061OEC’s This week in Trees

This week we have 39 stories from: Alaska, British Columbia, Oregon, California, New Mexico, Wyoming, Michigan, Arkansas, South Carolina, USA, Canada, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Armenia, Uganda, Kenya, Brazil, Asia, Indonesia, Australia, and World-wide.

Alaska:

1) “In the last two summers, fire has ravaged 10.5 percent of Interior Alaska.” I wrote that sentence a few weeks ago in this column, and a wildlife biologist thinks I chose a bad verb. A dictionary definition of ravage is “to devastate.” Tom Paragi chooses words that are more positive when he looks at a burned forest. Paragi works with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Fairbanks. His specialty is the ecology of disturbances to the boreal forest, among them logging and the effects of wildland fires. I told him “ravaged” came to mind when I walked through a burned spruce forest and saw the charred bones of red squirrels. He said that red squirrels have the unfortunate tendency to seek shelter in spruce trees when something threatens them. Other small mammals, such as voles on the forest floor, might survive a fire because the soil around them is wet enough not to burn. A pilot, Paragi has flown over parts of Alaska after the fires of 2004 and 2005 and has seen a patchwork of muskeg, mature forest, and neon bright greens sprouting from blackened areas. “You have this tremendous mosaic out there,” he said. Paragi said the large acreage burned the past two summers has partly been the result of overzealous firefighting in the past combined with recent warm and dry conditions. Until the late 1980s, Alaska policy was “immediate suppression of all wildfires,” according to the Alaska Interagency Wildland Fire Management Plan. That strategy preserved black spruce, the final stage of the boreal forest in many areas of the Interior. “Generally, fire is a positive thing for the nutrient cycling of the boreal forest,” he said. “After a June fire, I’ve seen waist-high willow sprouts by fall. We’ve also burned aspen in May and had sprouts well over my head by hunting season.” Tom’s convinced me. “Ravaged” might work for a remote cabin owner who finds nothing but a stovepipe after a fire has swept through, but a better word from a wildlife manager’s point of view might be “enriched,” “rejuvenated,” or, since we’re all Internet savvy, “refreshed.” http://www.sitnews.us/0106news/012806/012806_ak_science.html

British Columbia:

2) In case anyone on this list isn’t aware of it, there’s a relatively new organization called The Trust for Sustainable Forestry, based in Victoria, which was born out of a grass-roots initiative started on Cortes Island, to create viable community-based alternatives to the sell-off of private timber lands by Weyerhaeuser (and now Island Timberlands) to the usual log-and-reflog operators.Read all about it: http://www.sustainableforestry.com

3) Recently someone posted about the Spirit Bear Youth Coalition. The Coalition wants the government to omit the Spirit Bear proposal from the imminent decision on the mid-coast land-use planning process. Claiming the need to expand protection for the Spirit Bear’s home, the Youth Coalition would like a decision on the Spirit Bear proposal to be deferred until after an animated spirit bear film featuring Simon Jackson, head of the Coalition, can be released in 2008. The strategy is to swell public support as leverage for expanded protection. In the 16 years since the sanctuary was proposed, a succession of government administrations have subjected the Spirit Bear area to four different land use processes. Endless foot-dragging by the NDP government resulted in thedecision being passed on to an intensely anti-environment Liberal government. Over the last five years, the current government has milked the proposed Spirit Bear Sanctuary for stage spotlights, headlines and votes. It has inferred or outright stated a number of times that it has protected the Spirit Bear’s home. Yet today, not one iota of the bear’s habitat has been formally protected. That may change very soon. But it would be odd, to say the least, for the environmental community to start beseeching the government for more delays, all in the name of a Hollywood film. Over the years VWS wildlife biologist, Wayne McCrory, has guided up to 20 film crews from around the world into the habitat of the Spirit Bear. The local First Nations have also developed tourism programs featuring bears. But McCrory is concerned about the kind of publicity now being attracted to the bears, and its potential impact on the planning process and the bears. There is not only this issue, but the government using the Spirit Bear as the mascot for the 2010 Olympics raises some serious concerns. Anne Sherrod [wildernesswatch@netidea.com]

4) Officials with the Kamloops Forest District will work with the province’s chief forester this year to determine what, if any, change is needed in logging to fight the mountain pine beetle. Two years ago, the Kamloops timber supply area received a significant boost in the annual allowable cut (AAC) to deal with wildfire and pine beetle-ravage wood. It increased to 4.3 million cubic metres from 2.7 million cubic metres in a three-year period. Forest district manager Shane Berg said wood that could be salvaged from the 2003 wildfires has been cut, but the full amount allowed under the boost for beetle-affected timber hasn’t. For some of the new players given non-replaceable forest licences through agreements with the provincial government, he said, it has taken time to get organized. This year marks the third year for extra harvesting in the Kamloops timber supply area. Berg won’t predict what will happen next year when the chief forester makes his latest determination. The options could be a sustained boost, a further increase or a reduction. This will depend on a number of factors, said Berg, including how much timber has been harvested, how quickly the mountain pine beetle is spreading and how much more wood area mills can process. Some are already operating at capacity, three shifts a day. With the rush to harvest and process beetle-damaged timber, one of the questions looming over the forest industry is how much more can be cut before demand bottoms out. “What will the market be like in three years? “Will there be a glut, or will there be a continued high level of demand for lodgepole pine?” said Berg.
He doesn’t know. However, according to Atmo Prasad, a timber supply forester with the Ministry of Forests, a number of people to whom he has spoken believe the industry is either approaching or is already at the saturation point in lodgepole-pine demand. http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=15&cat=23&id=579266&more=

Oregon:

5) With Tim Ingalsbee and Catia Juliana, I co-authored the “Ecology of Fire” alternative in the Warner Fire Recovery Project Final Environmental Impact Statement, which set a number of precedents when it was published in 1991. Later, I wrote the proposal for the world’s first fire process research natural area, using the Warner Creek fire area east of Oakridge. So I’ve been watching the current debate about post-fire salvage logging with great interest. Anecdotal evidence from the Warner fire has contradicted every single claim that natural processes would not adequately allow the forests to recover. More significantly, a variety of actual studies conducted in the Warner Creek area began to demonstrate that most of the sacred cow assumptions about the effects of intense, large-scale forest fires in west-side Cascade forests were myths. Some sites burned so intensely that it was assumed they would have no natural regeneration for at least seven years. Every one of those sites was peppered with seedlings two years later, distributed in what are considered ideal spacings. Nowhere in the burn have brush or hardwoods ever overtopped the regenerating conifers. And so on. Warner Creek is one of many places that point out that we have not done enough homework to be able to reliably predict when it will make sense to salvage log, and when it will not. Post-fire salvage sales are generally money losers for the U.S. Treasury. Salvage sales are offered either in areas where the big, valuable trees have previously been logged, or in areas that are too steep or rugged to have been logged economically. Programs to conduct post-fire salvage logging are not free-market enterprises that enrich public coffers and finance recovery work. They are entitlement programs – welfare for upper-level public land managers (who do no recovery work themselves), and welfare for logging companies and timber mills. There are other ways to derive revenues from post-fire forests. A well-known, extremely tasty and high-priced wild mushroom, the morel, grows most prolifically the year following a forest fire (and, to lesser degrees, for several years after that). However, few, if any, grow in areas where timely post-fire salvage is conducted. Can we all agree now to establish research protocols, a primary research area, and congressionally endowed funding to move the post-fire recovery debate from opinion to fact? http://www.abc.net.au/news/items/200601/1557009.htm?tasmania

6) The dean of Oregon State University’s College of Forestry voiced regret Thursday after a few professors tried to hold up publication of a graduate student’s research that found forests recover from wildfires best when they are not logged. Hal Salwasser said he should have told the professors more explicitly to voice their criticisms through open scientific debate instead of trying to derail the study from publication in the leading journal Science. “I profoundly regret the negative debate that recent events have generated,” the dean wrote in a letter to the college. He added that he should have congratulated the graduate student, Daniel Donato, for reaching the pages of Science. “Few faculty, let alone graduate students, get their work published in this prestigious journal,” Salwasser wrote. The student’s research raised doubts about arguments behind a Bush administration plan to log burned trees after the 2002 Biscuit fire in southwest Oregon as well as a bill in Congress to accelerate logging and replanting after wildfires. Science followed through on publication. The episode ignited concerns about whether researchers at the college, one of the nation’s top forestry schools, face backlash for findings that clash with approaches advanced by the timber industry and leading faculty. Salwasser, a supporter of the bill in Congress, said Thursday in a letter to faculty and students that he wishes he had handled events differently. “Our aim now is to learn from this experience, look deeply within ourselves, and take the steps needed to maintain a free and open environment for scientific inquiry,” he wrote. Others said Salwasser’s action was a positive step that would begin important discussions about the climate at the college. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1138335910269020.xml&coll=7

7) TILLER — The Umpqua National Forest and the Rogue-Siskiyou National Forest jointly announced their decision Tuesday to preserve the “Huckleberry Patch” as a special-interest area. The Huckleberry Patch Special Interest Area is a 9,500-acre swath of land that straddles the Tiller Ranger District and Prospect Ranger District in the Rogue River National Forest. American Indians once spent late summer and fall in the area gathering huckleberries for winter food. Fire suppression over past decades has allowed conifers to encroach upon meadows where huckleberries thrive in the high elevation area southeast of Tiller, said Debbie Anderson, the Forest Service team leader on the project. The designation allows land managers to conduct projects such as prescribed burning or thinning that benefits huckleberries and maintains meadows for wildlife that need open areas, such as deer, elk and songbirds. The Forest Service will protect and enhance the cultural values associated with the huckleberry patch and recognizes the historic and traditional values of the land, Anderson said. The area was used for many years by the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians as hunting grounds and as a spiritual gathering place. According to Sue Shaffer, tribal chairwoman, tribe members and members of the Klamath Tribe of Indians still use the area for ceremonial tradition and recreation. http://www.oregonnews.com/article/20060125/NEWS/60125027

8) Woodland dwellers of Lane County will soon get help with their landscape design – whether they like it or not – from government officials. Those officials are poised to require a whistle-clean look with tall shrubs and bushes cleared from at least 130 feet around the perimeter of a residence. Forget about the wall of rhododendrons encircling your abode. Plants anywhere near the foundation would need to be ground-cover height, or less than 2 feet tall. Vine maples and/or trellising vines would be forbidden. Small trees next to big trees would need to be felled, and big trees limbed 8 feet from the ground. Forget beauty bark; clipped, parklike grass in and around flower beds and limbed trees would be preferred. For now, the new rules would apply only to new construction and large additions or remodeling. But they may later be expanded to existing homes. The rules, now proposed for inclusion in the Lane County codes, aim to cut the chances that homes will burn in a wildfire, and to give firefighters room to work. A public hearing is scheduled for Feb. 7. http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/01/27/a1.firebuffer.0127.p1.php?section=cityregion

California:

9) Some of these trees have witnessed almost 1.8 million sunrises. These remarkable trees eke out an existence for not just hundreds of years, but almost 5,000 years. The White Mountains of east central California are home to the world’s oldest trees, the Great Basin bristlecone pines. The oldest known tree, named Methuselah, lives here. At about 4,700 years old, it’s older than the pyramids. It seems fitting that the oldest trees on Earth should be living on layers of rock that started as sand and mud or shells deposited on the bottom of a shallow, warm sea 600 million years ago. The White Mountains are the second-highest in the state next to the Sierra Nevada, and they boast the third-highest peak at 14,246 feet above sea level. Most of the scant precipitation falls as snow; the remainder comes in isolated thunderstorms. From November to April the climate is inhospitable, with frequent 100-mph winds. At two miles above sea level, the ultraviolet radiation is extreme. July and August are the hottest months, with average temperatures rarely exceeding 50 degrees, and precipitation is a meager 12 inches per year. Yet despite harsh conditions, bristlecone pines not only stand upright but also thrive where no other of their race of 80,000 species can exist. How are bristlecone pines able to live so long? They epitomize the idea of being thrifty, growing very slowly and for only 45 days a year. They produce copious amounts of gooey pitch that protects them from insects and deadly fungus. They continue growing for hundreds and possibly a thousand years, even when 85 percent of their bark is removed, and still produce viable seeds. Fire does not often occur in these forests because there is little wood on the floor to burn. The trees live so long that the soil erodes away — they outgrow their sites. Bristlecone pine trees and their rings are sensitive to rainfall and accurately record past climates. http://www.pe.com/sports/outdoors/stories/PE_Sports_Local_D_out_white_mountains_27.1d4b3eb9.html

10) It was her environmental work that led her to join the effort at Google. Several years ago, Moore was working as a programmer in telecoms and living in the Santa Cruz Mountains when local land-use issues spurred her to get into digital mapping. First using off-the-shelf consumer software, then professional geographic information systems (GIS), Moore took the initiative to create a digital map that could be used by the local counties, first responders, the state Department of Forestry and others. “They got really excited,” she says, but she remained frustrated by the expense and awkwardness of the professional software. Then in 2004 she stumbled on to Keyhole, the desktop application that was to become Google Earth. “I knew that was the real solution,” says Moore. When Google bought Keyhole later that year, Moore went to work for Google — her hands-on ideas for practical applications were just what the company needed. Shortly after Google Earth was released, Moore had a chance to put it to the test. A company wanted to log in the Santa Cruz Mountains, expecting little interference from the community. “They sent out a one-page map that was just a grainy sketch,” says Moore. “It did not convey what was at stake — it was difficult to decipher and people didn’t understand it. So I put together a model in Google Earth. I drew the region and filled in the watershed — the source of drinking water for over a million people in Silicon Valley. I mapped the whole thing, annotating the whole canyon.” At a public presentation of more than three hundred residents, Moore “flew” in from outer space to the Santa Cruz Mountains, then turned on the swath of red that represented the proposed logging. “There was a gasp from the audience,” she recalls. “It electrified the room.” This sophisticated presentation — including a low-elevation flyover constructed from Google Earth’s imagery that shows individual trees that were going to be cut and dozens of layers of information — took Moore only a couple of days to put together. And it got results: The logging plan was withdrawn. But it’s perhaps even more impressive that people without Moore’s programming skills can use these same tools to get dramatic results of their own. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2006/01/11/gree.DTL&hw=g

11) The Sempervirens Fund, the venerable Los Altos-based conservancy, has apparently ended the most contentious logging dispute in recent Santa Cruz County history by securing an option to buy two redwood-studded properties in the Santa Cruz Mountains for $5.6 million. The fund’s last-minute intervention prevented the logging of hundreds of redwood and Douglas fir trees on the 425-acre Lompico property. The logging plan was submitted by San Jose-based Redwood Empire, owned by Morgan Hill resident Roger Burch. Brian Steen, executive director of the Sempervirens Fund, said Wednesday that Burch donated some of the land value to complete the transaction. Burch could not be reached for comment. “It’s an excellent development,” said Jodi Frediani, director of Boulder Creek-based Citizens for Responsible Forest Management. “It’s about time we recognize the importance of protecting watersheds that provide drinking water to the communities.” Kevin Collins, board president of the Lompico Watershed Conservancy, said members of the volunteer group were not aware of the negotiations until Saturday “We’re very, very pleased,” he said, noting that the group had unsuccessfully tried to buy the Lompico property, “but we don’t have the same resources or reputation as Sempervirens.” The battle over the Lompico property began in 2001 after Redwood Empire submitted a timber-harvest plan, which was then approved by the California Department of Forestry. The county of Santa Cruz successfully appealed the decision to the Board of Forestry, but a newly submitted harvest plan was pending approval. Logging opponents cited concerns about environmental impacts to fisheries, wildlife habitat and water quality. Redwood Empire said the plan was carefully designed to protect the drinking supply. The Malosky Creek Forest is a redwood and Douglas fir forest near Boulder Creek. The 200-acre property supplies water to the mountain town and is in between parcels owned by the San Lorenzo Valley Water District, which serves 17,500 water customers. Steen said the group will use $100,000 to secure the purchase. The deadline to raise the remaining $5.5 million is June 30. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/the_valley/13715863.htm

12) John Stephens is one of them. A retired plumber in Napa, Stephens is dedicated to the preservation of the remaining forestlands and watersheds in his county. “We’re alarmed over the loss of native habitat and forest for farming,” he says. So when a local landowner applied for a permit last year to withdraw water from a Napa creek, Stephens went to the State Water Resources Control Board. “We were concerned about insufficient flows of the creek,” he says. The meeting took place just a week after the release of Google Earth. Stephens downloaded the program as soon as he heard about it, and immediately saw how useful it could be. He printed out a series of screen shots of the watershed and taped them together. “It was about three or four feet long,” he says. “We rolled it out on the table very dramatically.” Because of the map, Stephens was able to ask detailed questions of the hydrologist the landowner had hired. “I asked exactly where the location of the withdrawal was going to take place,” says Stephens. “He pointed to a location and I said, ‘Oh, right above that is about 300 feet of bare stream bank. Somebody must have cleared that area. Are you willing to re-establish vegetative cover there?'” “Well, everybody’s sitting around that room,” continues Stephens. “Fish and Game is there. The Water Board is there. We’re there, and the owner says, ‘Well, yeah, I could re-vegetate the area.'” Stephens says that because the visuals make the abstract obvious, the result was positive for everyone. The stream was re-vegetated, the landowner got the water he needed and the whole thing happened quickly, without the litigation and endless hearings that are so common in land-use disputes. “Google Earth is great because you can get a feeling of the valleys and the slope of the hills,” says Stephens. “You can go up a creek bed like you’re flying. It’s very dramatic. People cannot hide anymore.” With results like these less than a year after its release, Google Earth is well on its way to revolutionizing the way people talk about the environment. “I think that this has the potential not only to raise people’s environmental consciousness but to raise their consciousness of humanity,” concludes Google’s Rebecca Moore. “I see it as making the world a smaller place in a good way; giving everyone a greater intimacy with the Earth and the rest of the people and the plants and animals that share it with us.” http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2006/01/11/gree.DTL&hw=g

New Mexico:

13) A massive yellow-barked ponderosa pine, once 100 feet tall and at least a few hundred years old, lies prostrate in the forest west of Los Alamos. A few others, of equal size and age, are still standing nearby, though some have lost their needles and look ready to topple over in the next galeforce wind. “I’m pretty sure this one was still standing the last time we were here,” said Donald Falk, a University of Arizona treering scientist, as he examines the fallen pine, dirt still trapped between its dry roots. Surrounding some of the ancient pines are dozens of spindly ponderosa pine youngsters, only 20 to 30 feet tall. These doghair thickets are strangling their larger ancestors, competing for nutrients and water, Falk said. Falk is walking through the 640-acre Monument Canyon Natural Area, about 15 miles west of Los Alamos, off Forest Road 10. The site was set aside by the Forest Service in 1932 for research to be done in cooperation with The University of New Mexico. It is the second-oldest forestry research site in the country, protected from both logging and grazing. “This area must be preserved in a natural state as near as possible,” read the inscription on a large wooden sign. The hands-off approach has led to unanticipated problems for the ancient ponderosa pines, said Falk and others. A month-long project, under way this week, will attempt to rescue the old pines by mulching down some of the dense and spindly youngsters. “Hard to believe these are all about 100 years old,” said Bill Armstrong, a Santa Fe National Forest consultant, of the younger trees. The orange-taped plot is one of several Falk is now studying. The gigantic ponderosa pines are competing with the younger pines On Friday, a large machine called a Hydro-Ax with an 8-foot circular blade sporting 28 steel teeth began chipping down the smaller pines. It resembled a pencil sharpener, shortening the tree from the top down, leaving the mulch on the ground. “This is one of the thickest, densest stands I’ve worked in, and I’ve worked in some nasty stuff,” said driver Denver Dodd. Dodd works for Environmental Land Management, a Grand Junction , Colo., company contracted for the project. “We’re not reducing the fuel; we’re rearranging it,” Armstrong said as he walked over a thick carpet of recently chipped trees. Some of the large pines now stand free of their denser offspring, sunlight hitting the ground where it was once shadowed by the dog-hair thicket. About 280 acres of dog-hair thicket will be chipped down by the time the project is done. http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/38503.html

Wyoming:

14) Few recent books capture this anomaly as well as Rocky Barker’s Scorched Earth: How the Fires of Yellowstone Changed America. An environmental reporter for the Idaho Statesman, Barker was standing at Old Faithful in September 1988 when a massive wildfire threatened to engulf one of America’s most famous natural monuments; only by running did he and a fellow reporter manage to survive. Later Barker decided to delve into what the conflagration meant in the larger context of our national debate over wildfires, an investigation that ultimately led him back more than a century. The book provides a harrowing account of the 1988 fire that nearly destroyed one of the country’s top tourist attractions, as well as the careers of several senior park officials. In the end, Barker — who falters only when he delves too deeply into bureaucratic infighting — conveys a powerful lesson about how Americans have sought to manage the “cataclysmic forces” of forest fires. “We have measured our human progress in part by our ability to control these forces,” he writes. “But our humanity may be found in our ability to live with them.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/26/AR2006012601693.html

Michigan:

15) LAPEER – A plan to clear trees selectively as part of a forest stewardship plan for General Squier Park has been stopped with an admission by Lapeer County Parks Director Ken Elwert that he moved too quickly with the draft plan. After initial protests to the plan, drafted by the Lapeer Conservation District, Elwert called for public input. “At first I thought that the comments we received were from a small, vocal group of people, but concerns continued to come in throughout the fall that reflect concern from a larger segment of the community,” Elwert said. A resident and professional review committee has been formed and will begin meeting in February to decide what parts of the plan should be considered. http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1138456245238200.xml&coll=5

Arkansas:

16) At the Highway 14 bridge above Buffalo Point, to the south of Yellville, you can step across the Buffalo without getting your pant legs wet. Thirty years ago, when I worked as a naturalist at Buffalo Point, you would have had to carry your pants on your hat to keep them dry, even in mid-summer. f you’re capable of climbing up into the hills, you can go on west and back to the north and look down from high bluffs in hardwood forests that were a little like they might have been 200 years ago. You can see the Buffalo River before you, but the river doesn’t look much like it did then. The water is nearly gone. Most people think it is just a temporary thing due to a drought. The significance of disappearing water is lost on this generation, as are the consequences of it, which are coming regardless of any awareness we might have. It is an unstoppable avalanche, and the time we could have done something about it is long past. Tromping over much of the upper Buffalo, Big Piney and Mulberry river watersheds as a young man exploring and reporting on that wild country for the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, I saw beech trees so big you could have made a conference table out of a cross-section. They were beautiful, magnificent trees, which I saw then for the first time. Not many are left now in much of that region. In the early ’70s the National Forest Service was aerial spraying the hardwoods with the dangerous herbicide, 2-4-5-T, killing entire sections of hardwood forests in an attempt to grow more pine. In the mid ’70s the chemical was outlawed, and the Forest Service began injecting the hardwoods to kill them. The Forest Service had crews of Mexicans, who could not speak English, in the deep woods west of Pelsor going through the forest with packs on their backs, injecting trees. I was writing for the Arkansas Democrat at the time, and received a call from a Forest Service worker who told me the chemical they were injecting would kill all the fish in a hole of water if you squirted only a few drops into the water. He said he was calling me because he’d like for people to know he was only 30 years old and had cancer, which he felt was due to the chemical which he had he had been injecting into timber near Mena for several months. I didn’t write about it then, but I have always wished I had kept his name and tried to meet with him. http://www.baxterbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060128/COLUMNISTS1401/601280322/1006/SPORTS

South Carolina:

17) Joe Young has traipsed through the woods all his life. He’s planted trees, cut trees and hauled them to market. Owner of Low Country Forest Products, Young was also a panelist during the third annual Georgetown County Economic Development Forum held earlier this month at Pawleys Plantation. While tourism is one of the largest industries in the state, Young said many people may not realize that forestry is the third largest industry. It generates between $13 billion and $14 billion per year in the state economy. He told the business, industry and government leaders present for the forum that “We also need to do whatever it takes to keep the paper mill in Georgetown.” Young referred to a restructuring plan by International Paper Co.’s board that will see the company selling off whole divisions, as well as much if not all of its timberlands. Spokesmen for IP have said that the Georgetown mill is one of the most productive for the company. It owns more than 600,000 acres of timberlands in South Carolina, and 101,000 of those acres are in Georgetown County. “Quite a bit of that land is in close proximity to developments already being developed. …When all of this IP land sells, a lot will be in close proximity. We’ve got to be ready for it,” Young said, “and we’ve got to be ready to zone our county.” Some of the planning and zoning ordinances are already out of date. “We need to be visionary. Change is here,” Young said. http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16012294&BRD=2081&PAG=461&dept_id=385210&rfi=6

USA:

18) No stranger to forest fires, former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has spent much of his career grappling with the same kinds of questions that dominate Scorched Earth . How much can we alter the environment around us, and to what extent must we preserve it? In Cities in the Wilderness: A New Vision of Land Use in America, he suggests that the federal government take the lead in regulating development, grazing and other environmentally harmful activities across the country. The words “land-use policy” are enough to bore anyone but the most dedicated policy wonk, and Cities in the Wilderness is not pulp fiction. But anyone willing to read Babbitt’s relatively short prescription (179 pages) will come away with a better understanding of how politicians negotiate the painful task of satisfying their many constituencies while trying to establish a legacy for later generations. The book comes alive when Babbitt recounts his efforts to woo sometimes recalcitrant federal partners to his side, as when he “brought out the good china” for a meal with the commanding general of the Army Corps of Engineers during Babbitt’s campaign to restore the Florida Everglades. Later, when he was trying to convince President Clinton to create additional national monuments toward the end of his second term, Babbitt handed Clinton an index card during a state dinner comparing the current administration’s land-conservation achievements to Theodore Roosevelt’s. After Clinton nodded enthusiastically, Babbitt recalls, “I moved on, confident that at last we had a mandate to act not just on the Grand Canyon lands but elsewhere. It all came down to one word: legacy.” Indeed, Clinton set aside 22 new national monuments composed of 6 million acres, outstripping http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/26/AR2006012601693.html

19) The Forest Service gave the energy industry an exemption from environmental review for certain types of oil and gas drilling in national forests. Presently, all new drilling projects require public input and environmental analysis before the Forest Service can approve them, which helps mitigate impacts to natural resources like wildlife and trout streams. However, if this new directive is approved, companies could start projects with up to four drilling wells on new gas fields without environmental review or public involvement, allowing miles of new roads and pipelines through wildlife habitat. Although forest officials claim that this change in procedure would only allow small projects to pass through, there is potential for energy companies to combine several small projects to create a big impact. Concerned groups are asking the public to send comments telling the Forest Service that this industry give-away is unwarranted. It would be harmful to wildlife and the current system of environmental review is still needed to reduce the negative impacts of oil and gas activities. Comments need to be sent by February 13. For more info contact Tom Darin, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, at tom@jhalliance.org or (307) 733-9417.

Canada:

20) The reason for doing the ‘Paper Vision’ was that we enviro groups ALL agreed that we needed to have one songbook to sing to industry and society from, because with all of us sending different messages, it was too easy for decision-makers to cop out. The North American version of the Paper Vision was the result of really tough negotiations between over 80 enviro groups. Jay Ritchlin was there for Reach for Unbleached, and only because of support from Greenpeace USA as well as Markets Initiative were we able to convince people to include chlorine issues in the description of good paper. And I honour all those groups because they have stuck to that agreement, which I think is a great example of solidarity, AFTER an open process. After spending 15 years (gawd) thinking about this issue, I believe that the source of fibre for paper should be BIOREGIONALLY APPROPRIATE, from hemp to straw to rags to yes, trees where trees grow well. That means, you make paper where you are using it, instead of shipping BC old growth to China and Florida, and Georgia Pines to Edmonton or Vienna, and you make paper with the fibre that grows (or is now wasted) in your bioregion. –Delores Broten Senior Policy Advisor, Reach for Unbleached! http://www.rfu.org

21) Triple economic whammy throws sawdust into gears of Alberta’s ‘third pillar’ major industry in six short months http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/business/story.html?id=8d7f62f8-9180-4ccd-b5cc-6ac6a254cc8c&k=9
452 This is a fascinating story. The federal government (Industry Canada, NRCan, EnvCan) is contemplating massively subsidizing the (10x) cloning expansion of the Alberta forest industry throughout the vast ( 6 million square kilometers) Canadian boreal forests using the Alpac-Tembec very large scale forest development model. This boreal resource development model is also supported by Sunoco, Pew, Ducks Unlimited, Domtar, Forest Ethics, CPAWS and WWFca in return for naming rights on some ablative new parks. This industry model is clearly demonstrating that it is no longer economically viable even in the lower cost large scale environment of northern Alberta but it is still poised for subsidized huge expansion into the higher cost and much higher risk northern boreal forests. It is impossible that operating on a larger scale in a critically frail environment with higher costs, higher risks, sparser and poorer timber and competing into a market flooded with cheaper alternatives can achieve economic viability without ignoring environmental sustainability. Certainly the boreal should be off limits for industrial forestry until it can be viable at a decentralized local scale of profitable and environmentally sustainable operation. Why push for rapid development of boreal timber resources? Michael Major [mbmajor@telus.net]

22) Fort McMurray, Alberta — A prominent environmentalist will help Alberta improve how it will consult with the public about its plan to turn the oil-sands region into a single mammoth industrial zone. The so-called Mineable Oil Sands Strategy covers 2,800 square kilometres of bitumen-rich northern woods. Critics say the plan isn’t environmentally sustainable. This frontier mining town carved from the boreal forest 600 miles northeast of Calgary is the staging area for the continent’s most staggering energy development project: strip-mining and drilling tar sands in a 54,000-square-mile swath the size of Florida. The 120-million-year-old tar sands, which are also known here as oil sands, are found in three regions in northern Alberta. There are the vast Athabasca sands that surround this town of 50,000, the Peace River sands to the west and the Cold Lake sands to the southeast, north of the town of Lloydminster. Alberta officials say 1.6 trillion barrels of oil are locked in the sandy bitumen under the forests and “muskeg” — bogs with scattered trees and vegetation — that dominate the landscape. Of that, 175 billion barrels are proven reserves that can be recovered using current technology. Only Saudi Arabia has larger oil reserves. Production from 29 companies now operating in the three regions exceeds 1 million barrels per day, most of which is shipped to U.S. markets. Tar sands backers project that production will triple — to near 3 million barrels a day by 2015. That would make it the world’s fifth largest crude oil producer. The numbers have not been lost on U.S. policymakers eager for a source of oil in a politically stable place. Canada is already the United States’ largest source of foreign oil, providing 18 percent of its current supply. But tar sands promoters see U.S. imports growing. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20060126/NATS26-2/TPNational/?query=environm
ent – http://www.greenwire.com/gsr_tarsands.htm

23) U.S. vice-president Al Gore urged Canadians to be vigilant over their new leader Stephen Harper in light of the newly elected prime minister’s pro-oil agenda.”The election in Canada was partly about the tar sands projects in Alberta,” said Gore.”And the financial interests behind the tar sands project poured a lot of money and support behind an ultra-conservative leader in order to win the election … and to protect their interests.” Gore made the comments at an early morning screening of An Inconvenient Truth, a Sundance Film Festival documentary selection that chronicles Gore’s commitment to solving the problem of global warming. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/index.html

Scotland:

24) THEY are barely a centimetre tall, but scientists have cursed them as the single biggest threat to Scotland’s forests. They are so ravenous that it has become almost impossible for ecologists to regenerate forests across the country as the tiny weevils munch their way through saplings at an alarming rate. But now a group of scientists in Midlothian have come up with a way of defeating the weevils. The natural weapon the scientists are to use against the insect, also known as hylobius, comes in the shape of a tiny worm which packs a ferocious punch. The nematode worms are so small they can only be seen under a microscope. When mixed with water and poured around newly-planted forested areas, the worms will get inside the insects and feed off them until they die. The discovery was made by researchers at the Forestry Commission’s internationally renowned research station at Roslin in Midlothian. And now a £495,000 grant from the Government’s public sector research exploitation fund could help bring the revolutionary treatment on to the market. Professor Peter Freer-Smith, the chief research officer at the Forestry Commission, believes the invention will provide a huge leap forward for areas with new trees. http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=129012006

Germany:

25) All I knew was I was headed to “The Black Forest”, which was a complete must do. Friends had told me that this is one of the last remaining patches of the original forests of Europe. It was the dark highlands, woods and scenery one would imagine had inspired fairy tales. So, irrespective of it not being the appropriate season and warnings of bad weather, we made the choice of heading for Schwarzwald or the Black Forest. The first day’s exploration was around the town itself. The walk through light snowfall to Kienberg meadows was rejuvenating. Trees look spectacular even in autumn and winter, when they have shed all their leaves. To me each one of them communicated through their emptiness, as they stood there strong, ready to face the harsh winter ahead. What one did not miss doing was eating the very original Black Forest Cake. Until I planned this trip, I did not know that cake being served in every other pastry shop in India is some version of the typical “Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte”. I must admit I had not eaten anything like it before, and perhaps won’t till I return to the Black Forest. It was the green landscape turning white that said good-bye to us, as we headed back. Each snowflake found its place on the meadow, a tree or the tar road. Some greeted me, and melted as I shed them away. One could just watch, breathing in each moment. It was the first time for me, and I’m not sure when next one would be a witness to the process of the black forests turning white! http://www.hindu.com/mag/2006/01/29/stories/2006012900400800.htm

Sweden:

26) STOCKHOLM– King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden has sold his stock in a company that has been blamed for logging in the Amazon rain forest. The revelation that the royal family owned shares in Aracruz Cellulose angered and embarrassed fellow Swedes, the Times of London reported. The country is eco-conscious, with the rain forest a subject everyone studies in school, and the king is chairman of the Swedish branch of the World Wildlife Fund. “Aracruz is a very hot political potato,” said Maria Rydlund of the Swedish Nature Protection Association. “One should have been aware of what one was investing in.” Environmentalists say Aracruz is cutting down rain forest to make land to grow eucalyptus, and two Indian tribes are trying to reclaim thousands of acres of land they say the company pushed them from. http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060127-062028-3990r

Switzerland:

27) GENEVA–Tropical timber exporters and importers on Friday struck a new 10-year pact to help promote the sustainable development of forests in the face of illegal clearances and logging. Global sales of timber average about $10 billion a year, and some 15 million hectares of forest — an area nearly the size of Belgium — disappear every year. The accord, hammered out in two weeks of negotiations, replaces the 1994 International Tropical Timber Agreement, which was due to expire at year-end, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said. “The agreement establishes a framework for cooperation between exporters and importers,” said Manuel Sobral, executive director of the International Tropical Timber Organisation, which administers the accord. The new pact, agreed by 33 producing and consuming states, calls on signatories to support and develop tropical timber reforestation and share information on forestry management. “The international community is sending a clear signal that it attaches great importance to the maintenance of tropical forests and their role in producing revenues,” Sobral told Reuters. Sobral, whose organisation is based in Yokohama, Japan, said the main challenge for the tropical forest industry was to find a model of exploitation that was sustainable and profitable. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L27124615.htm

Armenia:

28) ATERTOWN — On the fourth floor of the Armenian Museum and Library of America sits the poverty-fighting office of the Armenia Tree Project. In 1994, Carolyn Mugar founded the ATP in response to the deforestation of Armenia. In the early 1990s, an energy blockade suffered by the country as a result of conflicts in neighboring Azerbaijian, Turkey and Georgia caused people to turn to their surroundings for sources of fuel. They turned to the forest. To date, 20 years of active deforestation has resulted in the reduction of forest coverage from 15 percent to approximately 6 percent in Armenia. In broader terms, at the turn of the 21st century, tree coverage in Armenia was 25 percent of what it was before in the 1970s. As the pipelines were shut down, regular maintenance was not performed, making them unusable when the blockade ended. Therefore, Armenia remains in an energy crisis, cutting nearly 750,000 cubic meters of forest each year. According to Sadoyan, since its founding the ATP average annual coverage for planting trees was 50,000 trees; 2005 yielded 170,000 trees. The jump is due to many of the programs such as Backyard Nurseries which are helping to feed the three nurseries. ATP officials hope an educational program concerning the effects of deforestation, now being tested as part of the national curriculum by the Armenian government, will be approved. The officials think the program will help to prevent deforestation in the future. “There is an enormous amount of work still to be done,” Kirakosyan said. “Our lives are not enough to get it done.” To learn more about the Armenia Tree Project, go to http://www.armeniatree.org
.

Uganda:

29) Ten-year-old Margaret, dressed in a pink dress, smiles proudly from behind a eucalyptus tree. This tree was, after all, her idea, her opus. “That child can do amazing things,” said Patrick Seguya, Masodde program community’s team leader. “She is one of the children who will change this community.” Margaret is assisted by CCF-Uganda and lives in the Kiboga District, which is located in central Uganda. Margaret dreams of re-establishing the old forests that were a characteristic of the community — a lush place — that existed before Margaret was born. She and other village children have never seen the “forest beauty” that the elders lived in and called home. Kiboga District is one of the major charcoal and firewood supply centers for Uganda’s capital city, Kampala. There are more charcoal- and firewood-loaded trucks than passenger vehicles passing on the road through Kiboga. With this constant reminder of the forest’s destruction humming in the background, the Masodde program community staff and children have embarked on a campaign. In Margaret’s words, it is a campaign “to cover Masodde green again.” With the children leading, the entire community is compelled to make a change and bring back some green and foliage to the landscape. The trees and their below-ground roots will further prevent drought and soil erosion. Margaret and her friends offered a tour of the newly sprouted plots. The children told the visitors not to pick or break any leaves from the trees, not to run around in the tree garden and to walk within straight-line gaps between the lines of trees.“You see these trees, sir?” Margaret said, pointing to the green rows. “We are supposed to safeguard them by sharing the importance of trees with our friends and family. During school days, our parents come to water, weed and kill termites.” Children in the Masodde program community, together with adults, have planted 10,000 eucalyptus trees and 5,000 pine trees on land that was once uncultivated. “The adult forest caretakers tell us to take good care of the trees,” Margaret said. “ The time will come when we children and the whole community will want rain, good soil or even wood and timber to build. This will be the forest to give us all that.” http://www.christianchildrensfund.org/content.aspx?id=1064

Kenya:

30) NAIVASHA- Kenyan police burned down the homes of some 4,000 people in an effort to stop them from squatting in a Rift Valley forest, residents said on Friday Settlers living in the valley’s Eburru forest near the town of Naivasha in central Kenya spent Thursday night out in the cold after police set more than 300 houses on fire in an attempt to flush them out and keep them from returning to the forest. “We shall not stop the exercise until we get rid of all those residing in the forest as they have caused wanton destruction to a water catchment area,” Naivasha District Officer Kaunda Maikara told Reuters. Settlers and squatters, like those in Eburru who cut down trees to make way for their farms and making charcoal, have been blamed for Kenya’s increasing deforestation and the environmental damage that it causes. Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai earlier this month urged Kenya’s government to do more to protect and rehabilitate indigenous forests. Last year, the government evicted between 10,000-50,000 families from the edge of the vast Mau Forest in the Rift Valley as part of a campaign it said was to save the country’s natural resources. The squatters won a temporary reprieve last month after the government abruptly halted the eviction following protests from local leaders. “We are ready to die here and we won’t shift unless we are shown alternative land where we can settle,” forest resident Charles Mbuthia said, adding that several people were injured in the exercise. The government has defended the evictions as righting past wrongs of land illegally apportioned or sold during former president Daniel Arap Moi’s 24-year reign. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L27771948.htm

Brazil:

31) Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil – Deforestation from increased grazing and agriculture has destroyed 17 percent of the native vegetation in Brazil’s Pantanal, considered the world’s largest wetland. A new study published by Conservation International sounds an alarm for the Paraguay River Basin, which includes the Pantanal. Continued deforestation at the current rate would cause all of the Pantanal’s original vegetation to disappear in 45 years, according to CI researchers in Brazil. Overall, opening the region to more grazing and agriculture, including the transformation of native pasture to farmland, has destroyed almost 45 percent of the original vegetation in the Paraguay River Basin. The river basin covers approximately 600,000 square kilometers, 60 percent of it within Brazilian territory. It includes the Pantanal, which comprises 41 percent of the entire basin. The Pantanal is a Brazilian National Heritage site, a significant site of international relevance according to the RAMSAR Wetlands Areas Convention, and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. http://www.conservation.org/xp/news/press_releases/2006/011006.xml

Asia:

32) All nations with wild populations of Asian elephants have met as a group for the first time to discuss the species’ future survival. The aim of the meeting in Kuala Lumpur was to reach a consensus on the best way to tackle threats facing the continent’s largest mammal. Delegates agreed that transboundary cooperation was necessary to protect the creatures’ dwindling habitat. The wild population of Asian elephants is estimated at 30,000 to 50,000. The three-day gathering was convened by the Malaysian government, and facilitated by IUCN, the World Conservation Union, in an attempt to agree on the best way to protect the remaining elephant populations. There are only rough estimates of elephant numbers in different countries, ranging from fewer than 100 in Vietnam to more than 20,000 in India. Conservationists admit many of these figures are little more than guesses. Forests and other elephant habitats are being destroyed to make way for new settlements and agricultural land. Only an estimated five percent of their original habitat is left for the creatures to roam. This is why the 13-nation meeting was a welcome step forward in the effort to improve the balance between the needs of elephants and a growing human population, said Andrew McMullin. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4654450.stm

Indonesia:

33) Pekanbaru- The proceeds from the auction of logs seized from wood thieves will be used entirely for the rehabilitation and restoration of national forests which have been badly damaged, Forectry Minister MS Kaban said here Thursday. Speaking at a workshop on the eradication of illegal logging here, he made it clear that the funds derived from the auction of illegal logs in Riau will be delivered to areas in the province through land and forest rehabilitation programs. However, the operation to eradicate illegal logging is aimed at uncovering the perpetrators of the wood stealing and ending this unlawful deed rather than collecting funds, he explained. Besides the forestry minister, head of the criminal investigation body of the Indonesian Police Makbul Padmanegara also served as a key speaker in the workshop which was organized by the Riau provincial administration, in cooperation with the Riau Police and students. On the occasion, Makbul discussed law enforcement in the eradication of illegal logging and the main impediments hampering efforts to end wood stealing in Indonesian forests. Riau Governor Rusli Zainal explained the task and role of the illegal logging eradication team to the audience. He said the team, which is headed by Vice Governor Wan Abu Bakar, has uncovered the mafia of the forest looting. http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/index.php?id=8502

Australia

34) A new report has found timber imports sourced by illegal logging are entering Australia. The report called “Overview of Illegal Logging” has found $400 million or 9 per cent of Australia’s timber imports, including wooden furniture, could be illegally harvested. The Federal Government says it commissioned the report as part of an election commitment to ensure stronger forestry conservation measures in Tasmania would not lead to an increase in illegally harvested timber imports. Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry spokesman Tony Bartlett says the findings are a concern. “Any import of timber from illegally harvested forest is not good for forest conservation on a world scale,” he said. “However this is a very complex problem and one which many countries in the world are actually working together to try to resolve.” National Association of Forest Industries spokeswoman Catherine Murphy is pushing for greater use of Australia’s forests and for more countries to join Australia’s certification scheme. “That way we can be sure that the timber coming into Australia has been sustainably and legally logged and if we can also use what we call a ‘chain of custody’ standard with those companies then we are able to track back where that wood has actually come from,” she said. Ms Murphy imported timber that is illegally harvested could have a substantial impact on Australia’s timber industry. “It disadvantages our industry in terms of not being able to supply some of that timber from Australia’s own forests, which are legally and sustainably harvested,” she said. Mr Bartlett says the Government is keen to work with timber importers and Asia-Pacific nations to find a way to address the issue. http://www.abc.net.au/news/items/200601/1557009.htm?tasmania

World-wide:

35) “Ancient forests are being destroyed to make everyday products such as newspapers, magazines and toilet paper by European paper companies, and sold to an unaware public”, said Gavin Edwards, Global Forest Campaign Coordinator of Greenpeace International. “The launch of today’s vision represents a call to pulp and paper companies to clean up their act and start providing consumers with products that protect these forests, not ones that destroy them. Currently, the global paper industry tends to invest into large scale monoculture tree plantations in the South which often cause massive social and environmental problems. Local People all over the world are fighting against large scale plantations. This is why ROBIN WOOD does not consider them a sustainable fibre source. The paper industry must act responsibly”, said Peter Gerhardt, Tropical Forest Campaigner from ROBIN WOOD. “Forests are of prime importance for WWF’s work on biodiversity conservation, and the forest industry has an important role in helping us achieve our aims,” said Duncan Pollard, Director of WWF’s Global Forests4Life Programme, WWF International. “The paper industry has a history of innovation and has shown in the past that it is able to address issues of importance and concern to society. WWF has been and will continue to work with companies that are prepared to improve their practices and to show corporate leadership on the issues referred to in the vision.” http://www.taigarescue.org/index.php?view_article=160

36) Conservation International: Papermaking consumes an estimated 200 million tons of wood products a year. And despite predictions of a brave new paperless world, the use of paper is increasing. Although many of the trees harvested to meet this rising demand come from North America, pulp and paper companies are increasingly tapping resources in tropical countries, putting enormous pressure on remaining natural forests and their biodiversity. To make the industry a more positive force for conservation, CI has teamed up with Office Depot, the world’s largest paper retailer; The Nature Conservancy; and NatureServe. The five-year, $2.2 million initiative grew out of concerns by the conservation community and by Office Depot about threats to forest species and habitats from unsustainable logging operations. Called the Forest and Biodiversity Conservation Alliance (FBCA), the partnership will help companies incorporate science and conservation criteria into their sourcing and forest management decisions. “The three conservation groups together provide the kind of international coverage necessary for Office Depot to look at all their paper sourcing, from boreal, temperate, and tropical regions,” says Justin Ward, a senior director at the Center for Environmental Leadership in Business at CI. FBCA initiatives include projects to help forest owners and managers identify and conserve key biodiversity areas in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, and manage imperiled forest species in the southeastern United States. http://www.conservation.org/xp/frontlines/partners/08110408.xml

37) A study of seven tropical forests around the world has shown nature encourages biodiversity by favoring the growth of less common trees. Researchers said the landmark study, conducted by 33 ecologists from 12 nations, conclusively demonstrates diversity matters and has ecological importance to tropical forests. Helene Muller-Landau, an assistant professor of ecology at the University of Minnesota is a co-author of the study, which supports research by her colleague, David Tilman, a professor of ecology, into the causes and value of biodiversity. “This research has the surprising finding that biodiversity in tropical rain forests and Minnesota prairies arises from the same kinds of underlying processes,” said Tilman. “It brings us a step closer to understanding the causes of the world’s amazing biodiversity.” The study was conducted on seven undisturbed forest plots, or “tropical forest observatories,” in Borneo, India, Malaysia, Panama, Puerto Rico and Thailand. The research was coordinated by The Center for Tropical Forest Science of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute based in Panama. Christopher Wills, a professor of biology at the University of California-San Diego, was the lead author. The research appears in the Jan. 27 issue of the journal Science. http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060126-040401-3226r

38) BankTrack is a global coalition of fourteen non-governmental organisations (NGOs) including WWF-UK, Friends of the Earth, the Rainforest Action Network and the Berne Declaration. It promotes sustainable finance in the commercial sector, and its vision for a sustainable finance sector was expressed in the Collevecchio Declaration of January 2003. Now endorsed by more than 200 organisations, the Collevecchio Declaration remains the benchmark by which civil society will measure the banking sector’s commitment to sustainable development. new report at http://www.banktrack.org

39) Trees, not CDs. The rock band, led by the singer Chris Martin, are the latest pop stars to “carbon neutralise” their music by paying for enough saplings to absorb the carbon dioxide produced by their latest album and tour. They have paid £105,000 to buy the carbon rights to 50,000 trees. Coldplay are one of many rock bands that have bought up forestry rights around the world. Their cloud forest in Chiapas is intended to pay for the CO2 from their X&Y album and tour. They already have 10,000 mango trees in their name in India from a previous album and tour. It was the Rolling Stones who introduced the idea of replenishing a whole tour’s CO2 emissions with tree power when they staged their 40th anniversary 40 Licks tour. Ronnie Wood, their guitarist, even has a wood of his own in Scotland and more trees, along with Dido, in Mozambique. Mexico’s other tree people include Pink Floyd, Atomic Kitten and the singer Beth Orton as well as the film star Leonardo DiCaprio and Formula One motor racing. The latest tree people in Britain include K T Tunstall, the singer songwriter who has bought the rights to 3,500 trees near Peebles in her native Scotland, and David Gray, who has 10,000 trees in his name in the Midlands. Even the Sex Pistols have a Filth and Fury forest of 500 trees in Essex named after a documentary about the punk rock group. However, there has been a falling out among the tree huggers. Conservationists say that the good intentions of the rock stars may be in vain because the CO2 is absorbed only for the life of the tree. When it dies, the gas is released back into the atmosphere. Future Forests, the marketing company that persuaded the rock stars to jump on its bandwagon, has changed its name to The CarbonNeutral Company. It has also parted company with its founder Dan Morrell, a former music industry publicist, citing “energy differences”. The new company says it has largely forsaken trees in favour of schemes involving renewable sources of energy from sun, wind or water. “Pop stars think they are paying to get trees planted. Really what they are doing is paying for a marketing company to go out and buy carbon rights on trees that other people are planting. “The firm seemed to be offering a magical solution but they are a private company and their purpose is to make money.” http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2014800,00.html