294 – Earth’s Tree News

Today for you 33 new articles about earth’s trees! (294th edition)
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–British Columbia: 1) Well’s Gray Community Forest is logging 18,000 m3
–Washington: 2) Chasing rare Bryophytes, 3) Living next door to industrial forestry, 4) Cantwell opposes St. Helen’s mine and calls for mining reform,
–Oregon: 3) Umpqua Watersheds, 4) Roy Keene on the WOPR,
–California: 7) Saving El Dorado’s oak woodlands, 8) UC at Albany fells without protest, 9) Carbon market in Humboldt, 10) Saving Torrey Pines,
–Arizona: 11) 850 million cubic feet of wood and 8 million tons of biomass?
–Colorado: 12) Town cuts 300 to 500 trees a year, 13) Habitat Incentive Program
–Minnesota: 14) Wood ethanol could be even more than state’s corn ethanol
–Ohio: 15) $6.3 milllion save 12K acres inVinton County, 16) St. Anne Convent’ trees,
–Texas: 17) Draft horse hobby turns to horse logging career
–New Jersey: 18) $4.7million to crop dust communites to fight the Gypsy moth, 19) Gypsy moths have no significant long term impacts,
–Massachusetts: 20) 99 protected acres Harvard can’t seem to sell
–Pennsylvania: 21) Gypsy Moth PR machine is rolling,
–Maine: 22) Plum Creek Swindle continues to brew
–Mid-Atlantic Coastal Forests: 23) Dogwood Alliance report
–North Carolina: 24) Forest Service & Warren Wilson College collaboration
–Alabama: 25) Saving four trees lead to lawsuit, 26) RIP: Nancy Adele Cammack,
–Georgia: 27) Berkeley Lake Trees to be surveyed in the Spring
–USA: 28) FS mis-aligined assumptions re: fire, ecosystems, and management ‘fixes’
–Brazil: 29) Uncle Mad lives in Crazy Town, 30) Foreigners out of Brazilian forest management, 31) No amnesty for illegal loggers, 32) Curbing finances and boosting penalties, 33) Steel mill in heart of Pantanal wetland surrounded by clearcuts and coal mines,

British Columbia:

1) Well’s Gray Community Forest president, Ted Richardson and general manager George Brcko announced last week harvesting operations near Spahats Creek commenced in mid Jan. A local logging contractor from Vavenby, SAL-LOG Inc. has been awarded the contract for this project. SAL-LOG will be logging approximately 18,000 m3 and is also responsible for the construction of all associated roads within the development area. The log hauling has been contracted to local truckers which are hauling six to eight loads per day to various local mills. Before harvesting operations started, recreational users, trappers and woodlot owners were contacted and solicited for their input about any possible concerns they might have. Safety issues have also been considered, e.g., bright signage was placed on the Skidoo trails that intersect the logging operation area, helping to alert people of the operation. According to George Brcko, the Community Forest is concentrating on salvaging pine-beetle infested stands. A key strategy is to maximize various sawlog products from each tree. For example, a single tree can yield up to three different types of sawlog grades which will be sent to various mills in the North Thompson Valley for processing. Brcko explains that he is currently cruising the various stands of timber to gain knowledge of stand structures, current forest health concerns and possible future development possibilities. As a result, the WGCF will gain an intimate knowledge of their land base for future development and utilization. Richardson reports that revenue from the harvesting goes back into the community and is redirected into community projects. Revenue is now being generated and the Community Forest will be providing a stream of revenue to the North Thompson Communities Foundation once a number of crucial forest management obligations are fulfilled. http://www.bclocalnews.com/business/15499266.html

Washington:

2) A couple of weeks ago I went out hunting bryophytes with Doug McCutcheon and Ian Craft. We were trying to relocate a rare moss that Doug had found a few years ago in the woods between Bellingham and Hareshaw Linn waterfall. The woods were fairly ordinary at first with mainly the usual common species present. When we got about half way up we started to find more interesting species. The epiphyte communities were especially interesting, particularly close to the stream where the athomosphere was most humid. As a rule in Britain, the further west you go, the more diverse the epiphytes. There are many species that have an extreme western distribution in Britain. So unsurprisingly the best places to find these species in Northumberland are probably in the extreme west of the county. The valleys of the South Tyne and Irthing are probably well worth exploring. But the woods at Bellingham had some very nice uncommon species. Ian took all of the photos below. The first one is a nice shot of Frullania dilatata which is a common enough species but very noticable and attractive when it is this dark red colour. There is a tiny bit of Radula complanata (the pale green one) poking in at the top of the photo. This is also reasonably common but usually grows in fairly good quality habitat for epiphytes. http://www.ptyxis.com/blog/2008/02/epiphytes-in-northumberland-wood.html

3) There is a logging road that cuts through a corner of my land, and heads east to dead end in a year-old clearcut about half a mile away. When they first came in that winter and started extending the road, I was in the middle of chanterelle picking season, and so I decided that I should go clean out the chanterelles up there before the equipment showed up and started wreaking havoc as they do. The unit that they cut is probably about 100 acres or so, and it was all plantation hemlock, about 50 years old. I spent half the day wandering around in that forest and didn’t find anything growing under that dark, crowded thicket. There were hardly any ferns even, and no mushrooms. I had just about given up, when I came out the other side of the unit and into naturally generated alder and cedar forest along the edge of a little canyon. And there were the chanterelles. They wanted nothing to do with that plantation hemlock, and instead were growing in abundance right along the unit boundary. It took a very small number of men and machines a very short time to lay that forest down. The log truck traffic was non-stop, as was the litter the truck drivers dumped on my land while they were pulled off on one of my side roads waiting for the outgoing trucks to pass. I was very glad when it was over. Now it is replanted to fir, which is already showing fast growth. I hate what clearcutting does to the land and the water quality and I think monoculture makes a lousy substitute for a real forest. But for now, anyway, that is the way things are done, at least in my rural corner of SW Washington state. I have to find a way to live with this around me without being angry and sad all the time. So I take my walks and I look for the beauty where I can find it. The view of my valley from this spot is beautiful and I can look over the ridgetop and into the next valley from here as well. There were a number of birds including a couple of unidentified hawks in the distance as I came up into the opening. The elk and deer come through here too, eating the brush that is starting to grow up. There are a couple of huge maple trees at the edge of this cut that for some reason were left standing. Edges are nice. http://blog.redalderranch.com/?p=10

4) U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell announced Thursday she will oppose a Colorado company’s plan to run a copper mine 12 miles north of Mount St. Helens, and she called for reform of an “antiquated” 136-year-old federal mining law she says fails to protect the environment. “A mining company has proposed a … open-pit mine near Mount St. Helens National Monument. This clearly would put this treasured, and historical, place at severe risk,” Cantwell spokesman Nate Caminos said, reading from a statement at a rally at an Olympia hotel. “If approved, this mine could jeopardize critical scientific research, family recreational opportunities, threatened salmon and steelhead runs in the river, and municipal water supplies. Clearly, local citizens should have more of a say in the actual decision to open mining operations that affect their community,” according to the statement. Longview City Councilwoman Mary Jane Melink joined the group of 10 people rallying against the mine. “Communities like ours have a stake in mining reform,” Melink said. “The 1872 mining law simply does not work in 2008.” The land proposed for the copper mine was transferred to the U.S. Forest Service with the purposes of protecting it, Melink said, but now “it could be lost or degraded.” The Longview City Council last month voted to oppose the mine, noting that it could contaminate the Green River, which is part of the Cowlitz River watershed, from which the city draws its water. The city councils of Castle Rock and Kelso previously voted to oppose the project. General Moly, Inc. wants to explore the Green River Valley below Goat Mountain for copper, gold, silver and molybdenum. Idaho General Mines, the company that made the original proposal, merged with General Moly, Inc. in October and assumed the mining company’s name. General Moly, Inc. has asked to lease 900 acres of public land from the U.S. Forest Service for the project. Cantwell, D-Wash., used Thursday’s rally to call for reform of the 1872 mining law that allows companies to purchase federal mineral rights for $5 or less an acre, extract minerals without paying royalties and abandon spent mines without cleanup. She called the law “a relic of Western expansion” and noted that there are 3,500 abandoned mines across Washington that would cost $50 billion to clean up. http://www.tdn.com/

Oregon:

5) On Saturday night a few hundred members and supporters of the Umpqua Watersheds attended a banquet at the Douglas County Fairgrounds to bid on a silent auction, jig to Irish folk music, knock back a microbrew or pinot noir or two, dine on vegetarian Asian food and learn the latest on logging levels in the Northwest and how they compare to the survivability of species listed under the Endangered Species Act. Dominick DellaSala, chief scientist at the National Center for Conservation Science & Policy in Ashland and the night’s featured speaker, noted the Bush administration has 11 months left in the White House but will not succeed with plans to increase logging to pre-Northwest Forest Plan levels because they are scientifically and legally indefensible. “We’re going to stop the bastards,” DellaSala said to loud applause. Diana Wales was honored with the “Lifetime Conservationist” award and Kathy Shayler was honored with the “Counting on You” award for volunteerism and dedication to conservation. Shannon Applegate, presenter of the Lifetime Conservationist award, noted how Wales was such a forerunner in the environmentalist march that she had sat next to Bill Clinton at the Northwest Forest Summit, helped persuade PacifiCorp to build an upcoming fish ladder at Soda Springs Dam during its re-licensing agreement for its hydropower project on the North Umpqua River, and became the first person to be outspoken on the Diamond Lake Restoration Project, which used rotenone to suffocate an invasive and destructive species known as tui chub, along with every other gill-breathing species in the lake. Watersheds member Bob Hoehne highlighted the importance of designating new wilderness in the Umpqua National Forest, noting only three designations have occurred and they were all in 1984. Inventoried roadless areas can receive permanent protection, Hoehne said, by “People raising their voices for wild places.” DellaSala refocused on wilderness designation and ran with it. But first the scientist hammered the Bush administration for “widespread political interference” with endangered species listings and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s recovery plan for the northern spotted owl, and also the Bureau of Land Management’s plan to ramp up logging in Western Oregon with the Western Oregon Plan Revisions, also known as the “Whopper” by its acronym. “We’re kind of going through the Darth Vader period of ecosystem management,” DellaSala said, but “They don’t have a social license any more to log old growth forest.” http://www.newsreview.info/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080210/NEWS/927938861&template=printart

6) Why produce more federal timber for a glutted log market? Because the corporations that raid our forests are being paid back for their political contributions. In this market they can buy cheap, hold timber contracts for a decade, then resell our trees for a double scoop when log prices rise again. More federal logging also will provide a modest increase in county funding. Why should our forests always be the ones held hostage? Why not recall some of the inequitable tax subsidies granted to industrial forest owners? In seeking balanced budgets, county commissioners have yet to challenge these huge and unearned property tax breaks and other privileges. Their silence condones more corporate plundering of the public’s forest when there should be a call for corporations to pay fair taxes. The BLM’s latest forest plan, the Western Oregon Plan Revision, mirrors the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan in which President Clinton, under the guise of “balance,” ignored science and chose Option Nine, which divided remnant ancient forests in half. The first timber sales of this devious plan, approved by the very conservation groups that filed the spotted owl lawsuit, continued to log old growth. We’re passing on a forest to future generations that is tragically out of balance. Rebalancing this legacy should begin with no more road building or clear-cut logging, especially of old trees. This is critically important in the checkerboard landscape, where sections of BLM and privately owned land alternate. Capital has been taken from our forests for a century, devaluing and weakening them in the process. In Oregon’s federally managed forests, there are thousands of miles of roads to fix, hundreds of streams to restore, and millions of acres of dense monoculture plantations to interplant and thin. This kind of work could provide longer lasting jobs and a wider range of economic stimuli than logging what little old growth remains. http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=63569&sid=5&fid=1

California:

7) A plan for saving oak woodlands in El Dorado County has been released for public review and comment. The revised final draft of the Oak Woodland Management Plan and accompanying environmental study also will be the subject of a public hearing before the Planning Commission at 9 a.m. March 13. The plan has been prepared to implement a county general plan policy that requires measures to offset the loss of oak trees that must be removed for development and a plan to conserve oak woodlands in El Dorado County. The plan is available on the county’s Web site at http://www.co.el-dorado.ca.us/, and may be reviewed at public libraries in the county. The document also may be purchased in print or on compact disc at the county’s Development Services offices in Placerville and El Dorado Hills. Written comments on the plan will be accepted through March 13. They may submitted via e-mail to oaks@edcgov.us, or by mail to Monique Wilber, El Dorado County Planning Services, 2850 Fairlane Court, Placerville, CA 95667. http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/704060.html

8) By now everybody’s heard of the “tree sitters” at Berkley, who are protesting the removal of several trees for the construction of a new athletics building. While those morons sat up in their trees, this large grove of trees on University property in Albany, California, was cut down without a protest. University banners proclaim Hazardous Tree Removal and Meadow Restoration at the site. Gee, if we told the tree sitters we were going to “restore a meadow”, would they go away? http://technocrat.net/d/2008/2/10/36010 http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=San+Pablo+Ave,+Albany,+California+at+Marin+Av
e.&sll=35.366394,-120.852336&sspn=0.011951,0.017509&ie=UTF8&ll=37.886793,-122.297831&spn=0.011
567,0.017509&t=h&z=16&iwloc=addr&om=0

9) The Humboldt County forest that has been one of the country’s highest-profile sources of “carbon offsets” has logged its largest sale ever, a deal the forest’s managers say demonstrates the market’s confidence in the value of their product. Natsource Asset Management LLC, a New York firm that deals in credits for greenhouse gas emissions reductions and renewable energy development, purchased 60,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions reductions from the Van Eck Forest for an undisclosed price. The deal was the forest’s biggest sale by a factor of 10. Emissions reductions from such projects typically sell for about $15 a ton. The revenue helps cover the cost of managing the forest so that it soaks up carbon from the atmosphere. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez all have purchased carbon offsets from the Van Eck Forest, which is managed by the Pacific Forest Trust, a San Francisco nonprofit group. The deal is the first completed under regulations adopted by the California Air Resources Board in October. The development of a domestic market for carbon offsets has been hampered by a lack of standards that has, in some cases, led to the sale of carbon credits of questionable value. The air board’s rules are meant to standardize procedures for measuring the amount of carbon stored by a forest, so that the offsets generated will hold their value in national and international markets. “We are hoping that deals like this will provide policymakers around the world with the confidence they need to ensure that forestry becomes part of the solution to address climate change,” said Laurie Wayburn, president of Pacific Forest Trust. http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/702487.html

10) ENCINITAS – Three Torrey pines at the Cardiff-by-the-Sea Library were dying and within days of being removed, but a Cardiff man says he has revived them by enriching the soil with compost and a brew of worm poop. Plans to remove the trees saddened residents and library boosters. “We were very disappointed, of course,” said Susan Hays, president of the nonprofit Friends of the Cardiff-by-the-Sea Library. “We had a celebration of life for the trees. We all gathered and said, ‘Good-bye, you will be missed.’ ” Days later, Hahn came forward. The county’s library director and aides to county Supervisor Pam Slater-Price, whose district includes Encinitas, agreed to give the worm droppings a 60-day trial. To avoid delays and governmental red tape, the friends offered to pay Hahn’s $750 fee, which he says he reduced from what would have been a $3,000 charge. Longtime resident and businessman George Hahn says his blend of earthworm castings, sugars and carbohydrates has brought new life to the mature trees, which have declined since construction of the library began in 2001. The Torreys tower above the library on Newcastle Avenue. Deadwood fills the trees’ canopy, but at the tips of many branches, clusters of buds are now forming. “Within three weeks, you’ll have needles coming out,” Hahn predicted last week. That’s good news in woodsy Encinitas, where recent removals of mature trees have aggravated residents. Over the last year, the felling of trees in Leucadia has sparked protests, vigils and the creation of memorials. Hahn says his techniques have resuscitated thousands of trees in Southern California. However, some of his claims have run afoul of authorities in nearby counties, and at least one local arborist has doubts about whether the treatments will work in Cardiff. This month, at the end of the 60-day period, a second, professional assessment of the trees is scheduled. “They have a reprieve,” said John Weil, chief of staff for Slater-Price. “They’re off death row, and we hope to release them back to society.” Hahn says that he and his company, Cardiff-based Tree & Plant Rescue, have saved thousands of trees and other plants using techniques similar to those employed at the library. http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/02/10/news/coastal/21_31_512_9_08.txt

Arizona:

11) FLAGSTAFF — Northern Arizona University released a report today that identifies the potential volume of wood resources available from more than 2 million acres of the state’s forests, representing the first major agreement among groups typically at odds over the issue of forest thinning.The “Wood Supply Analysis” report identifies a potential supply of up to 850 million cubic feet of wood and 8 million tons of biomass from branches and timber residue for such commercial uses as pallets, firewood, poles, lumber, mulch and stove pellets.A group of 20 stakeholders representing forest wood-product businesses, local government, environmental groups and public land and resource management agencies worked with scientists from NAU to build agreement about the amount and type of wood supply that could be available from the thinning of Arizona’s ponderosa pine forests to promote ecosystem health and reduce the risk of unnaturally severe wildfire.”Even the best science and the best of intentions are of limited value if they cannot inform decisions and appropriate action,” said NAU professor Tom Sisk, founder of NAU’s Forest Ecosystem Restoration Analysis Project, which led the effort. “I think we have turned a corner, where everybody wants to see on-the-ground progress in forest stewardship.”The stakeholder group included representatives from the USDA Forest Service, Center for Biological Diversity, Grand Canyon Trust, NAU’s Ecological Restoration Institute, Forest Energy/Future Forests, the Greater Flagstaff Forests Partnership and others.The group evaluated 2.4 million acres of ponderosa pine forest stretching from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, across the Mogollon Plateau, to the New Mexico state line. The area primarily encompasses the Coconino, Kaibab and Apache-Sitgreaves national forests, a small portion of the Tonto National Forest and some private and state lands. http://vocuspr.vocus.com/VocusPR30/Newsroom/Query.aspx?SiteName=nau&Entity=PRAsset&SF_PRAsset_
PRAssetID_EQ=112561&XSL=PressRelease

Colorado:

12) Forestry crews in Colorado Springs fell 300 to 500 trees a year, some a century old, that might have more value if they’re used for something other than mulch. To find out, the city will offer small logs for sale from diseased or dead ash, silver maple, walnut, elm, cottonwood, honey locust and other species. Buyers can use the logs to make such items as bowls, cabinets or gunstocks. The city keeps eight or nine full-time foresters busy cutting down trees damaged from car crashes or dying from drought and disease. City forester Dennis Will said 80 percent of the trees cut down in the last decade were victims of drought stress. “More often than not, you may have an insect that weakens the trees, like mountain pine beetle,” he said. “A tree may look good, but it will be hollow.” That poses a hazard, because a tree could fall without warning, he said. Some trees simply are old. “We took a lot of silver maples out in 2007 because they were planted 50 years ago, and that’s about the life span of that tree in an urban environment,” Will said. The Parks Department has sold firewood for years, but about three years ago foresters started setting aside saw logs, those longer than 8 feet and larger than 6 inches in diameter, for sale to a mill in Woodland Park. “When we started cutting down those high-end logs that were 20 inches in diameter, I thought, ‘What a shame,’” said Will, who started with the city in 2005. http://www.gazette.com/articles/city_32980___article.html/logs_trees.html

13) The Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program funds will focus on improving wildlife habitat in pinion/juniper and aspen forests. Pinion/juniper habitat improvements will involve thinning and clearing areas through the use of a hydroaxe followed by seeding and noxious weed control where needed. The goal is to create a mosaic pattern of openings and different age classes within the forest, which should promote increased plant diversity, wildlife species richness, improve forest health, and provide protection from catastrophic wildfires to landowners and fire fighters. Aspen forests are very important for many species of wildlife. It has been suggested that in the arid West, aspen stands are second only in habitat importance to riparian areas. Aspen projects will include practices to stimulate sucker production in small stands that have little or no commercial value. In these isolated smaller aspen stands elk exert heavy browsing pressure on the aspen suckers impacting the stands ability to regenerate which could lead to subsequent loss of the aspen stand all-together. Following treatment to stimulate sucker production, fence will be installed to restrict elk use allowing the next generation of aspen forest to become established. http://www.telluridewatch.com/articles/2008/02/11/commentary/doc47b070d5c762e685656292.txt

Minnesota:

14) Minnesota’s paper mills and wood-burning plants could produce more ethanol than the state’s corn farmers thanks to new technology that can turn trees into liquid fuel. Scientists say the paper mill of the future will produce not just paper but also liquid fuel, synthetic gas, electricity, steam, asphalt, lubricants and even biodegradable plastics and resins. Minnesota’s forests and mills could produce up to 1 billion gallons of ethanol per year, compared to 620 million gallons of corn ethanol produced here last year, said Jim Bowyer, a University of Minnesota professor emeritus of the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering. Bowyer also is a principal in Dovetail Partners, a forest products research and consulting group. “The paper mill of the future will really be a biorefinery that, when the price of paper isn’t right, may not produce paper at all, but will produce ethanol or biodiesel and electricity and steam and plastics and maybe even hydrogen,” Bowyer said. “Instead of oil, Minnesota’s biorefineries will run on trees.” http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/articles/index.cfm?id=59986&section=homepage&freebie_check&CFI
D=3761839&CFTOKEN=29453414&jsessionid=88304ebd762e3881e7e6

Ohio:

15) It was Ohio’s largest privately owned forest, and its price was more than the state could afford. So instead of buying 12,650 acres for $12.6 million, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources bought a promise. It spent $6.3 million on an agreement with the owner, the Forestland Group, that the Vinton County land will never be developed. Such agreements are called easements, and with the help of a recently expanded federal program, they might become the tool of choice for state officials eager to preserve more forestland. “It allows folks to continue to own the land, while the state enjoys the environmental benefits,” said Mark Ervin, special projects administrator for the state’s forestry division. The state uses appraisals that look at the value of land if it could be developed and not developed. The state pays the difference. The Ohio Nature Conservancy calls easements a valuable preservation tool. The Buckeye Forest Council says they might stop development but do nothing to stop logging. “This has as much to do with (preserving) a number of trees that can be logged and sold for lumber as it does with maintaining a good forest for the state,” said David Maywhoor, director of the Buckeye Forest Council. State officials contend that the loss of woodlands to development is a more serious threat. Ninety-one percent of the forests in southern and eastern Ohio are privately owned. Ervin said sprawl is moving cities closer to many private forests. The state’s efforts to protect forests are hampered by finances. To pay for the Vinton County easement, Natural Resources had to get a federal grant and draw from two state funds, said Gene Wells, the agency’s real-estate administrator. But a U.S. Forest Service program offers states an easier path to easements. Its Forest Legacy program has provided more than $487 million in grants since 2001 to create 1.4 million easement acres in 47 states. The program dates from 1993, but its popularity grew after 2001, when Congress boosted annual funding from $7 million to about $60 million. States must show that the land is environmentally significant and threatened by development, said Neal Bungard, a federal Forest Legacy specialist. Although President Bush’s proposed budget would cut the program’s funding to $12.5 million in the 2009 fiscal year, lawmakers last year ignored a Bush proposal to cut the funding to $29 million. http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/02/10/Ohforest.ART_ART_02
-10-08_B1_M09AH8G.html?sid=101

16) MELBOURNE – The silence provided by the towering canopy of Pin Oak trees was felt, and not heard or seen at St. Anne Convent. Witnessing the branches arched across the drive entrance was an act of transcendental peace. The 29 trees, all about 70 feet in height, were beloved by many. Nuns at the convent said the loud thuds of the trees hitting the ground last week brought out the curious with cameras and video recorders in hand. My question is whether the director of the 1988 movie “Rain Man” made the trees famous, or that that ambiance created by the trees attracted the attention on their own. Would actors Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman’s walk down the driveway have had such an emotional impact if the scene was set next to a four lane highway? I doubt it. The encased silence once found underneath the arched cathedral ceiling of trees is gone. Now the sounds of vehicles whirring by on Ky. 8 are heard on the driveway up to the front steps of the convent. The trees spoke to a part of all of our soul’s that delight in the purity of natural beauty when tended and manicured. Trees in a forest don’t line up the way the oaks at St. Anne did. But, the intangible beauty of the neatness of the orderly two lines of trees found a place in my heart. It will be decades before the next generation of Pin Oaks are big enough to shelter visitors to the convent from the noise of the outside world once again. What’s important is remembering the import of the peaceful message the trees conveyed. They were a reflection of the spiritual nature of the residents living at the convent. The trees didn’t separate the convent from the outside world, but rather connected it. People may not know or understand the lives led by the convent’s residents, but the peaceful message of the trees will remain. Until the younger 10-15 foot tall Pin Oaks grow to maturity people should consider other areas where natural beauty needs to be appreciated. Natural spaces separated from the today’s world of industry and commercialization are worth valuing – even if the spot wasn’t featured in a movie scene. http://news.communitypress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080211/EDIT/802110308/1056/RSS0901

Texas:

17) “This is my 16th year of horse logging,” Carroll said on a foray into the woods along the Cedar River last week. “Actually, my wife, Doreen, got me started with horses.” “I have a lot of background in forestry and park and rec management from college,” he said, “but I started working as a counselor and not in those areas after college.” “I liked saddle horses, but I wasn’t crazy about them,” he admitted. “My wife was.” “I really had a personal liking for draft horses, but didn’t know much about them, so I decided to buy a team. That way I could spend more time with my wife in the barn and we would do something together,” he said. Soon enough, he discovered his draft horses “ate too much.” He used them only to plow the garden and clear the driveway in winter. Then, his conscience was stirred, when a “logger came up the (Cedar) River and just tore the place apart and took advantage of a lot of people.” Carroll, who lives south of Austin near the Cedar River in Lyle Township, asked landowners nearby if he could cut firewood in the forest using his draft horses to skid the logs out of the woods with the powerful draft horses. His debut at horse logging attracted a crowd. While he and the horses worked, curiosity-seekers watched. “People started asking if I would come and work on their woods, and I decided I would give it a try,” he said. First a couple of contracts, than three and then 27 in a single year and finally a career borne of his passion for horses and nature. “I decided this is what I really wanted to do in life,” he said. “and today this is how I make my living.” Cedar River Horse Logging and Wood Products is that business. “We log, saw and kiln dry the timber and then we actually build kitchen cabinets, furniture and flooring, too,” he said.It may look like a “mom and pop,” Doreen and Tim’s business, but it isn’t. For instance, high grade walnut logs will be exported to China. http://www.austindailyherald.com/articles/2008/02/10/news/news3.txt

New Jersey:

18) In what has become a winter ritual, Downstown Aero Crop Service is preparing for war with New Jersey’s gypsy moth caterpillars. But the company will need a lot more ammunition than usual to defeat the slinky forest scourge this spring. A heavy infestation of gypsy moth caterpillars, which feast on the leaves of hundreds of plant species, is expected in May and June in the Garden State. The creatures are one of North America’s most devastating tree pests, according to the United States Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service. Up to 45,000 acres of trees in the state could be killed this year because of the caterpillars, according to the New Jersey Department of Agriculture (DOA). Continued defoliation and tree death could ruin woodland aesthetics, collapse forest ecosystems and lower property values in residential areas, the agency warns. According to DOA estimates, trees can contribute some 15 percent to the value of residential property. Downstown Aero Crop Service, based in Franklin Township, Gloucester County, works to prevent those possibilities. Armed with an 11-plane fleet, the company has been killing the caterpillars for municipalities statewide since the 1970s. This year could be the most lucrative yet, as it awaits word on a contract extension worth as much as $4.7 million. DOA, which administers the state’s gypsy moth suppression program, is pushing to extend the company’s latest gypsy moth deal. In 2006, New Jersey awarded the two-year contract, with a one-year extension option, to Downstown Aero Crop Service, a subsidiary of Downstown Airport Inc. The state also hires the company to battle forest fires and mosquitoes. Participation in the gypsy moth program is voluntary for municipalities. Under the contract, Downstown Aero Crop Service sprayed 26,668 woodland acres in 2006 and 62,460 woodland acres in 2007 around the state with a biological pesticide called bacillus thuriengensis, according to the DOA. The contract pays almost $40 per sprayed acre of trees. “It’s nice to be busy,” says Curt Nixholm, president of private-use Downstown Airport. “It’ll be a big season [in 2008]. We knew it would come back. There’s a cycle to the gypsy moths.” This year, the department has proposed that 117,896 acres of trees in 95 municipalities be sprayed. If every municipality signs up and all the recommended acres are sprayed, the vendor will pull in about $4.7 million, according to DOA. About 80 percent of towns typically get on board, says Nixholm. http://www.njbiz.com/weekly_article.asp?aID=28771217.9264774.952432.2395309.1045085.534&aID2=732
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19) Strictly from an ecological point of view, gypsy moths have no significant long-term negative impact on the value of a forest. Recen Newspaper articles would lead the public to believe that gypsy moth outbreaks are ecological catastrophes. The fact is, these outbreaks have happened four times in the last 35 years on New Jersey’s public lands, and hardly anyone can tell the difference. True, a gypsy moth outbreak can leave an unsightly, totally leafless patch of trees during June and July. But aside from valuable residential shade trees and commercial timber production (which is minimal in New Jersey), our forests are actually none the worse for the wear. Strictly from an ecological point of view, which considers all animals and plants in a forest, although individual trees are weakened and some even die, gypsy moths have no significant long-term negative impact on the value of a forest. Even if a large proportion of oaks were to die across thousands of acres, the next generation of trees would be a more diverse set of species, and the forest would eventually end up more varied and resistant to future mass defoliations or diseases brought by alien species. We cannot currently do anything to alter the biology of a gypsy moth population. Their cycle is controlled by rainfall, temperature and natural pathogens and parasites. Spraying a relatively small percentage of their vast forest habitat will not change anything except the cosmetic appearance of a patch of forest. Gypsy moths will always return every few years, even if the banned chemical Dimilin is reauthorized, as some are currently proposing. Dimilin – a known carcinogen and a suspected human endocrine-system disruptor – is far too dangerous. Further, Dimilin must not be used anywhere near wetlands and waterways. This chemical is broad-spectrum, killing not just gypsy moths but all insects, including bees, as well as all other arthropods, such as spiders — the very base of the forest food chain. http://www.northjersey.com/news/njpolitics/15487746.html

Massachusetts:

20) After I reported that Harvard University was trying to get approval to sell 99 acres of forest land that it had been willed in 1927 on condition that it remain forest, Harvard reversed course and announced that it had abandoned plans to sell the land. The decision will sit well with my readers, most of whom thought it out of bounds for the university to use assets given to it for any purpose other than the one originally intended. “If Harvard agreed 81 years ago to accept the 99 acres by promising to keep it in use as an experimental forest, then it is committed to continue keeping it in that use,” writes Lee Quarnstrom of La Habra, Calif. “The interest of the donor is the primary interest to be upheld,” writes William Halbert of Laguna Beach, Calif. “About the most unethical/immoral offense anyone can commit is to violate the trust of the departed.” “The purpose of the bequest must be respected, maintained and not changed,” write Fred Peet of Brentwood Bay, Ontario. “Further, in my view, organizations are taking a risk in changing the purpose of bequests, since others who are contemplating giving a gift for a specific purpose will think twice about giving if they think that there is a chance that their wishes will not be followed.” Veronica Ross, of Garden Grove, Calif., seconds that notion. “Why would anyone want to will land to anyone ever again after reading this?” Ross writes. “Disgusting!” Merrilee Gardner of Irvine, Calif., is looking for common ground. “Harvard should be able to break the trust to sell the land,” Gardner writes. “However, I think that, in the spirit of the trust, the land should only be sold to an organization involved in experimental forestry or something similar, such as environmental studies of some kind.” http://jeffreyseglin.blogspot.com/2008/02/sound-off-saving-forest-for-trees.html

Pennsylvania:

21) HAMPTON — Doug Tavella crunched through the snow, his 15-year-old dog Cassie happily leading the way down the trail. Cassie has accompanied her master through these woods before. In fact, she’s been along on every one of Tavella’s jobs in the last 13 years — every one that didn’t involve a chainsaw. This particular 55-acre plot of oak forest, located near east of Swartswood State Park, has been under Tavella’s watch for more than 20 years, which was about the last time the woods were decimated by gypsy moths. A couple of years ago, when the tree-destroying moths were resurging, the owner of this plot had his forest sprayed via plane, which probably saved it from significant damage. Tavella, a forester, is hired by 250 landowners in Sussex, Warren, Morris and Hunterdon counties to monitor their woods and provide advice about how best to preserve them. Besides moths, foresters also look for signs of unhealthy or diseased trees and remove them, which allows the bigger, stronger trees a chance to flourish. “It’s a career where you can run into employment difficulties. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time,” he said. State programs, like farmland assessments, require interested landowners to have forest management plans. Foresters have to be able to do more than identify trees, Tavella said. These days, they must also be conscious of state legislation and environmental policy such as the 2004 Highlands Act, which aims to preserve water resources by limiting development in certain areas. It is something that Tavella and his fellow foresters have tried to help shape, sometimes finding themselves at loggerheads with conservation groups that would rather see the land left untouched. “We want to make sure that there is a working landscape,” he said. “We want to make sure that landowners are able to hire professionals and manage their forests.” http://www.njherald.com/secure_story/290968719214184.php

Maine:

22) The Plum Creek proposal is asking Land Use Regulation Commission to rezone 20,000 acres of forestland for housing and resort development. This land has for years been zoned for forest management, which supports a sustainable segment of the Maine economy. I submit that in the future this land will have increasing economic value as forestland, while the economic benefit of the housing proposal will plummet after the construction phase is concluded. Globally, wood will become increasingly needed to replace energy and plastic made from unsustainable oil. We should be conserving productive forestland to the maximum extent possible. As we quickly deplete world oil supplies for energy and plastic, we will have to depend more upon wood. Unlike oil and coal, wood harvesting can be sustainable if not overused and if woodland is not converted on a large scale to other purposes. The world should be conserving forestland to the maximum extent possible. I read recently that China no longer allows large-scale harvesting of trees within its territory, instead importing wood from Indonesia, where trees are being cut at unsustainable rates, while China’s forests replenish. The book, “Collapse,” by Jared Diamond, tells how some past societies have collapsed because they were unable to adjust their way of life when depleting essential resources. I urge the Land Use Regulation Commission to consider this line of thinking very seriously and deny the Plum Creek development proposal entirely, or restrict it to a far smaller segment of their property. Elery Keene, Winslow wekeene@me.acadia.net http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/view/letters/4711489.html

Mid-Atlantic Coastal Forests:

23) The Dogwood Alliance has released a report highlighting the damage done by paper pulp mills and their corporate customers to America’s Mid-Atlantic Coastal Forests. The forests, which span from Delaware through the Carolinas to Georgia, are extremely rich in biodiversity; scientists have catalogued over two-thousand terrestrial species, including thirty-two endemic species. Probably the most famous endemic species is the Venus flytrap; this strange carnivorous plant is native to an area only 10 by 100 square miles in North Carolina. A study by WWF determined that both species richness and endemism is even higher for freshwater aquatic species. “The Southeastern coastal forests are incredibly diverse and unique on the North American landscape,” states Scot Quaranda, Campaign Director of Dogwood Alliance. “The forested wetlands of this region are important in stopping storm surge, filtering water, mitigating the impacts of global warming and of course providing important habitat for wildlife. It is also a place of unique cultural history, with many families living on this land for generations and incredibly distraught with all of the destruction brought upon their place by the pulp and paper industry.” The report states that approximately 90% of the thirty-one million acre forest has been lost or degraded. The greatest loss has occurred from conversion of forest into monoculture plantation forests for paper. Beginning in the 1980s—when paper companies began to convert forests in the region—the southern forests in the US have become the world’s largest paper producer. The monoculture plantations required for such mass-production make heavy use of pesticides, fertilizers, and toxic chemicals, further imperiling the water supply and habitats of the region. While there a number of popular parks and protected areas in the region they make up only 8% of the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Forest. The rest is owned either by individuals or corporations. Scot Quaranda said that “most of the owners are individual private land owners. http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0210-dogwood_hance.html

North Carolina:

24) RICEVILLE – Research by Warren Wilson College forestry students in the Shope Creek area could help shape future forest management decisions in Western North Carolina. The college will be involved in monitoring and researching forest management techniques as part of the U.S. Forest Service’s decision on management of the area five miles east of downtown Asheville in Pisgah National Forest. The area will allow students to learn about land management strategies while also providing research on how the Forest Service’s management plans affect wildlife in the area, said David Ellum, a professor of sustainable forestry at Warren Wilson. “We can get out there and look objectively and get answers that are not driven by agendas,” he said. The collaboration is unique for the region and could help shape future projects, said Tina Tilley, district ranger for the Appalachian Ranger District. “They’ve got a pretty big base of folks out there, and the ability to do some research that could potentially be more in-depth than we could,” she said. “If they pick the right projects, in the long term it could help shape projects and how we implement them in the future.” The decision comes after the Forest Service announced its plans in April to log 68 acres of forest, clear five miles of roads and improve public access to the forest. The proposal was part of the agency’s management plan that calls for creating wildlife habitats through tree harvesting. The plan drew more than 270 public comments, which in part led to the agency’s re-examination of the original proposal. Working with local conservation and community groups, the agency’s final decision scaled back its logging plans and designated 123 acres as old-growth forest, which removes them from future logging activities. Chris Joyell, a spokesman for forest conservation group Wild South, praised the Forest Service’s decision and said he hopes the collaboration between the agency and environmental groups can continue to shape other area projects. http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080212/NEWS01/80211102

Alabama:

25) After hearing testimony Friday from witnesses on both sides of Jacksonville’s tree controversy, Calhoun-Cleburne Circuit Judge John Thomason ordered written closing arguments from both sides. The case pits two Jacksonville residents against Alabama Power Co. over whether the power company should be allowed to remove four trees near their homes. The power company’s attorneys, Brenda Stedham, Steve Casey and Eric Getty, have seven days to submit a brief explaining why they have the right to cut down the trees in front of Barbara Wilson and Rufus Kinney’s homes, Thomason said. Mark Martin, who represents Wilson and Kinney, will have 14 days to explain why the trees should be spared. Thomason did not say when he might rule in the case. Alabama Power’s attorneys maintained Friday that the trees are in the public right of way and that they pose a safety risk because of their proximity to power lines. Martin argued that the trees do not pose as great a safety risk as the power company has claimed. The roughly three-hour trial opened with Alabama Power calling two witnesses to the stand who had testified previously. Randy Gann, manager for contract services for Alabama Power, testified that the company is cutting trees from under power lines throughout the state for safety reasons. He said the company believes broken power lines become de-energized when come into contact with the ground instead of with trees. In the past, the power company trimmed such trees in residential areas. Company executives decided several years ago to begin removing trees instead of trimming them, Gann said, but the company did not begin cutting down trees in Jacksonville until June of last year. During cross examination, Gann acknowledged that the company does not follow National Electrical Safety Code recommendations to trim trees near power lines. “It was our management’s decision to mitigate that risk,” Gann said. He added that tree density in Alabama is among the highest in the country. Alabama Power Co. attorney Steve Casey argued that the Safety Code recommendation is a minimum standard. http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1085159/

26) This morning I talked with Cathy of the Heartwood Sanctuary where Nancy had found her spiritual home and spirit family since 2004. She went up there for a workshop and was moved to move to Mentone to be part of it all. When Nancy glided through our Heartwood Council, Dogwood Alliance and other forest activist circles, she felt compelled to help us bridge our spirit sides with the hard left-brained work of our activist sides. I’m sure she had moments of frustration with some of us who had forgotten why we loved the Earth, nature and each other so much to dedicate so much of our lives to dealing with institutions and individuals who apparently had lost all contact with that side of being. In doing our work often times we were drawn into the antithesis of what we had wished for the community and the Earth. As a spiritually challenged physical being, I appreciated Nancy’s dilligent concern and attention to our challenges of blending spirit and the difficult work. She gently tried to remind us that we were spiritual beings, doing physical deeds. When she found her spiritual tribe, the Heartwood Sanctuary folks of northeast Alabama, she also served as a bridge for those folks so focused on the spiritual side, that they needed a nudge here and there to pay attention to the needs for dedicated souls who work for the Earth and our communities. She taught many the importance of
hugging trees, of acting on their passions, and creating a loving community in the midst of chaos and the larger culture. She found her home in those circles of the last years of her life. She organized events, made them more colorful, more loving and more hopeful, much like she had done when she graced our circles. Grace was one of Nancy’s prime attributes. Nancy was diagnosed with colon cancer in May of 2007. It had already matastasized into her liver and other organs. There were times of great pain. She sought relief at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, where she did get some pain management relief, some chemo that helped and ultimately an ostomy. Her spririt family in Mentone dilligently cared for her around the clock during the darkest of days. Nancy had a grace period of fairly good recovery in November, good enough to allow her to travel to Italy with a friend. After the holidays, the cancer returned with a vengence and she chose to unburden her friends and spend her last weeks on earth with her family. andy@blueriver.net http://www.selmatimesjournal.com/articles/2008/02/10/news/obituaries/obit%2023.txt

Georgia:

27) It’s no secret Berkeley Lake has more trees than any city in Gwinnett. The 50-year-old former summer retreat has always treasured its natural architecture. It has the strictest tree ordinance in the county, says forester Dale Higdon, and one of the toughest in the state. What the city hasn’t had, until now, is a sense of just what its lush canopy is worth. On April 22-23, teams of professional foresters and arborists will fan out across the 700-acre city with state-of-the-art software to find out. In two days, they’ll catalog the number, type and health of the trees along public streets and begin to document the state of the city’s urban forest (a process that will take longer). The effort is part of a pilot project by the USDA Forest Service and the Georgia Forestry Commission. It will provide Berkeley Lake with a comprehensive assessment of its tree canopy and advice on how to maintain and protect it. Detailed reports like the one Eric Kuehler of Urban Forestry South will generate typically cost thousands of dollars. Berkeley Lake gets one, free of charge, for welcoming the arborists, who will be learning how to use a new software tool called i-Tree. To Rebecca Spitler, who joined the Berkeley Lake City Council in November (January), the deal is a no-brainer. “I’m pretty excited about it,” Spitler said. “We have a nature lovers community. . . and I think it will be great for our city to know the value of our urban forest and how to properly maintain it.” The partnership came about through Higdon, a senior forester with the Georgia Forestry Commission. He knew Kuehler, met Spitler through the city’s land conservancy, and realized their goals dove-tailed. Higdon has lived and worked in Gwinnett for 31 years. He’s deeply concerned with the rate at which Gwinnett is trading open land for impervious surfaces, which he said is currently about one-to-one. And in all the years he’s been in Gwinnett, he said he’s never come across anything like the tree canopy of Berkeley Lake. “They have for a long time had what I consider to be one of the most comprehensive, most protective tree ordinances in Gwinnett, if not the metro area,” said Higdon, who retires in May but says he will stay involved with the city. “Around the lake,” he said, “are some of the oldest trees in Gwinnett.” http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/02/11/trees_0212.html

USA:

28) A friend took a moment to read through and summarize George Wuerthner’s critique of Forest Service (and others) mis-aligined assumptions re: fire, ecosystems, and management ‘fixes’. Time for the Forest Service to wake up! Time to abandon ideas of ‘quick fixes’ to complex ecological problems! Some of us think it is at least time. Here’s my friend’s summary: For most forest types, and perhaps even all forest types, it is simply not known if there is an unnatural accumulation of fuels that is outside the historic range of variability. It seems most large wildfires are more closely correlated with weather and climate patterns rather than fuel conditions. Accordingly, for most forest types, and perhaps even all forest types, it is not known if there is an effective way to treat any unnatural fuel accumulations that may exist in a way that: actually reduces fire hazard or risk reduces fire hazard or risk for any more than a short window of time does not do more environmental harm than good by: causing soil compaction and erosion creating roading and increased access and human use altering insect, disease, and decay biota altering wildlife habitat. Humans cannot treat forests at a scale that would make any significant difference in the occurrence of large wildland fires, even if there are fuel buildups which are creating an unnatural hazard or risk and were effective treatments which are known to reduce them. Humans are not capable of implementing silvicultural treatments with a sufficient degree of precision at a large enough scale to accomplish objectives for hazard or risk reduction, even if there are fuel buildups which are creating an unnatural hazard and risk and were effective treatments which are known to reduce them. wuerthner@earthlink.net

Brazil:

29) Uncle Mad lives in Crazy Town. When you have somebody who lives on the edge of the Amazon Jungle and thinks he owns it all, it would be stupid not to pay him a visit. It sounded like it could be an adventure. The journey there from Manaus was either a six-day boat trip sleeping with the goats, or a flight for about R$80 more. Cowards that we are, we flew. Money well spent. Flying over the Amazon Rainforest is special. It ain´t called the rainforest for nothing though, but when all those clouds clear the view of nothing but green trees all the way to the horizon, very occasionally slashed by a winding silver river can´t be described in any lesser terms. Coming in to land at Crazy Town, it seemed like we were dropping onto the tree-top. Like the rest of Crazy Town, the runway has been cut from the trees that used to cover the area. The furthest navigable point on a major tributary of the Amazon, the town used to be on the part of the South American map that had the giant word ´Jungle´ across the middle and no more details. It started with the crazy idea of having a train station that was supposed to bring rubber down the line from deep in the interior, avoiding rapids and waterfalls, to send it all the way to Europe. Henry Wickham put paid to that idea. Like thousands of the people who worked on the line, the train died a slow death. The road that connected the Mato Grosso plantations to the wood river in the 1980´s has had more success, if success is the correct word. A wave of loggers, ranchers, chancers, gangsters and traffickers flooded the area, arriving on the newly paved road, while hardwood trees, cattle, soya and cocaine flooded out. http://www.gringoes.com/articles.asp?ID_Noticia=2064

30) The destruction of the Amazon forest is a subject dear to the heart of the foreign media and environmental organizations but of virtually no interest to the majority of Brazilians. The foreigners seem to think that by causing a fuss every time the statistics on the latest deforestation are published they will save this vast area. I believe they are wrong and should change their tactics or look around for another cause to adopt. The Amazon region is doomed and will end up as barren and bleak as my native Scottish Highlands where the original forest was chopped down centuries ago. Foreigners tend to see the Amazon problem the way George Bush saw Iraq i.e. a situation in which the good guys should take over from the bad guys and educate the locals over the errors of their ways. A recent example of this approach appeared in “The Independent” newspaper of London under the naïve headline “There is a way to save the rainforests..” by a columnist called Johann Hari who claimed the solution lay in the developed countries setting up a fund “as ambitious as the Marshall Plan – to preserve the remaining rainforests, and thereby prevent drastic destabilisation of our climate.” As I read the article I wondered why Mr Hari’s unconvincing views on the rainforest deserved so much space in The Independent. He was very vague about Brazil and trotted out decades-old clichés like an “area the size of Belgium..was destroyed in the past year alone” and unproven statements like “So when you eat a burger, chances are you are effectively eating part of the Amazon”. http://www.brazzil.com/content/view/10038/1/

31) A report suggesting amnesty for Brazilian landowners who were proven responsible for a fraction of the Amazon forest’s deforestation was rejected by the Brazilian government Monday. The bill, which urged landowners be given looser restrictions in terms of clearing areas of the rainforest, was criticized by Environment Minister Marina Silva, and Agriculture Minister Reinhold Stephanes. Silva said that there will be no amnesty “for those behind illegal deforestation or on any weakening of legislation” aimed to preserve the rainforest, according to the AFP. She added that approval of the bill “would not result in lesser deforestation but rather the legalization of passive environment protection, and would cause more deforestation.” Brazil has been fighting against deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, which it has recognized as the “lungs” of the planet. The Brazilian government had celebrated a 59 percent decrease in the rate of deforestation – an activity that has been responsible for 75 percent of the country’s total carbon emissions, according to the Deccan Herald. Recently, however, there has been an increase in the deforestation rate within the country. Efforts to cut deforestation rates have been actively under way, ever since the spike in the activity during the last half of the previous year. http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7010008756

32) Brazil’s government plans to curb financing for illegal loggers and farmers and boost penalties to pare deforestation of the Amazon, Environment Minister Marina Silva told reporters in Brasilia. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and executives of state-controlled banks today will discuss ways to restrict financing to individuals and companies damaging the Amazon, the minister said in Brasilia. Devastation in the Brazilian portion of the Amazon basin accelerated in the last five months of 2007, the ministry said last month. “There’s no intention, at this point, to either give amnesty to deforestation offenders or to make the reserve limits more flexible,” Silva said at the ministry’s headquarters in Brasilia. “What is needed is better enforcement, not an easing in the current policies to protect the Amazon.” Preliminary figures show destruction between August and December may have reached as many as 7,000 square kilometers, or the equivalent of 60 percent of the deforestation in the 12 months through July 2007, partly because of increased logging and cattle-raising. Landowners in the Amazon will have to show that at least half their property remains untouched and that there has been no destruction to the forest on their estates in the past 12 years, Deputy Environment Minister Joao Paulo Capobianco said today. Those who fail to prove that will be forced to replant, he said. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=anONHsY8ZkLY&refer=latin_america

33) A steel mill in Corumbá, in the heart of Brazil’s Pantanal wetland, is fueling destruction of forests for charcoal and undermining the rights of Amazonian forest dwellers, reports the Inter Press Service. According to Alessandro Menezes, head of local environmental group Ecology and Action, the MMX steel mill in Corumbá has been producing pig iron despite being fined and banned for using charcoal illegally-harvested from forests on indigenous lands. MMX continues to operate under a temporary judicial order while the fate of the indigenous territories is being determined. The charcoal producers are taking advantage of the fact that part of the Kadiweu territory “is in litigation, still occupied by large landowners,” despite recognition that it is indigenous land, said Menezes. Also under threat are areas of another native community of the Pantanal, the Terena people, he added. In Taunay, one of the Terena areas, deforestation has accelerated recently because of the possibility of the future delineation and handover of land to indigenous communities, said Lisio Lili, a Terena Indian and former local leader of the National Indigenous Foundation. Charcoal and cattle are the interests driving the destruction of the forests, he said. Logging to supply the pig iron industry with charcoal for steel production has long been known to be damaging to Amazon forests, especially in the states of Mato Grosso and Pará. Steel mills have also been associated with gross human rights violations. Investigations by Brazilian authorities have uncovered workers being held in debt-bondage schemes akin to slavery. http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0211-pantanal.html