036OEC’s This Week in Trees

This week we have 34 news stories from: British Columbia, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, Montana, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Gulf States, USA, Honduras, Chile, Brazil, England, Italy, Cameroon, Africa, Canada, Burma, China, India, Indonesia, and Australia.

British Columbia:

1) “There’s a ton of stuff coming out of the forest,” Ms. Berch said. Richard Winder, a director of the South Vancouver Island Mycological Society and a research scientist with Victoria’s Pacific Forestry Centre, agrees that it’s difficult to unearth hard data. But armed with his PhD in botany and plant pathology, Mr. Winder has assembled some tonnage figures. He estimates that in 2004, 200 metric tonnes of morels, 100 metric tonnes of chanterelles and 100 metric tonnes of pine mushrooms were plucked out of B.C. forests. More specifically, Mr. Winder cites the chanterelle industry in northern Vancouver Island where wetter conditions and a longer growing season enable 100 pickers to sell to three buyers for much of the year. “I’m not sure what that translates into dollars, but it’s roughly equivalent of a small mill,” he said. “The bottom line is, it is an important sector in the non-timber forest-products sector. We are famous for it out here.” The B.C. government has been asked repeatedly for funds to determine how many wild-mushroom dollars — and how much lost tax revenue — are being sliced out of the forests. “It’s an unresolved issue,” Ms. Berch said. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051017/BCMUSHROOMS17/TPNational/Canada

Oregon:

2) The city of Astoria has reached a settlement to sell most of its property near Youngs River Falls to the Weyerhaeuser Company while retaining ownership of the land at the falls. The deal was announced Thursday and will go to the Astoria City Council for review Monday. If the council supports the plan, citizens will have the opportunity to comment on it at a public hearing Nov. 7. The agreement between the city and the timber giant settles years of uncertainty about who actually owns the more than 250 acres of forestland surrounding the falls, while ensuring that public access to the historic site isn’t jeopardized, said city and Weyerhaeuser officials. The sale deed included a clause stating that the land would revert back to the timber company if the city did not complete the water project. Weyerhaeuser will gain 240 acres, while the city will keep 11 acres surrounding the falls themselves. The property contains some mature stands that will be considered for logging, but there will also be large areas off-limits to cutting to provide buffers along Youngs River, he said. http://www.dailyastorian.info/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=398&ArticleID=28369&TM=62823.38

3) Near the edge of a 50-year-old timber stand about a dozen miles west of Elkton, Dan Newton stood on a hillside blanketed with saplings and surveyed the inventory. “We think this stand will be more productive than the stand that was here before,” the land and timber manager for Roseburg Forest Products said, sweeping his hand over the tops of 3- and 4-foot trees. Newton’s vision isn’t constrained to just growing trees in clearcuts. He’s also an active participant in researching and improving fish and wildlife habitat. According to Arne Skaugset, associate professor of forest hydrology at OSU, Newton pushed to get the ball rolling for the Hinkle Creek project near Sutherlin, a 10-year paired watershed study to determine how well current Oregon forest practice rules protect water quality, aquatic habitat and fish. Skaugset said Newton was aware of gaps in fish and aquatic habitat data and asked the OSU department what it needed to complete a comprehensive study. Skaugset said he has no idea how Newton pitched the study to his boss, since RFP has “gone to some inconvenience,” but Newton came back with 5,000 acres set aside for the OSU department to work with for 10 years. “He seems to have a little more vision than what his peers have,” Skaugset said. He seemed to understand that “we need some data or we’re going to be in the same position in the next 10 years.” The Hinkle Creek project is currently in its fourth year. As watershed studies develop and the understandings of cross-pollination in regenerated forests improve, Newton will continue to be at the forefront of forest management and policy. “It’s evolving and it gets better all the time,” he said of the industry. http://www.newsreview.info/article/20051016/NEWS/110160040

4) The Klamath National Forest is developing a plan to log the south side of the Mt. Ashland Old-Growth Reserve near the Long John and Grouse Creek portions of the Beaver Creek Watershed. Much of the forest targeted for logging was previously logged at the turn of the century by the Fruit Growers Supply Company of Hilt, Ca. Where there were once old-growth pine forests, now there are dense second growth true-fir stands. The Forest Service is proposing to thin 2,600 acres of these dense second-growth fir stands. This proposed second growth thinning has the support of KS Wild and is a good first step towards restoring old-growth conditions to these logged over lands. Unfortunately, the Forest Service is also proposing to build 9 miles of new logging roads. The Beaver Creek watershed, a tributary to the ailing Klamath River, already has far too many logging roads that fragment wildlife habitat while bleeding sediment into the creeks and streams. The Forest Service also hopes to log many large old-growth trees to create so-called “fuelbreaks.” Fuelbreaks remove old-growth habitat and encourage the growth of flammable brush fields and small diameter trees. Fuelbreaks previously created on the north-side of the watershed are more susceptible to fire than prior to the logging. http://www.kswild.org

5) The timber industry and environmentalists can agree on one thing: The Forest Service’s Biscuit Fire salvage logging program has been a fiasco. Despite accidentally allowing logging in a botanical reserve, the agency has sold just one-fifth of the timber it promised. Now, two Oregon Republicans have a plan to prevent similar failures in the future — by speeding up post-fire logging. Rep. Greg Walden and Sen. Gordon Smith plan to introduce parallel bills in the next several weeks. They say the bills will help expedite forest recovery in the aftermath of fires, blowdowns, and other catastrophic events. “If you don’t get in and remove burned dead trees,” says Walden, “you’ll get a brush forest” that has little commercial value and encourages fire to return. But salvage logging is destructive, not restorative, says George Sexton of the nonprofit Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center in Ashland, Ore. He and other conservationists worry that Walden and Smith want to use fire as an excuse to log in protected areas, ignore ecological concerns and public input, and “lock the courthouse door” to judicial review. University of Washington biologist Jerry Franklin thinks there’s room for compromise. He suggests accelerating salvage projects in areas already being managed for timber production, and otherwise letting nature take its course. That could give industry a chance to cut smaller timber before it rots, while leaving the bigger trees that are important for wildlife even after they’re dead. Loggers can be expected to leave behind some large trees, says Dave Schott of the Southern Oregon Timber Industries Association, but not all of them: “Most mills don’t want just small-diameter logs.”: http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=15847

California:

6) The amount of timber being cut from the Stanislaus National Forest is expected to nearly triple by the end of the decade, U.S. Forest Service officials said yesterday. The forest’s five-year vegetation management plan released yesterday is designed to reduce trees and brush that could fuel a destructive wildfire, said Stanislaus National Forest Supervisor Tom Quinn. “We’re very excited about the opportunity to accelerate the pace,” he said. This fiscal year, 21 million board feet are expected to be cut on about 7,000 acres. In 2007, that number is projected to increase to 25 million board feet on another 7,000 acres, followed by 30 million on 13,700 acres in 2008, 35 million on about 9,000 acres in 2009, almost 38 million on 15,000 acres in 2010 and another 38 million on about 11,500 acres in 2011. John Buckley, director of the Twain Harte-based Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center, a conservation group, said the jump in logging levels will have a negative impact on area watersheds, esthetics and animal habitats. “I think those higher levels reflect the political pressure on the Forest Service by local (timber) industry advocates and certain politicians,” he said. Representatives for Congressman George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, who worked with the Forest Service on the plan and had previously urged a higher timber yield, said yesterday they had not yet reviewed the plan and could not comment at that time. http://www.uniondemocrat.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=18636

7) Former treesitters have branched out in their lawsuit against Pacific Lumber (PL), adding an unusual twist to the case with new challenges to the controversial Northern California timber company. Dueling allegations of trespass will be brought before the court in a hearing on Tuesday, October 18, 2005 at 9:00 am at the Eureka courthouse. Hearing location is Courtroom 10. The arguments stem from a “SLAPP” suit filed against tree-sitters and others protesting destructive logging in the sensitive Freshwater Creek watershed. A SLAPP suit is a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, used by corporations to quash protests against their operations. PL first filed suit in Superior Court in September 2002 complaining trespassing activists were occupying trees on PL property. In response, seven tree-sitters filed counter-suits last year, and recently amended with allegations of forcible entry and trespass by Pacific Lumber. Allegations of trespass filed against PL and its contract employees who forcibly removed the young tree sitters, are based on the legal position that the protesters were “in possession” of the ancient redwoods they were occupying, which is precisely what Pacific Lumber charged. The separate corporate ownership question, however, is also under argument because the location of the trees occupied by the activists is in the county right-of-way directly adjacent to a public road. PL has long snubbed the activists’ requests for proof of ownership, saying the deed is a public document. But in answer to a question from the Court at a July 29, 2005 hearing, PL attorney Nicholas Kloeppel said ownership was “complicated.” Now PL has promised “simplified” proof will be presented to the Court at Tuesday’s hearing. The court will also consider whether to issue a protective order on controversial footage from hidden cameras mounted in the helmets of treesit “extractors” hired by PL to forcibly remove activists from the high branches of ancient redwoods marked for cut. Activist defendants have been denied access to the footage and allege invasion of privacy based on the presence of the hidden “head cams.” email: bach@headwaterspreserve.org

Nevada:

8) “Residents will see less black on the hills and hopefully begin to see green start to come back,” said Franklin Pemberton, public affairs specialist for the National Forest Service. The forest service recently awarded contracts for commercial firewood removal in four areas of the forest. The contracts allow private companies or individuals to harvest the dead trees and sell the firewood. The forest service also made attempts to harvest additional areas but were unsuccessful because of the steep terrain. “We are worried about resource damage, especially on the road. That road is very tight and narrow and the trees are fairly large and on a steep slope,” Pemberton said. Forest service crews are also working to contour and remove dead trees in steep areas to help lesson re-burn potential. “Our biggest concern is getting those dead trees down and ideally out of there,” There was concern about additional damage from insects immediately following the fire, however, Pemberton said that additional research has alleviated those concerns. “There was some initial discussion about insects hurting the survivability of the partially-scorched trees but further research has shown that not to be a concern,” said Pemberton. Pemberton said. http://www.tahoebonanza.com/article/20051016/Nevada/110160012

Arizona:

9) A $16 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Monday will help to build a 20-megawatt wood-burning electrical power plant outside Snowflake. The $23 million biomass facility will use wildfire-damaged wood from the Rodeo-Chediski fire, waste-wood from a nearby paper mill and trees from federal forest-thinning projects for fuel. The project, expected to be fueled for 30- years, marks the first time the USDA has made a commitment for a loan guarantee through its Rural Development Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency program. Arizona Public Service Co. and Salt River Project will each purchase 10 megawatts of power generated at the facility. The power created there can power approximately 20,000 homes in the White Mountains. Worsley said he expects the plant to be built by the end of 2006 and working at full capacity by the beginning of 2008. White Mountain Power has already hired 75 people to begin hauling usable wood out of the forest, and about six more will be hired before the plant opens. The cost of the power generated at the new plant is expected to be between 7 and 8 cents per kilowatt. Nuclear power is generally priced at about 2 cents, and coal at about 4 cents. “We think we can make a profit at the 7- to 8-cent level,” Worsley said. http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2005/10/17/daily4.html?jst=b_ln_hl

Montana:

10) The Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest in Southwest Montana is the biggest and most diverse of Montana’s public lands, covering 3.3 million acres, and it is also heavily motorized. The Forest Service is currently developing a new Forest Management Plan. Native Forest Network urges you to write in support of Alternative 5, the Forest Service’s preferred alternative. Yes, for once we get to support the Forest Service proposal! The only designated Wilderness on the forest to date is the Anaconda-Pintler and the western portion of the Lee Metcalf. But the Forest Service has proposed a number of important areas for Recommended Wilderness: Mount Jefferson, Anaconda-Pintler Additions, Electric Peak, Centennial, Snowcrest , Italian Peak, Lee Metcalf Additions, Quigg, Torrey Mountain. All of these areas are important links in wildlife corridors connecting the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem with the Salmon-Selway and Northern Continental Divide areas, and well as points further north and west. Mount Jefferson, though a relatively small area, is symbolic of the entire Beaverhead-Deerlodge. Located on the Continental Divide in the Centennial Range, it’s part of a critical wildlife corridor between Yellowstone and Central Idaho. Home to wolverine, bighorn sheep and other wild critters, Mount Jefferson has fabulous, well-established backcountry skiing opportunities. Please ask that the whole 4,474 acre Mount Jefferson area remain a recommended wilderness. Please ask that there be no motor vehicles allowed in West Pioneers Wilderness Study Area, where motorized routes have fragmented the area into several pieces. In the proposed forest plan, snowmobiling is to be “emphasized throughout the WSA!” Tell the Forest Service this is unacceptable. There is no Recommended Wilderness in the spectacular Tobacco Root Mountains. The Middle Mountain area would be a candidate. Middle Mountain is one of the few areas in this range where a quiet, non-motorized experience can be had in summer yet only half of it is even proposed as closed to motorized summer use. http://www.nativeforest.org/ coments to http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/b-d/

Michigan:

11) The state’s policy of clear-cutting trees in some state forests has been drawing criticism from officials and residents of two counties in the northern Lower Peninsula. “People in this town are pretty upset,” said Roscommon County Commissioner Jim Smolarz, who lives in St. Helen, about 60 miles northwest of Bay City. “It looks like a nuclear holocaust. It is everywhere around here.” The county commission voted unanimously at a recent meeting to approve Smolarz’ proposal that they send a letter to Gov. Jennifer Granholm calling for an end to clear-cutting, which Smolarz called “the raping of the earth.” The Ogemaw County Commissioners unanimously passed a similar motion in August. Smolarz said clear-cutting has lowered property values, decreased wildlife and hurt tourism. “Restaurants and bait shops are dying in this town. This is devastating our economy,” he told The Bay City Times. Ogemaw and Roscommon counties contain the Ogemaw and Houghton Lake state forests and have 270,000 acres of state forest. The state inventories about 10 percent of that forest land yearly to determine the age, type, vigor and species, said area DNR manager Steve Anderson. He said the DNR uses the data to decide how much to harvest, which can range from 1,900 acres to 4,000 acres a year. http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw122697_20051016.htm

Indiana:

12) Barely a week went by following the announcement of the state plan to dramatically increase the amount of timber harvested from Indiana state forests before the Indiana Forest Alliance filed suit. The Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry Strategic Plan for 2005-2007 calls for an approximate 400 percent increase in tree harvests from 3.4 million board feet of timber to 17 million board feet per year. But the move to step up logging sales on public lands is raising the ire of the IFA, a 10-year-old grassroots organization dedicated to preserving public forests of Indiana. The issue, according to co-coordinator David Haberman, is two-fold. “To make it clear, our personal stance is to end commercial logging on our state forests. The (state) plan is disastrous on two accounts – first our poles have shown that 70 percent of the citizens of Indiana are against all logging in our state forests. “Second, it’s disastrous because this is the most radical logging plan ever proposed with the most radical amount of timber to be extracted from the state forests in the history of the state forests,” explained Haberman, who is also a professor of religious studies at Indiana University. “This is not a moderate plan, it’s a radical plan,” he said. The lawsuit filed in state court contends that not only did Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Director of the Indiana DNR Kyle Hupfer and Division of Forestry Director John Seifert fail to get public comment on increased logging on public land but also violated the Indiana Environmental Protection Act. http://www.thehj.com/main.asp?SectionID=9&SubSectionID=32&ArticleID=12354

13) The Indiana Forest Alliance, which has filed suit against the state’s intent to increase logging in state forests, has other concerns besides what it sees as a lack of public comment and environmental impact studies regarding the strategic plan. Alliance co-coordinator David Haberman notes certain species in the state rely on mature forests and intact canopies, and the effect of logging roads and soil compaction will adversely affect the forests. He said he is concerned the Department of Natural Resources will go beyond state forests and include other state properties. “They’re announcing clear cuts. One manager of state forests said they can take every tree off a five-acre plot,” said Haberman, quoting from a Brown County Democrat story on Oct. 5. “Jim Allen, manager of Morgan-Monroe State Forest and Yellowstone State Forest, said in the story, ‘group selection can remove every tree on a five acre parcel of land, but it is not considered a clear cut,’” read Haberman. “They are talking about clear cuts, which will be say 14-acre clear cuts – they’re bringing (clear cutting) back,” he said. He also said road upkeep will cost counties, and “they’re not talking about soil compaction, oil from log skidders and the effect on wildlife and different species.” http://www.thehj.com/main.asp?SectionID=9&SubSectionID=32&ArticleID=12384&TM=42847.19

Ohio:

14) The Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry, plans to embark on an ambitious five-year plan of prescribed burns in Shawnee State Forest. A total of 7,868 acres are earmarked to come under the torch, all in the name of fire mitigation and oak regeneration. The plan has drawn its critics and the group, Save Our Shawnee Forest (SOSF) has gathered over 6,000 signatures to have the project halted. A public hearing on the project is planned for Oct., 25, at Shawnee State Forest headquarters. According to Ben Hamilton, district manger for Shawnee and Brush Creek State Forest, the prescribed fires will serve a dual purpose. One is to reduce the build up of fuels on the forest floor, another long-term effect is to encourage oak regeneration. Barbara Lund, one of people behind the efforts to stop the burn, said that natural forest fires are uncommon and are not a significant factor in eastern forests as they are in western forests where dryer conditions contribute to large scale forest fires. Dan Yaussy, of the USDA Forest Service, agrees with Lund that natural fires are not a factor in eastern forest, but man-made fires are. Through his documentation of forest fires from Missouri to the east coast, Yaussy said, “Of 13,000 forest fires, only 1.4 percent were caused naturally, 98.6 percent were human caused.” http://www.peoplesdefender.com/main.asp?SectionID=13&SubSectionID=83&ArticleID=122510

15) Environmental groups say commercial loggers could start harvesting nature preserves and parks under a bill to open oil and gas drilling in public lands. The bill’s sponsor says tree cutting would be limited to getting access to the wells. “Our suspicion is it’s much wider than that,” Jack Shaner, a spokesman for the Ohio Environmental Council, said Tuesday. “The bill is just as wide open to logging as it is to oil and natural gas drilling.” The logging question was largely absent from testimony earlier this month in committee hearings in the House, where the bill hasn’t been introduced. Wording in the Senate legislation refers only to “timber harvesting” and tells a committee to consider both economic benefits and objections. Sen. Jeffry Armbruster, the North Ridgeville Republican who sponsored the measure, acknowledged there is no definition in the bill to prohibit clear-cutting. But he said it was highly unlikely such a proposal would get past the board that would consider contracts to drill on state land. “I don’t see that’s ever going to happen,” Armbruster said, because the board would understand its role to preserve public land for future generations. Armbruster’s bill would create an Oil, Gas and Timber Leasing Board that would have exclusive authority to lease oil and gas drilling, as well as logging, rights to private companies. Armbruster said most of the logging that would occur on state land would be for the purpose of clearing wilderness areas for oil- and gas-exploration equipment. Ohio has about 183,000 acres of state forest. http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/12935296.htm

New York:

16) The state agency overseeing the Adirondack Park said another state agency was wrong to cut down trees along a scenic North Country highway last summer. An official with the Adirondack Park Agency told the Adirondack Daily Enterprise that the Department of Transportation downed a vast number of trees along Route 3 between Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake. The park agency said the work was conducted within the state Forest Preserve, which would be a violation of the New York Constitution’s “forever wild” clause which prohibits the cutting or removal of timber from the Forest Preserve. An environmental advocacy group has filed a complaint with the state over the tree cutting project. http://www.capitalnews9.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=153534

Gulf States:

17) According to Greenwire, timber companies are rushing to reach the millions of trees knocked down by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita before they start to decay, making them worthless as lumber and adding to the region’s risk of catastrophic wildfire. State officials estimate the value of the fallen trees at about $900 million in Louisiana and $2.4 billion in Mississippi. The region’s processing facilities have been scaled back in recent years and the storms have made it difficult to bring plants back into operation. In response, Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific Corporation plans to restart two of its plants and Weyerhaeuser Company is hiring more contractors to clear damaged forests in Louisiana and Mississippi. Officials say the unusually hot weather and lack of precipitation since the hurricanes have led to dry conditions that, combined with the downed timber, make the area more susceptible to wildfires. For more information about the effects of the storms, visit the Mississippi Forestry Commission and the Louisiana Forestry Association.

USA:

18) “I think we need to change the national dialogue to focus on the things that really count the most,” Dale Bosworth said in written remarks he was scheduled to deliver Monday night at a scientific conference at Yellowstone National Park. He said he sees the four greatest threats as fire, loss of open spaces, invasive weeds and unmanaged recreation.“Yet our national focus is on other issues, like whether too much timber is coming off national forest land or whether we’re building too many roads,” he said. “My biggest fear is that these other, lesser issues are absorbing all our energy, while more important things are falling by the way.” The use of the lands is changing, he said, with recreation becoming a bigger issue. Bosworth said the Forest Service faces longer-term challenges, as well. These include addressing a backlog of maintenance and restoration projects; dealing with the demands of a growing population on resources; better understanding climate changes; and encouraging a sound “consumption ethic.” But Julia Altemus, of the Montana Logging Association, said she disagreed with Bosworth that logging was a lesser issue, noting that it has important economic and ecological benefits. “Restoration is logging, and they just don’t understand it,” she said of environmentalists. “To them, if you cut a tree and make a profit, it’s a terrible thing.” http://www.theworldlink.com/articles/2005/10/18/news/news13.txt

Canada:
19) Despite its reputation as a vast untapped wilderness area, two environmental groups say they have discovered that Ontario’s Algonquin Park actually has four times as much logging road as it does canoe trails. The estimated 8,000 kilometres of roads, usually hidden from view and closed to the public, are detrimental to the area’s habitat and run counter to the park’s wild and pristine image, the groups say. “If this was called the Algonquin Industrial Zone, it would be reasonable to be doing this, (but) it’s called a park because it’s supposed to be protected,” said Evan Ferrari, director of the Wildlands League. An official map of the park produced by the Ministry of Natural Resources in response to a Freedom of Information request by the Sierra Legal Defence Fund shows only about 1,300 kilometres of primary and secondary roads. Environmentalists worry that logging interests in Algonquin, considered the jewel in Ontario’s parks system, will win the day and end up destroying the park completely. They want Ramsay to order a comprehensive review of all the impacts of logging in the area with a view. “We can’t stop logging tomorrow and throw people onto the street,” said Ferrari. “(But) how do we make that a park instead of an industrial zone?” http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/toronto/story.html?id=3fa06cfc-2597-4248-9531-6e62207f82e0

Honduras:

20) “We, the environmentalists, defend this place and all of Olancho…I wanted to show you how the lands ended up and how many years they have been exploited, destroyed,” explained Father Andrés Tamayo to an international delegation in 2003, visiting the department in eastern Honduras in the wake of the murder of young environmental and community activist Carlos Reyes. This same area, fiercely defended by the community-based Environmental Movement of Olancho (MAO), has been the subject of an intense conflict in recent months. On the one hand are the local inhabitants contracted to carry out the logging operation, Sansone—the powerful logging company, the mayor of Salamá, the police, the army and various national government institutions, including the Honduran Forestry Development Corporation (COHDEFOR). On the other are MAO and the majority of the 40,000 residents in the municipalities of Salamá, Silca and Manto who depend on this stretch of forest for the water sources it protects, flowing into the Telica River. The lands in Salamá that Father Tamayo has shown to many visitors to illustrate the importance of community actions to defend their resources belong, in legal-speak, to Sansone, a powerful logging company that operates numerous sawmills which have devastated much of northern Olancho and the Siria Valley. The forest of this 80,000- hectare property is the only thing keeping the communities of the region alive. On July 4, workers accompanied by police agents began to clear the way into the forest, cutting trees and brush to make way for the logging equipment and vehicles. Weeks later the tension between the “Cooperative” – led by longtime Sansone logging contractors Santiago Flores, Rafael Meza, Adonai Ramos, along with their active supporter, Salamá mayor José Ramón Ramos – and the opposition from the town, communities and MAO became so intense that you could feel it in the air according to residents who likened it to the electricity felt before a pending storm. On August 3, logging began. Then on August 8 the conflict became violent when the logging contractors aimed heavy weapons were aimed at the community and environmental movement activists who placed their bodies in the way of machinery headed for the logging site. Although two residents of Salamá had gone to the police station to warn them about the potentially violent situation developing, the police responded ‘let them kill each other.’ The police and army arrived later and evicted the blockaders, harassing and searching them, while accompanying the loggers to “protect” them. http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/50/1/

Chile:

21) Two years ago, in early November 2003, after a ferocious markets-based campaign in the US, an agreement was signed by US and Chilean environmental groups with the two largest wood products companies in Chile. The agreement, facilitated by Home Depot, was received as an important step forward in promoting collaborative resolution to international environmental conflicts. The agreements language binds the companies to a conservation focused solutions process with the environmental groups, and an end to the practice of the substitution of the native forest with exotic tree species plantations. Disputes over land use and the environmental impacts of the wood and pulp production processes have only intensified in the two years since the agreement was signed. The most notable environmental conflict surrounds the contamination of an internationally recognized wetlands site by the liquid discharges of the new 1 billion dollar CELCO (Grupo Arauco-Copec) pulp plant in San José de Mariquina. The coastal range of Chile is one of the most important temperate forest regions on the planet. Having escaped the major ice ages as a “glacial refugium,” the cordillera de la costa hosts species found no where else on earth. North and west of where the new pulp plant continues its contested operations, land titles to the last unprotected and intact native forests of the Nahuelbuta area reside in the hands of these same companies that were once targeted by a fierce campaign in the markets of the United States. Forest practices, the long lasting impacts of substitution, and the lack of stewardship of the biodiversity rich native landscapes generate concern about the fate of the endangered forests of the Nahuelbuta area of the coastal range. http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/58/1/

Brazil:

22) Military ships and cargo planes loaded with food raced Monday to supply Amazon River communities stranded by drought, while sporadic rains raised hopes that the worst dry spell in decades could be ending. The Air Force said it would deliver 15 tons of food and medicine Monday to communities near Tabatinga, on the upper Amazon near the border with Colombia. The navy planned to take supplies to other river towns isolated by the drought. The Health Ministry said it was sending nine tons of water purifier to the Amazon capital of Manaus, 1,760 miles (2,840 kilometers) northwest of Rio de Janeiro, to treat well water and avoid disease. Gov. Carlos Eduardo de Souza Braga of Amazonas, the Amazon’s biggest state, declared all 61 Amazonas cities and towns disaster areas over the weekend. He said the government would distribute emergency food baskets with 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of rice, beans, milk, flour and other staples. State Civil Defense authorities said 32,000 families were stranded by the falling rivers, which serve as roads in the rain forest, said Jose Melo, head of the state’s SOS Interior Emergency Plan. http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/33787.html

23) As soon as the dry season arrives, the loggers swing into action. Day after day from June onward, their empty flatbed trucks depart early in the morning from this dusty settlement along the Trans-Amazon Highway, only to return starting in midafternoon, weighed down with the freshly cut trunks of ipe, jatoba and cedar trees. No matter that the Brazilian government last year suspended the permits required to chop down trees in this part of the jungle, making timber harvesting illegal for all but a few loggers. No matter either that most of the valuable tropical hardwoods being felled with chain saws and tractors stand on public lands that, at least in theory, are off-limits even to the few timber merchants who still have licenses. “It goes on all night long, with the traffic so intense some nights, 30 or 40 trucks thundering through, that people can’t even sleep,” said Milton Fernandes Coutinho, president of the local farmworkers’ association, which represents peasant settlers living along the roads used by the loggers. According to government figures, Brazilian timber exports from the Amazon increased in value nearly 50 percent in 2004 over the previous year, to just under $1 billion. In the first half of this year, when the rainy season traditionally slows down activities, exports rose an additional 20 percent in value. Nearly 40 percent of the wood cut in the Amazon is now being shipped overseas, compared with only 14 percent in 1999. Brazil’s main markets are the United States, which accounts for one-third of all timber shipments abroad, followed by China, at 14 percent and growing rapidly, and European countries, which collectively account for 40 percent. “The problem, though, is that the government’s own figures indicate that about 60 percent of those exports are illegal,” said Paulo Adario, who directs the Amazon campaign of the environmental group Greenpeace. “So you have to ask yourself: How is it possible that even with logging permits suspended since July 2004, wood exports are continuing to rise so frighteningly?” In fact, the area north of here, between the Trans-Amazon Highway and the Amazon River, is so active that local people have begun calling it Iraq. “Because the loggers are bombing the life out of it,” Coutinho of the farmworkers’ association explained. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002563999_brazil16.html

England:

24) A leading environment charity was today dumping a tonne of timber outside a Government office in London in protest over the illegal logging of rainforests. Greenpeace campaigners were placing the plywood, which is secured with large chains, in front of the entrance to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in central London.Two environmental activists were also chaining themselves to the wood and erecting a banner reading “Ban Illegal Timber”. The charity claims illegally logged timber from Papua New Guinea has been made into plywood in China and ended up on British building sites. Campaigners want the Government to impose a ban on the import of all “laundered” wood from protected rainforests. Nathan Argent, a Greenpeace campaigner, said: “The Government have known about this problem for years and they’ve done absolutely nothing about it. “We were easily able to pick this illegal timber off the shelf of a builders ‘merchant despite the fact that it’s been illegally logged. “There are perfectly good alternatives to this timber. http://services.press.net/pressnet/communitynewswire/index.jsp?story_id=1271132&setStyle=mlStory&returnSty
le=heading.cnw

Italy:

25) Everyone knows it’s illegal to import pirated CDs and DVDs, with heavy penalties if you get caught, but what happens when you import stolen timber from the world’s last ancient forests? Absolutely nothing. The Amazon lost an area roughly the size of Belgium last year, and the Paradise Forests of South East Asia are disappearing so rapidly, that their most famous residents, orang-utans, are facing extinction in the wild within the next decade. The African Forests of the Great Apes are similarly facing a huge assault. Why? Illegal and destructive logging, driven by demand for cheap wood from Europe. Last week, in the port city of Livorno, Italy, we blocked the unloading of the freighter ‘Guan He Kou’ which was carrying timber from a company involved in illegal logging in the Congo Basin. The presence of the ‘Guan He Kou’ and its rainforest cargo in Europe shows just how easy it is to steal from some of the most biologically rich areas in the world. After the activists were arrested, the ship continued to deliver the timber before sailing to Spain, where we greeted it again in the port of Valencia on Monday. No inspections, no seizure of the stolen goods. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/importing-forest-destruction-222

Cameroon:

26) The government of Cameroon has decreed the creation of two new national parks that preserve some of the last remaining intact forested areas of the Congo Basin. Boumba Bek and Nki National Parks, both located in southeast Cameroon, cover an area of more than 600,000 hectares (2,316 square miles), encompassing a biodiverse group of plants and animals. Forest elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, forest antelopes, Nile crocodiles and bongos are found in the two new parks, together with hundreds of bird and fish species. “By swiftly moving on with the official declaration of these two areas as national parks, the government of Cameroon has now reassured conservation organizations and the donor community willing to support conservation initiatives,” said Laurent Some, regional representative of WWF’s Central African Regional Programme Office. The government’s announcement came last week. http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2005/2005-10-17-05.asp

Africa:

27) Tree domestication has been identified as one of the major ways of preserving natural forest resources. Given that human beings across generations have relied on forest for food, clothing, medicine, shelter, and so on, it is incumbent on the various stakeholders to look for ways of sustaining forest resources as they come under the pressure of a fast growing population. According to agro-forestry experts, tree domestication is a major way in which humans can wade off the extinction threat that hangs over forest resources. This means taking food, medicinal and other useful trees out of the natural environment and adapting them by either improving on their quality or their production cycles for wider cultivation. This was the subject of a one-week seminar that the International Centre for Research in Agro-forestry, ICRAF, organised in Yaounde last week. The seminar brought together participants from the West and Central African sub-regions that are endowed with a wide variety of natural resources, but paradoxically host some of the world’s poorest populations. Following a survey carried out by agro-forestry researchers in the African Humid Tropics, some species have been identified and are being domesticated.These include two species of Irvingia gabonensis (bush mango), dacryodes edulis (African plume), rinodendron heudelotti (the sauce spicing nut, njansang), garcinia kola (bitter cola) and cola nitida (kola nut). Others are vegetables like gnetum africana (eru) and medicinal plants like prunus africana, used among others for the treatment of prostate cancer in men, and pausinystalia johimbe, which is a powerful aphrodisiac. http://allafrica.com/stories/200510171122.html

Burma:

28) Chinese logging companies are colluding with the Burmese military commanders and ethnic leaders to illegally strip and export large tracts of some of the world’s most ecologically important forests, according to a two-year investigation by London-based watchdog group Global Witness. The illegal cross-border timber trade between Kachin state in northern Burma and Yunnan province in China is said to be worth up to $400m (£230m) a year and conducted with the knowledge of both central governments, says the group, which has investigated illegal logging throughout Africa and Asia and helped manage Cambodia’s forests. According to the report, published yesterday in Bangkok, the trade is centred on the Chinese border town of Pian Ma where 100 logging companies are based. Last year more than a million cubic metres of timber – about 95% of Burma’s total timber exports to China – are said to have been illegally exported from Kachin state to Yunnan province. “Kachin state has been turned into a natural resource storehouse for development in China … large tracts of forest have been almost entirely logged out,” the report says. “The trade is completely out of control and it keeps on rising,” Susanne Kempel of Global Witness said yesterday. “There are no forests left along the border.” Much of the logging takes place in what is known as the Indo-Burma biological hotspot, an area described by biologists as one of the most biodiverse areas on earth, with 91 mammal species including the tiger, and 365 bird species. The report argues that money generated from the illegal trade has funded conflict in Burma and led to human rights abuses and increased poverty. The group says that unless China takes action the logging will undermine long-term economic development on both sides of the border and destabilise the region. “Burma’s forests are viewed as an opportunity to find employment for thousands of unemployed people. There is mounting concern [in China] that the growing ranks of the unemployed represent a pool of discontent and a potential source of social instability. Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Chinese workers employed in logging, transportation and road building in Kachin state, and in the timber processing industries of Yunnan province and further afield, could soon lose their jobs unless the industry is put on a sustainable footing.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,7369,1595369,00.html

China:

29) Western politicians queue up to sing its praises. Economists regard it with awe and delight. Other countries are desperate to imitate it. Yet there is another side to China’s exploding, double-digit-growth miracle economy – it is turning into one of the greatest environmental threats the earth has ever faced. An ominous sign of the danger is given in a groundbreaking report from Greenpeace, published today, which maintains that China is now by far the world’s biggest driver of rainforest destruction. The report documents the vast deforestation driven by the soaring demands of China’s enormous timber trade – the world’s largest – as the country’s headlong economic development sucks in ever-more amounts of the earth’s natural resources. Citing figures from the International Tropical Timber Organisation, the Greenpeace study says that nearly five out of every 10 tropical hardwood logs shipped from the world’s threatened rainforests are now heading for China more than to any other destination. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article320565.ece

India:

30) BHUBANESWAR: Several MLAs cutting across partylines have demanded establishment of special environment courts in the State to dispose of related cases in an expeditious manner. Though the State Government had a proposal to set up special courts for environment-related cases, it has now abandoned the idea. Expressing concern over largescale tree felling in the State, the legislators have urged Union Minister for Environment and Forest A.Raja to initiate timely action to save forests. All forests including Similipal and Satkosia would vanish within the next five years if the State Government failed to control the rampant tree felling, they said. Demanding that tree smugglers and poachers should be booked under the National Security Act, the MLAs said that use of trees and wooden materials should be banned in private buildings. Aluminium, iron and PVC sheets should be used to make doors instead of timber, they added. Stating that all corrupt forest officials should be given compulsory retirement, the MLAs demanded that vacancies in the field posts should be filled up immediately. About 40 percent of the posts in the field in Forest Department is vacant now. http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEQ20051018011332&Page=Q&Title=ORISSA&Topic=0

Indonesia:

31) JAKARTA: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Tuesday visited Taufik Kiemas, the husband of former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, who is hospitalized at the Harapan Kita Cardiac Hospital in Jakarta. Susilo, a former security minister in Megawati’s government, maintains good relations with Taufik even though the latter’s wife still refuses to meet with the President following her defeat in the 2004 presidential election. Megawati is also the leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), which now acts as the main opposition party in the House of Representatives. Vice President Jusuf Kalla visited Taufik earlier. Megawati is currently on a visit to North Korea. http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20051018.D06&irec=5

32) Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh said there will make no exception in dealing with cases of illegal logging, whether members of the security authorities or of the government are involved. “We make no exception, whoever is involved will have to be brought to justice,” Abdul Rahman Saleh said after opening a UNEP Training Workshop on Law at Hotel Sari Pan Pasifik in Jakarta over the weekend. Previously, several environmental activists were pessimistic about law enforcement following the Wana Lestari operations against illegal logging. In the meantime, board member of Forest Watch Indonesia (FWI), Togu Manurung said that there have been no positive results in the Wana Lestari raids against illegal logging, especially when it came to law enforcement. “Hundreds of perpetrators had been arrested in the Wana Lestari raids, including military elements, but when it comes to concrete law enforcement, the result is very disappointing,” Togu said. All the suspects, he added, should have been brought to justice and heavily sentenced to give an example to others with illegal logging intentions, and to give a lesson to the convicted ones not to repeat their crime after they have served their jail sentence. He said illegal logging were still rife these days, especially in the National Parks in the country with a deforestation rate, according to data of the ministry of forestry, of 2.8 million ha per year, which is equal to eight times the surface of a football field per minute, incurring a loss of Rp 30.4 trillion per year, or Rp 83 billion per day. “This is organized crime involving almost everybody including law enforcers themselves. The root is the classic problem of corruption. Corruption causes paralysis in law enforcement, including by the military and the police,” Togu said. http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=6850

Australia:

33) October 11 marked the fourth month local residents and members of South East Forest Rescue have been demonstrating against and observing logging operations in the Wandella State Forest. Although logging has not stopped, protesters say they will stay until the operations cease as they are committed to “keeping the issue alive” and “bearing witness to what is happening to the forests, and valuable water catchment areas”. As of the late afternoon last Wednesday, South East Forest Rescue members keeping a daily tally of trucks leaving the Paddy’s Creek catchment area, had recorded 211 trucks, each carrying an estimated load of 30 tons. Based on the 30 ton estimation multiplied by the number of trucks recorded to date, the total tonnage of old growth trees logged and removed is reported to be 6330 tons. South East Forest Rescue member Tony Whan said the group planned to do a thorough audit of the compartment when they are allowed back in. “We will do a stump count and quantify what has happened up there,” he said. Also on their agenda will be organising tours for the public to show forest conditions after logging. In response to comments by Minister for Agriculture, Ian Macdonald, regarding the health and sanitation conditions at the camp, the protesters said camping facilities were commended and approved by a Bega Vally Shire Council health inspector in early August. http://bega.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=news&subclass=local&category=general%20news&story_id=431965&
y=2005&m=10

34) A group of Tasmanian forest campaigners is headed to Mallacoota, in far eastern Victoria, next week as part their national free speech campaign. Giant timber company Gunns Limited has a $6.8 million lawsuit against the group for their anti-woodchipping campaign in Tasmania. A spokeswoman for the campaigners, Louise Morris, says Gunns is suing 20 defendants claiming damages for media statements, disrupting logging and lobbying shareholders, customers and the Government. She says campaigners are now trying to gain support for laws protecting freedom of speech. “The Government and business co-relation in Tasmania is quite unique, which thankfully Victoria doesn’t quite share, but I really think it’s about large corporations who are active in the logging industry able to actually impact on the way we talk about their practices, we campaign as a community and we interact with them as a community,” she said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200510/s1485824.htm