031OEC’s This Week in Trees

This week we have another 34 news stories from: Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Minnesota, Virginia, Kentucky, Canada, Mexico, Central America, Chile, Brazil, Yemen, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, and Australia.

Alaska:

1) The Southeast Alaska Conservation Council announced this week that it will not appeal a series of federal timber sales planned at Point Couverden, east of Gustavus. The decision was a tough one because the Juneau-based environmental group says the Point Couverden timber project – totaling 23 million board feet – is excessively large, said Buck Lindekugel, SEACC’s staff attorney. The only way the Forest Service could sell that amount of timber is to authorize logging companies to export the wood overseas, Lindekugel said. But instead of filing a lawsuit – as SEACC has done with other timber sales that it claims are wasteful – the group asked Tongass National Forest Supervisor Forrest Cole in a Monday letter to withdraw the decision and reissue a scaled-down version of the Couverden sales. “We’re glad they recognize the importance of sustainably providing raw materials to local, family-owned businesses, and that we are able to do that while protecting the natural environment we all treasure,” said Kent Cummins, a spokesman for the Tongass National Forest, on Wednesday. SEACC did not ask the Forest Service to revise its environmental analysis of the project. A federal appeals court recently ruled against the Forest Service on a SEACC lawsuit that charged the agency with overestimated the demand for Tongass timber. If the Point Couverden project only fulfilled the Icy Strait region’s demand for wood products, it would be a significantly smaller project – along the lines of 5 million to 8 million board feet, Lindekugel said. http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/092905/sta_20050929029.shtml

British Columbia:

2) Premier Campbell has failed to keep his promise to finalize vital land use agreements for the Great Bear Rainforest by the “end of summer” according to Greenpeace, Sierra Club of Canada, BC Chapter, ForestEthics and Rainforest Action Network. Just prior to the last election, Premier Campbell wrote to First Nations on BC’s Central and North Coasts committing to finalize agreements related to land use planning by the end of summer 2005. This commitment was reiterated by the Premier in a letter to the four environmental organizations after the election. “For years, all parties set aside confrontation in favour of negotiation. But the value of the negotiation route is in question given the Province’s continued failure to meet commitments and timelines,” said Amanda Carr of Greenpeace. It has been almost two years since the first of two groundbreaking consensus agreements on land use in the Great Bear Rainforest was completed by a range of stakeholders representing local communities, logging companies, labour, tourism and conservationists, among others. Those agreements were followed by direct negotiations between provincial and First Nations governments to finalize land use plans. “Provincial government delay is placing the consensus agreements and the environment at risk. There are no legislated protected areas, no legal requirements to improve logging practices and no plan to implement change on the ground,” said Lisa Matthaus of the Sierra Club of Canada, BC Chapter. “I am hearing that First Nations involved in government to government negotiations are also frustrated by the continuing delays,” said Merran Smith of ForestEthics. “Nevertheless, First Nations have asked us to give the Province another two weeks to conclude the government to government negotiations and secure an agreement on when legislated changes will be in place. We have agreed to the First Nations’ request, and will determine in two weeks what message we send to the marketplace about BC coastal wood products.” www.savethegreatbear.org

3) Therefore if Gordon Campbell has refused to endorse the “Great Bear Rainforest” ‘concensus’ reached between the RSP and the logging industry, that has to be because that’s what industry told him to do!! Todays non-announcement is a huge coup for the logging industry, which will have gained 7 years of complete acquiesence from the RSP groups to gut and destroy Vancouver Island and other forests around BC without complaint, and to get a big head start on trashing the GBR. Campbell’s non-endorsement of the deal will further set back the agreed-to 2009 ‘compliance date’ by which time GBR loggers were to have switched from clearcut destruction to some vaguely defined EBM logging system. It’s as rotten as that folks, -the GBR discussions tied down the most powerful voices in ENGO, sat them down behind closed doors for 7 years, sucked millions of dollars out of the movement, neutered direct forest activism, and seriously divided the environmental community. Weyerhaeuser, Interfor, CANFOR, Norske Skog, Western and their Gordon Campbell lackey has ruthlessly backstabbed their RSP partners and the central coast First Nations. Today was Campbell’s deadline, but the only people celebrating at the Champagne Party are logging corporations and their government lackies. Can we finally stand together now, and start working together against this monstrous, lying, voracious forest-destroying industry/government consortium??!! Can we finally unite behind an uncompromising NO MORE OLD GROWTH LOGGING stance? Can we now go around the world and without fetter, denounce and damage the BC logging industry. –Ingmar Lee [ingmarz@gmail.com]

4) The deadline has come and gone for Premier Campbell’s signing on to the deal struck with environmental groups and the timber industry to protect the Great Bear Rainforest. Over the past week, I’ve conducted an e:mail interview with intrepid local environmental activist, Ingmar Lee from his new digs in India. In case Gordon Campbell’s Liberals, or their pals in Big Timber thought Ingmar’s departure a welcome thorn out of their side; think again! CC’s question: “We both have lived on Vancouver Island for many years, so perhaps our readers can take this as a biased issue, but living on an island, in a geo-graphically finite environment, the effects of industrial sized forestry is all the more stark?” IL’s answer: “Over the past few years, we’ve seen all forest initiatives being undertaken by the RSP ENGO’s on Vancouver Island shut down. The Sierra Club of BC, a long-time fighter for Vancouver Island’s forests shut down all of its Vancouver Island campaigns in spite of its head office being located in Victoria. Have you ever seen Greenpeace on Vancouver Island? RAN has got a huge international campaign going against Weyerhaeuser, with the single exception of BC, because of the GBR negotiations. The logging of Vancouver Island has run amok without a peep of complaint from the big groups. The WCWC [http://www.wildernesscommittee.org/] might send out a print-run of flyers once and a while or a petition here and there, or amass 40-50 people down at the Ledge, [B.C. Legislature Buildings] but there’s been no concerted, organized campaign whatsoever. It’s outrageous that in 2003, a road was pushed into East Creek, the 85th of 91 primary watersheds on Vancouver Island to face the axe, without the slightest complaint from organized enviro. The Vancouver Island marmot is virtually extinct in the wild due to voracious unconscionable logging, and not a single group is there to defend it. In spite of years of flyers and petitions by the WCWC, clear-cut logging in the Walbran’s ancient forests has continued apace and East Creek is being destroyed. The only thing which has put a check on the destruction has been volunteer, anarchist citizens groups and First Nations staging direct-action civil-disobedience blockades. http://www.pej.org/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3384&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Washington:

5) When a Canadian paper-making company decided to plant 4,000 acres of
fast-growing poplar trees at locations around Washington state, including 200 acres on U.S. 2 between Snohomish and Monroe, it hoped to save a bundle of money. Instead of relying on Canadian wood, Norske Canada of Vancouver, B.C., sought to grow a hybrid poplar tree whose wood was naturally white enough to allow the company to significantly cut the cost of bleaching the paper products it produces. It planted 4,000 acres of the poplars in the late 1990s, which means they are nearly mature enough to harvest. But the experiment was thwarted by storms over the last three years that knocked down 600 acres of the trees, including 120 acres along U.S. 2 damaged in the January 2004 ice storm. “The ice storm was enough to deter us from ever doing this again,” said Charlie Burrell, manager of specialty fibers for Norske Canada. Burrell estimates that the company will lose about $500,000 after it cuts what’s left of the trees over the next several years. His company this week finished removing the blowdown at the U.S. 2 site. Burrell said the company will sell the land it owns and let its lease lapse on parcels across the state after it cuts the trees. http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/05/09/17/100bus_poplars001.cfm

6) What’s the opposite of preserving a piece of land? Letting a corporation build a 900-acre mine on it. But that’s just what the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management are considering for a parcel originally donated for preservation just east of Mount St. Helens in Gifford Pinchot National Forest. The parcel, known as Mineral Survey 779, came under the Forest Service’s jurisdiction in 1986 along with the implicit-if not legally binding-understanding that it wouldn’t be developed. Here’s why: The Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit organization that buys land and sells it to agencies for protection, donated the parcel. And the donation was part of a larger preservation project in the area that includes land bought with a federal fund.That fund’s purpose: to preserve outdoor recreation resources. Now, Spokane-based Idaho General Mines Inc. wants to lease Mineral Survey 779 and other parcels around it to mine them for molybdenum, silver, gold and copper. This counters the purpose for the land trust’s donation. But because Mineral Survey 779 was donated and not bought with federal conservation funds, there are no restrictions on development. The Forest Service says that procedure mandates their consideration of the Idaho General Mines proposal. “We’re guardians of the public process to ensure the mining company has the right to request this lease, and we go through a process and make sure all sides are looked at,” says Forest Service spokesman Tom Knappenberger. http://www.wweek.com/story.php?story=6760

7) The U.S. Forest Service this week suspended more than 170 public land projects in Oregon and Washington, including 13 logging sales, after a judge revoked a Bush administration rule that eliminated public input on the work. Administration officials issued the rule in 2003 to speed thinning of fire-prone trees under the Healthy Forest Initiative the president launched in the wake of Oregon’s 2002 Biscuit fire. They promoted it as a tool to alleviate bureaucratic delays for smaller logging projects. Environmental activists countered that it would inflame controversy and distrust by short-circuiting the public’s say. “Instead of achieving their goal of getting projects through faster, they’ve accomplished just the opposite,” said Mike Anderson of The Wilderness Society in Seattle. All projects must now be opened to public comment for 30 days and then subject to appeals for 45 days. If an appeal is filed, it could take another 60 days to decide. The suspensions resulted from a decision by U.S. District Judge James K. Singleton Jr. in a California lawsuit filed by Heartwood, an Illinois environmental group. Singleton restored footholds activists have used to slow or block cutting they say damages forests in the name of reducing fire danger. The provisions bypassing public comments and appeals were occasionally helpful in speeding smaller projects, such as those to thin flammable forests near communities, said Phil Mattson of the Forest Service’s regional office. The court decision will be felt mostly through delays that impose “a little extra workload, but a fair amount of extra time.” Environmental attorneys wanted Singleton to suspend all projects authorized under the now-invalid Bush rules since they were issued in 2003. But the judge did not, saying it would “plunge the Forest Service headlong into a crippling morass of confusion.” They also wanted the judge to hold Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth in contempt of court for not applying the July order nationwide, but Singleton did not. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1128078198224240.xml&coll=7&thispage=2

Oregon:

8) In the face of planned protests, six timber harvest projects will hit the auction block today at the Medford District of the Bureau of Land Management. The final BLM timber sale for fiscal year 2005 begins at 9 a.m. at the Medford District headquarters, 3040 Biddle Road. The auction is only open to bidders. A total of 5,165 acres, or about 30.9 million board feet, is up for grabs. Protesters, who plan to demonstrate at 8:30 a.m., said they oppose the way the BLM has moved forward on the projects without community consensus. “The community wants to see these projects move forward, but they want to see good projects,” said Lesley Adams of Ashland-based Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, one of the protest organizers. “The BLM has communities willing to work collaboratively with them to develop projects everyone can accept. Instead, the BLM is choosing to move forward with controversial timber sales.” Perhaps the most contested projects are the Bald Lick timber sale about 5 miles south of Ruch and the South Deer project 20 miles southwest of Grants Pass just outside Selma. Members of the Little Applegate Neighborhood Network have voiced strong opposition to the Bald Lick project, which they contend will blight their properties and damage water and soil quality. Friends of Deer Creek Valley said they want the South Deer project to spare large-diameter trees from harvest and focus more on felling dead and dying trees rather than overall thinning and fuel reduction through burning and mechanical chipping. Both groups said they plan to take part in today’s protest. http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2005/0929/local/stories/07local.htm

9) UPDATE: While opponents of federal logging practices protested outside, half the timber sales offered by the U.S. Bureau of Land management in southwestern Oregon on Thursday went begging, apparently because they were primarily small trees and required expensive helicopter logging. BLM offered six timber sales covering 5,265 acres and producing an estimated 30.9 million board feet of timber. Three sales comprising 11.1 million board feet went to Murphy Co. of White City for $2.3 million. The failure of the three sales to find bidders leaves BLM’s Medford District about 50 percent short of its annual timber goal of 47 million board feet for the fiscal year ending Friday. While the auction went on, about 75 people protested outside, objecting to the fact that some of the sales included old growth forest. “They’re going after the last islands of old growth,” said Orville Camp of Selma, who has pressed BLM to do less thinning in the name of reducing the danger of wildfire. http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-12/112803474119091.xml&storylist=orlocal

10) District Ranger Mary Gibson of the Walla Walla Ranger District said the Forest Service is considering opening up nearly 200 acres of the Burnt Cabin Fire to helicopter salvage logging. The dead and dying trees in the area are mostly grand fir, spruce and Douglas-fir. “One issue is that this is a roadless area,” Gibson said. The South Fork Walla Walla River also is home to bull trout and other threatened and endangered species. The Burnt Cabin Fire area includes some of the district‘s lynx habitat, though no lynx have been reported. Gibson has talked with the Walla Walla Watershed Council and the Hell’s Canyon Preservation Council and plans to talk soon with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, which operates a salmon-rearing facility downstream from the proposed salvage area. The scorched timber has enough value to bear the cost of helicopter logging and still put dollars in the U.S. Treasury, Gibson said. “Anything we do has to happen right now,” Gibson said. “The material needs to be removed while it still has value.” Glen Westlund, planning staff officer on the Walla Walla Ranger District, said hazard trees already have been salvaged. More extensive salvage logging is being planned, he said, but no decision is expected before December and further logging is not expected until next summer. http://www.eastoregonian.info/

California:

11) Selective application of economic theory leads to analyses that give great weight to easily quantified costs (i.e., timber not cut, the cost of emission control equipment or the value of unsold water “left” in a river), but ignore the costs incurred if environmental protections are not provided (soil erosion, childhood asthma or damaged fisheries). These selective economic arguments can be made quite compelling, because the quantifiable costs are often borne by specific individuals or corporations in particular instances, while the hard-to-quantify (but no less economic) costs are borne by society as a whole (including future generations) due to the cumulative impact of the activities of all individuals or corporations. The recently completed Millennium Ecosystem Assessment sponsored by the United Nations, has made the first global assessment of how the loss of ecosystem services such as water retention and purification is adversely affecting human well-being, and how poorly our present economic markets take such costs into account. For example, an analysis of Mediterranean forests has documented that the “market value” of timber and fuel from these ecosystems accounts for only one-third of their total economic value, with the balance being ecosystem goods and services such as watershed protection or climate moderation. When the loss of these goods and services is considered, many nations commonly considered to be growing in wealth are actually getting poorer, the U.N. assessment found. Excerpted from: Whither the Endangered Species Act? http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/09/28/EDGN7EUB761.DTL

12) In a brazen move, Maxxam/Pacific Lumber Co. (Maxxam/PL) began logging
in the contested “Bonanza” timber harvest plan (THP # 1-05-097 HUM) on Tuesday, September 27 without the required authorization from the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board (Water Board). After logging an unknown amount of the 250-acre plan, the illegal logging was stopped by the company. Accordingly, on Thursday, September 29, Maxxam/PL was served a Notice of Violation by the Water Board for logging without a required permit. According to the Notice of Violation, Maxxam/PL began logging the Bonanza plan without first having obtained enrollment under rules known as the General Waste Discharge Requirements. The rules are required of Maxxam/PL to protect water quality against the harmful cumulative effects that the company’s logging wreaks on watersheds. The Bonanza harvest plan contains the largest unprotected, contiguous, occupied marbled murrelet stand left on Maxxam/PL’s land. Last year, a comprehensive Status Review for the murrelet, prepared by a blue-ribbon panel of top murrelet researchers, warned that if current trends continue, the endangered species faces a very high probability of extinction in California within a very short time. Despite the clear implication that Maxxam/PL’s Habitat Conservation Plan is inadequate to ensure survival or recovery of the murrelet, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has inexplicably released the Bonanza murrelet stands for harvest. http://www.HeadwatersPreserve.org

13) The unsustainability of the harvest Maxxam was pursuing evidenced by the fact that in the decade 1987-1997, their rate of harvest-300 million board feet/year-was equivalent to a 20-year harvest cycle. Though the financially troubled Pacific Lumber/ScoPac has been predicting likely bankruptcy for nearly a year, over $ 724 million has flowed out of the timber region to parent company Maxxam in Houston without benefit coming back. When sale of assets and other dividends are considered, the figure is much higher. Dividends paid by Scotia Pacific to Maxxam and subsidiaries through 2002 total over $927 million. http://www.HeadwatersPreserve.org

Idaho:

14) U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Pocatello ruled in favor of environmental groups that sued the forest in 2004, claiming the Targhee’s long-range management plan failed to preserve old growth habitat and the wildlife species that rely on it, such as grizzlies, goshawks and gray owls. In an order the parties received Thursday, Winmill wrote that a 1996 inventory of old growth habitat ignored findings of an agency study two years earlier that had concluded there was little old growth left in the forest – the scene of the largest clear-cut timber sale in Forest Service history for the lower 48 states in 1960. The 1996 study’s finding of adequate old growth was used in approving the timber sales, but Winmill found the Forest Service made statistical errors, didn’t measure downed dead trees, and arbitrarily added an extra inch to the measured diameter of trees surveyed to help inflate the calculations for old growth inventory. “In other words, the Forest Service manipulated the data to reach a desired result,” Winmill wrote. Although the ruling only applies to the two logging projects, environmentalists said the decision means national forests that cannot document adequate old growth inventory must protect all trees – young and old – from logging. “If they don’t have adequate old growth inventories then they can’t go out and log areas even if they claim there is no old growth in those areas,” said Michael Garrity, director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies in Helena, Mont. “This will effectively stop a lot of logging.” The Alliance joined with the Native Ecosystems Council and The Ecology Center, also both based in Montana, to sue the forest. The McGarry project was to harvest 3.5 million board feet of dead and dying timber infested with mountain pine beetles. The Big Bend Ridge project was to commercially thin green Douglas fir stands and stimulate new growth of aspen trees by harvesting 9.1 million board. http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2005/09/326092.shtml

Montana:

15) A federal judge has upheld the Flathead National Forest on all counts in a lawsuit that challenged an old-growth forest management project that was planned more than five years ago. Forest officials said Tuesday’s ruling from U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula was highly significant not just because it upheld the Meadow-Smith project in the Swan Valley. It also validated Amendment 21 to the Flathead Forest Plan, which established a policy for managing old-growth across the entire forest. “The defendant’s motion for summary judgment is granted on all claims,” Molloy said in his ruling on the lawsuit filed by the environmental group Friends of the Wild Swan. “For this forest, this is certainly the oldest litigation we have,” said Joe Krueger, the Flathead Forest’s litigation coordinator. Friends of the Wild Swan pinned many of its claims on a 1988 order from the chief of the Forest Service that required the Flathead Forest to adopt the pileated woodpecker, pine marten and northern goshawk as old-growth indicator species and maintain adequate habitat for those species. Amendment 21, adopted by the forest in 1999, set a new policy for old growth across the Flathead, establishing 10 new indicator species that no longer included pileated woodpecker, pine marten or northern goshawk. http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2005/09/29/news/news03.txt

16) Bitterroot National Forest officials had planned to spend Thursday at the Darby Public Library talking about plans for forest management. But a Wednesday court order effectively tied the agency’s hands and halted much of what the Forest Service does. Bitterroot National Forest Supervisor Dave Bull said the agency will still be cleaning bathrooms, but that’s about it. The order handed down from a U.S. District Court in California suspended a variety of projects on national forests because the public did not have the opportunity to comment on them or file appeals. The court found that public notice, comment and appeal provisions are required in all categorical exclusions – actions that were deemed not to have a significant effect on the environment and don’t require environmental review. “There is a whole range of administration decisions that we make internally,” Bull said. “Anything that did not have public notice, comment and appeal is effected.” The court recognized there was a difference between minor and major projects on national forests but halted all projects until the Forest Service can differentiate between the two. http://www.ravallinews.com/articles/2005/09/30/news/news03.txt

Minnesota:

17) A group of Burntside Lake residents and trail users had some pointed questions for Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Forest Service foresters Tuesday. The forestry officials met with a group of North Arm Trails users at Camp du Nord Tuesday morning to inform the residents about a proposed DNR logging project that would impact the pine forests on about 160 acres of North Arm skiing and hiking trails. The plan is in its final stage of development, but the residents hadn’t learned about it until recently, and were worried about what type of cutting was proposed, how it would impact the beauty of the trail system and whether it would cause trail shutdowns. The trails, which cut through forest managed by the DNR, are popular with three-season hikers and with cross-country skiers, and are the center of activity for camps, seasonal and year-around residents in the area. The acreage, about a quarter section that falls south and southwest of Slim Lake, is targeted mostly for management of pine stands, and the DNR proposal would involve the selective harvest and thinning of white and red pine on 140 of the 155-acre project. The overall goal for the tracts is to craft a succession of different ages of pines. Scott Olson, North Arm resident and a spokesman for the group, said foresters didn’t make their case for why logging is necessary to accomplish a mix of ages of pines when in the stands they toured such a succession already appeared in place. “I’m not a forester,” Olson said after the meeting, “and they’re experts at that, but I think they would agree that some of those multi-aged stands are already happening. I’m not convinced how much improvement they can make to that.” http://www.timberjay.com/current.php?article=1928

Virginia:

18) The trees we take for granted as part of the Potomac Subregion are either disappearing, under threat, or poorly protected from destruction by our existing laws and regulations. River Road has seen painful losses of forest. THE POTOMAC SUBREGION Master Plan Revision, completed in 2002 reasserted the environmental basis of our planning as a low-density ‘green wedge’ vital to protecting the public water supply of the Potomac River and creating a buffer for the Agricultural Reserve. The major component of our environmental function to water quality is the existence of forest. The recent settlement of the forest clear-cutting violation at Swains Lock by Park & Planning Commission legal staff has created outrage over the inadequacy of monetary fines under our current Montgomery County Forest Conservation Law (FCL). Several members of the County Council have responded by introducing a bill to increase fines. The bill is silent on how much of an increase and certainly does not address the many other faults in the current law. With an election on the horizon, jumping on a single aspect of a complex issue does more to promote the political hopeful than the long-term protection of trees. A comprehensive effort to update our Forest Conservation Laws at both the County and State level is what we sorely need and it cannot come soon enough. Tree roots absorb rainwater, their leaf canopy protects the land from damaging run-off and our streams from toxic pollution and sediment. Efforts to save the Chesapeake Bay start right in our back yards with trees. http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=56260&paper=70&cat=104

Kentucky:

19) The U-S Forest Service is proposing logging an estimated 610 acres in the Daniel Boone National Forest. Environmentalists oppose the measure. They say it’s using science as a way to cut and sell timber from the federal land. But scientist Callie Jo Schweitzer says trees have grown so thick in the Daniel Boone that they are at risk of being killed by insects and disease. She says a research project will look at whether the forest can be made healthier by cutting some of the trees. The project would be one of the first in the nation to use the Healthy Forest Restoration Act of 2003. That act allows the Forest Service to log up to one-thousand acres without doing an environmental impact assessment. The project would cut trees on nearly one square mile of national forest, leaving different amounts of trees in different areas. http://www.wkyt.com/Global/story.asp?S=3917686&nav=4CAL

Georgia:

20) The race is on to save Georgia’s hemlock trees, but the effort has just barely left the starting line. An invasive Asian insect called the hemlock woolly adelgid has killed most of the Eastern hemlocks north of Georgia and is rapidly moving into the Chattahoochee National Forest. Scientists say the only hope of saving even a small percentage of the trees is to introduce a predator insect that will eat the adelgid. “We can’t wipe out the adelgid, but we’re aiming for a predator-prey balance,” said Wayne Jenkins, director of Georgia ForestWatch in Ellijay. “We’re looking at three different beetle species, from Japan, China and the western United States.” Environmentalists have been trying to establish a laboratory where large quantities of beetles can be bred and later released into the national forest. Such labs exist in Tennessee and South Carolina, but so far there are none in Georgia. The University of Georgia has offered unused space in its poultry science department. But Jenkins said it will cost about $250,000 to renovate and equip the building and hire staff. “We’ve applied for a $125,000 matching grant through the National Forest Foundation,” he said. “But if we don’t get the grant, we’ll press forward anyway.” To raise money for the project, a group of activists known as the Lumpkin Coalition is sponsoring Hemlockfest, an all-day music festival Saturday at Three Sisters Vineyards & Winery near Dahlonega. http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/stories/20050929/localnews/21375.shtml

Canada:

21) ForestEthics announced today it is enlisting major customers of forest products to help ensure environmental and economic sustainability in Ontario’s forestry industry. A letter was sent today to 500 wood and paper customers in the United States urging them to buy from producers of sustainably harvested forests and avoid companies like Weyerhaeuser and Bowater that are logging threatened woodland caribou habitat in Ontario. “Ontario’s forest industry has the chance to maintain its role as a global player if it recognizes ecological performance and long-term sustainability as key performance indicators,” said Tzeporah Berman, program director of ForestEthics. “There is a growing green shift in the marketplace and we are currently in discussions with some of the largest consumers of wood and paper in the world, Staples and Home Depot, regarding their supply from the Canadian Boreal and particularly Ontario.” She said the Ontario government’s recent package for Ontario’s forest sector addresses only short-term economic needs and falls short of addressing long-term sustainability. Today, 90 per cent of Ontario’s logging is still done by clear cutting and both government and industry reports note the wood supply in Ontario is unsustainable. “How many times do we have to spend taxpayers’ money to prop up an unsustainable industry and continue to ignore ecological values that are the ingredients for a successful long-term industry?” she added. http://www.forestethics.org

Mexico:

22) A week later, I drove by the same overlook. There were no Monarchs and there were no people, so I kept on trucking through the clouds, hoping to find an errant orange and black bug flapping away. Each year the Monarchs flap their way by the millions some 2,000 miles to central Mexico to spend the winter in the high-altitude oyamel fir forest. The forest, which is threatened by heavy logging, is key to the Monarch’s survival during the cold months. It offers protection from freezing temperatures, and helps them conserve energy until spring. This forest system, which is less than 2 percent of Mexico’s forests, is the most endangered in the nation. Wood harvesting continues, despite presidential decrees to protect the area. The poor landowners need the money and log the forest, even though current demands cannot be sustained. We’re talking about 60 square miles that are essential to the winter survival of the Monarchs. We’re also talking about the economic survival for the peasant landowners, who have not been compensated for the logging limitations imposed by the government decree. http://www.shelbystar.com/portal/ASP/article.asp?ID=18853

Central America:

23) Central America, that narrow land bridge between North and South America, represents less than 0.5 percent of Earth’s land mass. But it is home to 7 or 8 percent of the world’s species of plants and animals. That rain forest home, however, is assaulted by both nature and man: earthquakes, hurricanes, illegal logging and ranching, and deforestation from slash-and-burn agriculture. Now, NASA scientists are helping Central America keep watch on its biological treasures and stop environmental depredations through SERVIR, an acronym standing for the Spanish words meaning Mesoamerican Regional Visualization and Monitoring System. SERVIR is not a satellite. Instead, it’s a “situation room” or “nerve center,” which opened in Panama in February 2005. There, scientists use a whole constellation of existing NASA, commercial and international satellites observing Earth at visible, infrared, and radar wavelengths. They combine satellite data with ground observations, and speed the results to national leaders, who then can make informed political decisions about environmental management or disaster response. The origins of SERVIR can be traced as far back as 1986 when Irwin’s colleague Tom Sever, NASA’s only archaeologist, acquired a satellite image of northern Guatemala to examine it for archaeological sites. As soon as he glanced at the image, Sever “was stunned that he could see the political border between Guatemala and Mexico, because of the deforestation in Mexico,” Irwin recalls. The image was so powerful, it was published in National Geographic magazine, and became a catalyst for the president and congress of Guatemala to set up what they call the Mayan Biosphere Reserve—Guatemala’s largest protected area. The Mayan Biosphere Reserve led, in turn, to the creation of something even bigger: the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, an environmental greenway the length of Central America, connecting parks and preserves among all Central American nations. NASA has helped monitor this so-called “biocorridor” from space, primarily from 1999 to 2002. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/29sep_servir.htm?list76998

Chile:

24) The Alerce (Fitzroya cupressoides) is confined to southern Chile and Argentina and is listed as Endangered. This is one of the largest trees in temperate South America and has been heavily logged since the end of the 16th century. The species has been removed from nearly all lowland sites, and at higher altitudes the trees are often burnt and illegally logged. Present estimates of the area occupied by the remaining stands is 20,000 ha, 15% of their original extent when Europeans arrived. http://www.redlist.org/info/gallery2004.html

Brazil:

25) SILVES, Brazil · Until Chanel No. 5 perfume went on the market in 1921, pau rosa, or Brazilian rosewood, was just another tree that grew in abundance in the Amazon. But the enduring popularity of that fragrance, which includes rosewood oil as a main ingredient, began a process that has led to a black-market trade in the oil, and the tree itself being designated an endangered species. Worldwide, the demand for perfumes, soaps, balms and scented candles has skyrocketed in recent years, boosted by rising incomes among women and New Age trends like aromatherapy. Because of rosewood’s cachet, demand for the oil far outstrips the legal supply, and some fragrance manufacturers will pay just about anything to get it. “That bouquet is unmatchable, and it makes people act strangely,” said Paulo Tarso de Sampaio, co-author of the book Bio-Diversity in the Amazon and a scientist at the National Institute for Amazon Research in Manaus. “Intense exploitation means that all the areas where there was easy access to rosewood have just about been leveled, but still the demand continues to grow.” The European companies, mainly French, that dominate the fragrance industry originally obtained stocks of rosewood oil from French Guiana, 500 miles northeast of Silves. But when the exploitation grew so intense that the tree was virtually wiped out, they turned to the Brazilian Amazon. But by the late 1980s, the rosewood population in Brazil’s eastern Amazon had been eradicated. Brazil’s environmental protection agency responded by putting rosewood on its endangered species list. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/caribbean/sfl-hrosewood29sep29,0,4517735.story?coll=sfla-news-carib
bean

Yemen:

26) Cucumber Tree (Dendrosicyos socotrana) is an unusual Vulnerable endemic from the island archipelago of Soqotra, Yemen. The species is very well adapted to withstand drought conditions and should therefore be better able than many species to tolerate any drying out of the Archipelago due to climate change. However, in times of severe drought, trees are cut-down, pulped and fed to livestock, and in some areas this has resulted in its almost total eradication. Declining habitat quality is also preventing regeneration of the plant. http://www.redlist.org/info/gallery2004.html

27) The Dragon Tree (Dracaena cinnabari) forms characteristic woodlands on the island of Soqotra, Yemen, but has a fragmented distribution and in some areas the tree is failing to regenerate. It is listed as Vulnerable. The tree grows best in areas affected by mists, low cloud and monsoon drizzle. A major cause of its decline is likely to be climate change (the Archipelago is gradually drying out). Over-exploitation of Dragon’s Blood (a resin from the bark) and felling trees for beehive wood may also threaten the species. http://www.redlist.org/info/gallery2004.html

28) The Pomegranate Tree (Punica protopunica) is a close relative of the cultivated pomegranate and is endemic to Soqotra, Yemen. Although the population is apparently stable at present it has evidently declined in the past, for reasons that are not certain. It has a severely fragmented distribution and over large areas the tree is absent except for small relict populations with no apparent regeneration. The tree is listed as Vulnerable. http://www.redlist.org/info/gallery2004.html

Kenya:

29) The Government will not go back on plans to remove people living in its forests illegally, Water minister Martha Karua said yesterday. The destruction of forests countrywide had lowered the water table, she said, adding that the Government would step up the protection of the water sources and the planting of trees. The protection of the water sources would now be done by the Water Resources Management Board, she pointed out, and urged Kenyans to support the Government in its efforts to serve wananchi. Ms Karua was speaking at Njokerio Mwihoti in Nakuru’s Njoro area where she commissioned a Sh6 million water project. Prof Maritim said the decentralisation of the services had enabled many Kenyans to have access to water. The university, he added, was having discussions with the European Union for a Sh500 million grant for a dam to serve also the local community. The water would be pumped to Lare, Njokerio, Egerton and Njoro township. Prof Maritim said the project was aimed at saving rivers Njoro and Ndarugu, which supply Lake Nakuru. http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=1&newsid=58440
Papua New Guinea:

30) The government of Papua New Guinea is being urged to cancel the licence of a Malaysian logging company, over concerns it is operating illegally in the Central Province. PNG’s Forest Industry says despite orders from the National Forestry board to stop work, Kerawara Limited is continuing to log in the Manumanu area. The company says the logging must occur before the area is converted to an oil palm plantation. But a spokesman for the Forest Industries Association, Bob Tate, claims the company has ignored the Forestry Act which says that all companies must submit plans before any logging operations can begin. “We are not opposed to land conversion to another permanent but sustainable economic activity,” he said. “But we do not believe this oil palm proposal has been subject to due process and assessment by relevant agricultural experts, including the prior consultation and approval of the department of agriculture here.” http://www.abcasiapacific.com/news/stories/asiapacific_stories_1471212.htm

Cambodia:

31) At just after midnight on the night of 27/28 September 2005 a group of at least three men attacked the Ministry of Environment (MoE) ranger substation at Trapeang Cho, Kampong Speu Province on the boundary of Phnom Aural Wildlife Sanctuary, killing two of the five rangers on duty. The other three were able to escape, reportedly because the gun of the attacker jammed; a local villager was also wounded. The attackers then looted the substation taking weapons, motorbikes, radios and other equipment. The attack is a clear indication of the extreme threats facing Cambodia’s forest resources and those who protect them; it was planned with the intention to kill and cause maximum intimidation to the MoE rangers protecting the sanctuary from illegal loggers and other criminal elements. The murdered rangers were local men Noun Chorn (27, unmarried), and Kim Poyt (38, married with 5 children). It is likely that they were killed in revenge for the increasing effectiveness of their forest protection efforts, that have in the past year closed down 24 illegal sawmills and seized over 1000 cubic metres of illegally cut timber. Fauna & Flora International (FFI) extends its deepest sympathies to their families and will provide humanitarian assistance for them. We are working with local and national authorities to ensure that the witnesses to the attack are protected, and the criminals responsible are caught and brought to justice. FFI has been working with the Cambodian Ministry of Environment to protect the biodiversity of the Cardamom mountains where the Phnom Aural Wildlife sanctuary is located. FFI believes the attack underlines the critical importance of increasing protection to forest resources in Cambodia, for the benefit of the Cambodian people as well as the country’s unique wildlife. Around 15,000 people live in and around the Sanctuary and many of them traditionally depend on forest products for survival. FFI is working with these communities to help them live sustainably in the sanctuary and assist with its management. An upsurge in illegal logging and land grabbing by armed groups threatens these people as well as the sanctuary’s globally important wildlife. http://enn.com/aff.html?id=898

New Zealand:

32) The Eco-Forestry Forum is backing the call from the Forest Industries Association for tougher action on illegal logging. “We welcome the call this week from the FIA for operating license’s to be revoked where logging companies are operating illegally”, says the Forum. The Forest Industries Association has publicly called on the Forest Authority to stop logging by a named company which it alleges is operating illegally in Central Province. But the Forum says the FIA should publicly condemn all illegal and unsustainable logging operations and not just pick on operators who are not its members. “If the FIA is genuinely interested in a legal and sustainable forest industry, rather than just protecting its member’s interests, it must oppose all illegal logging operations”, says the Forum. Recent Compliance Audits commissioned by the Government indicate that some of PNG’s largest logging projects are being operated illegally by companies that are FIA members, claims the Forum. The Forum is also asking the FIA to explain why it blocked calls for the group of companies whose operations it is now condemning to be deregistered for other illegal activities back in 2003. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0509/S00576.htm

Australia:

33) The group of 10 men and women believe the shots were fired on Wednesday night to intimidate them after they set up a temporary village in the World Heritage-nominated Weld Valley. The only access to the camp is a forest road that Forestry Tasmania locks between 5pm and 7am. The activists say they saw spotlights shining from several vehicles between 11pm and midnight before they heard “a number of gunshots”. Group spokeswoman Jenny Weber said: “They were extremely fearful. They were extremely intimidated by it.” “Only people involved in the logging industry have the keys [to the road gate],” she said. “Therefore, how did these people get in the forest to scare the peaceful protesters with guns and spotlights?” Activists returned to the Weld Valley this week after a six-month hiatus, during which Forestry Tasmania did regeneration burns. The group wants to halt construction of a road in the area and 2000ha of forest bordering the World Heritage area to be protected. Ms Weber said the group was “totally committed” to staying for months. The group has filed complaints with Tasmania Police and Forestry Tasmania. Forestry Tasmania said it was not aware of any incidents. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16767294-1244,00.html

34) A Tasmanian conservation group has vowed to continue its opposition to logging plans on the east coast, even though it has withdrawn from legal action. The Save our Sisters group yesterday withdrew its application in the Resource Management and Planning Appeal Tribunal to stop logging at South Sister Mountain. Forestry Tasmania says it is acknowledgement the harvesting plan for the coupe is sustainable. Frances Daily of Save our Sisters says the group had limited scope to oppose logging.”Simply because forestry’s exempt from the Threatened Species Act, if there’s a plan certified and various other reasons,” she said. “So there are many reasons why we didn’t want them to log it, so now we will pursue other ways like through variations of the Forest Practices Plan.” http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200510/s1472486.htm