321 – Earth’s Tree News

Today for you 30 new articles about earth’s trees! (321st edition)
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–Pacific Northwest: 1) Where’s the wood going these days? –Washington: 2) Goldmark launches campaign for State Land Commissioner
–Oregon: 3) Another logger gets crazy in the newspaper, 4) State Forest legacy program funds available, 5) Save Smith river from being over recreated,
–California: 6) Carbon industry could take over the forest industry? 7) Hard times of activists, even in video games, 8) Acorns grow well in yards, not so well in preserves,
–Illinois: 9) Rollins Savanna Forest Preserve
–Missouri: 10) Forest destroyer practices recycling / nothing goes to waste –Virginia: 11) Trees of US soldiers’ largest cemetery
–Pennsylvania: 12) Giving new territory away to drill in state forests
–Maine: 13) Small time logging is successful?
–USA: 14) Half of forest land privately owned, 15) $54 million in Forest Legacy grants,
–Guyana: 16) Everywhere else are dwindling islands of forest
–Chile: 17) Protesting a plan to build hydroelectrical dams.
–China: 18) 6.5 percent increase in paper consumption
–India: 19) Pooling program resources to fight deforestation, 20) Not enough forest for every tribal, 21) Forest Beat offices have been run over and demolished, 22) Last tigers,
–Vietnam: 23) Whole forest was cleared illegally, 24) Shift towards shade crops,
–Philippines: 25) Since 1950 in Barangay Camp Eduard
–Indonesia: 26) Subsistence farmers run out buy Palm Oil rush, 27) Log ban in Papua,
–New Zealand: 28) Red Stag Timber: an extreme of cultivated invasive, 29) Protest against the sale of furniture,
–World-wide: 30) Forests and Climate

Pacific Northwest:

1) One emerging trend is the resurgence of exports to Asian markets such as Japan and Korea. The dollar has weakened against foreign currencies, encouraging sales to offshore customers. Export grade Douglas fir and hemlock logs are specially selected for high-quality. These logs are cut to special lengths and command a premium of 20 percent more than domestic logs. Another positive trend is the plywood market, which is less reliant on the housing market. Northwest plywood products are typically used for industrial and commercial building purposes, such as concrete forms. Pulp mills are driving demand for small logs and wood chips – a byproduct of lumber production with a supply crises related to the housing market. The lack of available chips has produced a big demand for small, lower quality logs. Pulp mills are using twice as many logs as they normally would to satisfy production levels. Larger logs are also in demand for certain specialty products. Electric utilities across the country have been grabbing up logs that are up to 120 feet long, paying a significant premium of up to $1,100 per 1,000 board feet – a common price for Douglas fir is $500 per 1,000 board feet. These exceptionally tall and straight trees are used to make poles for utility transmission lines. Power companies have been improving their decaying infrastructures and expanding services to provide for population growth. Also, sawmills cutting larger, higher quality Douglas fir logs for specialty timbers and non-housing related custom items were more resilient last year. “These are examples of healthy segments of the Pacific Northwest’s forest industry,” Culbertson said. “Lumber mills are struggling, but the forest industry is positioned to weather the economic downturn that the country is facing.” http://www.pr-inside.com/forest-industry-positioned-to-survive-housing-r512041.htm

Washington:

2) The outspoken, colorful rancher-governor of Montana is coming to Seattle next Monday, April 7th, to help Okanogan rancher Peter Goldmark launch his campaign for State Land Commissioner. Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, will appear at the PACCAR Pavilion of the waterfront sculpture garden at 5 p.m. for what Goldmark describes as a “low dollar event.” He thinks the tab is $35. Goldmark is challenging two-term GOP incumbent Doug Sutherland, a Republican that Democrats have underestimated for a quarter-century. Sutherland won two narrow victories as Pierce County Executive, and then beat former Gov. Mike Lowry in 2000 to become overseer of millions of acres in state landholdings. After an unsuccessful, late-starting run against Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rogers in 2006, Goldmark has gotten off the mark early in his run against Sutherland. He has already raised more than $200,000. The Goldmark-Sutherland race should be a marquee attraction on the state ballot this fall. Goldmark opposes the big gravel mine planned for Maury Island, saying the state should “go slow” with industrial proposals on Puget Sound until a plan for the Sound’s preservation is developed. The Okanogan rancher intends to raise the issue of erosion of cut-over slopes on the state’s timberlands, subject of a memorable front page color photo in The Seattle Times after last December’s flood in Lewis County. Goldmark charges that Sutherland has become “too cozy with big industry.” The timber industry has sustained Sutherland’s political warchest, but the GOP land commissioner has remained on good terms with some greens. He has run with support from Republicans for Environmental Protection, and has cultivated the reputation as a party moderate. At the same time, however, Sutherland has engaged in a long-running feud with environmental attorney Peter Goldman, head of the Washington Forest Law Center. The center has repeatedly challenged the Department of Natural Resources, headed by the land commissioner, over issues of logging practices and sustainability of the timber cut on state lands. Goldmark is a former director of the state Department of Agriculture, and served as a Washington State University regent for 11 years. http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/seattlepolitics/archives/135533.asp

Oregon:

3) I have been living on another planet and just arrived here in Lane County this morning. With Easter having recently passed, maybe I died on my planet, was buried and was resurrected “here,” wherever “here” may be. I am really confused now. I spent nearly five years at a university that I thought was Oregon State University earning a degree in forest management. I then went on to work in a timbered region of what must be a planet that I don’t recall in my conscious mind. According to all of my records, I worked for more than 40 years in an area consisting of a few thousand privately held acres. My records and faint recollection tell me that my family worked these same acres some 100 years before me. Amazingly, on our planet, we worked in the timber industry generation after generation after generation, and are currently training two generations that are following me. The timber people on my planet got together many years ago, and with our state officials they developed rules by which to manage our forests. The timber people decided we need to define how we protect our… … astute knowledge and expertise. We call them forest practice regulations. : ) http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=85799&sid=5&fid=1

4) The Forest Legacy Program, administered by the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF), is a cooperative program of the U.S. Forest Service that seeks to conserve private forestlands that may be lost to non-forest uses, preserve forest resources, and enhance community forest conservation partnerships. “We’re focusing our efforts on areas that face immediate threats to conversion to non-forest uses,” said Jennifer Wright, ODF Forest Legacy Program coordinator. “These are large areas of private forest land that face the possibility of development within the next decade, where the consequences are great in terms of overall losses to ecological, social and economic forest related benefits.” The Forest Legacy Program is designed to bolster state and community efforts to keep forestland viable. The voluntary program provides financial incentives — using land acquisition or conservation easements — for private landowners to protect environmentally important working forests (those that provide forest products as well as clean water, fish and wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities) that are threatened by development and other non-forest uses. Landowners submitting proposed projects for funding during the federal fiscal year beginning October 1, 2009, should contact ODF and submit projects prior to August 29, 2008 for consideration. Additional guidelines for the Forest Legacy Program, and the application form for the program, are available on the ODF website, www.oregon.gov/ODF – http://www.bendweekly.com/Statewide-News/14986.html

5) The Smith River National Recreation Area (NRA) was established by Congress to protect the spectacular botanical, fisheries, and recreational values of the Smith River Watershed. From the high-alpine beauty of the Siskiyou Wilderness to the iconic splendor of the coastal redwoods, the Smith River NRA provides some of the best recreational opportunities on the West Coast. The Smith River NRA is famous for its world-class salmon, steelhead and trout fisheries, as well as its spectacular kayaking and white-water rafting opportunities. The Smith River NRA is also home to numerous plant species that grow nowhere else in the world and the rare Port-Orford cedar. Unfortunately, the watersheds of the Recreation Area have been significantly degraded by past logging, mining and road building activities. Currently the Forest Service does not have an adequate budget to maintain the bloated network of logging roads and mining routes that fragment wildlife habitat and harm water quality, so the agency is in the process of determining which roads to keep, and which roads to decommission. While most Americans desire a forest road system that provides reasonable access while protecting the unique values of the Smith River Watershed, a few irresponsible off-road vehicle (ORV) enthusiasts are politically pressuring the Forest Service to allow ORV use in some of the most sensitive and fragile portions of the Recreation Area. While the Forest Service intends to maintain over 265 miles of road for motorized use, and designate over 28 miles of back-country trails specifically for ORV enthusiasts, this evidently isn’t enough for some who believe that they should be able to ride wherever they want, regardless of the impacts on the watershed or on other forest users. A letter to the Forest Service can make a difference! Please write a quick letter today on behalf of the botanical, recreational, ecological and fisheries resources in the Smith River NRA! www.kswild.org/KSNews/smithnra

California:

6) After more than a century of logging, could letting trees live become the new business for Sierra Nevada forests? The Sierra Business Council thinks it might, using the newly-emerging field of carbon sequestration. And the Truckee Tahoe Airport District may lead the way. with the recent purchase of Waddle Ranch in the Martis Valley, the airport may be the first property owner in the area to get in on the market. “We are going to maintain the forest no matter what, but if we can use money from industries buying these credits, rather than taxpayer money to maintain it, that’s a big bonus,” said Dave Gotschall, general manager for the airport. The airport district is still exploring exactly what the future holds for carbon sequestration and would try to figure out how much potential for carbon storage there is in Waddle Ranch, how much the airport would need to offset its own emissions, and how much they would need to sell to break even on maintaining the forest, Gotschall said. The airport wouldn’t set out to profit from the practice, instead creating a trust to fund the maintain Waddle Ranch (by thinning fuels, among other things) into the future, he said. But just how the numbers pencil out is tough to tell, said Dave Parsons, executive assistant at the airport. “We don’t know what we have in carbon storage, we’ve been told it could be anywhere from 40,000 to 90,000 tons,” Parsons said. “And there is still a lot of uncertainty in the market in terms of price per ton.” The district already has an offer at about $10 per ton, he said, but prices vary in what is right now a voluntary market. As legislation comes to fruition, and requirements are placed on California industries, Parsons said prices could move toward where they are in Europe — around $30 per ton. But while the airport district board wants to know how the numbers work, others question the idea of carbon sequestration itself. “You’re proposing to develop and sell credits to allow people to continue polluting,” said Andrew Terry, a new member of the Airport Community Advisory Team. “We’re going to leverage a community resource to allow pollution somewhere else.” Taking a different point of view, Thomas Bonnicksen, a retired forestry professor at Texas A&M University, said carbon sequestration projects are actually only short-term solutions. “In a century it’s going to be over, respiration will equal sequestration,” he said. “You have to cut trees for wood products that will store carbon, rather than rotting wood releasing it.” http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/SS/20080330/NEWS/10867413

7) A nasty kingdom is destroying the woods, and the job of the player is to win a war against the baddies – in the context of “mild cartoon violence” – with the help of eco creatures and wood spirits. The age rating is Everyone, which means the game is recommended for anyone 6 or older. The controls are poor. You find out early, for instance, that you can’t fight effectively without making yourself stupidly vulnerable to attack. Even little kids know that makes the game a dubious value at $30, regardless of any environmental merit. You’re supposed to nurture your creatures, but it’s hard to get in the mood when the clunky game play is making you crazy. My big question is about the appropriateness of capitalizing on something no one wants to be against – a clean and healthy natural world – by making it an issue of good vs. evil in a children’s game. I suppose many people think the issues that determine the condition of the environment are just that stark. I’m with the folks who think the issues are far more subtle, and that maybe there’s http://www.siliconvalley.com/personaltech/ci_8755323?nclick_check=1

8) Folsom city arborist Ken Menzer said the origins of the ample acorn crop stretch back to 2006. “That spring was really wet, and because of that, in the fall the trees put out lots of buds for flowers,” Menzer said. “Then, in 2007, we had a really dry spring, which is perfect for pollination. So in the fall of 2007 we had lots of acorns that were viable.” Their tender, leafy sprouts face daunting odds against survival, however. Most will never grow up to become the giant gnarled oak trees that provide California’s iconic foothill and valley landscapes, as well as valuable habitat for a host of birds and mammals. “In oaks, we find lots of seedlings, hardly any saplings, and lots of mature trees; it just doesn’t follow what you’d normally think,” said Doug McCreary, natural resources specialist with the University of California Cooperative Extension. Much of the California terrain once covered with oak woodlands is now covered with suburban houses, with some leftover oaks mixed in. That means seedlings grow where they aren’t wanted – in lawns, in gardens, maybe right next to the house. These fall victim to the lawn mower and the weed whacker. “We have between 1 percent and 5 percent of our oak woodland left,” said Zarah Wyly, manager of the Sacramento Tree Foundation’s native tree planting program. “The trees want to be where we want to be, generally along the rivers and in the floodplain areas, where the prime farmland is, and also in the lovely foothills,” Wyly said. “That’s where we want to live, too.” Yet even in protected oak preserves, where people don’t run over seedlings with lawn mowers or pull them out, the overwhelming majority never reach the sapling stage, much less become mature oak trees. McCreary said there are several reasons for this, none of which has been isolated as the main cause. Non-native grasses introduced by cattle-grazing during the Gold Rush compete for water. Cattle, deer and sheep eat the young seedlings. Climate change also may play a role. http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/830070.html

Illinois:

9) The definition of an oak savanna is “a wooded, natural community that contains a 10-50 percent canopy cover and is maintained by fire.” Hundreds of years ago, oaks were the largest trees in the oak savannas in the Midwest. In our area, the white oak (bur oak is part of this family) and red oak are represented in this region that formed a transition between the forests to the east and the Great Plains to the west. Before European settlement, fire would sweep through the prairies, killing off competition from other trees and shrubs. Only the thickly barked bur oak trees and the deeply rooted prairie plants along with their seeds would remain. The bur oak continued to survive in the black prairie soils, becoming known as the classic tree of the American savanna. As the Europeans arrived, they cleared the land for farming, leaving only small areas of oak savannas, that over time turned into dense forests, without the cycle of fire. Nowadays, because of restoration efforts by natural resource professionals and volunteers, the prairie and savanna landscape is being brought back to a balance that will sustain the life cycle of these majestic trees. Prairie fires are imitated through the use of “controlled burns” that get rid of understory trees and shrubs such as sugar maples and buckthorn. The oaks fare better without competition for sun or water. With good restoration practices, a diversity of native prairie plants such as Joe Pye Weed, Purple Milkweed and Big Bluestem will come back naturally or will be replanted to recreate a sustainable habitat. Preserved areas in the Chicago metropolitan area offer an opportunity to experience these historical, intact habitats. Immerse yourself in the largest restoration of oak woodland, savanna and prairie in Lake County at the Rollins Savanna Forest Preserve. This recent project has welcomed back 1,225 acres of oak groves, wildflowers and native grasses. Today, even with the loss of much of its natural habitat, the bur oak has survived because it is adaptable to drought and is more tolerant of urban conditions than other types of oaks. My oak, whose trunk measures 34-inches in diameter, is a survivor. But surviving and thriving are two different stories as it currently stands next to a busy suburban street, where its roots must compete with a sidewalk and a turf grass parkway. I try to imagine how it lorded over the prairie grasses and reached out to the lake before a street separated them. Even though the Eastern white oak is the official state tree of Illinois, the bur oak has earned my respect with its massive shape and branches that spread like arms to the sky. http://searchchicago.suntimes.com/homes/news/866157,HOS-News-garden30.article

Missouri:

10) The forest-rich Missouri Ozarks have been quite good to the four generations of kin at McGinnis Wood Products, a supplier of white oak barrels to distillers and winemakers the world over. Business is so good, there’s even a market for the 120 tons of sawdust produced daily as remnants from the plant’s two lumber mills. Rather than haul the wood waste to the landfill, McGinnis sells its scraps to a nearby Kingsford charcoal factory. So when a pair of forestry extension agents approached the company to promote the use of wood waste as a renewable energy source, general manager Don McGinnis was intrigued. But until those ideas can translate into money in his pocket, he plans to remain an observer, not a participant. “It’s a great idea,” he said. “There’s wood just laying there and dying. And we know there’s a need for it. It’s just getting to the point where its profitable.” Turning sawdust, wood pellets, bark, branches and other unused forest products into a source of cleaner energy isn’t a new idea, especially in developing countries where access to natural gas and electricity can be sparse. Some southern states, including South Carolina, offer tax incentives to encourage the use of wood waste and other biomass products. The effort in Missouri, though, is relatively new. In recent weeks, forestry agents from both the University of Missouri and the state Department of Conservation have held town hall meetings to drum up interest in Cuba and Fredericktown, with another session scheduled later this month in Thayer near the Arkansas border. The outreach efforts are targeting communities heavily dependent on logging, sawmills and agriculture – businesses that generate a significant amount of wood waste. The U.S. Forest Service estimates that nearly 80 million cubic feet of logging residue sat idle in privately-owned Missouri forests last year, with another 80,000 tons of leftover sawdust at lumber mills statewide. “Missouri forests are undermanaged and overstocked,” said Cliff Metcalf, a participant at the Cuba meeting and director of environmental operations for Hansen’s Tree Services of O’Fallon. “Tapping into that makes sense, if it can be done economically.” http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MO_WOOD_ENERGY_MOOL-?SITE=MOSTP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DE
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Virginia:

11) Section 60, where soldiers of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars come to be buried, a wide muddy trench pierced by car tracks is evidence enough of all the transit. Partway in between burns John F. Kennedy’s “eternal flame,” while a famous post oak—named the Arlington oak—hangs overhead. Like the Arlington oak, many of the cemetery’s eight thousand trees, dotting 652 acres, stand inseparable from those buried beneath. The giant urban oaks, the oldest the three-hundred-year-old white “Taft oak” by the former president’s grave; the cedar of Lebanon honoring the victims of the bombing of the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut in 1983; and the conspicuous flowering dogwoods, the memorial tree most often requested by families, all serve as dynamic headstones for the dead. Here, human history entangles with the roots of trees. “We probably have the finest collection of old trees that you’ll find in any urban area, certainly the mid-Atlantic,” says Erik Dihle, division chief for grounds, burial operations, and ceremonial support at Arlington National Cemetery. A horticulturist by trade, he estimates the cemetery boasts about six hundred trees over age one hundred, with a sizeable number over two hundred, too. The age of the trees is all the more remarkable, Dihle says, given the constant digging at the cemetery and the corresponding risk of damage to tree roots. Arlington is home to twenty-eight to thirty funerals each day. At Arlington, staff block off locations specifically for trees between and among the hundreds of thousands of headstones. But sometimes tree roots outgrow their allocated spaces—a particularly acute problem when it comes to burying the next of kin in sites that have long been undisturbed. Dihle has seen dramatic cases, like that of the widow of a World War II soldier who died fifty years after her husband. In the intervening period, a lovely black cherry tree had grown up and out near the gravesite, the roots spreading laterally underground. “Well, what do we do? We don’t bat an eye. We dig that grave so she can join her husband,” says Dihle. But, he adds, “We’re going to do the least damage we can to that cherry tree.” Stephen Van Hoven, the cemetery’s urban forester, describes the desperate measures unleashed in those rare cases where roots infringe upon space needed for a gravesite: how landscapers prune the sprawling roots with a circular blade they pierce through the soil, blindly dragging it along the tree’s extremities, cutting the roots cleanly so they can regenerate. http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/2932

Vermont:

11) Nearly 135 square miles of Vermont forest, more land than Grand Isle County, will go on sale today. The price: $26 million. Essex Timber Co., a Massachusetts-based group of investors, purchased most of the 86,212 acres in 1999 for $7.5 million when Champion International paper company sold off its land in Vermont. The state and the Freeman Foundation paid $8.5 million for easements on the land to guarantee that traditional uses — both logging and public access for hunting, fishing and other recreation — would continue. Those easements will continue to govern the property, so no major changes in land use are expected. The property could be subdivided into several parcels, but is being offered as a single unit. The remote stretches of forest, mountains and trout-rich streams have been an important source of work for Northeast Kingdom loggers for decades. Wilhelm Merck, managing member of Essex Timber, said Monday his small group of investors “decided to make some changes in their portfolio.” He declined to elaborate. But Gary Bahlkow, the Portland, Maine, real estate broker handling the sale, said recent declines in the stock market make this a good time to sell working forest land. Much forest land now is owned not by paper companies with their own cutting crews, but by private investors who contract with local loggers. “High-net-worth families are investing more and more in timberland. We see the Fortune 500 crowd interested,” Bahlkow said. “Timberland is a hard asset, like gold. In times of economic uncertainty, timber is a nice place to park capital. More and more we see investors dedicating 3 percent to 5 percent, even 10 percent of their assets to timberland.” When Essex Timber bought the land, it had been heavily cut over, one reason for the $89-an-acre price thenat the time. “Our approach has been to harvest very lightly to cover costs, but to allow plenty of net regrowth,” Merck said. That gradually maturing forest will produce bigger sawlogs and more softwood in the future, making the land more valuable than it was in 1999. The imminent sale proves the value of protecting the land with permanent conservation easements, John Roe of the Vermont Land Trust said. VLT holds the working-forest easement with the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board. “Changes usually are expected when property changes hands. The easement is explicitly designed to create more stable management,” he said. In the Northeast Kingdom, forester Brendan Whittaker of Brunswick agreed. “I don’t hear a lot of concern” about the sale, Whittaker said. Residents of the state’s northeastern corner are more affected by the recent closing of the Wausau paper mill in Groveton, N.H., that put 300 people out of work. http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080401/NEWS01/80401005/-1/NEWS
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Pennsylvania:

12) Despite opposition from environmentalists, Gov. Ed Rendell’s administration will give exploration companies thirsty to capitalize on sky-high natural gas prices new territory to drill in Pennsylvania’s state forests. The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources said it is ending a five-year-old moratorium on allowing new shallow gas wells, and that it will auction the rights to drill on an additional 75,000 acres of state forest land for the first time since 2002. If successful in the bidding that will take place later this year, the exploration companies will be able to take a shot at two deep gas reservoirs, the Marcellus Shale formation, some 6,000 to 8,000 feet underground, and the Trenton-Black River, which is more than 10,000 feet deep. Both are thought to contain large quantities of natural gas, and have drawn the interest of exploration companies from Texas to Canada. Many of the companies are scouring for drilling opportunities on private land in Pennsylvania and throughout Appalachia, while pressing for access to all of Pennsylvania’s 2.1 million acres of state forests. “We’re very excited about the opportunity,” said Stephen W. Rhoads, the president of the Harrisburg-based Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association. “We just wish it were larger; 75,000 acres is not a whole lot of land.” For decades, geologists and energy companies have known about the gas in the Marcellus Shale _ but only recently have developed a way to extract it. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5666339.html

Maine:

13) L.R. Hamilton performs logging, trucking and road construction. The company employs 31 people and has three buildings on about seven acres of land. The new 5,000 square-foot shop is located on five acres. The old shop, now used for storage, is located on two acres and has 5,000 square feet. The company owns about 1,700 acres of timberland, mainly hardwoods and hemlock. “We cut and sell the logs by the ton, predominately to paper mills,” Lyle said. Weekly production is around 1,500 cords, which is about 4,000 tons. Trucking operations are vital to ensure reliable, dependable deliveries and customer service, said Lyle. “We started with one truck in 1991 and then added a second in 1997,” reported Lyle. “From then on we have continued to add more trucks. Today we have nine, and we are negotiating to buy another two.” Having his own trucking capacity is important to the company’s overall operations, Lyle noted. “The advantage to having our own tucks is I know where they are and that they are hauling for me. When my timber needs to get hauled, it gets hauled.” Lyle also uses the services of several trucking contractors to supplement his own fleet of trucks; two of the contractors have worked with him for 10 years. L.R. Hamilton performs tree-length logging. The company works on private land, state land, and land owned by paper companies or land management companies. The logging crews produce logs in random lengths, from 17-40 feet, with diameters ranging from 6-20 inches. The company also supplies mills with veneer logs, usually yellow birch and sugar maple in 9 and 12 foot lengths and white pine in 16 foot lengths. “When I started out in this business, my thought was that if I could have myself a new pickup every three years and take a paycheck home, I would be happy,” Lyle said. “So far I have succeeded in that goal. http://www.timberlinemag.com/articledatabase/view.asp?ArticleID=2581

USA:

14) Nearly half of all forested land in the United States is privately owned; however, the average acreage of ownership has decreased significantly in recent years. With more individuals owning smaller tracts of forested land, the resulting landscapes are being fragmented. The small segments of forested land render forestlands, as well as other wild-lands, increasingly vulnerable to urban development. The fragmentation results in a lack of similar habitat, which degrades environmental conditions for wildlife. Bill Kurtz and colleagues at the University of Missouri, Purdue University and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville examined landscape fragmentation at three watersheds in Missouri, Indiana and Tennessee. The scientists found that the presence or absence of habitat main lands and riparian corridors significantly affected wildlife’s ability to survive in the highly fragmented areas. The scientists applied two decision tools in this study. They used a PC-based tool in Missouri and a Web-based tool in Indiana to aid private landowners when making management decisions regarding private land holdings. These tools provide private land owners a clear understanding of the consequences of their management actions to the environment, ecosystems, and wildlife and foliage health. In Missouri, three management options were proposed: no treatment, thinning from below and diameter limit cut. The parameters for each option were entered into the database. In addition, photographs were entered into the database for the majority of forest characteristics, including forest type, forest size and forest density. For Purdue, a Web-based tool was established to estimate forest dynamics and wildlife habitat availability over the past 40 years. The input for the database includes the forest type, forest size and forest density for separate forest stands. The Web-generated output includes temporal changes in commercial timber in relation to changes in the diversity of plants, including berries, ferns, herbs, and flowers, as well as animals, including birds and mammals. Both tools provide representation of the results from application of management alternatives in tables and pictures, enabling landowners to see, in a virtual sense, the impact of their management decisions. http://www.csrees.usda.gov/newsroom/impact/2008/nri/04011_fragmented_forests.html

15) Forest Service Chief Abigail Kimbell today announced the award of $54 million in grants today to permanently protect thirty-five working forests across thirty-two states. “The Forest Legacy Program conserves open space which allows us to respond to climate change, improves water quality and flows, and connects children to nature,” said Kimbell. “The strength of the Forest Legacy Program is the cooperation between States, partners, and private landowners-all working together to protect environmentally and economically important forests that are threatened by conversion.” The Forest Legacy Program is the only Federal grant program focused on the permanent protection of important private forestland. The Forest Legacy Program promotes voluntary land conservation by operating on the principle of “willing buyer, willing seller.” Examples of 2008 projects include: a forest vital for wildlife and cultural resources in Georgia; a rare pine barren ecosystem in New Hampshire; and a valley in Montana with abundant recreation opportunities, rare fish and wildlife, and local economic benefits. Private forest landowners are facing increasing real estate prices, property taxes, and development pressure, resulting in conversion of forests to other land uses. The Forest Legacy Program focuses on conserving working forests – those that provide clean water, forest products, fish and wildlife habitat, and recreational opportunities. Most Forest Legacy Program projects are conserved through conservation easements, allowing landowners to keep their forestlands while protecting them from future development. The Forest Legacy Program uses a national competitive process to select the most ecologically and socially important, threatened, and strategic projects. The program consistently affects more than 50-percent non-federal match of funds to improve water quality and flows, climate change and to connect children to nature. Each project needs to be at least 75-percent forested, comply with Federal appraisal standards, and complete a multi-resource forest management plan. For 2008, the Forest Service selected 35 projects out of 82 excellent State proposals that totaled $192 million. http://yubanet.com/enviro/Forest-Service-Announces-54-Million-to-Conserve-At-Risk-Forests.php

Guyana:

16) Before I discovered Guyana, flying over jungle countries used to depress the hell out of me. It’s always fine while you’re actually on the ground, tunneling among the lush green caverns of the forest floor. Down there, you can never experience more than the explosion of life, the sensory overload, which is evident within a few metres of you. Watching a giant morpho butterfly flitting in the dappled sunlight like an electric-blue handkerchief; being hosed down with wee by a churlish howler monkey; happening across a tiny frog carrying its tadpoles to a bijou pond in a treetop flower… these countless small miracles wrap you up in the wonder of the jungle, and it’s easy to convince yourself that everything is well with the world. Get yourself up in a flying machine, though, and it’s a different story. Now, you can see the wider truth – that some of the most famous and important jungle reserves in the world are actually smaller than an average-sized city. Their dwindling islands of forest are surrounded by fields, plantations or burnt and barren land, and logging roads penetrate deep into their recesses. Guyana is very different from that, however. A nation the size of Great Britain, its rainforest remains 85% untouched, and you can fly for several hours and see no roads at all, only rivers, glaring up like serpentine mirrors as the sun flashes across them. Forest, forest, forest, in every direction, and not a sign of the country’s 750,000 people – because they mostly live in and around the drowsy coastal capital of Georgetown. I’ve spent nearly two years of my life in rainforests, including time on every continent that has them, but I’ve never experienced one so benign as this – so free from plants that want to rip your clothes off, bugs that want to eat you and tropical diseases that make you spend your entire stay hovering over a long-drop toilet. That said, I did get bitten by a vampire bat, stung by a bullet ant and shocked by a 200-volt electric eel. But it was still heaven. For Guyana’s lucky few visitors, the excursion into rainforest paradise usually begins on the Upper Essequibo River, at the Iwokrama reservation, just a few hours south of Georgetown. There is an international conservation centre here, with a gaggle of tourist lodges, and its river journeys offer world-beating opportunities to see jaguars, primates and giant 20ft anacondas. But I had ventured to Guyana with a TV crew, and our remit was to head for places that have never been surveyed before, where wildlife-watching is properly hard work. We made straight for the Kaieteur Falls, among the most powerful in the world, located in the Guiana Shield mountain range, where precipitous sandstone peaks jut up out of the most extraordinary rainforest imaginable. http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/destinations/latin_america/article363
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Chile:

Recently, environmental activists and local residents gathered near the small Chilean town of Cochrane to protest a plan to build a series of hydroelectrical dams. Cochrane is part of Chilean Patagonia, and it would be transformed beyond recognition if the project goes ahead. But the change in Cochrane would be nothing compared with the change in Patagonia. The dams – two on the Baker River and three on the Pascua – would irretrievably damage one of the wildest and most beautiful places on earth. Building the dams would also mean building a thousand-mile power-line corridor northward toward the Chilean capital, Santiago ? the longest clear-cut on the planet and a scar across some of Chile?s most alluring landscape. Most of the electricity generated by the project would go not to residential use but to mining and industry. In a sense, the proposed dams are a relic of the Pinochet government, which privatized water rights in Chile. The Chilean subsidiary of a Spanish company, Endesa, now owns the rights and is pressing the project. Chile?s democratically elected government is allowing it to move forward. The government has postponed the release of an environmental assessment until June. It needs to reconsider the project entirely. Chile desperately needs new energy sources. The country is experiencing a severe energy crisis because of drought, a sharp reduction in natural gas imports from Argentina and the global escalation in oil prices. Some power plants, once fueled by natural gas, are now burning diesel fuel, an economically drastic alternative. Destroying these rivers and the life that depends on them is no solution.
Too often, the energy problem in Chile is framed as a choice between building dams or turning to nuclear energy. Solving this crisis responsibly will take a willingness also to explore other renewable sources like solar, wind and geothermal power. Building large-scale hydroelectric dams is an old-world way of obtaining energy. It is too late in the environmental life of this planet to accept such ecologically destructive energy solutions or the model of unfettered growth they are meant to fuel. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/opinion/01tue3.html?ex=1364788800&en=ab3a6e9c5b975c9c&ei=5088
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China:

18) China bought 8.47 million tons of paper pulp from abroad last year, representing a year-on-year increase of 6.5 percent, sources with the General Administration of Customs said on Sunday. The arrivals were valued at $5.55 billion, up 26.3 percent. The more rapid growth in gross import value was due to price rises. Average price of the imports was $655 per ton, up 18.7 percent. The higher price was a result of continuous price hikes for lumber amid log export ban and restrictions for forest resources protection. Of the total, 69.3 percent, or 5.87 million tons, were bought in general trade, up 5.7 percent, and 1.34 million tons, in processing trade, down 10 percent. Last year, 2.23 million tons of paper pulp were imported from Canada, making up 26.3 percent of China’s total paper pulp imports. Other major paper pulp suppliers for China included Chile, Russia, the United States and ASEAN members. The customs sources said reducing production and increasing demand at home accounted for the import growth. As part of energy conservation and emissions reduction efforts, China shut down 1,562 small pulp workshops in the first three quarters of 2007, leading to a decrease of 15 percent in paper pulp production nationwide. China is now the world’s second largest paper consumer, next only to the United States. The country’s demand for paper pulp will further grow, the sources added. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2008-03/30/content_6576179.htm

India:

19) Srinagar: Concerned over severe deforestation which has caused climatic change and drought conditions in Jammu and Kashmir, horticulture Minister Mohammad Dilawar Mir said the government has decided to dove-tail and pool resources in related programmes of forest, horticulture, PHE and irrigation departments for eco- development and Joint Forest management (JFM). ‘’Much of our forests have been devastated by severe deforestation, causing climatic change and drought conditions detrimental to agriculture and horticulture activities, Mir said and added that the creation of the proposed JFM village committees would go a long way to bring about a turn around in this trend. He said it has been proposed to constitute a pilot project involving the Forest department and several villages in the upper reaches of Rafiabad for starters. Mir said under this institutional arrangement, that would allow financial support to flow into the JFM programme from other departments and the private sector, several villages would be selected for creation of new Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs). Villagers too have agreed to cooperate with both the forest and horticulture departments and staff concerned to curb de-forestation in the area while earning livelihoods from a forestation and other joint forest management activities, the minister said. He said depletion of water reservoirs has greatly affected the sustainability of livelihoods, especially amongst remote communities in the upper reaches, and the JFM initiative planned by the Forest Department for the most severely affected villages is a welcome step. http://www.greaterkashmir.com/full_story.asp?Date=2_4_2008&ItemID=28&cat=21

20) We believe that there is not enough forest left to give four acres to every tribal. Besides we don’t believe that tribals need the forests. But the tribals are being given legal entitlements to land they are already using and no fresh land is being given. There is no evidence of what the tribals have and there is no way to prove it. Isn’t the Act also about empowering the tribals to protect the forests rather than leaving it to a few forest officials? I don’t believe tribals can protect forests. The taluk in Thane where Pradeep Prabhu, one of the drafters of the Act lives, has no wildlife left. Each tribal boy there has a catapult in his pocket and he shoots down the first bird he sees. The North East allows communities to look after forests. But there also wildlife is endangered. What do you think they eat? In a forest what can they survive on but wildlife? You would rather trust a few forest officials despite the fact that 500,000 hectare of forest have been lost in the last five years — as much as was lost in the previous 20 years? Let me make it clear; we don’t represent the government or the forest officials. We want to protect forests and wildlife. And we believe that tribals don’t need the forests. You ask the tribals and they would say they would like to leave the jungles and live in cities, own bikes and cars, washing machines and other gadgets. What do they earn from a forest but subsistence livelihood? http://www.business-standard.com/common/news_article.php?leftnm=3&subLeft=2&chklogin=N&autono
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21) Altogether seven Forest Beat offices have been run over and demolished today in Ukhrul district by volunteers of the Working Group on Land and Natural Resources (WGLNR) on the ground that the forests in the hill areas do not come under the Reserved Forest Act (RFA) and as such establishing of Forest Beat offices in tribal areas amounts to violating the age-old tribals’ rights. The Working Group on Land and Natural Resources (WGLNR) is a committee constituted by four zonal students’ bodies of Ukhrul district from West, East, North and South zones. Talking to NNN today, convenor of the committee Seth Satshang said that Forest Beat offices at Jessami, Kharasom, Long-pi, Kamjong, Kamnom, Finch-Corner and Hundung were destroyed on Sunday by the volunteers of the WGLNR. Seth Satshang stated that the volunteers used daos and hammers as tools to target and demolish the said offices. There are altogether ten Forest Beat offices in the district. The volunteers launched their action at around 10 am on Sunday to which they managed to destroy seven Forest Beat offices. Convenor of WGLNR Seth Satshang explained that forests in the hills are governed by customary laws, rules, regulation and practices and that the tribal people do not require to pay any forest tax except annual house tax. Further explaining, Satshang said that taxing on the tribal people for even domestic utilisation of forests products by the Forest department is the violation of the tribals’ rights. The source then disclosed that Rs 29, 27, 657 (twenty nine lakhs, twenty seven thousand six hundred fifty seven) has been collected by the Forest department as tax from the people of Ukhrul district in the year 2005-06 while in the year 2006-07 Rs Fifty lakhs, seventy two thousand six hundred thirty one) has been collected. http://e-pao.net/GP.asp?src=4..310308.mar08

22) Whittled down by a population explosion, habitat destruction, poaching, loss of prey, modern constructions like dams, depleting forest cover and human conflict, Indian tigers – which constitute a third of the world’s surviving tiger populace – may face extinction unless something urgent is done to save them. The disquieting Indian trend is a microcosmic reflection of what’s happening to the tiger worldwide. Globally, tiger numbers have plunged from 100,000 in the 20th century to around 5,000 today. In fact, the tiger’s habitat has shrunk so much that it now only comprises Asian forests in India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar, China and Malaysia. Even in these locations, say experts, three tiger subspecies, the Bali, Javan and Caspian, have completely disappeared while the five remaining: Amur, Bengal, Indo-Chinese, South China and Sumatran – are on the World Conservation Union’s “endangered” list. “As compared to the 18th and 19th centuries, tiger habitats today are in fragmented forest areas which make it really tough for these beasts to procreate,” said a wildlife expert from India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests. “This has severely impacted the species’ survival and pushed them to the brink.” The latest census – which took about two years to complete and cost the government exchequer some US$10 million – incorporated a range of assessment tools, including habitat evaluation, estimates based on available prey and strategic placement of cameras fitted with motion sensors. The census established an inverse link between livestock and tiger populations in forests and between human trails and tiger population. On the contrary, it found a direct co-relation between forest cover density and the tiger population in an area. “India’s large mammals, particularly tigers, elephants and rhinos, require a huge amount of space for movement and procreation. Deforestation hampers this ability which in turn impacts their gene pool and undermines the species’ viability,” said environmentalist Ramesh Thakur, who has trekked extensively across Indian forests. “So, the key to protecting the tiger is to protect our forest cover.” But this is easier said than done: according to the Ministry of Environment and Forests, only 20.6% of India’s land mass is forested. And of this, nearly half has already been eroded by rampant farming, livestock grazing and forest fires. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JD01Df01.html

Vietnam:

23) Dien Truong Hamlet of Duc Pho District’s Pho Khanh Commune was a scene of complete destruction. A whole forest was cleared illegally and many trees dragged into pits and burnt. Trees of all sizes had been felled and lay where they had fallen, their leaves beginning to die and sap still flowing from the cuts made by axes. The wasteland was quiet, no whistling of leaves, no birds singing. Beside the traces of an abandoned camp there was a coal production pit. A local villager said the forest exploiters were quite skillful. They chopped down the trees in stages, working their way up the mountain from the spring at the base, then as the trees dried they burnt them leaving cleared land ready for planting. As soon as they had planted a forest plantation, they could claim the land as their own. Chairman of the People’s Committee of Pho Khanh Commune, Nguyen Dong Dan, said the deforestation started last May but the local authorities had intervened. But the land clearing started again early this month and was a lot more organized. According to Dan, every day at least 40 mainly Hre ethnic people from Ba Vinh Commune of Ba To District go to the hamlet to destroy the forest. They are hired by ringleaders and paid only VND50,000 (US$3.10) per day. According to documents from the Pho Khanh Commune People’s Committee inspection team, on March 11 forest inspectors came across Le Kieu Dung, 52, a resident of Duc Pho Town, supervising a team clearing land in Dien Truong Hamlet. The documents stated Dung allegedly was working for an official from the provincial police agency, Tran Tam. The inspectors instructed Dung to stop the deforestation as he did not have permission from authorities and the forest was for production. According to the People’s Committee documents, on March 13 Tran Tam and his employees were found cutting trees again. Tam told the inspectors that he did not have a permit but had been given permission by an official, named Dat, from the Duc Pho Forest Management Unit. The chief of the Duc Pho Forest Management Unit, Huynh Thanh Tinh, requested him to stop the illegal deforestation but told him not to disclose the information to the press. “Tam was instructed to immediately stop seizing the forest land and cutting trees to grow plantations. He was requested to give a written commitment,” vice chairman of the Pho Khanh Commune People’s Committee, Pham Kim Oanh said. Tam did not comply with the inspectors’ instruction, Oanh said. On March 15, the inspectors found Tam supervising a team removing low level vegetation and preparing the land for cultivation. He had employed 12 more people and destroyed 13 hectares of forest. They also discovered another group which had felled 12 hectares of trees. Tam said this group didn’t work for him and claimed they worked for Lam Trong Hoang from the Duc Pho Forest Management Unit. http://www.thanhniennews.com/features/?catid=10&newsid=37181

24) Since last year, when the price of coffee hit VND40,000 (US$2.5) per kilogram and pepper was at a high of VND60,000 ($3.7) per kilogram, farmers in the provinces began in earnest to clear forest lands. In the first two months of this year, officials have discovered 201 cases related to illegal forest trades, said Head of Dak Nong Province’s Forest Protection Department Do Ngoc Duyen. Sixty-eight of those cases were related to deforestation, which claimed 47.62 ha, a remarkable increase against the same period last year. The areas of Phi Lieng – Tan Ha and the border regions of Lam Dong, Dak Lak and Dak Nong provinces are home to dozens of migratory peoples who are being adversely affected by deforestation. A local from Phu Son Village, Lam Dong Province, expressed concern there will not be much forest land left soon. A village leader in the province said officials have not had much success in persuading locals to stop the practice. He said there is much greater coffee and pepper cultivation than in previous years. Even though the rainy and planting season is not here yet, coffee seedlings have already been sold out, he said. He estimates that land for coffee planting will increase by several tens of thousands of hectares, excluding land for cultivating pepper. According to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Forest Protection Department, last month the provinces of Dak Lak lost 0.4 ha of forest, Dak Nong 29 ha and Lam Dong 10.64 ha. About 175 ha of forest were destroyed nationwide last month. http://english.vietnamnet.vn/biz/2008/03/77603
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Philippines:

25) Year 1950, the place was a part of the jungle area of the barrio Alegria. Tall Lawaan trees were fully grown in a meter distance apart. Rattan was coiling the ground while above the trees are the blissful monkeys, Philippine Eagle, wild bores and giant pythons were thriving there. The furry flora and fauna were abundantly found. The natives called the place MANAG-AS because of the tall trees and green woods that can be never surpassed among the virgin forest of the hinterlands of Alegria. It was in 1960’s when Montilla Logging Enterprises operated in the place, which gave the total change of the image of the natural wonders, situated in the place. This logger toppled down trees and they neither know nor did expect that this will cause a great damage in the future. A logging camp in the area occupied and established by Santos Martisano. It was so progressive and successful that the logging firm employed people living there. Soon the place was able to generate an improved population. The logging camp was called CAMP EDUARD. And when the logging firm stops its operation, the people living there petitioned for recognizing the place into barangay. This appeal was headed by Mateo Bunga who was then acknowledged as the first Barangay Chairman of the place, which is now known as Barangay Camp Eduard; the name taken form the logging firm and was established in August 22, 1971. http://alegriasurigao.wordpress.com/2008/03/30/history-of-camp-eduard/

Indonesia:

26) The government had given Wijoyo, now 60, a tract of fertile land to plant with rice and a home to call his own as part of a plan to ease Java’s population pressures. Soon, he was producing twice-yearly harvests of more than ten tonnes of rice. Life was easy then, he said. All that changed four years ago when his neighbours in this lush village in Sumatra’s Riau province decided to join the palm oil craze that has turned Indonesia into the world’s biggest producer. Farmers across the region have switched from food crops to oil palm, lured by rising prices as the demand for the clean-burning biofuels it is largely used to make has risen. Last year, around 2.1 million hectares of land in Riau was taken up by oil palm plantations, compared with only around 400,000 hectares a decade ago. But despite its green credentials, the crop is taking a major toll on the environment, driving forest clearing, polluting rivers and introducing more pests. Wijoyo, who resisted joining the rush, said his crop has halved since oil palm plantations began springing up in nearby fields, providing a dry haven for pests to nest away from the damp rise paddies. “Ever since they planted oil palm the number of birds, rats, snails has increased, and they are destroying our rice crops,” he said. Large swathes of Sumatra’s forest have been destroyed to make way for palm oil plantations, with companies clearing the trees and burning the stumps that remain. http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/Indonesias_palm_oil_boom_takes_environmental_toll_999.html

27) The environmental group Greenpeace says the ban on log exports in Indonesia’s Papua province has proven successful so far. The ban was spearheaded by Papua governor Barnabas Suebu last December in an effort to save the region’s remaining rainforests from rampant deforestation. A Greenpeace spokesman in Indonesia, Bustar Maitar says that the governors of both Papua and West Papua provinces have withstood recent industry pressure to loosen the ban. He says Governor Suebu this month met with 40 forestry investor representatives who asked him to loosen the regulation, a call backed by Indonesia’s president. “They asked (the) Governors to reconsider, to reopen again the log exports from Papua to other places in Indonesia because the industry in Java and also Sulawesi, it’s difficult to get the source for furniture and things like that there. But the Governors are still with their commitment to not allow any single logs to be transported outside Papua.” Bustar Maitar says while it’s hard to monitor all logging in Papua, the forestry industry appears to be abiding by the ban. http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=38868

New Zealand:

28) Red Stag Timber is located near historic Rotorua. This area of New Zealand is known for its past volcanic activity and offers some exceptionally beautiful scenery. Its legendary lakes and cultural history help make it one of the top tourist destinations in the country. Volcanic activity is still in evidence as steam rises out of the ground in certain places. The region is famous for its red stag deer, which served as the relatively new name for the nearby Waipa Sawmill, now the largest mill in New Zealand. The quality of New Zealand red stags is known worldwide. Originally the country imported stags from Scotland and England to provide hunting for the local sportsmen. With no predators, they thrived and grew heads that are superior to the stags in their native homelands. The Waipa Sawmill was established in 1939 as a state-owned experimental sawmill to pioneer the milling of Radiata Pine. Even at that time, it was obvious to the forest managers that the widespread logging of native forests was unsustainable and that the soon-to-mature Radiata Pine was seen as a sustainable source of timber to substitute for native timber in most applications. Since that time, the sawmill has grown to become both a local and a national icon of sawmilling and the largest sawmill in New Zealand. Red Stag Timber consists of a sawmill and associated timber processing operations. The mill has two major sawing lines, a small log line and a large log line. It cuts about 300,000 cubic meters (127.4 million bd.ft.) a year (about $100 million a year) and is working toward a 450,000 cu. mt. goal. Its primary focus is on structural lumber products, but it also manufactures outdoor, industrial, appearance and furniture grade lumber. Red Stag has a long-term commitment to further develop its product range and market base. In 2006, Red Stag Timber started its two stage plan to expand output by 50%. Recent investments included: a new stand-alone planer mill processing plant, which increased the site production by approximately 50%, a sonic testing of logs and lumber, machine stress grading of structural timber, and a new high speed dry kiln. The company says that these additions combine with a long term secure log contract, a stable workforce and a commitment to quality to give Red Stag Timber an edge for long term success. Red Stag cuts primarily Doug Fir and Radiata Pine from New Zealand forests. While the company has a long term log supply commitment, the availability of logs in New Zealand is definitely a concern for the forest products industry.
http://www.palletenterprise.com/articledatabase/view.asp?articleID=2566

29) The Indonesia Human Rights Committee has staged a protest against the sale of furniture made from Papuan rainforest kwila at a leading New Zealand retail chain outlet. The New Zealand-based committee has long campaigned against the sale of illegally-sourced hardwood from Indonesia. At the weekend, the committee protested outside the Harvey Norman furniture store in Manukau. While some retailers have turned away from kwila to other woods with independent certification of legality, Harvey Norman keeps selling kwila products. The Committee’s spokesperson Maire Leadbetter says the protest aimed to highlight the impact of rainforest destruction and illegal logging on communities in Papua. “There is no such thing as kwila in New Zealand with any kind of independent certification as to its legality or how it’s been logged. So we know when we see something that’s made from kwila that there’s no guarantee that it’s been logged in any way that’s legal or sustainable.” http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=38861

World-wide:

30) Forests cover around a quarter to a third of the total land surface of the Earth. The reduction in area of this valuable environmental, social and economic resource through deforestation has the potential to cause problems on a global scale. Climate models have demonstrated a clear link between deforestation and climate change. Deforestation is the process of changing land use from forestry to a non-forest use. Western Europe has already lost over 99% of its primary forest. Today, deforestation programmes focus on the major rainforests of the tropics. In the 1980s global deforestation was estimated at 17 to 20 million hectares per year, equivalent to the size of Britain. Current tropical tree planting programmes are not keeping pace with this rate of deforestation. Countries in these areas are often under-developed and striving for improved economies. Deforestation for wood and agricultural land can provide numerous economic benefits, but can have damaging environmental impacts on forest ecosystems and can affect local and regional climate. Forests absorb a lot of sunlight for photosynthesis, and only about 12 to 15% is reflected. The large amounts of energy absorbed by forests acts to stimulate convection currents in air which enhance the production of rainfall. Tropical rainforests in particular are very wet and humid places. Deforested areas, by contrast, reflect about 20% of incoming sunlight. Deforested areas consequently, can become drier as a result of the loss of vegetation, increasing the risk of desertification. As the area of deforestation increases, so the impact on climate grows. Trees also absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for photosynthesis, and therefore help to regulate the natural greenhouse effect. Deforestation takes away a potential sink for the carbon dioxide mankind is pumping into the atmosphere. In addition, if forests are removed by burning, a lot of extra carbon dioxide locked up in tree wood is returned to the atmosphere. http://www.ace.mmu.ac.uk/eae/GLobal_Warming/Older/Deforestation.html