work needs to continue. http://www.redcounty.com/placercountyca/2008/10/ott-media-censors-bruce-kranz/ 27) " They are just people interested in forests throughout the United States, " Justice Antonin Scalia said of activists. " That's quite different from saying, 'I am about to suffer harm, imminent harm, to me.' " Chief Justice John Roberts seemingly agreed that environmentalists faced a " high hurdle … to surmount " because of prior Supreme Court decisions restricting lawsuits to federal agency decisions that have been " flushed out by some concrete action. " Summers v. Earth Island Institute started with a 238-acre salvage-logging project planned after a devastating 2002 fire swept through the Sequoia National Forest. Using new rules imposed by the Bush administration, the Forest Service declared that no public comment period or administrative appeal process was needed for the Burnt Ridge project. The administration determined that timber projects under 250 acres, forest-thinning projects under 1,000 acres and controlled burns under 4,500 acres were all small enough to be exempt from the standard public comment and appeal proceedings. Environmentalists sued, and the Forest Service agreed to withdraw the Burnt Ridge project. Even so, a federal judge imposed a nationwide injunction that blocks the Forest Service's exemptions for small projects. The Bush administration argues the judge's order should be dissolved and the legal challenge dismissed since the original Burnt Ridge dispute has been taken care of. While Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg raised objections, Kneedler argued that only " on-the-ground activity " and not mere " procedural regulation " could incite legal challenge. Activists such as Kernville-resident Ara Marderosian, for instance, could fight how the Burnt Ridge project was handled, but not how the Forest Service handled public comments and appeals generally. Environmentalists say they need to be able to challenge the nationwide rules. " These are being applied on every forest on an ongoing basis, " environmental attorney Matt Kenna told the court. http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/1300065.html Montana: 28) In recent articles and editorials in the Helena Independent Record, there has been a call for logging parts of the forest surrounding the town to remove beetle-killed trees and thin forests to reduce future wildfires. Such solutions will not work because they ignore fire behavior and ecological research. The first problem has to do with perspective. Neither wildfire or beetle outbreaks are " bad " for the forest ecosystem; instead they serve many important ecological purposes that are critical to the long-term health of the forest. The fear that beetle-killed dead trees will increase fire hazard significantly is not well supported by scientific research. Fires are largely driven by climatic conditions such as low humidity, drought and wind, not the presence of fuel. Research in Yellowstone National Park found that beetles only increased the probability of burning by a mere 11 percent. Another study in Alaska found no correlation between insect outbreaks and wildfires occurrence. It is fine fuels, not large trees and snags that sustain wildfires. In Yellowstone it was found that only 8 percent of the dead trees on the ground actually burned at all—and most were not consumed, just charred. Fires simply do not " stay " in one place long enough to heat a large log to the burning point unless there is an abundance of small fine fuels to heat them to the burning point. Thus dead logs either standing or falling over do not contribute significantly to fire hazard. As a consequence, removal of large trees typical of most commercial logging operations does little to reduce fire hazard because it is the smaller trees, shrubs, and fine fuels that sustain large fires. That's because fire hazard of trees is dramatically reduced once the needles and fine branches are broken off by winter storms. In addition, there is some evidence to suggest that logging and thinning can increase fire hazard by opening up the forest to greater drying and increased wind speed — both critical to the rapid spread of fires as well as greater growth of shrubs and small trees which provide the major fuel that carry and sustain wildfires. Beyond the lack of fire hazard posed by beetle-killed trees, there are many positive changes that occur as a result of beetle outbreaks. One finds that forests quickly recover from beetle attacks. The remaining live trees (beetle rarely kill 100 percent of the trees), released from competition, grow quickly and soon fill the gaps created by beetle-killed trees.http://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/10/26/opinions/yourturn_081026.txt 29) Does giving away the state's old growth timber at bargain basement prices in a severely depressed lumber market make sense? Conservationists say " no, " but Montana's Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) and some Land Board members say it's part of a necessary effort to maintain the state's timber industry in tough economic times. The role of the state - and the disposition of state trust land resources to bolster private timber companies -- is a debate which is likely to heat up significantly in the coming months. The state's highly controversial Three Creeks timber sale, which is primarily old growth situated in critical wildlife and fisheries habitat od Montana's Swan Valley, is a prime example of the issue. The state received about $46 per ton two years ago when it sold the first of the three-phases of the Three Creeks sale. Now, however, the remaining timber will be offered for sale at about one-third of that price, at $16.75 per ton. While some Land Board members question the wisdom of selling valuable timber in a hugely depressed lumber market, others say the sales are necessary " to preserve the state's timber infrastructure. " At the August meeting of the Land Board, the sale of the last two remaining parcels of the Three Creeks project were approved. DNRC director Mary Sexton told the Board the Small Lost Timber sale, was a " small project we put together so local folks could bid. " As Sexton described the sale, she added that it " won't meet old growth criteria once it is harvested. " That comment prompted Governor Schweitzer to ask for clarification and Sexton replied: " This 15 acres is old growth and it won't be there once harvested. " The Three Creeks #3 sale followed, which put the remaining 242 acres of the state's largest old growth timber sale on the block for a minimum bid of $16.75 per ton, which prompted State Auditor John Morrison, who was attending the Board meeting via speakerphone, to comment on the price. " My concern is that we did the Three Creeks sale in March of last year at $45.96 per ton. Three Creeks #2, this year, was $21 per ton. Now, with Three Creeks #3, we're talking a minimum bid of $16.75 per ton. It seems like the price just keeps going down. " Morrison went to say he commended the department on the salvage sales for pine beetles, but noted that it is " bound to create a growing glut in the market for timber and there's a heck of a lot of pine beetle killed timber yet to be removed. So why are we cutting 240 acres of healthy old growth at $16.75 per ton when we have all these dead pines we could harvest? " In response to Morrison's question, Sexton replied that: " Yes, the timber market is down at this time. We're getting half of what we used to get from timber sales. But we're working with communities and stakeholders because if there isn't an on-going effort to provide timber, there may not be a timber industry. http://www.newwest.net/citjo/article/giving_away_montanas_old_growth_forests_by_\ george_ochenski/C33/L33/ 30) A judge has blocked a federal timber sale north of Livingston, and the U.S. Forest Service says it will address his concerns promptly in the hope that logging then can proceed. A group that challenged the logging, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, said the Gallatin National Forest's Smith Creek Timber Sale should be stopped indefinitely by the order that U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy issued last week in Missoula. The logging in the Crazy Mountains, about 35 miles north of Livingston, cannot take place because the Forest Service did not map key elk habitat adequately, Molloy ruled in a lawsuit filed by the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, the Native Ecosystems Council and an owner of land near the sale. Denying part of the judgment they sought, Molloy said the Forest Service " has complied with the law for the most part. " Gallatin National Forest spokeswoman Marna Daley said tree thinning on about 800 acres was planned as a way to reduce fire risk to the public and firefighters, particularly where the national forest is near private land, and to improve evacuation. There is only one route in and out. The area to be logged is near a subdivision with about 30 homes.Daley said the elk mapping is a " fairly minor technicality " that the Forest Service hopes to resolve promptly, although no timetable has been set. Alliance for the Wild Rockies executive Michael Garrity said the Forest Service had not met the mapping requirement because " there is not enough elk habitat left to map. " Earlier logging ruined it, Garrity said. He also said roads have eliminated places for elk to hide. Molloy said the Forest Service's Smith Creek plan meets a requirement for protection of places where elk can hide and find security. He also rejected arguments that the Forest Service should have considered whether climate change will cause droughts negating the fire suppression purposes of the project, that the Forest Service contradicted federal forest and environmental laws by violating soil-quality standards, and that sediment from the Smith Creek project would jeopardize Yellowstone cutthroat trout. Forest Service plans for keeping dead, standing trees are adequate, Molloy said. The trees, called snags, are part of the habitat for certain wildlife. http://forests.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=109603 Arizona: 31) Gila County Supervisor Tommie Martin moderated the day-long organizational meeting last Thursday that drew about 60 public officials and representatives of various groups. They all set themselves to the perplexing task of helping the Forest Service come up with a plan that satisfies community needs, without getting once again wounded by lawyers and put out of its misery by judges. The participants all agreed on the urgent need. A forest that once had 50 to 100 trees per acre now has 1,000 to 2,000 trees per acre. Soil that once had 5 to 10 percent organic material now has barely half a percent and perhaps 1,000 miles of once-year-round streams running off the Rim have all but dried up. Meanwhile, the timber industry has vanished, ranchers are barely holding on and the threat of massive, devastating wildfires menaces every Rim community. " It's the result of a century of failed federal policy, " said Martin. Biologists blame the current condition of the forest mostly on a century of clear-cutting, over-grazing and fire suppression. The combination of all those human decisions compounded by drought has resulted in the current, dramatically overgrown forest. Ironically, it has also impacted the logging and ranching operations the previous management was supposed to benefit. " No one here has ever even seen a healthy forest — one you can actually see through, " said Mike Brandt, with the Pine-Strawberry Fire District — charged with protecting one of the most wildfire menaced communities in the nation. http://www.paysonroundup.com/news/2008/oct/29/mission_save_rim_country_forests/ Colorado: 32) The U.S. Forest Service has released a final environmental analysis and management plan for lynx in the southern Rockies. The impact statement has been in the works for years and covers 14.6 million acres of national forest land. A draft environmental review released in 2006 was criticized by environmentalists for allowing exemptions for logging and other activities they said would jeopardize the cat. The plan released Wednesday still allows some exceptions for logging to reduce wildfire risk. The Colorado Division of Wildlife has released more than 200 lynx from Canada and Alaska in the state since 1999 to restore the cat to Colorado. The state's native lynx disappeared in the early 1970s because of trapping, poisoning and development. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20081105-1053-wst-lynxhabitat.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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