029OEC’s This Week in Trees

029OEC’s This Week in Trees

This week we have 30 news stories from British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Minnesota, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Afghanistan, Gabon, Ghana, Guatemala, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

British Columbia:

!) In the far northwestern reaches of British Columbia and flowing into Alaska, is the magnificent Taku River Valley, the largest unfragmented and as yet unprotected watershed on the Pacific Coast of North America. It encompasses 18,000 square kilometers and is incredibly rugged and remote. After the Fraser and Skeena Rivers, the Taku is the largest salmon-producing river in Canada. A world-class wilderness, the Taku River watershed contains some of the richest wildlife habitat in North America, roaming with grizzly, wolves, Stone’s sheep, moose, woodland caribou, migratory birds and healthy populations of salmon. The Taku is also the traditional territory of the Taku River Tlingit people who have developed their own land-use plan for their territory and insist that conservation-based planning should take place before any major development is allowed to proceed. The Vancouver-based mining company, Redfern Resources Ltd., has been seeking approval to build a 160 kilometre road through the heart of the Taku River Valley from Atlin to Tulsequah. The road would provide access to the Tulsequah Chief Mine, which Redfern intends to reopen. It is evident that the access road will lead to further industrial exploitation of the Taku Valley such as Redfern’s Big Bull claim and facilitating clear-cut logging. The facts are simple: once the road is in place, any other industrial user has a legal right to use the road, and once the access is provided, it will be almost impossible for the BC government to order the road decommissioned. In 2004, Canadian Wildlife Service officials wrote that “we are concerned that the project could have significant impacts on the East Atlin Caribou Herd.” In addition, the federal government ignored the results of its own public input process, where 99% of 4200 submissions opposed the project earlier this year http://www.wildernesscommittee.org/campaigns/rainforest/northern_forest/taku

2) The transboundary region between Northwest BC and Southeast Alaska covers more than 32 million acres of ecologically diverse and important landscapes, extending from inland boreal forests to temperate rainforests on the coast. The region is home to First Nations and Native Americans including the Tlingit, Tahltan, Haida, Champagne-Aishihik and Carcross-Tagish Nations. This region also supports major wildlife populations including moose, grizzly and black bears, rare migratory birds, caribou, and mountain goats, and is home to large wild runs of all 5 species of pacific salmon which in turn support communities and wildlife in both Southeast Alaska and British Columbia. Watersheds in this area are often referred to as the Great Salmon Rivers because of the central role that the abundant salmon play in the ecosystems and the economies of the local communities. However, the transboundary region is not only abundant with ecological diversity, it is also rich in minerals and other resources, the unsustainable extraction of which would devastate these magnificent watersheds. International mining, timber, and other large-scale development interests covet these resources to earn short-term profits without having in place any long-term land use plans to ensure sustainable ecology and economies in these regions. The lack of regional planning is problematic for numerous reasons, not least of which is the fact that as much as half of all investment in mineral exploration in BC is currently focused on or adjacent to the BC and Southeast Alaska transboundary region. If one development is allowed to open in these regions, many more will quickly follow, leading to haphazard and devastating projects and little analysis of their cumulative impacts. http://www.riverswithoutborders.org/

Washington:

3) Walking through the cool forest, one often enjoys the beauty of the trees, the sky, the birds and other wildlife. Far less often does one look down to the forest floor for beauty. There is something there that can be beautiful, tasty or even deadly: the wild mushroom. That is where a club devoted specifically to this flora comes in. The Spokane Mushroom Club’s motto is, “A world of wonder at your feet,” and that is just what the club intends to show people at its annual foray this weekend. “If you’re looking for a special mushroom, find the tree that mushroom is connected to,” Distad explained. Distad recommends that students come to the foray to see the wide variety of mushrooms and learn about them. “We see people’s flowers but we don’t realize there is beauty in the forest also.” Distad said, “We aren’t used to the beauty of the mushroom.” http://www.gonzagabulletin.com/media/paper375/news/2005/09/23/Outdoors/Mushroom.Foray.Lends.Insight.Int
o.The.Forest.Floor-996363.shtml

4) We heard through a public radio station in Seattle about some interesting “meetings” going on in Weyerhaeuser’s corporate offices. Apparently, the company sent out messages to all employees telling them to “use paper bags instead of plastic” because demand for their bags is falling off. Rumor has it they’re blaming the whole thing on RAN. Never ones to pat ourselves on the back, we’ll blame it all on you sack-tivists out there educating local grocers on Weyerhaueser ’s proclivity for destructive and illegal logging–keep up the good work. And here’s the real zinger–word is that management announced (internally of course) that the Weyerhaeuser logo will no longer be printed on their bag because it’s too much controversy among grocers. Why this is good news: it shows that Weyerhaeuser is beginning to see that environmental performance matters to their customers. Whats hard to believe is the “paranoia” that seems to be seeping into the corporation. For all the trouble of removing their logo, we’d prefer to see a some real change in the forests. http://www.ran.org/blog/2005/09/01/weyerhaeuser-starts-to-sweat/

5) Eatonville, WA – All Richard and Donna Gleason wanted was five acres in the country with a good view. They got a lot more than they bargained for. In January, the couple bought a 20-acre mini-tree-farm for $200,000 from the Weyerhaeuser Company, the timber company based in Federal Way, Wash. They plan to build a three-bedroom, 2,800-square-foot house with views of nearby Mount Rainier. Their land is part of a “tree reserve community” Weyerhaeuser carved out of former timberlands south of Seattle. Prices range from $139,000 to $400,000 for a 20-acre plot, where buyers can build a home, harvest timber or do both. A 20-acre farm is about 15 football fields. “We’re doing this to get a better return on our assets,” said Frank Mendizabal, Weyerhaeuser’s spokesman, as he rode with other company officials past the Nisqually River, which borders one of the tree reserves. “It’s a creative way to dispose of assets. If this legacy of forestry management lives on, that’s a bonus.” To be sure, the parcels do not make much of a dent in a forestry company’s portfolio. Weyerhaeuser, which owns or manages a little more than seven million acres in the United States, has developed 5,500 acres in tree reserves in the last three years, while the International Paper Company has sold 182,000 acres of small parcels (less than 1,000 acres each) since 2001. Encouraged by a booming real estate market, many forestry companies have set up formal land programs to trim back their holdings. International Paper of Stamford, Conn., is selling tracts from 20 to 1,200 acres in Michigan and across the South, while the Plum Creek Timber Company of Seattle is awaiting zoning approval to develop 975 lots in the Moosehead Lake region of Maine. Rayonier of Jacksonville, Fla., recently formed a company to develop its land in Florida and Georgia. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/24/business/24trees.html

Oregon:

6) Over the summer, Beverly and Lewis Paulson once counted 22 logging trucks on the way from Sutherlin to their vacation home on Tenmile Lake. “And we thought, oh my, what’s happening? Where are they all coming from?” Beverly said. The lake sits west of the Elliott State Forest, where the state plans to ramp up logging. The headwaters that feed into the lake originate in the forest, and the Paulsons want to be sure the Tenmile watershed isn’t damaged. “We’re not opposed to logging, but we’re certainly interested in where and how the logging is being done,” Beverly said. The Roseburg couple were among about 20 people who aired concerns on the Elliott State Forest Management Plan at a meeting hosted by the Oregon Department of Forestry Wednesday night in Roseburg. The plan provides a framework with goals and strategies for managing the 93,000-acre forest in the Coast Range east of Coos Bay and Reedsport. About 90 percent of the Elliott is designated to generate revenue for schools through the state’s Common School Fund. Since 1995, the forest has generated 27 million board feet per year, providing about $15 million a year. Some attendees expressed frustration that the state hasn’t been able to log the 50 million board feet that was being harvested annually in the 1980s, before the northern spotted owl was listed as threatened in 1990. Francis Eatherington of the Roseburg conservation group Umpqua Watersheds is worried the plan doesn’t go far enough. She said the state’s plan for protecting owls and murrelets relies heavily on the surrounding Bureau of Land Management forests, which she said are at risk to logging as the BLM revises its long-term management plan. “I just don’t think the plan allows for a quick adjustment” in harvest levels if the BLM lands are logged, she said. She said the planning process is backward — the state should determine where and how many spotted owls and murrelets are using the forest before deciding how much to log. “The marbled murrelets depend on the Elliott heavily because it’s a mature coastal forest and there’s very few mature coastal forests in the central Oregon Coast Range,” she said.
http://www.newsreview.info/article/20050922/NEWS/50922019

7) The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest may have violated a federal judge’s order to provide a public comment period and appeals process before approving road construction projects through public lands. Three days after the ruling Sept. 16, the Forest Service gave permission for the construction of a 730-foot-long road through public forestland in the Grayback Creek watershed to access private land owned by Perpetua Forest Co. The watershed is located near the Oregon Caves National Monument. The road was completed Wednesday. “This is the third illegal logging operation on the Siskiyou National Forest in the last year,” said attorney Erin Madden of the Ashland-based Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, referring to Forest Service mistakes that led to logging in the Babyfoot Lake Botanical Reserve and the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. “Such behavior by an agency that is supposed to be a steward of public land is inexcusable.” In July, federal District Judge James Singleton Jr. in the Eastern District of California ruled the Forest Service’s policy of excluding certain projects from public disclosure, comment and an appeal process is invalid. Forest Service officials argued the ruling only applied to the Eastern District of California. But on Sept. 16, the judge issued an order clarifying that the ruling applied nationwide. http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2005/0924/local/stories/07local.htm

California:

8) McCloud – The mile-high creeks start small enough to jump across, draining white fir and cedar forests beneath 14,179-foot Mount Shasta. Moving south, they join streams that flow into the Sacramento and Fall rivers that finally pause in the massive reservoir behind Shasta Dam. This is a rugged land with scenery to die for, and, indeed, timber companies and environmentalists have fought bitterly over these types of forests for years. But a pending $10 million deal between the traditional adversaries showcases a fresh way of looking at a forest’s value – one that could save thousands of acres in California’s private forests from development. San Francisco-based Pacific Forest Trust would pay an Ohio pension fund up to $10 million to reduce logging and to put about 30 percent of its 33,000-acre Pondosa Forest near McCloud permanently off-limits to development. The area includes the critical headwaters of much of California’s drinking and irrigation water. In turn, the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio could continue logging a forest in Shasta and Siskiyou counties that produces 14 million to 16 million board feet of timber annually. Conservation easements, used to preserve thousands of acres of California farmland and stretches of coastline, pay property owners not to sell to developers and to agree to permanent property restrictions. The state loses 30,000 acres of private forests and woodlands annually to ranchettes and other development, the California Department of Forestry estimates. In a deal that could signal emerging middle ground in the timber wars, the McCloud forest easement would be the largest acquired in California from a commercial owner in an actively managed forest, said Pacific Forest Trust managing director Constance Best. “Timberland is not being viewed as a production asset so much anymore,” said Scott Sacco, vice president of Forest Systems, a Massachusetts company that manages the forest for the pension fund. “It’s being viewed as a financial asset.” Mineral rights, hunting and recreation leases, sensitive landscapes and carbon storage in trees to moderate global warming can all make money, says a new breed of forest managers. Throw in appreciating land values, they say, and returns on investment could reach 12 percent a year, especially attractive to more patient institutional investors. http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/13617375p-14459330c.html

9) The Lompico Timber Harvest Plan (THP) which was stopped by an unprecedented decision of the CA Board of Forestry on appeal by Santa Cruz County in April 2004 has come back as a “new” filing. Essentially the same logging plan, it is newly numbered 1-05-158 SCR. We could find no reference whatsoever in this “new” THP to the Board of Forestry’s ruling. This is probably because the Timber Industry and California Department of Forestry (CDF) are terrified of having to deal legitimately with the issue of cumulative watershed impacts. Perhaps they think if they ignore the issue, it will go away. This is unlikely. The Sierra Club and its partner organizations such as the Lompico Watershed Conservancy have no intention of abandoning our rivers and streams to continual decline from water pollution. Lompico Creek is listed as impaired under the Clean Water Act as is its parent watershed, the San Lorenzo River. The water from this creek for the Community of Lompico and the steelhead which spawn in Lompico Creek are critical public resources. We will continue to defend our right to live in healthy watersheds surrounded by wildlife. Wildlife can only survive in streams that we protect from abuse. About 40% of our steelhead and salmon runs are now extinct. We cannot afford to lose any more. The Lompico Watershed Conservancy and the Lompico County Water District both tried to resolve this dispute by arranging a purchase of this headwaters land. In 2001 the landowner asked a price for these 425 acres far in excess of its legal appraisal value. http://www.lompicocreek.org

10) Around 1920, the Mattole gushed deep, clear and cold through miles of old-growth fir and redwood. The river supported runs of steelhead, trout, chinook and coho salmon, all thrashing upstream in such profusion that they spooked horses at river fords. Environmental damage made fish runs plunge to a few scant survivors — a tale repeated up and down the coast. But the Mattole had a plot twist: Thanks to a few newcomers, it became the first place where a crusade to start community-based salmon restoration occurred. “There’s two huge parts of our job,” Larson had told me earlier. “The first: protect old-growth forest, which is about 9 percent of what it was. The other is to restore logged-over lands. But you also must work on lots of small parts, like how residents in this drainage use water, what happens along roads.” It didn’t take long for participants in the salmon restoration project to realize that achieving their goals meant healing a whole watershed. The downfall of the Mattole from its biologic heyday had been swift. After World War II, new bulldozers and early chain saws enabled assaults on hillside forests. Landowners struggling to get by on sheep ranching suddenly realized an economic boom by letting loggers harvest old-growth trees. The health of the watershed paid the ultimate price. Soft Franciscan Formation geology and heavy winter rains caused landslides and slumped logging roads. Great floods of 1955 and 1964 dumped soil into what had been a cold, deep stream. “This estuary was a 40-foot-deep holding area for arriving salmon, and for juveniles heading out to sea,” Larson had told me earlier. “Now a wedge of sand and rock extends all the way upstream to Honeydew. Some estimate that area holds 80 million cubic yards of fill.” That’s nearly 18 times the mass of Hoover Dam. In summer, the estuary forms a death trap for young salmonids, as sunlight heats the shallow water to 80 degrees and hotter. Upstream, once-loose spawning gravels have been cemented into a damp sidewalk. By 1980, runs had plunged to 3,000 chinook and just a trace of coho. Despite all the volunteer work, only 200 spawners were counted in 1990. But had it not been for the work, they might have vanished entirely. Finally, numbers began to resurrect: 1,000 in 1996; then 3,000 chinook and 1,500 coho last season. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/09/23/MNGCHES76R1.DTL

11) Sierra Pacific Industries this week resumed full operations at its Standard sawmill, thanks to fire salvage logs coming from the El Dorado National Forest. Standard’s new timber is coming from an area of Amador County that burned in last year’s Power Fire. “Even though we are incurring high trucking costs in taking those logs to Tuolumne County, we see this as an opportunity to get back to full production in Sonora,” said SPI spokesman Ed Bond. With the new timber, SPI can hire about 20 more workers at the Standard mill, which is expected to reach full production in about two weeks, Bond said. The company has stopped harvesting live trees near Pinecrest to concentrate on the Amador County salvage timber, which could rot the longer it sits. Jerry Snyder, forest spokesman, said about 15 million board feet should be cut this year. He expects that yield to increase to about 20 million board feet next year. The Stanislaus forest’s five-year vegetation management plan, which aims to prevent wildfires by allowing loggers to cut timber, will be released in a few weeks. It could call for the removal of 24 to 40 million board feet from the forest each year, Snyder said. Up to 900,000 board feet of timber that is already dead, in the process of dying or is hazardous was put up for sale this week by the forest. Logging of this timber — damaged by the Creek, Early and Tuolumne fires last year — is expected to begin next month. The damaged areas are within 15 miles east of Groveland on 195 acres, about 8 percent of the total area burned by the three fires. http://www.uniondemocrat.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=18435

Idaho:

12) Federal Judge Edward Lodge has agreed with the Nez Perce Tribe and turned down a Clearwater National Forest logging and restoration project. Lodge agreed with the tribe’s contention that the U.S. Forest Service and other federal agencies failed to properly analyze the possible environmental effects of the North Lochsa Face project. The work would have cut 42 million board feet of timber in a 128,000-acre region. Another 12-thousand acres would have been treated with prescribed fire, and 66 miles of old roads would have been obliterated. New trees would have been planted along streams. Forest Service officials said the effort would improve wildlife and fish habitat and repair the quality of the water in the region. But the tribe maintained the logging would harm threatened steelhead and bull trout. Lodge said the environmental impact statement failed to take a hard look at the cumulative effects of the project combined with past logging in the region. http://www.ktvb.com/news/localnews/stories/NW_092405IDNtimberEL.8cb9997b.html

Montana:

13) Three environmental activists were escorted out of the Bitterroot National Forest office under armed guard Thursday after attempting to attend a news conference on the release of the environmental review of a controversial timber sale. “I’ve never been turned away from that building,” said Jim Miller, Friends of the Bitterroot president. “I’ve been coming here for decades.” Miller said he was led out of the building by a “fully armed” officer wearing a bulletproof vest. The Forest Service held the news conference to release the final Middle East Fork Environmental Impact Statement, which is Montana’s first project to be released under the authority of President Bush’s Healthy Forests Restoration Act. The agency invited six Ravalli County residents who supported the Forest Service’s preferred alternative to meet with the press. Bitterroot Forest Supervisor Dave Bull said the others were excluded because the agency wanted to provide a “safe environment” for community members who had helped craft the agency’s preferred alternative. “We thought it would be really powerful to show how much community support this project has,” Bull said later. The Forest Service ignored nearly 10,000 public comments that were unfavorable toward the preferred alternative to favor a handful of Sula residents, he said. “This has been the worst demonstration of process that I’ve ever seen in the management of public lands in my life,” Campbell said. The son of a former Bitterroot National Forest supervisor, Brandborg told Bull he was “shocked” to be excluded from the press conference. “In all my life, I’ve never seen where the public couldn’t attend a press conference,” the 80-year-old Brandborg said. The men said they were stunned to be turned back by armed Forest Service law enforcement officers. “Like we were some kind of physical threat,” said Miller. “I’ve never been treated like that in my whole life.” Campbell said the event was symptomatic of the public process surrounding the Middle East Fork Project. “This thing has spun so far out of control that maybe we need to start someplace else,” Bull said. http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2005/09/23/news/mtregional/news08.txt

14) The Bozeman Creek and Hyalite Creek drainages have been identified as having a high risk of severe wildfire. The two drainages are also some of the most heavily used recreation areas in the Gallatin National Forest. The fear is that if a wildfire burned along either of the two creeks, it could result in a flood of ash and/or silt that would clog the city’s water filtration system. “The objective is to maintain water delivery to Bozeman residents and try to reduce the risk of fire,” said Jim Devitt, forest planner for the Gallatin. He said the city has only a three-day water supply if the filtration plant is shut down. Devitt said the fuels reduction would likely involve a mix of underburning, thinning of thick lodgepole stands and some logging of older-growth pine. http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/09/24/build/state/55-fire-danger.inc

Colorado:

15) A move by the White River National Forest to cut a list of key management indicator species will result in less accurate monitoring of ecological conditions on the 2.3 million-acre forest, watchdog groups said Monday. In all, the White River proposes to drop half of the 16 species on the list and replace several others. Northern sage grouse, pygmy nuthatch, black swift, juniper titmouse, Macgillivary’s warbler, alpine willow communities, pinyon-juniper communities, brook trout and brown trout are all slated for removal. According to Gietzentanner, replacing snowshoe hare with lodgepole pine will better enable the Forest Service to determine if they’re getting the early stage of lodgepole growth that’s an important food source for snowshoe hares, which, in turn, are a key food source for threatened Canada lynx. Replacing northern sage grouse with Brewer’s sparrow will help the agency better monitor that shrubby habitat, Gietzentanner said, explainging that the grouse is difficult to monitor, and that the sparrow occupies nearly the same habitat. But it’s not clear if the sparrow is as sensitive to habitat disturbance — from gas drilling activities, for example — an important question since the species on the list are supposed to serve as indicators of how various activities affect the forest. As far as removing alpine willow communities from the list, Gietzentanner said such broad ecological communities are difficult to measure. He said removing alpine wetland communities makes sense, because they are static. But the removal of alpine willow communities leaves the list without any representation from high alpine wetlands ecosystems, which have been impacted by historic mining activities, as well as from ski area development. And while some see the steps as needed to reduce red tape, environmentalists say the measures are shortcutting environmental protections for sensitive natural areas. The Forest Service has lost several significant legal battles based on its inability to show that it followed its own requirements for monitoring indicator species, most recently when the agency lost a bid to do extensive salvage logging in the area of the Missionary Ridge wildfire near Durango. http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20050923/NEWS/50923002

Wyoming

16) Laramie-based Biodiversity Conservation Alliance is taking credit for stopping three logging projects in the Black Hills National Forest — all within the Bearlodge Ranger District in northeast Wyoming. The group says its efforts led to the U.S. Forest Service withdrawing three logging projects — the Cement, Planting and Dean timber sales — over the past two months. All told, the three projects involved more than 30 million board feet of timber and 180 miles of logging road construction. “This represents a huge victory for the Black Hills National Forest and really underscores the need for citizen oversight and involvement in the management of public lands,” said Jeremy Nichols, conservation director for the alliance. Erik Molvar, wildlife biologist for the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, noted that the Black Hills National Forest is one of the most heavily logged national forests in the country. Virtually the entire forest has been logged at least once in the past century, with most areas logged three or more times. The most recent estimates from the Forest Service shows that just 0.22 percent of the entire forest is old growth — defined as relatively undisturbed areas of 150-years-old or older yellowbark pines. “They wanted to log about a quarter of the forest,” Molvar said. “I can’t imagine doing that and not having huge impacts on the forest soils.” Everett said the Black Hills National Forest has an annual harvest goal of 83.8 million board feet, but that the average cut for past five years is 50 million board feet. The forest averaged 90 million board feet in the 1970s and 1980s, he said, but has averaged 70 million board feet in the past decade. http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2005/09/24/news/wyoming/4b3800b51759308a87257085007ee6f9.txt

Minnesota:

17) When the Ruffed Grouse population peaked in 10-year intervals from 1950 to 1970, the northern forest was a different world, Horton said. “The whole world was young aspen in 1950,” he said. “Plus, there were much fewer hunters. In 1970, we had OK habitat but few predators. Fur prices were high. We had a lot of trappers.” While a lot of aspen is still being cut, it isn’t being clear-cut in large blocks, the way it once was. Loggers more often cut selectively or leave residual timber. “In many cases, aspen will remain a component of the forest type, but it won’t be dominated by aspen.” Thick stands of aspen afford ground-nesting grouse refuge from hawks and great-horned owls. Leaving some mature trees after logging actually works against grouse, offering good perches for avian predators. “We are not into pure aspen management,” Sanders said. “We’re going to continue to manage for aspen, but we have responsibilities for all the wildlife species. We’re going to create more diverse habitat. I think grouse will be well taken care of. Will they be at the habitat level they had in the ’50s and ’60s? Probably not.” Berg, who also surveyed furbearers during his DNR career, noted animals that prey on grouse are more numerous than they once were. Fishers, martens and foxes are much more plentiful. Foxes have become more numerous as the timber wolf population has grown from a few hundred to more than 3,500 in Minnesota. Wolves don’t tolerate coyotes, which don’t tolerate foxes well. With fewer coyotes, the fox population has grown. Martens and fishers have enjoyed excellent comebacks in Minnesota, though martens are uncommon in Wisconsin. Both prey on grouse. “Fishers were gone for over 50 years. Now, they’re widespread and common,” Strand said. “Things like goshawks and great-horned owls are more numerous,” Strand said. “We’ve helped restore them and protect them. The days of ‘chicken hawks’ being shot are gone.” Other factors may be affecting grouse numbers as well. Hunters have more access to the forest, with more forest roads probing the woods and four-wheelers to ride. “Before the days of ATVs,” Berg said, “most interior forest areas were ‘grouse refuges,’ where few hunters ever got to.” http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/sports/outdoors/12715416.htm

Indiana:

18) Last May, the commissioner of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources sought to spike the rumor that the new administration planned to double the amount of logging on state-owned forests. “That’s a lie,” Kyle Hupfer told preservationists and journalists gathered at a contentious timber auction at Morgan-Monroe State Forest. But while there had been no directive at that point, he added, there was a possibility of some sort of increase. Last week, the possibility took on a number. Not twofold. Fivefold.
Insisting that the massive cutting, which could reach up to 70 percent of new annual growth, would serve the health of the woods as much as the wealth of the timber industry, Gov. Mitch Daniels joined Hupfer in announcing a drastic revision of forestry management practices. Among its various provisions for speeding up logging, boosting timber revenues and trimming costs, the plan calls for ending the protection of stands around reservoirs and withdrawing longstanding DNR technical assistance from half the state’s private forest owners, the little guys who have 10 acres or less. This matters, considering that 85 percent of Indiana’s commercial forestland is in private hands; but the state says the “increased risk” to smaller tracts will be “offset by acceleration of management on the larger, more productive forests.” Much of what state officials have asserted in person and on paper about this venture’s ultimate impact on the environment has been perfunctory, debatable and cavalier. Yet they have Purdue University experts and the Nature Conservancy in their corner, and not without some reasons, such as the disease-fighting merits of thinning and the promise of new plantings. Needless to say, they have the contempt of those who have earned the most stripes in the endless war to preserve Indiana’s tiny remnant of publicly owned natural land. What they also may have against them is the law. Believe it or not, there is an Indiana Environmental Protection Act. A citizens’ group called the Indiana Forest Alliance has a lawsuit pending against the state, arguing that it has violated the act by sponsoring excessive commercial logging in state forests. http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050925/COLUMNISTS06/509250306/1002/OPINION

Iowa:

19) For outdoor enthusiasts, Iowa’s Backbone State Park located mid-way between Dubuque and Waterloo is a popular destination. The rugged 1,780-acre, older-growth woodland that rises out of the Maquoketa River valley offers great opportunities for camping, hiking, boating and fishing. It also offers some of the best bird diversity in the state — about 100 bird species nest in and around the park — which is why Bill Norris spent so much time there in the mid-90s. As a master’s degree candidate at Iowa State University, Ames, Norris studied Backbone as well as other sites in northeast Iowa for three years. He was attempting to determine whether different groups of birds — particularly migratory songbirds whose survival is considered threatened — used forests differently according to whether those forests were mainly undisturbed or whether they had been logged and pastured. Norris and his helpers found that there is a difference in use; birds that are threatened were found in much higher diversity in undisturbed areas. “Now people might say, ‘We could have told you that — you don’t need a study,’” Norris says. “But we got the data.” The birds whose diversity decreases with disturbance are those that are probably not very familiar to anyone but birders — veery, Louisiana waterthrush, Acadian flycatcher, Cerulean and Kentucky warblers, wood thrush and pileated woodpecker. Conversely, more common birds, such as the blue jay, cardinal and chickadee, tended to have higher diversity in disturbed forests, Norris points out. “Our purpose was not to condemn logging and grazing, but to suggest that we need to set aside areas” so that there will be places for the threatened birds, Norris says. http://www.qctimes.net/articles/2005/09/25/features/home_garden/doc43360fb285194653320291.txt

Ohio:

20) Right now, millions of kids around the world are attending school. Just like you, kids in Europe, Africa, China, India, the United States and the Amazon are learning to do math, sing, draw, read and write. And just like you, these kids are curious about what other kid’s lives are like in other parts of the world. Over the next few weeks, we are excited to present a pen pal exchange between 7-12 year old Shipibo-Konibo kids from their school in the Peruvian rainforest and 6th graders from Lenny Eubank’s class at Smith School in Dayton, Ohio. http://www.rainforestheroes.com/heroes/penpals/

Massachusetts:

21) The entire room was packed with concerned citizens, who brought with them a variety of agendas, but the state’s plans to turn Myles Standish State Forest into a reserve are still in the proposal stages. Myles Standish holds the highest ratings in the state for the number of viable rare species communities, for percentage of 1830s forest, and for acreage of valley bottom habitat. According to EOEA, it’s one of only a few places in the world that still have thriving pitch-pine and scrub oak habitats. Those pine barrens, O’Connor said, become less and less prevalent as surrounding land is developed. “When you do a forestry plan, you do it from 150 years out, and concentrate on the first 15 years,” chief forester of state forests and parks Jim DiMaio said. “After 15 years, you go out, collect data, use new science, and adapt and adjust the plan as needed. Whatever the conditions are, it’s hard to know what they’ll be in 150 years.” Office of Land and Forest Conservation Services director Bob O’Connor said. “Most of the forest is middle-aged; we don’t have much young or old forest. We need to have a more balanced habitat.” So far, O’Connor said, in the state’s forests, less than 5 percent of the trees are early growth. If the forests remain undiversified, age-wise, they’re more vulnerable to large-scale devastation. Cutting down specific trees would also break up the forest’s plantations of native white pines, and leave some coarse debris on the forest floor for floor-dwelling animals to use. Forest recreation would remain unchanged. Activities like canoeing, camping, swimming, horseback riding, and hiking would still be available. ORVs, which were recently banned from the forest, would remain banned. Discipline among campers, however, has been hard to maintain due to a lack of staff and what DCR’s Southeastern Massachusetts Regional director Brian Shanahan explained as a lack of more active management. The responsibility of maintaining the forest and enforcing its rules tends to fall to Environmental Police and the State Police. The responsibility could be alleviated with more active management. Overgrown areas like Charge Pond allow for bad behavior because no one can see what people do in them. http://oldcolony.southofboston.com/articles/2005/09/24/news/news04.txt

22) Water purity and the thought that a faucet is usually connected to a forest is the starting point in a plan to clean up the watershed that surrounds Sandra Pond Reservoir. The reservoir is one of the town’s several water sources. Its watershed is approximately 157 acres, of which approximately 87 acres are included in a stewardship program to promote an overall goal of improving water quality for the reservoir. A plan of forest management has been designed to reach this goal. John R. Clarke, consulting forester of Bay State Forestry Service of Worcester and Derek Saari, assistant town planner and conservation agent, presented the plan at a public meeting Wednesday evening. The forest is of moderate quality and would benefit if trees of lesser quality were cut, allowing sunlight to penetrate to regenerate new growth. The plan divides Sandra Pond forest into eight “stands,” or sections, for purposes of upgrading different areas. When asked about costs of implementing a forest management plan, Saari said costs were uncertain. Some income would result from selling off timber, but there would not be a lot of useable board footage. Most would be low grade pulp. Richard Smith, a longtime resident and Bowman Street abutter to Sandra Pond Forest, asked Saari if he could write into the contract a provision requiring the contractor to use horses instead of machinery to skid logs. Trucks and machinery are harmful to forests, he said. http://www2.townonline.com/westborough/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=331471&format=&page=2

North Carolina:

23) When it comes to preserving Sylva’s Fisher Creek watershed, the problem seems to be a matter of permanence. On one hand, the town board is hemmed in by a 1992 resolution that forbids the 1,100-acre property from being sold and prohibits the extraction of natural resources, thereby discouraging financial gain by any method other than obtaining a grant to put the land in a conservation easement. According to Bates’ report, the watershed contains a significant volume of high-quality timber; however, harvesting options are limited by the watershed’s topography. While Bates’ report reveals that the watershed’s timber is potentially lucrative, he is careful to state that the report is just that — a report, not an opinion. “We didn’t take a stand on what Waynesville should do with their watershed. We will not take a stand on what Sylva should do with their watershed,” said Bates, who helped develop a management plan for the Waynesville watershed that did leave open the option of logging. Paul Carlson, executive director of the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee, a Franklin-based organization that has worked on conservation projects throughout the region said that logging and clean water concepts can coexist, citing the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts as an example. If the Pinnacle Park Foundation’s goals are not in alignment with the town’s — say for example the Foundation opposes logging, while the town looks to it for revenue generation — the town has the option of reconstructing the Foundation board. The town appoints five members of the Foundation board. If the town made five appointments that shared its ideals, and those five members elected two additional board members, as called for by the Foundation’s bylaws, such restructuring could position the required two-thirds majority vote needed to terminate the Foundation’s lease with the town. http://www.smokymountainnews.com/issues/09_05/09_21_05/fr_sylva_mulls.html

Afghanistan:

24) On a clear day in Jalalabad, you can just see them, green against the distant mountains, some of the last cedars of Afghanistan. The mountains are the Spin Ghar range, home to Tora Bora where Osama bin Laden fought the last stand against the US-led invasion in 2001. But today, another war is going on up there, unnoticed by the outside world. This time the enemy is not the Taliban or Bin Laden, but smugglers. This is the war to save Afghanistan’s last forests. There is a beautiful scent that lingers in Afghanistan’s cities, overpowering even the rotting garbage and open latrines. It is a sweet, aromatic scent, instantly recognisable. It is the smell of cedar wood burning. An ecological disaster is unfolding in Afghanistan, under the noses of the international community who are trying to rebuild the country. Once, large areas of the country were covered with forests of cedar and pine, oak and fir but today there are just a few dwindling patches of forest left. Old photographs of Kabul tell their own story. Once, it was a green city of avenues lined with trees. Compare that to the rocky dustbowl familiar from television news pictures today. Today, just 2 per cent of Afghanistan is still forest, and conservationists are warning it is on its last legs. It is not just a concern for ecologists. Wood is the main winter fuel in Afghanistan, and the experts agree it is fast running out. Huge areas of Afghanistan that were once forested have turned to desert. Foliage for livestock to feed on is disappearing, destroying the traditional lives of nomads who can no longer graze their flocks. Nuristan is Afghanistan’s one safe reserve of forest, according to Mr de Bures. “The Nuristanis look after the forest because they really understand that if the forest disappears, they will disappear with it,” he says. But Konar is a perfect example of the timber-smuggling problem in Afghanistan. Since the Soviets left, 25 per cent of the Konar’s entire area has been deforested. The problem is that Afghanistan’s richest forests lie on the border with Pakistan, next to the traditional smuggling routes.The French conservationists are trying to educate the people of Konar about a sustainable timber trade. In such a sensitive region, they can do little more http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article314786.ece

Gabon:

25) In a move that sets a new standard in African conservation, the nation of Gabon, which contains some of the most pristine tropical rainforests on earth, announced today that it will set aside 10 percent of its land mass for a system of national parks. Up to this point, Gabon had no national park system. The Gabonese government has been working closely with The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) on conservation issues for the past ten years. The announcement is a major victory for Africa’s wildlife. According to Gabon’s President El Hadj Omar Bongo, some 13 national parks comprising more than 10,000 square miles will be established, protecting vital habitat for gorillas, chimpanzees, forest elephants and other spectacular wildlife. Percentage-wise, only Costa Rica has set aside more land for conservation, though the total size of its parks is much smaller. The parks range from regions along Gabon’s coastline, where hippopotamuses frolic on untouched beaches, to unique forest clearings – home to “naïve” populations of gorillas that show no fear of humans. Much of the land set aside was based on years of field research by the Wildlife Conservation Society, which has studied Gabon’s wildlife since 1985. In 2000, WCS conservationist Lee White played a key role in resolving a conflict between loggers and conservationists in the Lopé Reserve, a pristine forest-savanna mosaic, which will be part of the new park system. Using hard science, White helped direct logging activities away from pristine areas of high biological importance, in exchange for limited logging in less productive areas. “By creating these national parks, we will develop a viable alternative to simple exploitation of natural resources that will promote the preservation of our environment. Already there is a broad consensus that Gabon has the potential to become a natural Mecca, attracting pilgrims from the four points of the compass in search of the last remaining natural wonders on earth,” President Bongo said. http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0924-gabon.html

Ghana:

26) The Forestry Commission on Friday announced the dismissal of five of its staff for allowing the harvesting of trees from forest reserves and also failing to act on information of the illegal harvesting. Cautioning the public against conniving with the Commission’s employees to infringe on forestry laws and regulations, the statement said offenders would be jointly held responsible and prosecuted. The Commission admonished the public against dealing with the dismissed staff saying “any member of the public, who deals with the dismissed staff does so at his or her own risk”. Elaborating on the offences leading to the dismissal, the release said Mr Winston permitted illegal harvesting in Onuem Nyamebe Forest Reserve and failed to investigate illegal activities in Afia Shelter Forest Reserve. In the case of Mr Bonsu, he failed to take action on illegal activities reported in Afia Forest Reserve and connived with Mr Winston to directly organise the evacuation and sale of the illegal lumber. Mr Betum aided and abetted in the illegal harvesting of timber in the Afia Forest. Kwabena Francis also failed to act on the information of illegal activities in Afia Shelterbelt and Onuem Nyamebe Forest Reserve, but rather organised some local men to convey 35 pieces of lumber and shared the proceeds. Mr Nkansah manipulated the log Measurement Conveyance Certificates/Timber Information forms leading to loss of revenue to the Commission.
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=90767

Guatemala:

27) Nearly a thousand Q’eqchi’ Mayan women and men marched through the town of El Estor and to the headquarters of CGN, Skye Resources Guatemalan subsidiary, protesting the government of Guatemala for Having granted the company a license to explore for nickel in an area of Nearly 300 km2 inhabited by twenty indigenous communities. The five kilometer long march beginning in the town of El Estor and ending at the mine’s offices took place in 35º C heat and under a fierce sun. Protesters gathered for the march at 3:00 am and temporarily blocked the road between the town and the company’s installations at 5:00 disrupting the company’s shift change at 5:30-6:00. The mine cancelled its operations for the day, and the company’s workers did not have any contact with the protesters. The protest ended at midday. Approximately 150 police and soldiers along with 15 police vehicles from several neighboring jurisdictions were called in to reinforce Skye’s private security force, although no incidents were reported. To understand the context of this show of force, it should be noted that normally only six police and two vehicles have the security responsibility for the whole El Estor township and its 45,000 inhabitants! http://www.rightsaction.org/

Malaysia:

28) Forestry Department director Nik Mohd Shah Nik Mustafa said a blueprint to map out a new mangrove forest management plan would be incorporated into the Selangor Mangroves Management Plan 2006-2015. “It is a 10-year plan incorporating new and comprehensive zoning for production, conservation, fishery and eco-tourism,” he said. Production zones will see the division of the forest for intensive and less intensive management while conservation will cover the virgin jungle and areas for education and research. Nik Mohd said the forest along riverbanks could be designated as a fishery zone. The eco-tourism zone, he said, was open forest with basic wooden walkways and infrastructure for rest and recreation. He added that the blueprint would also look at timber and non-timber management. Nik Mohd said UPM would also be recommending constructive methods on the production of honey and bee’s wax especially from the Avicennia mangrove forest while the palm Nypa Fruticans forest could be managed for the production of sugar. “With this blueprint there will be tighter control on forest reserves and the main mangrove swamp islands which collectively have an area of 4,085ha,” he said. The department has issued eight logging licences for Pulau Ketam and the surrounding area, allowing 1,093ha to be logged. “Our concern is to keep the island mangroves intact, especially Pulau Tengah. It is internationally recognised in the Asian Wetlands Directory as one of the major resting site for migratory birds using the East Asia-Australia route. More than 100,000 birds of nearly 100 species stop for rest in Pulau Tengah and other spots in Peninsular Malaysia along their journey,” he said. He added that apart from birds, the mangroves also supported a variety of mammals, such as the Smooth Otter, Leopard Cat, Common Wild Pig, Long-tailed Macaque and Silvered Tail Langur. There is also a large variety of snakes and monitor lizards.http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/9/26/central/12019564&sec=central

29) Sabah is quickly emerging in the forefront in the ASEAN region in research efforts into the rainforest canopy, described as among the last unexplored frontiers on earth for scientists. The state now has two canopy walkways located about 30m above ground at Poring in the pristine Kinabalu Park and a 100m canopy flux tower in the Danum Valley. The state is now hoping to be selected as one of five locations in the world for the proposed World Forest Observatories (WFO), a towering canopy crane to be set up in the middle of the forest. “Being part of the WFO network will enable us to explore the economic potential of non-timber forest products from canopy and canopy-based eco-tourism,” Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat said on Thursday. “An important function of the canopy is its influence on global climate,” he said, adding that forest canopies intercept 25% of precipitation over 45 million hectares of land surface. Chong said that 90% of the earth’s biomass interfaces with the atmosphere through forest canopies that were the richest in terms of biodiversity. UMS vice chancellor Datuk Dr Mohd Noh Dalimin said the university would be the first institute of higher learning in Malaysia to have the capacity for scientific research in forest canopies and train others in Asean to do the same. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/9/26/southneast/12124582&sec=southneast

Philippines:

30) SIBUCO, Zamboanga del Norte – Mayor Norbi Edding has asked the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regional office in Zamboanga City to investigate the alleged rampant cutting of high-grade species of forest products by the Zamboanga Economic Zone Authority (ZamboEcoZone) in Upper Malayal in this town.Edding said over 100 farmer residents of Sitio Kasilangan in Upper Malayal complain of rampant cutting of trees in the remaining forested areas there by ZamboEcoZone personnel. The farmers claimed that the cutting is being supervised by security men of the Eagle Security Agency which was hired by ZamboEcoZone in Zamboanga City. The guards also established their headquarters in the area and they are all armed with high powered firearms, the residents said. (Nonoy E. Lacson) http://www.tempo.com.ph/news.php?aid=16455