022OEC’s This Week in Trees
I know it’s much to ask of you to read this entire document every five days but we need to increase our ability to process and act on mama earth’s most vital info if we are to be helpful to her.
So please read all 38 news items from: British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York, USA, Canada, Malaysia, Philippines, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, and Cameroon.
OK! SO here we go:
British Columbia:
1) “Trevena calls on Premier to save Port Alice mill,” the headline said. Yes, Claire Trevena, one of the greenest New Democrats, pleading for the bailout of a pulp mill. Not necessarily the stand one would have expected from someone who joined the New Democrats after a stint as a Green party director and media adviser. In calling for the premier to “show some leadership,” Trevena also supported the province taking on the environmental liability associated with the closed and bankrupt mill. Again, not what one would expect. Environmentalists usually argue companies should pay for cleaning up of polluted mill sites. Here, the NDP stance amounts to saying that taxpayers should pick up the tab for the eventual clean-up of the site. But Trevena was doing no more than she promised to do during the recent election campaign, when she defeated B.C. Liberal MLA Rod Visser in North Island, the riding that includes Port Alice. Visser highlighted Trevena’s background as a “greenie,” in contrast to his friendliness toward the resource industries. Vaughn Palmer, Vancouver Sun
2) Last year the Liberals sneaked in a policy that allows them to delete lands from parks for economic development the issue below is the test case. Columbia River Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald has entered the fray around the possible altering of the boundaries of Columbia Lake Provincial Park. Fairmont Hot Springs Ltd. has made an application to the provincial government to widen a dirt road through the Park into a paved, two?lane road and to add an above ground power line. These changes would allow access to a potential 600?home subdivision and golf course development. The road would be removed from the park boundary, effectively splitting the park in two. Last week, both the Ktunaxa Nation and Wildsight spoke against allowing a boundary change. Macdonald says he tends to agree with them. Macdonald was in Kimberley last Friday on his way to a meeting with the Ktunaxa on the issue. He says it’s not just Wildsight and the Ktunaxa that oppose the park. www.wildsight.ca
3) Executives at West Fraser Mills and International Forest Products—the fourth- and seventh- largest donors to the B.C. Liberals—each obtained a big break when the Campbell regime introduced a results-based Forest Practices Code during its first term. As a result, forest companies were no longer required to submit logging-site plans for government review and approval. The B.C. Liberals also made it easier to transfer forest licences without penalties. Moreover, the government cancelled a requirement that forest licensees create jobs in specific areas where they have cutting rights.
http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=12333
4) In a decision released today the BC Supreme Court ordered the Association of British Columbia Forest Professions (ABCFP) to reconsider its refusal to investigate a complaint made by the Sunshine Coast Conservation Association (SCCA). SCCA had filed a complaint alleging that a professional forester had significantly damaged critical habitat of the imperiled Marbled Murrelet and other species at risk. Judge Cullen agreed with Catherine Parker, the SCCA’s lawyer, that the Registrar for the ABCFP had incorrectly dismissed the complaint under provisions of the old Foresters Act, rather than following the requirements of the new 2003 Act. He quashed the Registrar’s decision and ordered him to reconsider the complaint. The basic issue here is about the accountability of professional foresters. The ABCFP has previously maintained an iron grip on complaints and has never allowed a complaint against a forester about environmental damage to be investigated; this is about to change and not a moment to soon. Under the new regime of the “results based code” and “Forest Stewardship Plans” government authorities must approve logging if a plan is signed by a registered professional forester (RPF). This is called “enhanced professional reliance”. The complaint has been a quandary for the ABCFP because there is an obvious failure to provide stewardship in the complaint area yet the “professional practices” are quite common. The ABCFP can not accept these practices and have any credibility and can not condon them either as it would implicate a large percentage of its membership, hence the determination to avoid an investigation (in my opinion). My hope is that in the future, the ABCFP will be obligated to fairly investigate legitimate complaints from the public. http://www.thescca.ca
Washington:
5) Mostly, the Forest Service was geared toward cutting down trees. That was a mindset Marshall fought for decades. Louise Marshall, the grande dame of Pacific Northwest hiking who galvanized her followers into a political force as she showed them how to find their way through the wilderness, has died at age 90. If you’ve ever picked up a copy of “100 Hikes in Western Washington” or its now-numerous “100 Hikes” brethren — or really any hiking guide book for the Northwest — you can thank Marshall. She was the author of the original “100 Hikes in Western Washington,” which she produced in 1966 because there were no other books like it. Her legacy is huge: founder of the Washington Trails Association; first female board member of REI; co-founder of the American Hiking Society. And trails — lots and lots of trails, all over Washington and the Northwest. She envisioned them, lobbied for them, inspired volunteers to keep them maintained. “Across the country in the ’60s there was a whole hiking movement — get out on the land, get out in the hills — and she was out in the forefront,” said Ann Marshall, her daughter, who recalls having to compile piles of mimeographed hiking newsletters on the family dining table before she could set it for dinner. Whether she was working in her office in a converted barn, prowling the halls of Congress or badgering a U.S. Forest Service official, Marshall was driven, focused and tenacious. A memorial service is set for Sept. 24, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., at the downtown REI store. In addition to her daughter Ann of Port Orchard, Marshall is survived by daughter Elizabeth Ferguson of East Boston, Mass., five grandchildren and one great-grandchild. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/238286_marshallobit27.html
6) The recently released software, called the Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS), was developed by scientists at the Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Laboratory. The Seattle-based lab is part of the USDA Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station. The FCCS is based on a data library of nearly 250 fuelbeds. “Each fuelbed is a unique description of fuel from the ground to the canopy,” says Roger Ottmar, a research forester and member of the FCCS development team. “This is the first time anyone has developed a system to create and store fuelbeds for assigning real fuels to predict fire effects and fire behavior.” The software allows fire managers to determine the amount of fuel, how it is distributed on the forest floor and in the tree canopy and understory, and the potential behavior of a fire once it ignites. And there are other applications. “Not all fires are created equal; different fuels produce different amounts of smoke,” says Don McKenzie, a research ecologist and developer of a map of FCCS fuelbeds for the continental United States. http://www.medfordnews.com/articles/index.cfm?artOID=310367&cp=10996
7) Weyerhaeuser’s move next spring to the Port of Olympia will more than double daily log truck traffic on city streets. The forest products company will add 75 trucks a day to port traffic and bring the total number of trucks visiting the port each day to 125, said Jim Amador, the port’s marine terminal director. Weyerhaeuser’s move next spring to the Port of Olympia will more than double daily log truck traffic on city streets. “What arrangements have been made with the port for the inevitable street repairs required by this level of tonnage?” she asked. “What routes have been designated for log truck usage, and what arrangements have been made for a total impact study of this lease on the city of Olympia?” Though city officials are aware of Weyerhaeuser’s traffic requirements, they probably wouldn’t do an impact study unless the volumes approached historic highs, said Dave Riker, the city’s transportation manager. The city spent $1.4 million on improvements to Plum Street in 1994. At the time, according to Riker’s figures, the port contributed $111,400 to add a concrete base to the lane closest to the median, between Union Avenue and State Street. Jeff Kingsbury, president of the Olympia Downtown Association, remembers when Sunmar was in Olympia. He described the traffic as busy but not onerous. Still, he said, Plum Street is an important stretch of road for the city. “It’s a gateway for visitors into the city, and we have to make sure that road is taken care of — that’s our front door,” he said. Weyerhaeuser selected Olympia for its proximity to the 1.2 million acres of forest that the company owns in southwest Washington — land that became a new focus for the company after it sold 200,000 acres of forest in King and Pierce counties in 2002. Weyerhaeuser plans to occupy 24.5 acres of the port’s 60-acre terminal. The port expects to earn $1.5 million a year in revenue from the deal. http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050825/NEWS/508250393
Oregon:
8) A new federal “Forest Stewardship” program, organized by the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, was introduced to 20 residents of Lincoln County and several others from Benton County, who met Monday at the Waldport Ranger Station to begin creating an Alsea Basin Forest Stewardship program. The program will use money from commercial operations – essentially, in most cases, thinning of overly-dense forests – in a given watershed for other projects aimed at forest restoration within that same watershed. The program will allow local community members, from the timber industry, conservation organizations, and communities, to define the boundaries of the watershed area within which they want to work. A pilot Forest Stewardship program is underway in the Siuslaw River Basin. Bob Turner, a Forest Service spokesman involved in it, described the program in terms of emotions, as well as forestry and governmental regulations. He sketched a simple drawing on a flip chart. It consisted of a horizontal line with a big “E” for “emotions” at either end and, in the middle, a large oval for “collaborative efforts.” That middle, he said, is where the stewardship programs are intended to be. When asked if he expected people to “leave their baggage at the door” to participate, Turner gave an emphatic “yes.” “It is important to have a full representation” of interested parties, he added. Otherwise, he warned, the process may be stalled by the interests ignored. http://www.newportnewstimes.com/articles/2005/08/26/news/news17.txt
9) It seems uncommon for a person or an organization to admit mistakes. When something bad happens and it gets publicized, such as what has happened in Siskiyou, we often expect to hear a carefully crafted statement followed by something along these lines. It wasn’t our fault because:
· “We didn’t have enough staff.”
· “We didn’t have enough money.”
· “We didn’t have the right equipment.”
· “We didn’t have the authority to do the job.”
· “No one told us to do it.”
· “There were too many deadlines and too much paperwork.”
· “Send us more money and get off of our backs and we will make sure we do it right next time.”
To the credit of the Forest Service, it has not said or implied any of these things. The agency has been candid about admitting a mistake in setting the boundaries for cutting timber in the Siskiyou National Forest area. According to the agency’s press release “The Forest Service made an error by harvesting timber in approximately 10 to 17 acres of the 352-acre Babyfoot Lake Botanical Area as part of the Fiddler Fire Salvage Sale.” The agency also said in a press release that it appreciates Ullian for bringing the error to their attention. The agency says it will be working with interested parties to restore the area and to try and restore the Brewer Spruce trees that have been harmed.
10) Medford BLM is pushing logging plans for three timber sales in the Middle, Upper and Little Applegate watersheds, west of Medford. The China Keeler, Deadman’s Palm and Bald Lick timber sales propose thousands of acres of logging in northern spotted owl habitat, significantly degrading one of the two critical habitat units in the Applegate Valley. Critical habitat units were designated for the recovery of the threatened owl, which is an indicator species for the health of old-growth forests. The timber sales propose dozens of miles of new road construction and reconstruction and old-growth and roadless area logging. Non-controversial fuels reduction treatments in the project area have moved forward unopposed, and have been implemented throughout the last year. The Applegate Valley is is popular recreation area and home to small businesses and farms. The Applegate is also important habitat for threatened Coho salmon and steelhead. These timber sales are located in the Applegate Adaptive Management Area (AMA), a designation set forth in the Northwest Forest Plan to protect forests and engage communities in innovative projects. The Medford BLM has an opportunity to develop projects in the Applegate AMA that produce timber volume and receive broad support from community members. Unfortunately, these timber sales emphasize the logging of native forests and the construction of new logging roads. www.kswild.org
California:
11) A judge in Houston has ordered the federal government to pay $72 million to a company controlled by financier Charles Hurwitz, after concluding that federal banking officials had filed baseless legal actions against Hurwitz at the behest of California environmentalists. Likening the government’s conduct to that of a “cosa nostra,” U.S.
District Judge Lynn N. Hughes said Tuesday that regulators had a hidden
political agenda when they sued Hurwitz and Maxxam Inc. a decade ago
over the failure of a Texas thrift. The judge said the move was designed to force Hurwitz into giving up thousands of acres of California redwoods owned by Pacific Lumber Co., which Maxxam had acquired in a takeover. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hurwitz25aug25,0,555367.story?track=tothtml
12) In the prairie and fir country off the old wagon train route from Arcata to Hoopa, a new addition to existing public lands was celebrated Friday. The 4,500 acres bought from Barnum Timber Co., Eel River Sawmills and Veena Menda completes the purpose of the Lacks Creek watershed, part of an area identified by Congress in 1978 to buffer Redwood National and State Parks. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management — which will manage the property — paid $5.5 million, including $2.5 million from the Save-the-Redwoods League and other funds from the Resource Legacy Project, for the property. ”There are just some certain pieces that are meant for the public to enjoy,” said Cathleen Christensen, daughter of Bob Barnum, who was with the group at Crescent Prairie in the heart of the property. Christensen said the property was still good timberland, but her father decided public use of the property was more appropriate. BLM now owns some 8,700 acres in the Lacks Creek watershed, the second largest tributary to Redwood Creek. Among it are 1,700 acres of old growth fir forest, rolling meadows slowly giving way to encroaching trees, and miles of road. ”We had a dream that one day we would acquire the watershed,” said BLM Forest Ecologist Hank Harrison, “and lo and behold 20 years later that dream came true.” http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_2979239
13) Inverness Park resident Fred Fisher, a prominent maritime and conservation attorney who co-founded the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, now called Earthjustice, died at home Tuesday, Aug. 16, from abdominal cancer. He was 68. A committed environmentalist from the time of his first Sierra hike with Stanford Law School classmate Philip Berry, Mr. Fisher later joined forces with Berry and H. Donald Harris to found the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, an organization of lawyers committed to enforcing environmental laws when the government would not, or enforcing laws against reluctant government agencies. “We backpacked together for 45 years,” Berry told The Light this week. “Fred was truly an exceptional person and he had a very strong moral sense.” Renamed Earthjustice in 1997, the environmental law firm now employs a staff of 140. Born in St. Louis, R. Frederic Fisher was one of two sons born to parents who were both teachers. He received his bachelor’s degree from Principia College in Elsah, Illinois, and in 1961 graduated from Stanford Law School, where he was an editor for the Stanford Law Review. While clerking for Justice Roger Traynor he was introduced to his future wife, Susan Kugler, a law graduate from Boalt Hall. Before Mr. Fisher joined the Lillick firm in 1965 the pair traveled in Europe for a year, marrying in the Cotswolds in England. On their return they settled in Berkeley. Throughout their marriage the two traveled the world together, often on wilderness trips. Robust and handsome, “Fred just embraced life fiercely,” his wife said. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 11, at the Golden Gate Club, 135 Fisher Loop, in the Presidio in San Francisco http://www.ptreyeslight.com/stories/aug25_05/fisher_obit.html
Indiana:
14) A high-ranking member of the U.S. Forest Service wants to partner with Purdue University to create a forest product nanotechnology center. “The federal government spent $985 million on nanotechnology in 2005,” said Ritter, who toured the university Thursday during a two-day visit after an invitation from Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind. “This is the wave of the future. There’s a lot of money going into it, but the forest product industry has been ignored.” That, Ritter feels, is a mistake that could be remedied by harnessing Purdue’s strengths to create a center where researchers could examine such futuristic endeavors as creating moisture resistant –and therefore decay resistant– woods. What can nanotechnology do for forest products? Ritter is excited about the possibilities recently detailed in an article in The Forestry Source, the newspaper of the Society of American Foresters. Highlights include cellulose fibrils, which are nanoscale particles found in wood that are extremely strong and could be used as replacements for certain plastics and metals now made from non-renewable resources. “We’re talking everything from improved durability and performance of wood products to more easily and efficiently producing ethanol,” Ritter said. Both possibilities could have a huge impact on Indiana’s hardwood industry. “We’ll have broad support for this thing once we get going,” Ritter said. http://www.boilerstation.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050826/NEWS0501/508260330/1122/BOILER
Ohio:
15) There’s hope tonight for people who want to stop the state from cutting down their ash trees. A Hancock County couple will go to court on Thursday to try to block the eradication program from destroying trees on their property. The precedent-setting case focuses on a piece of land in Allen Township near North Baltimore. Tim and Linda Carles have lived on that land for 25 years. When they moved in they planted 18 ash trees in the front yard. Now the area is infested, even though their trees are healthy. “I don’t think the state has the right to come in and take something that isn’t theirs,” said Tim Carles. They also own the forest behind the house that has more than 500 ash trees in it. The Carles are concerned the state will leave their forest looking like their neighbor’s land, bare and gutted. “When they go in the woods they are not careful. We’ll probably be losing another third of our trees from the big cutters coming in,” said Linda Carles. They say they’ve already spent $3,000 on the fight, and they know this is an uphill battle against a powerful opponent. “No matter what level they are at, or what position they are in, they make bad mistakes. Look at [Governor Bob Taft,] he made poor choices and I think [the Ohio Department of Agriculture] is making some poor choices,” said Tim. Linda agreed, saying, “If we felt the program was working, if they could guarantee us cutting these trees down would save the rest, I believe we would do that.” But the emerald ash borer has spread to central Ohio, and they don’t think cutting their trees can stop it now. “I hope the judge looks at this beyond the law and uses some common sense,” said Tim. “This is wrong what they are doing.” Ohio has run out of money for programs to fight the ash borer. Ohio did get another $1.8 million from the federal government to finish the North Baltimore area. So far, they’ve cut down 110,000 trees. The Carles say they will appeal if they lose. http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=3763948
Wisconsin:
16) A third timber sale in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest has been blocked after a federal judge in Milwaukee ruled that the U.S. Forest Service did not adequately assess the environmental effects of logging in a
5,600-acre tract near Clam Lake in Sawyer and Ashland counties. The decision by Judge Lynn Adelman on Friday means that, for now, 22,140 acres of timber land in Wisconsin’s national forest is off limits to loggers until the forest service can propose a logging plan that satisfies federal environmental laws. Adelman had previously ruled that two other projects – the 8,800-acre McCaslin timber sale in Oconto County and the 7,740 Northwest Howell sale in Forest County failed to meet environmental standards in the National Environmental Policy Act. The decision was hailed by environmentalists and their attorneys.
www.forestadvocate.org
Pennsylvania:
17) Julia Schott liked her tree better before a bunch of neighborhood kids turned it psychedelic by pouring buckets of gray, blue, red and white paint on its trunk. It has not been a kind week for Lebanon County trees. The damage to Schott’s tree comes after news broke Monday that four stately sugar maples on the Annville Elementary School campus had been stripped of their bark and left to die. Annville Chief Michael Burdge has launched a modest manhunt for the culprits responsible. The beech shades Schott’s entire 889 E. Lehman St. property. The tree’s bright green canopy sweeps along the ground, creating an enclosed space around the trunk big enough to hold a birthday party. And according to Schott, local kids have done just that in the past. “Last year I found a playpen, a birthday cake and all these empty two-liter soda bottles,” she said, poking her head through the dense foliage. “Someone threw a party. “People have told me I should put a table and chairs under here,” she added. A pair of neighbors told Schott they spotted a group of children on bicycles carrying paint buckets and entering and exiting the leafy hideaway Monday night. The next morning, she investigated and was appalled by the damage. Where past trespassers had merely left behind party rubbish, this latest group of meddlers wrote illegible statements on tree limbs and recklessly poured full buckets of paint onto the roots and trunk. Pools of paint, still wet, dotted the ground. The chemical smell perfumed the still air. Schott said tourists occasionally stop by her home, seeking a peek at the historical tree, which she estimates to be far more than a century old. Since the incidents of vandalism began in recent years, visitors have crawled underneath only to emerge with the same conclusion. “These two ladies from New Jersey told me they drove all the way here to see the tree,” Schott said. “They said I ruined it. I told them it wasn’t me who ruined this tree.” http://www.ldnews.com/news/ci_2972526
West Virginia:
18) If you listen to the U.S. Forest Service, the plan would not “expect to increase timber outputs significantly in the future.” If you listen to environmentalists, the plan would “more than triple the acreage logged on the Mon and triple the volume of trees.” Which side is telling the truth? With the two sides’ rhetoric as the only measuring stick, it’s impossible to tell. Forest Service officials say the new plan would recommend 27,700 acres of Mon Forest land for federal wilderness designation. “If these areas were to be designated as wilderness by Congress, the amount of wilderness on the forest would increase by 35 percent,” said the Forest Service’s news release. Environmentalists, on the other hand, argue that the plan recommends “only a small fraction of the Mon’s remaining wild areas for wilderness designation — totaling just 3 percent of the Mon.” In this case, both sides are telling the truth. The addition of 27,700 acres of federally designated wilderness would expand the Mon’s current wilderness total by 35 percent. At the same time, the expansion would amount to a smidgen more than 3 percent of the forest’s 919,000 acres. In this case, both sides use statistics to make their arguments more persuasive. Forest Service officials want the public to recognize that a 35 percent increase is sizable. Environmentalists want the public to see what a tiny percentage of the forest 27,700 acres really is. http://wvgazette.com/section/Woods%20&%20Waters/2005082751
New York:
19) Bunyan Bryant has camped by the shores of Lake Huron for decades and usually sees the same thing: green trees, blue skies and white people. “I seldom see other African-Americans or even other minorities camping,” said Bryant, director of the Environmental Justice Initiative at the University of Michigan. It’s the same story from New York’s Adirondacks to Arizona’s canyons: there’s a lack of ethnic and racial diversity in the outdoor areas where people hike, camp, mountain bike, paddle and picnic. “We’re only serving part of the public now and we aspire to represent many, many people who are not using all the public lands,” said Neil Woodworth of the Adirondack Mountain Club. Advocates and academics say cultural factors can play a large part. Marta Maldonado of Iowa State University’s sociology department said the concept of “wilderness” is a western European idea, not one necessarily shared by minority groups. As U.S. Forest Chief Dale Bosworth noted in a speech early this year, “the face of conservation has traditionally been rural and white. ” For blacks descended from sharecroppers, camping might have associations of living on a farm and of poverty, Bryant said. Hispanics whose families are new to this country might have the same sort of negative associations with roughing it, Spears said. While reasons for avoiding the woods can be different for different groups, there might be a common feeling among minorities that it is unwelcome territory. “It’s all couched under a larger fear that maybe with some of these public lands, you’re going to run into white supremacists in camouflage clothing running seven-man assault drills or something like that,” Spears said. Whatever the reasons, advocates for public land use are concerned. Aside from wanting to make sure the widest range of people take advantage of natural areas, the Adirondack Mountain Club’s Woodworth noted that minorities represent a growing constituency who will be weighing in on land use policies. http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny–thewhiteoutdoors0825aug25,0,464743.story?coll=ny
-region-apnewyork
USA:
20) “They are changing the whole nature of who we are and what we have been,” said J.T. Reynolds, superintendent of Death Valley National Park. “I hope the public understands that this is a threat to their heritage. It threatens the past, the present and the future. It’s painful to see this.” The potential changes would allow cellphone towers and low-flying tour planes and would liberalize rules that prohibited mining, according to Bill Wade, former superintendent at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. Larry Whalon, chief of resource management at Mojave National Preserve, said the changes would take away managers’ ability to use laws such as the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act to oppose new developments in parks. Although Interior and the Park Service are free to change the service’s management polices at any time, they have been amended only twice. The last time was in 2001. Officials at the Park Service’s Washington headquarters downplayed the significance of the proposed revisions, saying they were less a reflection of policy than an attempt to start a dialogue. The changes are the brainchild of Paul Hoffman, who oversees the Park Service and was appointed deputy assistant secretary of the Interior in January 2002. The proposed changes, which have been in the drafting stage for two years, were leaked this week. About the same time, a group of 400 retired Park Service employees scheduled a news conference for today to announce a campaign to block the changes from taking effect. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-parks26aug26,0,1637602.story?coll=la-home-nation
21) In 1980, from out of the ranks of such staid and respected environmental organizations as The Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club, and Friends of the Earth, a controversial “non-organization” took form, embracing the name and unflinching doctrine of Earth First! (always with the “!”). Earth First! endorses just about any nonviolent means of protecting what remains of the American wilderness, including, unofficially, at least a form of last ditch environmental activism called monkeywrenching. Deep ecology says that every living thing in the ecosystem has intrinsic worth and a nature-given right to be here. The grizzly bear, for example, has the right to exist for its own sake—not just for its material or entertainment value to humans. Wilderness has a right to exist for its own sake, and for the sake of the diversity of life-forms it shelters; we shouldn’t have to justify the existence of a wilderness area by saying, “Well, it protects the watershed, and it’s a nice place to backpack and hunt, and it’s pretty.” Deep ecology sees things as being interconnected, which they are. It recognizes that each species is an integral part of what keeps the Earth alive and healthy. Furthermore, deep ecology goes beyond the individual and says that it’s the species that’s important. And more important yet is the community of species that makes up a given bio-system. And, ultimately, our concern should be with the community of communities—the, ecosystem. http://www.motherearthnews.com/top_articles/1985_January_February/The_Plowboy_Interview__Dave_Foreman
Canada:
22) The Honourable David L. Emerson, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Genome Canada, and Dr. Cal Stiller, Chairman of the Board of Genome Canada, today announced 33 new genomics and proteomics research projects totalling $346 million. Of this, $167.2 million is provided by Genome Canada and $179.3 million by Canadian and international partners. “These large-scale projects have tremendous potential to improve the health of Canadians and build the competitiveness and prosperity of the agricultural, forestry and fisheries sectors of our economy,” said Minister Emerson. “Today’s funding announcement reinforces the important scientific advances that can be achieved for all Canadians and indeed the world through Genome Canada’s funding model. Stretching government dollars through collaborations with other governments and partners maximizes our research capacity.” Researchers John Mackay and Jean Bousquet of Universite Laval will identify genes linked to the growth and yield of spruce trees in order to generate tools and protocols to select high-performance trees with better-quality wood, resulting in social, ecological and economic benefits for the Canadian forest product industry. http://www.ccnmatthews.com/news/releases/show.jsp?action=showRelease&actionFor=553152
23) Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer explained how the arrangement came about. “I told Peter that I wanted a lake, to start with,” he said during a walk in the woods on Wednesday. “And he said, ‘O.K., I’ll give you a lake.’ The Haliburton Forest, in central Ontario, is about 200 miles northeast of Toronto, on the southern edge of the vast Algonquin Park. It’s far from any major urban area. But to Mr. Schafer, that’s the whole point. “There are some ‘Patria’ works that are for conventional theaters,” he said. “But there are some other works that need a very large space – that make references to nature and that require a quiet environment.” Wednesday, about 200 people arrived at Bone Lake, about five miles into the Haliburton Forest. Some were curious locals, some were fans who had driven up from Toronto, and one devotee had traveled from Brazil. “I am so fascinated by Schafer’s mythological works,” Marisa Fonterrada, a retired professor from São Paulo, said just as the performance began. Guided along a trail cut through the bush, the audience encounters Earth Mother (Eleanor James, a mezzo-soprano) and other archetypal characters: White Stag (James McLennan, a tenor), Fenris the wolf (Timothy E. Brummund, a baritone) and Murdeth, an evil land developer intent on destroying the forest (Bradley Breckenridge, an actor). Leading the way on the dark, mile-long path is a group of children, seeking their lost friend Ariane (Zorana Sadiq, a soprano). Eventually Ariane is found, transformed into a birch tree. Magical powers are at work in the forest, protecting it, and Murdeth’s plan is foiled. In the final scene, Earth Mother appears on the lake, in a circle of lights, to announce that “the animals want to be your friends, not your slaves.” The audience on Wednesday, talkative at the show’s opening, left the scene two hours later in silence. What the audience witnesses is brought about by a team of more than 100 people: singers, actors, musicians (often heard but rarely seen), two children’s choruses and a small army of technical workers, operating sophisticated lighting and sound equipment in the wilderness. Mr. Schafer’s works are put on by what is, essentially, his own company: Patria Music/Theatre Projects. Joseph Macerollo, the producer and an accordionist, said the budget for “The Enchanted Forest” was about $300,000. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/27/arts/music/27patr.html?pagewanted=1
24) Imagine a place called the boreal forest, an area so vast and intact that 3 billion birds gather there each year, giving it the greatest breeding-bird diversity of any place in North America. Canada’s boreal forest stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Alaskan border. Its health is crucial to the survival of almost half of North America’s bird species.. Next think of this forest as one big paper mill, being razed at a rate of five acres a minute, and you can see why a unique coalition is racing to save the boreal before it’s too late. The easiest way to help preserve the boreal forest is to cancel your catalogue subscriptions and shop online instead. Seventeen billion catalogues—or 59 for every man, woman, and child in the United States—are mailed annually, despite an average response rate of only 2.5 percent. Less than 5 percent of those catalogues contain post-consumer recycled material, and most get at least some of their virgin fiber from the boreal forest. Another simple step consumers can take for the boreal forest is to buy recycled tissue and printing paper. “Less than 3 percent of the southern boreal is protected right now,” says Hobson. And less than 10 percent of the Canadian boreal as a whole is permanently protected. Boreal muskeg soils contain the highest concentrations of carbon on earth. Close to half of the world’s peatlands are found in Canada—predominantly in the boreal. According to studies by Nigel Roulet, director of McGill University’s School of Environment, during the past 8,000 to 10,000 years the peatlands have sequestered 150 billion tons of carbon—equivalent to approximately 500 years’ worth of Canada’s greenhouse-gas emissions. Peat extraction for gardening is already occurring, while a greater threat—peat mining for fuel—looms on the horizon. Rapid industrialization of the boreal comes with consequences. Already 40 species of boreal-breeding birds are experiencing serious population declines. Other animal species, like the woodland caribou, struggle to survive. A degraded boreal loses its carbon sequestration ability, too. Logging obviously decreases carbon-sucking biomass in the form of trees; in the boreal, clearcuts also allow sunlight to kill off the ground cover of mosses and lichens, spurring soil decomposition and releasing enormous amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. http://magazine.audubon.org/features0509/forests.html
25) Deforestation: Lack of Regeneration in Saskatchewan Forests The factors leading to this situation are several, but key is the lack of adequate regeneration and renewal programs over many decades. The large majority of these lands, while harvested by industry, are a provincial responsibility in terms of renewal. Unfortunately, the public will have to pay to have its forests renewed to the productive capacity our laws were intended to protect. In 1999 the government announced a doubling of the forest industry in Saskatchewan and a commitment to plant 100 million trees over the next four years. While several of the industrial projects are moving ahead, no details of reforestation initiatives have been made available.
Key Findings.
*Saskatchewan has the highest amount of Not Sufficiently Restocked harvested forest land of all the Canadian provinces
*66% of Saskatchewan’s harvested forests are considered “understocked” and have been essentially deforested, or removed from the productive area of the forest.
*The area of “deforested” land in Saskatchewan increases annually
*Forest renewal fee revenues have not been fully utilized on reforestation efforts
*The Saskatchewan forest ecosystem is predicted to shrink as a result of climate change factors
*Continuing the present rate of regeneration shortfall over the next 90 years could lead to a 34% reduction in the annual allowable cut
*On April 26, 1999, the Saskatchewan government announced that it is doubling the forestry industry in the province within the next three years.
http://www.ran.org/case_studies/saskatchewan/maps.html
Malaysia:
26) “We have not been consulted on this matter. We strongly reject this certification, which was approved against our interests. We have been living here in peace until the timber companies came to disturb our life and encroach into our forest.Many of us have suffered due to the Samling logging operations: our rivers are polluted, our sacred sites damaged and our animals chased away by people who deprive us of our livelihood and culture.For many years, we have been raising our voice to protest against Samling activities, but neither the company nor the government is listening to us. We cannot accept that Samling timber be now awarded with a certificate to continue offending our Native Customary Rights. We stay united and we are determined in our protest against this offense of our rights. Here, we renew our firm demand that Samling stop destroying our forest.”–Letter from the Penan people and headmen of the Upper Baram region of Sarawak, Malaysia, to the Malaysian Timber Certification Council, January 25, 2005– For two decades, the Penan indigenous people have tenaciously defended their rainforest home against the constant incursions of logging companies. In the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo, 90 percent of primary forests already have been logged. Now the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) has certified a private logging company to “manage” one of Sarawak’s last remaining primary forests, where over 400 Penan families live. MTCC certification means that the Samling Plywood company will market wood from the Sela’an-Linau Forest as products from a “sustainably managed forest.” Environmentally conscious consumers will be pleased to purchase these products. But they are being sold a lie. An investigation by Greenpeace International found that MTCC certification “is not a guarantee of either legality or environmentally responsible forest management, and worse, MTCC timber may be stolen from indigenous peoples’ lands.”
http://www.bmf.ch
27) “Don’t look at our trees and forests as just a source of timber. Look beyond our forests and appreciate what they offer.” This was the message from Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak who said the forest was a gift from God and that it was everyone’s responsibility to protect it. “Our religion forbids the killing of animals and plants as it forbids the killing of women and children. “If we fail to protect our forests, what will we leave behind for our next generation?” he said when opening the Selangor Heritage Park at the Klang Gates Dam yesterday. He said public perception of forests had to be changed and the people must be encouraged to appreciate them. The park is the source of three major rivers, Sungai Selangor, Sungai Klang and Sungai Langat. Five dams are located within this park with 23 major water intake points as well. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/8/28/nation/11893060&sec=nation
Philippines:
28) The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has lifted the suspension order on a timber company in Aurora, signaling the resumption of logging operations there after an eight-month nationwide ban following last year’s deadly landslides. Ricardo Calderon, forestry chief of the DENR in Central Luzon, confirmed on Thursday the permission given to the Industries Development Corp. (IDC) to resume operations. The firm, based in Casiguran, Aurora, holds two DENR-issued integrated forest management agreements (Ifma) over 48,877 hectares, which expires in December 2025, and over 9,466 hectares, which ends in October 2007. The Inquirer sought the confirmation after two DENR sources claimed that the suspension orders on IDC; the Pacific Timber Export Corp. (Pateco) in Dilasag town; Luzon Mahogany Timber Corp. (Luzmatim) in Dinapigue, Isabela; and Furniture Group Inc. (FGI) and its sister company in Kalinga were lifted on Aug. 17. Joey Estriber, secretary general of the Multi-Sectoral Action Group of Aurora, said the environmental alliance will “explore all legal and other means to oppose corporate logging in the province.” He urged Congress to investigate the matter, saying the province and the residents were “not yet ready for another disaster.” “If the government can’t stop it, maybe the New People’s Army will,” Estriber said, citing the warnings issued in January by communist rebels to timber companies. Estriber said he was surprised with the decision because the lifting order came after Defensor reiterated the log ban policy in Aurora and Quezon in an Aug. 2 memorandum pertaining to the retrieval of washed out logs in the two provinces. http://news.inq7.net/regions/index.php?index=1&story_id=48066
Brazil:
29) Yesterday Brazil announced that 3,515 square miles (9,103 square kilometers) of Amazon rainforest were destroyed between August 2004 and July 2005, a marked decline from the 7,229 sq. mi. (18,723 sq. km.) in the same period a year earlier. While the government has tried to take credit for the drop, analysts say the slowing is more likely the result of lower commodity prices, giving farmers less incentive to clear forest land. http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0827-brazil.html
30) A Brazilian Indian tribe armed with bows and arrows and unseen for years has been spotted in a remote Amazon region where clashes with illegal loggers are threatening its existence. The tiny Jururei tribe numbers only eight to 10 members, and is the second “uncontacted” group to be threatened by loggers this month, after a judge approved cutting in an area of the jungle called Rio Pardo. Accelerating rainforest destruction threatens the tribes. “The Indians have had conflict with loggers, who are cutting toward them from two different directions,” Rogerio Vargas Motta, director of the Pacaas Novos national park, told Reuters. He photographed Jururei huts on a recent helicopter flyover of the remote park to catch land grabbers. One Jururei shot three arrows at the helicopter as it flew overhead, Vargas Motta said. The tribe’s wood huts have roofs of black plastic tarps found in abandoned logging camps. Indian rights activists are alarmed. “Unless Brazil acts now to protect uncontacted tribes, they will disappear off the face of the earth forever. The annihilation of a tribe, however small, is genocide,” said Fiona Watson, Campaigns Coordinator of Survival International in London. They blame a lack of political will and a powerful lobby of cattle ranchers and soybean farmers for fueling deforestation and threatening Brazil’s 700,000 Indians. “There’s been a grave lack of funding for conservation on the part of the government,” said Samuel Vieira Cruz, director of Kaninde, a nonprofit group that works to protect two Indian tribes in the area. Loggers are within three miles (5 km) of Indian camps. Despite the conflicts with outsiders, Indian experts consider the Jururei “uncontacted” because anthropologists have yet to reach and study the tribe and the government has yet to establish ongoing peaceful communication with it. http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20050526084634376
31) Although Brazil outlawed slavery in 1888, landowners like Manica continue to hold thousands of men captive in the vast scrublands of Brasil Profundo — Deep Brazil — a desolate, sun-scorched region that sprawls across a million square miles in the country’s vast interior. It’s a brutal, lawless land, where drugs and small arms flow north through the “cocaine corridor” and mahogany and other rare woods stripped from the rain forest make their way to American furniture showrooms. Here, on huge cattle ranches and farms known as fazendas, enslaved men are forced to work without pay from sunrise to sunset under inhumane conditions. Those who refuse to follow orders are beaten and tortured; those who demand payment or attempt to flee are killed, their bodies mutilated and dumped in unmarked graves. Human-rights advocates in Brazil have documented the murders of more than 1,200 forced laborers, and many more killings are passed off as farming mishaps. One recent “accident” victim, a twenty-year-old named Carlos Dias, was killed by a bullet fired into his eye. “It’s like your Wild West,” Moreira says. “In the hinterland, the landowner is king.” At first light, Moreira’s squad of five inspectors and five federal police officers slips out of town, kicking up a cloud of red dust as we head deep into the Brazilian outback. Moreira wipes the sweat from his eyes and scowls. He knows that the dust is visible for miles across the barren cerrado — and that means the slaveholders will know we are coming. With less than an hour’s warning, landowners can hide slaves on their giant ranches and still have plenty of time left to prepare an ambush. “If you listen carefully,” Moreira says, surveying the dust cloud, “you can hear the phones ringing at the fazendas.” As we careen through a small town, people pause and stare. Faces appear at windows and withdraw just as quickly. Conversations stop. Even a donkey pulling a cart clops to a halt and watches as the trucks roar by. Moreira turns around again. “That burro made it official,” he says with a wry smile. “Now everyone in the entire state knows we’re here.” http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/7582795?pageid=rs.News&pageregion=single1&rnd=1125119056
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Australia:
32) Five anti-logging protesters have been arrested after attempting to disrupt harvesting in a disputed forest north of Bega, in New South Wales’ south-east. They are the first arrests to be made since conservationists set up blockades at the Wandella forest three months ago.The five were arrested after they erected a tripod construction across a roadway to prevent logging trucks from leaving the area. They were charged with failing to comply with a police officer’s direction and are to appear in the Narooma Court on September 15. The arrests are the first made by police after three months of protest action in and near the forest. Protesters have been playing cat-and-mouse with logging contractors in a prohibited forest area but until yesterday police had made no arrests. The arrests come just days after councillors at a Bega Valley Shire Council meeting supported a motion condemning illegal and unlawful acts by people engaged in protests. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1446551.htm
33) BEGA Valley Shire Councillor Mike Skitt this week accused forest protestors of terrorism. During a council debate on Tuesday evening on a notice of motion recognising the democratic rights of people to protest and to engage in lawful work, Cr Skitt said many of his green friends had “gone quiet” about the Wandella forest protest because of the “terrorist type acts of the greens”. He quoted a dictionary definition of the word “terrorist” which he said described the actions of anti-logging protestors. He also complained about the “waste of taxpayers’ money” in having police respond to complaints from and about the protestors. Cr Skitt’s comments came at the end of nearly two hours of public addresses and debate on the issue which had been adjourned from the previous council meeting. He said that one of the strengths of the council was a willingness to listen to each other. He said his motion was about the right of people to have a point of view. “You don’t have to agree with everything your opponents say,” he said. “I am not saying you should support the protestors’ action, just their right to do it.” Three councillors said the matter was not one for the council but rather it was a state issue. Cr Joyce McGill said she had no problems with the protestors or with logging as long as it was done correctly. She did not know which side was right and which wrong in the debate. “This is a State matter. It should not have come to council in the first place,” she said. http://bega.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=news&subclass=local&category=general%20news&story_id=419307
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34) The felling of trees at an informal East Coast reserve presents a challenge to Resources Minister Bryan Green, says the Wilderness Society. The society’s Tasmanian forest campaigner, Vica Bayley, said Mr Green must explain in his trip to Japan this week the failures of the most basic regulatory systems and lack of industry control which enabled assaults on protected areas. “Despite being in the spotlight of the Federal Court [the forest is at the centre of a legal challenge by Senator Bob Brown], industry mismanagement and lack of control have seen this blunder occur,” he said. Forestry Tasmania general manager operations Kim Creak said the discovery of the Wielangta error by Forestry Tasmania showed self-regulation was working. Mr Bayley said logging an area outside the approved plan and inside a protected area highlighted the inability of the industry to abide by its own minimalist legal obligations, let alone its environmental obligations. Mr Green said the cutting of the trees had been referred to the Forest Practices Authority for an appropriate independent assessment. He said his trip to Japan was about reinforcing the fact Tasmania’s forestry system was world-class and totally sustainable. http://www.themercury.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,16408702%255E3462,00.html
35) More than $600 million will be invested in Victoria’s Gippsland region over the next 20 years to upgrade a paper mill, establish timber plantations and develop a water recycling facility. Up to 20,000 hectares of plantations, worth $300 million, will be established in Victoria’s east replacing native timber supplies to the upgraded Maryvale mill. Australian Paper, part of the PaperlinX group, will spend $258 million to build a chlorine-free bleaching plant and other works at the mill. The state government will contribute $50 million to a $140 million water treatment facility which will recycle the increased volume coming from the pulp mill. Plantations will be established within 150 km of the mill on already cleared agricultural land and there will be no compulsory acquisitions. State and regional development minister John Brumby said the mill would take an extra 200,000 tonnes of state forest logs annually for the next 12 years until the plantations comes on line but no extra trees would be cut down. That timber, left on the forest floor after clear-felling, would have been exported overseas in any case, he said. “The timber gets chipped, it gets sold off overseas for $90 a tonne and we buy it back as pulp or we buy it back as paper at $2,000 a tonne,” Mr Brumby said. “You could say categorically there’s not a single extra tree which is being felled as a result of this. “More chip is being processed in Victoria to create jobs here rather processed offshore in Indonesia or Korea or Japan and imported back.” However, conservationists later disputed that statement, saying the mill would still source timber from state forests for part of its operations after 2017. “We believe many of these areas should not be logged at all, as the water forests produce is more valuable than the wood on a per hectare basis,” Wilderness Society national campaigner Greg Barber said. “With sawn timber now mostly coming from pine plantations, woodchipping is the major driver for these unsustainable logging operations.” http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=59008
New Zealand:
37) A West Coast mayor believes there is merit in renewing logging practices in the region, following confusion within National Party ranks yesterday over its forestry policy. Initially, the National MP Brian Connell released a document on forestry policy which promoted the resumption of logging in native forest areas on the West Coast. Party leader Don Brash later claimed it was merely a discussion document and promised there will be no logging on Crown land. However, Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn says he would support a return to sustainable logging as he believes there is evidence it works. He says if a tree is dying, it may as well be taken out by helicopter and used for timber, which will create jobs on the West Coast. Mr Kokshoorn says the forests are needed environmentally and are also good for tourism. http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/newsdetail1.asp?storyID=78927
Cameroon:
38) Just more than a decade ago, Cameroon drafted a law that was intended to regulate commercial use of the country’s forests. In spite of this, corruption and uncontrolled exploitation are putting forest areas at risk, say NGOs. The 1994 Law on the Regulation of Forests, Fauna and Fishing contains clauses that limit logging, with a view to protecting the environment. Those who wish to exploit Cameroon’s forests must obtain permits from the ministry of forests and fauna. The forestry law also requires loggers to plant trees, in order to ensure that resources are not permanently depleted. Nonetheless, “The law opened the way for all sorts of logging schemes and racketeering,” says Roland Bengono, an economist at the forests and fauna ministry. He alleges that officials in charge of issuing permits extort money from loggers, a claim echoed by certain company representatives interviewed by IPS. “You have to spend a lot to get your license granted,” said one of the loggers. In addition, NGOs allege that permits are often granted to front companies controlled by public and military officials — this to allow them to circumvent constitutional provisions that prevent civil servants from doing business. The eagerness of government officials to profit from the logging industry is attributed to declining revenues in the cocoa and coffee sectors: these commodities used to be Cameroon’s main export products after petroleum. According to the Programme to Secure Forestry Receipts, established in 2000, fees paid to the public Treasury by logging companies brought in $98-million last year. Half of that amount was supposed to have been reinvested in rural communities and those adjacent to logging areas. However, NGOs that monitor the forestry sector claim that little of this money has made its way to those in need. “Barely 20% of the money received is invested in local development,” says Patrice Bigombe Logo, director of the Yaoundé-based Research and Action Centre for Sustainable Development in Central Africa. “The rest is used [for] … the personal profit of local elites.” http://www.icicemac.com/nouvelle/index.php3?nid=4600