085OEC’s This Week in Trees:

This Week we have 37 news items from: British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Wyoming, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Florida, Maine, USA, Canada, European Union, Cameroon, Tanzania, Malawi, Liberia, Kenya, Chile, Fiji, Thailand, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, and Australia.

British Columbia:

1) Although spotted owls have been the focus of a recovery effort for several years, their numbers have declined so dramatically that soon there won’t be any left north of the U.S. border. Finding one of these rare birds isn’t easy. But an owl search team, sent out 24 hours in advance, managed to locate one in rugged mountains between Pemberton and Lillooet. They walked logging roads, hooting until they got a reply, then scrambled through the woods at night with headlamps until they found it. Camping on a mountain logging road in subzero temperatures, the owl searchers got up before dawn, tracked the owl on its morning hunt and now are watching its every move. “If it flies, they will follow,” Mr. Miller said of the search team. “But it should sit where it is all day. They don’t like to move in bright sunlight.” Spotted owls, a highly specialized species that lives only in old-growth forests, are the most endangered birds in Canada. Although there are several thousand in the United States, only 22 are known to exist north of the border — all of them are found in the southwestern B.C. mainland, the northern limit of their range. In 33,000 square kilometres of habitat between Hope and Lillooet (including all of the Fraser Valley) and from Vancouver to just beyond Whistler, there are less than two dozen birds left: six mated pairs and 10 singles. Given such sparse numbers, in such a vast terrain, it is almost impossible for anyone but an expert to find a spotted owl in British Columbia. Mr. Miller, a former member of the provincial government’s Spotted Owl Recovery Team (until he quit a few years ago to protest against a lack of progress) helped map their range and knows where to look. “Finding out exactly where a spotted owl is [can be] extremely difficult. Government biologists know, but they treat it like it’s super-secret information,” said Mr. Miller, who agreed to take the news media to a spotted-owl site because he feels increasingly desperate about the future of the species. Habitat fragmentation by logging is the No. 1 problem for spotted owls in both countries. “Saving the birds in Canada is going to take a miracle,” added Mr. Miller, who fears that the provincial government, which is close to announcing its owl-recovery plans, will doom the birds to extinction unless there is a public outcry. http://www.helenair.com/articles/2006/04/14/national/a08041406_01.txt

2) The destruction of water, wildlife, and endangered plant communities is totally unacceptable and must be stopped. It may be time to research who their investors and customers are and make them aware of what is going on here on Vancouver Island. At the link below is some pictures taken Tuesday during a trip to Bamfield. They have driven wedges into the Huu ay aht community, defied the fisheries biologist and wishes of the local community. The Registered Professional Forester who signed off on this travesty should have his professional credentials reviewed. Brascan is being very aggressive in its dealings with what’s left of the Old Growth that has been set aside by previous operations for deer winter range,… and because the biologists have recognised that these forests have become so rare they are endangered. This includes the pockets of old Growth like that which is outside of Park designation in Cathedral Grove. The destruction of drinking water and salmon habitat is causing outrage and blockades even amongst the logging community in Port Alberni. For some pictures go to: http://seatosea.ca/pachenalogging/

3) Everyone is encouraged to come out to our “Taking Back the Bluffs Celebration. Make your own Inukshuk…an Inuit symbol marking a place of respect that tradition forbids the destruction of. We have great speakers lined up and lots of information to impart. Immediately after our celebration we will begin our “tent city” occupation of the bluffs. We will remain there until the provincial government stops the devastation and engages in serious discussion about alternative routes. The occupation will continue as long as it takes, and we need volunteers to “occupy” the tent city on a rotating basis. We also need a “support” crew, who will act as “observers” , photographers, sign bearers, caterers of water/food for occupants, etc. http://www.eagleridgebluffs.ca/

Washington:

4) The LooWit Group of the Sierra Club has worked for years with U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., and has complimented him for his consistent support of environmental issues. His records for 2004 and 2005 indicate that he was 100 percent in favor of issues supported by the Sierra Club. The LooWit Group has never attacked Baird. We oppose, however, his support of legislation that will be damage our national forests, legislation that will take away the public’s voice in deciding the fate of old-growth forests. We believe Baird has made a mistake by co-sponsoring HR 4200 with U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore. The legislation allows the secretaries of Interior and Agriculture to generate plans that would result in immediate harvest of timber without meaningful public scrutiny after a forest fire or other naturally occurring event. HR 4200 was not shared with key constituents before it was first published in early November 2005. Our group attempted to engage Congressman Baird in improving HR 4200, but it has passed out of the House Resources and Agricultural Committees with little change. http://www.columbian.com/opinion/news/04142006news20306.cfm

Oregon:

5) The Roseburg BLM is proposing to clearcut 585 acres of mature and old growth forests, leaving as few as 6 trees per acre, in the South Myrtle Creek watershed, between Roseburg and Canyonville. The BLM is asking you for your opinion on what alternatives they should include in their environmental analysis. The BLM is required to consider alternatives to their proposed action. If enough people write to the BLM and ask them to consider another alternative, they must do it. We want the BLM to consider an alternative that thins instead of a “regeneration harvest” (a clearcut with 6 trees per acre left). There are at least 8 pairs of northern spotted owls that use these forests for foraging. Logging will occur so close to some owl nests that the BLM thinks there could be an “incidental take” of 5 pairs of owls. “Incidental take” means these owls might die, not because they will be directly killed, but they because their grocery store, food source on 585 acres, will be eliminated. The BLM claims that the spotted owls that live in these old forests should live in the reserves set aside for them (Late Successional Reserves, LSR). But about half of these reserves were clearcut before they were set aside, and will take another hundred years or more before owls can begin to live there. There is also countless other wildlife that could be harmed, including salmon in Myrtle Creek. Salmon are harmed because the proposed clearcuts are in area that receives winter snow. The quicker they hear from you, the easier it is for them to consider your comments in the Environmental Assessment. Ask the BLM to consider an alternative that only thins trees in the managed plantations (old clearcuts) of South Myrtle Creek, instead of converting more old growth forests to new tree plantations. There are thousands of acres of plantations in the Myrtle Creek watershed that need to be thinned. Most of our local mills have modernized so the smaller logs are all they can mill anyway. Ask the BLM to consider an alternative that does no more “regeneration harvest” until the reserves set aside for the spotted owls have “recovered” (We really don’t know how long, if ever, it takes an old clearcut to recover). Email: — or100MB@or.blm.gov —, Subject: “South Myrtle Creek Regeneration Harvest Plan”. Attention William Haigh. If you give the BLM your name and street address, your comments will be taken more seriously. Or FAX: 541 440-4948. Voice: 440-4930 http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/04/337547.shtml

6) The faculty and students can be crudely divided into two major camps: those who primarily concern themselves with forests as profit generators and those who view them as ecosystems. That’s not to say that engineers who design logging roads know nothing of hydrology, or that tree breeders don’t understand wildlife ecology. But CoF students and faculty in their respective departments research the questions asked by their funding sources. And that makes all the difference.”There has always been this tension between the pure scientists and the applied technicians at the College of Forestry,” said 1979 CoF alumnus Andy Stahl, now the director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics. There seems to be consensus on one thing: The Biscuit Fire is red meat for researchers. According to Salwasser’s recent budget report, the CoF will have to make $4 million in cuts over the next two years unless it can bring in new revenue. Biscuit is one big charred piggybank, and the CoF, as the nearest forestry college, has already received hefty federal grants for ecosystem research as well as amped-up private contracts from timber interests. In the 2004 fiscal year, 61 percent of the college’s research funding came from federal grants and contracts, 15 percent from the state’s timber harvest tax, 5 percent from private gifts and most of the rest from state and federal general funds. So it makes practical sense that Salwasser, as steward of the college’s future, proposed making all of the Biscuit area a management experiment — with his faculty and students on the receiving end of federal research funds. But if for the past several decades the CoF has maintained a precarious equilibrium between its ecosystem- and profit-focused scholars, the Battle of Biscuit represents a tipping point in the future of forestry education. In the longer term, the winning perspective on post-fire logging may emerge in the pages of journals such as Science. If history is any example, paradigm shifts begin with scientists and scholars, then trickle down through their students. Then the tide of public understanding changes, and that shift is reflected in the halls of Congress. http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2006/04/13/coverstory.html

California:

7) A Timber Harvest Plan in Boulder Creek (called The Pond THP), including lands owned by the Boy Scouts, has been accepted for filing and a PHI date is currently being chosen. The Cemex/RMC THP (1-05-187 SCR) is still under review. California Department of Forestry will be asking that an Erosion Control Plan be submitted as part of the plan for all the timberland belonging to Cemex in the San Vicente Creek watershed. Department of Fish and Game’s Pre-Harvest Inspection comments were extensive (28 pages). DFG noted that “numerous deficiencies in the THP relating to watercourse and wet area identification, watercourse classification, identification of suitable marbled murrelet habitat, and application of the Forest Practice Rules” were noted by review team participants during the initial PHI November 28, 2005. An additional PHI was held January 26, 2006 during which “the review team again noted numerous deficiencies in the THP and revised materials including watercourse and wet area identification, application of the Forest Practice Rules, and an undisclosed archaeological site.” The THP is principally within the San Vicente Creek watershed which supports steelhead and coho and is the sole watersupply for the town of Davenport. DFG also noted, ” observations of road rutting by pick-up vehicles during the PHI provide clear evidence of likely impacts associated with winter period and wet weather road use. DFG recommends that the winter operation plan prohibit the use of pick-up trucks or heavy equipment following two inches of cumulative rainfall and between April 16 and May 1.” The Davenport Sanitation District has asked that winter operations be prohibited. Los Gatos residents are still waiting for the next submission of the San Jose Water Company NTMP (SJWC) along 6 miles of Los Gatos Creek. SJWC has indicated the plan would be submitted by Mid-April. While most second review team meetings will now be taking place in Felton, CDF said today that the SJWC and the SDSF plans will still be chaired by Santa Rosa CDF Forest Practice Officers out of the Santa Rosa office. A phone conference line will be set up in the Felton office. http://www.crfm.org/update.archive.html

8) The ruling by Judge Joseph C. Spero orders the Six Rivers National Forest to prepare an environmental impact statement or environmental assessment for its Fire Management Plan, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. It gives the agency 26 months to comply. “The Forest Service’s long struggle to keep fire planning hidden from the public tells us there’s something they don’t want us to know,” said Scott Greacen, Public Lands Coordinator with the Humboldt County-based Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC). “We’re hoping the Forest Service will take the court’s very clear order to heart and join all the other federal agencies that comply with NEPA when they write fire plans. By getting the facts and the choices out on the table, we believe we will find ways to achieve more effective fire protection for communities and forests, at less cost to the environment and to the taxpayer.” A firefighters group also expressed strong support for the decision. “This is a huge opportunity for both the Forest Service and the public they serve,” said Timothy Ingalsbee, Executive Director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology (FUSEE). “Across the west, we’re spending tens of millions of dollars every year on huge efforts to put fires out,” EPIC’s Greacen said. “But the Smokey Bear policy of treating all fires alike has caused significant harm to forest ecosystems, leading ultimately to bigger, hotter, and more destructive fires. We need to invest a small part of those resources up front to protect communities and create conditions in which fire can safely return to its essential role in maintaining ecosystem health.” The case, the first such challenge to the Forest Service’s systematic refusal to analyze and disclose the potential impacts of its fire management policies, was filed in June 2002 by EPIC and the American Lands Alliance. In September 2003, the court ruled that the agency had violated the law, and gave the Forest Service 18 months to comply. Rather than do so, the Six Rivers NF wrote a whole new fire plan, which deleted all of the elements the court had pointed to as examples of decisions that trigger NEPA review. But the court concluded the new fire plan is as subject to NEPA as ever. http://www.wildcalifornia.org/pressreleases/number-77

9) During the thinning project, foresters hope to mold 778 acres of the forest back into the natural state it held before fires and logging altered growth patterns. Forest officials characterize that as a thinner conifer forest that allows healthy aspen stands to develop along the creek banks. “The conifers crowd in and shade in the aspens,” said Teri Banka, the Sierraville-based project manager for the Forest Service. “In a lot of areas [the aspens] are in danger of not regenerating.” The federal agency is considering several unique tree removal methods — including over-the-snow harvesting, helicopter logging and a cable skyline system — to eliminate soil disturbance while thinning the forest, Banka said. Each method would remove timber without skidding the logs across the soil, and will be used extensively around Alder and Prosser creeks. “We are trying to design to project so it would not affect water quality,” said Banka. The project proposes eliminating only the trees that are 30 inches in diameter or smaller at breast height, according to Forest Service documents. The federal agency is accepting comments on the thinning proposal until April 17. Cutting may begin as early as this fall, Banka said. “This is a unique project because of the sensitive area,” Banka said. Previous logging between 1999 and 2001 avoided the creek, leaving the area overcrowded and unhealthy, she said. And the area still shows the effects of the devastating 1960 Donner Ridge Fire that incinerated the forest. The project also proposes controlled burning along Alder Creek Road, and thinning or controlled burning in the forest understory, using a mosaic pattern that will reduce vegetation while preserving habitat that supports a goshawk population. “There is a high risk of fire starts along the road,” Banka said. She said the project, which will be contracted out to a timber company, is intended to improve water quality by enhancing the natural vegetation around Alder Creek. The agency is expected to pay a timber contractor for the work, but will subsidize the project by selling the harvested timber. http://www.sierrasun.com/article/20060414/NEWS/60414007

Colorado:

10) FRISCO — Residents seem resigned to the inevitability of Frisco’s plan to remove nearly three-quarters of the trees standing in the town portion of the Peninsula Recreation Area over the next three years. As a result of efforts to deal with pine beetle infestation and other tree disease, Nordic skiers, disc golf players and nearby residents will be unavoidably affected by clearance of the majority of the area’s shade. “We’re concerned that more sun exposure will burn more snow,” avid Nordic skier Hans Wurster said. “But I don’t see that we’ve got much choice. You can’t argue with cutting them down.” Wurster went on to say that as much as he’ll miss the trees, he’ll manage without them. http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20060413/NEWS/60413005

Minnesota:

11) Superior National Forest officials are proposing logging 12,800 acres of national forest land in a broad area near the Echo Trail west of Ely, Minn. The proposal, revealed earlier this week, would allow the logging on 10 percent of a 126,000-acre stretch of national forest land, some in areas popular among tourists. There are an additional 77,000 acres of state, county and private land in the area not a part of the proposal. The plan is the largest so far under the forest’s new long-term strategy and includes one of the highest-profile areas of the Superior National Forest. The area surrounds the southern Trout Lake unit of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and includes popular tourist areas around Lake Vermilion. “People around here pay attention to what happens in this forest. When you throw in the proximity to the Boundary Waters of this project and include some of the high-profile roadless areas, there’s even more interest,” said Nancy Larson, La Croix District ranger. The plan also includes logging in roadless areas that conservation groups have sought to protect. The overall management goal for logging in the area is to transition to a younger forest, including by increasing red and white pine, said Kris Reichenbach, forest spokeswoman. The Echo Trail plan includes the controversial Big Grass management area. Last year, a federal judge halted logging plans in that area and ordered the Forest Service to take a harder look at cumulative effects of logging across the region. The court also said the Forest Service must take a closer look at how logging along the Echo Trail might affect the aesthetic quality of the area for tourists and others who enjoy recreation there. Superior Forest officials included the cumulative effects assessment in the new Echo Trail management plan and now hope the court finds the review acceptable. Joshua Davis, conservation organizer for the Sierra Club in Minnesota, one of the groups that challenged the Big Grass sale, said it’s too soon to say whether the Echo Trail plan follows the judge’s orders. http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/14338492.htm

Wyoming:

12) “We’re there. The timber’s dying. We should be growing new trees right now,” said Bill Petersmann, a forester with Bighorn Logging. Logging is a tool the forest service can use to fight beetle infestations, Petersmann said. In particular, clearcut logging of lodgepole pine should be practiced to halt the spread of the beetle and promote the growth of new timber, he said. Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest supervisor Mary Peterson noted that timber left unlogged could still be beneficial even if it’s killed by beetles. The dead wood can help regenerate the soil and provide habitat for animals, she said. Brush Creek-Hayden district ranger Scott Armentrout suggested that the timber industry better express its concerns during the environmental assessment process of proposed timber sales. Environmentalists and off-road enthusiasts are usually the only people who comment on the proposals, he said. Another concern addressed at Thursday’s meeting was the use of so-called “stewardship contracts.” These are contracts that include an element of service work — such as thinning trees around residential areas, rebuilding roads, restoring watersheds and protecting areas from disease and insects — as well as timber removal. By completing the service work, the logging contractor earns credits toward the purchase of timber. Stewardship contracts are a method for the forest service to complete such projects without needing extra funding. Another concern was about slash — the branches and other woody debris left over after an area is logged. Forest Service scientists are concerned that the debris is sometimes piled too high in concentrated area so that it prevents the vegetation underneath from growing, Myers said.Spreading out the slash would promote healthier timber regeneration, soil and wildlife habitat, Myers said.The loggers said that spreading out the slash is not economically feasible with the machinery they use. Furthermore, they argued that even though vegetation beneath the slash piles may not grow immediately, after several years it is quite prolific. http://www.laramieboomerang.com/news/more.asp?StoryID=104934

Wisconsin:

13) The crew includes Community Forestry Resource Center Program Director Don Arnosti, who managed the operation; low-impact logger and horse whisperer Tim Carroll; his team of draft horses and his partner Todd Eggler; forester Jedd Ungrodt; and several furniture makers. Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) helps landowners figure out an FMP that meets their objectives, along with best practices for implementing the plan. An FMP might include the goal of cleaning out one species or generating more of another or creating habitat for certain species of wildlife. Information on many types of FMPs and how they can be implemented can be found at the DNR’s Web site: http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/forestry/Publications/Guidelines/PDF/chapter15.pdf.Although they’ll do it with more land in the future, Erickson and McNaughton began with six acres and focused on white oak regeneration. Logger Carroll said, “We’re taking out cherry and box elder, and part of the point is to not damage any oaks in the process.” Carroll’s equine-powered logging operation saves seedling and other small trees and doesn’t damage the ground. His team, Sugar and Travis, weigh much less than the 20,000-pound skid loaders traditionally used for logging work.He said the horses naturally avoid trampling over objects in the woods, minimizing damage. Erickson said, “It’s a new paradigm,” pointing out that local businesses are getting squeezed and that this kind of operation enables product to be harvested and used locally. He and the forestry management team agree that a traditional logging system might use many out-of-country resources, right down to Japanese-made equipment. Carroll said 80 cents of every dollar (spent on this operation) goes back into local people’s pocket and that this kind of logging process could replace large, corporate operations. “They could spend less on fuel and put more in their pockets,” he said. In this case, the foresters and logging team make a living, the landowners sustain the land and make a little profit from the wood sold and furniture makers get better wood than what’s available at market – getting to pick it right off the forest floor. http://www.riverfallsjournal.com/articles/index.cfm?id=221&section=homepage

Florida:

14) Now director of environmental initiatives and professor of biology and environmental studies at New College of Florida in Sarasota, Lowman began tropical tree studies in 1978 in Australia working on her doctorate in biology. ”I started climbing rain forest trees because I was curious about what lived at the top.” She completed her degree, married a sheep farmer, ran a bed and breakfast, gave birth to two sons, and still tried to analyze statistical data from her research, focusing on how much of the canopy is eaten by insects. But in 1989, invited to be a visiting professor at Williams College in Massachusetts, she took a step back from her life and realized the ways of the Outback did not mix with the needs of a woman scientist. She divorced and returned to the States with her children in 1990 when the boys were 3 and 5. While teaching, she formed a canopy walkway construction company and has built walkways through trees in Samoa, Costa Rica, Belize, Peru, Massachusetts and Florida. She was filmed by National Geographic when she and other researchers used a hot air balloon to study trees in Africa and French Guiana. She served as director of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, learning the hard way about the politics of nonprofit institutions when she was forced out. After the purloined Peruvian orchid showed up and was identified and named by Selby’s orchid staff, federal prosecutors slapped the garden with a fine and house arrest. The orchid staff remained but Lowman (attending a rowing competition in Ohio when the flower was at the garden) was pushed out. Because there was not a dad in the picture, Lowman had to be a role model for her kids ”every minute.” Sometimes that left her with a lump in her throat — as on dad’s day at school — but more often than not, it meant the boys did their science experiments in the shadows of renowned ecologists from around the world, held their own at dinner conversations in field stations, learned to use blowguns in the Amazon. ”To many Americans, the Amazon rain forest is about as far away as the moon,” James wrote. ”I have been there twice and had a wonderful time on both occasions.” James noticed another difference between North America and Peru: ”In some American cities, it is hard to trust people and find kindness, but in the jungle everyone is kind and generous.” http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/14340670.htm

Maine:

15) Next week my boutique business begins at the cabin site: felling trees and selling wood. Yes, Your Scribe has determined it’s time to take down some timber and market the lumber. I will be meeting with a woodsman, er, wood-products professional, and we will choose which trees to bring down. He will take them down, of course. My goal is to split the bounty to pay for improvements around the cabin. The prospect of selling lumber from the land is probably a rationalization for all the money that has done into the place in the past few years. Actually, the dream of making money from the wild reminds me of an earlier day, when I was determined to scuba-dive for scallops. This was before Maine waters were overfished of the tasty, if vulnerable, sea creature. So I took a scuba course at the Portland YMCA, and was ready for the ocean by spring. (An aside: Maine water is almost opaque. For weeks I’d heard of all the sealife to be seen, but once under the waves, it is difficult to see more than 10 feet in front of you). I never did bring up anything from the bottom.But I nearly drowned off Cape Elizabeth. Looking back, my goal to gather scallops to pay for my scuba course and gear wasn’t very realistic. It was more of an excuse to plunge into an activity that sounded like fun. I hope that my hiring a woodsman isn’t another exercise in self-delusion. http://outdoors.mainetoday.com/cabincountry/005520.html

USA:

16) For industrial and family forest owners alike, the landscape began shifting in the mid-1980s. Driven by a combination of market forces and tax laws, timber companies started selling their lands. After decades of managing immense forest tracts to produce pulp and sawlogs for the mills they owned and operated, corporations like Crown Zellerbach and Diamond Occidental began divesting them at a pace that has accelerated to nothing short of dizzying. International Paper, which sold all its Maine holdings last year, recently announced plans that include selling its entire remaining timberlands, according to the Forestry Source newspaper. More than half the nation’s 68 million acres of private industrial timberland has changed hands since 1995, says Tom Tuchmann of US Forest Capital, LLC. Most of those sales were in the last five years. “It’s clear that all industrial timberland is for sale or has sold,” says Bill Ginn, director of The Nature Conservancy’s Global Forest Initiative. The new owners are not rival companies. Most are timber investment management organizations, financial organizations that didn’t exist 20 years ago. These so-called TIMOs invest money for institutional clients and wealthy individuals seeking to diversify their portfolios. With average annual returns on timber investments outpacing the stock market, even academic institutions have jumped on the bandwagon. Harvard, Yale, and other ivy-covered universities are buying up forests along with pension funds, insurance companies, and charitable trusts. The University of Minnesota has $18 million of its $770 million endowment in timber, the Wall Street Journal reported in November. In 1990 there were two or three TIMOs in the United States, according to Peter Stein, a manager with Lyme Timber Company, a TIMO in New Hampshire. Today there are 24 TIMOs managing timberlands valued at $15.7 billion. The Forestry Source newspaper lists Hancock Timber Resources Group, a subsidiary of Manulife Financial Corporation, as the largest, with more than 3.2 million acres of forests valued at $2.9 billion. Financial investors manage $30 billion of American forestland, according to Hancock America’s mom and pop forest owners are also aging. Half are at least 55 years old, according to a study by the National Commission on Science for Sustainable Forestry. When their land changes hands, through inheritance or sales, it follows a trend that mirrors the timber industry and goes into the hands of multiple owners. By 2020, the study predicts, the number of private timberland owners will expand from today’s 9.9 million to 12 million. officials. http://www.americanforests.org/productsandpubs/magazine/archives/2006winter/feature2_1.php

17) The strongest financial support for conservation projects comes directly from the American voters, who in 2003 approved 75 percent of the conservation measures on state and local ballots. That made $1.8 billion available to create parks and preserve natural farmlands and forests, says Ernest Cook, with the Trust for Public Land in Boston. The total rose to $4.1 billion in 2004. Three of every four dollars spent for conservation comes from voter-approved ballot measures, a clear public mandate for resource protection. Whether this public will is strong enough to offset a future of forest fragmentation remains to be seen. The worst may be ahead. As TIMO investments reach their 10- to 15-year appreciation limits, most observers forecast heavy sales as financial managers try to maximize their returns. The most obvious and lucrative profits are from sales of smaller pieces to the retail housing market, according to the Forestry Source. With development gobbling up America’s timberlands at a rate of two acres a minute, even the most well-funded landowner incentives and aggressive conservation programs may not be enough to keep timberlands as working forests. What’s needed is a combination of revenue incentives and regulatory controls, says Hal Salwasser, dean of the college of forestry at Oregon State University. As long as small forest owners are required to pay more for permits to harvest their timber than the income they earn, development will trump conservation, he says: “If we lose forestland for another use we don’t need to talk about sustainable forests anymore,” Salwasser adds. “They’re gone.” http://www.americanforests.org/productsandpubs/magazine/archives/2006winter/feature2_1.php

Canada:

18) Tally this all up and you have three broken environmental promises and one gigantic diamond mine, which is more than just an about-face, it seems to initiate a major shift in Ontario. This shift could put the province’s boreal forest on the path to becoming the next miserable industrial frontier. It is a shift that recently caused a number of First Nations bands to declare their own moratorium on mining exploration, forestry and resource development in the northern boreal forest, and led the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (formerly the Big Trout Lake Band) to blockade a mining company. This magnificent web of lakes and stretch of clean forest supports abundant wildlife, thousands of migratory birds, healthy fisheries and clean and plentiful water. It harbours moose, lynx, wolves, eagles, hawks and owls. The region is home to traditional First Nations communities, many reachable only by winter road. While almost half of Ontario’s boreal forest has already been roaded, cut and developed, the remaining 54 per cent is mostly unallocated forest; land that hasn’t been leased and licensed out, forest that can be retained for our children, planned and treated responsibly. Ontario has a tremendous opportunity to do things differently – to ensure environmentally sensitive regions are protected, to stop logging with a blindfold on, to stop the destruction that is already under way. http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0413-wcs.html
North America:

19) Montreal – On April 18th at 11 am EDT, ForestLeadership will host the first session in a new year-round series of weekly teleseminars for leaders and decision makers in the forest sector. The session will be the first in a segment of four teleseminars covering one of the most current and critical challenges faced by the forest sector in North America and around the world: the identification and protection of high conservation value, exceptional conservation value and endangered forests. A number of initiatives have indeed emerged in recent years towards the broad goal of protecting high / exceptional conservation value forests. Several environmental groups are backing the concept of endangered forests and advocating their protection in areas as varied as the Cumberland Plateau, the Pacific Northwest and the Boreal, and are urging customers of forest products to do business only with corporations aiming to protect endangered forests. The April 18th session will feature as speaker Tzeporah Berman, Program Director at ForestEthics, a prominent environmental organization engaged in promoting the protection of endangered forests. The organization is also well known for its paper campaign, which has targeted office supplies retailers and more recently the catalogue industry, to change the way paper is made and consumed in North America. Three other prominent speakers: Tony Iacobelli, Senior Manager, Landscape Conservation & Planning, WWF-Canada (April 25th); Dennis Grossman, Vice President for Science, NatureServe (May 2nd); and Sharon Haines, Director of Sustainable Forestry & Forest Policy, International Paper (May 9th). This segment of four teleseminars will benefit not only sustainable forest management practitioners and policy makers, but also customers implementing responsible forest products purchasing policies.http://forestnewswire.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=54&Itemid=2

European Union:

20 ) Jakarta – The European Union (EU) wishes to hold negotiations on the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VP) to fight illegal logging as soon as possible with the main wood producing countries like Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Indonesia and Malaysia. The EU plans to hold negotiations with over 20 wood producing countries in Asia and Africa up to 2010, Dr.Hadi Daryanto of the Forestry Ministry said here recently at a workshop on Law Enforcement, Management and Trade in Forestry Sector. The VPA is a bilateral voluntary agreement between wood producing countries and the EU to combat illegal logging and the trade of illegal wood all over the world, including log thefts in Indonesian forests. This voluntary agreement offers an approach to the negotiation and formulation of a mechanism for verifying wood legality so as to ensure that wood/wood products supplied to the European Union are equipped with permits issued by the VPA member countries. The European Union will refuse to receive unidentified wood/wood products, which may be illegally obtained by the suppliers, In the first stage, this scheme will be made effective for the supply of logs, sawn timber, plywood and veneer, according to Daryanto. Secretary General of the Forestry Ministry Boen Purnama disclosed, meanwhile, that Indonesia has no longer exported logs, but sells logs which have been locally processed into wood products. Most of Indonesian supply of wood products like plywood, veneer, lumber, particleboard, pulp and paper goes to Japan, and the rest enters Europe, the United States and the Middle East.
http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=11279

Cameroon:

21) Governments in Central Africa, trying to protect large tracts of their valuable rainforests, are starting to realise the need for an involvement of local communities as a key to curb illegal logging in the region. In Cameroon, authorities have tried with progressive legislation, security measures and conservation plans, but forests continue to shrink. Projects that involve local communities now show the way forward. It has been almost twenty years since Cameroon reformed its policies and laws towards forests. Despite the country’s emphasis on promoting good governance, participatory management and the contribution of forests to improving livelihoods of local peoples, results have been disappointing and illegal logging is still on the rise. Insufficient funds, inadequate human resources and natural resource conflicts have been identified as some of the main barriers by countries since the first African Ministerial Conference on African Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (AFLEG), which was held in Yaoundé, Cameroon in 2003. The conference was intended to create the political space necessary for the promotion of good forest governance and law enforcement through the participation of all relevant actors, including local communities. The IUCN since then has been working with the Cameroonian government to strengthen local communities’ capacities in order to better implement the country’s national strategy which evolved from the Regional AFLEG Ministerial Declaration. Some examples include: acting as a baseline control, increased knowledge to boost pressure on forestry actors practicing illegal logging and a method for building the capacity of local populations in defending their rights and interests in forest management.” Since 2003, the IUCN and its local partners worked with a range of stakeholders to develop national and sub-regional implementation strategies. The environmentalists say that they have tried “to carry the debate away from conferences and workshops to the implementation of concrete and priority field activities,” which not had been easy. “Throughout the AFLEG process, it became clear that local communities felt ignored in the fight against illegal logging, poaching and trade. Indeed these people are the ones who are in closest contact with forest resources as well as with forest exploiters,” IUCN holds. “Moreover, local communities are always present in the field and are thus in a good position to control their peers,” the group adds. http://www.afrol.com/articles/18859

Tanzania:

22) Addressing a rally at the village after planting 550 trees near Mng’aru prison in Kibiti Ward in the region, Dr Ishengoma said Coast Region was among the regions which had bad history of rampant forest products harvest and this has been enhanced due to the availability of the market ? the city of Dar es Salaam. She disclosed that there were also reports that the products, especially charcoal are illegally exported to foreign countries in large quantities by greedy dealers who have no any interest of the regional development except leaving it semi desert. Said she: ’’It is high time now for those who rely on charcoal burning business as the only way of their livelihood, to seek, from now onwards other alternatives. District councils should make plans to introduce other projects to enable their people, especially the youths, to survive.’’ Earlier, the Regional Natural Resources and Tourism Officer, Johansen Bukwali, told the rally that a total of 13,272,712 trees have been planted between 1999 and 2005 in the region. Bukwali, who is also an Assistant Administrative Secretary in the RC’s office, said 60 per cent, or (equivalent to 727,997 trees), up to 70 per cent (equivalent to 849,330 trees) of all the trees planted during the period until last planting season could be seen growing, particularly in areas with water. http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2006/04/12/64083.html

Malawi:

23) According to documents seen by Economic Report, two investors—a local rubber company Vizara Estate and a South African firm Global Forest Products—have already submitted proposals to run Mkuwadzi Forest in Nkhatabay and part of Chikangawa (Viphya) forest, respectively. The proposals were submitted through Malawi Investment Promotion Agency (MIPA) and the Department of Forest. The two organizations are members of the Plantations Advisory Group (PAG)—a multi sector body set up to facilitate smooth transaction of the forest deals. PC Communications Manager Susan Banda told Economic Report in a telephone interview that such proposals were not likely to be considered as active transactions since cabinet has not yet nodded to their privatization. – was submitted to government in 2003. The Public Sector Participation (PSP) proposal aims at offering long-term concessions to private forest operators, who are expected to shore up value of the forests, generate new jobs for indigenous Malawians and guarantee their sustainable access to firewood and other non-timber forest products. In turn, the concessionaire would be allowed to harvest the trees for processing into various timber products for sale on the local and export markets. Government would, however, reserve ownership rights to the plantations. http://www.nationmalawi.com/articles.asp?articleID=16232

Liberia:

24) The head of the UN Security Council sanctions committee has praised the government of Liberia for efforts to meet regulatory targets in the diamond and timber trades that could lead to the lifting of sanctions. The United Nations slapped bans on Liberian diamond exports in 2001 and on timber two years later, saying the resources were being used to fuel war in the region. But today – nearly three years after the country emerged from its own 14-year civil war, the first post-conflict president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is pushing to get the sanctions lifted. “The Liberian government is working hard to meet the benchmarks set for the lifting of the sanctions [and] in June the Council will be meeting to review the sanctions,” UN sanctions chief Ellen Loj told reporters on Saturday after making a special assessment visit to Liberia. But she added, “More work still needs to be done by the government of Liberia for the sanctions to be lifted.” The Liberian government has to demonstrate that it has full authority over the timber and diamond sectors and ensure proper accountability on revenues generated before the sanctions can be lifted, says the UN. The UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Liberian diamonds, dubbed “blood diamonds”, in 2001 after investigations by the British government said former Liberian president Charles Taylor was trading the precious stones out of neighbouring Sierra Leone in exchange for arms for rebels. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/d34345142141a84fa9cebad443d6314e.htm

Kenya:

25) ) A group of Kaya elders and residents of Kinondo in Kwale district yesterday held a demonstration to protest against plans to hive off part of a sacred forest for private development. The protesters claimed a developer wanted to put up a hotel on a two-acre piece of land belonging to Kaya Ganzoni in Mgwani area in the south coast. “We know some elders were duped into selling the land to a private developer who wants to turn the sacred area into an investment that will interfere with our heritage,” said Mr Hamadi Salim Kivwando, who led the demonstration. The elders accused a man whom they did not name of being behind the plans to sell off the forestland, which borders the pristine Diani beach. “We will resist any attempt to have the forest, which is gazetted as a national monument by the National Museums of Kenya, go into private hands. The Kayas are very dear to us because of the role they play in keeping the secrets of the local community and we are ready to use all the means at our disposal to protect them,” Mr Kivwando said. At risk of destruction are big indigenous trees with medicinal value, gravesites where ancestors of the Digo community were buried, and rare species of animals. Local councillor Abdalla Juma Mambo said: “People who claim to have titles for the forest are wasting their time and the fencing off of the area is a demonstration of the seriousness the community attaches to these forests,” Cllr Mambo said. http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=1&newsid=71169

Chile:

26) ) CALETA GONZALO – From his house deep in the wilds of Chilean Patagonia, former U.S. business tycoon Douglas Tompkins enjoys views of soaring granite cliffs and pristine waters seemingly untouched by human development. He’s fighting to keep these wild lands wild, and has taken on everyone from Chile’s military to multinational companies. Little disturbs the quiet, rainy passage of days here, and the 63-year-old New York native, who founded the popular clothing companies The North Face and Esprit, lives an uncluttered life. He makes do with just a few hours of electricity per day. With rainfall averaging 240 inches a year, waterfalls and rushing streams are everywhere, as are bamboo, giant ferns and towering alerce trees, which can live for nearly 4,000 years. Snowcapped volcanoes occasionally peek out of the clouds, and the mocking call of chucao birds fills the air. Tompkins moved to Chile in 1991, bought more than 740,000 acres of wilderness south of the city of Puerto Montt and formed a conservation area dubbed Pumalin Park, roughly the size of Yosemite National Park. The purchase sparked an outcry from Chilean politicians. Critics have accused Tompkins of imposing environmentalism on a region in need of development. Some in Chile’s military have worried that Tompkins’ land would cut the long, thin country in two. Through it all, Tompkins has stuck to the kinds of nature-first arguments that are rarely heard in Latin America, where the rush to develop often trumps concerns about preserving nature. After years of negotiations, Tompkins convinced Chile’s government last August to designate Pumalin an official nature sanctuary, which makes it more difficult to develop the land. Such stances have frustrated some in the town of Chaiten, which sits just outside Pumalin’s borders. The town, which long survived on herding and fishing, has become a tourist magnet, serving many of Pumalin’s 10,000 annual visitors. His wife, Kris Tompkins, former chief financial officer of the Patagonia clothing company, runs her own foundation and owns a 173,000-acre reserve south of Pumalin. They’ve donated some 550,000 acres in Argentina and Chile to government and nonprofit caretakers. The goal has been to restore environments damaged by centuries of logging and grazing and to develop new agricultural methods that won’t erode or degrade soil, Douglas Tompkins said. http://www.parquepumalin.cl/english/Parque-Pumalin.html

Fiji:

27) The most cost-effective way to stop non-native rats and mongoose from decimating highly endangered species on larger tropical islands is not by intensive trapping, but instead by preserving the forest blocks where wildlife live, according to a study by the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and other groups. The study, which appears in the latest issue of the journal Conservation Biology, found that rats and mongoose in the Fiji Islands rarely penetrate the forest interior, preferring instead to forage along the forest edges. The study holds potential good news for species like the pink-billed parrotfinch, banded iguana and Fijian land snails which live deep within Fiji’s remaining forests. By using bait stations designed to attract rats and mongoose, the researchers discovered that stations over five kilometers (approximately three miles) from the forest edge were rarely visited.

Thailand:

28) Six gold teak trees in Phrae, estimated to be up to a century old, will be cut down next month and used to erect the skeleton structure of the new Giant Swing in front of Bangkok’s City Hall. This is part of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s plan to celebrate the 60th anniversary of His Majesty the King’s accession to the throne. Earlier, the project drew opposition from local people who had not been informed why the teak trees would be cut down. Hai Ruen-ngern, 73, a local villager, said the locals resisted the felling of the trees at first because they wanted to protect the trees, which they had seen since childhood. They felt the trees belonged to them. However, after a public hearing was held to explain the reason, the villagers and townspeople readily agreed to give up the trees. However, a source said politics was behind the resistance to the project. The source claimed that a politician representing Phrae had told villagers to oppose the project, fearing he might lose his popularity to a rival _ former Democrat MP Siriwan Prassachaksattru, a member of the BMA consumer protection panel. The BMA is supervising construction of the new Giant Swing. Deputy city clerk Pichai Chaipojpanich, in charge of acquiring the teak trees, said the BMA would organise a campaign to raise money to be given as gratuity to local people, who have helped protect the century-old trees. Permission to cut down the trees would be obtained from agencies overseeing the areas where the trees are planted. They include the Treasury Department, the Highway Department and the National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department. However, a source said the new Giant Swing may not be finished in time for the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the King’s accession to the throne. Instead, it might be unveiled on the occasion of the King’s 80th birthday next year. http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/15Apr2006_news02.php

India:

29) It is an important forest produce taken out from the jungles of district every year. With barely three weeks left before the Tendu leaves collection begins, mature leaves on the Tendu tree are yet to appear. This would badly affect the Tendu leaves production, which would directly hit the bidi industry. This at a time when of the 27 committees set in the Jabalpur forest division, tenders for buying Tendu leaves collected by 18 of them have already been sold to contractors. Generally by the second week of April, big leaves starts appearing on the trees. This year the leaves have not appeared on many trees fully, disclosed an officials of the Forest Department on the condition of anonymity. The problem has arisen due to the sudden rain fall and hail storm, he added, With collection to be made by 18 of the committees already sold out, forest officials will store dried Tendu leaves collected from only nine committee in the godown. rest of the Tendu leaves collected from 18 committees would be handed over to the contractors within 48 hours of collection. But with most Tendu trees not showing leaves at all, the season seems set for a poor crop of Tendu leaves. http://www.centralchronicle.com/20060416/1604102.htm

30) Betul: In village Ladi of Amla range under southern forest division in Betul district last night the wood thieves pelted stones at forest employees. In this incident four forest employees received injuries. This is the third incident when the thieves attacked on forest employees. According to sources of forest department, on Thursday night when the forest employees were patrolling near Ladi village under Amla range. Near about half a dozen persons were seen carrying wood. The forest employees stopped them and the thieves fled away leaving the stolen wood there. The forest employees then reached at Ladi village and brought a bullock cart for carrying wood. When they were taking the bullock cart towards the village, the thieves attacked on them with stones. In sudden attack the forest employees received injuries. There was a panic situation among forest employees and they escaped themselves any how. The ranger of Amla range said that he received the information yesterday at noon. He then reached the spot afterwards. The forest employees are scared due to the attack. http://www.centralchronicle.com/20060416/1604102.htm

Malaysia:

31) Sebastian said studies and research carried out by the MNS for the past 13 years in the 300,000ha rainforest area showed that significant damage had been caused by logging, including the loss of topsoil and tree cover. “You can see how heavily silted some of these rivers here are and how choked by logs and other debris,” he said, referring to Gadong and Sara rivers, respectively. Continuous logging, he said, would lead to the siltation of many more rivers here and reduce the long-term viability of the Temenggor dam for electricity generation and as a source of water. The MNS will launch a “Save Belum-Temenggor” campaign on Thursday in conjunction with Earth Day. Some 50,000 postcards addressed to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohd Tajol Rosli Ghazali have been printed and are available free at all The Body Shop outlets and the MNS headquarters at JKR 641, Jalan Kelantan, Bukit Persekutuan, Kuala Lumpur. The public can show its support for the six-month campaign by signing and sending these postcards. For the Orang Asli at the Pos Chiong settlement in the Temenggor forest reserve, it is only a matter of time before their worst nightmare becomes a reality. Heavy siltation might soon force these villagers living by their “highway”, the Sara river, to trek for two days to get to Banding, the take-off point for Grik. A hassle-free journey by boat takes less than two hours. “What else can we do? I think we have less than six months before the siltation reaches our village,” he said at the settlement. A visit to Sungai Gadong showed that the river was blocked by logs and debris, caused by logging. And a logging trail had eroded several stretches of the riverbank. http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Sunday/Frontpage/20060416071226/Article/index_html

Indonesia:

32) A new report released today (Wednesday 13 April) reveals how the Indonesian government could develop up to three million hectares of oil palm plantations on the island of Borneo, threatening wildlife and local livelihoods to cater for international demand for cheap palm oil. One of the justifications given for this huge plantation project is the increasing international demand for palm oil to be used in food, feed and biofuels. The report reveals how earlier plans to develop a two million hectare plantation on the Indonesian side of the border with Malaysia, are not yet off the table. Indonesia’s initial proposals to develop the border area had met with international protest. In a new larger border zone, a special regulation (Presidential Decree No. 36/2005) would allow the government to take land away from communities that do not want oil palm plantations in the name of ‘public interest’. The report shows that those communities who are aware of the new proposals are strongly opposed to the plans. Evidence shows that in the last decade, many areas have been deforested supposedly to make way for oil palm plantations but have then been abandoned after the timber has been sold. In East Kalimantan alone, 3 million hectares of forest disappeared for oil palm concessions. Of those, only 300.000 hectares have actually been planted with oil palm. http://www.harolddoan.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=778

33) An update on the global campaign to protect Indonesia’s ancient rainforests from unfettered oil palm plantation development. It comes from WALHI (Friends of the Earth Indonesia), an important Indonesian NGO. Their new report importantly links the rapidly expanding European market for oil palm for biofuels (which Ecological Internet was amongst the first to publicize) and other products with wholesale Indonesian rainforest destruction from oil palm plantations. They are demanding – as is Ecological Internet in our recent alert at http://www.rainforestportal.org/alerts/send.asp?id=indonesia – that the Indonesian government officially cancel the proposed mega oil palm plantation along the Malaysian border that threatens the orangutan and other species with extinction. Earlier loose assurances that the project will not proceed must be followed by formal government statements, and the area given permanent protected status that is enforced. Please continue to take action on this important issue. http://www.rainforestportal.org/news/

34) Sydney/Jakarta – A new detailed map – released by Greenpeace and Forest Watch Indonesia today – reveals plans to cut down as much as 35% (29 million hectares) of New Guinea Island’s rainforest, the ‘Eden’ where scientists recently discovered a host of new species. The environmental organisations have collated and mapped government logging concessions in the Paradise Forests of Asia Pacific. The new map shows that 24% of Papua’s forests and as much 46% of Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) forests have already been sold as concessions to logging companies, which export tropical timber to feed demand for cheap wood in Japan, US, EU and China. “These are some of the most biologically rich forests in the world but a handful of logging companies are wiping them out faster than any other on Earth. Unless the Indonesian and PNG Governments stop selling off these precious forests they, and the incredible diversity of life they support, will be decimated over the next few years,” said Emmy Hafild, Executive Director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia. Much of the large, intact forest landscapes in the Paradise Forests have already been cut down — 72% in Indonesia and 60% in PNG. New Guinea Island has the largest remaining area of intact forest in Asia Pacific, but it is not adequately protected. “To save these threatened rainforests, the Papua and PNG governments must cancel the logging concessions immediately, review their forest policies and permanently protect large areas of the rainforest,” said Hafild. Today’s map is based on a Greenpeace world map made using groundbreaking satellite technology. The map reveals that forests are in critical condition worldwide and that less than 10% of the Earth’s land area remains as large intact forest areas.
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/forests/asia-pacific/take-action

Philippines:

35) BAGUIO CITY – Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary (DENR) Secretary Angelo Reyes on Tuesday vowed that the government will fully investigate who is responsible in the recent discovered 5,000 pieces of illegally cut logs somewhere in Surigao del Sur. The discovery of the enormous volume of cut logs floating in a river in that province in Mindanao has already been published by the media prior to the comment of the DENR secretary. Reyes and other cabinet officials are in the presidential mansion house here awaiting for the arrival of President Gloria Maca-pagal-Arroyo for a cabinet meeting before the Chief Executive will go on a Holy Week retreat. “Everybody will be investigated whether they be from the DENR or local government units or any other person responsible,” he said. Reyes was perceived to be disappointed when he disclosed that “when I asked the concerned municipal mayor, the said mayor initially denied. But we will fully investigate the matter”. He said the government is determined to fully protect the natural resources in the country where the economy greatly depends. Records showed that the environment protection is one of the nationwide campaigns of the administration in the light of several calamities in the recent past which were blamed on the abuse to nature. http://bond.lanesystems.com/sitegen/article.asp?wid=125&cid=457&aid=36639

Australia:

36) There is concern logging in the Barmah State Forest in northern Victoria is threatening a rare species of parrot. The Bird Observers Club says the State Government has allowed logging in a special protection zone set aside as breeding habitat for superb parrots. The club’s Andrew Chapman says the parrot is on a list of threatened fauna, and the area is the only recognised nesting site for the parrot in Victoria. “This is important breeding habitat and a lot of groups have worked towards setting this aside and it’s a bird that’s protected under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act, or intended to be protected, and it’s also got a listing with the Commonwealth under the EPBC [Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation] Act, so it really was a gross ‘vandalistic’ act,” he said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200604/s1615776.htm

37) TIM JEANES: Living on a small platform 50 metres up a tree for the past three and a half weeks, protester Peter Firth says he’s digging in for the long haul. Mr Firth’s been described by Greens leader Bob Brown as a patriotic young Australian for attracting international attention about the destruction of old growth forests. Police have charged several protesters in the past 24 hours, with those charged released on bail. Speaking on a satellite phone, Mr Firth says the dangers he’s facing include the dynamiting of trees around him. PETER FIRTH: Very dangerous for me. There’s probably a few hundred tonnes of wood heading my way if they fell a tree in the wrong direction. And when they set off explosions, if it’s too close, the shrapnel goes for a few hundred metres. So I just hope they don’t get too close with their antics, you know. TIM JEANES: But you have put yourself in that situation. I mean, don’t you have to accept that there will be danger in that? PETER FIRTH: Ah, yeah, yeah, of course. There’s so many possibilities of danger. Like, the workers are one thing. Yeah, I’m expecting snow and ice, getting people to try and shoot out my anchors from the tree-sit. There’s been explosions. There’s all kinds of dangers and you have to factor that into what you’re doing. TIM JEANES: Mr Firth’s support crew includes Holly Clark, who says the situation is increasingly turning ugly. She says she fears for the safety of both Mr Firth, and other protesters. HOLLY CLARK: There is a lot of tension coming from the contractors’ side. They are quite angry that their work is being stunted. TIM JEANES: Isn’t cementing a car to the road to block access a bit inflammatory though, on the protester’s part? HOLLY CLARK: To highlight why we were there, it was quite a strong stand. I feel that inflaming the situation by doing that, it does feel like quite a one-up situation, like they do something, we do something. But for the purposes of getting into the media that we are very concerned for Peter’s safety, I think that it was a bold move. http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2006/s1616169.htm