008OEC’s This Week in Trees
008OEC’s This-week-in-Trees…
This week we have 24 stories from:
British Columbia, Oregon, Montana, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Alabama, US forests, Scotland, Austrailia, Thailand, Jharkhand, Easter Island, Brazil, and India.
British Columbia:
1) Trees and Salmon need each other: The policy, introduced Friday by Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Geoff Regan, came after months of public consultation and emphasized the conservation of the salmon population, habitat and genetic diversity. “The final policy sets conservation as the highest priority and that, I think, is the most fundamental, important measure and change in emphasis that this policy creates,” Regan said at a press conference. Heather Deal, a marine analyst with the Suzuki Foundation, thought the plan left too much scope for politics. “There is a lot of wiggle room and it’s a lot of room for political interference,” Deal said after the press conference. “And we are quite disappointed that they haven’t put some firmer language in. “The biggest failing is there is no no-go zone, there are no hard numbers, there are no limits. There is wiggle room all over this policy,” Deal said. –Vancouver Sun
2) Seeing is believing. Google Maps (maps.google.com) now allows all of us to look down on the slopes of Mt. Elphie and examine the forestry being done there. Go to Google Maps click on the satellite link top right on the page and then use the toggle and zoom device to find Mt. Elphie and zoom in to see what the forest industry has been doing over the past several decades. The cutting blocks are easily visible. It is a second harvesting on a mountainside that has already had it’s existing ecosystems almost completely changed from the historic growth and development of forests over the preceding several thousand years. The second growth is less than 100 years of age. These pictures are proof of the gulf between our society and forest industry / government supposed commitment to sustainability. What some have found:
3) Hi Friends of Cathedral Grove: We are very close to winning this defense of the Cameron Valley Forest. After 16 months we still won’t give up before the final victory! The BC Liberals can still log, bulldoze, and destroy the floodplain of the Cameron River for their proposed parking lot. IT WOULD BE VERY GOOD IF EVERYONE WOULD HELP PUT CATHEDRAL GROVE ONTO THE NEW MINISTER’S AGENDA!
Please write, phone, fax, e-mail Honourable Barry Penner Minister of Environment and Minister responsible for Water Stewardship and Sustainable Communities Contact Information Phone: 250 387-1187 Fax: 250 387-1356 PO Box 9047 STN PROV GOVT Victoria BC V8W 9E2 E-mail: barry.penner.mla@leg.bc.ca Web site: www.barrypenner.com
Oregon:
4) “What we need to do,” he said, “is remove a hell of a lot of small-diameter trees.” That puts Lillebo, a field representative for the Oregon Natural Resources Council, on the side of federal land managers and timber companies, a rare alliance. He and his group support a plan that would have the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management provide a steady amount of woody brush from thinning operations to companies that invest in new technologies to use the material. The thinning work is happening and at a high cost to taxpayers. The federal government spent about $400 million thinning 2 million acres across the country in 2001, according to a Forest Service study in March. Much of the cleared material, called biomass, gets piled and burned in the woods. “It’s not really treated as a resource, nor is it offered in a way that reflects the realities of business investment,” said Scott Aycock of the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council. The regional nonprofit agency is spearheading the plan. And not every environmentalist thinks creating a thinning industry is such a good idea. Tim Hermach of the Native Forest Council in Eugene said federal forests need less logging, not more. “There is no money in the little stuff,” he said. “It’s just an excuse to get onto the forest where they can take the big stuff, too.” http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/111969359822801.xml&coll=7&thispage=3
5) This Friday, July 1 caravans of folks from northern, central and southern Oregon will gather to bear witness and demonstrate against the ongoing destruction of native forests in the Biscuit Fire area. We will start the day with an event at Forest Supervisor Scott Conroy’s office in Medford, where we will present him with the nefarious distinction of the Golden Stump Award and other fun gifts. We will then head out to the Green Bridge over the picturesque, Wild and Scenic Illinois River. The Green Bridge is the symbolic epicenter of the campaign opposing the massive Biscuit logging project, and has been closed off from the public by a federal closure order since mid-March. The closure order expires June 30th. http://www.cascadiarising.org
6) More than four decades after termination, the Klamath Tribes are still working to regain the former reservation the members refer to as their homeland. The 730,000-acre patchwork piece of federal land sought by the Tribes – roughly the size of Rhode Island – includes all land within the former reservation boundary that is now under federal control. Most of the land in question is within the Fremont-Winema National Forests. The 100-year plan would create open stands of mature ponderosa pine and restore wildlife habitat, according to the Tribes. Critics have said the plan is more of one to make money from selling timber than one aimed at restoring the forest. But the Tribes rebuff those claims. “It’s not going to make any money for the first three decades. We’ve got to start the treatments,” Foreman said. In their management plan, the Tribes said they should not only get forest land, but the buildings and vehicles used by the federal government on the national forests, and the federal payroll of $7 million to $8 million to operate the forests.
http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2005/06/23/news/top_stories/top1.txt
Montana:
7) At some point while clearing fallen branches from trails to fire lookouts, training to climb trees and burning massive piles of fallen tree limbs, an elite Montana fire crew likely will be dispatched to its first big blaze of the season. Lightning has ignited a fire deep in the wilderness somewhere and their skills are needed. Their job: watch the fire burn. It might sound odd, firefighters promoting fire, but in much of the Western wilderness, fire is being put to work. The Lewis and Clark Fire Use Module, a collection of highly skilled fire personnel based in Choteau, is one of 12 teams in the nation who are experts in allowing fires to burn in wild areas when the time is right. It’s some of the riskiest, most consequential work in the forest. It’s also work forest managers increasingly are using to improve forest health. http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/06/26/build/state/50-team-lets-fires-burn.inc
8) The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has temporarily halted a timber sale in the Gallatin National Forest that environmentalists claim would damage wildlife habitat near Yellowstone National Park. The injunction, issued last week, is the third time a court order has put the Darroch-Eagle sale on hold. It prevents the Gallatin National Forest from allowing any on-the-ground activities, including logging and road building, related to the sale while a lawsuit over the project is pending before the court. http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/06/27/build/state/34-timbersale.inc
New Hampshire:
9) The fact that the husband and wife duo Jerry and Marcy Monkman manage to avoid the pitfalls of environmentalist preaching in their latest book, “White Mountain Wilderness,” is what allows them, oddly enough, to make just such a statement. The charming photographs and straightforward historical recaps of The Whites, as these professional photographers from Portsmouth like to call them, are as cool and refreshing as a mountain breeze. This duo’s photography skills are first-rate. Every picture tells a story and the two simply refuse to paint a bleak picture on the future of New Hampshire’s beloved mountains, preferring to see the glass half-full in this 128-page photography/history book. They opt for a draw-your-own-conclusions version, primarily through eye-catching, before-and-after photos taken decades apart in various locations. In a happy twist, it is the latter “after” photos that are the feel-good Powershots, the former depicting the sad-but-true swarths of forest destroyed in a matter of days by loggers or fire. The Monkmans not only include the photos they took over the last 12 to 13 years while working for “Appalachia,” the journal of the Appalachia Mountain Club, but offer up, through pictures, a recounting of how mankind has treated these mountains. “Part of the idea from the start was to tell the story of the wilderness coming back,” Jerry Monkman said in a recent interview. “My hope with the book is it will inspire people to appreciate the wilderness and the potential and protection of old growth forests in the future.” http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050626/NEWS1403/106240117/-1/citizen
Alabama:
10) Environmentalists, bird watchers and park visitors are outraged over the state’s unannounced plan to cut timber in Guntersville State Park, but state officials say it is necessary to lessen pine beetle damage, lower the risk of forest fires and create new food sources for wildlife in the park. Opponents say the selective cutting of timber, which has already begun, is damaging wildlife habitat and hiking trails and destroying the beauty of the park. Barnett Lawley, commissioner of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, said his agency probably erred in not holding meetings to explain the plan. Linda Reynolds, who served as the park naturalist for Guntersville State Park for 18 years before retiring two years ago, is leading efforts to stop the cutting of timber. “They cut some timber several years ago when there was some pine beetle damage and I was all for that,” she said. “What they are doing now makes no sense. “The only reason for this has to be for money. They are hurting because the lodge at the park is closed because of renovation and the lodge at Gulf State Park was destroyed by the hurricane. Those are the two jewels of the state park system that generate the revenue to keep the other 24 parks going.” “The area across from the campground where they are doing most of the logging is known for its neo-tropical migrants. I have brought bird watchers from across the U.S. to see that area. It has been destroyed.” “…People say that birds will just move on to the next tree, but it doesn’t work like that,” she said. “That’s another bird’s territory. A whole generation of birds will be lost. http://www.al.com/sports/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/sports/1119777438177140.xml&coll=2
Kentucky:
11) Forestry officials say the Bullitt land is at high risk of being developed if it isn’t preserved. Much of the county’s rural landscape has been transformed into residential, commercial or industrial developments. Kentucky expects to buy the property by year’s end. A price has not been set, but the 1,805-acre tract is valued at $1.5 million, according to the Bullitt County property valuation administrator. Once it buys the land, the state will need only a few months to mark trails, produce maps and open the property to the public. It will be used for hiking, biking, horseback riding, regulated hunting and possibly primitive camping, said Eric Gracey, land acquisition supervisor for the Division of Forestry. It also will be used to educate students, woodlands owners and others about healthy logging practices and forest management. L http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050625/NEWS0102/506250397
US Forests:
12) US Senate will take up debate on the Interior Appropriations legislation and that this must-pass legislation contains a nasty rider which would grant the USFS far greater latitude to sell off your lands. To add insult to injury, the legislation would permit the FS to keep for themselves whatever money they get from the sale of your lands! This rider must be removed. Fortunately an amendment will be offered to strike the offending language. Pasted below is an urgent action alert. Please support the Bingaman rider. TAKE ACTION: Please call your Senators today at 202-224-3121 and ask them to support Senator Bingaman’s amendment that would strike or limit the
language allowing the sale of Forest Service land and facilities from the Interior Appropriations bill. http://www.wildwilderness.org
13) A new documentary film about the many wonders of National Forests and the threats they face is now available online. This nine-minute DVD is an excellent introduction of the National Forests and is a resource for educators and citizens interested in the environment, and the clean water, wildlife and recreation our forests provide.
Real Player Broadband http://real.newmediamill.speedera.net/ramgen/real.newmediamill/ufdc/forestsbb.rm
Windows Player Broadband
mms://wm.newmediamill.speedera.net/wm.newmediamill/ufdc/forestsbb.wmv
Scotland:
14) The Rebel Wood at Orbost on the Isle of Skye was the first carbon offset forest in the world when it was started by The Clash singer Joe Strummer in 2000, two years before his death.But the feelgood campaign has now been attacked from an unexpected quarter. Environment groups claim carbon offsetting through tree-planting has become a fashionable way of showing concern for global warming but has little or no long-term effect. Dr Dan Barlow, the head of research for Friends of the Earth Scotland, said planting trees to offset carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions was a way for many to carry on “business as usual” with their conscience somehow salved. “Planting trees to replace areas ravaged by decades of deforestation is one thing. However, planting huge swathes of trees to offset carbon emissions should be way down any serious list of activities designed to tackle climate change.” http://news.scotsman.com/celebrities.cfm?id=704302005
Australia:
15) Clear-felling and woodchipping of old-growth forests in East Gippsland began 30 years ago – at the very same time that the Japanese woodchip giant Daishowa set up its export business nearby at Eden. This partly answers the question. East Gippsland’s forests are in grave danger and it would be a tragedy for Australia and the world if these magnificent and unique forests are lost to feed the packaging and paper industry. No other Victorian premier has ever had the guts to stop this obscenity. We are hopeful that Bracks has the backbone to finally bring this destruction to an end. http://www.geco.org.au/jilltext.htm
16) Concerns are being raised over logging practices in the Wombat Forest at Daylesford near Ballarat in central Victoria. The Wombat Forest Alliance believes clear felling is occurring in areas of the forest, despite Victorian Government assurances of a selective logging practice. Marcus Ward from the alliance says 40 hectares at the side of the Wombat Reservoir has been significantly cleared. “It’s clear that the logging that has happened recently is pretty close to the logging that has happened in the past,” he said. “There are no mature trees left except for old habitat trees. So when you look out over these areas you see trees that are 10-years-old that are quite thick, but no mature trees above that canopy.” http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200506/s1399894.htm
17) …Losses of between 400 and 600 hives in one southern area alone over the next three years because of logging operations, beekeepers said yesterday. Concerns about loss of leatherwood trees, the mainstay of Tasmania’s honey industry, dominated the Tasmanian Beekeepers Association conference’s first day yesterday. Hobart-based beekeeper Peter Norris said hive sites were already being lost because of tree harvesting at the Wedge, an area between Maydena and Strathgordon. Mr Norris said about 10 Tasmanian beekeepers including himself used the area for leatherwood. “From now on, if they’re logging in one area, we’ve got nowhere else to go,” he said. “The Huon had a large community of beekeepers but that was heavily logged so the large commercial beekeepers moved to the Wedge.” Timber harvesting plans allowed beekeepers to see which areas they used would be affected. “We’re under extreme pressure with resource security,” Mr Norris said. “We could expand if we had the resources, but it’s very difficult now to get sites. The only way is to buy out retiring beekeepers.” He said because leatherwood was very fire-sensitive, the practice of burning after clearing sterilised the soil and leatherwood did not return. http://www.themercury.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,15722437%255E3462,00.html
Thailand:
18) Phra Supoj was found dead in the compound of his Buddhist centre on the night of June 18 with severe knife wounds all over his body. The Northern Development Monks Network, of which the monk was a member, believe the murder was linked to his dispute over land. http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/25Jun2005_news16.php
…Mr Somchai said Phra Supoj had fought to protect an 1,800-rai forest in Chiang Mai’s Fang district despite threats from influential people who wanted the land and had connections with local and national political figures in the ruling Thai Rak Thai party. He urged the public to join forces to check on the activities of influential people in Chiang Mai’s Fang, Chai Prakan and Mae Ai districts where influential people were fighting over natural resources and scaring the local population. …The government was unable to protect people who devoted themselves to national interests in terms of the environment and the promotion of human rights despite the fact that Thailand had ratified the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, he said. http://bangkokpost.net/News/27Jun2005_news08.php
Jharkhand:
19) Women are proving to be an impenetrable shield for the timber mafia in Jharkhand – whenever forest guards spot illegally felled timber, woman accomplices start stripping and the abashed guards flee the scene! Forest officials point out that the women are either associated with the timber mafia or are paid for stripping. Being poverty stricken, the area’s women are an easy prey. Said B.K. Singh, a forest official in Chakulia forest: “It is turning out to be a tough task to deal with these women who side with the timber mafia. It has become almost a regular practice to strip and we end up releasing the culprits to avoid confrontations.” A fortnight ago forest guards arrested three men with timber in Chakulia’s Sunsuniya Sal forest. When they were taking away the illegally felled timber and the men, around 50 women surrounded the guards. The women demanded the release of the men. Upon the guards’ refusal, the women started stripping and cried for help. Weighing the gravity of the situation and fearing police action against them, the forest guards fled. http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/7242_1412591,00180007.htm
New Zealand:
20) We don’t have a logging industry anymore, they call it silviculture. It goes along with the Healthy Forest Initiative where a healthy forest is a forest that is harvested, humanely and sustainably, of course. The loggers are now “forest nurturers” who farm the forests for the benefit of future generations.
-Paul Watson http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10330828
Easter Island:
21) The grimacing statues of Easter Island have – over the past 2000 years – witnessed the purest example in history of human beings committing unwitting environmental suicide. The story is startlingly simple: the human settlers on the island – living in perfect isolation from the rest of the world – systematically destroyed their own habitat. In a burst of over-development, they cut down their forests much faster than they could grow back. The result? At first, the island was plunged into war as different groups scrambled to seize the remaining natural resources for themselves. They turned on their leaders and staged revolutions, enraged that they had been misled into such a disaster… But the biggest common factor in past ecocides has been the pursuit of short-term “rational bad behavior” arising from clashes of interests between people. For example, one logging company decides to destroy great chunks of the Amazon, on the grounds that if they don’t, some other logging company will. It seems rational, but it places the transitory and fragmentary interests of the individual or group ahead of the long-term interests of us all. Destroying forests leads in the long-term to a hideously irrational outcome for the world at a time when we need all the carbon sinks we can find. http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_a_l/johann_hari/story.jsp?story=645043
Brazil:
22) IRANTXE RESERVE,– The canoe floated across a current so clear that each pebble shimmered in the riverbed beneath. Farther downstream, the river plunged over a sheer waterfall, where a rainbow arched in the mist. The five Irantxe tribesmen landed their vessel and followed a trail through a dense stand of jatoba trees. When they emerged after 50 yards, the landscape no longer looked anything like the southern edge of the Amazon forest. It looked like Iowa. Corn and soybean fields extended to the horizon. Seven green John Deere combines were parked near a farmhouse. ”If we were an aggressive tribe, we would have killed the landowners already,” said Tupxi, one of the canoeists, who estimated his age at 77. ”But we’re peaceful, and we don’t want to fight. So all of this has been lost.” The tribe’s reserve is a forested island surrounded by thoroughly conquered farmland. It sits in the middle of Mato Grosso, a state whose booming agricultural sector has helped Brazil challenge the US position as the world’s top exporter of soybeans and beef. In 2004, Amazon tree-cutting reached its highest level in a decade: More than 10,000 square miles, an area roughly the size of Massachusetts, were cut down, according to government statistics released earlier this month. Mato Grosso, one of five Amazonian states, accounted for 48 percent of the overall deforestation. http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2005/06/26/crops_cutting_into_amazon_rain_forest/
23) St. Matthew’s Gospel (20:18) quotes Jesus telling his disciples: “We are going up to Jerusalem … where my enemies will condemn me to death.” Reading those words recently, I thought of my sister Dorothy. A member of the Cincinnati-based Notre Dame de Namur religious congregation, Sister Dorothy Stang went up to the Amazon region of Brazil to minister to peasant farmers. The land barons there condemned her to death. Like Jesus, she did not turn away. Threatened many times, she said, “It is not my safety but that of the people that matters.” My sister faced her killers fearlessly. With the Bible in her hand, she was reading to them the Beatitudes-“Blessed are the poor in Spirit …”-when one of two pistoleros (hired gunmen) fired six shots into her at close range on Feb. 12. At age 73, she became a martyr. Dorothy was murdered for her outspoken defense of peasant farm families, who had moved into the rain forest region in a government-sponsored resettlement plan. Besides forming each settlement into small Christian communities that prayed and studied the Bible together, Dorothy established agricultural and rain forest preservation projects. Her initiatives outraged the big landowners who wanted the forest for logging and the land for cattle grazing. The day before she died, Dorothy telephoned me. “Just hearing your voice,” she said, “makes me feel the cool fresh air of Palmer Lake (where I live in Colorado), even though it is so hot and humid here in Anapú (where she worked).” Then she told me, “I can’t talk long because there are people outside my door, asking me to go down the road with them to show support for several poor families who had their crops and houses burned down by hired hoodlums.” http://society.maryknoll.org/index.php?module=MKArticles&func=display&feature=1&id=103
India:
24) With forests vanishing and tigers dying, it is quite clear that the Indian Forest Service is in a mess and urgently requires overhaul. The entire forest machinery has suffered unimaginable political and bureaucratic neglect over the last 17 years. It is now that their services are most needed for protection of forests and wildlife. Can you imagine that a nation’s premier national service has had no recruitment for 17 years? There is a 30 per cent vacancy in posts which means 40,000 men are not on duty. Little or no training is imparted to anyone. The average age of the field forest staff is now 50-plus! The report of the Central Bureau of Investigation from Sariska states that 75 per cent of the forest staff was not fit for on-foot patrolling. That’s how the tigers died. How are we going to save trees or tigers in this situation? Yet, this aged team tends to make the ultimate sacrifice; at least 50 forest staff die or are seri-ously disabled each year by poacher’s bullets or the woodcutter’s axe. If we want to save the forests of India and all its inhabitants, we need to modernise the staff and equate their living and working conditions to that of the army and police. We need to fill vacancies and build training schools that will impart the very best training to both new and existing forest staff. Arms, uniforms, and the best in communication sets will be vital to defend our forest frontiers. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1152896.cms