016OEC’s This Week in Trees
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This week we have 34 articles from Alaska, British Columbia, Washington,
Oregon, California, Minnesota, Utah, New Mexico, Kentucky, West Virginia,
Arkansas, Canada, European Union, Liberia, Australia, China, India,
Madagascar and world-wide.
==========================
Alaska:
1) A nervous hush fell over the group during a recent tour as guide Jake
White latched them onto their first zip line. Cautious hesitation and knots
in the pit of the stomach gave way to the exhilarating feeling of flight as
they stepped off the first platform. A light rain showered tourists as they
glided between towering Sitka spruce and western hemlock trees 135 feet above
the forest floor. There’s no such thing as a rain check in a place that
averages 162 inches of precipitation a year. The group was on the lookout for
bald eagles, black bears and other wildlife commonly found in the nation’s
largest national forest, the Tongass. But sightings of other tourists zipping
off in the distance also grabbed their attention. “This gives new meaning to
the phrase ‘tree hugger,”‘ said tourist Billie Jo Cusack, standing in a tree
swaying gently back and forth as the group of eight took its place on the
next platform. Cusack, 38, a former Ketchikan resident now living in
Sammamish, Washington, who described herself as “the risk-taker type,” said
the zip tour gave her an adrenaline rush similar to skydiving.”There’s no
place to go but down,” said her 10-year-old son Jake Cusack. It has been less
than a decade since the timber town of Ketchikan in Alaska’s southeast
panhandle closed its largest pulp mill, but thanks to tourism, entrepreneurs
are again looking to the forest with dollar signs in their eyes. Cruise ship
revenue in Ketchikan has more than doubled since 1997, when the Ketchikan
Pulp Co., once the community’s largest employer, shut down its mill and laid
off more than 500 workers. Ketchikan economist Kent Miller said jobs in the
wood products industry have dropped from 903 in 1996 to 139 in 2004. And if
the explosion of canopy tours in Mexico, Costa Rica and South America is any
indication, the business is likely to find plenty of tourists willing to pay
the US$149 fee. http://www.etaiwannews.com/Travel/2005/07/31/1122786121.htm
British Columbia:
2) Hi folks, In case you haven’t noticed Dogwood Initiative has launched our
new Website. We will still provide commentary and news on what’s up in BC,
but now you will be able to share your views and commentary with our comments
feature. Our analysis of the media spin on issues affecting BC will be easier
to access, and we are adding many more graphics. The new features will be
rolled out over the next few months. Soon we will be adding video and audio
all to better tell stories about issues affecting democracy, land, forests
First Nations and communities throughout BC.
http://www.dogwoodinitiative.org/forests
3) TimberWest has identified low margin, low productivity stands throughout
its private timberland base. The Company is embarking on several courses of
action to address this. The Company is exploring the potential of selling or
trading of some of this land for other uses and is also implementing a plan
to increase the harvest level in other of these areas to provide an
opportunity to re-establish the low margin, low productivity stands with
better stock. In 2005, the Company anticipates increasing the harvest level
by 500,000 m3 to target and turn over these stands. The Company may also
increase the harvest level by a like amount in the next three to five years
depending on the success it has with selling or trading this land and the
conditions of the markets. The Company has run this potential additional
harvest through its growth and yield model and the analysis indicates that
taking low-productivity stands out at a faster rate, even for five years,
will have no effect on the Company’s long run sustainable yield over a 50
year period. In our domestic market, coastal restructuring is well underway,
however, it will take some time for the sawmilling industry to close
inefficient mills, invest new capital and produce the higher-value products
customers want. Although resolution of the softwood lumber dispute with the
US could improve the situation, particularly where coastal cedar is
concerned, the Company is not optimistic that a resolution is close.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/August2005/04/c6964.html
4) At this moment in time Gordon Campbell and his government are making a
decision on some significant steps for the Great Bear Rainforest. If carried
out according to agreements these steps include approximately 1.4 million
hectares of new protection in a network that would see 1/3 of the region off
limits to logging. The rest of the region outside of protected areas would
be managed using an ecosystem-based approach and potentially up to $110
million for sustainable initiatives to transform the economy away from
traditional resource extraction would be made available to local communities.
Our individual organizations remain committed to this region and many other
environmental issues in British Columbia and around the world – please visit
our websites for further details on the Great Bear Rainforest campaign and
our other work on the Greenpeace Canada, ForestEthics, Rainforest Action
Network and Sierra Club of BC websites.
5) What Follows is the last paragraph from George Hoberg’s March 2004
analysis of the RSP GBR initiative: It is clear that these Great Bear
Rainforest agreements were groundbreaking. However, this analysis suggests
that perhaps the process through which the agreement was brokered was more
groundbreaking than the content of the agreement itself. It was quite a
remarkable feat for the stakeholders to move beyond the impasse that had
developed towards a more cooperative, collaborative approach. There has been
significant substantive change: the amount of protected areas in the region
has tripled to 33%. But this amount still falls far short of protected areas
in other similar regions. The Tongass National Forest in Alaska, which
occupies 6.9 million hectares in the Alaskan Panhandle (the region just north
of the Great Bear Rainforest), is topographically and ecologically very
similar to the GBR. A 1999 decision by the United States Forest Service
provided for the protection of approximately 80% of the Tongass National
Forest. Moreover, while the process may have settled the protected areas,
less progress has been made in finalizing management approaches to zones
where logging will be permitted. While the targets in the EBM Handbook would
be a dramatic departure from existing requirements, the interim, one-year
target of 30% old seral representation appears to be only a modest change
from the status quo. How EBM evolves and becomes established in the region
will be a continuing challenge.
http://www.policy.forestry.ubc.ca/rainforest.html
Washington:
6) A federal judge has struck down the Bush administration’s 2004 decision to
ease old-growth logging restrictions on public land in the Northwest, saying
the government failed to properly consider what effect it would have on rare
plants and animals. “For us, it feels like a victory in the sense that you
can’t just focus on one part of the Northwest Forest Plan and ignore
another,” Vaile said. Dave Werntz, of Conservation Northwest in Bellingham,
Wash., agreed. “This is a common-sense approach that says if you go into the
last remaining old-growth forests for logging purposes, you need to minimize
the harm to the animals and plants that live there,” Werntz said. The timber
industry had complained for years that “survey and manage” rules — which
require study of the potential effects of logging on about 300 plant and
animal species — were overly intrusive and could take years to complete.
Oregon:
7) Vaile said several timber sales have proceeded without this mitigation
while the survey and manage provision was held up in court. He said the
Kelsey-Whisky timber sale, currently being cut near Merlin and the lower
Rogue River, would have looked demonstrably different had survey and manage
been in place. “We don’t know how timber sales will be affected,” he said.
“We’re certainly hopeful, but this is only one of the needed rollbacks to the
agenda the Bush administration is pursuing in our national forests. There is
still much work to be done to protect the few remaining old-growth forests.”
KS Wild was one of 10 environmental groups that were plaintiffs in the
lawsuit. Survey and manage, known as the “look before you log” rule, required
federal agencies to inspect a potential timber sale area for rare plants and
animals — such as the Red Tree vole, the Siskiyou Mountain salamander and an
orchid known as the clustered lady slipper — before proceeding with the
removal of trees. http://www.dailytidings.com/2005/0803/080305valley2.shtml
8) Back in ’98 when a friend and I started the Fall Creek Treesit, we sat
alone in that forest; no ground-support, no other treesits – just us. We
watched from our perch high in the canopy as Grandmother and Grandfather
trees were felled to build the road. I remember spilling the coffee I was
brewing on our little stove as I watched. My friend, the most mean and
cynical man I’ve ever known, said the first and only kind words I’ve ever
heard escape his lips: “Some will fall so that others may be saved.” The
tears streamed down my face in silent protest of what I was witnessing.
Below, the loggers jeered and laughed. I donned my climbing gear and my
knife. I was going to the ground, and, one way or another, this was gonna
end. My friend stopped me. I don’t even remember what he said. But I remember
sitting there in spilled coffee, tears in my eyes. It is the most powerless
and helpless I’ve ever felt. I think back to that time now because I am
feeling very similar. I’m sitting trapped in a cell watching the world go to
shit and I can’t do a damn thing about it. What can I do? My words cannot
galvanize the masses. I can’t make people fight back. I am lost. Inaction is
the price of privilege. Hypocrisy is the cost of comfort. It is impossible to
inspire by inciting feelings of guilt. I know this, but, it is also
impossible to inspire when I believe it is a lost cause. Even when I take
into consideration the many brave cells out there fighting, and I know why
they fight; in the depths of my spirit I know and I understand. I still
believe we have lost. Those are the three words no one wants to hear. The
words I am loathe to write. But maybe hearing them will slap you back to
reality. This isn’t a game. It sure as hell ain’t a fucking fairytale with a
guaranteed happy ending. The resistance is up to you. You can organize –
really organize bringing people together. You can teach – not just your
friends, but strangers. You can propagate the resistance with graffiti,
stencils and flyers. You can create alternatives by squatting, guerilla
gardening, creating and using alternative energies. You can become a militant
– a smart one who learns how to cause the most damage and get away. But what
you can’t do it sit on your ass and flap your gums about how messed up things
are. Because if you know how bad it is and you do nothing, you are the reason
we lost. And you insult and betray everyone who has fought back. You spit in
the face of those who have given their lives or lost their freedom demanding
something better. There are many who will continue to fight against all odds.
Because for us, it is personal. If nothing else, we will go down fighting.
That’s a lot to ask of someone – asking them to fight a losing battle. But,
I’m asking it of you. If we are going down, let’s go down swinging. Let’s
make it the toughest, hardest fought battle this system has ever faced.
http://www.freefreenow.org/
9) The Ashland Watershed Resiliency Project proposes treatment of 1,500 acres
in the roadless area where the Forest Service says that large trees could be
cut. Elsewhere in the watershed – which is protected as an Old-Growth
Reserve – thousands of large trees may be logged. Please let the Forest
Service know that you value the roadless areas and old-growth forests in the
Ashland Watershed. Ask them to thin brush and small trees, and pile and burn
fuels, instead of logging precious older forests. While the Bush-backed law
leaves us with little ability to protect old-growth trees, the Forest Service
can choose to do the right thing. For a sample letter, visit:
http://www.kswild.org/KSNews/ashlandwatershed
10) Deschutes National Forest Supervisor Leslie Weldon has issued a record of
decision for a recovery project in areas the Link and B&B Fires burned in
2003. Managers estimate loggers could harvest about 37 million board feet of
timber, a higher figure than they previously estimated. The figure changed
after forestry technicians more accurately measured trees and does not
involve an increase in project size. Long-term ecological benefits include
accelerating forest recovery by replanting trees and creating conditions
where fire can play a more natural role in the future. The goal is to restore
a forest of fire-resistant mature trees that can withstand the 30 to 40-year
fire return intervals once common in mixed conifer forests east of the
Cascades. Managers believe most of the standing dead trees will fall to the
ground in 5 to 60 years, feeding fires that will threaten communities and
make fire suppression more dangerous. In 2002 and 2003, four times as many
acres burned in the 149,000-acre Metolius River watershed where the project
lies than the previous 100 years because of unnaturally high fuel loads.
Linda Goodman, regional forester for Oregon and Washington, authorized an
emergency situation determination for the project’s Little, Butte and Booth
salvage timber sales on July 22 to prevent the loss of about 16 million board
feet of timber and $1.1 million to the federal government because of wood
decay. Goodman is also concerned timber companies will not purchase the dead,
burnt trees if logging is further delayed. The exemption means the project is
still subject to appeal. But, harvest can begin as early as mid-August on the
three timber sales, which total 3,238 acres. Normally, implementation would
not occur for 105 days if a project is appealed. Such a delay would postpone
logging until January 3, 2006. Seasonal restrictions would further preclude
logging until June 2006.
http://bend.com/news/ar_view.php?ar_id=22997
11) Logging continues in Old-Growth Reserves in the wild Siskiyou because of
the Biscuit logging project. Sadly, the Fiddler timber sale is nearly
completed, leaving hundreds of acres of stump-fields on steep slopes near
Fiddler Mountain. The Forest Service even went so far as to log directly
ontop of the popular Babyfoot Lake trail – a clear demonstration of the
agency’s log-at-any-cost agenda. Protest and controversy has surrounded
proposed logging at the Hobson logging sale in the Indigo Creek watershed.
Road blockades, arrests have attempted to stop this logging which still has
not been fully reviewed by the courts. Logging has begun at the McGuire
logging sale in the Wild & Scenic Illinois River canyon. This popular
recreation corridor, with swimming holes, hiking trails and scenic views,
should not be sacrificed to the saw.
http://www.siskiyou.org/campaign/biscuit_logging_photos.cfm
12) The Medford District of the Bureau of Land Management is promoting this
reckless logging project in the Little Applegate and Applegate-McKee Bridge
watersheds. Their plan includes not only extensive logging (including 254
acres of clear-cuts), but also almost 12 miles of new road construction. The
Little Applegate is important habitat for threatened coho salmon and
steelhead, and the project area includes thousands of acres of critical
habitat for the threatened Northern Spotted Owl. This massive proposal
includes clear cutting 254 acres, and commercial logging of over 4800 acres
in mature and old-growth forests (some trees up to 300 years old!) The Bald
Lick Project would destroy more than 2,500 acres of essential habitat for
Northern Spotted Owls. It would also log more than 3,100 acres and build more
than 7 miles of road in pristine roadless areas highly valued for recreation,
solitude, and scenic beauty. ONRC Alert #224 – July 28, 2005
13) BLM is proposing more than 5,000 acres of logging and almost 12 miles of
new road construction in the Little Applegate and Applegate-McKee Bridge
watersheds through the “Bald Lick Landscape Project.” The Little Applegate
is is popular recreation area and home to small businesses and farms. The
Little Applegate is also important habitat for threatened Coho salmon and
steelhead, and the project area includes thousands of acres of critical
habitat for the threatened Northern Spotted Owl. Non-controversial fuels
reduction treatments in the project area have moved forward unopposed, and
have been implemented throughout the last year. Help protect the remaining
mature and old-growth forests and roadless areas in the Little Applegate. For
a sample letter, visit:
http://www.kswild.org/KSNews/blick
14) The emotional battle has boiled since 2002, when Mt. Hood Meadows first
pitched its plan for a Cooper Spur resort featuring 450 hotel rooms,
condominiums, homes, restaurants and 18-hole golf course. Residents,
recreationists and environmentalists balked, saying such development would
ruin one of Oregon’s natural treasures. If the proposed solution fails, Mt.
Hood Meadows will withdraw its support for the north side wilderness
expansion and renew its efforts to develop the Cooper Spur land. The
agreement calls for Mt. Hood Meadows ski resort to trade approximately 775
acres it owns near Cooper Spur for 120 acres in the Mount Hood National
Forest near Government Camp. The Government Camp parcels — a 40-acre plot
east of the unincorporated town and an 80-acre plot to the west — are zoned
for residential development and could accommodate 480 single-family homes.
Mt. Hood Meadows has lobbied for years to plant more lodging close to its
resort, 70 miles east of Portland. Meadows would give up its plans to expand
the Cooper Spur Ski Area and build a resort there, would agree not to acquire
more property on the mountain’s northern slope and would relinquish its lease
on the small ski area. It also would help valley residents and a coalition of
environmental groups push for federal legislation facilitating the land swap
and would help them seek wilderness designation and a watershed protection
zone around Cooper Spur.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1123063291114990
.xml&coll=7
California:
15) From the beginning, our indigenous partners have reminded us that one of
the most powerful actions that can be taken in support of the rainforest and
its inhabitants is to “change the dream of the North.” since it is our dream
– our desires and appetites – that is driving the destruction of the
rainforests around the world. Ultimately, to assure the long-term survival of
our rainforests, and indeed of the natural world and even ourselves, we need
to address the core values and ways of seeing the world that are deeply
imbedded in our modern worldview. Pachamama Alliance is committed to finding
ways to support a growing effort to awaken us from the seductive trance of
unlimited progress, unrestrained private interest and material accumulation.
http://www.pachamama.org/ATD/index.htm
16) Stanislaus National Forest officials will hold three workshops next week
to find out what the public thinks is the best way to manage the nearly
900,000-acre forest. The public comment will help guide the focus of the U.S.
Forest Service in its five-year plan, which is supposed to be done on Sept.
30, said Jerry Perez, deputy forest supervisor. Thinning the forest is
necessary to help control fires fueled by trees and brush, Perez said.
However, a Forest Service watchdog said the workshops are to find ways to
increase timber production for local mills operated by Sierra Pacific
Industries. “The Forest Service has been very up front that in order to
support SPI’s two local mills, they are looking at every opportunity to
increase timber production,” said John Buckley, director of the Twain
Harte-based Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center. SPI, with mills in
Standard Mill and Chinese Camp, could not be reached by deadline for comment.
In March and April, SPI laid off 75 employees at the two mills when the
company ran out of logs. SPI officials and mill workers at the time blamed
the Forest Service for not allowing more timber sales. In the last two years,
10 million board feet were cut from the forest. However, some people
interviewed for the report said 20 million to 50 million board feet of timber
could be cut per year from the Stanislaus National Forest.
http://www.uniondemocrat.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=17988
17) Houston financier Charles Hurwitz could relinquish ownership of 220, 000
acres of privately owned California redwoods, while maintaining control of
the Pacific Lumber Co., if a proposal made public Monday is accepted by the
bondholders with whom Hurwitz is now locked in negotiations. The disclosure,
which came in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, is the latest
episode in a drama that began nearly 20 years ago, when Hurwitz, acting
through his Maxxam Corp., borrowed $750 million in a leveraged buyout that
made him the owner of Pacific Lumber and its vast holdings of redwoods.
Today, about $700 million of that debt remains outstanding, but the assets
that Hurwitz acquired and owns have been divided into two legally separate
piles. In one pile stand the remaining 220,000 acres of redwood trees, under
the legal umbrella of Scotia Pacific Co. Separate from the trees is Pacific
Lumber, whose assets include sawmills, a power plant and the tiny town of
Scotia along Highway 101. Hurwitz separated these assets in 1998, when the
company refinanced its debts. Under that refinancing, the debt was the
responsibility of Scotia Pacific Co., which used its trees as assets to back
the bonds. Earlier in the spring, Scotia Pacific warned that it might not be
able to make a $27.9 million interest payment scheduled for the end of July,
and said this might force a bankruptcy filing. Officials at Pacific Lumber,
who also serve as the officers of Scotia Pacific, blamed the cash shortfall
on timber- cutting restrictions imposed by regional and state water
authorities — who slowed logging after residents along two Humboldt County
waterways complained of silt damage from past logging. Scotia Pacific managed
to make that July 27 interest payment, avoiding the immediate threat of
bankruptcy, but said at the time that it was continuing to seek a debt
restructuring even while it wrangled with state water authorities. As
explained by Pacific Lumber President Robert Manne, the plan would be to
reissue $300 million in new debt, and give the bondholders 90 percent
ownership of the reconstituted Scotia Pacific, and therefore the trees. The
remaining 10 percent of Scotia Pacific would be owned, ultimately, by Hurwitz
— whose control over Pacific Lumber would remain unchanged because it is in
a separate pile of assets. –San Francisco Chronicle, 8/2/2005
18) After nearly two decades of liquidating the ancient redwood ecosystem of
northern California, liquidating jobs, and bullying agencies and politicians
into giveaway deals, Hurwitz has now made clear that he intends to let go of
the debt-saddled ScoPac, which owns the remaining timber on the 220,000-acre
Pacific Lumber (PL) property in Humboldt County. ScoPac is a subsidiary of
PL, which is owned by Maxxam. Hurwitz’s liquidation logging has caused such
extreme damage to the sensitive ecosystems of northern California’s coastal
forests that regulatory agencies must step in to protect human health and
safety, on top of all the irreversible losses to endangered habitat that have
already occurred in what remains of this once magnificent forest
ecosystem.”It is high time that the needs of the community, and the condition
of the ecosystem that supports community and wildlife, drive the financial
management of timber companies, and not the other way around,” said EPIC
spokesperson Sam Johnston. “We are now at a crossroads,” Johnston added. EPIC
continues to look to the future and to envision the responsible, sustainable
forestry practices that a Maxxam-free Pacific Lumber can achieve, believing
that sustainable forestry can exist beside a sustainable business model. For
now, the recent offer by Hurwitz to the bondholders appears to mark the
beginning of the end of Maxxam’s devastating operations in Humboldt County’s
forests. http://www.wildcalifornia.org
Minnesota:
19) U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns toured a logging site in the
Superior National Forest on Wednesday to see firsthand the results of new
forest management efforts. The site, north of Kinney in the western reaches
of the forest, is being logged this month to provide timber for local paper
mills and board plants. But officials also were looking at the site to see
what wood might be available after logging that usually isn’t used by mills
but might be salvaged to burn for energy. The small wood usually isn’t
financially viable to harvest, but new Forest Service efforts and a pilot
project seek to make that less-valuable wood, called biomass, available for
burning to create electricity. As part of that effort, the Superior National
Forest has partnered with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, the
new Laurentian Energy Authority, municipal utilities, and with Forest
Management Systems, a loggers and truckers cooperative. “Americans are
committed to preserving our national heritage,” Johanns said, adding that
can include wise forest management to spur economic activity.
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/12302334.htm
Utah:
20) The High Line trail crested at a shaded pond high above Mirror Lake. So
far, our search for the three-toed woodpecker had uncovered a few gray jays,
a pair of pine grosbeaks, a couple of Clark’s nutcrackers, the usual juncos,
a lumbering snowshoe hare and more than a few mosquitoes. Hiking quietly
through the early morning, we had passed an abundance of the scorched and
dead trees the three-toed woodpecker favors, but we had not seen a
woodpecker. A big part of the bird’s problem is its specialized tastes. It
favors beetles and grubs that live under the bark of dead or burned trees.
Modern forestry practices, including fire suppression and salvage logging of
burned and diseased trees, eliminate the bird’s food source and breeding
environment. http://www.sltrib.com/outdoors/ci_2912053
New Mexico:
21) The U.S. Forest Service intends to log out the Fourth of July Canyon,
located in the Manzano mountain range. Under the deceptive title “Healthy
Forest Initiative,” and masquerading under the guise of fire reduction, the
Forest Service intends to strip the Tajique Watershed of every tree large
enough to make lumber (an estimated 2,200 logging truck loads). Trees smaller
than logs will be cut for particle board (thousands of additional
truckloads).This is a pilot project taking up to 10 years (almost a
clear-cut). This project will cost taxpayers $7 million to $14 million. The
Forest Service will build 38 miles of new roads (using taxpayer money and
refusing to use the existing 125 miles from their 1907 clear-cut). This vital
creek will disappear due to road dust and silt created from logging and
biomass-removal trucks. This small dirt road will be forced to carry logging
trucks, heavy equipment, transport semi-trailers, biomass semi-trailer
trucks, etc. The traffic will pose unsafe conditions for residents and
visitors to the campsites in the canyon. The homeowners in the canyon (this
author included) did not request nor support this project. This project is a
blatant payback to the logging/particle board industries for campaign
contributions, resulting in American taxpayer subsidies of millions of
dollars. If this pilot project goes through, it can be applied to the Sandia
Mountains or any other forest.
Kentucky:
22) An environmental group claims it was able to delay a proposed logging
project so long that storm-damaged trees the U.S. Forest Service wanted to
sell have rotted. Perrin de Jong, head of Kentucky Heartwood, claimed a major
victory in the battle to keep loggers from sawing up trees knocked down by an
ice storm two years ago in the northern portion of the Daniel Boone National
Forest near Morehead. The Forest Service labeled the claim ridiculous, but de
Jong said all of the fallen trees have decayed to the point that they’re no
longer marketable. Forest Service official Rex Mann in Winchester said he did
not trust Heartwood’s information that the trees are too decayed to be
removed. “So they’re saying that just by everything being held up so long,”
the wood from the fallen trees “won’t be salable?” Mann asked. “That’s a bit
humorous. We’re moving ahead with this action and, as you know, the wheels
sometimes grind slowly.” Richard White, a Morehead log exporter, appeared to
support Heartwood’s claim in part Tuesday. “The sapwood has completely
rotted” in trees on adjoining private land, White said, “and most of the bark
has fallen off. Now the insects are getting into it.” Some larger trees are
still marketable, White said, but he estimated the value of the timber had
dropped 80 percent. http://www.wkyt.com/Global/story.asp?S=3677163
West Virginia:
23) Timbering allowed in the Monongahela National Forest could more than
double under a proposed management plan announced Monday by the U.S. Forest
Service. More of the 910,000-acre forest would be protected as wilderness,
under the Bush administration proposal. But forest planners proposed
wilderness designation for only four of the 11 areas they gave detailed study
for that protection, according to the draft plan. David Ede, a forest planner
at Monongahela headquarters in Elkins, said that the proposal has something
for everyone to like — and dislike. The Monongahela, established in 1911,
covers nearly 1 million acres in 10 counties. It is the fourth-largest
national forest in the northeastern United States, and is within one day’s
drive of one-third of the nation’s population. Environmental groups, under
the umbrella of the West Virginia Wilderness Coalition, have pushed for the
Forest Service to greatly increase the area protected from logging,
road-building and motorized travel through a wilderness designation. Previous
studies issued by the agency showed that 16 remote areas that totaled 137,140
acres were determined to meet federal wilderness guidelines. The Forest
Service studied 11 of those in detail. The draft document issued Monday
listed on four of those — Cheat Mountain, Cranberry Expansion, Dry Fork and
Roaring Plains West — totaling 27,700 acres as newly proposed wilderness
areas. But, the Forest Service proposed to increase the maximum annual timber
sales to 63 million board feet per year. Last year, for example, only 2.1
million board feet were sold from the Monongahela. Over the last 10 years,
the Monongahela has averaged just less than 10 million board feet of timber
sold per year, the draft plan states. Dave Saville, administrator of the West
Virginia Highlands Conservancy, said that his group is “extremely
disappointed that the Forest Service is rolling back protection of the Mon
and is proposing opening up more of the National Forest to logging, road
building and exploitation.” http://wvgazette.com/section/Today/2005080118
Arkansas:
24) In a sort of ecological trade-off, conservationists headed into the
Arkansas woods Thursday to kill dozens of trees in hopes of helping the
ivory-billed woodpecker, a bird that up until recently was feared extinct.
The woodpecker feasts on beetle larvae beneath the bark of dead trees.
Killing trees by damaging the bark or administering herbicide could create
more food for them and help the species recover. “The goal really is to see
if we can induce some kind of decrepitness in these trees, attract the
insects and ultimately see if the woodpecker would use the trees,” said
Douglas Zollner, who works with The Nature Conservancy and is one of the
project directors.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050804/ap_on_sc/woodpecker_feast
Canada:
25) Anthony Hebron, spokesman for Limited Brands, the Columbus, Ohio-based
parent company of Victoria’s Secret, says its catalogue practices are
changing. Even before the protests started, he says, the company had started
cleaning up its environmental act. This year, says Hebron, it will print more
than 25 million catalogues promoting clearance sales on paper with
85-per-cent recycled content. ForestEthics counters that Victoria’s Secret
has made the move only after the environmental group quietly alerted it in
2003 that it was preparing its caribou campaign. Besides, nearly 90 per cent
of its catalogues still contain little or no recycled paper. But the company
has made “an excellent first step,” Chester Vance concedes. Woodland caribou
— one of three types native to Canada — are found in all provinces and
territories except Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and
Nunavut. The latest data suggest there may be 33,000 still living among the
black spruce, white spruce and tamarack of the northern boreal forest. In
2000, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, a federal
agency, designated the boreal woodland caribou a “threatened” species, citing
habitat loss as one reason. Schaefer, who has studied the animals for 20
years, says they’ve vanished from half of their historic range, which once
included all of the Maritime provinces, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont,
Wisconsin and Minnesota. Rachel Plotkin, director of the forests and
biodiversity program for the Sierra Club of Canada, notes that B.C. and
Alberta have no legislation to protect the caribou, while Manitoba has
applicable laws but hasn’t used them to shield the animals. At least Quebec,
adds Plotkin, has engaged the public in the future of forest management. She
notes the province recently announced plans to reduce the volume of tree
harvesting from public forests by 20 per cent. But the woodland caribou
population is already stressed from diminishing access to its preferred
habitat, and it’s not getting much help. While the focus should be on what
kind of habitat can be maintained for the animals, she says, “the main
objective of governments that are creating policy is still, ‘How much can we
get out of this forest.’ ” It’s time to look at the evidence and change
attitudes, she says, “because caribou are telling us that our past practices
have been unsustainable.”
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/environment/article.jsp?content=20050801_
110136_110136
European Union:
26) United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) : Strong economic
conditions, combined with effective industry and government promotion
policies, drove forest products markets to record levels in 2004 for the
UNECE region as a whole. As an indication of demand, consumption of primary
forest products rose by 4% and by over 50 million cubic metres (m3), to reach
1.3 billion m3 in 2004 for the region. China’s imports of unprocessed and
semi-processed wood from the UNECE region, and its exports of value-added
production back to the region, have mixed effects, depending on how
successfully companies have adapted to globalization. Illegal logging is less
than 1% of legal fellings for most countries in the UNECE region; however it
is greater for a few countries, with substantial environmental, social and
economic costs to governments, and with negative ramifications throughout the
sector. For the first time as consumption expanded, driven by over 2 million
housing starts, North America became a net importer of sawn softwood in 2004
when its sawnwood imports expanded by over 15%, and at 42 million m3,
exceeded European imports.
http://www.harolddoan.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4923
Liberia:
27) An international rights advocacy group, Global Witness has added its
weight to the report of the Forest Concession Review Committee set up by the
Chairman of the National Transitional Government of Liberia, Charles Gyude
Bryant in collaboration with international partners. In a dispatch from its
Headquarters in London, the United Kingdom, Global Witness said it welcomes
the findings and recommendations contained in the Forest Concession Review
Committee (FCRC) Report on Liberia’s forest industry. The report, published
in early July 2005, documents extensive corruption and abuses in the industry
and makes a series of strong recommendations. One of its main recommendations
is that the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL) cancels all
existing forest concessions as “no individual concession holder was able to
demonstrate sufficient level of legal compliance”. The concession review also
found that the citizens of Liberia benefited little from the logging
industry, with only 14% of taxes actually paid and few companies fulfilling
their legal requirements to build schools and clinics. “The NTGL has an
opportunity to reform the industry to ensure that it is used to benefit the
Liberian people rather than a few individuals who would stand to gain from
the industry through corruption.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200508020469.html
Australia:
28) AN attempt by logging giant Gunns to sue a doctor who raised concerns
about potential health risks from its woodchip piles on the Burnie wharf in
northern Tasmania two years ago have hit a major setback. Dr Frank Nicklason,
of environmental group Doctors for Forests, was named in Gunns’ $6.4 million
writ, alongside 19 other defendants — including Greens Senator Dr Bob Brown —
for allegedly conspiring to “unlawfully interfere” with the company’s logging
business. In the Supreme Court of Victoria, Justice Mr Bernard Bongiorno
struck out the company’s statement of claim, saying it had failed to provide
the court with a “proper, coherent and intelligible statement”. He gave the
logging company until 15 August to submit a new, “radically altered”
document.The case against Dr Nicklason is based on public statements he made
two years ago about the potential danger of legionella and fungal diseases
from the logging company’s woodchip piles on the wharf. Dr Nicklason said
last week: “If we lose this case, then the message that goes out is that
other doctors making responsible commentary won’t be able to do that. Our
ability to be public health advocates will be undermined.”
http://news.australiandoctor.com.au/articles/97/0c034c97.asp
29) Logging has devastated more than half of an endangered native bird’s
protected nesting colony, because of a bureaucratic bungle by the Department
of Sustainability and Environment. The blunder was discovered when a botanist
alerted the department, triggering an audit that ended the logging. As few as
150 superb parrots still breed in Victoria, in a handful of nesting colonies
around the Barmah State Forest near Echuca. A century ago superb parrots
could be seen as far south as Plenty, but are now mostly found in NSW, where
about 6000 survive.To stop the birds’ numbers dwindling any further, nesting
trees are supposed to be protected from logging by buffer zones of at least
100 metres, and their locations are a tightly guarded secret to keep the
birds safe from poachers.But the department’s north-east regional director,
Kevin Ritchie said staff forgot to check maps before approving a new logging
coupe in March 2003. “The logging operation intruded into the protection zone
for superb parrots, because that (protection zone) hadn’t been recorded in
the Coupe Information System, and the forestry officer who would normally
have known to check the maps was away ill,” he said. In mid-June, when
logging was halted because of wet weather, botanical consultant Doug Frood
visited the forest. “I was stunned, because this was one of the best
remaining stands of old growth red gums in Barmah and it had been severely
impacted,” he said. When a department staff member investigated Mr Frood’s
complaint on June 29, he realised that the loggers had been allowed deep into
a 35-hectare protected zone. The parrots are due to arrive in the Barmah
forest for their annual four-month breeding season within weeks, during which
time all human disturbances are banned.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/logging-blunder-clears-rare-parrot-nest
/2005/08/05/1123125906394.html?oneclick=true
China:
30) Indonesian paper giant Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) damaged protected forests
in Southern China, but only inadvertently, an official investigation has
concluded. The company’s operations in Hainan Province were found to have
destroyed parts of natural forests but the damage was unintentional,
according to a report from the State Forestry Administration’s office in
provincial capital Haikou, the Beijing News reported yesterday. APP had
submitted a written promise to the forestry administration, promising to
abide by the law and to send regular reports on its operations to forestry
authorities. APP’s Hainan projects were first criticised by the Beijing News
in mid-March, which reported mass logging of roadside trees across the island
province. In late May, international environmental group Greenpeace also
accused APP of endangering Hainan’s forests. It said that a huge gap in
timber supply from the Hainan Jinhai Pulp & Paper Co Ltd, an APP subsidiary,
had led to the logging of many natural forests.
http://www2.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-08/05/content_466487.htm
31) China plans to have a quarter of the country covered by forest within 15
years as it tries to repair the damage loggers have done to fuel the runaway
economy, state media said Monday. The State Forestry Administration said
forest coverage will reach 23 percent in the next 10 to 15 years, an increase
of five percent “China’s forestry development is now entering a turning point
with six key programs to protect natural forests, wildlife and natural
reserves, to prevent soil from eroding and grassland from turning into
desert,” Zhou said. Forests have shrunk over the past few decades because of
over-logging. He said forestry development would take shape throughout China,
with shelter belts expanding along east coast areas and desertification held
in check in underdeveloped western provinces. The east of China is regularly
whipped by typhoons and storms, proving a major menace to the economy, and
Zhou said a comprehensive coastal belt of mangrove, offshore wetlands and
tidal flats would be planted as shelter. In the west a “Green Great Wall,”
first envisioned in 1978 as a barrier to hold back ever-advancing sand dunes,
would finally be planted. To protect the fragile ecosystem in western China
authorities will return infertile farmland to forest or grass. Fast-growing
trees will be planted to meet the country’s never-ending demand for timber
along with the development of bamboo and rattan plantations, the report said.
About one million forestry workers will be involved in planting and forestry
management, it added. –Agence France-Presse http://www.sinodaily.com/
India:
32) The tiger is extinct in Sariska. This is not an isolated tragedy, but an
indicator of the problems that plague our beleaguered national animal. Let us
not forget too, that Sariska is just one tiger reserve from a list of 28,
where poaching is a severe problem. Numbers have fallen drastically in
Ranthambhore, the list of missing felines in Panna is long, and Bandhavgarh
has seen a recent spate of tiger deaths. There has been no sign of the tiger
in Buxa for the past year, Dampha is a similar story and no one knows the
fate of tigers in Nagarjunasagar and Indravati, under the influence of
naxalites. All of the above are Sariskas in the making, unless we act, now.
The Government essentially disagrees that a tiger calamity exists, and even
if it is right, tigers must get the benefit of doubt, and therefore
protection. Tiger numbers are just too fragile, and the habitats far too
vulnerable to permit any laxity. In the period 1994 to 2004, Wildlife
Protection Society of India has documented the illegal killing of 719 tigers.
A more immediate worry is that such patchwork forests allow little space for
tigers. Tigers are territorial animals, and the male needs anything between
30 to over 200 sq km, depending on sufficient prey base and the availability
of females for breeding. Even as tigresses breed within the reserves, once
cubs, especially the males, grow up, they need to carve their own
territories. But there is just no place for them. Territorial fights between
“challenger” and the existing dominant tiger increase. While this is only
natural, a spurt in such fights due to lack of space could also increase
mortality rates. Cubs also stray outside the reserve and fall prey to
poachers or succumb to a conflict situation. It is essential therefore to
protect not just isolated reserves, but also ensure at least some contiguous
habitats.
Madagascar:
33) In the village of Antanambe in northeastern Madagascar seven elders troop
into their office, a single-roomed cabin, to decide the fate of a farmer
caught carrying two planks he had probably sawn from a tree after illegally
cutting it down in the forest. The farmer could face a fine of more than US
$800. According to Didier Rabeviavy of the WWF, Betaolana is the only
surviving stretch of rainforest in an area where 100,000 people live. “A high
population growth rate of three percent has increased the pressure for
tillable land; this promotes the felling of trees and threatens the future of
the forest – we wanted the community to take up the initiative to police and
protect their forests,” he noted. Local communities were keen on the idea of
self-policing. “We know that without forests we will have no rain for our
crops,” commented Baodine, while the other members nodded in silent
agreement. “If we had access to water throughout the year our crops would not
fail, and there would be less pressure on people to go and fell trees,”
commented committee member Leva Francois. “All the houses are built of wood –
we have just initiated attempts to encourage the villagers to construct
houses from home-made bricks,” Rabeviavy commented. Antanambe is one the
first villages attempting to rally its residents around the idea of
manufacturing their own bricks. “It is difficult – people believe that they
need protection from cyclones – but these villages in the interior, which lie
in a mountain basin, are protected and they don’t really need wooden huts –
it has become part of a tradition really,” Rabeviavy observed. Illegal mining
for gemstones is another real threat to the woodland. The village of
Ambodihasina, on the very edge of the forest, has become a popular spot for
illegal miners from West Africa, Asia and even the US. “It is a matter of
time and they will start digging up the forest – even the local villagers,
when the crops fail, join these miners,” said Rabeviavy. Madagascar has
already lost 80 percent of its natural areas and continues to lose an
estimated 200,000 ha annually to deforestation.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/a6715cbd8276ba385f3c69909ad987db.htm
World-wide:
34) Commander Eileen Collins said astronauts on shuttle Discovery had seen
widespread environmental destruction on Earth and warned on Thursday that
greater care was needed to protect natural resources. “Sometimes you can see
how there is erosion, and you can see how there is deforestation. It’s very
widespread in some parts of the world,” Collins said in a conversation from
space with Japanese officials in Tokyo, including Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi. “We would like to see, from the astronauts’ point of view, people
take good care of the Earth and replace the resources that have been used,”
said Collins, who was standing with Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi in
front of a Japanese flag and holding a colorful fan. Collins, flying her
fourth shuttle mission, said the view from space made clear that Earth’s
atmosphere must be protected, too. “The atmosphere almost looks like an
eggshell on an egg, it’s so very thin,” she said. “We know that we don’t have
much air, we need to protect what we have.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050804/us_nm/space_shuttle_dc_133
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