002OEC’s This Week in Trees

002OEC’s This week in Trees
Hey Y’all, welcome to the second ever newsletter of the weekly
Oly Ecology Center update kind!

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The week in trees in the Pacific Northwest is brought to you by Dirt:
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This week the Oregon Department of forestry produced a report http://www.registerguard.com/news/2005/05/24/ed.edit.stateforest.phn.0524.html

that told themselves that their logging at a 30% greater rate than the Tillamook forest can ecologically handle. That means ODF is now environmentally conscious and they can now propose a “more sustainable” type of logging plan that will cover more ground; be more thorough so to speak. The Tillamook is the largest contiguous low-elevation second-growth temperate rainforest in the world. Meanwhile Elliot State Forest further South near the Oregon coast is another state forest the ODF is having hearings for a “new more sustainable” management plan. To see what there old plan looks like on the ground go here. http://www.umpqua-watersheds.org/local/elliott_state_forest.html

On Federal lands in Southern Oregon Another Lawsuit will be filed in the Biscuit case further to the South in the Siskiyous, this one argues for greater stream buffers.

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2005/05/24/c3.cr.digest.0524.html

In Jackson County, Oregon County leaders have all of sudden decided their gonna log Big Butte springs, give up making water in their watershed, and instead they plan to wack down 80 Million bd. ft. in order to make their wallets fireproof. http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2005/0522/local/stories/02local.htm

Up in Washington Weyerhaeuser is making PR hay out of logging 25 year old trees in the Blast Zone of Mt. St Helens. Their donating the wood to help build homes for charity. Kind of like removing scar tissue from a burn patient. But those volcanoes sure are amazing aren’t they? St Helen’s felled more than 3 billion board feet of timber in one blast. And now Weyco is trying to do one better by being charitable no doubt.

For more info : mailto:bustweyerhaeuser-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Also up in Washington there’s an Earth First resurgence, as well as the Washington Department of Squish and Mame said 73,000 acres of the 813,000 acres of the State’s reaming Spotted Owl habitat has been logged in the past 10 years. http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2005/05/22/news/the_west/west05.txt Of course we’re not yet sure why the path towards extinction for the Spotted Owl is double the rate in Washington compared to the rest of the Pacific Northwest? Maybe its those darn Barred owls?

In Northern California’s interior around Mt. Shasta and Klamath a campaign was announced to paddle down this politically volatile river to the sea for a big Rally on June 28 with Tribes and other river residents. It’s the start of a huge restoration campaign. Call 707-482-1350, ext. 305. Also in the area 135 million board feet of wood was cut in Shasta County last year, a 10 percent jump from the previous year. Shasta’s 2004 timber harvest was the third highest county total in the state behind Humboldt (396.5 million board feet) and Siskiyou (239.3 million board feet). Plumas (123.6 million board feet) and Mendocino (109.5 million board feet) rounded out the top five counties. Total volume harvest in California was 1.7 Billion http://www.redding.com/redd/nw_local/article/0,2232,REDD_17533_3795966,00.html

Out on the Coast in the Redwoods North Coast Earth First! has been splintered by “Coalition for A Better Way,” a Mattole watershed direct action group.” Both groups are fundraising with competing information tables at the the Arcata Coop and all sorts of crazy drama has ensued. It seems to mostly revolve around defamation of character rather then working together to save the forest? So no need to say more. Shunka is the place to go for more info, or maybe that’s the only info you need to know? :-)

Further South in Mendocino two movies about Judi Bari are making an appearance at the Ft. Bragg Library: “The Forest for the Trees: Judi Bari v. the FBI” also “Viva Judi Bari!” a 33 minute film by Kay Rudin. To know of who Judi Bari was and her significance read this:

“The late Earth First! organizer Judi Bari used her knowledge of IWW organizing work to help build an alliance between timber workers and radical environmentalists in the redwood forests of Northern California. By showing that a radical working class perspective may also contain a radical ecological perspective, Bari contributed much to a deeper understanding of the root causes of ecological destruction and the destruction of logging communities. Moreover her efforts in Northern California provided a sharp and living critique of the common view among environmentalists (See Foreman, 1991; Bookchin, 1980; 1986; 1987) that class analyses and class struggle approaches have little to offer in the effort to bring about an ecological society. …Historically, it was the IWW who broke the stranglehold of the timber barons on the loggers and millworkers in the nineteen teens” (Bari, 1994: 18). It is precisely this stranglehold which environmentalists are trying to break today. “Now the companies are back in total control, only this time they’re taking down not only the workers but the Earth as well. This, to me, is what the IWW-Earth First! link is really about (Bari, 1994: 18). In her work, Bari forged real connections between the suffering of timber workers with ecological destruction today. The history of workers’ struggles becomes part of the history of ecology.” http://nefac.net/node/161

Outside the PNW: Nobel Prize Winner Wangari Mathai did her thing at the United Nation Conference on forest

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/5/18/latest/20050518073252&sec=Latest

That’s all for this week, Be well—> Love, Dirt