119 Earth’s Tree News

Today for you we have 41 news items. The subject and number are below and the news stories and links are further below.

–British Columbia: 1) Deforestation is a global crime, 2) Forest activist Betty released from Jail, 3) Logging of ancient cedars Walbran, 4) Timber West profits up from log sales, 5) Sea Shepherd on Clayoquot, 6) Great Bear guides want more eco-protections, 7) proposed deal with the Lheidli T’enneh native band,
–Washington: 8) Trees dying on both sides of Washington Pass,
–Oregon: 9) Bark-About will visit a logging project close to Sandy, 10) $1.7 million for rights to log the Blackberry salvage sale, 11) Three BLM Sales, 12) Bend Urban forest vanishing to lawlessness, 13) Bark saved 355 acres of No Whiskey timber sale, 14) 77,216 Wilderness Bill for Mt. Hood passes US House.
–California: 15) Grassy Narrows protests in LA, 16) Conservation Fund seeks to buy more land in Mendocino by raising logging revenue, 17) Logging in Stanislaus NF, 18) Sierra Nevada EF! Groundtruths timber sales,
–Montana: 19) 3,800-acre Cabin Gulch logging project proposed,
–Colorado: 20) Roadless task force recommends…
–USA: 21) Violent incidents involving forest service personnel
–Canada 22) Amazing Grassy Narrows protest photos, 23) Save the Northern Ontario wilderness, 24) Genetic analysis of Spruce says they migrate slower than thought,
–Venezuela: 25) Organic chocolate growers,
–Brazil: 26) Direct Action: Quilombola communities reclaim plantation land,
–Chile: 27) Mapuche people in the Lumaco region harmed by plantations
–India: 28) Forest department guilty of manipulating the numbers, 29) Tea Garden Shade Tree Uprooting Association is thievery,
–North Korea: 30) Decades of reckless deforestation leads to catastrophic flooding
–Myanmar: 31) government-to-government logging deal with Thailand,
–Philippines: 32) 443 pieces of illegally cut logs smuggled as a “sandwich”
–Indonesia: 33) army, navy and air force throughout the country to arrest any soldier involved in illegal logging or timber smuggling, 34) History of Borneo, 35) forest-and peat-burning cause as much as 2.67 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide to be released,
–Australia: 36) Save Arcadia Forest Ecosystem, 37) Gunns stock value plummet, 38) 14,000 hectares of new timber plantations
–World-wide: 39) Rate of tree migration, 40) Green Deserts, 41) Global Justice Ecology Project,

British Columbia:

1) Deforestation is a global crime against humanity and all life at this juncture in time considering the shifts and weather patterns that are taking place. With fires, drought and extreme changes happening, the idea of logging of old growth coastal forests, especially in areas where change was hard fought for, is a backward step for all,” explained Lawson. Not many will profit and all will lose in the long run. Steve Lawson, a resident of Clayoquot Sound and Coordinator of FNEN, (First Nations Environmental Network) a National Organization that had been previously involved in the early efforts to stop the logging of old growth forests in Clayoquot Sound, has said that “In the hard face of climate change challenges, no further logging of old growth forests in Clayoquot nor on Canada’s west coast should be taking place.” The Steering Committee of FNEN across the country agrees. The First Nations Environmental Network hears from communities across the country. They have noticed a disturbing pattern. Wherever First Nations opposed the extraction of the resources in their territory, they are oppressed and harassed such as at Grassy Narrows in Ontario where they have been fighting Abitibi for years, or Blueberry River against mining. When First Nations negotiators or councils approved resource extraction in their territories, they were applauded and given recognition, money and promises of future prosperity. –Steve Lawson, Phone: 250 726-5265 councilfire@hotmail.com

2) Betty’s lawyer Cameron Ward argued in court today, with Judge Brown presiding, that Section 10 of our charter of rights and freedoms states that everyone who is arrested has a right to be informed PROMPTLY of the charges for the arrest, and to be given a fair trial in a summary fashion. Neither has occured for in the case of Betty Krawczyk, who was first arrested on May 26th for protesting the destruction of the Eagleridge Bluffs to make way for a faster tract of highway to access Whistler. Betty celebrates her 78th birthday on Friday. Ward filed for “Habeous Corpus” which can be invoked at any time if an arrest is considered unlawful and unconstitutional.The most serious punishment that the Canadian court system can inflict on another human being is to deprive a person of their liberty This should be taken very seriously by a judge or any person with the authority to do so. Ward stated that the decision to incarcerate Ms Krawczyk was arbitrary and whimsical. There was no statuatory principle to found this decision upon. It is not up to the whimsey of any judge as the whether and in what circumstances a person can be deprived of their liberty and be forced to sit in a jail cell. “The cloaking of a whimsey in judicial robes is not enough to satisfy the principles of justice.” Betty was released from prison after today’s court hearing. For more details, or to set up an interview with Betty, please contact. Monika Marcovici, monika@greendreams.com at 604.733.4884

3) In recent weeks, loggers working for the Teal-Jones Group have chopped down dozens of ancient cedars in the Walbran Valley, reports the Western Canada Wilderness Committee’s Victoria campaign director, Ken Wu. “It’s the central part of the Walbran where everybody goes,” he says. “It’s right adjacent to the most spectacular red cedar grove in the country. It’s basically going to become a war zone if they don’t back out of there.” Wu and others discovered the clearcut during a July 23 visit to the valley. The stumps are up to four metres across, he says. The trees were at least 700 years old. The Vancouver-based Teal-Jones Group has six divisions, two of which specialize in cedar products. An environmental policy posted on the company’s website and attributed to Teal-Jones president Dick Jones, says the company is committed to “Educating the public regarding sustainable forest management and the use of wood products as an environmentally friendly choice.” A company spokesperson didn’t return calls by deadline. http://web.bcnewsgroup.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=117&cat=23&id=700943&more=

4) The second quarter of 2006 was another strong quarter for TimberWest. Log sales volumes for the quarter were up 11% over the comparative period in 2005. While volumes sold into the domestic market were down slightly, export log sales volumes in the second quarter were up about 25% over the comparative period in 2005, and on a year to date basis were up 30%. As noted in our previous results releases, much of the increased export volume in the current year can be attributed to fibre freed up as the result of the repurchase of a fibre supply agreement in late 2005. Heavy snow pack at higher elevations resulted in harvesting taking place predominantly at lower elevations during the second quarter. As a result, the harvest mix and resulting sales mix remained weighted to Douglas fir, which is a higher-value species. “TimberWest is continuing with its enhanced real estate program,” added McElligott. “Proceeds from the sale of real estate were $11.4 million for the quarter, with the sale of the former Youbou sawmill site accounting for the majority of these proceeds. This is significantly higher than the second quarter of 2005 when real estate sales proceeds were $0.3 million.” As disclosed in the Company’s first quarter unitholder materials, real estate values on Vancouver Island have climbed in recent years and this triggered an updated strategic review of TimberWest’s entire land portfolio. During the second quarter, the Company completed the work with its real estate consultants in ascertaining what the portfolio of HBU properties was for the 6- to 15-year time horizon. TimberWest is pleased to report that an additional 28,000 hectares of HBU lands have been identified, making for a total potential portfolio of 38,000 hectares of HBU properties available over the next 15 years. “As is, where is”, our external consultants have estimated the current market value of the Company’s entire HBU portfolio, excluding timber, to be in the range of $300 million to $450 million, with the potential to increase this value. http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060803/to349.html?.v=2

5) April 1993, the Sea Shepherd ship Edward Abbey entered Clayoquot Sound to launch what would become known as the “War in the Woods.” As the Edward Abbey approached the dock at Tofino, dozens of loggers stood jeering and waving protest signs telling us to “kiss our axe” and “eat a spotted oil and save a logger’s job.” With a smile I touched a spark to our replica civil war cannon and 8 oz. of gunpowder let out a thunderous roar that echoed across the Sound causing the loggers to dive cowardly for cover. My shot was a blank of course and the loggers looked pretty damn sheepish as they got to their feet. It was however the opening shot in what would be a summer of protests that would see 12,000 people blocking logging roads and nearly a thousand arrested. The Clayoquot summer protest of 1993 was initiated by a British Columbian provincial government decision to open 62 per cent of the 350,000 hectares of land around the sound to logging. After hundreds of arrests the B.C. government later handed the issue to an international panel of scientists, who were asked to come up with a sustainable plan for logging areas not already set aside as parks. That in turn led to the UN biosphere designation in 2000. But that did not restrict industrial activity in a 58,000-hectare buffer zone and a 180,000-hectare transition area. Sea Shepherd did not participate in the protests because mainstream environmental groups felt we were overly aggressive and out-spoken and because we did not agree with the other groups that said they would accept whatever decision the aboriginal nations made concerning the logging. We warned that the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, representing 14 tribes on Vancouver Island, would support the logging if they were included in the profits. The Nuu-chah-nulth did exactly what I predicted they would do. The logging company Intefor partnered up with the Nuu-chah-nulth run company Iisaak Forest Resources to rape the Sound together. http://www.Seashepherd.org

6) With the confidence bred from years of familiarity with this land, Seiler steers the boat through the channels that wend their way through the 3.2-million hectare Great Bear Rainforest, home to one of the largest grizzly bear populations in North America. Of the 150,000 grizzly bears worldwide, about 13,000 are to be found in British Columbia. Heavily forested mountains surround us, some still wearing their winter-white snowcaps. Steep granite rock faces form the banks of the channel, with trees growing from every crevice, covering the landscape in a lush, thick carpet of green.Around us the head of a curious seal glints in the light, while a bald eagle scans the water in search of lunch. Soon we reach the estuaries that comprise prime grizzly bear-watching. A large stretch of field is covered with green sedge, shaking gently in the breeze. Its high protein content makes this the food of choice for grizzly bears in May, as they patiently await the arrival of spawning salmon in late July. With abundant food and a dense forest nearby that will serve as an escape route should another grizzly come too close, this is the perfect setting for a bear, and one that receives high traffic, according to Seiler. Seiler and his business partner, Greg Knox, have found themselves the sole advocates for the bears’ rights in this area, defending their privacy and territory with passion. When a segment of the rainforest was recently logged, the two were up in arms. They hired a biologist to prove the area was rife with grizzly tracks, scat and hair, and protested that further terrain in the vicinity should be protected from logging and preserved for the bears. This battle, they won. But the next battle promises to be even more formidable. As Alberta-based Enbridge is pursuing plans to build an underground crude oil pipeline from Alberta to northern B.C., Seiler hasn’t a hope of stopping them. Instead, he’s resigned himself to be involved in the implementation process, to try to ensure its impact on grizzly habitat is as minimal as possible. “Once it’s built, it’s only a matter of time until there is an oil spill, which will devastate everything,” he predicts. “This is a disaster waiting to happen.”
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/travel/story.html?id=45074f36-a9ed-4f5b-a0f6-85c6c9783
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7) A proposed deal with the Lheidli T’enneh native band raised hopes this week that the 13-year-old treaty negotiation process is finally producing results. The still-to-be-ratified final agreement is a landmark for other reasons as well. For it provides the latest evidence of the rising cost of settling native land claims in B.C. Six years ago, the then-New Democratic Party provincial government and the then-Liberal federal government tabled the first serious offer to the Lheidli T’enneh. The band, whose traditional territory is in the Prince George region, was to receive $7.5 million and just under 3,000 hectares of land.Three years later, negotiators for the two governments and the band initialled an agreement in principle with much-improved terms of settlement. Now the band was to receive $12.8 million up front and 4,000 hectares of land, plus significant access to fish, timber and other resources. The proposed settlement announced Tuesday of this week is richer again, delivering $27 million and 4,330 hectares of land. So the land component is half again as great as the original offer and there are three and a half times as many dollars on the table. There are other sweeteners as well. The timber allotment, subject to negotiation in the 2003 agreement, has now been specified. The band will have access to 107,000 cubic metres of wood annually, worth several million dollars in the current provincial reckoning. The Lheidli T’enneh will receive a further $400,000 a year for 50 years, representing a share of the resource revenues the Crown collects from the band’s traditional territory. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=a351b7d4-3768-48c2-8409-3a679e6a60e3&k=1
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Washington:

8) I was just up in BC and thousands of acres of lodgepole forests are turning red, dying – response to global warming? Then I drove over the North Cascades Highway and the high elevation forests are turning red, dying on both sides of Washington Pass. From others, I’ve learned that it’s all along the Cascade Crest, at least as far down as Mt. Adams. Response to global warming? The climate change models, and the Gore movie, said such might happen in 2050, or we have ten or twenty years to make changes. I think we have no more time to make changes. When are our other forests going to reach the point where they start dying? When these forests die, they no longer change carbon to oxygen and global warming worsens. These are all protected forests in national parks and wilderness. It looks like we can’t protect them from global warming. patr@crcwnet.com

Oregon:

9) Traditionally we take people out to the Mt. Hood National Forest to examine various threats to the area. This day we will be doing less walking and more examining. We are going to examine the claim by the Forest Service that their new logging techniques are able to remove specific trees while leaving important features of the forest ecosystem in place…in particular, snags. Snags are standing dead trees and provide critical habitat for wildlife such as squirrels, woodpeckers, and bats. They are considered by many to be the most important wildlife habitat in the forest and unfortunately also the rarest due to past logging. On the August Bark-About we will visit a portion of a planned logging project close to Sandy and inventory this especially important component of the forest ecosystem to see how it is able to survive the logging. This will go a long way towards showing whether or not these new logging projects are any less destructive than those done in the past. http://www.bark-out.org/calendar/listing.php

10) The Siskiyou National Forest auctioned a second timber sale Friday in a roadless area where the Biscuit Fire burned four years ago. The Silver Creek Timber Company offered $1.7 million for the right to log the Blackberry salvage sale. Forest Service spokeswoman Patti Burel says that was five times the minimum bid. Patti Burel: “So it went for much higher than the advertised price and that will ensure that dollars go back into the local economy as well as we can reinvest some of these additional dollars into restoration activities.” Silver Creek also holds the contract for the first roadless sale in the Biscuit salvage project. The company plans to start logging the Mike’s Gulch sale Monday. The state of Oregon has sued the federal government over that sale. Demonstrators plan to gather Monday in Medford to protest the logging. It would be the first tree-cutting in a federal roadless area since the Bush Administration revoked President Clinton’s protection of those lands. http://publicbroadcasting.net/opb/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=950784&sectionID=1

11) Three BLM Sales: 1) Anderson West: Giant old growth trees, wildflowers, scenic views and rare wildlife would likely be harmed by this logging project. A mixture of mature and old-growth forest, pine-oak woodlands and open serpentine savannah gives the Anderson West area the biological mix for which the Siskiyous are famous. In addition to harming some of the best native forest near Selma, the Anderson West logging project woudl degrad the historic Lone Pine Prospect Trail. 2) Tennessee Lime: This project extends east and west of Hwy 199 from Cave Junction north to Kerby. The Tennessee Lime logging project brings the moth-balled “Free and Easy Timber Sale” back on the chopping block. The sale calls for logging of hundreds of acres and would involve building new roads. The Kerby watershed boasts some of the last low-elevation old-growth habitat in the Illinois Valley important to recreation and wildlife. Many species including the spotted owl require mature and old growth habitat, and wildlife like northern spotted owls may have moved into the area due to the Biscuit fire. 3) East Fork Illinois: The beautiful forests viewed from the town of Takilma are threatened by the East Fork Illinois logging project. The East Fork Illinois logging project would affect Allen, Sailor and Scotch Gulches, parts of Hope Mountain, the Takilma Prayer Circle, steep hillsides above the popular Green Bridge swimming hole, the tract between Rockydale Road and the Illinois river, and lands along Little Elder Creek. If the worst alternative (#2) is adopted, 938 acres of forest would be subjected to industrial logged. Commercial logging will reduce forest canopy closure to 40% and less in some areas, degrading Northern Spotted Owl habitat and increasing fire risk. Seven half-acre helicopter landings, and one mile of new logging roads would be constructed.
http://www.siskiyou.org/ecodefense/BLM_iv_logging_map.cfm

12) The melodic chirping of our feathered friends has been silenced by the roaring buzz of area chainsaws. Thankfully, City Councilor John Hummel has proposed that a tree ordinance be placed on the city books. A municipal tree ordinance is long overdue in Bend. Developers and homeowners alike have had too much leeway in hacking away our most treasured trees. With no regulations currently in place, it’s time for The Bend City Council to take clear and precise steps toward protecting our cherished landscape. Longtime Bend residents concerned about additional restrictions placed on them need only to look outside. Our landscape has changed considerably over the past few years. Wide-open clearings where forests once flourished are becoming far too common. A proactive approach is needed to protect our lush landscape. With over 62% of Oregon cities enacting preservation ordinances, Bend need not lag behind. According to the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, for every $1 cities invest in managing their trees, $2.70 is returned in the form of community benefits. http://www.bendweekly.com/Local-News/626.html

13) Last week Bark finalized negotiations with the Forest Service on the No Whisky Timber Sale after six years of groundtruthing, writing letters, documenting agency failures, and educating thousands of Oregonians about logging in Mt. Hood National Forest. The good news? Thanks to Bark’s dedicated Groundtruthers and volunteers we: 1) saved 335 acres of forest from being logged, including all of the native mature forest, 2) increased “no-cut” stream buffers to protect water quality, 3) stopped the Forest Service from facilitating more off-road vehicle abuse and, 4) brokered a deal to ensure that money from logging will be used to restore areas destroyed by illegal off-roaders. The down side? Starting as soon as this year, the remaining 1,643 acres (two and a half square miles) of the No Whisky Timber sale will be logged and regardless of the age of the trees, logging equipment will damage soil and degrade water quality. Worse, the commercial timber sale program still rules the Forest Service and Mt. Hood National Forest. In fact, the timber program is the only one of all the various programs in Mt. Hood National Forest (including recreation and wildlife) that received a budget increase this year. Despite the program losing taxpayer money and leaving Oregonians a legacy of clearcuts and degraded watersheds, timber is still king. http://www.bark-out.org/

14) Mt. Hood National Forest has 189,000 acres of protected wilderness, 280,000 acres of unprotected roadless forests, and over 500,000 acres of unprotected forest fragmented from past logging. Last week Congressmen Earl Blumenauer and Greg Walden’s bill to protect 77,216 of those unprotected roadless acres as Wilderness passed the U.S. House of Representatives. The next step is for Senators Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith to introduce and pass a senate version of the bill, then the two bills will go through committee and a final version will be offered to the president for signing. On the surface HR5025 it appears to be a step in the right direction, but as a whole the bill only protects 9 percent of Mt. Hood’s threatened forests AND it contains a loophole that could increase logging of Mt. Hood’s eastern pine forests for the next ten years! Specifically, the bill states at Title V, “The Secretary of Agriculture shall prepare an assessment to identify the forest health needs in those areas of the Mount Hood National Forest with a high incidence of insect or disease infestation (or both), heavily overstocked tree stands, or moderate-to-high risk of unnatural catastrophic wildfire for the purpose of improving condition class, which significantly improves the forest health and water quality.” For the past 10 years every timber sale proposed in Mt. Hood National Forest, including all the clearcuts of old-growth, has used this type of “forest health” language as its justification. This language simply does not belong in a bill that is supposed to protect Mt. Hood forests. There is only one way to change it, and that is for Senators Wyden and Smith to introduce a better version of the bill that does not contain this language. http://www.bark-out.org/

California:

15) This Fall, we need your help to push homebuilders in your area to stop buying products from Grassy Narrows. Already this month, about a dozen folks in LA visited model homes and went door-to-door in a new housing development built by Pardee Homes, one of Weyerhaeuser’s homebuilding to tell the story about Grassy Narrows and collect letters of support from homeowners tricked into thinking they were buying environmentally friendly homes. I walked into Pardee’s sales office and asked to speak to a sales manager. He told me that Weyerhaeuser is committed to sustainable logging and that he didn’t understand why we were there. I gave him some of our campaign information and told him about how Pardee homes are built from forests clearcut from Grassy Narrows’ homeland—a good example of Weyerhaeuser’s destructive logging practices and disregard for Indigenous rights. http://understory.ran.org/2006/07/24/come-and-knock-on-our-door/

16) He manages the land for the Conservation Fund, a 21-year-old Arlington, Va.-based organization that strives to balance natural resource protection with economic goals. And timber sales here will be used to pay for forest and watershed restoration. “People will say, ‘A conservation group doing logging?’ ” said Kelly, who manages its California operations. “This is all new to me. I am learning as I go.” The group says it is the first nonprofit to own and run a major timber operation in the state. And the second- and third-growth redwood forests it has chosen are in a region where intensive logging has left a legacy of environmental problems and relatively young trees. More than 95% of the ancient redwoods along the North Coast have been felled, according to the Save-the-Redwoods League in San Francisco. The heaviest logging came during the rebuilding of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and during the post-World War II housing boom, when companies such as Georgia-Pacific, Louisiana-Pacific and Masonite operated here. “There now is much less ancient redwood forest in Mendocino County than in any other part of the range,” said Ruskin Hartley, conservation director of Save-the-Redwoods League. “You have an opportunity to do restoration on those lands.” The Conservation Fund is banking on transforming the sustainable production and sale of timber that has grown back on previously logged land into dollars that can be used to permanently shield the property from development while improving wildlife habitat and providing jobs. After buying 24,000 acres along the Garcia for $18 million in 2004, the Conservation Fund is purchasing an additional 16,000 acres in two nearby watersheds for $48.5 million ? mostly with state financing. And the group hopes to buy 165,000 acres more, which would make it one of the biggest timber concerns on the North Coast. When Kelly recently submitted a plan to the state for logging a few hundred acres, local environmentalists who had been supportive of the purchase issued a stinging critique and questioned the proposed use of herbicides to kill tan oaks that have taken over in some previously logged areas. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ecologging6aug06,0,73704.story?coll=la-home-headlines

17) ARNOLD – Logging and tree thinning soon will begin in parts of the Stanislaus National Forest immediately west and north of Arnold in the area known as “The Interface.” Forest officials have made an agreement under which loggers will be able to take commercial-size trees on 274 acres in exchange for thinning smaller trees on 176 acres that poise a fire hazard. The work is expected to continue until November and then to resume as early as April, weather permitting. The entire cut is scheduled for completion by March 31, 2008. Loggers are expected to get about 1.1 million board feet of wood from the cut. Forest officials say the project is designed to reduce fire danger to the neighboring communities of Hathaway Pines, Avery and Arnold. Some of the area to be thinned is in a zone closed to motorized use. Loggers will get limited motor access to the area but will be required to water roads each day to reduce the amount of dust that blows onto nearby homes. Also, logging will be limited to 8 a.m.to 6 p.m. when the cutting is within a quarter-mile of homes. Thinned trees will be chipped and removed from the area. http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/stanislaus

18) Sierra Nevada Earth First! activists surveyed units in the Burton Timber sale last weekend, discovering a continuing trend of desolation in the Giant Sequoia National Monument. The Burton sale, like the Saddle, Frog, White, and Ice sales further to the south, were grandfathered in when Bill Clinton signed the Giant Sequoia National Monument Proclamation in 2000. The company involved, Sierra Forest Products of Terra Bella California, was granted extensions of its contracts fore these sales on a number of occasions when timber prices were low. Now they’re cutting the heart out of forests that, according to the Monument Proclamation, were to be absolutely protected from commercial timber cutting. This iron clad protection has been gutted by two predominant factors: Clinton’s assigning the Monument to the Forest Service (whose sole mission seems to be to dis-serve forests by selling them off to private interests) rather than to the National Parks; and by Bush’s Orwellian “healthy forest initiative” set up by former timber lobbyist Mark Rey. Under the smoke screen (pun intended) of preventing catastrophic fires, the Bushies have opened up the monument to catastrophic cutting of big trees. As in the Saddle, Frog, White, and Ice sales, forest defenders located uncut and cut trees that were in excess of the 30″ diameter breast height limit. In many instances, trees were cut in bunches rather than selectively. This illegal practice opens up the canopy of the forest allowing forest soils to dry out and exposing the critically imperiled southern Pacific Fisher, to greater predation by hawks and eagles. Worse, Earth First! activists discovered what appeared to be the burnt stump of a huge tree, far in excess of the Forest Service’s 30″ limit–a limit already successfully challenged in the Saddle case. This follows a pattern, uncovered by activists, of illegal cutting and hiding the evidence in a unit of the Saddle sale. At this stage in the game is it really necessary to argue about the need to stop commercial timber cutting in our national forests? http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/08/02/18293899.php
Montana:

The U.S. Forest Service is dropping plans for one logging project in the Townsend area and advancing another. The agency had presented the 450-acre Edith Holloway Boundary Fuels Project, with removal of trees and shrubs, as a way to reduce risk of a catastrophic wildfire on Forest Service land east of Townsend. An environmental group protested, saying the Forest Service did not address cumulative effects of logging on public and private lands in the area, and of a fire in 2000. “We wanted them to look at the cumulative impacts on the elk there,” said Michael Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies. “There is a lot of logging in that watershed right now, one piece of private property took 24 million board feet of timber off it.” Townsend District Ranger Mike Cole withdrew his authorization of the Edith Holloway project. A few days ago he released a draft environmental impact statement for the 3,800-acre Cabin Gulch project, near the Edith Holloway land. The Forest Service wants to enhance wildlife habitat in the Cabin Gulch area while making the place more resilient in the face of natural processes such as fires, said Sharon Scott of the Helena National Forest staff. “We also want to promote species of concern, such as aspen, whitebark pine trees and ponderosa pines,” Scott said. “We are losing that component of our ecosystem out there, and when we have an opportunity to enhance and create a more sustainable environment for those, we try to do that.” Two involve logging in parts of the 3,789-acre project area. Construction would include nine miles of roads and 17 helicopter landing sites. About 17.4 million board feet of timber would be removed on some 2,800 acres. The two alternatives differ in that one removes three miles of an existing forest road and one does not. Another alternative focuses on providing elk with cover and security, Scott said. That option requires five miles of new roads and 17 helicopter landing sites, and would remove about 9 million board feet of timber on 1,629 acres.http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/08/05/news/state/48-logging.txt

Colorado:

20) DENVER — A one-of-a-kind task force recommended Thursday that new roads be banned on millions of acres of remote national forest land in Colorado, but also carved out several exceptions and rejected attempts to protect the land until the federal government gives its OK. Colorado is among several states debating how to manage forest land declared off-limits to development under the Clinton administration but opened to logging and other activities by the Bush administration. Other states petitioning the federal government to protect the sites have held public hearings, but Colorado is the only state where the governor and Legislature formed a task force to help decide how the public land should be managed. The 13-member, bipartisan panel, which included agriculture, environmental and government leaders, held 10 months of public hearings, meetings and sessions with state and federal agencies. “On the whole, I think we have a pretty solid package,” said panel member Doug Young, the district policy director for Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo. But Young lost his fight to seek protection for Colorado’s 4.1 million acres of roadless forest land in the interim while the state and federal governments decide how to manage it. http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=9134

USA:

21) Over the past decade, violent incidents involving forest service personnel have increased – but just how much is in dispute due to varying data. The number of cases logged by forest service law- enforcement officers rose 9 percent from 431 cases in 1995 to 477 last year, according to just released US Forest Service data. But these data differ significantly from other forest service data on violence collected for years by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a Washington advocacy group. Citing PEER’s data, The New York Times reported last month that 34 incidents took place in 1995, rising to 477 in 2005 – a 13-fold leap. The Forest Service in Washington says there never was a huge leap in incidents, adding that those incidents categorized as “serious” and “less serious” have actually declined. There is an increase in total incidents over a decade, though not a huge leap, when a third category of “other” incidents is added, officials say.”Law-enforcement issues are always serious, and we’re not trying to understate that, but the figures pretty much speak for themselves,” says Christie Achenbach, a forest service spokeswoman. “The job’s a dangerous job, and we don’t want to minimize that.” The US Forest Service has fewer officers and smaller budgets than it used to, which may explain why Mr. Gregory and other officers say the action in the woods has intensified for them even though the rise in incidents may be more gradual. The number of forest-service law-enforcement officers has dropped by one-third since 1993 as a result of a “steady decline,” PEER reported recently. Today there are 660 forest service law-enforcement officers – one officer for every 291,000 acres of US forest service land and for every 733,000 visitors each year, according to PEER. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0802/p02s01-ussc.html

Canada:

22) Weyerhaeuser continues to turn its back on Communities and the Environment, but this month, Rainforest Action Network joined with Grassy Narrows First Nation to send the notorious logger its biggest Wakeup call yet. Amazing photos of both the hiway and logging road blockades are available at: http://flickr.com/photos/rainforestactionnetwork/sets/72157594213840498
http://flickr.com/photos/rainforestactionnetwork/sets/72157594204828391/

23) It’s about a landscape and a way of life: Both are about to change forever as the provincial government pushes development into the Far North, Ontario’s last frontier.
But Natural Resources Minister David Ramsay vows things will be different than in the south: “We’ve got a brand-new fresh slate up there … We’ve learned from all our past mistakes, and our history.” But that’s an illusion. Ontario’s northern forest is, in fact, a fragile remnant. It’s also part of a global pattern. Three-quarters of Earth’s original forests have been chopped down. Canada’s boreal is one of just three with large areas still intact. The others are a similar landscape in Russia and Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. All are dwindling. A couple of centuries ago, Ontario was nothing but trees. First, the southern forest of thick maple, oak and pine was cleared. Then, loggers moved up past the French River, which flows between Lake Nipissing and Georgian Bay, and into the boreal. Now, only the most remote 40 per cent remains in close to its original state. The limit of development is known as the cutline, which meanders along roughly the 51st parallel of latitude. To the south are highways, big-box stores, power lines, cottage developments, mines and loggers. The province has turned over almost all of the forest to companies that produce lumber and paper. Most is sold in the United States. The land is dominated by massive clear-cuts and a spider’s web of rutted access roads that quickly become permanent public thoroughfares. Environmentalists consider it an ecological disaster that threatens countless bird, animal, fish and plant species, and contributes to climate change. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article
&cid=1154728213619&call_pageid=970599119419

24) Genetic analysis of living spruce trees provides strong evidence for the presence of a tree refuge in Alaska during the height of the last glacial period (17,000 to 25,000 years ago), and suggests that trees cannot migrate in response to climate change as quickly as
some scientists thought. The DNA survey and analysis, led by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will be posted online this week ahead
of regular publication by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “White spruce (Picea glauca) is a dominant species in the boreal forests of North America,” said Lynn L. Anderson, lead author and doctoral student. “In the face of global warming, we need to study how plant and animal populations have responded to climate change in the past, to better predict what will happen in the future.” In their study, the researchers analyzed chloroplast DNA from 24 spruce forests in Alaska and Canada. Because chloroplast DNA contains genes inherited from only one parent, there is no confusing genetic recombination to take into account. “We found a significant pattern in the geographic distribution of the chloroplast DNA haplotypes (groups of individuals with similar sequences of base pairs of genetic material) that differentiates into two regions,” Anderson said. “Our results suggest that estimated rates of tree migration from fossil pollen records are too high and that the ability of trees to keep pace with global warming is more limited than previously thought,” said Hu, who has studied plant responses to climate change for 15 years. “Additional analysis of fossil pollen in sediments, as well as DNA data from living trees, could help pin down the actual rate of tree movement over time.” http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Trees_Appear_To_Respond_Slower_To_C
limate_Change_Than_Previously_Thought_999.html

Venezuela:

25) Deep inside Venezuela’s tropical forest a quiet revolution is taking place. In the shade of the trees, pink cocoa pods ripen ready for the next harvest in early November. The pods carry a white, sticky pulp and the cocoa beans, which are used to make chocolate. The type of agriculture being used just outside the village of Ocumare de la Costa, is having a big impact on the farming community and its families. Ocumare is just one of several communities in Venezuela to have switched from conventional to organic farming and they are now reaping the rewards. Jose Lugo spends five hours a day nurturing his three hectares of cacao trees to protect them against pests, insects and bad weather. “We don’t use any artificial fertilizers, just natural compost,” he says. “It’s twice as much work as before but it’s definitely worth it.” However, the financial rewards help compensate for the extra work because organic cocoa beans fetch up to four times as much as ordinary beans. Mr. Lugo and his friends now earn about $7 for a kilo of beans, whereas they used to get paid just less than $2 for conventional produce. They no longer sell their cocoa to local intermediaries, which have been priced out of the market, but straight to foreign chocolate manufacturers, which are willing to pay high prices for organic produce. The farmers have joined forces to form an association of organic farmers consisting of 50 families. It seems like a lot of hard manual labor, particularly during the rainy season when floods can wipe out the crops. Only a week ago, the river burst its banks and destroyed several hectares of fledgling cocoa plants. Yet, in the last three years their annual cocoa production has doubled from close to 20 tonnes to more than 40 tonnes, Mrs. Arevalo. “At first we didn’t want to know anything about organic agriculture. It seemed too much fuss. But you see that we’ve been converted.”http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=65063
Brazil:
26) On Saturday morning, 29 July 2006, 300 black men and women from the Quilombola communities in the Sapê do Norte region of Brazil initiated a new struggle to re-occupy their lands. Eucalyptus trees were cut down in the cemetery area, and an afro-descendant ritual was performed in honour of the male and female warriors who freed their brothers and sisters from slavery and constituted the first ‘Quilombos’ (villages of Quilombolas) in the region. Fruit trees were also planted to symbolise the new use for the land. In the afternoon, a Quilombola assembly discussed plans for the area where the eucalyptus had been cut down, hoping to put pressure on the government to demarcate the Linharinho territory. This includes 9,425.57 hectares that have already been identified as Quilombola lands by the governmental agency INCRA, whose study in the National State Gazette was challenged by Aracruz Cellulose. INCRA is currently analysing the Aracruz submission and the communities are awaiting a favorable response from the agency. Eucalyptus plantations owned by Aracruz Cellulose and large agro-businesses have covered the area since the 1970s. With the support of organisations and movements from the Alert against the Green Desert Movement – including MST, Movement of Small Peasants (MPA), Human Rights Movement, Tupinikim and Guarani Indians and students – they occupied part of an ancient Quilombola cemetery in the Linharinho community, in the Conceição da Barra municipality. “We want productive land for future generations, not eucalyptus,” says Domingos Firmiano dos Santos (Chapoca) of the Quilombolas Commission, Sapê do Norte. He explains that when Aracruz Cellulose arrived, the Quilombola communities were expelled from the region, forests were destroyed, and rivers and streams were polluted with agrochemicals. This had a huge impact on the communities’ way of life, but some have resisted. “Today, we took a first step in the struggle to gain all of our territory back,” said Chapoca. http://www.globaljusticeecology.org

Chile:

27) In Chile plantations are concentrated on former farmland in the traditional territory of the Mapuche people in the Lumaco region. Since 1988, plantations in Lumaco have increased from 14 percent of the land to over 52 percent in 2002. Ninety-eight percent of Chile’s forestry products are exported to the North and to Asia. Throughout the country over two million hectares of eucalyptus and pine plantations are controlled by only two companies. As a result of this farmland conversion, Mapuche communities are being forced onto poor quality lands where they are surrounded by plantations. The communities lose access to water from the end of spring until the beginning of autumn and must rely on water trucks. The contamination of ground and surface water from toxic pesticides and herbicides used on the plantations are resulting in rising levels of sickness. In addition, the heavy pollination from the pine plantations contaminates water and causes allergies and skin problems. Poverty rates among Mapuche communities have risen dramatically. In Lumaco, one of the poorest regions of Chile, 60 percent of the population lives under the poverty level, with 33 percent in extreme poverty. http://www.globaljusticeecology.org

India:

28) BNP men cut over 20,000 costly trees in 3 years through secret tenders, local MP denies link Hasibur Rahman Bilu, Back From Dharaborosa Char, Bogra The forest department in Bogra sold over 7,000 trees at a throwaway price of about Tk 135 each through a secret tender and allowed local BNP men to have nearly the same number of timbers for free allegedly under pressure of a ruling party lawmaker. In the last three years, the same BNP lawmaker– Kazi Rafique– also reportedly influenced the forest department to let BNP leaders and activists plunder 14,000-15,000 more trees on a Bogra sandbank– Dharaborosa Char in Shariakandi, according sources at the district administration. The latest controversial tender was put to the fridge after a probe committee of the district administration detected three months back instances of staggering corruption. The inquiry committee, headedby Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Sayed Mizanur Rahman following a complaint by Shariakandi Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Firdous Alam, found over 7,000 shishu, korai, babla trees worth about Tk 90 lakh were sold out for a meagre Tk 9.78 lakh to M/S Redwan Enterprise, a company owned by a BNP leader. The 12-year-old trees were put on sale, dividing the area in 18 blocks and showing 400 trees in each section. The investigation found the forest department guilty of manipulating the number of trees on each block. At least 800 trees were found on each block, said a probe committee member, estimating the total price of the trees at nine times the sale price. http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/08/05/d6080501011.htm

29) According to the conservator of forest, northern circle, Mr MR Balooch, the tea plantations can fell shade trees with prior permission and the forest department issues transit pass for the timber. “But the plantations, by law, are supposed to distribute the stumps of the felled trees to its workers as firewood in keeping with the Plantation Labour Act. But it has come to our notice that almost 90 per cent of the tea plantations engage contractors to uproot the stumps once the trees are felled and sell these off to those contractors,” the CF said. “It is a serious crime and untold sums get exchanged in the process. What makes it all the more serious is that the forest department does not issue transit pass for transporting shade tree stumps from the plantations, yet it is happening depriving the workers and flouting the forest rules,” he added. According to the CF, no forest produce can be transported without the transit pass, which makes the buyers, who are the contractors and the sellers, who in this case are plantation management, equally guilty. The forest department, which has already “identified,” some plantations and contractors engaged in the offence had hauled up the Tea Garden Shade Tree Uprooting Association president Mr Saibal Dasgupta at Jalpaiguri today. Facing a tight situation though, Mr Dasgupta defended his association stating that members of his association purchased only legally felled timber from the tea plantations against proper document. “We shall try to find out which contractors are engaged in the crime,” he said. The forest department authorities refused to buy his argument and are planning action of their own. http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=10&theme=&usrsess=1&id=125232

North Korea:

30) Decades of reckless deforestation have stripped North Korea of tree cover that provides natural protection from catastrophic flooding, experts say. Energy-starved residents have used every scrap of wood from the countryside to cook food or heat homes through the bitter winters. This leaves the country vulnerable to flooding and landslides on a massive scale, they say. Government officials have made the problem worse by encouraging residents to expand farmland into the hillsides in a bid to boost food production, said Kwon Tae-Jin, of Seoul’s state-funded Korea Rural Economic Institute. “North Korea began stripping hillsides for farming from the 1970s in an effort to boost food production. North Korea’s policy, however, has aggravated its food shortage as it is now very vulnerable to heavy rains,” Kwon said. “Along with the lack of facilities to control floods like reservoirs, chronic energy shortages have also played a role.” Those factors all contributed to flooding triggered by a July 10 typhoon that left up to 10,000 North Koreans dead or missing, according to an independent aid group Good Friends. Most analysts here say the scale of the disaster stems from the communist government’s misguided policies.”The erosion of earth and sand is getting more serious by the year in North Korea because of a wrong-headed government policy, leading to heavier damage,” said Kwon. North Korean residents are still chopping down trees recklessly for fuel, according to officials at South Korean’s unification ministry which handles relations with the North. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Up_To_10000_Dead_Or_Missing_In_North_Korea_Flooding_999.html

Myanmar:

31) Myanmar’s junta leaders asked Thailand to sign a government-to-government deal to import Myanmar timber, hoping it would stop illegal logging in its soil. Noppadol Pattama, Thailand’s vice minister for natural resources and the environment, was assigned to travel to Myanmar next week to ink the agreement to purchase logs which would feed Thailand’s increasing demand for wood. He said the move was a response to Myanmar’s request made to visiting Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra Wednesday as the military regime believes such a deal would help in solving the problem of illegal logging, which has caused Myanmar a heavy economic and environmental losses. Mr. Thaksin visited Myanmar Wednesday to promote bilateral relations, according to Mr. Noppadol. He said Myanmar also asked the caretaker premier to look after its citizens working in Thai factories along the border, in Thai industrial centres and in fisheries. ”Myanmar wants to rid the country of illegal logging which has taken away an enormous stake in the country’s revenue. The agreement would also promote our relations,” he said. http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=111992

Philippines:

32) Task Force deputy head, Undersecretary Roy Kyamko said the new modus operandi is known as “sandwich” where a documented log is place on top of undocumented log to hide it and avoid being detected. “In this modus operandi, narra and other premium hard trees the cutting of which are strictly regulated by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) are tied underneath a documented timber like Falcatta, a common tree plantation species harvested from private tree plantations, to evade detection by forestry officials,” Kyamko explained. “Sandwich is usually done when the water rises during heavy downpour as in the case of the confiscation made in Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur,” he added. He said that 443 pieces of illegally cut logs valued at P1.1 million were seized recently by his operatives, in coordination with the Agusan del Sur DENR office, after the logs were spotted being stockpiled under a cement bridge in Prosperidad town. Kyamko also raised the danger to bridges being used to hide illegally cut logs since they may damage the structural integrity of the bridges. http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/zam/2006/08/06/news/denr.uncovers.illegal.loggers.modus.opera
ndi.html

Indonesia:

33) Chief of General Staff (Kasum TNI), Lt Gen Endang Suwarya, on Friday instructed the chiefs of regional army, navy and air force commands throughout the country to arrest any serviceman in their respective jurisdiction believed to be involved in illegal logging or timber smuggling. “Arrests should be based on preliminary evidence and with reference to Presidential Instruction (Inpres) No. 4/2005,” said Suwarya in his instruction, according to a TNI Headquarters statement. He also called on the regional commanders to intensify security measures in forest areas prone to illegal logging and keep an eye on timber transportation and distribution in the areas concerned. The commanders were also asked to keep a watch on the logging industry and timber trade in coordination with the relevant government agencies in their respective regions and to promote the local people`s participation in efforts to fight illegal logging nnd timber smuggling. Meanwhile, police are currently trying to locate a retired high-ranking army officer for his alleged involvement in illegal logging in Kalimantan. http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=17716

34) In the 1980s and 1990s Borneo underwent a remarkable transition. Its forests were leveled at a rate unparalleled in human history—perhaps 80 percent of the island’s primary forest was lost since 1980. Borneo’s rainforests went to industrialized countries like Japan and the United States in the form of garden furniture, paper pulp and chopsticks. Initially most of the timber was taken from the Malaysian part of the island in the northern states of Sabah and Sarawak. Later forests in the southern part of Borneo, an area belonging to Indonesia and known as Kalimantan, became the primary source for tropical timber. Today the forests of Borneo are but a shadow of those of legend. In recent years Borneo’s remaining forests had been cleared for oil palm plantations. Indonesia’s oil palm plantations grew from 600,000 hectares in 1985 to more than 4 million hectares by early 2006 when the government announced a plan to develop 3 million additional hectares of oil palm plantations by 2011. Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) is an attractive plantation crop because it is the cheapest vegetable oil and produces more oil per hectare than any other oilseed. In the current environment of high energy prices, palm oil is seen as a good way to meet increasing demand for biofuel as an alternative energy source. When the Indonesian government announced plans to significantly expand oil palm acreage in Borneo it met strong condemnation by environmental groups, especially WWF, which produced a number of reports that revealed the island’s striking biodiversity. WWF’s findings also likely played a part in Malaysia’s recent decision to phase out logging in more than 200,000 hectares of key forest habitat in the Bornean state of Sabah. http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0802-borneo.html

35) Late every summer, large areas of central Borneo become invisible. There’s no magic involved – most of the densely forested island simply gets covered with a pall of thick smoke. Huge areas of forest burn, while beneath the ground peat many metres thick smoulders on for months. These trees are burning in a good cause, however. They are burning to help save the world from global warming. Here is how the logic goes. As the natural forest is cleared, land opens up for lucrative palm-oil plantations. Palm oil is a feedstock for biodiesel, the “carbon-neutral” fuel that the European Union is trying to encourage by converting its vehicle fleet. By reducing use of fossil fuels for its cars and trucks, the EU believes it can reduce its carbon emissions and thereby help mitigate global warming. Everyone is happy. (Except the orang-utan. It gets to go extinct.) It’s a con, of course. In 1997, the single worst year of Indonesian forest- and peat-burning, 2.67 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide were released by the fires, equivalent to 40 per cent of the year’s entire emissions from burning fossil fuels. That was a particularly bad year: most summers, the emissions are only a billion or so tonnes, or about 15 per cent of total human emissions. http://www.newstatesman.com/200608070031

Australia:

36) Members of the Save Arcadia Forest Ecosystem (SAFE) will conduct a quokka poll in Victoria Street tomorrow and Friday to gauge public opinion on the fate of a small colony of rare quokkas in the forest between Bunbury and Collie. SAFE convener Peter Murphy said recent scientific reports pointed to impending extinction for the few remaining mainland quokkas unless their habitat is protected. Earlier this year, Dutch researchers called for an immediate halt to logging plans after they found the forest contained rare quokka habitat. A report by research fellows from the University of Utrecht said the quokka habitat was the best example of old growth forest in Western Australia. spent several months in the jarrah forest as part of a three year study to measure forest canopy light intensity. “Conservation groups are outraged that Arcadia forest is to be logged this spring destroying the Western Australian tourism icon’s habitat,” Mr Murphy said. Mr Murphy said local conservationists were working with their peers in Europe and New Zealand to try and stop counties accepting timber that came from forests containing rare animals. Meanwhile, environment minister Mark McGowan has agreed to meet with the Preston Environmental Group in mid August to discuss the Arcadia Forest. But the State Government says logging of the forest, near Collie, will go ahead as planned. Environmental groups have fiercely protested the decision due to a number of environmental concerns, including the value of the old growth forest and the number of quokkas who live there. http://bunbury.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=news&subclass=columns&story_id=497412&categor
y=Columns&m=7&y=2006

37) The latest bout of negative sentiment towards the volatile MIS sector has been blamed on uncertainty over whether the Federal Government may react to mounting criticism of its rapid growth over the past three years by removing the 100 per cent tax deductibility of the investments. Gunns boss John Gay yesterday described the controversial timber giant’s shares as “bloody cheap” and said he was buying them himself as other investors continued to dump stocks heavily involved in tax. Mr Gay said it hoped to start establishing plantations near Manjimup this year and eventually build a renewable resource of about 20,000 hectares which would be progressively harvested at 18 to 20 years for structural and flooring timber. He said the trees could be processed at Deanmill, which was being upgraded to better handle the smaller, lower quality jarrah logs to which the industry was now restricted. Mr Gay said the plantations would either be funded by outside investors through managed investment schemes or Gunns would fund them itself. The 300,000ha of eucalypt plantations so far established in WA, mostly by MIS companies, are shorter-rotation trees intended to be harvested at 10 years for woodchips. Gunns shares shed another 5¢ yesterday to close at a three-year low of $2.54, about a third below their level a year ago. -effective managed investment schemes. http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=33&ContentID=1548

38) Tasmania is likely to have 14,000 hectares of new timber plantations funded by managed investment schemes this financial year. Forestry companies Gunns, Forest Enterprises and Great Southern are all involved. Gunns is the biggest, with 11,000 hectares this financial year. Gunns Plantations manager Ian Blanden says investors are clearly confident about the demand for plantation-grown eucalypts and pine trees. “The proposed pulp mill at Bell Bay will require both softwood and hardwood, and so we are in the process of planting softwood plantations as well, which will produce both sawlogs as well as pulpwood,” he said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200607/s1701941.htm

World-Wide:

39) By 2040 to 2050, trees will still need to migrate at a rate of about a kilometre a year to survive, 10 times faster than they migrated northward in the warming period following the last ice age. It’s questionable whether some will be able to move that fast. Malcolm and his team based their predictions on computer models. Their report was prepared for the World Wildlife Fund, and is called Implications of a 2’C Global Temperature Rise for Canada’s Natural Resources. Only rarely has the paleorecord shown climate envelopes shifting northward at more than one kilometre a year, they say. However, because the depth of climate envelopes can be great, measured north to south, trees don’t need to migrate at the same rate as the envelopes. Only those at the back of an envelope will die out; those toward the front will have much more time to adapt and move northward. What forests eventually will look like depends on many things, the report says, including: The ability of trees to disperse seeds northward fast enough. Competition from trees migrating from the south, some of which can
travel more quickly than northern species.
http://assets.panda.org/downloads/2_degrees.pdf.

40) In Brazil plantations are referred to as “green deserts,” due to their reputation for destroying biological diversity. In South Africa they are known as “green cancer” because of the tendency of the eucalyptus in the plantations to spread wildly into other areas. In Chile plantations are called “green soldiers” because they are destructive, stand in straight lines, and steadily advance forward. One of the more interesting common themes that emerged was the fact that, in many cases, takeovers of land for timber plantations occurred under authoritarian regimes-in Chile under Pinochet, in Brazil under the dictatorship, in South Africa under apartheid. Another common theme was corporate strategies to continue plantation expansion under the neoliberal economies that have flourished in the post-authoritarian years. Corporations have begun cutting “deals” with local communities and poor landowners to enable plantation expansion without having to purchase land. Given the tendency for fast-growing plantations to rapidly desertify soil and deplete ground water, this strategy enables companies to easily abandon the land after it is no longer productive. Corporations promise communities that, in exchange for tending the plantations, they will be given a portion of the proceeds when the trees are sold. The price the communities receive, however, does not even cover the arduous labor that went into caring for the remote plantations. Some communities have begun to rebel, breaking contracts and burning plantations. http://www.globaljusticeecology.org

41) The Global Justice Ecology Project reaches out to groups around the globe in order to help prevent the introduction of GE trees into plantations. GJEP and other GE tree and forest protection activists have also spoken at United Nations meetings around the world about the GE trees threat, including the UN Forum on Forests and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. (At their 2003 convention, UNFCCC delegates agreed that GE trees could be used in plantations developed to offset carbon emissions.)
With no indication of help from either of these UN bodies, the international campaign is turning to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to pursue an international ban on the technology. Even the UN FAO seems to be in favor of such international regulations. Their report on GM trees concludes, “New biotechnologies, in particular genetic modification, raise concerns. Admittedly, many questions remain unanswered for both agricultural crops and trees, and in particular those related to the impact of GM crops on the environment. Given that genetic modification in trees is already entering the commercial phase with GM populus in China, it is very important that environmental risk assessment studies are conducted with protocols and methodologies agreed upon at a national level and an international level. It is also important that the results of such studies are made widely available.” http://www.globaljusticeecology.org

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