066OEC’s This week in Trees
This week we have 34 news items from: British Columbia, Washington, California, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, Tennessee, Canada, Sweden, Liberia, Guyana, Latin America, Brazil, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Japan, China, New Zealand and Australia.
British Columbia:
1) ForestEthics has given B.C. its blessing. A representative of the U.S. environmental group was on hand in Vancouver last week as Premier Gordon Campbell invited industry, aboriginal and environmental representatives to the release of an agreement in principle for logging on B.C.’s central and north coast. “The Great Bear Rainforest is Canada’s Amazon,” pronounced Merran Smith of ForestEthics, speaking on behalf of Greenpeace, the Sierra Club and correct-thinking beings across the solar system. My reaction: Who the heck is ForestEthics? The group’s official history notes it was born during the protests over Clayoquot Sound a decade ago, and it pioneered the targeting of forest company customers over what it deems to be unacceptable wood and paper sources. ForestEthics’ latest annual report notes its office manager drinks organic, fair trade coffee and has business cards printed with soy-based ink, its youngest donor, 11-year-old Nikki Allen, decorated her room like a rainforest, “wrote a letter to President Bush protesting the war, and got a response,” and its board of directors includes Michael Klein, a guitar maker who likes tie-dye shirts, drives a hybrid, is a strict vegan and “toured with the Grateful Dead for five years.” Who needs professional foresters when you’ve got these folks to tell you how to manage your province? Premier Gordon Campbell deliberately avoided the protesters’ term for B.C.’s north coast, although he did make reference to the “Spirit Bear,” a now popular term for the Kermode bear, a rare off-white variant of the common black bear found in coastal areas. How restricting logging preserves these bears remains a mystery, since black bears thrive in logged and populated areas elsewhere in B.C. Campbell noted that the Kitasoo First Nation have set aside nearly half their traditional territory for a bear refuge on Princess Royal Island. http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=15&cat=23&id=590423&more=
2) Since the announcement there have been several comments, questions and suggestions on landwatch and in the press regarding the David Suzuki Foundation position and/or thoughts on the agreement that was recently announced by Premier Campbell, First Nations and ENGOs. I provide you with the following synopsis of our thoughts on the issue. If you wish more clarification or detail please feel free to contact me by phone or e-mail. The basic and overarching interest of the David Suzuki Foundation re the GBR is to see the application of Ecosystem Based Management (EBM) across the entire landscape. Given that protected areas are a key component of an EBM based land use plan, we support the designation of the protected areas. We also support the rights and title interests of First Nations and believe that they should have the final say with the provincial government on the size and configuration of protected areas within their traditional territories. We therefore support the package of protected areas that they have been negotiated. We also believe that more has to be done to ensure the long term functioning of the coastal temperate rainforest ecosystem and have, and continue to call for rigorous application of EBM objectives, standards and practices on the rest of the land base. The recent announcement committed government to implement some elements of the EBM guidebook developed by the independent science team the CIT (Coast Information Team). The elements agreed to at this point were those that the First Nations agreed to as a group, and we support them in moving forward as they feel able to do so. We also want to see additional EBM standards and practices agreed to over the next couple of years. The agreement at this point commits the government, the ENGOs and the First Nations to continue developing the EBM elements up to 2009. We anticipate that some additional elements of the CIT’s EBM guidebook will be ratified and moved into binding and legal elements of the final land use agreements. However, we believe it is a misrepresentation to the public to say the their will be “full implementation of EBM by 2009”. http://www.davidsuzuki.org
Washington:
3) WA State to sell 560-acre forest for private development! The State of Washington has listed 560 acres of heavily forested land near Goldendale for sale and to be divided into 20 acre parcels. Outrageous! How can we stop this? 560 acres of private timberland located along major highway and surrounded by government owned property. First time available in over 100 years. Previously owned by Washington State Department of Natural Resources. Can be divided into 20 acre tracts. What local environmental groups would work on this? MLS#: 26013245 Price: $1,600,000 — Lot Size: 560.00 — Acres Fuel: Available — Site: Comm. Grade Timber, Heavily Forested — — Status: Active — This listing is courtesy of: Pacific Rim Real Estate Group – Goldendale, WA
California:
4) To generate an estimated $800 million in one-time funds for the rural communities, the U.S. Forest Service is proposing to sell these 85,000 acres in California. That would include more than 2,000 acres in the El Dorado National Forest, 32,921 in the Klamath National Forest, 14,041 in the Lassen National Forest and 19,437 in the Plumas National Forest. In all, the administration is eyeing as much as 300,000 acres of the national forests to be sold in the coming years. Fortunately, bipartisan opposition to this liquidation plan is emerging. “Public lands are an asset that needs to be managed and conserved,” said Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho. Craig, a staunch pro-logging Republican, is right. This proposal should be dead on arrival. Selling permanent assets for an annual budget need is always a dubious proposition. This proposal to start liquidating the national forests, however, is beyond the pale. Beyond that, it is time to question the entire notion of the federal government subsidizing certain rural school systems based on past resource extraction activities. If this program ended, the debate would shift to state legislators and their formulas for funding schools. That is where this debate belongs. As for the national forests, the debate should be over how to properly manage them, and not whether to sell them to help balance the next year’s budget. http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/14191209p-15018113c.html
5) LA VERNE – More than 200 acres of wilderness in the foothills above La Verne have been purchased for preservation as public land. The Trust for Public Land and the city of La Verne announced Wednesday that the trust bought 208 acres for $3.3 million and transferred ownership to La Verne. The money came from the state Wildlife Conservation Board and Los Angeles County. Conservationists say the purchase – part of a larger plan to link wilderness areas in foothill communities from San Dimas Canyon to Claremont – will help create a natural buffer zone between cities and the Angeles National Forest, protecting homes from fires and wilderness from development. We’re trying to hold that line instead of letting homes and growth creep up into the mountains. We’re trying to keep the hillside natural,” said Brady Moss, project manager for the Trust for Public Land. The trust negotiated -with private landowners for the purchase of the land, which was essentially undeveloped, with some fencing but no permanent structures, Moss said. The 208 acres border 150 acres of public land owned by La Verne to the east and Angeles National Forest to the north. Katherine Winsor, president of the La Verne Land Conservancy, who worked to acquire the grants, said the land was purchased from willing sellers. It is home to black bears, bobcats, mountain lions and a variety of birds as well as oak trees and riparian vegetation, she said. The land has been damaged by rains and many trails have been washed out, Winsor said. The conservancy has a $208,000 grant to start working on building trails, removing invasive species and putting in signs, she said. The purchase is a victory for the conservancy, but more work still needs to be done. The conservancy is looking for more funding, Winsor said. If efforts to purchase two properties east of the Marshall Canyon Golf Course are successful, the grant money will be used up, she said.”We haven’t finished what we set out to do, which is piecing the parcels together and finishing the quilt,” she said. http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3513804
Idaho:
6) We now have an opportunity to protect a unique 300 acre preserve on Moscow Mountain that includes a wonderful grove of ancient cedar trees, the glorious viewpoint on the rocky top of East Moscow Mountain, and the forestland between those two sites. The Nature Conservancy lease expires this year, and we need to preserve this land — as a state park or a county park — for perpetuity. Besides providing all of us, and our children, with a great destination, designating this land as a park will help us solve some of the most difficult outdoor recreation issues on the mountain. This new park will focus both education and enforcement on the twin problems of motorized eco-destruction and access. We need to preserve this 300 acre as a public park. Please help this effort. For more information, visit this website. http://www.pcei.org/mm_cedars.htm
http://www.newwest.net/index.php/city/article/6175/C136/L136
Montana:
7) The 2.2 million acre Kootenai National Forest in the extreme northwestern corner of Montana is home to our state’s most biologically unique national forest, containing Montana’s only temperate rainforest ecosystem and providing critical habitat for grizzly bear, gray wolf, Canada lynx, woodland caribou, bull trout, westslope cutthroat trout, inland redband trout and over 190 bird species. Unfortunately, crisscrossed by over 8,300 miles of logging roads and fragmented by over 750,000 acres that have been logged at one time or another, the Kootenai is also home to one of Montana’s most overexploited forest ecosystems. Citing past and continuing failures to manage the Kootenai National Forest in accordance with the Kootenai’s own Forest Plan in regards to old-growth forests, old-growth dependent wildlife species, water quality, fish habitat and soil productivity, the Ecology Center has filed a comprehensive lawsuit against the Forest Service in U.S. District Court in Missoula. “The days of Forest Service unaccountability for the over-exploitation of this forest are over,” stated Jeff Juel, executive director of the Ecology Center. “We remain committed to working with the Forest Service, Lincoln County officials and community leaders to find solutions that will put people in northwestern Montana to work restoring watersheds and protecting communities from wildfire through targeted fuel reduction of small trees and brush within the community protection zone,” stated Juel, referring to on-going discussions that are taking place. The nine logging projects challenged in the current lawsuit follow a 2003 lawsuit by the Ecology Center that questioned the legality of five logging projects – encompassing approximately 110 million board feet of trees – on the Kootenai National Forest. In June 2003, the U.S. District Court in Missoula ruled that the Forest Service was not in compliance with the Kootenai Forest Plan since it had not identified 10% of the forest below 5,500 feet elevation as effective old growth and had not monitored the population trends of wildlife species that depend upon old-growth habitat for their existence. Essentially, the Kootenai National Forest had not prioritized the protection of old-growth habitat to ensure survival of these species, as they were required to do by law. However, Montana Senator Conrad Burns intervened in November 2003 by attaching a rider – without public or congressional debate – to an unrelated appropriations bill that essentially instructed the U.S. District Court to allow these five logging projects to go forward regardless of the illegalities identified by the Court. http://www.newwest.net/index.php/main/article/6248/
Arizona:
8) PHOENIX – The U.S. Forest Service has canceled plans to do prescribed burns and forest thinning on more than 17,000 acres near the north rim of the Grand Canyon. The project raised the ire of environmentalists who called it a sale of old growth timber that would not help restore the Kaibab National Forest to a healthy state. The Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity sued the Forest Service in federal court to stop to so-called East Rim project. The suit alleged the government plan failed to protect the endangered Mexican spotted owl and threatened northern goshawks that inhabit the Kaibab plateau.A federal judge ruled in favor of the government last year, but the groups filed an appeal, which is still pending.The government pulled the East Rim project Tuesday because so much time had elapsed since it was conceived that new studies of the bird populations would be required, said Cathie Schmidlin, a spokeswoman for the Kaibab National Forest.“There’s been several years since surveys were done for each of those birds,” Schmidlin said, noting that the suit was not a motivating factor. The Forest Service hasn’t decided what to do next, she said. The Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity contend the project would have permitted the commercial logging of tens of thousands of large, fire resistant trees, and brought little fire reduction benefit. “The decision to abandon this controversial timber sale is a wake-up call that the Forest Service must fund projects that actually protect communities from wildfire, instead of logging in remote areas,” Roxanne George with the Sierra Club said in a statement. Todd Schulke with the Center for Biological Diversity said there’s no excuse to log old-growth trees – most 100 years or older – when communities are at risk for fire. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20060214-1503-wst-loggingcanceled.html
Colorado:
9) The proposed sale of federal land to pay for part of rural schools’ upkeep could include parcels in La Plata and Archuleta counties. Nine parcels – five in Archuleta County, four in La Plata County – totaling 440 acres in the San Juan National Forest are among the up to 200,000 acres of Forest Service land nationally that could be included in the sale. Up to 500,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management holdings also could be sold. The list of parcels in La Plata and Archuleta counties includes one of 20 acres, six of 40 acres and one each of 80 and 100 acres. The Forest Service did not disclose exact locations for the parcels. The proposal, announced last week, hasn’t been received well on Capitol Hill, Andy Stahl, director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, said Wednesday by telephone from Eugene, Ore. The nonprofit organization has 12,000 members, 500 of them current Forest Service employees. “The proposal has been panned by everyone I’ve heard comment,” Stahl said. “There have been maybe a dozen people in all.” Since 1908, the Forest Service has returned 25 percent of revenue from grazing fees and the sale of timber and minerals on federal land to states with national forests. The money has been earmarked for the improvement of schools and roads. http://durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/06/news060216_
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10) GLENWOOD SPRINGS — The White River National Forest is moving forward with plans to sell off dead and dying timber that fell victim to an outbreak of spruce beetles on 2,900 acres near Sunlight Mountain Resort. The Baylor Park Blowdown project comes nearly seven years after a powerful burst of wind leveled a stand of spruce near Four Mile Road, creating the conditions for an infestation of beetles that spread to neighboring live trees. The Forest Service said the sale would help control the spread of the beetles, but environmentalists who have opposed the sale from the beginning said the timber project was still too big and would do little to help the health of the forest. The project has been tied up since 2001 after environmentalists sued over the plan, claiming the timber sale was too broad, targeted too many live trees and would lead to too many roads in sensitive habitat. The two sides reached an out-of-court settlement. In announcing the sale, Forest Service officials said the delay allowed the beetles to spread from the dead trees to nearby healthy trees, making it impossible to save them by selective logging, meant to thin the stands and allow more sunlight, nutrients and water to help the remaining trees withstand the beetle outbreak. “We are not going to be able to stop the beetle at this point but maintaining the spruce population in the area is key,” said District Ranger Bill Westbrook in a press release. Sloan Shoemaker, executive director of the Wilderness Workshop, said it was unfair to blame the delay on environmentalists. He blamed the Forest Service for taking two years to create a plan to go after commercially-viable live trees instead of removing the downed trees immediately. “The implication was that they were just going in there and treating the affected trees and we got in the way of that,” said Shoemaker, whose group was among 50 organizations and individuals who sued. “The truth was, had they only intended to treat the infected trees, the trees that were blown down that provided the breeding ground for beetles, we would have stood aside and given them best wishes. http://www.aspendailynews.com/article_12924
Minnesota:
11) The draft horses will be in Henry Woods Feb. 13–18, removing trees destroyed last September by straight line winds. Approximately 100 trees, concentrated in the northwest corner of the woods along 129th Avenue, will be removed. Once the horses pull the trees to portable sawmills set up in the woods, the trees will be sawed into lumber. The lumber will be used for future building projects in the woods development, such as a bridge over the creek, boardwalks through wet areas and lumber for a interpretive center or sugar shack. The horses, Nadeau, said, “will cause little, if any damage to the sensitive understory and spring ephemerals that dominate the forest floor. And the ability to turn this catastrophe into valuable and usable products will aid in providing access of this environment to the residents of this community.” In memory of her late husband, Lloyd Henry, and the Henry family, Evelyn Henry, 77, donated 40 acres of the Henry’s Century Farm, located at the southwest corner of the intersection of Brockton Lane and 129th Avenue in Hassan Township, to the township to be used as park land. It will be used as a natural area or passive wildlife viewing and natural resource education purposes. It is also a vital component to Hassan’s Greenway Plan. Explaining her gift, Evelyn said at the time, “The woods are so beautiful, I want to see it preserved. And we had no children (to leave the land to).” http://www.erstarnews.com/2006/February/14horses.html
Wisconsin:
12) USDA Forest Service’s Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) is cosponsoring a conference to examine global scientific and economic trends that are shaping future technologies and markets. More than a hundred researchers, business leaders, and representatives of government agencies from the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia are expected to attend the three-day meeting in Atlanta in April. The program for the TAPPI 2006 International Conference on Nanotechnology for the Forest Products Industry, set for April 26 to April 28, includes two dozen sessions featuring scores of panelists and speakers from universities, industry, and government agencies and laboratories in the United States, Canada, Asia and Europe, many of them internationally recognized leaders in nanotechnology research, development, and deployment. Nine of the scheduled speakers are from FPL. “Nanotechnology represents a major opportunity to generate new products and industries in the coming decades,” their report says. For example, nanotechnology might permit the development of “intelligent” wood- and paper-based products that could incorporate built-in sensors to measure moisture, temperatures or pressure, or detect the presence of wood-decay fungi. According to the report, nanotechnology could have an even greater impact by leading to new ways to produce energy, chemicals and other products and processes that would enhance national energy security and benefit air and water quality as well as global climate change. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter; a typical sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick. A nanoscale-size particle can contain anywhere from fewer than 100 to several thousand atoms. Nanoscale particles often exhibit unusual qualities that create the potential for products with new performance capabilities never before possible. The USDA Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory was established in 1910 in Madison, Wis., with the mission to conserve and extend the country’s wood resources. Today, FPL’s research scientists work with academic and industrial researchers and other government agencies in exploring ways to promote healthy forests and clean water, and improve papermaking, wood products conversion, and recycling processes. Through FPL’s Advanced Housing Research Center, researchers also work to improve homebuilding technologies and materials. Information is available at FPL’s Web site: http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us.
NEW YORK:
13) New York – Delegates from around the world gathered at United Nations headquarters in New York today for talks aimed at safeguarding the planet’s forests as well as the livelihoods of the hundreds of millions of people who depend on forests for their livelihood. The United Nations Forum on Forests is meeting for two weeks to explore international arrangements that can control deforestation and promote sustainable forest management. UN Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs Jose Antonio Ocampo today told delegates at the Forum’s opening session that “the alarming rate of deforestation is a major threat to sustainable development” and affects some of the world’s poorest people. Forests cover a third of the planet’s land surface and play a key part in economic development. Global trade in primary and secondary forest products total $200 billion annually. “Given the impact on forests of population expansion, economic growth and environmental instability, it is not surprising [forest issues] have been at the center of several international negotiations,” said Ocampo. “Sustainable forest management has become a major policy objective for many countries,” he said. In this sixth session of the Forum, delegates again are considering the future of a legally binding International Agreement on Forests. Last year’s fifth session, held in May, concluded without reaching agreement. Judith Mbula Bahemuka, Kenya’s Representative to the UN, who is chairing this year’s session, said global leaders gathered at UN Headquarters for the 2005 World Summit in September emphasized that forest issues cut across many developmental sectors. Bahemuka said the session should focus on addressing unfinished business. The future actions of the international arrangement on forests should, in real terms, promote the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests, she said, thereby contributing to the achievement of internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration. Setting clear and ambitious common global goals for sustainable forest management was important, Bahemuka said. She said the Forum’s main focus should be on combating deforestation, promoting sustainable forest management, and enhancing the contribution of forests to the broader development agenda, and less so on the legally binding instrument. http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2006/2006-02-13-05.asp
Tennessee:
14) KNOXVILLE – A plan by the Bush administration to sell off 300,000 acres of public land to pay for rural schools and roads includes 3,000 acres in East Tennessee in the Cherokee National Forest bordering North Carolina. The total land sales, ranging from less than an acre to more than 1,000 acres, could total more than $1 billion and would be the largest sale of forest land in decades. The Forest Service has identified 2,996 acres in 38 parcels for sale in seven East Tennessee counties, all part of the 640,000-acre Cherokee National Forest. The counties are: Carter, Cocke, Johnson, Monroe, Polk, Sullivan and Unicoi. About a quarter of the Tennessee land is in Carter County, while the largest single block – nearly 500 acres – is in Sullivan County. Most of the parcels are hard to manage because they are not contiguous with the rest of the forest and are isolated, Forest Service spokesman Terry McDonald said Monday. Bush administration officials have said the same about most of the land involved. “For the most part, they’re surrounded by private lands,” McDonald said. “The federal government should not be in the business of selling off public lands to fund its budget,” said Cat McCue, spokeswoman for the Charlottesville, Va.-based Southern Environmental Law Center. “It sets a terrible precedent. What are we going to sell off next to pay for government programs?” The sales must first be approved by Congress and go through a 30-day comment period after the proposal is published in the Federal Register. http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/13869488.htm
Canada:
15) Approximately 128,000 cubic metres per year of cedar currently licensed to Sustainable Forest Licence holders is under-utilized in northeastern Ontario. Ontario is making this wood available in order to support the establishment of one or more new cedar facilities in the northeast. This will mean more jobs and a stronger economy. The wood is being made available through a competitive process, and a number of criteria will be used to determine which proposals are successful. Some of the criteria include the following: job creation in Ontario, job creation in communities negatively affected by the forest industry restructuring, benefit to First Nations, local production of secondary products. “I encourage all interested parties to send in their proposals,” said Ramsay. “This process is part of our efforts to build a healthier forest sector in Ontario.” “Supporting new forest industry initiatives contributes to stronger communities,” said Ramsay. “We are committed to help boost the local economy by using this wood to establish new manufacturing facilities in the region.” http://www.sootoday.com/content/news/full_story.asp?StoryNumber=15847
16) FREDERICTON – The New Brunswick government will maintain logging limits at existing levels through 2012 in an effort to protect jobs in the forest sector. The decision, announced Tuesday, has angered environmental groups, who say the forests can’t sustain existing annual cuts. Some previous commitments such as additional wetland buffers and reduced clearcutting had the potential to reduce the annual cut by 400,000 cubic metres. However, Natural Resources Minister Keith Ashfield says a number of steps, such as harvesting in some former deer wintering areas, will be taken to ensure companies don’t see any reduction in their allowable annual harvest. David Coon of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick says the government is selling off the future of the forests to help the industry in the short term. He says the changes will mean a loss of larger, old-growth trees and a loss of diversity in the forests. http://canadaeast.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060215/CPA/20041020
17) “This smacks of a back door attempt by the Lord government to cater to a long held desire by certain forest companies to harvest trees on Crown land without having to preserve and create jobs for New Brunswick taxpayers. It makes absolutely no sense,” Mr. Michaud added. He said that his union, the largest union of forestry workers in Canada with 150,000 members, will oppose the merging of licenses and called on Mr. Lord and Mr. Ashfield to hold public hearings into their plan. “I would like to hear their logic behind turning over publicly owned assets to giant paper companies with absolutely no guarantee that New Brunswickers will gain a single job,” Mr. Michaud said. http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/February2006/15/c3012.html
18) Environmental groups are outraged at the government’s decision to ignore a plan that would reduce amount of harvesting on Crown land. New guidelines would have meant companies could cut less wood in public forests during the next five years. But Natural Resources Minister Keith Ashfield has revised those guidelines and now says the government has no choice but to maintain the allowable cut in New Brunswick at current levels. He says he has to protect forestry jobs and is scrounging to find extra wood to cut.
David Coon is with the New Brunswick Conservation Council and says the Lord government promised big industry it wouldn’t lose any wood and then left it to staff at Natural Resources to find it. “Look, some of those companies did more than they were supposed to. They [left] bigger buffers around the rivers and lakes [and now the government is saying] ‘let’s make them go back and take some of those trees?’ I mean it’s just bananas.” The New Brunswick Federation of Naturalists Marieka Chaplin says people told a government committee three years ago they wanted the forest protected and now they’re being ignored. “New Brunswickers spoke very clearly about how they wanted their Crown land to be managed, and seeing as the government’s holding it for us, our input should be counted more heavily than this.” http://www.cbc.ca/nb/story/nb_forestfollo20060216.html
19) Ontario – An environmentalist says partying youth are putting the future of a Gatineau forest at risk. Ian Huggett, a local environmentalist who lives in the Aylmer area of Gatineau, Que., says Boucher Forest has become a popular place for local youth to hold “bush parties.” He complains that partygoers are cutting down trees to burn them in bonfires, and leaving behind broken bottles, stolen construction debris and other garbage. Huggett says the damage from the parties has “reached such a degree that we will not be able to protect this area and have it designated for conservation because its ecological value will have diminished in the eyes of the decision-makers.” Some young people say the bush party has surpassed the house party in popularity. “At bush parties you are, like, in the woods, and no one can hear you,” said 18-year-old Ann-Marie Perron. That means more privacy, fewer police raids and the excitement of a bonfire. But locals in the area are becoming frustrated with the state of the forest. “This site has been severely damaged,” said Doris Aubin, who walks her dog in the forest. “You’ll notice many of the residual trees have been burnt from fires, you’ll see carbon at the base of the trees ? [and] plywood nailed to trees.” Aubin says she’s afraid to go near the woods at night or on weekends for fear of running into a bush party. Huggett says if young people continue damaging the woods, the city will clean up the area by bulldozing the forest and developing housing. “The decision-makers will say: ‘look it’s full of bush parties, the area’s being vandalized, wouldn’t it look nicer if there were nice new homes in there?'” said Huggett. http://www.cbc.ca/ottawa/story/ot-gatineau20060216.html
Sweden:
20) Packaging solutions provider Tetra Pak and World Wildlife Fund Sweden have signed a three year agreement to globally cooperate in forestry and climate change programs. In particular, the agreement proposes actions to demonstrate responsible purchasing of forest-based products and to reduce Tetra Pak’s CO2 emissions over the next five years by an absolute 10% “We are delighted that a company that has a powerful track record on environment and social issues, should be working with us to further its performance and serve as a model for other companies,” said Lars Kristoferson, General Secretary of WWF (World Wildlife Fund) Sweden. “We believe this cooperation will prove that well-managed renewables – be they energy or materials – represent the future for our planet.” The agreement will support the creation of the High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF) Resource Network, a resource centre of HCVF-related initiatives and projects around the world. The HCVF Resource Network will start its activities in the first quarter of 2006. The agreement will also provide funding for the Global Forest & Trade Network, WWF’s initiative with the forest products industry to eliminate illegal logging and improve the management of valuable and threatened forests. http://www.jobwerx.com/news/TetraPak_biz-id=947900_290.html
Liberia:
21) The government in the 10-point Executive Order called for the total involvement of its agencies in order to ensure that Liberia’s forest resources are protected and appropriately exploited for the maximum benefits of the people. It them proceeded to establish the Forestry Reform Monitoring Committee. This committee will be led by the Forestry Development Authority with the participation and assistance of the Liberia Forest Initiative. The committee’s 11-point mandate includes identifying appropriate land areas for establishing a concession system based on land-use planning principles, establishing an appropriate chain of custody system that tracks logging operators from the point of enumeration to export; and most importantly, and working with the international community to define an appropriate tax system (based on international timber prices) and equitable sharing of the benefits with local communities and institute that system. MOST IMPORTANT OF all, to us, are the committee’s responsibility to establish procedures for investigation, draft appropriate remedies, and take legal action for financial and tax fraud and human rights abuses. What also caught our attention is the new committee’s mandate to take measures to institutionalize the participation of communities and civil society in forest management in a transparent manner, including without limitation access to information, mandate public participation, and to protect the citizen’s right to file lawsuits to redress violations of law. WHILE IT HAS become impossible for us to hide our ecstasy for this new development which we believe is the starting of the lifting of timber sanctions against Liberia, we want to let the past be the guide for all – government, civil society, and would-be concessionaires. We recall that the Taylor Administration sought to impress the international community by announcing new plans promising that the government would let 50% timber revenue remain in the county of operation. Like the fiasco it was intended to be, that policy never left the realm of rhetoric and deception. By the time Taylor was chased out of power in 2003, no single county received and used its 50% share. http://allafrica.com/stories/200602150148.html
Guyana:
22) The Iwokrama International Centre has entered into a partnership with Demerara Timbers Ltd (DTL) for sustainable forestry harvesting and processing of timber in the Iwokrama forest over the next three years. Iwokrama has already invested some US$360,000 of its self-generated and donor funds in forest harvesting preparatory studies and DTL is investing between US$1M and US$2M. The two entities signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on Thursday for the establishment of a joint venture in which Iwokrama, through its subsidiary Iwokrama Timbers Inc (ITI), will have the majority shareholding of 51%. A separate profit-sharing agreement will allow DTL to maintain a reasonable return on its investment. Harvesting is to begin immediately after the finalisation of the joint venture contract, which would be over the next 45 days. Officials of DTL declined to comment on the agreement. Director-General of the conservation organisation Dr David Singh, in an interview with this newspaper on Friday, said the funds Iwokrama has spent so far cover management and feasibility studies for the planned forest harvesting. He said most of the donor funding came through the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO). Dr Singh emphasised that Iwokrama was not embarking on the timber-harvesting venture because it wanted to survive. “We are expected to test models of sustainable forest utilisation. It so happens that financial survival became an important point of reference for us,” he said. But the Director-General acknowledged that without the new logging venture, Iwokrama would have a “bleak” future. He said the logging would substantially improve the financial sustainability of the organisation. As part of its governance structure, Iwokrama has committed to include the communities represented by the North Rupununi District Development Board (NRDDB) in the ownership of ITI through shares to the NRDDB. And Fairview Village, which occupies land within the Iwokrama Forest will have a special shareholding relationship with ITI commensurate to the portion of the Iwokrama Forest that will be used for sustainable utilisation. http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_local_news?id=44510787
Latin America:
23) The collaborative project entitled ‘Restoration of forest landscapes for biodiversity conservation and rural development in Latin America’ (ReForLan) will investigate the potential for the restoration of natural forests in the dry land areas of Chile, Argentina and Mexcio through a range of state-of-the-art techniques. “Dry forests are as important in supporting local communities in Central and South America as rain forests, perhaps even moreso,” says Dr Adrian Newton, Senior Lecturer with Bournemouth University’s Environmental and Geographical Sciences Group, who will head the project. “They are also amongst the most threatened forests in the world but they have largely been neglected by previous research. “We’ll be working with developing country partners to redress this balance by using our research to analyse how the restoration of degraded lands can be achieved in a way that will contribute to rural development, as well as biodiversity conservation. In recent years these forests have been highly degraded as a result of logging, fire and conversion to agriculture, but our belief is that it is not too late to reverse these processes and restore these forests to something like their former value. The challenge will be to find ways of doing this that support the economic development of the communities that live there.” The £1.2 million (1,720,000 Euro) grant from the European Commission’s INCO-DEV programme is one of the largest awards ever received by the University. The project will bring researchers from Bournemouth together with colleagues from organisations in Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Spain and Italy over the next three years. INCO-DEV is the research arm of the European Commission that supports research projects in developing countries. http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/environment_sciences/report-55139.html
Brazil:
24) President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has created two new national parks in the Amazon rain forest and expanded another to protect an environmentally sensitive region where the government plans a major highway project. The protected land lies in an area where President Silva declared a logging moratorium after the killing last year of Dorothy Stang, an American nun and environmental defender. Silva signed a decree placing 3.7 million acres of rain forest off limits for development. President Silva also created four national forests where sustainable logging will be permitted and an environmental protection zone where development is allowed under strict regulation. In total, the decree granted some form of environmental protection to 16 million acres – an area roughly twice the size of Massachusetts – on the western side of the so-far unpaved BR-163 highway. The highway, stretching from the midwestern city of Cuiaba to the jungle port of Santarem, cuts through the heart of the rain forest and environmentalists warn that paving it will open a swath of destruction across the world’s largest remaining tropical wilderness. The moratorium was decreed to give the government time to decide how to zone the area along the BR-163 highway before paving would begin. Soy farmers, who have been expanding rapidly into the Amazon in recent years, want the highway paved as a way to speed their shipments abroad. Environmentalists, however, estimate that each road cut into the rain forest causes destruction for 30 miles on each side within a few years as invaders arrive to cut trees. Monday’s decree brings the total area in the Amazon under some form of federal protection to 113 million acres, the environment ministry said. The Brazilian Amazon sprawls over 1.6 million square miles, the size of western Europe. http://www.forbes.com/business/healthcare/feeds/ap/2006/02/14/ap2526816.html
Pakistan:
25) ASADABAD, Feb 12 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The border guards in the eastern Kunar province said they had arrested 15 Pakistanis for illegally chopping and stealing trees in the Tani Kandaw area of the Sarkano district. Deputy of the third border brigade Lt Col Wazir Mohammad told Pajhwok Afghan News over the telephone they were informed by residents about illegal cutting of the forest. He said the arrested men were residents of Pakistan’s Bajawar agency, abutting the Kunar province. They had been handed over to border police for further investigations. Mohammad Arif, resident of the area, told this news agency they demanded of the government to stop illegal cutting of their forests by such miscreants. It is pertinent to recall that several people were arrested on charges of cutting trees a few months back. http://www.pajhwak.com/viewstory.asp?lng=eng&id=13298
26) ISLAMABAD: People in AJK are cutting down trees for wood to rebuild houses, Daily Times has learnt. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) has warned that deforestation poses immediate and long-term threats to the environment. In the immediate aftermath of the quake the IUCN had warned that if alternative energy sources and construction methods were not introduced, people would resort to cutting trees to rebuild houses and cook food. “Timber stored in the affected areas is being transported at an alarming rate for sale in markets in the lowlands,” said a report recently issued by the IUCN. The most dangerous landslides were reported in Allai Valley, Balakot, Muzaffarabad and Bagh, which also destroyed forest cover, the IUCN report said. Solid and liquid waste from the quake camps is also harmful to forests and wildlife, the report said. Conservationists demanded that the government make plans to save the remaining forest cover and wildlife along with the reconstruction and rehabilitation programmes. The regulatory capacity of the AJK government’s Forest Department has been badly compromised due to loss of human resources, office buildings and vehicles. More than 75 percent of the department’s staff was affected by the quake. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C02%5C16%5Cstory_16-2-2006_pg7_43
India:
27) New Delhi – Forest Ministers of all States and Union Territories will meet tomorrow for a daylong deliberation on various issues, including increase of forest and tree cover, and Forest Conservation Act, 1980. Minister for Environment and Forests, A. Raja will inaugurate this one-day conference, which will also be attended by Minister of State for Environment and Forests Namo Narain Meena. Issues relating to land availability, finance, tariff on import of timber, Multi Stakeholder Partnership (MSP) for inviting investment for the plantation on degraded land including degraded forest land, rationalisation of felling and transit regulations to promote trees growing on private lands, forest-tribal interface-conferring ownership of minor forest produce on forest dependent communities, lifting ban on the recruitment of front line staff, lateral movement of forest officers in other departments to overcome the stagnation, and protected areas to be covered under management plan, will be discussed. (ANI) http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=249595&cat=India
28) BANDWAN (Purulia), Feb. 16. — The dense forest cover in Purulia, Bankura and Midnapore is a hurdle in the path of tackling Maoists, and the administration is in a quandary as to whether to get rid of the “hurdle” or conserve the green. “Actually, the dense forest cover between West Bengal (Purulia, Bankura and Midnapore) and Jharkhand is a huge hurdle in the path of tackling Maoists,” admitted an official of West Bengal state police at Bandwan in Purulia district on Tuesday, on a visit to the area. As a result, the top brass of state police and district police are now mulling over a sensitive issue, because “felling trees is a legal offence”, informed an official of the district administration, adding: “We are soon going to discuss the matter.” An official of Purulia district Forest Department assured: “If the point is discussed, we will definitely take it up seriously.” It was learnt that armed Maoists escape easily by hiding in the dense forests, after executing their operations. “The legal point is tough; of felling trees officially,” added an official of Divisional Forest Department in Purulia district, “but it may be permitted on the grounds of law and order, through proper channels, if necessary.” Unable to apprehend Maoists implicated in the Kantadih police camp incident, even after night-long combing operations, Mr Rangaswami Siva Kumar, SP of Purulia lamented: “We are thinking on this vital point, but the decision will not be taken right now.” A forest department officla and policemen jointly predicted: “Trees need not be cut down mercilessly, the cover will only be thinned, so that we can watch movements of Maoists, like a watch tower.” http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=23&theme=&usrsess=1&id=107082
Indonesia:
29) Jakarta – Indonesian Forestry Minister MS Kaban has urged the European Union to seriously ban its member countries from accepting illegal logs from Indonesia. “According to our data, there are still several European countries accepting illegal logs from Indonesia,” Minister Kaban said after opening a workshop of the Illegal Logging Response Center here Wednesday. The minister emphasized the importance of the participation and responsibility of log importing countries to make sure that they know exactly the origins of logs entering their countries. Certification program of processed timber products should also clearly explain the origins of the logs, Kaban added. “All countries should help prevent the emergence of illegal log markets,” he said. Minister Kaban on the occasion disclosed that small quantities of illegal logs going to Singapore and Malaysia also went to India. Indonesia has been trying to preserve its forests despite the increasing overseas demands for timber products, he said. “We have carried out some investigations in several countries to trace back the origins of illegal logs from Indonesia,” the minister said. The Illegal Logging Response Center (ILRC) is a joint project between the Indonesian Government and several member countries of the European Union, which is aimed at preventing illegal logging activaties in Indonesian national parks. In the initial stage, the ILRC project has covered three national parks, respectively Bukit Barisan Selatan in Lampung and Bengkulu, Gunung Palung in West Kalimantan, and Tanjung Puting in Central Kalimantan. Indonesia loses Rp30 trillion (about US$2,8 billion) annually in revenues and taxes due to illegal logging activities. While, around 2.8 million hectares of the country s forest areas disappear every year. Up to the year 2006, Java Island has lost around 18 percent of its total forest areas, while Sumatra has lost some 37 percent. http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/index.php?id=8925
Japan:
30) Dear Premier Campbell, The World Temperate Rainforest Network (WTRN) links environmental organizations, scientists and First Nations in the temperate rainforest regions of the world -British Columbia, Alaska, the Pacific Northwest of the U.S., Chile, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. Temperate rainforests are globally rare, less than .2% of the Earth’s land mass, and are biologically rich, with giant trees hundreds of feet tall and up to one or two thousand years old or, in the case of the Alerce in Chile, 4000 years old. Local communities depend on these forests and need for these forests to be there for future generations. It is now widely acknowledged that the world’s forests are in a state of crisis. Only twenty percent of the world’s ancient forests remain in large tracts today, and 76 countries have already lost all of their original forest cover. Entire ecosystems are threatened. One such ecosystem is the temperate rainforest, identified by the World Resources Institute as the most endangered forest type on the planet. The ancient temperate rainforests of British Columbia, Alaska, Tasmania, the Pacific Northwest of the U.S., Southern Chile and Argentina, have taken thousands of years to evolve and are being logged at an alarming rate. We are very concerned about the future of temperate rainforests on Vancouver Island. Only 25% of the original ancient forests remain. The other 75% have been converted to clearcuts, tree-plantations, agriculture, and urban settlements. Of 89 primary valleys over 5000 hectares on Vancouver Island, only five remain unroaded and unlogged. Endangered ancient forests like the Upper Walbran Valley, East Creek Rainforest, Clayoquot Sound, Nahmint Valley, Klanawa Valley, Nootka Trail, Upper Tsitika Valley, and Nawitti Lowlands are being logged by Interfor, Brascan, Teal-Jones, and Western Forest Products. Only 5% of the East Side of Vancouver Island between Victoria and Campbell River remains as Crown (public) lands. The other 95% is privately owned. These Crown lands are being rapidly sold off by the Government. You have allowed the export of over 14 million cubic metres of raw logs to foreign mills. This amounts to a loss of almost 14 000 BC milling jobs over a 4 year period. We call on you to: 1) Expand Vancouver Island’s protected areas system beyond 13% of the Island’s land base or 6% of its low elevation forests, as is currently protected. 2) Ban raw log exports. 3) Establish regional log markets to make wood available to value-added manufacturers. 4) Expand Community 5) Forests and Woodlot Licenses to provide greater local employment for rural communities. 6) Restore public service employment levels in the Ministry of Forests, Ministry of Environment, and Ministry of Agriculture and Lands which have been severely cut over the past several years. http://www1.mesh.ne.jp/~apec-ngo
China:
31) HARBIN, Feb. 16 (Xinhuanet) — Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province will speed up its forestation program over the next five years with the goal of having the province 47 percent covered by forest by 2010. An official with the provincial forestry bureau said Heilongjiang will expand its forest belt toward the western part of the province, which has been hit by desertification and drought. It also plans to plant trees and vegetation in the barren hills and fields in the north and east Heilongjiang, the official said. The province will increase the subsidy paid to those who plant shelter forest. Currently, Heilongjiang has nearly 200,000 square kilometers of forest covering 42.9 percent of its land mass, the highest rate in China’s. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-02/16/content_4186712.htm
New Zealand:
32) The Nelson Forests Joint Venture today announced its intent to sell its New Zealand assets. The assets are jointly owned by Nelson Forest Products Company, a subsidiary of Weyerhaeuser Company, and RII New Zealand Forests I, Inc., a timber investment fund advised by Global Forest Partners LP. The operations of the Joint Venture are managed by Weyerhaeuser New Zealand, Inc. The assets include approximately 67,000 productive hectares of plantation forests in the Nelson/Marlborough region and the Kaituna sawmill at Renwick, which has a log input capacity on a single shift of 80,000 cubic meters annually. “New Zealand is an important component of a diversified international timberland investment portfolio,” said Michael Edgar, Director of Asia Pacific Investments, Global Forest Partners LP. “The decision by the specific investor clients of GFP in the Nelson Forests Joint Venture to realize the value of their investment after a holding period of over 14 years does not represent a change by GFP in its view of New Zealand as an attractive forestry investment location. In fact, the vast majority of our global funds and separate accounts include at least one New Zealand investment within their portfolio.” http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=mergersNews
Australia:
33) PROTESTERS opposed to logging in forests south of Hobart braved cool temperatures yesterday to send a stripped-down message. About 20 members of the Camp Weld group cast off their clothes to spell out with their bodies their organization’s internet address
34) The Superb Parrot species is listed as ‘vulnerable’ by the Department of Sustainability and Environment. The only known Victorian population exists in a narrow strip of land in the Murray Valley between Yarrawonga and Echuca, including the Barmah area, in box species and some red gums. It was recently revealed in an Environmental Protection Agency Special Forest Audit that four logging incidents in Victoria forests – including one in Barmah Forest – might have damaged Superb Parrot habitat. Locations within the forest sensitive to the Superb Parrot were to be kept secret from the public, but they were also kept secret from DSE forest planners and managers, resulting in permission being given to fell trees in those areas. DSE Regional Director for the North East, Kevin Ritchie, says that the Department has made changes to the way it works in the wake of the incidents. “When the incident occurred, we clearly identified – and it’s been supported through the EPA investigation – that basically our system that we were trying to use to protect the Superb Parrot from other people finding out location information wasn’t sufficient for effective management. “Immediately, we’ve changed the system, and we’re including now the special protection zones within our computerised coup information system, but within a special layer, so that it’s only accessible to departmental staff in the planning of them, but not accessible to the general public, which was our key issue to start with…whatever happens, we want to make sure that nesting trees are kept confidential, so they’re not general access. But now, the system does make sure that they’re up front [for departmental staff], they come up in lights, people are well aware of them, and they’re built into the process from the beginning.” http://www.abc.net.au/centralvic/stories/s1569617.htm?backyard
Where can I find info on Argentine forests?
My name is Chris and I work at Help.com. One of our members posted a question and after reading your blog, I thought you might be able to provide a quick expert answer to this question about forest:
“Where is it possible to find a chart or graph that describes existing forest cover in Argentina?”
http://babigurl0315.blogs.help.com/post/3/chart-or-graph-of-forests-in-argentina
Thanks!