049OEC’s This Week in Trees

This week we have 40 news items from: Alaska, British Columbia, Oregon, California, Montana, Michigan, Great Lakes, Ohio, Texas, Arkansas, Kentucky, Virginia, Rhode Island, Canada, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Argentina, Uganda, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia and World-wide.

Alaska:

1) Where the Indian River forked, I stepped off of the established trail and went deeper into the woods, following the left branch of the river upstream. It was late June, and the air was warm and heady with the earthy smell of furiously growing summer flora. The bear trail led us into a grove where some of the trees stood as tall as 20-story buildings. The biggest ones would have already been imposing when Christopher Columbus first laid eyes on the New World. The trees stood like columns in a grand cathedral, holding up the sky itself. The area under their canopy was open and airy, carpeted by ferns, moss and the four-petaled, white blooms of bunchberry dogwood.”Look at this! This stand has been growing uninterrupted for at least 2,000 years, and it’s more organized than anything the Forest Service can arrange,” said Kenyon Fields, director of the Sitka Conservation Society. “This is what’s at the heart of the fight over the Tongass.” The Tongass is the largest national forest in the United States, an area of islands and coast as big as West Virginia. Most of it is mountains, glaciers and scrub. But in the valleys, there are the precious trees; one-fourth of the world’s remaining temperate rain forest grows there. The Tongass runs 500 miles north to south; it’s a landscape so big, so forbidding, and so scattered among islands and fjords that seeing it all would be a lifetime commitment. I had a week. I used Sitka, on Baranof Island, as a base for exploring the Tongass. It’s a small town, but all of the elements in the debate over the forest can be found on its streets and in its history. http://www.startribune.com/stories/1513/5773208.html

British Columbia:

2) From the Amazon basin to the Great Barrier Reef, the challenge on the Central and North Coast and Haida Gwaii is echoed around the world: How do we integrate the needs of natural systems with the needs of the people who depend upon them for their livelihoods and way of life? The coastal rainforests and waters are a vital natural, cultural and economic resource for First Nations, coastal communities and British Columbia as a whole. To be successful, land use agreements must not only preserve the lands and protect its ecological integrity-they must also respect indigenous cultures and strengthen local economies. To be successful, conservation must be sustainable, both ecologically and economically. Years of work – science, community forums, stakeholder dialogues and government to government negotiations – have forged agreements among diverse parties around land-use for the North and Central Coast and Haida Gwaii. These agreements represent a new, more holistic approach to conservation and through them three unprecedented breakthroughs have emerged for this unique and threatened region. Ecosystem-based Management. Ecotourism. Sustainable fisheries. Other exciting new enterprises. The economy of the Central and North Coast and Haida Gwaii will indeed be ‘re-built to last’, following principles crafted by the people who live and work there. http://www.forestethics.org/article.php?id=1088

3) If logging isn’t stopped on Southeast Vancouver Island in order to support Forest Practices Board recommendations to protect red-listed plant species, one environmental group will be stepping up their protest. The news comes in response to recommendations by the FPB passed down in August of this year. The report and recommendations were completed after complaints by the Carmanah Forest Society that amendments to the B.C. Timber Sales Program would eliminate the endangered plant communities of the coastal Douglas fir ecosystems. The ministries of environment and forests and range had until Oct. 31 to report back on the recommendations and, in an interview with The News recently, say they have moved forward with the initial steps of a conservation protocol. “In order to deal with this situation, it’s going to take involvement of many parties,” says Rod Davis, director of ecosystems branch of the environment ministry. The situation is one where only around seven per cent of the endangered ecosystems are still found on Crown land. While those will be easier to protect, says Davis, it’s the protection of those on private land that will be challenging. “We’re not going to provide the full level of protection that might be needed solely on Crown land. http://www.pqbnews.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=50&cat=23&id=549270&more=

4) A group called Women in the Woods, led by 77-year-old B.C. activist Betty Krawczyk, gathered outside B.C. Supreme Courts in Vancouver yesterday to protest court injunctions. “We’re trying to show people how injunctions deprive people of the right to a fair trial and how they’re used as a cheap, fast and easy tool against democracy,” said Krawczyk, who has spent two and a half years in jail because of injunctions. Injunctions give police the right to arrest citizens and keep them in jail without being charged for a crime. Injunctions give police the right to arrest citizens and keep them in jail without being charged for a crime. Krawczyk experienced this first hand when she was arrested for blocking a logging truck on Vancouver Island. She was then kept in jail because she didn’t agree with the restrictions imposed in her release agreement. “With an injunction you’re pitted against a legal system that already knows what the outcome will be,” she said. “You have no legal defense and (it) sends the message that you’re not allowed to express your views and democratic rights.” http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/2005/12/09/1345200-sun.html

5) VANCOUVER — After six years of fighting the ravenous pine beetle on its picturesque 18-hole, 140-acre golf course, the Prince George Golf and Curling Club has finally surrendered. Their grounds crew had tried to control the infestation by felling hundreds of red-tinged lodgepole pines. They had tried to drive the bug away by slathering a repulsive scent over the bark of trees the beetles had yet to touch. But with 9,000 of their 9,500 trees soon to be dead, golfers at the 50-year-old Prince George club voted this month to sell the course and move, hoping the beetles don’t follow. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051213/BCBEETLES13/TPNational/Canada

6) A local committee of biologists and forest company representatives has yet to complete a mountain caribou recovery plan that was criticized a year ago for its bureaucratic delays. Mountain caribou, reduced to a few thousand animals, are designated at risk of extinction. They are spread from the Kootenays to north of Prince George. Two of those herds are located in and around Wells Gray Provincial Park. A B.C. Forest Practices Board report issued last year criticized clearcut logging in an area north of Clearwater that was OK’d by the Ministry of Forests. A subcommittee to the LRMP, made up of forest company representatives and Ministry of Environment staff, is still working on proposed changes to logging in light of the report. “This particular process is consensus driven,” said Steve Carr, executive director of the Integrated Land Management Bureau in Kamloops. “We’re working with stakeholders and that creates challenges to coming to an agreement.” Carr said the subcommittee is focused on changing logging practices in a bid to improve survival of the few hundred animals in and around Wells Gray. “We’re working diligently to gather the science and monitor the animals with collars. It takes time to gather that data. … It’s not looking at no more logging. It’s identifying winter ranges and making sure any is consistent with maintaining those herds.” One of the largest loggers in B.C. is the Ministry of Forests’ own B.C. Timber Sales program. “There is no provincial recovery plan. There are scientific works going on to get more specifics,” Batycki said. “The species at risk office has had over a year to put in at least interim measures.” http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/

7) I remember the silence of the winter’s night, the gentle sounds made by the trees swaying in the breeze, the distant thunder of Englishman River Falls, and the occasional hoot of an owl. Today those sounds are overwhelmed by industrial noise. I can hear the sharp whirr of the feller bunch cutter as the blade rips through the trunk of a tree followed by the crash of the tree as it is thrown to the ground. This is repeated every thirty to forty seconds, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The din of the Errington Cedar Mill’s debarker, chippers, loaders, and saws add a cacophony of noises that grates the very soul from 6 am until late into the night, sometimes 7 days a week. Many times I have heard the metallic crash of chip bins being loaded by beeping loaders at 1 am. Wheaton Industrial Saw joins in with the shrill grinding sound of metal that drones endlessly on in a robotic rhythm that is as repetitious as a sewing machine. All of this heavy industry is going on in a ‘Rural Residential’ zone as designated by the Regional District of Nanaimo. I was drawn by the noise of industrial logging to cross the Englishman River in hip waders, where Morrison Creek flows into the river. The rushing water drowned out all other noise as I braced myself against the forces of nature and moved my feet slowly between the round stones on the riverbed. I walked downstream along the bank to the place where the South Englishman river brings water from the Mt. Moriarty watershed to join the water flowing from the Mt. Arrowsmith watershed. At times the ‘riparian zone’ along the top of the River bank consisted of only a single tree. A road had been bulldozed along the top of the river’s bank and ditches had been dug into the river bank to drain the roadbed directly into the Englishman River. Along the banks of the South Englishman RIver fisheries signs are posted on several alder trees stating: “Fish Habitat” and “Salmon Enhancement Program.” richardboyce@shaw.ca

8) The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says there is no shortage of solutions available to the provincial government to secure the future of BC’s forestry-dependent communities. “BC is at a crossroads,” says Ben Parfitt, author of the study and a respected resource policy analyst. “The logging frenzy in the Interior is being fuelled by a temporary harvest of pine beetle-killed trees, and almost no plans are being made for the long-term impacts of the infestation. On the Coast, mill closures have become endemic, costing thousands of jobs and destabilizing many communities. We can continue down this road, or the province can choose a different direction, one that offers hope and stability to rural communities.” The study finds that value-added wood product manufacturing in BC has flat-lined since 1999. “The provincial government has simply been standing on the sidelines as major corporate mergers, mill closures and raw log exports have increased,” says Parfitt. “Forestry in BC has always been a partnership between the province, acting on the public’s behalf, and the various companies attracted here by the wealth of trees gracing our landscape. It’s time for the province to stand up and act like a true partner in the relationship and offer BC a clear vision for the future.” http://www.policyalternatives.ca/documents/BC_Office_Pubs/bc_2005/public_forests.pdf

Oregon:

9) No Whisky Timber Sale: 1,720 acres of beautiful forest in the North Fork of the Clackamas Watershed will be logged through the No Whisky timber sale. Get a taste for this diverse forest as we meander through old trees, young trees, and waist high sword ferns. Along the way we’ll look for past mismanagement and discuss the Forest Service’s plan for the area. The Forest Service is trying to call this a restoration project and implement it using Stewardship Contracting Authorities. From what we have seen, this project would result in destruction, not restoration. We can expect an EA on this project in 2005. This is a very wet area with an amazing array of diversity of wildlife. It is also badly abused by ATVs. Logging will likely only make that problem worse. http://www.bark-out.org/tsdb/detail.php?sale=nowhsky

10) Southwest Oregon’s Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest has become the latest national forest to turn away from cutting storied old-growth trees, moving instead toward less-controversial thinning of crowded younger stands. The move reflects a broader trend by the U.S. Forest Service to give up logging of big, old trees that yield large volumes of valuable wood but have been a rallying cry for forest defenders. They have used appeals and lawsuits to fight the logging, driving up costs to the government. Other national forests including the Siuslaw, Gifford Pinchot and, increasingly, the Mount Hood, are no longer offering old-growth trees for sale to timber companies. Controversy surrounding such cutting often drains funds and leads to such interminable holdups that the projects may never proceed. Many environmental groups that fight old-growth logging have endorsed thinning projects that often benefit wildlife by opening up dense thickets of smaller trees. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/113417792548730.xml&coll=7

California:

11) Scotia– Activists calling for the preservation of endangered marbled murrelet habitat converged on an active Pacific Lumber logging site at 6 a.m. this morning. Nearly four dozen people, carrying a huge banner saying PROTECT NANNING OLD GROWTH held forth at the three access gates to the controversial logging plan in one of the last areas of high quality habitat for the threatened bird on California’s north coast. When what is called a “one log truck” – a logging truck bearing a section of redwood tree so large that only one section can fit on the trailer-came out of the main gate, two women spontaneously sat down in front of it, and then climbed up on top of the massive cut redwood. Police on the scene scrambled up after them, and eventually the women were arrested and taken away sometime after 10 am. During the arrest scene, one additional person was pepper sprayed while being arrested, and was taken away in an ambulance after having problems due to his asthmatic condition. After the arrests, some of the crowd marched to Pacific Lumber headquarters in the company town of Scotia carrying signs saying “You are cutting our children’s future” and chanting “Hey Robert Manne, you can save Nanning” Robert Manne is president of Maxxam subsidiary Pacific Lumber

12) The Pacific Lumber Co. has won a major reversal of a 2003 ruling that invalidated key elements of the Headwaters Forest deal. A three-judge panel of the California Court of Appeals 1st District on Monday upended Judge John Golden’s decision that struck down the company’s 100-year plan to log its 200,000 acres. The court also threw out claims that the state abused its public trust responsibilities to wildlife by issuing a permit to harm endangered species.”There is no indication in this record that wildlife are being harmed by the absence of a regulatory scheme,” Jones wrote. The court would not judge whether the findings of the environmental document that went hand-in-hand with the 1999 deal were correct, saying it would not substitute its judgment for the agencies’. http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_3304871

Montana:

13) Cutting Christmas trees, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, snowshoeing, firewood cutting, heating schools, generating electricity and steam to run machinery, big game hunting, upland bird hunting, berry picking, mushroom gathering, trapping, mountain climbing, Sunday driving, four-wheeling, all-terrain vehicle touring, bird watching, hiking, fishing, camping, staying in rental cabins, rock collecting, picnicking, sightseeing, scientific research and education, rafting rivers, boating, target shooting, logging, mining, grazing cattle, grazing sheep, protecting threatened and endangered wildlife and plants, nurturing wildlife, guiding tourists, irrigating crops, drinking clean water, breathing clean air Those are among the uses we, our families and neighbors made of western Montana’s national forests in recent days, weeks and months. Unlike other federal land management agencies, the Forest Service has a multiple-use mandate, and it’s not clear to me that the agency is following this mandate in its recent work on forest plans in Montana. At his Dec. 2 meeting, Sen. Burns gave a pitch for more logging. “I don’t think it’s any different than a field of Iowa corn or a grass field in eastern Montana,” he said of a national forest and the need to harvest its crop of trees. Actually, the difference is vast. A corn field is managed for a single use – corn production; a cow pasture generally is managed for limited use. National forests are being managed for multiple use. http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2005/12/14/opinion/opinion3.txt

14) MISSOULA – The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has called the Lolo National Forest’s efforts to log in areas burned by the fires of 2000 “arbitrary and capricious” and reversed a lower court’s ruling in favor of the agency. The San Francisco-based court likened the U.S. Forest Service’s efforts to thin old-growth stands for forest health without knowing for sure how those efforts would impact wildlife to pharmaceutical companies marketing drugs without ensuring they are safe and effective. But one justice, in a written dissent, said the court went too far in its decision, insisting it had “crossed the line from reviewer to decision maker.” At issue is a longstanding battle over what should happen to a portion of the 74,000 acres burned on the Lolo National Forest in August and September of 2000. The Forest Service initially proposed to log about 4,600 acres in and around the burned area. “The status quo is anything but stable,” she wrote. “The Forest Service presents uncontested evidence that the failure to treat old-growth areas risks the very harms feared by the Ecology Center.” http://www.helenair.com/articles/2005/12/10/montana/a09121005_02.txt

15) An online auction for 90 acres of Forest Service land plus buildings that include the old Hungry Horse Ranger Station has closed with a final bid of $2.38 million. Linda Smith, the Flathead National Forest’s lands program manager, confirmed that Stephen Byrd of Spokane submitted the high bid on Nov. 28. He represents the Byrd Family Limited Partnership, which reportedly includes members of Byrd’s family who live in the Canyon. During the final days of bidding, only one other competing bidder was involved in the auction, which was handled by the General Services Administration through a Web site. With the $2.38 million bid, the sale will average $26,309 per acre. Most of the land is forested with mature trees, and the sale includes the current ranger station plus multiple outbuildings. The buyer is required to lease the old ranger station back to the Forest Service for up to two years until the new ranger station is built. Smith was not aware of the partnership’s intentions for the land. http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2005/12/11/news/news03.txt

16) The Lolo National Forest’s Missoula Ranger District is proposing a fuels reduction project on 2,400 acres in the Grant, Butler and LaValle creek drainages, beginning as early as next year. “We want to reduce the risk of large fires in the area,” said Missoula District Ranger Maggie Pittman. “It’s the same kind of project that we’re trying to do all over the Northern Rockies.” Pittman proposes to do an environmental assessment for the project. Once that’s completed, the work would be done as the agency finds time and funding becomes available. n Grant Creek, the Forest Service is proposing to thin the forest to open the canopy and reduce the density of the forest’s crown on a little over 1,100 acres. Most of that work will take place by Forest Service crews over the next few years as time permits. Another 900 acres will be thinned using commercial crews. The agency also plans some prescribed burning on 365 acres. The proposal calls for no new permanent roads, although some temporary roads might be needed to harvest some of the units. “There are some pockets of beautiful, big ponderosa pine in there,” said Pittman. “There are probably a lot of folks that don’t know that. From a bird’s-eye view, it’s all pretty thick in there.” http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2005/12/09/news/local/news04.txt

Michigan:

17) Timber harvesting simply is not a high priority among most of Michigan’s family forest owners. Some would argue that it is becoming an even lower priority as time passes. First, most of Michigan’s 335,000 owners ranked timber harvest low among reasons to own forest. Maybe that’s because almost half the ownerships were under ten acres? Maybe because many of those small parcels are bought-up through urban splatter? Second, among the fewer owners with large acreages, timber harvest ranked high among priorities. That means most of Michigan’s private forest acreage is owned with a high interest in timber harvest. It seems many reviewers underestimate the potential impact of the “fewest who own the mostest”. Only 10-15 percent of family forests employ the services of a professional forester, according to the folks who work in the area of private forest assistance. That percentage is a lot lower than in Wisconsin and Minnesota. You would think a person with timber, potentially worth tens of thousands of dollars, would seek expert advice. Don’t most people seek professional advice when managing other huge assets, such as retirement accounts and investment portfolios? And, what about all the non-timber values? Most forest owners are not foresters or ecologists. In the absence of professional expertise, it’s not too surprising when misunderstandings occur between loggers and forest owners. http://www.ourmidland.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15737822&BRD=2289&PAG=461&dept_id=472539&rfi=6

Great Lakes Forests:

18) By the early 20th century, loggers had harvested more than 90 percent of the forests covering the upper Great Lakes region. The legacy of that destruction continues to have a substantial impact on the environment, researchers say. “We’re living with the consequences of bad management practices from a hundred years ago,” said Peter Curtis, a study co-author and a professor of evolution, ecology and organismal biology at Ohio State . “This legacy is actually reducing the potential carbon storage capabilities of today’s forests.” Forests serve as storage areas for carbon in the form of carbon dioxide, a key atmospheric pollutant that contributes to global climate change. Although many of these harvested areas have regrown, poor forest management practices at the turn of the 20th century have reduced by half the amount of carbon that modern forests can store, said Christopher Gough, the study’s lead author and a postdoctoral researcher in evolution, ecology and organismal biology at Ohio State University. “It’s remarkable that there is still this huge reduction in forest productivity,” Gough said. The more carbon that a forest can store, the more productive that forest is thought to be. Scientists estimate that forests in North America today store about 10 to 12 percent of the total amount of carbon emitted by sources such as industry and automobiles in the United States and Canada . Carbon remains in leaves, tree trunks, branches and roots, and in the debris that cover a forest floor. Carbon is also stored in soil — microorganisms break down dead leaves and branches into minute particles that eventually become part of the earth. When a forest is clear-cut harvested and burned, much of the carbon it contains is released into the atmosphere. “We now know that the amount of carbon that an acre of forest can store depends on how severely it was disturbed in the first place,” said Gough. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/12/051208232213.htm

Ohio:

19) OXFORD – Hueston Woods’ old growth forest may become home to a new species sprouting between the beech and maple – the chainsaw. The seed for such a sight was planted in recently-introduced state senate legislation, which would allow oil and gas drilling as well as logging in all state parks and preserves. One of S.B. 193’s co-sponsors is local state Sen. Gary Cates who asserted that he is motivated by “pure public interest” to wean Ohioans off foreign oil. “We can’t continue to rely on foreign oil in terms of reliability or in terms of price,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll find something that balances the concerns of the environmental community against the needs of our energy sources.” Jack Shaner, of the Ohio Environmental Council, viewed the proposal as a sop to big industry masquerading as a consumer-friendly response to surging natural gas prices. “It does not acknowledge that the vast majority of oil and gas reserves are not on state lands,” he said. He further faulted the bill for its failure to mention energy efficiency and conservation – investments that he believed would yield a better return. Sen. Jeffry Armbruster’s bill would create an Oil, Gas and Timber Leasing Board which would have exclusive authority to lease drilling and logging rights to private companies. This body would comprise a representative of the oil and gas industry, a representative from the timber industry, the Ohio Division of Forestry chief, the Ohio Mineral Resources chief, and a representative from an environmental organization. Companies could nominate areas to log and drill, subject to board approval. An appeals process also exists, should the board reject a proposal or place conditions on activity. http://www.journal-news.com/news/content/news/stories/2005/12/08/HJN1209WOODS.html

Texas:

20) Huntsville State Park. TPWD managers, at the direction of Executive Director Bob Cook, decided that it would be smart to squander millions of dollars to transform Huntsville State Park into a concrete jungle for huge behemoth energy guzzling motor homes. Over 1,000 of the most ancient and beautiful trees that grace the roadways and campgrounds were scheduled to be destroyed in the process. One of the most beautiful wetlands crossings was to be bulldozed and irreparably harmed at great expense for no legitimate reason. In carrying out my fiduciary duty of attempting to save these trees for the benefit of present and future generations of Texans along with the birds and other widlife that depend on mature native forests for their survival, I met with numerous TPWD employees involved in planning and carrying out the desecration, at least some of whom were totally upset with their marching orders that had come from on high. Officials had attempted to keep the scheme a secret until it would be too late for the public to take action to protest, much like the proposed sale of 40,000 acres of Big Bend State Park, which fortunately was discovered in time to stop it. –George H. Russell ghr@cyberclone.net

Arkansas:

21) The plan calls for a goal of burning 120, 000 acres each year, said Gary Knudsen, planning staff officer for the Forest Service. The annual goal under the existing plan was about 39, 000 acres per year from 1986 to 1998, Knudsen said. Since 1998, the Forest Service has burned as much as 70, 000 acres in the forest in one year, he said. The plan also calls for the Forest Service to thin out about 250, 000 acres to restore it to an oak woodland habitat, Knudsen said. The Ozark Highlands chapter of the Arkansas Sierra Club has opposed both prescribed burns and thinning plans during public hearings over the past two years. “I think it’s ridiculous,” said Tom McKinney, forestry chairman of the executive committee of the Arkansas Sierra Club. The proposed level of burning would lead to almost the entire 1. 2 million acres of the Ozark National Forest being burned at least once a decade, he said. McKinney said that level of burning would convert the entire forest into what he called an “oak savannah” forest, where the trees are spaced out with grass in between, within a few years. “It’s going to change the face of the forest as you know it,” McKinney said. “You’ll have less diversity and fewer species.” The Sierra Club presented its own proposed forest management plan in 2004 that called for prescribed burning levels being held close to the 39, 000 acres per year set in 1986, said Mike Faupel, a volunteer with the Sierra Club. McKinney said the Sierra Club plans to appeal the forest management plan. http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/139011/

Kentucky:

22) DB: This is Earth and Sky. Tom Neathamer, who lives on the Tennessee-Kentucky border, wrote to say that mining and logging companies have replaced large areas of leafy hardwood trees in his area with pine plantations.
JB: And he wants to know, “How does the replacement of oak with pine effect our environment?” Tom, the natural forests in your area include beech, maple, buckeye, birch, oak — and pine. When you reduce the forest to just one species — in this case only pine — you get what’s called a monoculture.
DB: And with a monoculture, you lose diversity, and not just in terms of trees. You also lose plants, shrubs, flowers and grasses that grow between the trees — and animals, birds and insects that rely on that habitat. Monocultures are also less resilient than a natural forest. One kind of pest or disease can wipe out everything. That’s why forests of only pine trees are often heavily treated with pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers.
JB: Environmental scientists told us there are healthier reforesting solutions. But they say how we care for our forests depends on what we want from them — whether our goals regard aesthetics, economics, outdoor recreation or wildlife preservation. http://www.earthsky.org/shows/show.php?date=20051210

Virginia:

23) A logging operation in the George Washington National Forest in northeastern Amherst County was shut down late last month after neighbors complained that soil was washing into the road and Statons Creek, a nearby trout stream. Statons Creek flows into the Pedlar River, which fills the reservoir that provides Lynchburg with its drinking water. There was no indication the runoff from the operation had an adverse impact on the Pedlar Reservoir, city officials said. Amherst resident Roy Stivers said contractors were cutting a road into the forest off Virginia 633 for a timber sale, but they were doing it in the rain without safeguards against erosion. Mud was pouring into the road, the ditches and the creek, Stivers said. http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=LNA%2FMGArticle%2FLNA_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1
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24) To a bear, coon, squirrel or owl, a hollow tree is home. But to a logger, a hollow log is usually a dud, a “leaver,” as in, “nothing there, so leave her alone.” I, too, have felt the disappointment of felling a huge tree, expecting soundness that I could turn into lumber but finding instead a cavity filled with a rich compost of rot. This happened a few summers ago as I cleared land for a quarter-acre pond. The trees, mostly towering pines, I dropped into the ravine that soon would fill with water. Then I hitched each trunk to the tractor and dragged it to a portable sawmill that turned log into lumber. The last tree, though, was a locust over two feet in diameter, a giant for around here. For a year, I anticipated cutting this tree, knowing it would yield a whole rack of decking we could use on our new porches. The saw cut too easily, though, and not even halfway through, I knew disappointment as the saw spit out brown dirt instead of white sawdust. Our woods are filled with these barrels of the forest, these chests of darkness — a hickory in Spring Hollow, a beech on Trillium Hill, a sycamore by Big Branch. On the North Ridge, every day I pass by a gnarly chestnut oak. Its trunk suffered damage years ago, so 10 feet up, it sprouts a hole instead of a limb, and around its base, too, a chipmunk has tunneled another hole. I knock on this tree daily, hoping to startle out a slumbering screech owl. I’ve never succeeded, but keep knocking anyway, my form of good luck insurance. That, and I enjoy the sound one knuckle can make on an empty chamber, my bone striking this tuning fork of the woods. http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/columns/journal/wb/wb/xp-44240

Rhode Island:

25) IT’S STILL POSSIBLE to feel like an explorer in our neighborhood woodlands. It’s possible to feel that we might be the very first to pause atop a rocky ledge and gaze out over a valley. We probably are not the first — not in Rhode Island — but when we go where there are no trails or other signs of human activity, there is that possibility. Sure, it is mostly an illusion, but a very pleasant illusion. Exploring is best done in late fall or winter, when there are no leaves on trees. Now we can see, really see, into the forest. All the things hidden by leaves — things such as ledges and ravines and outcroppings, the unusual rock formations, the majestic or misshapen trees — can be sighted from a distance. They beckon, invite inspection. I’m on the outcrop when the question strikes: When was the last time anybody was up here? Fifty years ago? A hundred? Maybe some of the earlier farmers hunted grouse up here. Even though there are no signs now, maybe they cut some trees or quarried some of the stone. Maybe kids who grew up nearby played on this ledge. Maybe not. http://srv2.vanguardia.com.mx/hub.cfm/FuseAction.Detalle/Nota.501431/SecID.71/index.sal

Canada:

26) This holiday season, we’ve put together the kind of list that Santa will appreciate: who’s been naughty and who’s been nice to the forests in the catalog industry! We need your help to send a big fat lump of coal to six of the naughty forest destroyer catalogs: Victoria’s Secret, J. Crew, L.L. Bean, Sears/Lands’ End, J.C. Penney, and Eddie Bauer. It’s easy — we’ve set up one email that gets sent to all six at once. to view the report and send the email. http://forestethics.org/naughtynice/ Also, click check out the brand-new feature article in Time Magazine about us and the Victoria’s Dirty Secret campaign. http://forestethics.org/article.php?id=1287

Puerto Rico:

27) “Sen. Martinez is feeling his way around as a first-year senator on environmental issues,” said the Sierra Club’s Jackalone. “He was an extremely strong champion against offshore drilling proposals. If it hadn’t been for Mel Martinez, we would have lost that fight.” Mel Martinez jetted to Puerto Rico for two days last week, it wasn’t just to take a look at one of the nation’s few tropical rainforests. He wants to help save it. Like many natural places, El Yunque – a lush ecosystem of super-size ferns, 7-foot boas and rare parrots 25 miles from the island’s capital of San Juan – is threatened by population growth and property development. Sprawl imperils the highlands revered by the people of Puerto Rico for thousands of years. So many trees and plants have been razed that rain doesn’t fall on the rainforest as much as it used to. Florida’s Republican U.S. senator, disenchanted with local solutions, is pushing to get Washington involved. Noting the failure of local authorities to enforce zoning restrictions around El Yunque, Martinez has proposed federal legislation to allow the U.S. Forest Service, which owns the 28,000-acre El Yunque, also called the Caribbean National Forest, to buy more undisturbed land before it disappears or becomes too pricey. “We need to halt the destruction of this valuable ecosystem.” Such passion is making the former housing secretary from Orlando sound more like an environmentalist than a loyalist to President Bush, who is often criticized for eroding environmental protections, and for favoring local control over land use. Sprawl has grown so pronounced at El Yunque that the U.S. Forest Service’s International Institute of Tropical Forestry concluded in March that 9,307 acres of the reserve had been “invaded” by urban development. “It is urgent to come up with new strategies to conserve this region,” the report said. In November, legislation by Fortuño and Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York won support for designating 10,000 acres as wilderness. After Bush signs the bill, logging, road-building and development will be banned in a third of the forest. http://news.tbo.com/news/MGBLGQ454HE.html

Brazil:

28) Trees in the Amazon rainforest are older than originally believed according to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A team of American and Brazilian researchers using radiocarbon dating methods to study tree growth in the world’s largest tropical rainforest found that up to half of all trees greater than 10 centimeters in diameter are more than 300 years old. Some of the trees are 750 to 1,000 years old says Susan Trumbore, a professor of Earth system science at University of California at Irvine and one of the authors of the study. “Little was known about the age of tropical trees, because they do not have easily identified annual growth rings,” said Trumbore in a media statement. “No one had thought these tropical trees could be so old, or that they grow so slowly.” According to Trumbore, the finding may have important implications for the role the Amazon plays in determining atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. Because Amazon forest trees are old and slow-growing says the researcher, they have less capacity to absorb atmospheric carbon than previous studies have predicted. http://news.mongabay.com/2005/1213-amazon.html

Argentina:

29) Drums were pounding and pots were clanking in front of the Finnish Embassy in Buenos Aires on Wednesday afternoon as 500 people gathered for a demonstration against the construction of a eucalyptus pulp mill in Uruguay by the Finnish company Metsä-Botnia. The organisers of the demonstration, citizens of the town of Gualeguaychú (located on the River Uruguay) and environmental protection organisations, were concerned at the pollution produced by the plants owned by Botnia and the Spanish company Ence. “We don’t want the River Uruguay to die. We demand that the construction of the plants be discontinued immediately because they will poison the future of our children. This is a protest for peace, environment and life”, declared Alejandro Gahan, a resident of Gualeguaychú. The protest lasted for four hours and also targeted the Uruguayan and Spanish Embassies and the Hotel Alvear, where a forestry seminar was held, branding Botnia representatives as “murderers” and “liars”. However, the demonstration was peaceful and police forces called in to protect the embassy were left standing idle.

Uganda:

30) Encroachers in the South Busoga Forest Reserve in Mayuge district assaulted a National Forestry Authority (NFA) female employee and disfigured her face. In a series of acts of violence from December 10-11, the encroachers burnt an NFA motorcycle, beat up casual labourers and dug deep trenches to make it impossible for NFA officials to access sections of South Busoga Forest Reserve. They assaulted Caroline Kunihira (right), a forest supervisor for South Busoga Central Forest Reserve, on December 10. They beat up the labourers, burnt Kunihira’s motorcycle before taking her hostage. She stayed in captivity for more than seven hours before she was rescued by police from Bwondha. Police and NFA officials said Kunihira was cut with a machete, robbed of her cell phone, money and other belongings. On December 11, the encroachers removed culverts from the road and blocked it with trees to fend off NFA staff. This is the latest assault the encroachers had carried out since the year began. In May they made two attacks destroying six hectares of pine trees worth Shs850m. http://www.monitor.co.ug/news/new121418.php

Vietnam:

31) It’s not too late to save the world’s tropical forests but it will take more than fast-growing exotic timber plantations that are currently being used, according to University of Queensland researchers. UQ rainforest ecologists Dr David Lamb and Dr Peter Erskine believe some of the degraded or partially cleared tropical forests in Asia, Latin America and Africa, can be restored.
The say the first step is to learn more about the condition and biodiversity of secondary forests, according to their findings published in the latest edition of the international scientific journal Science. Dr Lamb said the second step was to assess which native trees could be grown on degraded land. “This involves trialling many different native species including higher valued timber species to diversify income for local farmers,” Dr Lamb said. “Farmers need to buy short and long-term insurance in the form of having a variety of tree species in their farm plantations. “Simply creating national parks in degraded forests is not enough. “There’s forest restoration work going on and it’s not all a one-way degradation process. It’s not all doom and gloom. “Most people tend to focus on big industrial scale plantations which do little to conserve biodiversity and are often of limited benefit to rural communities. “But in Asia and many other parts of the tropical world, there’s also an enormous number of small farmers who are planting trees for a whole variety of reasons.” Even though 850 million hectares of tropical forest was estimated to have been cleared or degraded in the last century, Dr Lamb said it wasn’t all bad news.
http://www.uq.edu.au/news/?article=8623

Philippines:

32) When the Philippine government introduced the contract reforestation program in 1988-92, almost 225,000 hectares of land were targeted to be planted with fast-growing, well-known exotic or foreign kinds of plants. The program failed to restore our degraded forests. According to Dr. Paciencia Milan, president of Leyte State University (LSU), the program failed mainly for two reasons. First, exotic trees have low quality wood; thus, people still needed to harvest quality timber from the rainforest, which led to continuous illegal logging and poaching. Exotic trees do not support the Philippine wildlife species, some of which are important pollinators and distributors of seeds. This means that our local wildlife does not recognize these trees, and therefore birds do not nest on these trees and feed on their fruits. This led to the loss of biodiversity. http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2005/dec/10/yehey/opinion/20051210opi4.html

Indonesia:

33) Edi, who heads the Sipakilala rattan craftsmen group in Palopo, South Sulawesi, said that rattan material gathered up by area residents from the nearby forest, had been turned into household furniture and sold for up to Rp 150,000 at the exhibition. Previously, the residents were engaged in illegal logging of teakwood. Even though he is not exactly wealthy, his products have gained recognition among the public in spite of just being involved in the business for three months. “We have educated people in the area and provided them with an awareness of forest sustainability. We have taught them that forests have been damaged and illegal logging must stop,” said the coordinator of the consortium, Joko Waluyo. The program has been running for about five months, and now comprizes dozens of community network groups around forest areas that are working with non-timber forest products. The consortium has also provided training in the manufacture of a variety of non-timber handicrafts, as well as helping to market and promote the products; as is the case in the week-long exhibition at the Surabaya Youth Hall, which will run through Dec. 14. http://www.thejakartapost.com/misc/PrinterFriendly.asp

34) Cirebon, W Java – Police will continue to hunt down about 40 illegal logging financiers who are named in the wanted list of the Indonesian Police Headquters, Forestry Minister MS Ka`ban said here on Monday. Minister of Forestry Malam Sambat Kaban says many illegal logging financiers enter the country using fake passports, with most financiers from Malaysia or China. The financiers are very experienced, which makes their arrest more difficult, said Kaban on Saturday during a visit to the North Sumatra capital of Medan. One suspected financier, identified as Lim Bo Hoen, has been under police observation for a few years but has so far evaded arrest. Lim, who has been operating in North Sumatra, has often switched identities, using Indonesian or Malaysian nationality, said the minister. Kaban, also the leader of the Crescent Star Party (PBB), said the practice could be put to a stop if all related government agencies cooperated to prevent illegal logging financiers from entering the country. The presence of illegal logging financiers has contributed to the rapid pace of illegal logging in the country, the driving force behind the destruction each year of 2.8 million hectares of forest. Kaban said that over the past 30 years, some 59.3 million hectares of forest in the country had been destroyed. One hundred and twenty million hectares of forested land remains. Kaban said the ministry had forwarded several names of government officials to the police for investigative purposes. Among government officials being investigated is an official in Kota Cane, the capital of Southeast Aceh. Illegal logging was blamed for a landslide in the area two months ago, which killed dozens of people. http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=7606 http://www.thejakartapost.com/misc/PrinterFriendly.asp

35) Environmentalists fear that the remaining lowland forests on Sumatra will vanish in the next 10 years because of its conversion into industrial forest to produce raw materials for the world’s rapidly growing pulp and paper industry. Senior forestry specialist at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) Christian Cossalter said recently that timber from Sumatra’s forests, especially from Riau province, was being harvested not only to meet domestic industry’s demand, but also for export to China, where many Indonesian businessmen have set up pulp and paper factories. He also said major pulp and paper firms operating in Sumatra had a huge production capacity that could reach up to 2 million tons of pulp and paper annually, making them the biggest producers in the world. “Such a huge production capacity will surely threaten the environment,” he said. A conservation biologist at BirdLife Indonesia, Victoria Ngantung, said Sumatran lowland forests have experienced rapid deforestation since 1900, when it occupied about 16 million hectares of land. “But now, only 500,000 hectares are left,” she told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. She explained that aside from wood-based industries, the deforestation of the island was also being caused by conversion of forests into plantations. “If no immediate action is taken, it (Sumatran lowland forests) will disappear in the next few years,” she said. Victoria said the lowland forests were vital as they possessed rich biodiversity, and were home to about 425 bird species and over a dozen endemic mammals, such as Sumatran Rhino and elephant. Therefore, a consortium consisting of BirdLife Indonesia, BirdLife International and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds have taken the initiative to restore the ecosystem in a 100,000 hectare-forest block in Jambi and South Sumatra provinces. “After a series of studies we gave priority to lowland forests in the two provinces because they are less damaged than other lowland forest areas in Sumatra,” she explained, adding that the consortium had succeeded in encouraging the Ministry of Forestry to issue regulations supporting their initiative.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20051209.C04&irec=4

New Zealand:

36) Blakely Pacific (NZ) Limited is a New Zealand forestry company with its historic roots in the Northwest of the United States. The company’s head office is located in Seattle. In New Zealand, the main office is situated in Christchurch, and there are three regional offices – in Tauranga, Geraldine and Timaru. In New Zealand, Blakely Pacific owns or manages a total of 27,472 hectares of which 4005 hectares is located in the North Island and 23,467 are in the South Island. In addition to fast growing Radiata Pine, Blakely Pacific also grows Eucalyptus and Douglas Fir and also Macrocarpa, Luisitanica, Ponderosa and Corsican Pine, Cedar and Larch. All of Blakely Pacific’s forests are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU0512/S00164.htm

Australia:

37) Several years ago, the Sabine Falls were doomed. The walking track was closed and picnic tables were removed. The waterfall was designated a star tourist attraction, but the Government had eyes only for the timber surrounding the spectacular 130-metre cascade. That was when the timber industry swore it would not let the Government give any more ground for conservation. Now the tables are back, the path is repaired and logging is no longer an issue. Once the scene of battles between environmentalists and state foresters, the Sabine and other sites are safe in the new Great Otway National Park. Old adversaries will rub shoulders today in celebrations at Triplet Falls, where Environment Minister John Thwaites will declare the 100,000 hectare park open. The park incorporates the existing Otway National Park, the Angahook-Lorne, Carlisle and Melba Gully state parks, and another 60,000 hectares of state forest and Crown land. Logging will continue in the Otway Forest Park, a 40,000 hectare area where dogs and horse riding, and other activities are allowed. But logging will be phased out by 2008, when the licence expires for the last sawmill left in nearby Colac. Trisha Caswell, chief executive of the Victorian Association of Forest Industries, had regrets. She said the Otways could have been a model for sustainable forestry. “Basically, the Otways are 1939 regrowth, they are gorgeous forests and they relate to all kinds of industries and jobs,” she said. He said poor stewardship was to blame for logging’s demise. “The greatest adversary was the forestry bureaucracy,” he said. “They were the staunchest recalcitrants who did not understand what community compromise and liaison was about. http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/larger-otways-park-has-loggers-bushed/2005/12/10/1134086848140.html

38) The charm of the meandering Murray River lined with towering river red gum trees was central to the charm of restaurateur Stefano De Pieri’s ABC television series A Gondola on the Murray. But De Pieri said the efforts by conservationists, governments and irrigators to preserve the Murray River were wasted while loggers in NSW had unfettered access to river red gum forests on privately-leased Crown land. On Monday, Mr De Pieri will launch a new campaign in Melbourne to save the Murray’s river red gums and establish a series of linked reserves and national parks along the Murray and its tributaries. “On the Victorian side, the government bought up many logging licences years ago but in sensitive areas on the NSW side, particularly from Swan Hill to the Barham Forest (near Echuca) there are huge areas where loggers do as they please,” De Pieri said. “They are being sacrificed. These beautiful, majestic trees give us a sense of strength, security and confidence in nature.” De Pieri will launch the campaign and a website – http://www.redgum.org.au – at the Separation Tree at Melbourne’s Botanic Gardens, the site where Melburnians gathered in 1850 to celebrate the news Victoria was to separate from NSW. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=76903

39) Greenpeace took peaceful action today at a Brisbane based timber company in protest at what it calls “the tonnes of illegal timber from the world’s last rainforests that continue to flood into Australia.” Greenpeace urged the Federal Minster for Forestry and Conservation, Senator Ian Macdonald to deliver on his promise to introduce legislation to stop the importation of illegally and destructively sourced timber. “A year ago Minister Macdonald promised tough legislation to stop the importation of illegally logged timber but we have seen no action” said Greenpeace Forest Campaigner, Katerina Lecchi. “If the Australian Government continues at this snail pace there will be no rainforests left. It’s time to get on with the job in hand and ban illegal timber from Australian markets”. Greepeace says every year over 130,000 cubic metres of illegally logged timber from the forests of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, home to unique cultures, animals and plants found nowhere else on earth, is continuing to find it’s way into Australia. The companies logging this timber are not only linked to environmental destruction, but also violence, corruption and human rights abuses. Senator Ian Macdonald, Minister for Forest Fisheries and Conservation told ABC news on November 15, 2004: “I would hope we would be able to work on this and get in place a proper regime which prohibits imports from forests that are not sustainably managed within the next six to 12 months.” Greenpeace media release http://www.pacificislands.cc/pina/pinadefault2.php?urlpinaid=18837

World-wide:

40) According to UN data, deforestation accounts for around 25 percent of man-made emissions of carbon dioxide — roughly the same amount of carbon dioxide produced by the United States, the world’s largest polluter. FAO says the world’s forests store 283 gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon in their biomass alone, while the total carbon stored in forest biomass, deadwood, litter and soil together is about one trillion tonnes — 50 percent more than the amount of carbon found in the atmosphere. The destruction of world forests releases about two billion tonnes of carbon per year, most the loses coming in the tropical forests of Asia, South America, and Africa. Potentially, through a carbon trading scheme, there could be a lot of value in slowing tropical deforestation. Carbon dioxide credits, which trade at about $20 per ton, may be used as a mechanism for valuing forest lands and protecting them from destruction. A proposal currently under consideration, calls for the use of carbon credits as a means for industrialized countries to compensate forested countries for the services their forests provide. http://news.mongabay.com/2005/1210-fao.html