127 Earth’s Tree News

Today for you we have 37 news items. Place and subject listed below. Condensed articles further below.

–British Columbia: 1) New book: Big Trees Not Big Stumps, 2) Great Bear Salmon left unprotected, 3) Protest Provincial Park Lodge building with Valhalla Wilderness Watch, 4) Huge Gateway pipeline project, 5) Raw log export solution is not a solution? 6) Green European Parliamentarians visit first nation leaders
–Washington: 7) Grassy Narrows’ action against Quadrant homes
–Oregon: 8) Judge King in Portland saves forests, 9) US representative Defazio on Federal forest protection, 10) White Pine Blister rust in Crater Lake, 11) Lawsuit challenging four biological opinions on federal lands
–California: 12) Town of Hayfork still dying, 13) Decades long jail sentences for loggers
–Idaho: 14) Tornado-caused ‘warp-speed’ logging plans from the Forest Service
–Montana: 15) Logging is like being a florist?
–Colorado: 16) Vail Resorts partner with National Forest Foundation
–New Mexico: 17) federal judge rejects enviros Agua-Caballos challenge
–Minnesota: 18) Montissippi Park to be logged
–New York: 19) National Public Lands Day
–New England: 20) Objection to logging Prouty Woods Community Forest
–Maryland: 21) Logging of Laurel Ridge Drive
–Vermont: 22) Reflections on wilderness on Glastenbury Mountain
–North Carolina: 23) Weyco eco-homes
–Southeast Forests: 24) Hurricane toppled trees
–USA: 25) privatization concerns raised by No-Fee Coalition, 26) Workshops in Ecological Forestry,
–Nicaragua: 27) Deforestation
–Bolivia: 28) poorest countries suffer from worst environmental problems
–Brazil: 29) Our cyber-goal is to stop illegal logging, 30) fund for developing countries
–Paraguay 30) World Wildlife Fund congratulates the government
–India: 31) Pine resin scams feed families, 32) Kashmir and the Taxus market
–China: 33) Fujian Province boasts the highest forest coverage… not for long?
–Vietnam: 34) accelerated afforestation and forest preservation
–Thailand: 35) seizure of illegal high-grade timber
–Vietnam: 36) wood exports and wood prices rise
–World-wide: 37) James Lovelock’s new book

British Columbia:

1) Three years in the making, Paul George’s new book Big Trees Not Big Stumps and accompanying DVD is a compilation of over 560 photos, cartoons, videos, never-released video footage and behind the scenes stories: “Western Canada Wilderness Committee is rooted in three different origin myths. The one I’ve most often told is that WCWC germinated in a brainstorming session around a campfire one magical summer night in 1977. Thom Henley, Richard Krieger and I were camped on a beach in Windy Bay on Lyell Island in the heart of the South Moresby wilderness area on Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands). That campfire conversation was the genesis of not only WCWC, but also a remarkable nature-based outdoor education program called Rediscovery, and lots of new tactics for the campaign to save South Moresby. The second origin myth, which has been retold almost as often, is that WCWC was created because of the US Sierra Club’s refusal to publish a Canadian version of its annual wilderness wall calendar. Determined to see a Canadian product on people’s walls, my friend Richard Krieger, a wilderness photographer, and I started our own non-profit society to make it happen. The third story, never told before, is that after visiting the headquarters of Greenpeace in Vancouver in 1980, it dawned on Richard Krieger and me that we, too, could start and run our own creative organization focused on wilderness preservation. It looked like it would be a lot of fun. All three stories have some elements of truth and on August 7, 1980, the Western Canada Wilderness Committee was born.” http://www.commonground.ca/iss/0609182/cg182_George.shtml

2) More than half the salmon streams in the so-called Great Bear Rainforest remain unprotected from logging and other industry under an agreement reached earlier this year by government, industry, environmentalists and first nations, says a B.C. conservation group. The territory in question — a 6.4 million-hectare piece of land that stretches along the central and north coasts of B.C. up to the Alaska border — contains 508 identified salmon streams. But the Raincoast Conservation Society says only 18 per cent of the streams on the north coast and 19 per cent on the central coast are fully protected under what was hailed in February as a landmark agreement to protect an area of coastal rainforest bigger than Switzerland. Nineteen per cent of the north coast streams and 25 per cent of the central coast streams receive partial protection under the agreement, says Raincoast, leaving 63 per cent of north coast streams and 56 per cent of central coast streams fully unprotected. “What this means is that much-vaunted Great Bear Rainforest agreement that was heralded as world-class conservation is not so world-class when it comes to the protection of salmon habitat,” said Raincoast executive director Chris Genovali. “When you’ve got less than 20 per cent of the salmon watersheds on the central and north coasts receiving full protection, that would qualify as a major flaw in these land-use plans.” Nicola Temple, the Raincoast researcher who compiled the figures, said of the streams receiving partial protection — that is, streams where logging may take place along only a part of the stream — about three-quarters receive less than 50-per-cent protection. “Salmon is the foundation species for these ecosystems, and you would think in putting together a protected areas strategy for this region that the protection of salmon and salmon habitat would be the very top priority, given their critical role,” said Genovali. “The protection being afforded them is woefully inadequate.” http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=05d57bb4-5879-4d4b-bdf0-8
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3) Activists from Valhalla Wilderness Watch (VWW) will be protesting at Wells Gray Provincial Park over the long weekend to inform visitors about the Liberal government’s plans to lease parts of BC parks for private commercial lodges. The government has in-vited bids for a 20-bed lodge, helipad and boat dock at Stevens Lakes in the backcountry of Wells Gray Park, to be accessed by helicopters. “The lodge proposal sparked the protest,” says Colleen McCrory, a director of VWW. “However, new lodges are just the tip of the iceberg of the government’s policy of privat-izing and commercializing BC parks. They are turning our parks into a huge private busi-ness empire. Valhalla Wilderness Watch has received information from anonymous sources that the park system will soon be turned over to a Crown corporation. “VWW has no way of checking that out,” says Anne Sherrod, a VWW director, “but it’s been obviously coming for years. With the drastic slashing of government funding and staff for the Ministry of Environment, the farming of whole “bundles” of parks out to private operators, the new and increased user fees, the long-term leases of land, the commercial development – we are only a baby-step away from a Crown corporation right now.” The protesters will hand out material debunking the government’s claims that the lodge development is nothing new in BC parks, and that it will not harm the protection func-tions or the naturalness of the parks. Most of the existing structures in our park system right now are rustic old trappers’, miners’ or rangers’ cabins. wildernesswatch@netidea.com

4) If the plan goes ahead, the Gateway pipeline will be the largest petroleum pipeline project undertaken in North America in more than 50 years; at a cost of over $4 billion, it will be among the largest private infrastructure investments in B.C. history. Planned to begin construction in 2008, Enbridge says that pipeline will employ 5000 full-time workers for two years, generating $25 million in taxes each year between B.C. and Alberta. In B.C. alone, the underground pipeline will be engineered to cross at least 1000 streams, rivers and lakes, each necessitating a separate file by Transport Canada. “The most significant risk facing the project is the aboriginal legal risk,” says Will Horter, executive director of the Dogwood Initiative, a Victoria-based environmental group. “This project and series of other similar proposals go through the territories of legally-sophisticated First Nations who have won important court cases in the past. This raises the question of whether the [Enbridge] business plan is viable.” The Gateway project will consist of two separate buried pipelines along the same 80-metre right of way. One pipe will move crude from Alberta to the B.C. coast for export by tanker to California and Asia. A second pipeline will import a petroleum-based dilutant known as “condensate” from Kitimat to the oil sands. In November of 2005, Enbridge Pipelines Inc. submitted a Preliminary Information Package (PIP) to the National Energy Board (NEB), an initial step in the process of gaining regulatory approval. (The process will be overseen federally by the NEB because the pipeline crosses provincial jurisdictions.) The Gateway pipeline is an ambitious plan, and it is not the only one. Although it is the most advanced pipeline project to date, Kinder Morgan Canada Inc. has proposed to connect its Trans Mountain pipeline to the B.C. coast, and a condensate-importing pipeline from Kitimat to Prince George is in the works by the Pembina Pipeline Corporation. http://mostlywater.org/node/9577

5) Until recently, most of the opponents of raw log exports have one “solution” – total ban on raw logs, which raises questions. How would the province supplement the lost revenue? What would happen to the thousands of workers relying on the logging industry? The solution lies not in an outright and immediate ban, but a weaning to other forms of industry – at first turning logs into exportable secondary timber products such as studs, plywood, shingles and the like – then pressuring a move to tertiary industry: manufacturing of wood-based products such as furniture, composite beams, doors, finishing products and other value-added manufactured items. These items can generate more money per kilo of exported wood – meaning less trees to produce the same amount of net revenue. True progress hinges on acceptance of this valuation. But until governments, industry and environmental groups alike begin to measure the province’s timber value on the total revenue available per unit mass of wood product exported, nothing will change. Unions in the province are afraid of losing jobs – and rightly so. An overnight ban on log exports will not serve the province’s labour force at all – but a steady shift to alternate manufacturing offers the potential not only of saving jobs, but creating new ones. http://www.merrittherald.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=19&cat=48&id=717886&more=

6) Monica Frassoni, leader of the 42-member group of Green European Parliamentarians, met with Nuu-chah-nulth Central Region First Nations in Tofino August 17. The meeting, arranged by BC Green Party leader Adriane Carr and the Central Region Chiefs, gave people the opportunity to share ideas, increase their understanding of each other, and build a relationship to work together on issues of mutual concern including social justice, conservation of important areas and sustainable economies that benefit local communities. The Green Parties in BC and Europe recognize First Nations ownership of their lands and resources and the ongoing existence and authority of First Nations ha’wiih (hereditary chiefs). “I was shocked to learn of the conditions in Canada that the First Nations themselves called ‘third world’, including 80 percent unemployment and even lack of access to clean drinking water,” said Frassoni. “Canada projects an image of supporting social justice, yet I was told that treaties have not yet been signed with First Nations and the Canadian government has failed to adequately fund an agreement (the “Kelowna Accord”) intended to close the gap between First Nations and other Canadians in terms of economic development, health, education and other matters. I was already aware that Canada is one of only two nations that refused to sign the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Now I have learned that the Prime Minister is pursuing a judicial review with the aim of denying the existence of First Nations and their aboriginal rights. I am appalled,” said Frassoni. http://www.greenparty.bc.ca/news/2006/08/185.php

Washington:

7) Wood clearcut and stolen from the forest homelands of the Grassy Narrows people is being used to build houses near Seattle. Come and tell home buyers the truth. Action at a Quadrant Housing Development We will inform potential Quadrant customers about the true origin of the wood in the homes, and talk with current Quadrant home owners about the stolen wood in their houses. Saturday, Sept 9th, 11:30 AM Meet at Volunteer Park, SW Corner (Pine and 10th) We will carpool from there to the action site Prepare for time out in the sun. Juice will be provided. 2,500 square miles of forests, lakes and rivers in Ontario, Canada have sustained the people of Grassy Narrows First Nation for thousands of years. Now Weyerhaeuser, the largest lumber company in the world, is driving a wave of destructive logging that threatens to uproot their traditional way of life. http://www.searag.org/

Oregon:

8) As many of you recall, for the past two years we have had an injunction (no logging allowed) on the Willamette NF’s Straw Devil (which includes East Devil), Pryor, Clark, and the Mt. Hood NF’s Solo, and Borg timber sales. Combined, they would have aggressively thinned or clearcut well over 1,000 acres of mature and/or old-growth forests. On August 9th, Judge King in Portland issued an opinion that officially secured a legal victory for these forests. The government has not indicated weather or not it will appeal the decision to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Initially, the lawsuit was based the Forest Service failing to perform adequate analysis on the effects to various Survey and Mange species, including the elusive red tree vole. In 2003, the all-volunteer Northwest Ecosystem Survey Team (NEST), surveyed many of these timber sales, finding species that the agency failed located. These successful surveys, and the lack of agency analysis, coupled with impacts to the northern spotted owl, compelled this decision. Pete Frost of the Western Environmental Law Center represented us along with ONRC, Bark, and the American Lands Alliance. Thanks to everyone over the past few years who went on hikes to these areas, assisted with surveys, wrote letters to elected officials and agency personnel. It was all instrumental in securing this victory. http://www.cascwild.org

9) On one other topic, forestry, he said he has re-introduced a bill that would increase the federal timber harvest by allowing harvesting of second-growth stands in national forests. “They need to be thinned,” he said, adding that the backlog of thinning in national forests could produce 400 million board feet of timber a year for 15 yearws. “There are a lot of smaller logs the the mills want. This would put people to work.” http://www.sweethomenews.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=6243

10) CRATER LAKE — Wherever the grating ‘skraaaaaaa’ of the Clark’s Nutcracker can be heard, the bird is spreading whitebark pine seeds — yet the two species’ symbiotic relationship is threatened by a deadly disease. On timberline ridges of the Cascades, where whitebark pine is the dominant species, a non-native disease known as white pine blister rust is slowly choking trees to death, one-by-one. The fungus is catastrophic to various five-needle pines — including sugar pine and western white pine in the Pacific Northwest — and can decimate whitebark pine stands once infected. Crater Lake National Park contains the largest lakeside collection of whitebark pine stands in the world, yet their needles are slowly browning and falling away to blister rust. Based on the current rate of infection, scientists estimate by 2050 half of the national park’s whitebark pine trees will be dead. The one-day tour was part of a five-day conference at Southern Oregon University in Ashland. At least 70 experts attended the field trip to Crater Lake. “I never dreamed I’d be facing local extirpation” of whitebark pine, she said. Tombeck is a member of the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation, which sponsored the symposium with the Crater Lake Natural History Association, The Crater Lake Institute, Southern Oregon University, the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service. Richard Sniezko, a geneticist at Dorena, said tree families are showing resistance to blister rust, and the program could work, but it won’t be the catchall solution. “What we’d like to do is level the playing field,” Sniezko said, by introducing trees that could co-evolve with the disease and “let nature take its course. http://www.newsreview.info/article/20060903/NEWS/60903001

11) On August 22, the Cascadia Wildlands Project, Bark, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, ONRC and Umpqua Watersheds filed a lawsuit challenging four biological opinions issued by the US Fish and Wildlife Service that, in the agency’s own words, would “adversely affect” 72,000 acres northern spotted owl habitat through aggressive thinning or clearcutting mature and old-growth forests. The US Forest Service needs a biological opinion before they can auction off endangered species habitat to the highest bidder. We are being represented by Susan Jane Brown and Stephanie Parent of the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center. Recall, a massive government analysis and a five-year status review of the species recently revealed that its population range-wide continues to plummet due to a number of factors. The Cascadia Wildlands Project believes the wisest choice to ensure the survival and recovery of the northern spotted owl is to stop selling off its habitat in the form of timber sales. The uncertainties and looming threats of West Nile virus, barred owl invasion, sudden oak death, wildfire, and climate change reinforces this fact. http://www.cascwild.org

California:

12) There have been undeniable environmental benefits to the unraveling of the county’s timber industry. Most pertinently, sedimentation from ill-engineered logging roads and scalped mountainsides has decreased, benefiting fisheries on the Trinity River and its tributaries. But the utter collapse of the timber economy also has been tragic, because it’s not just an industry that has disappeared; a way of life has passed. Hayfork’s decline began in the 1990s, as inventories of large timber declined in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, environmental regulations tightened and mills shut down. The town’s downturn attracted considerable national attention. It became a locus for Option Nine, a federal plan to help logging communities transit to new economies in the aftermath of the spotted-owl brouhaha. During his presidential campaign in 1992, Pat Buchanan made a whistle-stop in Hayfork to inveigh against fuzzy-headed environmentalists. Nothing much came of Option Nine, and even less of Buchanan, but for a brief period, Hayfork’s cri de coeur was heard. Journalists wrote about the town, and the implications its unhappy evolution held for the West in general. I was one of them, unique only because my interest was personal as well as professional: Something of value was being lost in Hayfork, something that could not be measured in dollars and cents. A week seldom goes by that I don’t think of Hayfork and its forests. I visit it often, finding excuses to detour to Highway 3 on north state trips. I keep hoping things will be different. And they are different, but not in a good way. The town was afflicted with deep malaise when I first wrote about it, but now it is dying, and its imminent demise points to a larger death: that of the logging culture. In the late 1990s, the incipient social decay was palpable; today, it is triumphant. East of town, a log house I built with my first wife is in complete disrepair. Junked cars and trucks slowly decompose to their essential elements in the fields we once planted to oats and vetch. Some of the small, fastidiously maintained homes formerly owned by loggers and millworkers now appear inhabited by meth freaks, with garbage piled in windrows in the front yards. Others are abandoned, sheltering only bats, wood rats, rattlesnakes and skunks. The population is aging; the young flee as soon as they can. There is nothing here for them. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/03/CMGRKKDEPF1.DTL

13) Aug. 29: Judge Gary B. Tranbarger sentences the defendants. Richard Mowbray receives 12 years and eight months in state prison, Denise Mowbray is sentenced to nine years and eight months, and Williams is given to nine years. The past decade’s drought and bark-beetle epidemic in the San Bernardino National Forest created a furious need to remove millions of dead trees. Logging experts landed contracts worth millions of dollars to rid the forest of the diseased trees, which can fuel disastrous wildfires — as residents witnessed in 2003. All the companies were supposed to maintain proper paperwork, including updated workers’ compensation insurance. Not every one complied. The Denise Mowbray Tree Co. — under the name of Arrowhead Tree Service — cut corners by hiring unskilled, undocumented day laborers, cheated the state on payroll taxes and filed fraudulent paperwork to keep their workers’ compensation insurance premiums down, according to authorities and testimony in Riverside County Superior Court. The Corona mom-and-pop operation, thanks to the bark beetle’s devastating effects, boosted the company into a $25 million business in 2004. Richard and Denise Mowbray drove his-and-her Hummers, paid off a $1 million Norco home and reclined on $56,000 worth of furniture. The Norco couple forked out $500 for dinners when negotiating contracts. They withdrew $5,000 from the bank before heading to Las Vegas, according to court testimony. All told, the company cheated the state out of more than $4 million. Penalties and interest raised the amount owed to the state to nearly $5 million. “This was a family-run business that grew way too big way too fast with way too much greed,” said Susan Nila, a senior investigator in the Riverside County district attorney’s office’s white-collar crime unit. “And the kingdom came crashing down.” The company did not report accurate employee numbers — as many as 600 at one point — to the State Compensation Insurance Fund, the firm’s insurance provider. Such practices meant the Mowbray company paid lower premiums — an illegal tactic that puts legitimate companies out of business, Nila said. Eventually all three defendants pleaded guilty to the 80-plus counts charged against them.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_C_mowbray02.3b7b3fe.html

Idaho:

14) “This is really warp speed for the Forest Service,” he said. “They made a nice piece of the area available for commercial harvest.” The environmental assessment, released last week, calls for opening up most of the blowdown area to commercial logging outfits. More than 1,500 acres is slated for auction in five separate logging sales, said Bill Gamble, the lead author of the 220-page report. If the assessment clears a 30-day public comment period without objection, the Forest Service will open bidding in late September with the aim of allowing loggers in by October. The sales are expected to generate about 18 million board feet of timber worth about $1.5 million, according to the report. In all, the tornado downed about 26.8 million board feet of ponderosa pine, Douglas fir and white pine trees. A board foot is the equivalent of a piece of lumber measuring 1 foot by 1 foot by 1 inch. The twister packing 150 mph winds spun through the outskirts of Bear, Idaho, (pop. 14), carving a 12-mile swath of downed logs and snapping branches in the Payette National Forest. The Forest Service worked with Idaho Conservation League in crafting the salvage plan. Though loggers will use dozers, excavators, rubber-tire skidders, and in some cases, helicopters, to haul out logs, companies will not build many new roads, Gamble said. Within five years, new tree plantations will line the blowdown areas, he said. http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?feed=AP&Date=20060830&ID=598281
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Montana:

15) In fact, one of his tasks mirrors being a florist, just on a monster scale. Totten operates a ‘skidder,’ a tracked vehicle with a giant hydraulic claw that grasps one end of a bundle of logs to drag up and down mountain slopes in the Kootenai National Forest, like a hand holding the end of a flower bouquet. Totten, 43, is one of the handful of employees still working at Owens & Hurst to tie up the company’s loose ends. The company has a few logging contracts to finish. Logging equipment has to be maintained. Remnants of the torn-down mill have to be removed. Totten now makes about $15,000 less a year at Owens & Hurst than when he was its production manager. Just before the skidder puts the log bundle on a bigger pile for trucks to pick up, Totten stops the skidder next to a chainsaw. He then saws off any remaining brush plus any ends that appear thinner than what a mill will accept; just like checking and trimming flower stems before putting them in a vase. Totten and a few other managers learned about the closure a half hour ahead of the rest of the employees. All of a sudden, you lose the job you’ve worked at for 20 years, the job you expected to retire from, Totten said. And Totten had to work out his own anger at the National Forest Service, environmentalists, the mill industry, all the outside-his-control factors that he believes took away much of his family’s livelihood. After that, the bottom line is you’ve gotta do something, he said. Kathy Totten ran a Eureka flower shop on top of her teaching job from 1996 to 2000 before selling it. With the mill shutdown, she eventually switched to teaching Mondays through Wednesday, and the pair bought Mums’ with its one full-time and two part-time employees in Whitefish. She works at Mums on Thursdays through Saturdays, while her husband joins her on Saturdays. Kathy and Jeff Totten love working with flowers, enjoying the creativity of making bouquets and the smiles of people receiving them. But the Tottens have given up a lot. http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2006/09/03/news/news01.txt

Colorado:

16) Also Thursday, Vail Resorts Inc. announced it is partnering with the National Forest Foundation to raise money for conservation projects in Colorado’s White River National Forest and the national forest of the Lake Tahoe Basin in California and Nevada. The resort is asking its guests to contribute $1 on season-pass purchases, online lift-ticket transactions and lodging. Earlier this month, Vail Resorts became the nation’s second-largest purchaser of wind power. “We feel like the only way to really effect change is to bring everyone together, pick a common goal and put all our efforts toward it,” said Vail Resorts chief executive Rob Katz. Each dollar raised will be matched with a 50-cent donation from the National Forest Foundation, the nonprofit partner of the U.S. Forest Service. The goal is to raise up to $600,000 this winter. Copper Mountain, owned by Intrawest Corp., announced a similar partnership with the forest foundation earlier this summer. The resort said it wants to raise $75,000 in the next year. http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_4269916

New Mexico:

17) TAOS — A federal judge has rejected an attempt by environmentalists to stop a proposed timber sale near Vallecitos in the Carson National Forest, but the environmentalists have vowed to appeal. Forest Guardians sued in April 2005 over the sale, expressing concern over the lack of limits on the size of trees that could be cut in the 23,767-acre Agua-Caballos section. U.S. District Judge James Browning of Albuquerque rejected claims that the project violated consistency provisions of the National Forest Management Act. He would not address other objections raised in the appeal, ruling that Forest Guardians and Carson Forest Watch had not exhausted their administrative appeals over claims about the National Environmental Policy Act and other issues. “It was a disappointing decision for sure,” said John Horning, executive director of Santa Fe-based Forest Guardians. “But by no means is it the final word as far as Forest Guardians and the other plaintiffs are concerned.” http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/48664.html

Minnesota:

18) Montissippi Park, with a picnic area on the Mississippi River, features 170 acres of hardwoods and pine plantings, a boat launch, two miles of paved hiking/ski trails and a DNR fishing pier. The park commission is considering thinning the red pine plantation in Montissippi Park, with the removal of 25 percent of the forest. “By thinning one of every three rows of diseased, forked and broken trees, and leaving the highest quality timber, we can preserve the trees in the park for the future,” Mattice said. “The way the forest is now, it makes for a major fire hazard.” The commission will contract with a timber company to harvest about 60 cords of the red pines that will be removed and sold. The red pine is an evergreen tree characterized by tall, straight growth, which usually ranges from 20-35 meters in height and 1 meter in trunk diameter. The crown is conical in young trees, becoming a narrow rounded dome with age. The bark is thick and gray-brown at the base of the tree, but thin, flaky and bright orange-red in the upper crown. The jack pines in the forest are in very poor condition, according to Mattice, and would be cleared in one to two acre pockets scattered around the forest. Once removed, the trees would be chipped. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will do the plotting and timber processing. http://www.monticellotimes.com/main.asp?SectionID=10&SubSectionID=76&ArticleID=13802&TM=45470
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New York:

19) Volunteers will tackle about a half-dozen Finger Lakes National Forest projects as part of National Public Lands Day the end of this month. All that’s needed are the willing hands. Forestry technician Marvin Mobbs promised volunteers “We’ll sweat a little, learn a lot and make improvements beyond measurement.” There is a culvert to be installed on the Backbone Trail, some gravel work near the Potomac Group Campground, a washed out trail near Foster Pond in need of repair and other projects. Marjorie Tweedale said the Finger Lakes National Forest will be part of National Public Lands Day on Sept. 30.
The event was begun, she said, so the millions of Americans who use federal, state and local lands “could spend a day giving something back to the land and their country.
“By doing so, they acknowledge the important role that public lands play in America as irreplaceable natural resources and unmatched recreational venues,” she said. “This is the ninth year the Finger Lakes National Forest will be hosting National Public Lands Day, and we are excited to build on the foundations of past accomplishments,” Tweedale said. http://www.stargazettenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060903/COLUMNIST03/609030324

New England:

20) In September 2003, Littleton voters approved spending $500,000 on a conservation restriction to help the foundation buy Prouty Woods for $2.65 million. Responding to pleas from neighbors and other users of Littleton’s popular Prouty Woods Community Forest, the New England Forestry Foundation is revising its plan for cutting down trees this winter. About 40 people attended an informational meeting last Tuesday at the foundation’s headquarters on Foster Street in the former Prouty home adjacent to the woods. The majority at the meeting urged the foundation to reduce the number of trees it will harvest and sell for timber, and to avoid harvesting in areas near popular trails, homes, and the most majestic sections of the woods. “I’m objecting to treating this land the same as if it were land in the White Mountain National Forest,” said Alan Silberberg, whose Aspen Road home abuts the woods. “You’re cutting a high percentage of the land.” The plan Balch presented at the meeting was to cut all the trees, except for a few individual specimens, within 27 half-acre circles scattered around the property. An additional 12 acres were to be thinned, with some trees cut and some left standing. Approximately 19 percent of the trees in the woods were to be felled. DeVenne said his organization will “basically go back to the drawing board” and consider moving and possibly eliminating some of the 27 half-acre circles earmarked for cutting. He said the foundation might increase the size of a cleared area just below a hilltop in the woods, which would enhance a sweeping view of distant mountains. The Prouty Woods harvest will amount to about 10 percent of this year’s total acreage and gross $25,000 to $30,000, which is about 7 percent of total proceeds, he said. “These lands are our endowment,” Balch said. “We don’t have a stock portfolio; we have land.” There are about 1,450 acres of conservation land in Littleton and 90 percent of them are forested, Art Lazarus, a land steward at Prouty Woods and a trustee of the Littleton Conservation Trust, said after the meeting. The 90 acres in Prouty Woods are the only ones that professional foresters are taking over from Mother Nature and developing a forest-management plan for timber harvesting. “I think it’s an excellent plan,” Lazarus said. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/09/03/prouty_woods_cutting_plan_to_be_revisited
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Maryland:

21) About three weeks ago, Bill and Barbara Broach heard the whine of chain saws near their wooded, 3-acre lot in Parkton, followed by the sounds of trees crashing down. Concerned, the Broaches started making calls and learned that three neighbors on Laurel Ridge Drive, each of whom occupies a similarly sized lot, had contracted with a logging company to remove trees from their properties. “We couldn’t believe that people would be allowed to clear out all those trees,” said Barbara Broach, who has lived in Parkton since 1984. “With all the county does to protect the environment, there’s just dirt now instead of woods, and when it rains, that’s going to end up in the stream and then Prettyboy Reservoir.” The Broaches called the Baltimore County Soil Conservation District, Baltimore County’s Department of Environmental Protection and Resource Management, the Army Corps of Engineers, Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources and the Maryland Department of the Environment. They also called the Prettyboy Watershed Alliance, the Gunpowder Conservancy, the Audubon Society, the Sierra Club, and their elected officials, Del. Wade Kach and County Councilman Bryan McIntire. With each call, however, they found out that what the neighbors were doing was perfectly legal. Cornwell said property owners may clear about 40,000 square feet – almost an acre – without a permit from his office. Clearing more than 40,000 square feet requires an approved forest harvest plan – but because the houses on Laurel Ridge Drive were built before the county implemented conservation measures such as stream, forest and wetland buffers, the entire acreage on each property was eligible for logging, he said. http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?pnpID=806&NewsID=743864&CategoryID=8408&show=localn
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Vermont:

22) Standing in the filtered sunlight on the flank of Glastenbury Mountain, feeling the light breeze and hearing nothing but the leaves, I find it easy to see this land as wilderness. Even though signs of past logging are evident, the trees are maturing and civilization seems far away. I hope that someday my great-grandchildren will be able to share this experience. Sometimes, indeed, this sharing seems like the moral imperative behind wilderness preservation. But the justification of wilderness is not so easy. Others enjoy these woods on snowmobiles and ATVs, and they, too, wish to pass down their experiences. Too many competing ways to care for a forest vie for our attention. There is a deeper ethical motivation behind wilderness protection, though — one rooted more in reflection than experience. In quiet moments, when we ask ourselves who we aspire to be as a people, most of us would probably list self-restraint, humility, and compassion among the virtues that represent the best in us. Wilderness designation is one way we can deeply express these virtues as a society. So what role does virtue have in crafting public policy? In a time when policymakers are highly focused on science and human welfare, it’s important to remind ourselves that some of our most powerful political documents–including the Bill of Rights, the Civil Rights Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act–are founded on a vision of who we aspire to be. Indeed, matters of ethics often provide the strongest motivation for action. Thus, we must ask ourselves: Are we balanced in our relation to the land? Frankly, it seems doubtful to me that the Vermont Wilderness Act of 2006, which as currently written by our congressional delegation would leave us with only 1.5 percent of Vermont in wilderness, is a balanced expression of who we want to be as a people. Even the Vermont Wilderness Association’s original proposal of 80,000 acres of additional designation would leave only 2 percent in wilderness — hardly a balance — but it would include the peak of Glastenbury Mountain and other remote and beautiful places. http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060903/OPINION/609030323/1006
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North Carolina:

23) More than 600 houses are planned on the tract, far less than the 1,300 that could be built, keeping average lot sizes of more than one acre. A 400-slip marina carved out of the property’s interior should reduce pollution to creeks. Land preserved by taxpayers will keep 238 acres largely undeveloped and protect a creek. For nearly 50 years, the 1,300-acre tract grew pine trees for the Weyerhaeuser Corp. to turn pulp into paper. Today, much of it remains covered in forest, logging roads and dense thickets too tangled for easy walking. More than a decade ago, Weyerhaeuser’s real estate group saw the tract as well-suited for a residential golf community with a marina on Broad Creek, similar to its Cypress Landing golf subdivision up the coast near Washington, N.C. But company officials wanted to avoid the lengthy and expensive legal battle with environmental groups that for two years had tied up the construction of a marina to serve Cypress Landing. In 1999, Weyerhaeuser real estate officials approached the N.C. Coastal Federation, an advocacy group, and invited it to look at the River Dunes site and share concerns about developing the land. “It opened the door for them to influence the process,” said Mitchell, who handled the project for Weyerhaeuser before joining the group that bought it from Weyerhaeuser. Todd Miller, executive director of the Coastal Federation, said the developers were open to constructive criticism and showed flexibility in the design. At the recommendation of the federation, the company hired landscape architect Elizabeth Brabec, a founder of Land Ethics Inc., a design studio, to draw a conceptual plan for the property. http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/482298.html

South East Forests:

24) Hurricanes toppled millions of trees across the southeastern United States in 2004 and 2005. Roger Ottmar, a research forester with the USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station (PNW), will soon lead a team of fuels specialists in evaluating the amounts of dead trees and branches left on the forest floor. The team will measure logs, stumps, and other forest fuels across a broad spectrum of pine and hardwood forests, and use the data to develop a photographic guide that forest managers can use to rapidly assess fire hazards in their jurisdiction and develop plans for reducing fuel loads. “The hurricane damage was devastating to both people and forests, and a big wildfire is the last thing they need at this point,” said Ottmar. “By recording the effects on damaged forests, we can assist the process of treating the most flammable fuels.” Forest Service scientists will complete their data collection in the spring of 2007, then translate the data into the guide. These types of guides are already helping federal officials in other regions of the United States, and unprecedented Katrina impacts prompted the recent call to develop a new guide focused on wind-damaged Southern forests. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Forest_Fires_A_Real_Concern_For_Areas_Hit_Hard_By_Hurricane
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USA:

25) The Western Slope No-Fee Coalition today released a six-page research report on a secret Forest Service Policy that could result in thousands of recreation site closures nationwide. The report charges that since at least 2002, the USDA-Forest Service has been secretly implementing a policy initiative called Recreation Site Facility Master Planning, or RSFMP, that threatens to impose a for-profit model on the management of America’s National Forests. RSFMP mandates that every National Forest inventory all its developed recreation sites and rank them compared to a National Required Standard. Those that do not measure up will be closed or “decommissioned” (obliterated). The closures would affect mainly simple, remote facilities favored by local residents, hunters, fishermen, and others who prefer dispersed and minimally developed recreation sites. Forest Service visitor statistics indicate that such visitors make up almost two-thirds of all Forest users. On the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests in western Colorado, up to 100 of 138 sites are slated for closure. That’s 72% of all recreation sites! No public or congressional review of the RSFMP policy has yet occurred. Although 22 Forests have completed 5-Year RSFMP site closure plans and implementation has begun, none of the plans have been publicly released. As part of their research, the No-Fee Coalition was able to obtain two complete plans and partial information about three more. From the data available so far they project that between 3,000 and 5,000 recreation sites will be closed or decommissioned, and as many as 4,000 more will be converted to fee sites or turned over to private for-profit concessionaires to manage. “It is imperative that this secret policy see the light of day,” concluded Funkhouser. “This is a drastic change to National Forest recreation management that should not be allowed to proceed behind closed doors.”
http://www.westernslopenofee.org

26) Workshops in Ecological Forestry are now open for registration! The Conservation Forestry Network* (CFN) is announcing a workshop series on ecological forestry targeting practicing foresters from the public, private and nonprofit sectors that explores forestry practices that maintain biological diversity and ecological services and achieve economic return. Jerry Franklin, one of the most prominent ecologists, has developed a core curriculum that will stress place-based and customized approaches to harvesting through a mix of new science, case study, discussions, and site visits. Workshops for 2006 and early 2007 include: 1) Klamath, OR, 2006 taught by Norm Johnson, Jerry Franklin and Debbie Johnson 2) Minnesota, October 10-11th, 2006 taught by Jerry Franklin and Brian Palik 3) New Hampshire-2006 4) Georgia-Feb 2007 “The short course with Jerry was great. Not only was it of tremendous use to me in my work, but the participants and organizers were fantastic to interact with, and had so many great insights to offer the group. The whole experience was very reaffirming and rejuvenating.” Andrew Hayes, Environmental Planner, Washington Department of Natural Recourses. http://www.osiny.org/conservationforestry/home.htm

Nicaragua:

27) “If we continue like this, soon we will have to change the name of the capital. We are called Managua because, at one time, this land flowed with water practically by just perforating the surface,” said Montenegro. Experts warn that the country’s vegetation coverage has been dramatically reduced. Eighty-five percent of the arid forests and 65 percent of the rainforests have disappeared, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Although Montenegro said he doesn’t have exact data about the amount of water Nicaragua has lost to the destruction of forests, there are certain indicators that the country is facing a grave environmental situation. In 1964, Lake Apanás covered 60 square km, with a forested shoreline. Now it has been reduced to 50 square km as a result of logging in the surrounding area, which led to the disappearance of the Viejo de Jinotega River, which fed the reservoir. According to the Jinotega municipal secretary of environment, María Teresa Centeno, the artificial lake lost volume due to deforestation in its watershed and to unregulated irrigation of nearby fields. CIRA studies indicate that in the southern high plains of Carazo the wells are losing nearly a metre of flow per year, while in the sierras surrounding the capital the loss is nearly 10 metres in the last eight years. The Nicaraguan government says those figures are “approximate”, and decreed a state of emergency in several of the country’s departments where the army has orders to inspect vehicles carrying lumber as a means to prevent illegal trafficking of forest materials. http://www.alterinfos.org/spip.php?article506

Bolivia:

28) It is a well known fact that the poorest countries in the world suffer from the worst environmental problems and Bolivia is not the exception of the rule. The clearing of land for agricultural purposes and the international demand for tropical timber are contributing to massive deforestation; overgrazing and poor cultivation methods of slash-and-burn agriculture is giving way to soil erosions and inundations; and desertification is causing a significant loss of biodiversity, thus erasing the very bases of the ecological system. In Bolivia, however, these problems have a considerable political impact, given that they are linked closely to the problem of land exploitation by a handful of foreign firms. What can be done to find solutions? In order to find a way out of poverty, Bolivia has to learn to protect its environment. On a first view, these two things don’t have much in common. On a second view, however, it is clear that a better protection of the environment and a better conscience of the environmental problems are essential for reducing health problems and to enhance the quality of life, a factor without which an important number of children continue dying each day alone in the streets. To name only one example, it is important to help Bolivian indigenous, the poorest of all citizens in Bolivia, to build installations, even rudimentary, to filter the water by the help of the sunlight and plants that have filtering characteristics. Another example is the problem of deforestation, which can be diminished by cultivating sustainable forests. In San Ignacio, Juan Pablo Sanzetenea, adopted nephew of Che Guevara, teaches professors in his city the importance of informing people about the impact environmental issues can have on their daily life, and that this factor can mean a social change away from poverty. Education is crucial to spread the awareness of these problems, and in San Ignacio, it has been a remarkable success. http://www.apem-wspa.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=105

Brazil:

29) “Our goal is to stop all illegal logging,” Environment Minister Marina Silva told reporters in Sao Paulo. Since June, police have arrested nearly 100 employees of Brazil’s environmental protection agency accused of falsifying logging permits in exchange for bribes. Under the new system, loggers will register their wood shipments on the Web rather than at the local offices of the Brazilian environmental protection agency, Ibama.
But some said that while well-intentioned, the measure was premature. “It’s a good seed in bad soil,” said Marcelo Marquesini of environmental group Greenpeace’s Amazon campaign. “If this or any other system is not integrated with good enforcement able to identify frauds in real time, the illegality will continue.” Marquesini said one of the problems with the system is that environmental agents would need Internet access during inspections to verify whether the new certificates are valid. Wireless Internet is almost nonexistent in the Amazon region, and Ibama’s agents often lack vehicles or gasoline — not to mention laptop computers. The rain forest lost 7,300 square miles (18,900 square kilometers) — an area more than half the size of Belgium — between July 2004 and August 2005, down from 10,500 square miles (27,200 square kilometers) the year before, according to the Environment Ministry. Greenpeace estimates that three-quarters of rain forest logging is illegal, as ranchers routinely ignore regulations requiring land owners to leave 80 percent of forested areas untouched. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/01/america/LA_GEN_Brazil_Amazon_Logging.php

30) Brazil proposed on Thursday a fund to compensate developing countries that slow the destruction of their rainforests, a move that could help lower emissions of gases blamed for rising world temperatures. The Brazilian initiative, presented at a planning meeting for upcoming global climate talks in Rome, calls for creating a fund that countries could tap into if they could prove they had brought deforestation below rates of the 1990s. “Once again Brazil is acting as a protagonist in presenting an innovative proposal,” Environment Minister Marina Silva told Reuters at a conference in Sao Paulo. Disagreements over how to address deforestation have hurt global efforts to cap emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and create markets for trading in carbon and credits. Most emissions come from burning oil and coal, but deforestation is responsible for about 20 percent because trees store carbon dioxide when they grow and release it into the atmosphere when they die. Global agreements allow credit for planting trees where forests have already been cleared but offer no incentives for preventing cutting in areas like Brazil’s Amazon, home to nearly a third of all species and a quarter of the earth’s fresh water. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=qw115705800367B251

Paraguay:

30) The World Wildlife Fund today congratulated the Republic of Paraguay for its efforts in reducing deforestation rates by 85 percent. This was achieved through the implementation of the Zero Deforestation Law which prohibits the transformation and conversion of forested areas in the eastern region of Paraguay. Before the law came into force in December 2004, Paraguay had the second highest deforestation rate in the world. Through satellite monitoring, WWF has verified that deforestation in the Upper Parana Atlantic Forest, a habitat for endangered species such as the Jaguar and Harpy Eagle, has decreased from between 217,453 – 420,079 acres, an area larger than Rocky Mountain National Park, annually before the implementation of the law, to a current level of approximately 40,000 acres annually, a reduction of more than 85 percent. “At a time when governments are getting into the debate on the role of deforestation in greenhouse gas emissions and therefore climate change, Paraguay is already setting an important precedent in tackling the problem,” said Leonardo Lacerda, Conservation Manager with WWF’s global forest program in presenting the Paraguayan Government with a Leaders For A Living Planet award. At the same time, WWF urges the Paraguayan government to extend the law until such time as measures for responsible soy cultivation and sustainable forest management are developed together with a commitment to restore priority forest areas. WWF recognizes the success of the Zero Deforestation Law, and is concerned by mounting pressure from the farming lobby and loggers to not extend the law beyond its current expiration date, December, 2006. An extension of this law will help guarantee the development of long-term sustainable agriculture, protect water sources, provide jobs and improve the quality of life in rural communities while at the same time protecting the Atlantic Forest’s unique biodiversity. http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=71521

India:

31) These villages lying at the border of Manipur are also the ones where pines are most abundantly grown. It is reported that police and Forest Department officials of Jessami check post charge Rs 400/500 per truck load of resin exported to Nagaland. Ten years back, huge beams of pine trees were exported to Nagaland in large numbers of truck loads. But people had given up the timber trade following prohibition of the large scale export by one UG group, informed a villager of Jessami while talking to reporters visiting the village. Along this route from Kharasom village to Jessami large piles of pine resin were seen in every courtyard and the roadside. During a brief halt at Kharasom village, the villagers told reporters that the pine resins were not for home use but for export to Dimapur. They also disclosed that this trade was the principal livelihood of the villagers.
The resins were prepared from dead pine trees or from old pine trees which have been cut down a long time before in the deep jungles. To prepare such resins the barks of the trimmed trees should be removed, disclosed a villager. To collect a truck load of resin by six persons from jungles, it takes about 6/7 days, he added. Informing that 13/14 tonnes can be loaded on a truck, the villagers said that they pile up the prepared resins at spots where trucks can drive in. As for Jessami village, there are about 4/5 businessmen who send pine resins to Dimapur. Jessami alone supply not less than 10 truck loads of resin every week to the resin traders. http://www.e-pao.net/GP.asp?src=1..040906.sep06

32) People living in the fringes of forests need not be necessarily forest destroyers and the wood smugglers, if the department/ Government could supplement their income through legal forest development works and organized extraction of the forest produce. Such a programme would not only protect the forests but would encourage people to be the partners in the forest development. The forest products will be used more rationally for their benefits as they will have the real stake in its protection and development. Non -Timber Forest products (NTFP’S) could be the means of involving people in the development, protection/ production and self help schemes. The programme will be of immense significance in the Joint Forest Management (JFM) introduced recently in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Since the extensive and reckless collection of Taxus bark and leaves for the synthesis of Taxol, all along the length and breadth in Himalayas and other regions have put it into the 2000 IUCN Red list of threatened species. These trends have badly affected the very genetic resource base of the species. Taxus wood is the hardest of all coniferous woods, saws moderately easily, works very well on machines, finishing to a beautiful and smooth surface and takes an exceptionally fine and lasting polish. The wood is orange brown or dark claret- brown, often marked with lighter and darker streaks along the grain, light to heavy weight (Wt. 592-945 Kg/ Cu.m), elastic and straight It is very durable and known for its toughness and immunity against rotting, for which reason it is used for cabinet work, candlesticks, and other fancy articles, such as handles of knives and back of combs and for wood carving and inlaying. It is also used for furniture, veneers, parquet, flooring and paneling and for gates and fences. It is locally used for poles, ploughs, carts axles, and cheap grade pencils and spindles. It is a cheaper type of gun and rifle wood. Formerly it used to be of great demand for bows. In Ladakh before independence its bark was used as a sort of tea. The wood is also used to cremate the dead bodies (Calorific value 4143 Cals) and its bark also finds use in making essence sticks. http://www.greaterkashmir.com/full_story.asp?Date=31_8_2006&ItemID=2&cat=12

China:

33) At 62 percent, Fujian Province boasts the highest forest coverage rate in China. Yet as its natural forests are replaced with fast-growing tree plantations, the province has experienced worsening flooding and other natural disasters in recent years. This has alarmed experts like Li Zhenji, Associate Professor of Ecology at Xiamen University, who is studying the links between forest loss and disasters. According to Li, the thick layers of vegetation and dead wood found in natural forests readily retain rain water, thereby controlling surface flow. But as China’s native evergreen groves are cleared and replaced (in Fujian, first with Chinese red pine forests, then with high-yielding eucalyptus and other species), this significantly reduces their ability to retain water. As one of southern China’s major forest regions, Fujian Province has seen a growing deficit in its forest resources, with annual consumption far exceeding net annual growth over the past four decades. The trend reversed slightly during China’s nationwide “greening” campaign in the 1990s, but most new plantations are monoculture plots such as fruit orchards, fir, pine, or eucalyptus. During the early stages of growth, the ability of these trees to retain water is exceptionally poor, and even moderate precipitation may cause severe flooding. Better protection, however, requires stricter implementation of forestry laws and regulations as well as due punishment of those who violate them. This is not always easy. In Fuzhu Village, where logging has accelerated significantly in recent years (see Part 1 of this story), villagers Zheng Wenxi and Wu Qingui say that timber company Fangte Company started cutting down forests without initially obtaining a logging license. “The natural forests were very difficult to log, so they set fire to them and then cleared whatever survived the fire,” they explain. Yet state regulations prohibit setting fire on any plots where there are forests. http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4495

Vietnam:

34) Over recent years, Ninh Thuan province, particularly Phuoc Nam, Phuoc Minh and Phuoc Dinh communes of its Ninh Phuoc district, has been affected by prolonged droughts. Phuoc Nam commune, which was hardest hit by droughts and desertisation, was chosen to be the venue for implementing the pilot project. The commune has developed a combined form of agriculture and forestry in the degraded and desertified areas. It has accelerated afforestation and forest preservation and boost animal husbandry in the shade of forest trees in drought areas. The commune has also applied scientific and technological advances to conservation of land resources and improvement of the environment in order to boost economic development and to combat desertisation. It has held various training courses to raise local authorities’ management capacity and to increase public awareness of environmental protection and measures to avoid risks caused by natural calamities. http://english.vietnamnet.vn/tech/2006/09/608544
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Thailand:
35) Forestry Department chief Chatchai Ratanophat was yesterday ordered transferred by caretaker Natural Resources and Environment Minister Yongyuth Tiyapairat to enable an investigation into the recent seizure of illegal high-grade timber in the Northeast. Mr Yongyuth said the transfer was to pave the way for a probe into the case involving a warehouse raid in Lat Krabang earlier this week in which 1,644 logs of payoong hardwood, a protected species under the Wildlife and Plant Conservation Act, were seized. Authorities suspected that the timber, worth around three million baht, and destined for export to China, was felled in a Thai forest and sent to Laos to be exported to China via Thailand. Eleven illegal payoong loggers have been arrested and more than 1,000 payoong logs seized at the Klong Toey port. The transfer would enable a ‘transparent’ probe, the minister said. http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/02Sep2006_news16.php

Vietnam:

36) It has grown at a scorching pace in the last five years – of around 40 percent – according to the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association. The country initially targeted exports of $600 million in 2005 and $1.2 billion in 2010. However, by 2005 it went past $1.5 billion, and is expected to reach $2 billion this year. Now, the Ministry of Trade forecasts exports to top $5.7 billion by 2010. But the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is more cautious, estimating exports of just $4 billion by 2010 and double that by 2020. The country ships wooden furniture and handicrafts to 120 countries and territories with Japan and the EU (France and Germany) being the top buyers. The US is considered a promising market where exports are likely to grow. However, wood industry experts said huge capital would be required to grow forests and import timber and equipment to facilitate any further growth. Vietfores said more than 2,000 wood processors in the country lacked funds to develop forests and purchase equipment. The industry had a processing capacity of 3-3.5 million cu.m of timber per year but domestic timber supplies could only meet 20 percent of that figure. The remainder had to be imported resulting in high costs since imported wood prices had risen 20-22 per cent in the past three years following a ban on logging and timber exports in many countries. Since last year, for instance, exporters like Indonesia and Malaysia had halted exports, sending Vietnamese processors scrambling for other sources, Vietfores said. http://www.thanhniennews.com/business/?catid=2&newsid=19502

World- Wide:

37) Through a deep and tangled wood lies a glade so lovely and wet and lush as to call to mind a hobbit’s sanctuary. A lichen-covered statue rises in a garden of native grasses, and a misting rain drips off a slate roof. At the yard’s edge a plump muskrat waddles into the brush. “Hello!” A lean, white-haired gentleman in a blue wool sweater and khakis beckons you inside his whitewashed cottage. We sit beside a stone hearth as his wife, Sandy, an elegant blonde, sets out scones and tea. James Lovelock fixes his mind’s eye on what’s to come. “It’s going too fast,” he says softly. “We will burn.” Why is that? “Our global furnace is out of control. By 2020, 2025, you will be able to sail a sailboat to the North Pole. The Amazon will become a desert, and the forests of Siberia will burn and release more methane and plagues will return.” Sulfurous musings are not Lovelock’s characteristic style; he’s no Book of Revelation apocalyptic. In his 88th year, he remains one of the world’s most inventive scientists, an Englishman of humor and erudition, with an oenophile’s taste for delicious controversy. Four decades ago, his discovery that ozone-destroying chemicals were piling up in the atmosphere started the world’s governments down a path toward repair. Not long after that, Lovelock proposed the theory known as Gaia, which holds that Earth acts like a living organism, a self-regulating system balanced to allow life to flourish. Now Lovelock has turned his attention to global warming, writing “The Revenge of Gaia: Earth’s Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity.” Already a big seller in the United Kingdom, the book was released in the United States last month. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/01/AR2006090101800.html