154 – Earth Tree News

Today for you 38 news items about Mama Earth’s trees. Location, number and subject listed below. Condensed / abbreviated article is listed further below.

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–British Columbia: 1) Five billion board feet of underwater logging is possible
–Washington: 2) Rainforest Action Group visits Quadrant Homes, 3) Coal mine closes,
–Oregon: 4) Save the Middle Santiam Wilderness, 5) Logging for city-owned Marys Peak, 6) BLM violated law when it sold old growth, 7) Plum Creek uses Measure 37 loophole for 15,000 acres of housing developments,
–California: 8) Logging to expand UC Berkeley creates treesit and lawsuit, 9) YMCA is uncertain about logging impacts but determined to log anyways,
–Montana: 10) Sun Mountain Lumber plowing roads to log burned trees
–New Jersey: 11) Bear Swamp forest
–New Hampshire: 12) Corrupt logger fined again and again,
–Maryland: 13) Citizen advisory board ignores citizens, plans more logging
–New England: 14) The making of a big tree defender
–New York: 15) Moose move into region’s forests
–Vermont: 16) Bush signs wilderness bill
–Pennsylvania: 17) Monocacy Hill Recreation Area is a refuge
–Florida: 18) Cypress forests clearcut for cypress mulch, 19) Panthers increase, as well as decline, 20) Two hundred acres of forest lost everyday to development,
–Scotland: 21) Soil Association issues bogus FSC permit
–Austria: 22) Log tracking technology with RFID built into harvesting equipment,
–Armenia: 23) Country will be a desert in 20 years,
–Palestine: 23) Israel’s destruction of Olive trees in Palestine blamed on Palestinians,
–Israel: 24) Plans for forest burned in recent war
–Iran: 25) Sustainable forest and tree resources management and watershed development
–Sudan: 26) Elephants return to forests of South Sudan
–Mozambique: 27) Bush fires are devastating habitat
–Uganda: 28) Sugar industry wants to delist 17,000 protected acres,
–Ecuador: 29) Road building increases pathogen and disease between villages,
–Brazil: 30) New protection in North Brazil, 31) Tropical dams create CO2 emissions,
–Nepal: 32) Glacial melt destroying downstream forests and communities
–Tibet: 33) Plateau a vast forest of Cypress 5000 years ago
–Australia: 34) Mismanagement in Tasmania, 35) See the impact of Tasmanian logging with new layers added in GoogleEarth, 36) 400 year old trees cut in SW, 37) Camp Weld challenged after more than a year of success,
–World-wide: 38) Livestock’s Long Shadow

British Columbia:

1) Triton estimates that British Colombia alone has five billion board feet of salvageable lumber submerged underwater and that the number could exceed 100 billion board feet worldwide. The estimated value of these some odd 300 million submerged trees is $50 billion. The underwater forests of the world are waiting to be harvested. When massive hydroelectric dams are created, huge areas of forest are often flooded, submerging habitats and displacing whatever human communities happened to call that place home. But the forests that become part of the underwater landscape can be well preserved for decades, and are still viable stocks of timber. Harvesting underwater lumber from rivers and man-made lakes is not a brand new idea, but Triton Logging Co., the “underwater harvesting specialist”, has a bit of an edge. The Sawfish is a 7,000 lb, unmanned logging submarine that is remotely controlled from the surface. The robotic lumberjack latches onto the trunk of a submerged tree, attaches inflatable airbags to the trunk, deploys its chainsaw, and then releases the tree to float up to the surface. The Sawfish is powered by electric motors, sports eight video camera eyes as well as sonar, and uses “biodegradable and vegetable oil-based hydraulic fluids Submerged timber harvested by Triton is all certified as SmartWood Rediscovered by the Rainforest Alliance. According to BuildingGreen, Triton harvests Douglas fir, western white pine, lodgepole pine, and hemlock year round in British Colombia. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/11/underwater_lumberjacks.php
Washington:

2) It was an unseasonable dry day on Sunday when the Seattle Rainforest Action Group paid Quadrant Homes a visit. Gravel and dirt crunched underfoot as we strode into a house under construction- all around where strand board, 2x4s, nail-gun cartridges, and sloppily-assembled studs that are par for the course of Quadrant’s low-quality building. And there before us, the evidence we sought: “LSL Rimboard, Made in Canada.” As Rainforest Action Network research has proven, this cobbled-together mixture of wood chips and glue used to build Quadrant Homes contains remnants of the forest that the people of Grassy Narrows have called home for thousands of years. With this knowledge in hand, we walked across the street to the model homes, those fully furnished preview versions for their customers. It was a quiet sales day (maybe Quadrant ain’t doing too well…) and nobody was around, so we walked right in. We wanted to make sure that future home buyers wouldn’t be duped into thinking these houses were ‘Built Green’, but in fact contained wood from massive unauthorized clearcuts on Grassy Narrows land. So, as we walked through eerily empty, yet muzak-filled rooms, we found all kinds of creative places to leave truth-telling brochures and stickers. We had so much fun, we stopped by two separate Quadrant developments, and had a really great conversation with a guy who was holding a Quadrant sign on a busy street. He turned out to be a really great guy (in a really way-out 80’s style snow suite!), who knew all about Canadian logging and was completing our own sentences as we explained the campaign to him! All in all, another great day putting a little pressure on one of the key acupuncture points of the world’s largest logging company- Weyerhaeuser Corporation. http://searag.org/

3) Closure of the Centralia coal mine last week won’t halt or hinder work to restore the areas disturbed by mining, according to company officials and federal regulators. What is in question is the effect the sudden cessation in mining will have on the pace of work to convert huge surfacing mining pits created there the past 35 years back into a mosaic of forest and pasture lands, wetlands and lakes, much of which existed before mining began. Within mine boundaries totaling just shy of 15,000 acres, there are about 4,257 acres of disturbed land associated with five surface mining pits called North Hanaford, West Packwood, Central Packwood, Pit No. 7 and Kopiah. “It’s one of the largest surface mines in the country,” said Glenn Waugh, a senior regulatory program specialist with the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining in Olympia. To date, about 2,000 acres of mine is in some state of reclamation – recontoured and covered with topsoil or replanted with trees, Waugh said. The mine, which is rarely seen by the public, is 5 miles northeast of Centralia near Bucoda on the Thurston-Lewis county line. Last Monday, the mine owner, TransAlta, a Calgary, Alberta, Canada-based utility, announced plans to immediately shut down the mine and switch to Powder River Basin Coal in Wyoming to fuel its Centralia power plant.The decision to close the mine was triggered by rising mining costs and landslides in the mine that buried dwindling coal reserves, said Doug Jackson, director of U.S. Operations for TransAlta. With the closure of the mine, there are no active coal mines left in Washington state, Waugh said. Since 1995, the mine has produced 4 million to 6 million tons of coal per year. By industry standards, the coal is considered fairly dirty and high in sulfur content. Coal deposits from Centralia date back to the Eocene Epoch 55 million years ago, when southwest Washington was a swampy region by the sea, teeming with aquatic life. Over millions of years, sediments from the sea buried plant and animal life, compressing and decomposing it into 500 million tons of coal, not all of which is recoverable or of high enough quality to burn in a power plant. http://www.theolympian.com/102/story/53998.html

Oregon:

4) SWEET HOME — After eight years of debate, the Sweet Home Ranger District will try again to thin 189 acres of densely-stocked second-growth in the Willamette National Forest. After the 30-day comment period closed Nov. 29, opponents of the proposal planned to appeal, saying the logging will destroy northern spotted owl habitat. The proposed timber thinning lies between the Three Pyramids Special Interest Area and the Middle Santiam Wilderness, in an area designated for timber harvests by the Northwest Forest Plan. The problem is that much of the area lacks roads, and is within a critical habitat unit for the northern spotted owl. The South Pyramid Timber Sale was first proposed in 1998 as an old-growth clearcut, District Ranger Mike Rassbach said, but has seen many revisions since that time. The initial sale was postponed when a federal lawsuit over spotted owls changed old-growth policy, Rassbach said. After several more proposals, revised in the face of criticism by environmental groups, the ranger district now plans to thin stands between 80 and 150 years old. The thinning is intended to reduce fire fuel, enhance the growth of other trees and produce between 4 million and 4.5 million board feet of timber, about half the district’s annual harvest. “We think we have a good proposal,” Rassbach said. “We’ve analyzed all the environmental assessments. If we’ve missed anything, we’ll have to go back again.” He added that the timber is generally purchased by companies in the Willamette Valley. Environmental groups Oregon Wild and Cascadia Wildlands Project both contend that the area should be left alone to return to old growth, and that logging the area would remove habitat important to both the spotted owl and the animals that feed them. Josh Laughlin, director of Eugene-based Cascadia Wildlands Project, said he’s opposed this plan for years because the proposed area is functioning wildlife habitat. He wants to see the district log Douglas fir plantations instead. http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2006/12/03/news/community/1aaa04_logging.txt

5) Whether to resume timber harvesting in the city-owned Corvallis Forest on Marys Peak — and how extensively to do so — appeared to be at the heart of intense discussion at the Nov. 28 Watershed Management Advisory Commission meeting. In preparation for scheduled City Council action on Dec. 18, city consultants presented a draft forest stewardship plan last week to the watershed advisory commission and a peer-review panel. (See www.ci.corvallis.or.us/). Although the process of developing the plan has taken a year and a half, decision-makers have had little time to deliberate on this complex document, which has far-reaching implications. Among the draft plan’s guiding principles is timber harvesting as “a generator of revenue to offset the cost of management and secondarily to help fund the City of Corvallis water utility system.” Since this land has not been logged since 1986, the proposed plan represents a significant departure from current policy. http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2006/12/04/news/opinion/2monlets1204.txt

6) GRANTS PASS — A federal appeals court ruled Monday that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management violated environmental law when it sold old growth timber in southwestern Oregon without considering the cumulative harm that so much logging was having on northern spotted owls and salmon. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reversed the ruling of U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan in Eugene, despite the fact that the Mr. Wilson timber sale outside Glendale had already been cut down. The panel sent the case back to Hogan with orders to have BLM revise the environmental assessment to take a “hard look” at past and future logging in nearby areas. George Sexton, conservation director for Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, a plaintiff in the case, said it was too late to save the 400-year-old trees but he hoped the ruling would make BLM stop cutting so much old growth when much of the U.S. Forest Service is focusing on logging in less controversial second-growth stands. “I think BLM has decided who butters their bread, and they are connected at the hip with the timber industry,” Sexton said. “I don’t see BLM ever reaching the point where they decide to hear the public’s desire to see old growth forest protected and move into less a controversial second-growth thinning program until they log all the old growth or the law is changed.” The timber sale was an area designated for logging by the Northwest Forest Plan, which reduced logging on federal lands in western Oregon, Washington and Northern California to protect habitat for salmon and the spotted owl. In a dissenting opinion, Judge A. Wallace Tashima agreed with Hogan that because the trees had already been cut, the case was moot. But Goodwin wrote that if that were the case, BLM could just rush through logging projects before conservationists could get to court, and never have to follow the law. http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-17/1165274946219100.xml&storylist
=orlocal

7) Planning directors from both counties said they hadn’t had time to analyze the applications Thursday afternoon. But they said a Plum Creek representative told them in separate meetings last week to expect claims on as much as 10,000 to 15,000 acres in each county. Until now, Measure 37 has been fairly low-key in Lincoln County, said planning director Matt Spangler, who accepted 64 Plum Creek applications. “We haven’t generated a great deal of interest from surrounding property owners,” he said. “With a large claim like this, it could be a different story.” Voters approved Measure 37 in 2004, requiring governments to waive planning rules that have restricted the way people use their land — or pay for lost value. Because no money was raised, state agencies and county planning departments are giving the green light for development. The application process gets more complicated after the two-year mark, which arrives this weekend. Most governments will still accept claims on Monday. By all indications, a tally of 3,600 claims statewide as of mid-November is ballooning. At state offices in Salem, workers set up a conference room on Thursday as they accepted 568 applications. Claims were delivered by mail, by courier, by lawyers and by citizens lining up to turn them in, said Alice Beals with the Department of Administrative Services. Even smaller governments, such as Wallowa County in northeastern Oregon, have seen an influx of Measure 37 claims this week. As planning director Lance Bailey put it, “The floodgates are just open.” Though the Plum Creek filings are technically separate claims, their collective impact would outstrip any other Measure 37 proposal. The largest claim through mid-November covered a little more than 6,000 acres, according to an analysis by the Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies at Portland State University. Plum Creek representatives could not be reached Thursday to discuss their plans. A company Web site says the real estate investment trust owns more than 8 million acres of timberland nationwide, including 285,000 acres in Oregon. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1164948937305860.xml&coll=7

California:

8) Well, the inevitable has happened- the University of California at Berkeley has plans to cut a large number of oaks on the campus to make way for a parking lot and athletic field, and now the trees are being occupied by a growing number of tree sitters. Some are students, others are community activists and they are being led by a Blackfoot Indian named Zachary Runningwolf, a 43 year-old former Berkeley Mayoral candidate who garnered some 2000 votes this past election (www.runningwolfformayor.org). I spoke with Zachary by cell phone up in his lofty oak perch this afternoon, and his quote was: “Here in Berkeley, we are so good at preserving 100-year-old landmarked buildings, but we’ll cut down 200-year-old trees that give us air and support wildlife. It’s amazing what this university will do”. As with all successful tree sits, the activists have a solid ground-crew for support. In this case, the head of the Berkeley oaks ground-support is Oakland resident Jeremy Watts who insists the trees ‘talk to him’ and that, “Right now they are screaming”. The planned cutting of the precious oaks has brought hundreds of alarmed local residents and university students to speak out against this destruction and degradation of local wilderness. After exhausting many other avenues, Running Wolf decided to take direct action because UC is stonewalling community, student and even City of Berkeley efforts to find workable solutions. “I’m not coming down until these trees are protected.” said tree-sitter Running Wolf. The tree occupation is ongoing, located between Piedmont Avenue and Memorial Stadium on the UC campus. For more information and to speak to the tree-sitters directly call (469)-544-9756. http://www.EARTHSOURCEMEDIA.com

9) The YMCA purchased the land in 1934 and it now hosts camps there for up to 17,000 children and student visitors each year. Worthington said that logging would be limited to roughly more than a third of the property. Critics, however, say they do not understand why the YMCA is applying for a non-industrial timber management permit (NTMP) that would give the property permanent status as a logging site. They say the YMCA should instead apply for a one-time logging permit. Worthington said the permanent permit is necessary because the logging plan is longterm. He cited a lack of safe evacuation routes and overgrown canopies that pose high fire dangers among several reasons for a need to thin the forest. Worthington also acknowledged that the YMCA would use profits from the timber sold to upgrade obsolete infrastructures at the camp, as most of the buildings were built in the early 1970s. “But I’d rather live in a dilapidated building than tear down trees in a forest,” interjected one YMCA teacher to applause. Another camp leader then asked how she was supposed to teach conservation to children while a chainsaw cuts down a tree behind them. YMCA officials took note of criticisms from the crowd, including suggestions that more qualified consultants and scientists should be hired to better gauge whether the trees pose a fire hazard. The deadline for public comment was extended — for a second time — to Dec. 15. Tree cutting wouldn’t begin until spring of2007. “They keep asking us to follow them in good faith,” said Gavin Combstock, a 28 year-old naturalist who worked and lived at Camp Jones Gulch for a year. “But they keep answering questions with a lot of ‘I don’t knows’ and ‘we’re not sures.’ Yet they sound sure about going through with NTMP instead of alternatives. That’s not a good way to earn our support.” http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/04/SFTREES.TMP

Montana:

10) Sun Mountain Lumber of Deer Lodge may be plowing roads as soon as Sunday and log truck traffic is expected by mid-December. It’s the third and final season Sun Mountain is doing cleanup on the 40,000-acre fire.”The last thing we want is snowmobiles and logging trucks on the same route,” said Amber Kamps, who heads the Lincoln Ranger District of the Helena National Forest. Copper Creek is the district’s most popular winter recreation area, offering loop trails that connect into Copper Creek Road from Lincoln. Sun Mountain Lumber is planning to cut and remove pulp and saw timber. The pulp material will be taken to Stone Container, a paper mill in Missoula. Saw timber will be hauled to Sun Mountain. There hasn’t been much of a pulp market in a long time, Kamps said, so “it’s fortunate we’re able to utilize both saw timber and pulp this time around.” http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061203/NEWS01/612030312/1002

New Jersey:

11) A big part of the attraction is the mysteriousness of the setting. Bear Swamp is part of the 6,000-acre Glades Wildlife Refuge and access to the area with the oldest trees entails going through the U.S. Silica Company property. “There’s a dirt roadway that leads back,” said Eisenhauer. “You have to hike maybe a mile from where we park. You pretty much walk along the edge of the sand-and-gravel mine and look into the forest from there.” Steve Eisenhauer and Pat Sutton will be at it again today: Heading out into the hidden, swampy depths of Cumberland County to see, and show others, trees that were probably alive when Columbus landed. Eisenhauer, regional director of protection and land stewardship for the Natural Lands Trust, and Sutton, a naturalist with the New Jersey Audubon Society, have seen the trees many times. But it’s clear from talking to Eisenhauer that the old growth forests of South Jersey never lose their mystery and charm. “Most of our stuff down here is lowland forest,” said Eisenhauer. “Up north, you have highland forests and not as many swampy forests, in general. But down here, this is truly a swamp forest.” At one point or another during the past 300 years, most of New Jersey’s old-growth trees were felled, either for firewood, lumber or land clearing associated with farming and development. But the swath of woods being visited today by Eisenhauer and Sutton somehow was spared the ax, chainsaw and bulldozer. “Nobody really knows why the trees haven’t been cut,” said Eisenhauer. “It seems to be due to a combination of factors … It’s pretty remote. It’s very wet. It’s a swamp, so there are a lot of bugs in the area, and there are not a lot of roads that go into it.” None of those factors would have stopped the loggers, settlers, farmers and developers if the trees were of more value. But the section of Bear Swamp in question is home to black gum trees, a species also called tupelo, pepperidge or sour gum, which rank low on the list of commercially desirable hardwoods. “Once they get to a certain age, most of them tend to be hollow,” explained Eisenhauer. “They tend to lose the center wood, and they have a very thick outer bark that supports the tree. Because they’re essentially hollow, there’s less incentive to cut them down since you end up with no wood to harvest.” http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1165132520302850.xml&coll=1

New Hampshire:

12) WEBSTER, — A logger fined last year for operations in Loudon and Sandwich is being investigated for wetlands violations on a 240-acre site in town. Gary Bardsley paid $15,000 in fines to the state Nov. 21 for a project in New Hampton in 2003, said Assistant Attorney General Allen Brooks. He said Bardsley was ordered to pay another $10,875 for violations in Loudon and Sandwich.Brooks said Bardsley agreed to pay the fine in August but the state has not received it. Meanwhile, the Department of Environmental Services is investigating the Webster site for possible violations. Concord lawyer Peter McGrath owns the logged properties in Webster, Sandwich and Loudon. McGrath, who is Bardsley’s lawyer, told the Concord Monitor that Bardsley “has cleaned up his act” and that recent violations are less serious than those he committed in the past. “We’re not talking about dumping oil into a well,” said McGrath. “We’re talking about where they are (in Webster), some branches from a logging operation fell into a stream. Or his employees or subcontractors drove a logging truck over a seasonal wetland.” State forest rangers first noticed problems at the site in January. Forest ranger Doug Miner said rangers found logging debris and brush in streams and too close to property lines. He said the state Division of Forest and Lands issued 10 notices to Bardsley and took him to court for not cleaning up the debris by a deadline. “He admitted he hadn’t been down there to look to see if it was totally cleaned up,” said Miner. “He was going on the word of his crew, who told him they did the work. He took responsibility for the actions of his crew and made sure they had it taken care of.” He was fined $600 for two violations.

Maryland:

13) Somehow, the forest industry (and now the Citizens Advisory Board) seems to recommend increased logging as the solution to most forest problems. Why doesn’t the Citizens Advisory Board, if they really represent citizens of Maryland, take the recommendations made by more than 200 citizens last year that requested logging be reduced or eliminated in public forests and the forests be managed for the public good? Now back to the gypsy moths. While heavy infestation of gypsy moths are certainly not good for forests, and have caused the death of many trees, the application of insecticides as the solution to the gypsy Moth problem is not universally agreed upon. Gypsy moths have now been in the U.S. for over 100 years. Gypsy moth outbreaks may last from two to several years, and why gypsy moth populations explode from time to time is not entirely clear. Outbreaks eventually collapse, usually from natural causes. There is both a fungus and a virus that naturally kills large numbers of gypsy moth caterpillars. Moth populations usually have to build to high levels before the virus/fungus kicks in and brings levels down. At high population levels, caterpillars must compete with each other for food and space, and when they get stressed they are more susceptible to diseases. When insecticides are used, many gypsy moths are killed; however, there are always some gypsy moths that survive and populations will increase the next year. If insecticides are applied repeatedly, larvae won’t get stressed and the virus and/or fungus may not kick in. This can cause high gypsy moth populations to occur year after year. In spite of what the letter stated, more logging of state forests does not mean more money would be available for fighting gypsy moth infestations in Maryland. DNR gets to keep most of the revenues derived from logging state forests, and there is nothing in the law that would make DNR spend any of this money to fight the gypsy moth. http://www.times-news.com/opinion/local_story_335104216.html?keyword=secondarystory

New England:

14) Largess continued logging after he returned to New England until his discovery of the Oakland Forest outside of Newport. He called in New York ecologist Charles D. Canham, who took core samples proving the age of the trees, which helped coalesce community sentiment. Over two years, $1.5 million was raised, largely from local contributions ranging from $25 to $100,000, to purchase the forest from the developers, who said they were surprised and pleased by the public’s willingness to purchase the land. The Aquidneck Island Land Trust took possession in 2000. ”That’s an amazing discovery. There it was in highly populated Rhode Island. It shows how places can sneak through,” marveled Robert Leverett, co-author of ”The Sierra Club Guide to Ancient Forests of the Northeast.” ”People didn’t know what old-growth should look like. The trees are a little larger, but if they’re near the ocean, they’re not going to overwhelm you because of growing in suppressed conditions. You can’t equate age with size.” Leverett’s book was published last year as the first field guide for people who want to visit old-growth forests in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. These include about 1,000 acres in Massachusetts in many scattered and usually small parcels that were either bypassed by loggers because of difficult terrain or have been allowed to regrow since the 1600s and 1700s. New England was once home to one of the world’s great forests. By the 1850s it was gone, cleared for farms that grew mostly rocks. But after farming shifted to the Midwest, New England’s woods quietly grew back. Now there are groves here so mature that even experts sometimes cannot tell if they were ever logged, and so have abandoned the term ”virgin forests” for the newer label ”old-growth forests.” ”Once I realized we had trees in the 300- to 400-year-old age range that were off people’s radar scope, I decided to document them to make people more aware and to save trees,” said Leverett, an adjunct computer science professor at Holyoke Community College and a database developer. In 1996 Leverett helped found the Eastern Native Tree Society, whose 110 members search for old stands in remote areas and also for the giant individual trees that often hide in plain sight in parks and cemeteries and that occasionally qualify, after much measuring, as ”champion trees.” http://www.boston.com/yourlife/home/articles/2005/11/17/old_growth_grand_specimens_drive_big_tree_hu
nters/

New York:

15) LAKE DESOLATION, N.Y. — Mark Sharer hiked a few hundred yards through forest to marshland and a pond at the southeastern edge of the Adirondacks, using binoculars to scan the rim of trees for moose. “There’s just a lot of animals missing from our ecosystem. It’s too bad,” he said. Like wolves and cougars, moose were hunted out of New York more than a century ago. But the big herbivores are back, having wandered into New York’s northern forests from Canada and New England over the past 30 years. The North American Moose Foundation, in Mackay, Idaho, estimates there are 1 million in the northern forests across North America and up to 3 million worldwide, many in Scandinavia and Russia. New Hampshire had about 15 moose by the mid-1800s because of unregulated hunting and forest clear-cutting. There are about 7,000 now and a limited hunt after the fall rutting season to help manage the numbers, said Jane Vachon, spokeswoman for the state’s Fish and Game Department. “We didn’t ship them in. It’s not like the turkeys. We brought in 25 turkeys in the 1970s and now we have 30,000,” Vachon said, citing another wildlife restoration success story. “Needless to say, we’re expanding the turkey hunt.” http://www.onelocalnews.com/pioneertimesjournal/ViewArticle.aspx?id=31412&source=2

Vermont:

16) MONTPELIER –Thousands of acres in northern New England were officially designated as wilderness Friday by President Bush. The president signed the New England Wilderness Act of 2006 on Friday. It ordered 34,500 acres in New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest and 42,000 in Vermont’s Green Mountain National Forest to be preserved as wilderness. September when Gov. Jim Douglas objected to the amount of wilderness that was being added in Vermont. He said the state’s congressional delegation had failed to heed the concerns of some timber and traditional use advocates. They argued that the wilderness designation, because it closes the land to motorized uses and logging, was bad public policy. A new version of the bill was drafted, reducing by more than 6,000 acres the amount added to wilderness, and it passed when Congress reconvened after the Nov. 7 election. “Our congressional delegation deserves praise for the successful effort to expand wilderness protection on behalf of Vermonters,” said U.S. Rep.-elect Peter Welch. http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2006/12/01/thousands_of_acres_designated_w
ilderness_by_president/

Pennsylvania:

17) For many, Monocacy Hill Recreation Area is a refuge from the ever-encroaching trappings of suburbia in Amity Township. Five miles of trails snaking around 420 wooded acres allow visitors to explore the mountainous terrain by climbing to the top for a scenic view or winding to the bottom where a stream spills over rocks in a small waterfall. But talk of a state forest management plan that could involve timbering has a conservation group worried that some of Monocacy Hill’s many trees could be chopped down and sold for lumber. The township-owned park, which will reopen to the public Saturday following a brief period of use by hunters, is especially important given Amity’s rapid development of homes and shopping areas, said Helen F. Brower, vice president of the volunteer Monocacy Hill Conservation Association. Risa A. Marmontello, president of the conservation association, said she doesn’t want to see any plan that involves cutting trees. She worries what could happen to the forest if its canopy the top layer of trees is opened. Letting in more sunlight would allow invasive plants to flourish even more than they do now and overtake some trees, said Marmontello, who also is a member of Amity’s recreation board. “These species are not native to this area or this country even,” she said. “It (sunlight) makes them grow faster and more aggressively.” Brower pointed out Japanese honeysuckle, multiflora rose and other invasive plants during a recent hike on Monocacy Hill. Marmontello showed a honeysuckle vine curled around a thin young tree pulling the tree to the ground. But Dugan said that cutting carefully chosen, unhealthy trees can help forests and animals that live there by making more room for healthier trees to grow. http://www.readingeagle.com/re/news/1601988.asp

Florida:

18) There is no doubt that cypress forests are being clear-cut to satisfy the growing demand for mulch. Before the 1990s, most mulch was produced from byproducts of the paper and lumber industries. Now, because of exploding demand, timber companies are harvesting whole cypress trees and grinding them up for mulch. In many parts of the country, including Florida, cypress is the most popular mulch. This has spurred increased harvesting of young cypress trees as small as a foot in diameter, the conservation groups say. “They’re going to keep selling mulch until there are no more cypress swamps anyplace in the country,” said Dean Wilson, executive director of the Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, a southwestern Louisiana conservation group. “They’re clear-cutting cypress swamps all over the country.” Cypress logging also is up in Florida, where about 60 percent of the mulch sold is cypress. According to a 2002 paper by the former director of the Pasco County Cooperative Extension Service, about 20.4 million cubic feet of cypress are cut each year in Florida, but replacement growth is only 17.1 million cubic feet. Cypress logging is prohibited on state-owned lands in Florida and forestry officials try to get private landowners to adopt management practices that assure continued growth. But scientists at the University of Florida have urged homeowners to use other types of mulch. “There are industries cutting it in the wild just for mulch,” said Gary Brinen, Alachua County horticulture extension agent. “I consider it nonsustainable and it’s going to affect that wet area they cut it in.” http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBR5UY5AVE.html

19) She flailed her arms and screamed to scare the cat. “It just sauntered away. No hurry. It was never afraid,” she said. “It was very freaky.” For decades, such encounters with Florida panthers were extraordinarily rare, like the endangered animals themselves. But in recent years, panthers have rebounded from the brink of extinction to about 100 on the southwestern edge of the Everglades, prompting officials to warn residents to be aware of the cats and to keep their children close at dusk and dawn. The big cats have since killed emus from a zoo, and goats and dogs from rural back yards. Documented panther attacks on livestock jumped from two in 2004 to six so far this year, and 10 panthers have been killed on highways this year alone. But biologists fear the increased panther encounters may be short-lived as the cats’ remaining habitat — 2.5 million acres in the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, Big Cypress National Preserve, Everglades National Park and a few strands of wild state land — becomes surrounded by some of the fastest-growing areas in the nation. “The way we’re building, we’re going to push the panthers out,” said biologist Larry Richardson of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “My big concern is the panther will become a zoo relic.” He added: “If we build out even half the potential of what the state says we can, forget about the panthers.” Florida panthers, which can weigh up to 155 pounds, are one of several subspecies of cougar in the United States and the last type still roaming east of the Mississippi. Thousands of these panthers once ranged throughout the Southeast. By the 1950s, the panther had been hunted to near extinction, leading to their eventual protection, beginning in the 1970s, under the federal Endangered Species Act. But continued loss of habitat caused its numbers to dwindle to about 30 as recently as the mid-’90s. Those that remained showed signs of inbreeding and disease. It was not until wildlife biologists introduced eight female Texas cougars in 1995 that the gene pool began to broaden and the numbers started creeping back up. Even that small increase in population has heightened the threat to suburban back yards, since each male cat can range up to 200 miles. http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6258387,00.html
20) Florida’s gains an average of 1,000 residents each day. With the rapid urbanization, 200 acres of forest are being lost everyday. For that reason, 10 public and private agencies are joining forces to create the Cooperative for Conserved Forest Ecosystems: Outreach and Research. University of Florida’s School of Forest Resources and Conservation Director Timothy White explains the name of the partnership.The group will also save taxpayers dollars because agencies will share information without the need to duplicate the same research. White says U-F plays a fundamental role in the new group. According to Professor White, having green trees in cities helps reduce depression and make people happier http://www.am850.com/news/archives/2006/12/new_partnership_protects_states_forests.asp

Scotland:

21) In the rebuttal, the Irish Environmental and Social Stakeholders’ Alliance (IESS) slams Irish state forestry company Coillte’s record on the environment and social issues. IESS have now called on the Soil Association to immediately revoke Coillte’s ‘environment-friendly’ certificate, which was issued in August this year. The move follows hot on the tail of a detailed examination of Coillte’s record over the last five years by IESS which shatters any remaining illusion of the state-owned company as environmentally, socially or economically sustainable. The IESS alliance identified multiple infringements of Irish and EU laws and directives, failures to meet biodiversity targets, massive over-use of toxic chemicals, blatant disregard for local community and worker interests and concerns, and chaotic management practices. Many of these issues should have automatically prevented the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) “eco-label” award. The Soil Association, who issued the FSC certificate, also came in for severe criticism. Contracted to act as independent auditors of Coillte’s activities, “they side-stepped their own standards, issued the certificate, and got handsomely paid for their trouble.” Bizarrely, when asked if the IESS findings raised any concerns in the Soil Association, the group’s Policy Director, Lord Peter Melchett, could only respond, “I don’t know.” The IESS analysis demonstrates that Coillte: 1) Ignores international best-practice, 2) Uses enormous quantities of toxic, environmentally damaging chemicals, 3) Fails to meet broadleaf planting targets, 4) Repeatedly sells state land regardless of local interests, 5) Ruins fragile mountain and bog eco-systems, 6) Ignores the concerns of its own forestry workers, unions and local communities. http://www.fsc-watch.org/archives/2006/11/24/Irish_Environmental_and_Social_Groups_Unite_to_Demand_R
emoval_of_Coillte_Certificate

Austria:

22) The Technical University of Munich (TU Munich) has developed a prototype application using an industrial staple gun mounted on a single-grip harvester to attach RFID tags to felled logs. The system is designed to help forestry companies track the multistep process of cutting down trees and transporting them to a processing plant. This often involves four or five independent contractors. Thanks to the new application, those involved will have a better understanding of how much wood has been harvested, and of the location of the wood at each stage of the harvesting process. The industrial staple gun is built onto the harvester head, a machine that grabs a tree, brings it to the ground and cuts off its limbs. Tags are automatically stapled to the side of each log’s lower end. This automated process sets TU Munich’s application apart from other RFID forestry systems, such as those utilizing RFID tags shaped like nails that must be hammered into logs by hand after a lumberjack fells a tree. http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/2861/1/1/

Armenia:

23) YEREVAN — Armenia faces its worst environmental crisis in its history. At current rates of deforestation, World Bank estimates it will be a desert in about 20 years. If nothing is done, the impact of severe deforestation on the country’s forests and natural resources will be irreversible. Even worse, 40 percent of Armenians — primarily the rural poor — will be forced from their villages and will face possible starvation and exposure to freezing temperatures. To solve today’s global environmental crises, the Armenia Tree Project, based in Yerevan and Boston, delivers on-the-ground, practical solutions to empower the rural poor. ATP’s work includes restoring forests, planting trees in local communities, reducing poverty and providing environmental education throughout Armenia. ATP has successfully planted nearly 1.5 million trees and established programs with the ability to produce two million new trees a year. http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20061130-023317-5639r

Palestine:

24) Sources in the police said that over the years the police have experienced a phenomenon of the filing of complaints to the Civil Authority regarding the destruction of olive trees, along with a claim for financial compensation. In the last year alone the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria filed claims for 350 thousand shekels ($75,000) for the destruction of olive trees. In the past, as a result of such complaints, IDF soldiers and police have been called on to protect the Palestinians farmers in the territories during the olive harvest season. But the police suspect now that in some cases the Palestinians themselves are the ones cutting the trees and then blaming the settlers in an attempt to get compensation from the Israeli Civil Authority. The police said they now intend to check the complaints in detail. A senior source in the police told Maariv NRG that “most of the complaints for damage to olive trees were filed in recent years at the end of the harvest season or towards the end, something that increase the suspicion that this is a cooked deal.” http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Diplomacy/9991.htm

Israel:

25) Until now, it has looked pretty much like all forests in Israel: Trees of only a few types lined up in nearly straight rows. In addition, the forest has mainly been used for pleasure trips. The JNF has established a scientific committee, including many experts from academia, to recommend what the new forest should look like. “[Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan] Nasrallah arranged for us here an opportunity to examine various elements of the forest’s function,” said Prof. Avi Perevolotsky, a member of the committee, on a trip to the forest last week. According to the new approach the JNF wants to adopt, there will be no planting in a third of the forested area burned in the north, allowing the vegetation to grow back naturally. A third of the area will be dedicated to an integration of natural growth and planting, and trees will be planted throughout the final third. Trees including oak, cedars and cypresses – which have shown themselves to be the type of tree that is best able to withstand fire – will be planted in Biriya Forest, as well as pomegranate and olive trees. The members of the scientific committee are split over the best method of forest rehabilitation. Some think Biriya was a successful pine forest and that forests with tall trees should be preserved, to give Israelis some leisure space. Others think that before the fire, the area was a mix of pine forest and natural thickets and want to see more of the same. Still others – including Gershon Avneri, a leading JNF official – emphasize the importance of involving the public in making decisions connected to forestry. During the course of the war, 12,000 dunams of forested area in the north of the country were burned. Some 250 rockets hit Biriya Forest alone, burning more than 1,000 dunams. Some 350 rockets hit the nearby Ramot Naftali Forest. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/795794.html

Iran:

25) TEHRAN – Sustainable forest and tree resources management and watershed development are tightly linked. Environmentally sustainable development will not be achieved without preventing the damages to the nation’s mountains and ranges, noted an official with Iran’s Forest and Range Organization. Land degradation, including soils, forests and water resources is considered to be the greatest constraint and threat to sustainable agricultural development in most parts of the country, particularly the northern regions, Mohammad-Ali Hedayati said. Establishing a green belt at the heights around the mountains and ranges is the only fundamental solution to their protection, he commented warning that the opportunists’ greed towards the forest resources is on the rise. As a preventive measure, around 26,000 hectares of the rangelands located in the mountainous regions of the northern parts of the nation in Mazandaran Province have been turned into green areas, noted the official during a seminar on the development of the forests of the northern parts of the country. In the past decades, the rapid population growth put pressure on limited land resources to satisfy people increasing needs for food, forest products and socioeconomic goods have occurred at the expense of forest and woodlands in fragile ecosystems. Deforestation, mining, unsound agricultural practices, global warming, tourism and urbanization are all taking their toll on forests, ranges and watersheds, and putting the supply of fresh water at risk. In this context, it is widely accepted that sustainable use and management of land resources will only be achieved by adopting a system of improved land, water and vegetation management and utilization that is based on an integrated approach. The critical role that forests and trees have in maintaining regional and local water balances has long been recognized. http://www.mehrnews.ir/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=415888

Sudan:

26) The stamp of approval on the prevailing peace and tranquility and the success of the CPA have been given by the wild animals who are returning to the jungles of South Sudan. Yes, herds of wild elephants and other animals have been spotted throughout the forests of South Sudan. Why these wild animals have fled these forests earlier and why are they coming back now? Throughout the decades of war their habitats were taken over by different fighters as safe hiding places. There were so much of gun fire, deafening sounds shells exploding all around and men hunting the wild life just for survival. All this mayhem driven out the wild animals out of their natural habitats to neighboring countries. Once thick equatorial forests of South Sudan became devoid of its rich animal resources due to the conflict which was raging in the region. Signing of CPA and the relatively peaceful interregnum prior to that created a peaceful environment. SPLA soldiers vacated their hiding places and returned to the human settlement areas leaving the jungles to its natural inhabitants. Intermittent small arms fire ceased cracking the serene air. There were no booming sounds of Artillery bombs to scare away the animals. The whirring sounds of the attack helicopters which used to circle around the forests vanished leaving the open skies for the wolves and jackals to howl at. http://sudanexperience.blogspot.com/2006/11/wild-life-returns-to-south-sudan.html

Mozambique:

27) Bush fires, deliberately set for agricultural or hunting purposes, are having a devastating effect on natural habitats, warned Mozambican Prime Minister Luisa Diogo on Wednesday. Answering questions in the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, she said that every year, between June and November, about 40 per cent of the country is affected by such fires. One effect of the fires is to wipe out much of the vegetation that wild life depends on: as a result animals migrate into populated areas, and compete with people for resources – notably for the crops that farmers are planting. But the main problem remained that of uncontrolled bush fires, and so the government was striving to make local communities aware of the risks these fires pose, and to hold people who set fires responsible for their acts. “Our objective is to ensure the security of the public in general, and food security in particular”, said Diogo. Such selective logging, Diogo added, would allow “the natural regeneration and sustainability of the forest, while satisfying the needs of the industry”. http://allafrica.com/stories/200611300107.html

Uganda:

28) The idea of destroying a swath of rainforest, home to hundreds of rare species, to clear land for a sugar plantation is an environmentalist’s worst nightmare. But Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni dreams of industrialising his poor central African country, and investment is something he says it cannot afford to turn down. In August, Museveni ordered a study into the possibility of axing 7,000 hectares (17,000 acres) or nearly a third of Mabira forest, a nature reserve since 1932, to expand a sugar estate owned by Uganda-based Mehta Group after it approached him directly. The move outraged parliamentarians, Mabira residents and officials at the National Forest Authority (NFA), who say the environmental cost of trashing one of Uganda’s last remaining patches of natural forest would be incalculable. “You can’t cut the forest. We’d lose our lives,” said 50-year-old John Kasule, who lives outside the reserve. “The forest brings rain, we collect firewood from there, we use it for houses and rope. There are 40 types of medicine we would lose,” he said, pointing to a dense green tangle of trees and thick vines stretching into the distance. The government says extra jobs would outweigh losses caused by the removal of the forest. “I can’t give projections but many Ugandans work on sugar plantations whose families depend on sugar — we must produce cheaper sugar because competition is tough,” Museveni’s press secretary, Tamale Mirundi, told Reuters. http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=L2872403&WTmodLoc=World-R5-Alertnet-2

Ecuador:

29) Lead by Joseph Eisenberg, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, an international team of researchers examined diarrheal infections and social networks in 21 villages recently connected to a new government-constructed road network in the Choco rainforest of coastal Ecuador. They found that the new roads bring colonists to the region and allow villagers to travel more easily between villages and larger cities. Increased mobility increases the spread of bacteria, viruses and parasites according to Eisenberg. “If you keep reintroducing strains of a given pathogen, you’re increasing the endemic population of pathogens,” he said. “The increased diversity and potency of the microbe population apparently offsets the improved health care that also comes with new roads. When you’re thinking about a road, you have to also think about these impacts that will take years to unfold.” The study found that the incidence of E. coli bacteria, rotavirus and the protozoan parasite Giardia was correlated to roads proximity: the closer a village was to a road, the higher the infection rates. Eisenberg said that remote villages had infection rates up to eight times lower than those close to the new road. The study suggests that roads have a social impact as well with fast-growing towns experiencing “a breakdown of traditional social structure and supports, leading to poorer sanitation.” http://news.mongabay.com/2006/1204-roads.html

Brazil:

30) Simao Jatene, the governor of the northern Brazilian state of Para, will designate an area substantially bigger than England as a unique conservation region – the biggest of its kind in the world. Environmental groups believe the new reserve will be the basis of a renaissance in tropical rainforest conservation, a move that they hope will save the rest of Amazonia from destruction. The area covered by the new state law will be 63,320 square miles, 10,000 square miles bigger than England. The land adjoins rainforests that are already protected to some degree both within Brazil and in the neighbouring countries of Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. In total, the protection zones form an immense green corridor known as the Guyana Shield, which straddles national borders and includes some of the richest wildlife habitats on earth. The Guyana Shield contains more than 25 percent of the Earth’s humid tropical rainforest, and almost 90 per cent of it is still in its pristine, natural state. Under the terms of the agreement, about one third of the 16.4 million hectares covered by the new arrangement will be totally protected against any agricultural, industrial or domestic development. In this region, only indigenous people will be allowed to pursue their traditional ways of life, and they will not be able own land and therefore will not be able to sell it on to developers. Human activity in the rest of the protected region, covering the remaining two-thirds of the conservation area, will be strictly controlled with the principal aim of sustainability, Mr Jatene said yesterday. “Traditional communities will be living in these areas, which will be protected. They will be allowed to use the forest in a sustainable way but this will not involve the clear-cutting of the forest,” the governor said through an interpreter. Road-building, logging, agriculture, mining and any other destructive, non-sustainable activities will be either banned or strictly controlled, he said. “If anyone tries to do this illegally, it will be detected by satellites. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2037439.ece
31) Philip Fearnside, a conservation biologist at the National Institute for Research in the Amazon in Manaus, Brazil, has shown that in the first ten years of operation, a typical reservoir will emit four times as much carbon as a fossil-fuel station. The culprit is organic matter trapped when land is flooded to create a dam. As this decays, it releases significant amounts of carbon dioxide and methane. It is a topic of vigorous debate, fuelled by a lack of data for tropical dams and the implications for energy strategies in developing countries, reports Jim Giles. It calls into question the wisdom of promoting dam construction in developing countries, including a US$5 billion project proposed for the Congo river. Another concern is the funding of hydropower projects through the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v444/n7119/full/444524a.html

Nepal:

32) When it stopped raining Mr Tamang and the village barely recognised their valley in the Chitwan hills. In just six hours the Jugedi river, which normally flows for only a few months of the year and is at most about 50 metres wide in Khetbari, had scoured a 300 metre-wide path down the valley, leaving a three metre-deep rockscape of giant boulders, trees and rubble in its path. Hundreds of fields and terraces had been swept away. The irrigation systems built by generations of farmers had gone and houses were demolished or were now uninhabitable. Mr Tamang’s house was left on a newly formed island. Khetbari expects a small flood every decade or so, but what shocked the village was that the two largest have taken place in the last three years. According to Mr Tamang, a pattern is emerging. “The floods are coming more severely more frequently. Not only is the rainfall far heavier these days than anyone has ever experienced, it is also coming at different times of the year.” Nepal is on the front line of climate change and variations on Khetbari’s experience are now being recorded in communities from the freezing Himalayas of the north to the hot lowland plains of the south. For some people the changes are catastrophic. “The rains are increasingly unpredictable. We always used to have a little rain each month, but now when there is rain it’s very different. It’s more concentrated and intense. It means that crop yields are going down,” says Tekmadur Majsi, whose lands have been progressively washed away by the Tirshuli river. He now lives with 200 other environmental change refugees in tents in a small grove of trees by a highway. In the south villagers are full of minute observations of a changing climate. One notes that wild pigs in the forest now have their young earlier, another that certain types of rice and cucumber will no longer grow where they used to, a third that the days are hotter and that some trees now flower twice a year. http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1962363,00.html

Tibet:

33) Researchers have revealed that the barren landscape of Tibet as is in evidence today, was covered by thick cypress forests some 4600 years ago.According to the research carried out by Georg Miehe of the University of Marburg in Germany, the forest was destroyed by the local inhabitants to make way for barley cultivation and grazing animals. The researchers after having analysed climate data, pollen records and ancient soil samples from in and around Lhasa, drew the inference that the climate in the region was most suitable for the growth of the forest.”Plenty of rainfall, little permanent frost or snow and good mean temperatures through the growing season, suited the forest growth”, New Scientist quoted Miehe as saying. http://www.dailyindia.com/show/87672.php/Barren-Tibet-had-thick-cypress-forests-some-4600-years-ago

Australia:

34) Tasmania’s Premier has told Parliament he will investigate the circumstances surrounding the closure of a north-west sawmill. The Greens’ Kim Booth has told Parliament the softwood manager Rayonier and the Government-owned Forestry Tasmania have mismanaged Tasmania’s softwood plantations, causing a shortage of high-quality logs. He says Rayonier continued to supply the Windward Sawmill at Wynyard with poor-quality logs, to the point where the mill could not survive. Premier Paul Lennon says he will examine the case but has rejected the claim of mismanagement. “Of course the Honourable Member claims in his question … which of course is just part of his continuing attack on Tasmania’s forest industry … he makes an assertion about management of the softwood forests in this state … an assertion that I don’t agree with,” he said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200612/s1801842.htm

35) Ever wanted to see the devastating impact that logging is having on the Tasmanian landscape? It is now possible to see the huge scale on which Tasmania’s forests are being destroyed. Each year in Tasmania, approximately 15,000 hectares of native forest are destroyed. The magnitude of this is hard to grasp but the following overlays for Google Earth now make it possible. A total of 155 areas, totalling 57 square kilometres, of native forest will be permanently cleared of forest and converted to plantations in this year. This landclearing is devastating our biodiversity and water catchments. By downloading the overlays into Google Earth, you can see all of the planned logging in Tasmania’s public native forests for the 2006-2007 year, however selective logging and contingency coupes are not yet included. http://www.wilderness.org.au/campaigns/forests/tasmania/tas-forests-google/

36) Forest conservationists in Western Australia’s south-west say they are appalled after finding three 40 hectare clear-fell logging coupes next to the Shannon National Park camping grounds. The Global Warming Forest Action Group say giant karri, marri and jarrah trees have been felled, some estimated to be 400-years-old. The group’s spokesman Mark Sheehan says WA’s Old Growth Forests Policy does not protect areas which have already been logged. Mr Sheehan says some of the trees were marked for chipping, which he says is an even bigger waste of the quality timber. “Giant trees are still being sent to the woodchip mill in Manjimup, a lot of the karri in Western Australia is still used for structural timber and for tile batons, which are very small pieces of timber,” he said. “There’s a very small amount of native hardwood in Western Australia, which is used in the fine furniture industry.” http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200612/s1803521.htm

37) Community outrage at this senseless devastation is challenging the Tasmanian and Australian governments to give these wilderness forests the protection they deserve. For more than a year, forest defenders built and lived in a beautiful conservation haven that worked to hold the chainsaws and bulldozers at bay. Camp Weld, had a full size replica Pirate ship (the Weld Ark), a bush cabin and the entire infrastructure needed to provide shelter and support to friends of the forest. This week has marked a new chapter in the defense of Tasmania’s ancient forests with 17 arrests in the Weld Valley, Southern Tasmania. The arrests occurred whilst community members were trying to prevent an access road that will allow the chainsaws into majestic ancient forests. The Weld Valley has now become one of the largest resistance campaigns for Tasmania’s forests in the last decade. Through the year, Camp Weld faced gun shots, car burnings and physical threats from loggers coming directly into camp. All this was greeted with the strength and commitment of non-violent action and this peaceful response is a testament to the bravery and beauty of the people who lived there. For the past 6 days a set of rolling actions begin and continue, flowing from the anger at the loss of such a direct action icon and the coming loss of these wondrous forests. People are climbing into tree-sits, standing in front of machines, and some forest defenders are locking themselves down. These actions occur day after day as the arrest tally climbes to the present 17. The Tasmanian government has funded this operation to secure access for Gunns Ltd, providing large numbers of police, security, a 24 hour mobile operations base and satellite communications equipment, all to ensure that the bulldozers get into the forest. Yet despite these obstacles people continue to challenge the destruction in a peaceful and defiant manner. On two separate occasions, a community walk in was staged to defy the archaic exclusion zone created on public land. The first walk in had 40 people, the second over 100. These were great days for the forests as smiling people walked past security and police, in classic non-violent style. http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php/weblog/comments/defending-tasmanias-ancient-forest/

World-wide:

38) “Livestock’s Long Shadow” estimates that livestock sector accounts for 9 percent of carbon dioxide, 65 percent of nitrous oxide, and 37 percent of methane produced from human-related activities. Both methane (23 times) and nitrous oxide (296 times) are considerably more potent greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide. Livestock also generates 64 percent of human-related ammonia, which contributes to acid rain. The report notes that the contribution of livestock to global warming will likely increase in coming years as global meat production is projected to more than double from 229 million ton from 1999/2001 levels to 465 million metric tons in 2050 and milk output is expect to jump from 580 to 1043 million metric tons. The report says that worldwide, the livestock sector is growing faster than any other agricultural sub-sector, providing livelihoods for about 1.3 billion people. and contributing about 40 percent to global agricultural output. The report estimates that livestock currently use 30 percent of the Earth’s land surface and that even more land is used to produce feed for livestock. It notes that forest clearing for livestock pasture is a “major driver of deforestation, especially in Latin America where, for example, some 70 per cent of former forests in the Amazon have been turned over to grazing.” http://news.mongabay.com/2006/1130-un.html