349 PNW-USA

–In Oregon, east of the Cascades on Malheur NF, enviros and loggers compromise on the the kind of logging they want and the “extremists” on both sides are eliminated from the deliberation process (1). In BLM WOPR-land the ‘pitchfork rebellion’ lists its seven demands to end big timber, as well as make way for community-backed forest protection(2). The new farm bill provides funds for “healthy forests” and this article helps to explains how these funds are coordinated with other agencies like the Oregon Dept. of Forestry (3).

–In California scientists are researching the site-specifics of climate caused vegetation changes occurring in the Sierra-Nevadas (4). Sierra Pacific hired some scientists to produce a report that claims their intensive clearcutting of younger and younger trees over time is the most carbon / climate friendly of all logging methods (5).

–In Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter signed a half-dozen ‘forest-health’ bills because we all know that logging really is the only real economically viable solution(6). –In Montana Greenpeace trains a new generation of direct action forest defenders (7). –In Michigan Police have seized two loaded log trucks after a timber theft complaint (8). This article gives a snapshot of modern day industrial forest management under the “The Commercial Forest Act.” Plum Creek owns most of the private land and the author sings their praises (9). –In Minnesota the native eastern larch beetle is munching lots of Tamarck because they haven’t been killed off by 40below winters in several years (10). –In Illinois there’s a battle between people who want to protect the city’s trees versus people who want to “restore” open meadows for wildflowers (11).

–In New Hampshire a group called Society for Protection of New Hampshire’s Forests is lobbying senators to make sure cap and trade emissions funds are spent on “management” of forests.(12) –In Maine another sawmill shut down is “devastating” an isolated community (13). –In Northeast forests Acid rain is still a problem despite a 50% decrease in the peak level of 1973. The levels of calcium ions in the soil had halved throughout the region while aluminum ions have doubled. (14) –USA: Narcolepsy and the American eco-movement is piece that speaks of a great deal of truth that we must learn to overcome (15).

–In the UK Researchers are studying the potential of growing forests on top of toxic waste sites. They say it will work! (16). Neighbors are upset at a O-Gen UK wood burning plant that gets 15 lories of wood a day. The plant is expanding and the screen trees between them and the neighborhood are getting cut down. (17) Being a woodland owner who doesn’t build on thier land is a new popular hobby in the UK (18). Economic analysis of the wood industries says pulp demand is rising and the future will be a “very different complexion” (19). More street tree double-speak (20). A new report requests a greening of globalization, especially because the world’s poorest 1.5 billion people have half of their needs met directly by ecosystem services (21).

–In Austria 2 dozen Greenpeace protesters shut down an Austrian oil and gas station to raise awareness about how biofuels cause deforestation. (22) –In Estonia upcoming trade talks with Russia will be an opportunity for governments to talk about illegal logging, as well as Russia’s new log tariffs (23). –In Germany it’s crunch time for the more than 6,000 representatives from 191 nationsl. Will they agree to a road map that acutally protects biodiversity (24)? Also at the convention they have backed down on a proposed ban on GE trees (25)

–Africa: A group called: Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa explains itself in terms of forestry development. If anyone know more about thisgroup let me know. (26) –In Namibia there were two articles: The first is about declaring 10 more community forests so local people instead of big business will be allowed to log the land to earn a living (27). The next article is about a community forestry in Northeastern Namibia project, how its growing (28). –In Ghana the The Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM) is speaking out, calling for a paradigm shift (29). This article keeps focus on the congo as rapid destruction of forests, as unprecedented droughts, as well as brutal oppression of indigenous people (30). –In South Africa the World Rainforest Movement and FSC visit Komatiland’s vast non-native pine plantation (31).

Articles:

Oregon:

1) A Malheur National Forest project in Grant County, wrapped up earlier this month, producing unprecedented concessions by parties on both sides. Who would have expected the environmentalists – staunch opponents of fire salvage – to agree to stand aside and let not one, but two post-fire sales proceed? Who would have predicted that timber industry representatives would agree to stay out of an unroaded area that has long been prized by the conservation groups, in effect letting it stand as an undesignated wilderness? Those were just two parts of a much more complex agreement that was reached last May 16, culminating a process that began almost a year ago and ending the appeals on the Thorn fire salvage sale. Now the real work begins. Not that the past two weeks of talks weren’t grueling enough for the parties, but the fact remains that this agreement is something of a test. The parties emerged not with a solid foundation of trust, but a tenuous new hope for one. Now they will be watching each other to see that everyone involved abides by the letter and spirit of the agreement. Well beyond the Malheur, conservation groups and industry leaders elsewhere also will be watching to see how this deal plays out. In the meantime, it’s clear that the participants made huge strides in communication with each other. All sides caution that the Thorn deal could end up being just one unique solution for one specific area. However, there’s been a strong sense that it could signal much more. In the realm of forest management, where brinkmanship has been the rule, there is new hope for negotiation and cooperation. Sen. Ted Ferrioli, speaking as executive director of Malheur Timber Operators, suggested last week that an agreement could “signal an opportunity to end the timber wars in Eastern Oregon.” Don Bodewig, eastside operations manager for D.R. Johnson Lumber, noted the critical need for all the parties to find “common ground” – not just for the sake of the industry, but for the communities of rural Oregon. Both sides found a tract of common ground last week on the Thorn and Egley sales. No question, they still have strong differences in philosophy, particularly over post-fire forest operations. Those differences can be expected to emerge in future sale proposals. And, as we’ve heard frequently from the conservation side, there’s no federal mandate to produce timber volume from the national forests. http://www.wallowacountychieftain.info/main.asp?SectionID=6&SubSectionID=6&ArticleID=16038&TM=72108.36

2) Our Seven Demands: 1) Scrap and Replace the W.O.P.R. with a Plan that would Manage Public Forests as Old Growth Tree Reserves for Carbon Sequestration to Fight Global Warming while providing real protection for watersheds and endangered species. 2) Reinstate harvest tax on private logging on industry clearcuts, exempting small woodland owners. 3) We demand the immediate establishment of a legal buffer zone that prevents the aerial spraying of pesticides within one mile of property with a home or school on it, and an increase in existing buffer zones for waterways. 4) Remove members from the Board of Forestry with financial conflict of interest by adopting federal ethics standards. 5) We demand that the clause “maintaining the availability of pesticides” be removed from the official Mission Statement of the Oregon Department of Agriculture and its Pesticide Division including PARC (Pesticide Analytical Response Center). 6) Stop the erosion of our civil liberties. 7) Revoke corporate personhood. Corporations currently have the legal rights of persons without the legal accountabilities. – Contacts: Day Owen, Pitchfork Rebellion, (541) 927-3017 esseneinfo@aol.com Josh Schlossberg, (541) 688-2600 info@eco-advocates.org

3) The Food Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, commonly referred to as the Farm Bill, includes $39 million in new funding to be distributed over 10 years under the Healthy Forest Reserve Fund, which helps private forestland owners protect endangered species and provides funding to restore forestland damaged by natural disasters through the Emergency Forestry Conservation Program. The Farm Bill also reauthorizes the Rural Revitalization Technologies program. It’s intended to address use of forest biomass in energy production, but Defrees said while those efforts may be useful in the future, what’s needed today is more money to help landowners thin sickly, overstocked forests before they go up in flames. …My personal opinion on biomass is we don’t have the technology to develop those types of plants right now.” Defrees said he has participated in forest thinning projects with 75 percent funding distributed by the Oregon Department of Forestry through the federal National Fire Plan. That federal program helps landowners thin overstocked, fuel-loaded forests in urban interface areas where the risk of catastrophic fire threatens homes and entire communities located in or near forests. Defrees said the program is making dramatic improvements on private forestland in the urban interface zones. But he contends that what’s really needed — and is not included in the Farm Bill — is a federally funded program to carry out that type of thinning on a broad scale to restore healthy forests on private and public lands across the country. The National Fire Plan pays 75 percent of thinning costs — usually $200 to $600 per acre. Hessel said federal funding for forest health programs on private woodlands available through ODF and the Natural Resource Conservation Service, which oversees the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, falls far short of the need in Baker County and other areas of Northeastern Oregon. “Program authorizations like this are well and good though, on the whole, I would have a hard time calling this Farm Bill a major win for forest landowners. For programs to be effective, they must be adequately funded, and that isn’t something lawmakers were able to make happen in this Farm Bill,” Schweitzer said. http://www.bakercityherald.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=6668

California:

4) Looking into the future it isn’t hard for researchers to picture the many different Sierra ecosystems — wrapped like bands around different elevations — retreating rapidly upward, squeezing each other and eventually running out of elevation to climb. As future temperatures rise, predictions are for snow to melt faster and streams to swell earlier, out of sync with the breading cycles of aquatic species like fish and frogs. Dry summers would leave entire forests more susceptible to fire and pests than ever before. And, many experts agree, the changes become amplified as they move up the food chain, throwing the Sierra Nevada’s entire ecosystem, meticulously established over millennia, out of balance in a matter of decades. The bottom line, some scientists conclude, is the extinction of vulnerable mountain species and increased fire risk for the Sierra’s human inhabitants. “Our concern is with the rapidity of change — most species can evolve over time and the planet has always been in flux — but it’s the rate of change, which is really unlike anything we’ve been able to study,” said Josh Viers, assistant research ecologist at UC Davis. The Sierra Nevada has been characterized as the “canary in the coal mine,” according to the U.S. Forest Service, an early alarm for the deleterious effects of rising temperatures. But all parts of the Sierra won’t be treated equal. Despite Truckee-Tahoe’s more northern latitude, the area will likely be hit harder than the taller mountains to the south. “The area around Tahoe and Donner Summit, for example, would be more affected then Kings Canyon,” Viers said. And so Tahoe National Forest has been picked as an open-air laboratory for climate change — a focal point in a global issue — with researchers from academic bodies, conservation groups and the U.S. Forest Service gleaning whatever they can learn from the surrounding woods. http://www.sierrasun.com/article/20080531/NEWS/220386951/-1/rss02

5) “By following intensive management practices to harvest and replant most of our lands over the course of 80 to 100 years, we found we can actually increase the ability of our forests to store carbon by about 150 percent,” said Cajun James, the company’s research and monitoring managers. That’s the gist of a four-year study produced on behalf of Sierra Pacific Industries, which owns 1.6 million acres of forests in California. The study examined four scenarios, and found that the intensive model of harvesting and replanting about 1.25 percent of forest lands each year most successfully sequestered carbon. Environmental groups think the science justifying these conclusions is, at best, sloppy. Chris Wright, executive director of the Foothills Conservancy, said the study only concentrates on carbon in trees, and overlooks how much carbon is emitted into the atmosphere while transporting workers, harvesting the wood, and hauling the felled trees. A group called ForestWatch, which produced its own study, asks builders to steer clear of Sierra Pacific Industry products until the company reforms its forest management polices. The company last year paid a fine of $13 million for falsifying emission reports and tempering with monitoring equipment. http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20080530/NEWS/441117499

Colorado:

6) Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter signed a half-dozen forest-health bills into law at Keystone Wednesday to help communities on the Western Slope remove beetle-killed trees that pose a fire threat to neighborhoods, water supplies and critical infrastructure. The suite of bills is a sign that policymakers in Denver understand the need to protect environmental, economic and social values associated with forests around mountain communities, Ritter said. “We have 22.6 million acres of forest lands that are critical for wildlife, watersheds and landscapes. These bill bring us a little closer to a statewide forest health vision,” Ritter said. Among the measures passed was Senate Bill 71, sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Dan Gibbs of Silverthorne, which authorizes $1 million annually for the next four years for forest-restoration work. The measure is a four-year extension of a pilot project that helped pay for a fire break in a West Vail neighborhood and for clearing dead trees around a community water tank in the Vail area. Gibbs, who co-sponsored the bill with state Rep. Christine Scanlan, a Silverthorne Democrat, said the money will go for similar projects in other mountain communities. To illustrate the need for the bill, Scanlan recounted a close call last summer, when she saw lightning ignite a tree near the Keystone Center before a cloudburst extinguished the small fire. The Keystone Center later used a state grant to remove more than 100 dead and dying trees from the grounds. At a cost of about $85 to $100 per tree, the non-profit wouldn’t have been able to afford that project without state-authorized funding, she explained. State Rep. Al White, a Grand County Republican, said the beetle battle is nonpartisan. “We need to take a hand in managing forests in a rational way,” White said. The alternative — leaving the landscape to succumb to inevitable fires — is not acceptable, he added. http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20080528/NEWS/146226762

Montana:

7) David Muller hunkered down and watched as an instructor tied a timber hitch around three 20-foot logs. Soon Muller would be practicing knot tying himself, and compass reading and tree climbing. The 56-year-old bookseller from Alaska was in training, not as an outdoorsman but as a political activist. Muller and 70 others were here amid the ponderosa pines of western Montana under the tutelage of veterans from Greenpeace and the National Forest Protection Alliance. In response to the Bush administration’s forest management policy, allowing the timber industry new access to the nation’s forests, some of the environmental movement’s most ardent activists are preparing for civil disobedience. “This is an excellent opportunity to learn nonviolent direct action to save wilderness and roadless areas,” said Muller, 56, who hopes to prevent cutting in southeastern Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. Muller said he is ready to put his body between the bulldozers and the trees. At the camp, he has learned to climb a 100-foot-tall tree and set up a platform where he can live for an indefinite period of time. He has learned to build a tall tripod, also with a platform for him to live on, which can be used as a blockade against logging trucks. President Bush’s plan, which has been supported by many politicians of both parties in the West, is meant to thin underbrush — the flashpoint for many forest fires — near populated areas and give logging companies access to new timber. Even as Western states begin the forest fire season, no consensus on Bush’s proposal has emerged. Some environmental groups have grudgingly supported the plan, but others — including those here — vow to oppose it. The activists said no demonstrations were planned during the training session, but, they said, they were getting ready. “No one is opposed to bona fide restoration projects,” said Matthew Koehler of the Native Forest Network, “but President Bush and Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey are proposing some egregious projects. If public participation doesn’t work, then there is no other recourse. People will take to nonviolent civil disobedience.” http://forests.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=24339&keybold=native%20forest%20logging%20end

Michigan:

8) VICKSBURG – Police in Vicksburg are investigating a possible case of tree theft. On Wednesday, police found a huge semi-trailer filled with freshly cut wood, after someone cleared out dozens of towering trees from a private property on East V Ave. Near Mud Lake. Tom Scott, the he owner of the land says he arrived at his weekend home Wednesday, and found what he suspects to be a questionable tree company chopping down and loading up his walnut and cherry trees. One truck was already fully loaded, and Scott says the loggers were actually preparing to load a second truck. One of Scott’s neighbors says he contracted with a company to remove trees from his property, but the man he signed up with, someone named Denny Dryer, couldn’t be reached for comment. Only two trees were taken from the neighbor’s land, while Scott lost at least 35 trees. “I am a big person on private property rights and I was very surprised,” said Scott. “You can’t stand them up again, can you?” Scott says he has recently read about tree thefts, but certainly didn’t expect it would happen to him. “It’s just sort of the sign of the times right now in Michigan of everyone trying too hard,” he said. “Was there intent? I can’t say that, we’d like to think good about everybody.” Scott says the drivers of the logging trucks eventually admitted to taking the trees, and said their plan was to go with them to Bay City, MI, to a Maple Ridge Logging operation. And while he admits it could all be a misunderstanding, Scott says he isn’t willing to discount the possibility of theft. The semi trucks carrying the wood have been impounded, but no arrests have been made. The Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Department is currently investigating the situation. http://www.wwmt.com/news/scott_1349861___article.html/trees_says.html

9) “The science behind the replanting process and the forestry industry as a whole is amazing and changing everyday,” said Wilson. “We have 17 foresters in Michigan that use state-of-the-art technology to manage and track our forests.” The seedlings planted this spring will grow for 20-25 years before they begin to be thinned so that the remaining trees can continue to grow for 45-60 years. Becker said the vast majority of land in Michigan owned by Plum Creek falls under the Commercial Forest Act, which means the public can hunt and fish on it, much like state land. “The Commercial Forest Act” is a program that basically helps to keep property taxes lower for landowners but the land is then open to the public for hunting and fishing,” said Becker. Plum Creek is the largest and most geographically diverse private landowner in the nation. In Michigan, Plum Creek practices sustainable forestry. http://www.dailypress.net/page/content.detail/id/503932.html?nav=5003

Minnesota:

10) Thousands of acres of tamarack trees are dying off in northern Minnesota. The trees are under attack from a small, native insect called the eastern larch beetle. Forestry experts say they’re not sure why the larch beetle population is exploding, and they say there isn’t much they can do about it. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources forester John Cofort is crossing a railroad bed that runs along Highway 2 east of Bemidji. There’s a swamp just below the rail line and it’s the perfect habitat for tamarack tree, but many of the trees here are dead. “We’ve got a tamarack stand here,” said Cofort. “There are lots of standing dead trees that you can see. We’ve got one that was killed last summer right in front of us. We’ve got some live tamaracks to the side, and they’re probably infested right now.” An insect called the larch beetle is killing these trees. The bugs favor tamarack and other tree species within the larch family. The dark-colored insect is about the size of a grain of rice. They burrow holes in the trees. The females lay their eggs beneath the bark. When the larvae hatch, they feed on the inner bark. That cuts off the tree’s ability to transport water and nutrients. “They come out about this time of year and they start colonizing in the tops of the trees,” said Cofort. “They’ll eventually work all the way down. It can take up to three to five years to completely kill a tree.” The larch beetle outbreak has already killed thousands of tamarack trees in northern Minnesota. About 65,000 acres are infested. The bugs are nothing new. Larch beetles have been around for thousands of years. Experts aren’t sure why the population has exploded, but they believe it’s partly because of several years of drought. Dry conditions weaken trees and make them more vulnerable to attack. Cofort says warming trends in the climate may also help the beetles thrive. “It takes about 40 below to kill them off completely and right now we haven’t had those cold temperatures for quite a few years,” he said. Cofort says there’s no good way to fight the bugs. He says the best approach is to log affected stands so that at least some of the wood can be salvaged. http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/05/23/larchbeetle/

Illinois:

11) Inside LaBagh Woods on Chicago’s Northwest Side, it seems like the distance to a big-city neighborhood would have to be measured not in blocks but centuries. Oak trees’ wrinkled bark gives them the look of craggy sentinels. Thick stands of buckthorn screen off the outside world. Deer foraging along the Chicago River casually look up at the sound of human footsteps. Certainly this isn’t the primeval landscape that greeted the first European settlers to arrive here. Or is it? That question is being hotly debated in Sauganash, a neighborhood of stately homes and manicured lawns adjoining the woods. It’s an argument that divides environmentalists into warring camps—each armed with mental maps of what they are convinced this 150-acre section of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County looked like before there was a Cook County. Those who worry that Illinois’ Prairie State heritage is endangered argue that growing room must be provided for the wildflowers that dotted the prairies before being plowed into cornfields and subdivisions—even if it means clear-cutting bushes and trees, a process known as restoration. Forester John McCabe scoffs at the hands-off-the-woods faction. “That’s not what they’re doing with their own lawns,” he said. “All we’re doing is managing our lawns, so to speak.” McCabe, who works for the Forest Preserve District, is in charge of a woodland-management program that uses chain saws and fire to clear underbrush and what it dubs undesirable plant species from forest preserve lands. “The vast body of science favors restoration,” said Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley, whose 10th District includes Sauganash. “It didn’t take me long to find out that restoration is not good science,” countered Mary Lee Paoletti, who lives next to LaBagh Woods. A retired science teacher, she used to volunteer for forest preserve cleanup projects but said the experience caused her to switch sides. Some people with similar tales to tell bill themselves as “recovering restorationists.” In the battle of endorsements, those on the side of restoration have the green-movement biggies. The Sierra Club and Audubon Society support controlled burns as a forest management method. But the naysayers have support too: Trees for Life, Urban Wildlife Coalition, Natural Forest Advocates. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-woods-29-may29,0,4835786.story

New Hampshire:

12) As two former chairmen of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire’s Forests, we have a keen understanding of both the vulnerability of our state’s forest lands and the economic opportunity they offer. From the hardwood timber prized in world markets to the warbling of songbirds now returning, our forests define the landscape while providing work and play for New Hampshire citizens and tourists alike. The annual contribution of forest-based manufacturing and forest-related recreation and tourism in New Hampshire is more than $2 billion. This is one of our top three industries, yet an irrefutable body of science now confirms that significant global warming is under way and threatening our forests as well as the functioning of our forestry activities. From projected changes in tree species to fewer days with frozen ground needed for effective logging, if left unchecked global warming will undoubtedly have an adverse effect on this critical sector of our state’s economy. In New Hampshire, and the northeast generally, our forests can store as much as 100 to 150 tons of carbon per acre and annually accumulate another one to two tons per acre per year in trees, plants, soil and underground roots. Each year New Hampshire’s forests take up the equivalent of 25 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted from man-made sources of CO2 in the state. Sustainably managed, the temperate forests of the Northeast offer one of the nation’s largest natural carbon storehouses. Sens. Gregg and Sununu have an opportunity to ensure that the money generated by a national global warming cap and trade program is used to effectively and affordably transition the U.S. into a cleaner, more efficient energy future. Our forests have a major role to play in that transition, and there is a lot of money to be made — right here in New Hampshire — by using our properly managed forest lands to store carbon and produce clean energy. http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=French+%26+Smith%3A+Protecting+NH’s+forests+with+a+national+plan+to+cut+carbon+emissions&articleId=8a70cd46-afc5-4b94-942d-dcfdc270ddc9

Maine:

13) Small isolated communities like the Jackman-Moose River area would be devastated without a sawmill and the related jobs in logging and trucking. Sawmills struggle to survive with a depressed housing market and a shortage of affordable spruce-fir sawlogs that we use in our sawmill. Many Maine manufacturing facilities are operating at reduced hours or have taken down time due to a raw material shortage. Our mill is currently running 40 hours per week down from 45 because of a log supply shortage. Perhaps this issue should get more attention than recreation and conservation, which brings very little revenue into small forestry-dependent communities. I have never been able to understand why our state continues to export raw material (sawlogs) at such a high rate. The 2006 data supplied by the Maine Forest Service shows that 52 percent of our spruce-fir sawlogs were exported unprocessed as raw logs. Exporting raw material for manufacturing elsewhere is what Third World countries do. Northern Maine (north of Augusta) would be much better off, and the entire state of Maine would benefit, if we processed all available raw material in the state. On behalf of my family and our 75 full-time employees, thank-you for giving consideration to the people who are actually working and living in the Maine woods. http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/view/letters/5108228.html

Northeast Forests:

14) Acid rain may seem, like, so 1980s, but the problem has not gone away. Researchers reported this week that soils throughout the Northeast are continuing to acidify, despite a 50 percent decrease in acid rain since the peak in 1973. This may be contributing to declines in sugar maples and red spruce in the region, the researchers said. “The quality of water is improving, but the soils are continuing to get worse,” said study lead author Richard Warby, now at Environ International Corporation in Princeton, N.J. Warby, who conducted the study while at Syracuse University in N.Y., presented the findings this week at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Acid rain in the United States is caused primarily by emissions from coal power plants, especially sulfur dioxide. Acid rain has decreased since restrictions on sulfur dioxide emissions were enacted under the Clean Air Act in 1970 and 1990 In 2001, Warby repeated surveys done in 1984 by the Environmental Protection Agency of 145 watersheds throughout the Northeast region. He gathered soil and water samples and compared the change over 17 years “What we found is rather alarming,” Warby said. The levels of calcium ions in the soil had halved throughout the region while aluminum ions had doubled. Calcium ions are basic, and provide the soil with a way to neutralize acid it is exposed to. They also provide essential nutrition to trees like red spruce and sugar maple. Aluminum ions, on the other hand, are acidic, and soil aluminum shifts from an inert form into an available form under acidic conditions. The available form is toxic to plants at high concentrations. “You’re replacing a nutrient by a toxic substance,” said Charles Driscoll of Syracuse University, who was a part of the study. http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/05/30/acid-rain-northeast.html

USA:

15) A kind of political narcolepsy has settled over the American environmental movement. Call it eco-ennui. You may know the feeling: restlessness, lack of direction, evaporating budgets, diminished expectations, a simmering discontent. The affliction appears acute, possibly systemic. Unfortunately, the antidote isn’t as simple as merely filing a new lawsuit in the morning or skipping that PowerPoint presentation to join a road blockade for the day. No, something much deeper may be called for: a rebellion of the heart. Just like in the good old days, not that long ago. What is it, precisely, that’s going on? Was the environmental movement bewitched by eight years of Bruce Babbitt and Al Gore? Did it suffer an allergic reaction to the New Order of Things? Are we simply adrift in a brief lacuna in the evolution of the conservation movement, one of those Gouldian (Stephen Jay) pauses before a new creative eruption? Perhaps, the movement, such as it was, experienced an institutional uneasiness with the rules of engagement during the long cold war in Clintontime. A war (War? Did someone say war?) where hostilities, such as they were, remained buried beneath graceful gestures at meaningful discourse–where the raw passions for rare places are, at the insistence of lawyers and lobbyists, politically sublimated or suppressed altogether. Environmentalism has never thrived on an adherence to etiquette or quiet entreaties. Yet, that became the organizational posture during Clintontime and it has continued through the rougher years of Bush and Cheney. Direct confrontation of governmental authority and corporate villainy was once our operational metier. No longer. http://socialistworker.org/2008/05/29/once-and-future-movement