060OEC’s This Week in Trees

This week we have 34 articles from British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Maryland, West Virginia, Scotland, Czechoslovakia, Russia, Malta, Kenya, Ecuador, Brazil, India, Vietnam, South East Asia, Myanmar, Malaysia, and Australia.

British Columbia:

1) The beetle epidemic, fuelled by climate change, is resulting in huge increases in the province’s Allowable Annual Cut (AAC). Recently, chief forester Jim Snetsinger announced the latest increases: 745,000 cubic metres/year (m3) in the Okanagan Timber Supply Area and 200,000 cubic metres for Tree Farm License 49. All told, the provincial increase so far has been 14,790,039 m3 and the forest service is already looking at another 8,115,207 m3 increase. The impact on ecosystems and on future harvest levels will be significant. Lodgepole pine forests account for approximately 25 percent of the forestland base and most of these trees are forecast to be dead or dying within the next ten years. The actual amount of wood logged has lagged behind the allowable cut levels. The “undercut” has varied from 2.5 million to as high as 9 million cubic metres in 2001. In the interior of the province, companies are still ramping up their operations to be able to cut more pine. On the coast, the cut had only been propped up due to high cedar prices, which are now falling. Most quality timber on the coast is now gone and companies can no longer find markets for the hemlock that dominates the remaining stands. Logging costs on the coast are also a factor, as it is very expensive to log these hard-to-access forests. Coastal companies have been pressuring the government to get into the second-growth forests. If they are successful, the Ministry of Forests will require that the AAC drop significantly, because the remaining stands of old growth hemlock will have to be removed from the timber harvesting land base; companies cannot find markets for it. Meanwhile, on their vast private forest land holdings on Vancouver Island, companies have been creaming off the second growth, with much of this quality timber shipped offshore as raw logs. http://www.watershedsentinel.ca

2) We at BC Pathways have had a particular focus – the preservation of the old-growth eco-systems and values in and adjacent to the Walbran Special Management Zone (SMZ 21, “Walbran Periphery”). We note that during the last 10 years there has been a continuing elaboration of the Forest Development Plans for this area (pursuant to the timber utilization objectives). We also note that the government and industry commitment upon the establishment of this SMZ was for the co-existent preservation of multiple values (specifically, ‘forestry,’ ‘environmental’ and ‘recreational’ values). There has been some, arguably less than adequate, planning done to protect and save some species within this SMZ. However, to our knowledge, there has been no recreational-use planning since before SMZ 21 was establish (the last known recreational assessment for the area having been issued by Fletcher-Challenge in 1991, prior to the inclusion of the Walbran into the Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park – which now encircles SMZ 21.) We are very concerned about this breach of commitment since the logging continues in this area without any formal guidelines and little in any public/recreational-user inputs. More than ten million hectares of British Columbia have been zoned for special management. There were provincial consultations underway. What became of this effort? http://www.ecobc.org/index.cfm?act=org&org_ID=561

3) Over the past ten years, the Spirit Bear Youth Coalition has been working to help bring the plight of the spirit bear in from the political wilderness and make it front and centre in boardrooms, in cabinet meetings, and in the pubic eye. And in that effort, we have succeeded. But as we enter a new year, the spirit bear remains endangered and there is an urgent need for political leadership – from any level of government – to protect this bear’s entire last intact habitat – an area that must include the Green watershed. While 2005 was a year of tremendous progress, 2006 will be the year that defines the future of the campaign to save the spirit bear. This is a campaign at a crossroad. The current land-use agreement before the BC government affords no additional protection for the spirit bear beyond that of the April 4th agreement signed in 2001 – that agreement set aside only half of this bear’s last intact habitat. While the Youth Coalition was successful, thanks to you – the thousands of supporters who took the time to fax and e-mail the Premier – in blocking the agreement from being rushed into legislation prior to the BC election, the BC government still has plans to move forward with it in the next few months. The Spirit Bear Youth Coalition supports the current North and Central Coast. Land-Use Agreement for what it is: a comprehensive plan for addressing the need to shift from clear-cut logging to sustainable logging to make the coastal more sustainable, both economically and environmentally. And we wholeheartedly support the government to government First Nation protocol being established through this process. However, the deal falls short on conservation. While it does create protected areas throughout the watersheds lining the coast, it protects a series of areas that, on a whole, are too small to protect large carnivores like the spirit bear. http://www.spiritbearyouth.org/

4) Forests Minister Rich Coleman said that Valemount would receive an invitation to apply for a community forest license before the fiscal year end occuring March 31. He said his ministry may be working on consultation with First Nations, or firming up what Crown land could be used for an area based community forest tenure. “We are working to try and find an operating area for them,” said Coleman. The next stage of the process would see the village provide a more specific business plan based on what the province offers. Chief Administrative Officer Doug Fleming said the village has expressed interest in a community forest, but is waiting for something official from the ministry to proceed. The village has put together an application based on a community forest tenure of 60,000 m3. Fleming said only 40,000 m3 may be available, so they might have to rework their proposal. Valemount resident John Garnick, a retired logger, knows something about the pitfalls of the logging industry and he worries that the village venture could come back on taxpayers if something goes wrong. Garnick said it is easy to rack up big bills in the industry and he wonders what provisions might be in place to keep the Valemount Community Forest out of debt. Fleming said Garnick’s concerns are taken seriously. “If he is concerned about the community forest losing money, he’s not as concerned about it as the village is,” said Fleming. “That’s why we have put a lot of effort into this study work..” Fleming said the village would have to assist with start up funding. http://www.robsonvalleytimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=300&Itemid=46

Washington:

5) SEATTLE — If you’ve ever tried to scrape moss off your roof or keep it from invading your lawn, you’d assume it would be easy to grow. A few northwest scientists are exploring Moss Farming as an alternative to the practice of gathering moss in the woods for the floral industry. It turns out that growing moss in a controlled environment is tricky business, as KPLU’s Tom Banse discovered. Listen here: http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kplu/news.mediaplayer?STATION_NAME=kplu&MEDIA_ID=496185&MEDIA_EXTENSION=
mp3&MODULE=news

Oregon:

6) PROSPECT — Scientists keeping tabs on the largest sugar pines in the roughly 1,000-acre grove between Prospect and Union Creek are worried. The giant pines in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest that draw oohs and awes from Highway 62 tourists are dying. “We’re losing three to five of those big trees every year,” said Joel King, a soil scientist and district ranger for the Prospect and Butte Falls ranger districts. “In another 50 years there won’t be any of the big trees left.” To preserve the huge trees, the U.S. Forest Service, after eight years of study and public input, has decided to launch what it calls the Big Pines project by removing the smaller white fir, Douglas fir and other trees that threaten 90 of the largest sugar and ponderosa pines within the Highway 62 corridor. In addition, the agency is planning to thin the forest by removing small-diameter trees near its Prospect ranger station and along the forest border with the town of Prospect to reduce the wildfire threat to both. The work could begin as early as this summer, King said. A century of successful wildfire suppression along the historic highway corridor has created an unnaturally dense forest, sapping the strength of the trees by robbing them of water and soil nutrients, King said. Frequent low-intensity wildfires would normally kill vegetation now choking out the huge trees which are fire-resistant, he noted. A healthy tree can defend against a bark beetle attack by pushing the insects out with sap, scientists observe. “Those trees need a lot more space around them to thrive and combat the mountain pine beetle,” said Ellen Goheen, a plant pathologist with the Rogue River-Siskiyou forest. “The biggest trees we have here now are from 400 to 500 years old but will live 1,200 to 1,400 years if they have adequate resources,” King said, adding the project’s goal is to allow the big trees to live out their lives. “Everyone I talk to says they want these big trees saved,” he said, adding, “These trees are an earmark for the state of Oregon, for the West Coast.” Anyone stopping at the popular Union Creek recreation area in the summer will often hear multiple languages because the big trees draw people from around the world, King observed. http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2006/0124/local/stories/01local.htm

7) TILLER — Not all timber in the Umpqua National Forest is easy to sell, even if its harvest promotes a healthier forest. The issue is stirring a collective brainstorm in the Tiller Ranger District, where marketing ideas like selling small-diameter trees as material for rustic furniture and traditional teepee poles for Indian reservations have been suggested as ways to pay for a thinning project in a dense swath of land. But the challenge is finding a contractor willing to accept the job. “Who is out there who would want to work on these projects,” asks Tiller District Ranger Roshanna Stone. Don Ollivant, a volunteer in the stewardship-design project for the Boulder and Dumont watersheds, said an anonymous timber operator has said it would be “economically unfeasible” to approach the project. But Stone says the project can be offered as a whole or in pieces to contractors. The group met at Canyonville City Hall on Wednesday to discuss marketing ideas and choosing successful bidders. It was the group’s second meeting. The first meeting included a tour of the Boulder-Dumont area in early December. The proposed project in the Boulder-Dumont area is made up of 4,559 acres. Only 829 acres are considered commercial stands, presenting the Forest Service with the problem of ridding itself of excess material from 3,730 acres of younger stands. “There’s no way that 829 acres will give you enough cash to do all that other stuff,” said Paula Trudeau, silviculturist in the Tiller district. Meanwhile, Tiller district employees, citizens and members of a nonprofit forestry group brainstorm for ideas that will make small-diameter timber poles attractive to buyers. Though it is generally agreed by the group that harvesting skinny trees in the 2- to 10-inch range is not an ideal profit-making product for contractors, the Forest Service is getting creative. According to the Forest Service, approximately 7,300 acres in the Boulder-Dumont area were harvested and replanted between 1945 and 1990. The regenerated stands tend to be dense and lack desired characteristics, such as large trees and species diversity and structure diversity. http://www.newsreview.info/article/20060122/NEWS/101230044

8) It’s rare to find two diametrically opposed sides using the same exact posterchild to support their views. However, that’s essentially what’s developed over the past few years as the logging industry and their supporters have locked horns with conservation groups and scientists in a battle over so-called “healthy forests” policy and the future of America’s public lands following wildfires. That “same exact postchild” is the 2002 Biscuit Fire that burned nearly 500,000 acres in the Siskiyou Wild Rivers Area of southwestern Oregon’s Siskiyou National Forest and the U.S. Forest Service’s subsequent Biscuit “Fire Recovery Project” that approved cutting down 19,000 acres of ancient forest reserves and roadless wildlands in a forest of global ecological significance. Unfortunately, listening to some people, you’d be led to believe that the 2002 Biscuit Fire laid waste to everything in its path. While referred to repeatedly by the logging industry and their supporters as catastrophic, devastating and unnatural, the reality is that 84% of the Biscuit Fire area was either unburned, or burned at low to moderate intensity. Yet, this reality hasn’t prevented Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) – who incidentally has received $643,363 in campaign contributions from the logging industry during his senate career and was one of the major supporters of the so-called “Healthy Forest Restoration Act” – from declaring in a recent opinion piece that “Today, nearly half the Siskiyou National Forest remains a charred moonscape.” In fact, since Senator Smith apparently believes that he gets a free pass from reality, he has enough confidence to boldly use the Biscuit Fire and the botched Biscuit “Fire Recovery Project” as the posterchild for his Orwellian-inspired Forests for Future Generations Act. http://www.newwest.net/index.php/main/article/5472/

California:

9) Short of taking the issue to the United States Supreme Court, environmental groups have exhausted their legal options in battling the Meadow Valley Project, a group of four timber sales west of Quincy. The Meadow Valley Project is part of the Herger-Feinstein Quincy Library Group program of work. The 9th Circuit Court, the largest of the nation’s 13 courts and heralded as its most liberal, issued a succinct 11-page decision affirming the decision previously handed down by Judge Morrison C. England in District Court. Circuit Judge Betty Fletcher wrote in her conclusion: “The EA (environmental analysis written by the Forest Service) demonstrates a ‘hard look’ at MVP’s impacts on both the spotted owl and on the safety of nearby communities. Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s summary judgment in favor of the FS (Forest Service).” … “We need to do a better job of explaining the potential effects of the cumulative impacts and the harm they cause,” said Craig Thomas, director of the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign, one of the groups that sued over the Meadow Valley project. http://www.sacunion.com/pages/sacramento/articles/7569/
http://www.plumasnews.com/news_story.edi?sid=3751

10) The editors of Capital Press used the occasion of the recent California floods to editorialize on the state’s water and flood control needs. We can all agree with the editorial’s conclusion: “Now is the time to prepare for what is coming… we need to make sure the state continues to have the water it needs… to grow.” In order to achieve water security, Capital Press editors say that additional surface water storage throughout the state is needed. This is, of course, the traditional solution. But dams and reservoirs have proven to be inadequate for flood protection and they carry costs – including loss of valuable fisheries and wildlife habitat, historical and archeological resources – none of which were considered when they were built. For these and other reasons, it is unlikely that many (if any) large, new storage projects will be built in California. Furthermore, because global warming is reducing the mountain snow pack, California will have trouble keeping its existing reservoirs filled. More water will be dumped in winter to prevent flooding and dam failure and less will be available during the dry summers. So what is a thirsty state to do? The answer is all around us if we only look up. Fortunately, California’s and the rest of the West’s mountains are largely covered by forests and forest soils are by far our largest water reservoir. In fact, our forested uplands are already more valuable for the water they store and slowly release than for the timber that has traditionally been the focus of upland economic activity. But California and the rest of the American West have not yet learned what most of the world understands – that upland forest protection and water security are one and the same. Instead, we are still allowing corporations like Sierra Pacific Industries to clear-cut our forested mountains. — Felice Pace of Klamath, Calif., is a former conservation director of the Klamath Forest Alliance. http://www.capitalpress.info/

11) In the three-part series, “The Pineros: Men of the Pines,” and follow-up stories, The Bee found unreported injuries, clear safety violations and contractors who don’t pay their workers what they’re owed. The government program has migrant workers planting trees across the country and thinning forests that are fire-prone. But contractors – the ones who employ the workers – manage to continue receiving jobs from the U.S. Forest Service even if they have a history of violating federal labor laws and government contracts. Since the series ran, the Forest Service has promised some welcome changes to improve enforcement: 1) Adding provisions from existing laws to contracts. 2) Doing at least one inspection to ensure compliance. 3) Documenting violations and reporting them to appropriate oversight agencies. 4) Suspending work on a project if workers don’t have proper safety equipment. 5) Creating a computer database of forest contractors who have violated federal health, safety and wage laws. 6) Factoring violations when considering future contracts. But it is up to Congress to hold the Forest Service accountable. How many inspections have been done? How many violations have been documented? How many suspensions of work projects have occurred? How many contractors with records of violations and worker injuries have been denied new contracts? A contractor was fined for 14 safety violations in July 2002. It was fined again for five safety violations in April 2004 after a worker broke his neck. The Forest Service itself was fined for three serious violations in that case.Yet the contractor won a new contract and a Forest Service contracting officer called the company “one of our best contractors.” He told his Forest Service colleagues “these same violations could be found on almost all our contractors,” as if that should excuse the violations. If serious violations are commonplace, that’s a serious indictment of how the Forest Service does business. http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/14106447p-14936141c.html

Idaho:

12) CHALLIS – The federal government owns so much of Custer County, Idaho, that one could call it common ground. More than 95 percent lies in public hands. But for years, Idaho has failed to find much, if any, common ground on what to do with the region’s pristine backwoods. Environmentalists wanted to protect the roadless forestland as federal wilderness, ranchers hoped to maintain the land for their cattle, and weekend warriors pushed for access for their dirt bikes and off-road vehicles. Local government officials, starved for revenue, looked to privatize some government land to generate more property taxes. Exhausted after three decades of lawsuits, failed legislation, and ill will, these groups are backing a compromise bill that would designate some 300,000 acres as wilderness, privatize another 6,000, and keep the rest open for multiple uses. Some observers call the legislation, submitted last year by US Rep. Mike Simpson (R) of Idaho, an example of “collaborative process,” an evolving concept that could define the future of conservation. A more temperate approach, the so-called “wise-use” ideology, is gaining ground, says Kirk Emerson, director of the US Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution in Tucson, Ariz. That ideology, in turn, has given birth to a number of well-funded organizations dedicated to advancing collaborative process. These include The Quivira Coalition in New Mexico, the Sonoran Institute in Arizona, and the Montana-based Red Lodge Clearinghouse. Not everyone is thrilled by this expansion. The collaborative movement has mostly produced “a lot of talk and little follow-through,” says environmentalist Michael McCloskey, who in 1995 wrote a now-famous memo. It warned environmentalists: “A new dogma is emerging as a challenge to us. It embodies the proposition that the best way for the public to determine how to manage its interest in the environment is through collaboration among stakeholders.” He argues that the main reason conservationists increasingly turn to compromise is that the federal government is failing to do its job protecting the environment. Also, many collaborative groups set the bar so low that they declare success if they can get all the stakeholders to the table, he says. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0125/p02s01-sten.html

Montana:

13) MISSOULA – Claiming that the Fishtrap project perfectly illustrates the failed nature of the current U.S. Forest Service management scheme for restoring forests, the Ecology Center, Native Forest Network and Alliance for the Wild Rockies have filed a formal administrative appeal over the Fishtrap logging project that calls for industrial logging in unroaded wildlands, old-growth forests and habitat for grizzly bears and bull trout. The Fishtrap project area is located 20 miles north of Thompson Falls within the remote upper Fishtrap Creek watershed. Sixty-seven percent of the Fishtrap project area is part of the Cabinet-Yaak Grizzly Bear Recovery Area and Fishtrap Creek is listed as a priority stream for the threatened Bull trout. The Fishtrap logging project would cut down enough trees from over 3 1/2 square miles of the watershed (2,260 acres) to fill 2,400 log trucks lined up end-to-end for twenty miles. The Fishtrap project calls for industrial logging in unroaded wildlands, within old-growth forests and important habitat for grizzly bears and bull trout. Based on the Forest Service’s budget, the project would lose $2.5 million. The Fish Trap project area is literally surrounded by tens of thousands of acres of private industrial timberlands that have been exhaustively clearcut and roaded. “This project also illustrates one of our concerns with stewardship contracting. We don’t believe it makes economic or ecological sense to degrade one part of the Fishtrap watershed with industrial logging and road reconstruction in order to generate a little bit of money to only restore a small portion of the same watershed. That’s the equivalent of taking one step forward and three steps backwards,” stated Matthew Koehler, director of the native Forest Network. http://www.newwest.net/index.php/main/article/5531/

14) Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Steger Smith filed a complaint today in U.S. District Court alleging Tom Maclay, who is proposing a destination ski resort on his property at the base of Lolo Peak, cut about 400 trees on Forest Service property, including trees in the Carlton Ridge Research Natural Area. The complaint details two Forest Service investigations — one involving illegal cutting along Forest Service Road 1311 to make way for a snow-grooming machine and another that found seven closed roadways cleared without permission and seven “areas of new road construction” on Forest Service property. Maclay admitted to Forest Service officials to clearing the roads and cutting the trees, according to the complaint. The U.S. Attorney’s office is asking the court to decide whether Maclay’s actions constitute a trespass on U.S. property and to grant damages to cover the cost of restoring and rehabilitating the property and compensate for attorney fees and expenses. The investigation in today’s complaint alleges the road clearing was intended to make room for the grooming machine, or the “Bombardier,” as the complaint calls it. The big news from today’s filing is the charge that Maclay cut trees in the Research Natural Area — a section of land filled with a rare hybridization of Western and Alpine Larch. The area for all intents and purposes is treated the same as a wilderness area. The 900-acre area was the big non-negotiable for the Lolo and Bitterroot National Forests when they denied Maclay’s first attempt at approval for the resort last March and has been touted by the resort’s critics as one of the most sacred pieces of public land at stake in the proposal. Former Forest Service research scientist Stephen Arno said on a field trip to the area near the RNA this fall (just as some of the larches were turning gold, see the picture above) that for a scientist, the area is a one-of-a-kind laboratory for studying hybridization, forest ecology, geology and even looking at indicators of global warming. The uniqueness of the area has to do with the kind of hybridization and the soil mantle where it occurs — just on the edge of what used to be a glacial valley. http://www.newwest.net/index.php/main/article/5536/

15) A federal judge last week ruled that salvage logging in core grizzly bear habitat could begin again, now that grizzly bears are in their den. But the ruling comes far too late for one local mill. F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber had about 800,000 board feet of timber cut and on the ground from last summer, said Ron Buentemeier, Stoltze general manager. Now it’s under about 5 feet of snow, he said Monday. “There’s no chance of those logs being picked up under the time frame the judge gave us,” he said. U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy granted a dissolution of a temporary restraining order Jan. 12 to allow salvage logging in core grizzly bear habitat until April 1 in the Robert-Wedge Fires and the West Side of the Hungry Horse Reservoir projects. The Forest Service argued that “the risk of irreparable harm to the grizzly bears is greatly diminished, if not completely negated because the bears are hibernating as of Dec. 1, 2005.” The Forest Service wanted the restraining order lifted completely, but Molloy set it to April 1, when grizzlies begin to re-awaken. “At this time, the court reserves judgment on the disputed issue of whether the temporary restraining order should resume after April 1,” he said. The plaintiffs did not object to allowing the logging in winter. Molloy stopped salvage logging in areas deemed “core grizzly bear habitat” last summer after the Swan View Coalition and Friends of the Wild Swan filed a lawsuit against the Forest Service, claiming the salvage sales were, in part, in violation of Endangered Species Act, as well as Amendment 19 to the Forest Service plan. Amendment 19 does not allow motorized use in core grizzly bear habitat. But whether helicopter logging – which was the bulk of the logging proposed for the sales – is considered motorized use under the law remains to be ruled on. Stoltze had cut down timber in the core grizzly bear habitat first because that’s where the Forest Service wanted them to start, Buentemeier said. Then Molloy’s ruling came and they had to leave the logs. Now they just sit there, buried under snow. http://www.hungryhorsenews.com/articles/2006/01/25/news/news3.txt

Maryland:

16) The northeast portion of the property contains streams, steep slopes, and mature trees up to 35 inches in diameter – factors which area residents argue lend the property to forest conservation. Barb Flinn, a resident of the Manordale community, explained on Wed., Jan. 18 at an Ellicott City Residents Association (ECRA)that Brown’s development proposal calls into question Howard’s written forestation laws. Area residents remain concerned that DPZ plans to clear priority forests such as Manordale Lane’s in R-20 (residential – single) infill areas – a practice that would fail to follow language of the Maryland Forest Conservation Act of 1991. The Maryland Forest Conservation Act’s objective is to permit development while minimizing the loss of forest land to help ensure the amount of priority areas for forest retention and forest planting by identifying and protecting forests prior to development. According to a report issued in 2000 by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Forest Service, in the first five years of implementation, the FCA protected 22,508 forest acres and planted 4,313 acres while 12, 210 acres of existing forest have been cleared. The FCA, implemented by both state and local governments, enforced that each county adopt a program equivalent to the Act by the end of 1992. Howard County defines a forest as an area 10,000 square feet or greater that is at least 35 feet wide. County forest conservation includes retention of existing forests as well as reforestation – an item which retained, on average, 65 percent of existing county forest on development sites and of the 35 percent cleared, 14 percent were replaced with on-site reforestation. However, Flinn believes that protection of forestation is a major issue within the county. “DPZ suggested reforestation off-site and we felt that was not appropriate in this case. There is a forest retention rule and those trees need to be kept where they are,” argued Flinn. http://www.theviewnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=6964&paper=1&cat=193

17) The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) signed an agreement today with the state of Maryland and other adjacent landowners to protect a 25,660-acre East Coast natural area in the nation’s capital region. The signing marks the formation of the Baltimore-Washington Partners for Forest Stewardship to develop a comprehensive Forest Stewardship Plan. “This natural area with 3,270 acres of forest and 3,230 acres of wetlands is sometimes called the ‘green lungs’ of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan region, because the trees emit so much oxygen into the atmosphere,” said ARS Administrator Edward B. Knipling. “ARS will continue to do its part to exercise good stewardship over this valuable natural resource.” ARS and Patuxent joined with the other two major federal land-holding facilities–the U.S. Army’s Fort Meade at Laurel and the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center at Greenbelt–and with the nonprofit Center for Chesapeake Communities to sign a memorandum of understanding with the state of Maryland. The stewardship plan would be designed to be compatible with the mission and ongoing programs of the participating agencies. Also known as the “Green Wedge,” the wooded area has long been designated a historic forest research area by the state of Maryland. It has been the site of development of a theory used to determine the amount of forest acreage needed for survival of various bird species. It has also been the site where major national and international bird-counting techniques were developed. http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2006/060123.htm

West Virginia:

18) I am extremely disappointed in the Forest Service’s DEIS on Allegheny Wood Products’ proposal to turn the Blackwater Canyon Trail into a logging road. Nearly $500,000 of public money was spent to acquire the Blackwater Rail Trail through the scenic heart of the Blackwater Canyon. We are not about to let the United States Forest Service give away our Trail to a logging company. A public agency that is charged with the duty of protecting my interest in this public land should not have made such a serious mistake. The DEIS as issued is clearly inadequate and deeply flawed; it should be withdrawn and re-done. The Forest Service failed to analyze the logging and development plans from Allegheny Wood Products and evaluate their impacts. The Forest Service claims that AWP doesn’t have specific plans; in fact, there is a resort development plan on file with the State that is the clearest indication of their plans available. And if AWP truly does not have logging and development plans – then there is no need for a DEIS. They should be told to reapply when plans are in place that can be evaluated. http://www.saveblackwater.org/trail_comment_letter.htm

Scotland:

19) A teenage protester who suspended herself over a river in an attempt to block a new £40 million bypass was finally removed yesterday. The 17-year-old, known as Mongoose, was plucked from her treetop camp after a three-month stand against the Dalkeith northern bypass. Yesterday morning, members of the National Eviction Team, based in Swansea, under the guidance of a sheriff’s officer, brought down four others from a cargo net suspended in trees. They then moved on to the pod hanging 35ft above the River Esk at Pickle Dirt, in Dalkeith Park. After four hours assembling a safety net and access ropes, a member of the eviction team attached himself to the protester and lowered her to the forest floor. She was met with cheers and clapping and was promptly arrested. The protest spokesman, William Rutherford, known as Fudge, said he was very pleased with the “altruistic” efforts of the tree-top campaigners. He said: “The protest and the evictions have gone smoothly and nobody’s hurt.” The £100,000-a-day operation began last week and is expected to remove the four remaining protesters this week. Officials say the road, to link the A720 and the A68, will ease traffic congestion in Dalkeith http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=120042006

Czechoslovakia:

20) More than a year after wind and fire mauled the High Tatra mountains, the Slovak government has agreed to let nature regenerate the forests. Salvage logging after the windstorm prompted the VLK and the SOP to propose establishing zones and clear rules on logging in each of the devastated areas. Now environmentalists want an overhaul of the park’s administration to prevent future catastrophes. Pressed by environmental groups who had sharply criticized the government’s inability to stop logging in an area of the High Tatras severely damaged in a November 2004 windstorm, the Slovak government last year approved a regeneration project for the area allowing for the natural recovery of those forests that were leveled. Part of the project also includes planting trees from local sources, as some groups have demanded. “The goal is not to hasten regeneration but to plant species of trees whose composition and age structure correspond with natural ecological conditions,” said Ivan Stefanec, chairman of a governmental committee set up after the windstorm last year to coordinate the restoration of the area. But environmental groups say the work must go beyond regeneration and that the entire system of forest administration urgently needs reform in order to respond more quickly and wisely to large-scale natural disasters. On 19 November 2004, a massive windstorm damaged or destroyed some 13,000 hectares of forest, almost 30 percent of the park’s 46,000 hectares of forest cover. Wind speeds reached 165 kph in some places. The storm ravaged the area for five hours and was followed by heavy snowfall. Most damaged were spruce forests in the lower area of the park, planted some 50 to 100 years ago. But the wind didn’t just damage forests. It swept through the park’s natural protected areas, including the Ticha, Koprova, Velicka, Slavkovska, and Bielej vody valleys, and the Mokriny and Uhliscatka nature preserves. Otto Stroffek, state adviser to the Ministry of Agriculture, said the windstorm damaged the region’s major health resorts and sanatoriums. http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=150&NrSection=1&NrArticle=15700

Russia:

21) ALBANY, N.Y.– Trees in Russia are adapting to a warmer and wetter environment, according to a team of researchers from the United States and Europe. The typical shape of trees in Russian forests has undergone significant transformation in the latter half of the twentieth century, adapting to climate changes brought on by industrialization in the Northern Hemisphere, according to the article from the December issue of Global Change Biology. The paper, “Acclimation of Russian forests to recent changes in climate,” suggests that mature trees in Russian forests have increased green parts (leaves and needles) but trunk size has diminished. “The changes in tree growth patterns was observed on a continental scale,” said Andrei Lapenis, an associate professor of climatology at the University at Albany’s Department of Geography and Planning at the College of Arts and Sciences and lead author of the study. “As forests in Russia have been subject to more dramatic shifts in climate in the last 40 years as compared to other boreal regions around the world, study of the region can showcase emerging global tree growth patterns other parts of the world as a result of global warming.” “Overall, modern mature trees have a greater percentage of leaves and needles than trees of the same age and species just forty or fifty years ago,” said Lapenis. “This thinning of trunks and spread of canopy represent a physiologic adaptation of trees to changing climate. The applications of these finding are quite wide from the interpretation of satellite data to global carbon budget and evolutionary theory.” http://www.albany.edu/news/pdf_files/GCB_1069.PDF

Malta:

22) A group of school children, in Gozo, planted a number of Araar trees, in a scheme sponsored by APS Bank, to promote the species. The Araar tree (Tetraclinis articulata, Sigra ta’ l-Gharghar), though the national tree of Malta, is fairly rare, and up to about 10 years ago there was only one planted specimen in Gozo. Mr Lawrence Scicluna, Senior Manager, APS Bank Gozo Branch (Rabat), said that the bank was proud to be associated with the scheme and to support it financially, aiming to preserve the tree for posterity, and also to raise awareness about the forest environment in general. The Araar trees were planted at the Dar il-Lunzjata Environment Centre at Kercem, on January 19, in a programme of activities by the School Arbor Committee for Forest Week, observed between January 15-21, with National Arbor Day falling on January 16. The Dar il-Lunzjata Centre is the Education Division’s environment facility in Gozo, and is used by all Gozitan pupils, including Church schools students. The School Arbor Committee recommends that schools should plant and have three specimens of the national tree on their grounds. This would ensure cross-pollination and a good annual seed crop. This could be collected for sowing by the students at the beginning of the scholastic year. Newly planted Araar forest saplings start producing seed two to four years after planting out, provided that more than one tree is present on site. http://www.di-ve.com/dive/portal/portal.jhtml?id=216030&pid=80

Kenya:

23) The Government does not intend to import food for famine relief, Finance minister David Mwiraria has said. The minister said the food available locally was enough to feed those affected by famine. He said the Government would buy food from areas that had a bumper harvest and distribute it to affected regions. The minister urged the provincial administration, who are charged with distributing relief food, to ensure that the food got to the deserving people. He said the Government had spent over Sh5 billion in buying food and drugs, adding that more money would be allocated. Meanwhile, the Government is planning a major re-afforestation of Mt Kenya and the Aberdares forests following their destruction by livestock. Herders from regions affected by drought invaded the two forests in search of water and pasture for their animals. With signs of the long rains being witnessed in some parts of the country, the Government is preparing to plant more trees. Central Provincial Forest Officer Fred Ogombe said the Government had instructed forest officers to prepare a budget for the re-afforestation. http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=35398

Ecuador:

24) Cerro Blanco consists of a series of Ecuadorian Dry Forest cloaked hills between 50 and 500 meters above sea level, interspersed by a series of ravines with permanent springs of water that serve as a magnet for wildlife during the dry season from June-July to December – January. Cerro Blanco forms part of the Cordillera Chongon-Colonche, which extends from the protected forest on the outskirts of Guayaquil, to Machalilla National Park, to the north. The dry forests of Cerro Blanco are dominated by the ceibo and pigio trees, members of the bombacaceae family which when I first saw them, reminded me in form of the baobab trees of Africa, with the difference being that the ceibo or kapok trees have bright green, smooth trunks. This is in fact an adaptation to the dry conditions that prevail in the area. The trees drops leaves during the 5 to 6 months dry season, but continue to carry out photosynthesis through chlorophyll in the bark. Besides the ceibo, Cerro Blanco supports more than 500 vascular plant species and according to a internationally known botanist Dr. David Neil is one of the last strongholds in Ecuador for close to 100 endemic plant species. Incredibly, so close to Guayaquil Ecuador’s largest city with close to 2 million inhabitants, Cerro Blanco, according to the Rapid Areas Assessment Program of Conservation International, supports healthy populations of jaguar, ocelot, mantled howler monkey, kinkajou, agouti, collared peccary and crab-eating raccoon, among other species. Of its 211 registered bird species, Cerro Blanco protects nine globally threatened species, one of only four Ecuadorian protected areas with seven or more threatened bird species. A special focus has been placed on the unique guayaquilensis subspecies of the great green macaw known locally as the “Papagayo de Guayaquil” one of the largest and lesser known macaw species, listed as critically endangered in Ecuador. Cerro Blanco harbors a growing population of 12 birds and the macaw has been used very successfully by the Pro-Forest Foundation as a conservation symbol. http://www.planeta.com/planeta/02/0211eccerro.html

Brazil:

25) RIO DE JANEIRO – Environmentalists were caught off guard when South American leaders announced plans to build a massive natural gas pipeline through the Amazon rain forest. But environmentalists say it could damage part of the Amazon — the world‘s largest wilderness — by polluting waterways, destroying trees and creating roads that could draw ranchers and loggers. It‘s “the beginning of the South American consensus,” Chavez has said. “This pipeline is vital for us.” Preliminary plans were promised for a March 10 meeting of the three leaders in Argentina. “A government like Brazil‘s can‘t do similar studies for projects covering (310 miles) after 10 years of discussion, and now they are going to manage in-depth studies for a (5,000-mile) project in six months?” he said. Chavez has said he wants the continent‘s state-owned oil companies to build and oversee the pipeline. The Venezuelan leader estimated the pipeline would cost $20 billion to $25 billion, but Smeraldi said strict adherence to Brazil‘s tough environmental laws would double the cost. Glenn Switkes of the International Rivers Network said if the pipeline were ever built, it would inevitably foul the environment. Roads are particularly devastating to the Amazon rain forest. They allow ranchers, loggers and miners to flood into areas that previously were inaccessible. “They always say they‘re going to fly in the pipes and not build roads, but they never do that,” Switkes said. “Then they say that the pipeline will go around important ecological areas, but they never do that either because it gets too expensive.” Brazil‘s rain forest is as big as Western Europe and is thought to contain at least 30 percent of all plant and animal species on the planet. Experts say as much as 20 percent of its 1.6 million square miles has already been destroyed by development, logging and farming. http://www.localnewsleader.com/brocktown/stories/index.php?action=fullnews&id=130610

India:

26) Filmmaker Pradip Krishen refuses to admit whether he caught the writing bug from wife Arundhati Roy. But he is finally ready to release his book A Field Guide to Delhi’s Trees to be shortly published by Dorling Kindersley. Krishen has spent the last six years researching on this project. Getting to learn about trees was not an easy experience especially since details of trees in Delhi, and for that matter in most of the Indian cities, have not been documented systematically. Excerpts from the interview with Krishen on his romance with Delhi’s trees: How did you get started writing a book on Delhi’s trees? I was introduced to trees by a forester friend who used to take me for nature walks in the jungles of Panchmarhi in Madhya Pradesh. Gradually, I learnt to read scientific floras and decode the esoteric vocabulary that botanists use. As I became more familiar with forest tees, I told myself way back in 1998 that it would be wonderful to do a book on the trees of the city where I lived. Was it hard to identify Delhi’s trees? The difficulty was posed, mostly, by certain kinds of exotic trees. I came across some strange trees that no one in the Sundar Nursery seemed to know about. They must have been planted it during the 1940s or 50s by someone — Percy Lancaster perhaps — probably as an experiment. Those that did well got “promoted” to becoming street or park trees. Those that “failed” in some significant way were consigned to the rubbish bin since no one took any more notice of them. Now the problem about an exotic tree is where does one begin to look it up; which flora does one consult? Australia’s or South Africa’s? http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14126329

Vietnam:

27) In Lac Duong District of the central Lam Dong Province, midnight is the time that middle-aged Trinh Thi Truyen leaves her family to fight illegal loggers, who use the cover of darkness to make their meagre living from surreptitious forestry. Truyen often gets news of forest destruction as her family sleeps, and she tiptoes through her house to prepare for five to seven-day stints in the woods in the fight against illegal logging. In daily life, she is a graceful woman, but when she enters the woods, she turns into a full soldier, prepared with only a gun, a hammock and a mess kit. Truyen began working as the only female member of a mobile six-ranger team in 1987. Other than the required skill to move quickly and in good health for long trips into the woods, she said, the job requires one important characteristic – dedication to protecting trees. A ranger’s life is constantly in danger while chasing loggers, and especially when clashes arise between the pursuers and the pursued.Illegal loggers have intercepted and threatened her team-leader Dinh Ngoc Ly three times. A logger asked Ly once: “How many kilos of explosives do you think your house can hold?” http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=03SUN220106

Myanmar:

28) Truck convoys of logs illegally felled in Myanmar have been seen entering China, an environmental group said on Tuesday, despite signs that the military junta had recently suspended the practice. London-based Global Witness issued a report in October accusing Myanmar’s military government of standing by while vast stretches of virgin forest were destroyed. The watchdog group estimated in 2004 that 1 million cubic meters of teak and softwood from the north of Myanmar, also known as Burma, were being illicitly trucked to China, where the wood becomes furniture and flooring for export to the United States and Europe. About 95 per cent of Myanmar’s total timber exports to China were illegal, the group said. But after issuing its October report, Global Witness said it saw a sharp decline in illegal logging in Kachin State, with the military regime suspending tree-cutting, timber transport and log shipments to China. However, in the past 10 days, the group said it has received witness reports that trucks full of freshly cut logs headed over the Chinese border. Dozens of trucks were seen crossing, mostly at night, it said. “Until January, the timber traffic had almost stopped. However, in the last 10 days it has started again,” said Susanne Kempel of Global Witness. In its earlier report, Global Witness said the illegal log trade benefits regional military commanders, politically connected logging companies and ethnic group leaders who profit from taxing the logs. The illegal exports result in an annual loss of $250 million in revenue for Myanmar, the environmental group has alleged, adding that the activity takes place with the full knowledge of Myanmar’s junta and the Chinese government. Global Witness said most of the logging takes place in an area described as “very possibly the most bio-diverse, rich, temperate area on earth,” a place that is home to red pandas, leopards and tigers. http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/7598_1606957,000500020010.htm

Malaysia:

29) “If it is true that the said area has been earmarked as a water catchment, then the Government needs to act fast to save the whole area from being destroyed further,” said Consumer Association of Sabah and Labuan (Cash) President Datuk Patrick Sindu. “If we don’t act now, the next thing we know, the whole forest in the said State land would have been destroyed and by that time we cannot blame anyone accept our bureaucracy,” Patrick added. News of the proposed water catchment near Kampung Babagon Laut surfaced after the Special Task Force on Illegal Logging under the Chief Minister’s Department entered the area to investigate suspected illegal logging taking place in the area last Saturday. The task force has since ordered a stop to all logging activities in Kg Tampango and Kg Babagon Laut. Sixty-nine round logs at Kampung Tampango were seized after it was found royalties had not been paid. On Monday all logs found at Kampung Babagon Laut were temporarily impounded to allow the authorities to determine their actual origin. Also impounded were logging tractors and other machinery used in the felling, to allow for a full-scale of investigation due to the questionable number of logs found. It was learnt that investigations have now been taken over by the Forestry Department. Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman had warned that stern action will be taken if the felling was truly due to illegal logging. He said action would be taken on those responsible no matter who they are. http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=39750

30) Penampang: All logging activities at Kg Timpango and Kg. Babagon Laut, near here, have been stopped with immediate effect pending verification by the authorities. The special task force on illegal logging from the Chief Minister’s Department made a surprise inspection Saturday following a tip off that irregular activities were being carried out by timber contractors. The previous day, a Datuk from Penampang made a police report alleging someone had trespassed certain sections of the logging road approved to him under Temporary Occupant Lease (TOL) at Kg Babagon Laut. The Datuk suspected that logs were being transported from the area without paying royalties. A team comprising officers from the task force and three army officers from Lok Kawi camp went to the site where the suspected logs were kept. They found all the logs were kept separately in three areas totaling not less than seventy pieces. However, they had no serial numbers or chop from Forestry indicating that timber royalty had been paid. Further up the road the team stumbled upon a tractor, tractor loader and four workers busy trying to unload about seven pieces of timber to the waiting logging truck. Upon checking all also had not paid any royalty. The workers claimed ignorance what royalty was about. The team drive for another one hour through rugged terrain and along the way few hundred of logs could be seen stacked certain section of the road. When checked some of the timber on the lorry had forestry chop indicating royalty was paid but some had none. The serial number of the logs was also not done accordingly. http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=39696

31) IPOH, (Bernama) Following complaints on the illegal activity, an investigation was carried out by the State Forestry Department on Jan 13 which led to it suspending the licence issued to the company, he told reporters after chairing the state exco meeting, here Tuesday. He said the department had also issued a directive against felling of tualang trees and also imposed additional conditions in the issuing of logging licences. The company concerned was alleged to have illegally felled trees in the area since the past few months. The trees felled included those believed to be more than 100 years old, including meranti, merbau and tualang. According to Tajol Rosli, 31 cases involving offences under the Forestry Act, 1984 were reported last year. “We have solved 29 cases and investigation papers are being prepared for the remaining two cases,” he added. He said RM384,382.69 in compound fines and compensation were collected last year for offences under the Forestry Act. He said problems of illegal logging could be overcome with frequent checks by the forestry officers. http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=177428

South East Asia:
32) Forest is the major vegetation in the global and plays an important role in rural poverty reduction, rural development and environmental sustainability. Rural communities have accumulated plentiful knowledge and experiences on scientific managing and utilizing forest resource in order to coexisting with nature harmoniously during their long practice of production and living in many countries and/or regional in the world. They also have developed and established creatively many technical models that have produced good practical results. The goals of the conference are to share and exchange of these experiences and technologies, to promote the development of relevant disciplines and to enhance more importantly the sustainable utilization of forest resource. Sponsors: Chinese Society of Forestry, Korean Forest Society, Japanese Forest Society… Host Societies: International Dept. of Chinese Society of Forestry, Forest Ecology Technical Committees of Chinese Society of Forestry Date and Venue: The conference will be held in Beijing, China from April 19 to 21, 2006. Theme: The Roles of Forests in Rural Development and Environmental Sustainability. http://www.apeg.bc.ca/prodev/events/terrain_mapping.html

Australia:

33) Anti-logging protesters who have lived for four months in Tasmania’s Weld Valley have been forced to protect an unlikely target – the gate leading in and out. Protesters said on Monday Forestry Tasmania had proposed the closure of a gate to the Lower Weld Valley in southern Tasmania. Residents of “Camp Weld” have now erected a tree-sit above the Eddy Road gate to prevent it from being locked. “Forestry Tasmania is locking out the community who have been visiting the forest surrounding Camp Weld,” protester Jess McLachlan said. “We have had up to 1,000 visitors in recent months. “We are especially concerned about our safety; last time the gates were locked we were the victims of harassment.” The protesters reported gunshots being fired near the camp when gates were in September last year. Comment is being sought from Forestry Tasmania. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=83203

34) Manjimup Shire Council has thrown its support behind a plan to log a popular walk trail in Northcliffe, despite fears it will destroy the local tourism industry. The Forest Products Commission intends to log about 60 hectares of karri forest near the Blackberry Pool walk trail as part of this year’s harvest plan to supply local sawmills. The proposal has come under fire from the community, which is concerned about the impact it could have on tourism. Manjimup Shire chief executive Vern Mckay says while he understands the concerns, the logging is necessary to support the local timber industry. “If they can identify alternative sources of timber and lobby the State Government to harvest that, then the council will reconsider its position,” he said. Carole Perry from the Friends of the Northcliffe Walk Trail says the group will continue fighting to stop the logging “We’ve got one more avenue to go. We’re hoping for an inquiry through the Legislative Council. We’re waiting on that. Submissions at their invitation have been sent in and we’re waiting to hear from them,” she said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200601/s1553251.htm