019OEC’s This Week in Trees

019OEC’s – This Week in Trees

Hi everyone… All the trees of the world really, really want you to read all 38 articles from: Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Montana, Alabama, New York, New Hampshire, West Virginia, Kentucky, USA, Canada, Puerto Rico, Russia, Tanzania, Ghana, Philippines, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Australia, Brazil.

Alaska:

1) Richard Pombo, a California Republican, seemed right at home in a roomful of people who support drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But outside, Pombo got a different welcome. Outside the Hotel Captain Cook, Pombo’s arrival sparked a small protest by the Alaska chapter of the Sierra Club. Chapter representative Betsy Goll says, “the logging or timber industry in the Tongass is a losing industry. Taxpayers pay $30 million a year to subsidize the timber industry in the Tongass, so there’s really no way to increase the timber market as it stands.” Pombo says the high cost of logging in the Tongass is the result of environmental lawsuits. Pombo is the youngest committee chair in the House, with rules that favor seniority. He was supported for the job by both Don Young and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. They wanted someone from the Western states to take the chair that Young previously held instead of an East Coast representative. It was the most hotly contested job in the entire session in 2003. Pombo vaulted over nine other more senior Republicans when he was selected in January. http://www.ktuu.com/CMS/templates/alaska_news/master.asp?articleid=14746&zoneid=4

British Columbia:

2) Some trees had been “flashed” – burned only on one side as the fire moved this way and that. The view was of just a fraction of the more than 3,000 acres destroyed by fire in August 2003, here in the Okanagan Valley. But since then, workers have removed more than 2,000 truckloads of burned wood, and the area has reopened to visitors. The trains gave way to roads some time ago, but the rails were pulled up in 1976, leaving a great path and several old and imposing train trestles in the forest. The trestles now have boards to ride the bikes on, and guardrails. Though 12 railroad bridges were destroyed by the fire, some, including the 700-foot-long, 201-foot-high Bellevue Creek Trestle, are intact. Built in the 1930s, these trestles offer a commanding view of the forest all around. “I lost part of my family when those trestles burned,” said Kruger. “I knew every inch of them. It got personal.” Typical “forest fire recovery” cycling tours are slow-paced and cover from about 6.2 to 20 miles. Cyclists ride through stands of lodgepole pine, fir, alder, larch and tamarack. Deer, birds of prey and black bears can be seen on the ride. In addition to lumber companies that moved through to salvage damaged trees, a minibusiness has been operating in the area. Licensed mushroom hunters are harvesting morel mushrooms, which often spring up at the base of trees after fires. http://www.sptimes.com/2005/08/14/Travel/Pedaling_through_a_po.shtml

3) No further logging approvals should be awarded in the coastal Douglas fir ecosystem on Southeast Vancouver Island until site assessments for endangered plants are completed, the Forest Practices Board recommended today. The recommendation is the result of a board investigation of a complaint by the Carmanah Forestry Society. The society complained about an April 2004 approval of a BC Timber Sales Program plan to log on southeast Vancouver Island. The society was concerned that logging would lead to the elimination of endangered plant communities. http://www.fpb.gov.bc.ca/complaints/IRC112/IRC112.pdf “Carmanah Forestry Society applauds the complex and detailed report released today. We now know beyond any doubt that the Coastal Douglas Fir moist maritime (CDFmm) ecosystem is at the “tipping point” of species extirpation, “says President Syd Haskell. The report captures the full problem of not only the red listed Coastal Douglas Fir mm plant communities, but the peril that all sensitive species requiring habitat in valuable forests find themselves up against. “The government is balancing the budget and creating a positive spin in the economy at the cost of the ecological capital of this special province marketed as Supernatural BC. Future generations are being robbed of their resource inheritance,” says Haskell. The Board pointed out that government lacks important conservation tools which will result in species extinction if these problems are not rectified. This report is the tip of the iceberg and at least half a dozen other species are under similar threat of extirpation and possible extinction. Check our web site www.carmanah.ca

4) Former Ministry of Forests (MoF) researcher Michael Copland is vowing to blockade any logging operations planned for a an Eco-Forestry Research Site in the Cowichan Demonstration Forest (CVDF) on Vancouver Island. The Campbell government has revoked the site’s research designation and instead issued logging permits for the area west of Duncan to be clearcut. “I’m determined to nonviolently obstruct them from cutting down this important forest,” states Michael Copland. “I’ve been sleeping here for three weeks and plan to stay to ensure the site remains safe.” The research site of 70 year old Douglas-fir and mixed species forest located at the start of the CVDF was designated in 2000 by the Ministry of Forests as a site where Copland, then employed for eleven years as a Scientific and Technical Officer by the MoF, would engage in a study on the ecological and economic outcomes of an eco-forestry silvicultural regime which Copland has termed a “fluid multi-variable system”. The method essentially involves cutting trees selectively, with a number of cutting entries over a long rotation age under a site and stand specific adaptive management regime. Copland engaged in detailed surveying, design and engineering on the site taking the stand volume and value measurements, intensively surveying the forest, calculating growth rates, building a multi-age, mixed species computer growth and yield system and finally developing a specific harvesting plan to implement this eco-forestry method. However, in 2001, the Ministry of Forests became alarmed at the ramifications of the potential results of an eco-forestry research project that scientifically challenges the current industrial clearcutting/conversion forestry model (i.e. converting old forests into homogenous younger stands), that would have been outlined in an initial research paper that Mr. Copland requested to publish. Following a dispute over the Ministry’s sudden hostile employer-employee relations practices towards him, as well as their harsh disagreement with his criticism within the Ministry of their proposal to privatize and donate 30,000 hectares of Crown lands to MacMillan Bloedel as “compensation” for the creation of the Carmanah and Lower Tsitika Provincial Parks, Copland resigned in 2001 under pressure from Ministry officials. For more information call: Michael Copland (250) 748-2866

5) The Wilderness Committee is Canada’s largest membership-based,
citizen-funded wilderness preservation organization. Our publications keep all of our members up to date on all of our current campaigns. It is a great way to keep up on what is happening. Wild Spirit – Squamish Nation Wild Spirit Places http://www.wildernesscommittee.org/campaigns/rainforest/lower_mainland/stoltmann_wilderness/reports/Vol24No06 Vancouver Island Conservation Visionhttp://www.wildernesscommittee.org/campaigns/rainforest/island/walbran/reports/Vol24No05 Caribou Nation http://www.wildernesscommittee.org/campaigns/species/forest/caribou/reports/Vol24No04 news releases can be found on our media site, see:
http://media.wildernesscommittee.org/

Washington:

6) Gifford Pinchot National Forest — The Cambodian and Laotian pickers from California arrived in mid-July. Then came the caravans of migrant workers from Eastern Washington. Soon, women and children from the Yakama Nation showed up. The annual huckleberry hunt is on in these forests and fields south and west of Mount Adams, where some of the region’s sweetest and juiciest berries are found. It doesn’t matter that the commercial picking season won’t officially start until tomorrow. Everyone, it seems, wants a jump on the harvest. Ta Vong, 20, drove here from San Jose, Calif., on July 16, only to find a dozen pickers already scouting the trails. “And I see more people coming every day,” he said last week. “That’s just bad news.” The surging demand is creating conflicts among Native Americans, commercial pickers and families who visit their favorite fields each year to collect enough of the sweet-tart fruit for pies and jams. The Forest Service is scrambling to figure out how to manage the limited berry supply, which also is a favorite food for the black bears that prowl these woods. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002440188_huckberry14m.html

7)Weyerhaeuser is teaming with The Nature Conservancy and Conservation
International, and with other corporations, in an alliance to conserve
Forests using carbon markets. The primary purpose of the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA) is to create a set of standards for evaluating projects that will help mitigate climate change, while benefiting local communities and protecting or restoring biodiversity. http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/08-16-2005/0004089692&EDATE=

8) The Bush administration on Friday scaled back protection of thousands of miles of rivers across the Northwest and California previously designated as important to protected salmon runs. The government said the new rules are more “cost-effective” and — despite what environmentalists say — show that the National Marine Fisheries Service is “reaffirming its commitment to salmon recovery.” Among the areas losing protection as “critical habitat” are waterways on military bases and Indian-controlled lands. The same goes for three Washington timber operations with so-called habitat conservation plans — which allow killing and harming endangered species in exchange for taking certain actions to help the ones that survive. Environmentalists cite a study showing that species for which such habitat had been identified are twice as likely to be recovering. Property owners have found that outside areas of critical habitat, it’s illegal to kill or harm a protected species — but that inside those lines, they are prevented from even modifying the habitat, said Brooks, the property-rights lawyer. The habitat conservation plan holders whose critical-habitat designations were lifted included two companies in Washington — Green Diamond and West Fork Timber — as well as the state Department of Natural Resources. The city of Seattle, which also holds a habitat conservation plan for the Cedar River watershed, which provides the city’s drinking water, specifically asked to have the designation remain in place, Lohn said. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/236475_salmon13.html

Oregon

9) I was hitch hiking through this Oregon town and came upon a group of people sitting down…They were sitting in lawn chairs, blocking a road In memory of their dear friend, Joan…Come camp, and share Joan stories around the campfire and keep that fire in us when comes the dawn. From: careymassage@yahoo.com ‘Lawnchairs’ –Aug 2005

10) Corvallis residents like to think the water that flows from their faucets comes from a pristine mountain spring atop Marys Peak, not pumped from the Willamette River. It turns out, most people are at least 30 percent right, as the city draws about a third of its water from Rock Creek on the east side of Marys Peak. Access to Rock Creek has been minimally maintained for emergencies, but it is closed to the public, except for a small camp near Highway 34 where the city allows limited use by permit only, such as for Girl Scout camp or a parks and recreation summer program. The city and Forest Service used to harvest timber there, but logging operations ceased after 1984 because of the controversy surrounding the spotted owl, Sundseth said. There are parts of the watershed that resemble an old-growth forest, with trees measured at between 400 and 500 years old, a lush under story and a variety of species. Those conditions are ideal from a water quality standpoint, Sundseth said. The vegetation keeps the soils in place when it rains, and the trees are evenly spaced so that even if there were a fire, the effects wouldn’t be as catastrophic. But on many more acres that were replanted in the 1950s through ’70s, trees are crowding each other out, and blocking light that would support vegetation on the forest floor. “Not a clear-cut, but we definitely need areas thinned,” he said. Sundseth acknowledged potential for financial gain from logging.The timber industry has also found new uses for smaller logs harvested during forest thinning, and more mills are accepting immature trees. “There is money up here, no doubt about it,” Sundseth said. http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2005/08/14/news/top_story/news01.txt

11) Wells and Anzinger’s creation is the 222-page “Lewis and Clark Meet Oregon’s Forests: Lessons from Dynamic Nature.” The two cover a lot of ground – ecology, history, forestry and anthropology, basing their findings on a combination of scientific research, theories, predictions and first-hand written accounts from explorers who came before and after Lewis and Clark. By the early 1900s around the time of the Progressive movement, Wells said people began to wonder if they were cutting too much timber. The fear resulted in the creation of federal parks – lands set aside not for preservation, Wells said, but to ensure their would always be timber to cut if private stocks were exhausted. Despite the newfound trepidation, by the end of World War II, the demand was too great, Wells said, and trees were felled at an astonishing rate. She stopped short of offering a steadfast prescription for how forests must be managed in the future, saying instead that those interested in trees need to be stewards or active managers of the land, not preservationists where nature – and nature alone – dictates the role of the forest. She believes that despite capitalism being the driving force behind their exploration, Lewis and Clark would be “shocked and saddened” by how industry has affected the environment, and that the timber boom of the 1940s through the 1980s would likely never be witnessed again. She advocated instead for tree farming, increasing the number of public and private partnerships, and more private nonprofits to help settle forest management practices and policy questions. “What is better – a logging site or a hiking trail?” Wells asked. “Both are necessary.” http://www.theworldlink.com/articles/2005/08/16/news/news03.txt

12) Two decades ago, forest harvest operations usually “cleaned up” a site after logging, removing most of the debris at considerable cost and effort. As this and other studies showed the compelling ecological value of that material, the debris is now largely left where it is, making the forest healthier in the long run and saving hundreds of millions of dollars in unnecessary work. “When this study began, we still assumed that most debris and logs decayed in more or less the same way, only releasing their stored-up nutrients after decades or centuries of decay,” Harmon said. “It’s now understood that there are large differences between the decay rate caused by different decomposers of different tree species, and that some nutrients from dead wood begin to enrich the forest almost immediately. “That’s a huge change in our thinking, and there are still a lot more changes to come,” he said. Among the other findings of the first 20 years of this work:
· As much as one-third of the nitrogen in Pacific Northwest forests, one of the key nutrients that limit vegetation growth, appears to come from nitrogen fixation processes within rotting logs, in addition to that being slowly released from the wood itself.
· Nutrient release begins far more quickly than ever anticipated, from both decaying fungi and the leaching effects of persistent rains.
· The “brown rot” fungi that cannot break down lignin in trees leaves structural material behind to help form the next generations of forest floor and ultimately soil. White rot fungi, by contrast, degrade all parts of the wood, leaving almost nothing behind and decaying far more rapidly but only on some tree species.
· Although some wood (such as Douglas-fir) resists decay, mechanisms such as mushroom growth on downed logs work to drain nitrogen from these logs, much more than had been understood.
· There is a 10-fold difference in wood decay rates among dead trees. True firs such as silver fir will decay far more rapidly than other species, as much as 5-6 percent a year and may be gone in 60 years or less. Other species such as western red cedar or Douglas-fir may persist for hundreds of years.
· Some parts of a log will decay and release nutrients much more quickly than other parts, leading to complex patterns that cannot be predicted by considering just the “average” condition of the wood.
· Decay processes are dynamic and constantly changing, and they affect everything from nutrient release to soil changes, stream sedimentation, and plant, animal and fish habitat.
http://www.medfordnews.com/articles/index.cfm?artOID=309075&cp=10996

California:

13) The public will have another chance to help shape the future of Brooktrails 2,500-acre forest from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, August 27, at the Brooktrails Community Center on Birch Street. The goal of the meeting, which will be facilitated by professional mediator Brian Weller, is to receive public direction for a forest plan that will ultimately be written by the Recreation, Greenbelt and Conservation Committee and presented to the Brooktrails Board for adoption. So far, nothing is set in stone–not even the name of the plan. Dozens of larger trees are among those marked for possible clearing in a one-acre demonstration fuel break running uphill from the middle of the exercise trail that begins at the foot of Birch Street. Some suggest cutting the marked trees to give the public a look at the sort of fuel break that might be created in various greenbelt locations. Others say the expense should be shouldered only in the Fire Defense Zone, that is, the area in which fuel breaks would be strategically placed for controlling wildfire. One such area has been identified along Ridge Road, since fires historically sweep up hill and into the community from the west. Mary Ziady, speaking for the Recreation, Greenbelt and Conservation Committee, has promised not to recommend commercial logging as a funding alternative. That leaves grants and contributions from residents. Specific possibilities include raising water rates–since the forest is Brooktrails watershed–and seeking a fire protection levy, which would require two thirds voter approval for passage. http://www.willitsnews.com/Stories/0,1413,253~26908~3014163,00.html

14) A lawsuit to stop harvesting of timber from last year’s 16,000-acre Power Fire near Bear Creek Reservoir has been filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento. The suit, filed by the John Muir Project of the Earth Island Institute and the Center for Biological Diversity, claims that the U.S. Forest Service proposes to cut trees that should not be declared dead and that the harvest will endanger critical habitat for spotted owls and two species of woodpeckers. Meanwhile, a contract to cut timber on one tract in the burn area has been awarded already and cutting was scheduled to begin on Aug. 11. In anticipation of the court fight, representatives of the U.S. Forest Service and the county agricultural commissioner appeared before the Amador County Board of Supervisors last week, asking for their support in heading off delays. David Helton of the district timber management office for El Dorado Forest District told the supervisors that 130 million board feet of lumber is at stake – enough to build 26,000 homes. Boitano said the supervisors’ support was being sought as a step toward heading off a temporary restraining order from such a lawsuit. The forest service has filed an environmental impact statement, Boitano said, discussing alternatives ranging from doing nothing to harvesting every available tree. The alternative being proposed, he said, is to log about 9,000 of the 16,000 acres that burned, leaving behind habitat for endangered species and snags where raptors may roost. The supervisors lent their unanimous approval to the plan and agreed to send a letter of support, in case it’s needed. The lawsuit, filed on Aug. 11 by Rachel M. Fazio, attorney for both the Earth Island Institute and the Center for Biological Diversity, claims the forest service overestimated the number of dead trees, underestimated the amount of suitable spotted owl habitat and failed to analyze the impacts of removing a significant number of trees that still showed 35 percent green in their crowns. In her suit, Fazio said that spotted owls have reoccupied seven of the nine areas set aside as protected habitat and that harvesting the timber would deplete the needed 300-acre habitat surrounding each of their nest trees. According to the lawsuit, the forest service is relying “on their inaccurate assessment of habitat and their belief that owls do not use burned forests.” In addition, the lawsuit claims, black-backed three-toed woodpeckers and hairy woodpeckers are associated with burned forests and need the burned-out snags for habitat. http://www.ledger-dispatch.com/news/newsview.asp?c=166391

15) Federal biologists are getting their first look at whether Northern spotted owls will move back into areas where barred owls that invaded their territory have been killed. Hunters for the California Academy of Sciences have taken three barred owls on the Klamath National Forest as part of a study of how the birds may have changed since migrating across North America and invading spotted-owl territory, said Jack Dumbacher, chairman of ornithology for the academy in San Francisco. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is monitoring the area to see whether displaced spotted owls move back into their territory but has no plans for large-scale killing of barred owls, regional spokeswoman Joan Jewett said. http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0813owl13.html

Montana:

16) Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals this week halted logging proposed in the Elkhorn Mountain Range, saying miscalculations of hiding cover for elk by the Helena National Forest violated federal laws. “The appeals court said they violated NFMA (the National Forest Management Act) because they’re not following their forest plan for hiding cover,” Johnson said on Friday. Helena National Forest spokesman Jerry Meyer was dismayed at the ruling, noting that the Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station had planned on using the Elkhorn project — which the Forest Service termed a “wildlife habitat improvement” effort — to study long-term impacts on wildlife. “We thought we would get some useful information, because so much of what people assess as effects are observational and not precise, and this would be a scientific attempt to gauge the impacts,” Meyer said. “We thought this was a good project … We always hate to lose in court, and this one was going to include valuable research information, so it makes it even more difficult.” The Elkhorns are one of the most heavily hunted mountain ranges in Montana, and the Helena forest management plan includes several standards to provide security and habitat for species like elk and mule deer. One of the requirements is that each elk herd has at least 35 percent hiding cover —specifically described as “a timber stand which conceals 90 percent or more of a standing elk at 200 feet” — to decrease the stress caused during hunting season or other human activities. the Forest Service apparently altered its calculation methodology to boost to the percentage needed under the Helena National Forest Plan. Johnson’s group, along with the Ecology Center of Missoula, filed an administrative appeal with the Regional Forester, and later a U.S. District Court lawsuit, complaining of the calculations. This is the second time in recent years that a judge has stopped the Forest Service from logging in the Elkhorns. http://www.helenair.com/articles/2005/08/13/helena_top/a01081305_01.txt

17) Gallatin National Forest is preparing to move ahead with plans to remove fuels from about 1,600 acres in the West Yellowstone and Hebgen Lake areas. The main goal of the five-year to seven-year project is to reduce fuels, improve escape routes and reduce the possibility of wildfire. Bill Queen, the Gallatin’s district ranger in West Yellowstone, said the project will remove dead and down fuels and reduce the density of trees, with the goal of cutting the risk of a destructive crown fire, which travels rapidly through a forest’s treetops. The work will cost between $170 and $220 per acre to accomplish, Queen said, and the overall project will cost about $277,000. Those costs will be slightly offset by the sale of about 700,000 board feet of small-diameter wood, mostly posts and rails worth approximately $14,000. All the work will be done within a quarter mile of roads or developed areas, he said. Patricia Dowd, of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, said her group is mostly satisfied with the proposal, with the exception of plans for some tree cutting in lynx habitat in the Targhee Pass. “That’s kind of a sticking point,” she said, adding that she doesn’t know if her group will appeal the project. http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2005/08/14/news/project.txt

Alabama:

18) Mention the Sipsey River to U. S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, and it conjures images of sunlight bouncing off the pristine water as he makes his way along, paddling a canoe with his friends. That is how Sessions, R-Mobile, remembered the river during a Monday visit to Bankhead National Forest, where he checked on the progress of the U.S. Forest Service’s five-year Health and Restoration Plan. “A long time ago, we canoed down the Sipsey, and it’s one of the best trips I’ve ever taken,” Session told Forest Service staff. “As far as being able to get out in a totally pristine environment, it’s visually breathtaking, and if you get hot, you can get in the water. There are sandbars everywhere.” The plan includes thinning more than 9,400 acres of pine trees to reduce the risk of Southern pine beetle infestation, burning between 11,000 and 12,000 acres annually to remove the combustible materials that dead trees produce and a $5 million research project by Alabama A&M University and the Southern Research Station to study the effects of thinning and prescribed burning. Alabama’s Forest Service supervisor, Stephen Rickerson, said the Forest Service will burn 75,000 acres of forest in Alabama this year and one million of the 13 million acres of Forest Service land across the south. http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/050816/sessions.shtml

NewYork:

19) The Adirondack Park Agency has proposed new classifications for almost 74,000 acres of public land, including parcels in the northern forest that could accommodate snowmobiles and ATVs as sought by local officials. The agency’s board approved the package last week, pending approval by Gov. George Pataki. It would designate roughly 39,000 Adirondack acres as primitive or wilderness, essentially to be left natural, and 32,000 acres as wild forest where some motorized recreation can be allowed. Almost 10,000 acres of the Raquette-Boreal Wild Forest, the environmentally sensitive home to the spruce grouse and some rare plants, would shift to the more-restrictive primitive status. Some 3,200 adjacent acres in Colton would be designated wild forest, considered critical by municipal officials for snowmobiles, as well as the all-terrain vehicles largely barred from state Adirondack land. APA spokesman Keith McKeever said the agency’s proposals represent a compromise, designating the more sensitive and larger area east of the Lassiter Main Haul Road as primitive, and the smaller areas mainly on the west side of the road as wild forest. Adirondack Council spokesman John Sheehan said the environmental group hoped to see the entire boreal forest classified as wilderness, adding that ATVS already are damaging trails in the area. They also threaten the endangered spruce grouse, which shows little fear of motorized vehicles, and the proposed bridge would only bring more ATVs, he said. “Unfortunately the mossy carpet in the boreal forest is very inviting to someone with an off-road vehicle,” Sheehan said. http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny–adirondackland0817aug17,0,4817647.story?coll=ny-
region-apnewyork

New Hampshire:

20) A large tract of forestland has been protected from development in southeastern New Hampshire. Sen. Judd Gregg announced on Tuesday that a second $1 million federal grant will help protect the 2,200 acre Moose Mountains Regional Greenway in Middleton. The land includes three mountain ridges and streams that lead to the ocean. It borders state Fish and Game land and the Middleton Town Forest and brings to almost 4,000 acres that will be protected from development. The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests will own the land, which will stay open for hunting, hiking and snowmobiling and logging. http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2005/08/17/large_tract_of_land_protected/

West Virginia:

21) “The family tradition continues,” Humphreys said. “My company is committed to not only leaving the forests in as good of condition as we find them, but improving them for future generations.” Humphreys’ company, B.T. Humphreys Logging of Lewisburg, was recently selected as West Virginia’s 2005 Outstanding Logger. The West Virginia Forestry Association presents this award annually to recognize the outstanding work of logging professionals in the state. http://www.register-herald.com/articles/2005/08/13/business/38logger14.txt

Kentucky:

22) Seven states have now signed onto an initiative with the federal Office of Surface Mining to return hardwood forests to mine-scarred lands in the Appalachians. But some environmentalists said the reforestation project cannot replace the original forests. Dave Cooper, a member of the environmental group Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, said he would prefer that mining companies not strip mountains of vegetation in order to dig up coal. “This is not a solution to putting the mountains back the way they were before,” he said. “This is an improvement, but it’s not a solution. I don’t think we can ever put it back the way it was.” Graves said researchers involved in the project on a mountaintop near Hazard found that hardwoods reach maturity nearly twice as fast on uncompacted mine lands than the same types of trees on unmined land. Paul Rothman, director of the Kentucky Division of Mine Reclamation and Enforcement, said most former surface mines are now covered in grass, not trees. He said that’s because the soil and rock has been compacted to the point that tree roots have difficulty penetrating the ground. Wahlquist said mine regulatory agencies and coal operators historically compacted mined lands to minimize the chances of land slides. The same stability can be accomplished, he said, without sacrificing trees. http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/12407170.htm

USA:
23) Forest Service officials have scaled back their assessment of how much recreation on national forest land contributes to the American economy, concluding that these activities generate just a tenth of what the Clinton administration estimated. “It’s just as valuable to us today as it was 10 years ago; we just have a better way of calculating it,” Holtrop said in an interview. “We recognize recreation activity is an important program to the American people. But critics of the administration said they fear that the new numbers, which were obtained from the nonprofit Natural Resources News Service, will be used to justify more logging and mining on national forests. Under the old estimates, recreation accounted for 85 percent of the system’s contribution to the GDP, compared with extraction’s 11 percent; under the new formula, recreation represents 59 percent. “Would I expect anything different from the Bush administration? No,” said Michael Francis, who directs the national forest program at the Wilderness Society, an advocacy group. “They will cook the books for whatever they want.” Clinton administration officials assumed there would be 800 million visits each year to national forests by 2000; current officials have determined that there were just over 200 million visits in 2002. The Forest Service obtained the lower visitor numbers through its National Visitor Use Monitoring Program, which surveyed tourists in every national forest between 2000 and 2004, Arnold said. The agency also decided to peg spending associated with such visits at $46 a person. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/14/AR2005081401103.html

24) The best way to save the planet’s large wild mammals facing extinction this century, including lions, cheetahs, elephants and camels, is the creation of a huge nature preserve in the US midwest, a group of leading biologists argue in this week’s issue of Nature magazine. Using the end of the Pleistocene period some 13,000 years ago — when the prehistoric cousins of these and other “megafauna” roamed North America by the millions — as a benchmark, the scientists call for the “re-wilding” of great swathes of sparsely populated land. “It would take many, many hundreds of square miles (kilometers),” said Harry Greene, one of the authors and a professor at Cornell University in New York. “We are talking about an American Serengeti,” he added, referring to the 15,000 square kilometer (5,800 square mile) wildlife preserve in northern Tanzania. There are at least three compelling reasons — one biological, one ethical and one economic — to take such a bold step, the authors argue. Repopulating the American Great Plains with the descendents of species that disappeared from that habitat more than 10,000 years ago is “an alternative conservation strategy for the 21st century,” says Josh Donlan, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell, and lead author of the editorial. “We want to reinvigorate wild places as widely and rapidly as is prudently possible,” he writes. Without dramatic, “pro-active” steps, he suggests, many big carnivores and herbivores will disappear from the wild by century’s end. “Africa’s large mammals are dying, stranded on a continent where wars are waged over scarce resources.” Anticipating objections about manipulating nature, Greene points out that moving Asian and African megafauna to North America is simply restoring a natural equilibrium and biodiversity. Agence France-Presse.

Canada:

25) I am a tree nerd. Although I like flowers, I’ve never been much of a gardener. The truth came out on a recent trip to a nursery with a friend. After heaving bags of expensive dirt into the back of her car (the only reason she took me along), I snuck away while she was picking out perennials. Twenty minutes later, she found me in a daze, wandering wide-eyed through the shadowy recesses of the nursery, communing with the ginkgos and beeches. Trees are about the only thing I remember clearly from childhood. Every branch and climbing nook of the plum tree we had in our back yard is etched in my mind. I couldn’t tell you the name of my first grade teacher, but the weeping willow in the schoolyard haunts me to this day. For years I’ve kept my tree life hidden. But when a friend of mine with impeccable taste recently gave me a serviceberry (Aelanchier Canadensis) as a gift, I had to rethink my secret obsession. Had I been unwittingly walking among kindred tree nerds for years? Was all the talk about NFL fantasy league football just a smokescreen put up by men who secretly yearned to discuss the foliage structure of Pseudotsuga menziessi (Douglas fir)? http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050813/TREES13/TPEntertainment/Style

Puerto Rico:

26) Dangling from a handy branch in her technical rock-climbing gear, ecologist Nancy Harris of the State University of New York at Syracuse is demonstrating a new way to study one of the richest and least-understood regions of the tropical rain forest: the treetop canopy. Working in Puerto Rico’s Luquillo Forest, one of NSF’s 26 LTER sites, she and her colleagues can rig a tree for climbing in as little as an hour. A giant slingshot is used to shoot a 3-ounce fishing weight, attached to a 12-pound-test fishing line, over a branch high in the canopy. Once the line is over the branch, it is replaced first with parachute cord and then with a 12-millimeter-diameter rock-climbing rope that can be climbed using a harness and mechanical ascenders. A separate pulley system is rigged so instruments can be raised or lowered to any height in the canopy by pulling a rope from the ground. Once she ascends, Harris uses a portable device to measure the photosynthetic rates of both canopy and understory leaves of different tree species. She will later combine these measurements with climate modeling techniques to figure out how the element carbon flows through specific “columns” of the Luquillo Forest. Carbon is important in studies of global climate change. Other researchers at the Luquillo LTER site are climbing trees to find out how much damage hurricanes wreak on rain forest canopies. To match the damage observed after past hurricanes, scientists have removed specific numbers of tree branches from experimental plots. Tree canopies are important regulators of local environmental conditions because of their exposure and the resistance they provide to wind damage, said Gholz. “But canopies are also very susceptible to the high winds of strong storms like hurricanes.” Hurricanes like Hugo regularly strike Puerto Rico, cutting a swath through the forest, said scientist Nick Brokaw of the University of Puerto Rico. “However, in our experimental plots mimicking hurricane conditions, we’re seeing that thousands of new seedlings are sprouting, and thickets of saplings are developing.” http://newswire.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050815.092758&time=10%2028%20PDT&year=2005&public=0

Russia:

27) Russia sustained 724.2 million rubles (about $25 million) in damages from illegal tree felling in the Far East in the first six months of 2005, a senior Russian forestry official said Tuesday. Speaking at the Russian-Chinese forestry talks, Albert Kasparov from Russia’s Forestry Agency said a total of 29,700 cubic meters of trees had been illegally cut down in the first six months of 2005 in the Far East alone. Illegal felling is especially common in the Primorye Territory, where a total of 181 cases of illegal deforestation causing financial damage of 475 million rubles (about $17 million) have been exposed. In all, 7,000 instances of illegal forest felling causing 2.9 billion rubles (about $102 million) of damage were found across Russia in the first half of 2005. A total of 300,000 cubic meters of trees were illegally cut during this period. The problem of illegal tree felling is very acute, and requires unified action from international organizations, he said. Russia intends to monitor 140 million hectares of forest in 2006, he said. A Chinese official at the talks expressed the hope that both countries would continue their cooperation in fighting illegal felling and invited the head of the Russian Federal Forestry Agency to hold the next meeting of the Russian-Chinese forestry group in China.Unprocessed timber exports from Russia totaled 10.8 million cubic meters in the first six months of 2005, of which 3.9 million cubic meters went to China. http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050816/41166452.html

Tanzania:

28) The Tanzania government is at an advanced stage of concessioning more than 1,709 hectares of teak trees at Longuza Teak Plantation (LTP) near Muheza in Tanga region to a foreign-owned firm at nearly a tenth of the timber’s worth. The move has placed the government on a collission course with foresters who say the 270,000 cubic metres should be sold at $38 million, not at the “throwaway” price of $14 million. The President of Tanzania Association of Foresters (TAF), Dr Felician Kilahama, told The EastAfrican that most of the trees were 30 years old and ready for logging. “The sale of the teak plantation would see the government losing more than $53 million, when about 440 acres with trees that are not ready for harvesting are considered,” Dr Kilahama said. A senior official in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism told The EastAfrican in Dar es Salaam that discussions on the concession of the Longuza Teak Plantation were now “at the highest office in the land.” The official said “everything would be made public” through a statement from the ministry this week. Other sources said that the Cabinet had approved the concession of the teak plantation to Kilombero Valley Teak Company (KVTC) last week. KVTC is jointly owned by the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) and a Finnish company, Finn Fund. Foresters associate the questionable concession with delays by the government to form a Forestry Agency that would handle all woodland matters. The agency was supposed to start operations under an executive director in April last year but its establishment has since been moved to July, 2006. http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/News/Regional150820058.htm

Ghana:

29) Illegal felling of trees by the chainsaw operators working in league with contractors is on the increase in forest reserves in Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District. Following a tip-off the Forestry Commission Taskforce in collaboration with volunteers mounted an exercise and impounded a quantity of boards and beams estimated to worth millions of cedis from the Wawashe Forest Reserve, near Breman Jamra. The impounded boards beams have been packed at the Breman Asikuma District Assembly. Leaders of the volunteer groups, Mr Yaw Ahor and Miss Patience Appeaning told the Ghana News Agency at Breman Jamra that they used a tractor to convey 255 beams and 360 boards from the forest. Mr Ahor said more boards and logs yet to be sawn were located in the reserve adding that a parcel of the land had in the reserve had turned into savannah and occupied by pawpaw plantation. He said with the presence of the Taskforce the recalcitrant operators carried out their activities in the night. When contacted, the District Technical Officer, Mr Kwao in-charge of the Taskforce confirmed the report and said that an appeal had gone to farmers living along the borders of the reserve to report illegal felling of trees to the Forestry Commission. http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=88287

Philippines:

30) Destructive, illegal, and only in Manila. Winner Foundation, caretakers of the disputed Arroceros Forest Park in Manila had that to say Tuesday, as they relaunched an offensive against the Manila city government, which has been cutting trees in the park to give way to a teacher’s office building. “In civilized countries, a historical site uncovered in the process of road building or construction of an edifice or even a critical project like a subway or waterworks is never destroyed but studied and preserved,” said Maria Isabel Ongpin, renowned archeologist and president of the Museum Foundation of the Philippines. Crime against history: “Destruction of a heritage site is considered a heinous crime in history, and no self-respecting government allows it,” continued Ongpin. In April 2003, the National Museum declared the 2.1 hectare property as an archeological site, having been the seat of the Parian, a community of Chinese traders, from the late 16th century to the middle of the 18th century. http://news.inq7.net/metro/index.php?index=1&story_id=47129

Pakistan:

31) The Monsoon Tree Plantation Campaign will continue for a period of two weeks and a target of 41.4 million saplings all over Pakistan has been proposed for the campaign. President and Prime Minister have delivered special messages on the occasion. Punjab Forest Department will plant 13 million saplings while Sindh Forest Department and NWFP Forest Department have been given a target of 8 million each. Azad Jammu & Kashmir Forest Department and Balochistan Forest Department are expected to achieve plantation targets of 10 million and 0.5 million respectively. In the year 2004, a total of 121.166 trees were planted during the spring and monsoon Tree Plantation Campaigns, and 67 million trees were planted during the Spring Tree Plantation Campaign 2005. Ministry of Environment is launching a “Sustainable Forest Management Plan” to ensure the protection of the tress and to increase the survival percentage of the trees planted during the Tree Planting Campaigns. http://www.onlinenews.com.pk/details.php?id=85509

India:

32) The sandal tree felling in Kerala’s only sandal forest at Marayur has recorded an alarming rise during UDF Government’s reign, beginning in 2001. If the total number of sandalwood trees felled in the five years from 1995 to 2000 was just 324, it has skyrocketed to a whopping 3,949 in the period from January 2000 to January 2001. He has reported that 2,628 trees were chopped down in 2002 and 1,232 in 2003. Not only in Marayur, the increase in the offences related to sandalwood felling has happened all over the state. The number of accused (involved and arrested), vehicles seized, cases charged and the number of convictions too has recorded a steep rise. The High Court had pointed its fingers at UDF’s former Forest Minister K P Viswanathan, who eventually resigned following some adverse observations by the High Court. Serious allegations were also raised against former Industries Minister P K Kunjalikutty for his alleged nexus with the sandalwood mafia. The government promises even satellite monitoring to bring down the felling of sandalwood, but chopping continues unabated. http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEX20050815121327&Title=Kochi&Topic=0

Malaysia:

33) An international forest expert says five Malaysian companies are taking most of Papua New Guinea’s revenue from logging, but showing no interest in PNG’s long-term interests. The director-general of the Centre for International Forestry Research, David Kaimowitz, says the Malaysian firms are taking almost all the logging money which should go to the PNG Government or villagers. Dr Kaimowitz says the Malaysian loggers want to get as much as they can and then leave Papua New Guinea within 10 years. “And those five Malaysian logging companies, up until now, have shown relatively little interest in the country’s long-term development,” he said. “If those companies were more careful about how they logged, PNG could keep its forestry exports going practically sustainable into the future. But the way the forests are being mistreated today, they won’t have timber to harvest for very long.” Dr Kaimowitz says wood exports are worth 10 per cent of PNG’s exports, but forest exports peaked almost a decade ago. He says it is becoming harder and harder to find high-value timber in Papua New Guinea. Dr Kaimowitz says that since Abdullah Badawi took over as Malaysia’s Prime Minister from Dr Mahathir, Kuala Lumpur has shown more concern about the activities of Malaysian loggers. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1438833.htm

Australia:

34) The Supreme Court of Victoria has ordered Tasmanian timber company Gunns Limited to pay a substantial part of the legal costs of 20 environmentalists. Gunns has accused the defendants of trespass, sabotage and the destruction of property at its logging sites. The court’s order relates to the cost of preparing a statement of claim that it struck out last month. A new statement of claim is now being prepared. Outside the court, Greens leader Bob Brown, who is one of the defendants, said he found it extraordinary that Gunns’ lawyers are again arguing for more time. “I thought they had their case ready on 14 December last year now they’re saying it’s oppressive for them not to get a couple of more weeks,” Senator Brown said. “They ought to go to the dictionary and see what that word means and see what they’re doing to 20 good Australian people and organisations.” Senator Brown says the legal bills are already huge and the new claim has not even begun to be heard. “We think that Gunns should desist. It should remove this case against people who are defending the wild forests and wildlife of Tasmania …. defending this nation’s heritage,” he said. A Gunns spokeswoman says the company is not in a position to comment. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1439466.htm

New Zealand:

35) Solid Energy coal trains bound for Lyttelton Port have been halted by environmental protesters who locked themselves onto railway tracks near Christchurch today. Protest organisers say they have stopped three Solid Energy coal trains from reaching the port. The protesters from the Save Happy Valley Campaign oppose Solid Energy’s plans for an open-cast coal mine in Happy Valley on the West Coast. More than 25 people have gathered to support the three locked on. Two of those locked on are attached to the track itself and a third is hanging 30m above the ground from a nearby tree and whose support rope is tied to the tracks. Protest organisers reported that police had gathered to remove the protesters, and were bringing in cutting gear. “We refuse to move and will continue to block Solid Energy’s coal trains so long as they continue with their plans to destroy Happy Valley,” Daniel Rae, one of the protesters locked on, said. In March four protesters locked themselves to the Solid Energy office in Christchurch and two were subsequently arrested. The Environment Court earlier this year ruled in favour of Solid Energy’s proposal after an appeal from the Buller Conservation Group and Forest and Bird. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10340642

Brazil:

36) Trees, after all, absorb carbon dioxide as they grow, and early measurements from aerial towers in the Amazon suggested that the forest sucked up the offending gas with a vengeance. But Anthony Aufdenkampe, a biogeochemist now at the Stroud Water Research Center in Avondale, Chester County, is poking holes in that theory. Though lots of carbon dioxide does enter the forest in the form of new woody growth and leaves, much of it is lost by a route that scientists are only just beginning to understand: rivers. Aufdenkampe, 36, who came to the Stroud center in 2003 from the University of Washington, has helped write two papers on the subject for the British journal Nature, the most recent for the July 28 issue. His team measured how carbon enters the river in the form of leaves and twigs, which are in turn consumed by microorganisms and insects that release carbon dioxide back to the atmosphere. According to the latest paper, the gas leaving via the Amazon’s sprawling network of rivers comes primarily from forest matter that is less than five years old. “It’s not ancient stuff that’s been stored in the forest or in the soils for a long time,” Aufdenkampe said. “It basically goes from the atmosphere to the forest to the river and back to the atmosphere in five years or less, which is much more rapidly than anybody had expected.” To the extent that any long-term growth is added to the forest each year, he said, that amount is largely offset by slash-and-burn agriculture and, to a much lesser extent, timber harvesting. The latest paper involved using the technique of carbon dating to determine the age of the material leaving via the river. The team collected samples from 60 sites across the sprawling, 2.4-million-square mile river basin. Stephen K. Hamilton, a biogeochemist at Michigan State University who was not involved with the research, said it helped clear up a mystery. The first paper measured carbon leaving via the rivers; the second found where it came from. “The first one raised this question ‘Well, what’s going on?’,” said Hamilton, who also has studied river ecosystems in South America. “The second one… does help to put the picture together.” http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/living/health/12384635.htm

37) Afghanistan was the first to fall. Iraq, with all that oil, was next. And Socorro Leite says she has a fair idea of what else lies in the sights of the American imperialists. “Soon,” she warns, “their target will be the Amazon.” Insidious plots are already afoot to snatch the rain forest from Brazil and declare it an international protectorate, the 45-year-old political aide believes. Foreign scientists and environmental activists are really secret fronts for nations bent on laying claim to the region’s abundant riches. American schoolkids are being prepped on their right to control the Amazon. “A lot of things are happening that we don’t know about,” Leite says darkly. It would be tempting to dismiss Leite, a lifelong resident of this Amazonian city, as a crackpot if a large number of her fellow Brazilians didn’t share her theories in one form or another. Many are convinced that foreign powers, in particular the United States, are making plans for a takeover of the world’s biggest tropical forest to secure the rights to its seemingly limitless natural resources, from wood to gems to medicinal herbs. In a national survey released last month, 75% of Brazilians polled feared a foreign invasion provoked by their country’s natural riches. Opposition to international “meddling” in the Amazon is one of the rare issues that Brazil’s political right and left can agree on — from nationalistic groups convinced of a foreign plot to keep Brazil down to Marxists long hostile to U.S. influence in Latin America, which included support for the repressive military dictatorship that once ruled Brazil. By Henry Chu, LA Times Staff Writer

38) Carmelo Ruiz is a Puerto Rican journalist and research associate at the institute for Social Ecology, email ise@ igc.apc.org at Goddard College, Vermont. Connect: ernail: carrneloruiz@hotmailcom In 1976, reporters Gerard Colby and Charlotte Dennett traveled to Brazil as part of a journalistic team to write stories about the work of Christian missionaries in the Amazon basin. High on Colby and Dennett’s list of priorities was to learn about a mysterious missionary organization called the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL). This outfit, also known as the Wycliffe Bible Translators, had gotten kudos from both conservatives and liberals for translating the Bible into hundreds of indigenous languages in Central and South America and helping native peoples cope with the intrusion of Western civilization into their lives. However, Colby and Dennett had heard of a darker side to SIL. Numerous critics had alleged that SIL was the vanguard of the destruction of both the rainforests and their native inhabitants. They had heard from Latin American acquaintances that SIL was, in military fashion, a scouting party that surveyed the Amazonian hinterlands for potential sources of opposition to natural resource exploitation (read cattle ranching, clearcutting and strip mining) among native peoples and that it employed a virulent brand of Christian fundamentalism that relied on linguistics to undermine the social cohesion of aboriginal communities and accelerate their assimilation into Western culture. In addition to all this, numerous articles in the Latin American press accused 511. of being funded by the American intelligence community.