Index:

–Alaska: 1) Hoonah Community Forest Project
–Washington: 2) Drawing wilderness boundaries around Wildsky, 3) School expansion still may threaten tree, 4) Stevens Pass Ski Area expansion plans,
–Oregon: 5) 9th circuit rules on roadless fire salvage, 6) Forest Plans of Wyden and Defazio, 7) Siskiyou wild rivers still alive and lobbying, 8) Summary of fed forests, fed plans and fed money, 9) Alsea logging plan and limited road, access,
–California: 10) What loggers create is what makes fire hazards
–Nevada: 11) DC politicians’ giant land deal gets shut down by county mutiny
–Arizona: 12) Few, if any, landscapes unaffected by paleoindian fire
–Colorado: 13) Enviro lawsuit challenges Price Powder Timber Sale
–Texas: 14) Book about original giant tree forests of east Texas
–Mississippi: 15) A forest they started re-growing 30 years ago
–Missouri: 16) Tree Camp
–Maine: 17) Don’t clear cut near rich people or you’ll get in trouble
–Florida: 18) Where is the new bio-plant going to find 1 million tons of trees?
–USA: 19) Senator tries to eliminate farmer land conservation areas, 20) Illegal log law,

Alaska:

1) The Hoonah Community Forest Project, a collaborative effort spearheaded by the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council (SEACC) with input from local Hoonah residents and the U.S. Forest Service, begins its first stage of implementation this week as members of the various groups begin restoration efforts at Kennel Creek, south of Hoonah. With support from SEACC, naturalist Bob Christensen, U.S Forest Service scientists and community members will begin surveys of Kennel Creek to assess the lingering impacts from past logging on salmon and deer habitat, the success of past forest restoration efforts and the area’s ability to maintain healthy deer populations throughout the winter. They will also study potential trail locations and how suitable existing old growth stands are for future logging. “This project is an excellent example of how forest users who have been traditionally at odds can work together to manage the land in a way that provides the community with a healthy forest, improved subsistence opportunities and steady jobs,” said Russell Heath, SEACC’s executive director. The Kennel Creek restoration assessments this week will be the first on-the-ground work based on the collaborative Hoonah Community Forest Project Community-based Resilient Landscape Design report published in May 2008 by Christensen and SEACC. The report stems from a February 2007 meeting in Hoonah where local residents, including customary and traditional land users, tourism operators, the owner and six employees of the local mill, Icy Straits Lumber, and others discussed their desires for future logging to have a smaller “footprint” than in the past and at the same time to keep the local mill running. The report says, “The Kennel Creek watershed provides an excellent opportunity to experiment with mixing pre-commercial thinning with thinning for improved deer habitat and riparian forest conditions.” This would allow a reasonable amount of timber for the mill and at the same time would help the forest, salmon and deer to bounce back from the effects of past clear cutting. http://www.sitnews.us/0608news/062308/062308_forest_plan.html

Washington:

2) The state’s first new wilderness in 24 years is wedged between Gold Bar and Stevens Pass, north of Highway 2 in Snohomish County. President Bush’s signature is barely dry on the law, and already there are expectations about what comes next. Lobbing snowballs in late June is wonderfully strange. The popular 2.2-mile trail to Barclay Lake was not buried in snow, but there were plenty of snowy stretches stubbornly persisting into summer. A marvel of the Wild Sky process was the knowledge and role of figures such as Mike Town, who headed Friends of Wild Sky. Town and his wife Meg, educators in the Redmond School District, have hiked and cross-country skied hundreds of miles of Wild Sky. This success is all about snowmobilers, floatplane pilots, equestrian groups, key congressional staff and others working out the details. Barclay Creek Trail is an example of literally tinkering around the edges. The trail gets heavy use. Scouts and youth groups put dozens of hikers over the cedar boardwalks that dot the path. The U.S. Forest Service reminded negotiators that wilderness regulations allow groups of only 12 or less, on foot or horseback. A heftier example of politic drafting skills, which left environmentalists gasping at the time, was redrawing the lines around Index-Galena Road, which was washed out in November 2006 by the North Fork of the Skykomish River. A section of the county road and river are now one in the same. Rebuilding the road, a primary access to the wilderness, could take a half dozen years. Wild Sky boundaries were adjusted to maximize the smartest placement of the road. County Public Works Director Steve Thomsen estimates the ambitious project could cost $10 million. For now, the next main option is a longer drive over Jack Pass, to Beckler River Road, east of Skykomish. Get ready for the next phase: making Wild Sky a reality. For the Forest Service, a first task is a full boundary survey with legal descriptions. The who-is-in and who-is-out questions get very persnickety. Those maps must be produced as soon as practicable. The law gives the Forest Service two years to complete a trail plan and report to the secretary of agriculture how it will be implemented. That process is likely to establish more trails outside the wilderness — like Barclay Creek Trail — that create more access points, and close some roads.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2008019448_lance27.html

3) The stand of Douglas firs, red cedars and madrone are slated to fall for a building expansion at the school. Some locals want the district to move construction to a treeless part of campus. The district says this is the spot that makes the most sense for economic reasons, and that they’ll make up for the loss of 80 trees by planting others elsewhere. So on Wednesday, the opponents spent the day making their case before a hearing examiner. They’re back at it on Friday, and the district will also offer its rebuttal. It’ll take a couple of weeks for the hearing examiner to give its ruling to the district honchos. The city also has to approve the building plans. In the meantime, Seattle’s Department of Planning and Developing is still working on its update of building regulations to improve tree protections. They were supposed to be completed last year, but now the department expects to hold public meetings on the policies this fall. http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/environment/archives/142106.asp?from=blog_last3

4) The Stevens Pass Ski Area on Highway 2 is planning to expand both their summer and winter programs over the coming years. They currently have a proposal out for public comment to add a summer mountain biking facility at the ski area similar to some in Canada. It is important that prior to any decisions made by the ski area, they analyze the impacts of all development on wildlife connectivity in the Cascades and watershed health on both sides of the crest. Stevens Pass is within the grizzly bear recovery zone and at a key elevation for utilization by wolverines. Although the ski area itself may not be home to wildlife, the landscape does provide a passageway for wildlife moving north and south or east to west in the North Cascades. Therefore, it is crucial that we understand the impacts of any actions prior to building. Please urge the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest to hold any development plans off until a wildlife connectivity study is completed. Also please add your thoughts on the expansion plans. You can add your voice to the decision making process by sending an email no later than July 5th. Or even better, do it in-person by attending the public meeting this Wednesday, June 25 at the Snohomish County Surface Water Management Office meeting Rm #1 from 7:30pm to 9:30pm, located at 3000 Rockefeller Avenue, Everett, WA 98201. This public meeting is being held in order review the Phase 1 proposal and to provide an opportunity for the public to learn more about the project and the Master Development Plan. http://www.conservationnw.org

Oregon:

5) A federal appeals court has upheld the U.S. Forest Service’s authority to decide whether a tree is likely to die soon after a forest fire. But it ordered the agency to take a closer look at whether they should log at all after fires in small roadless areas — parts of forests that have never been logged. The ruling Wednesday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came in a challenge of salvage logging on the Malheur National Forest in Eastern Oregon following a 2005 fire. Forest Service spokesman Tom Knappenberger said the agency is glad to get a good road map from the court for analyzing future salvage logging. Doug Heiken of the conservation group Oregon Wild says the ruling was important for recognizing that even small roadless areas merit a higher level of protection. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/368468_logging26.html Many many thanks to Ralph Bloemers who carried this through to the end at the 9th Circuit, Karen Lindholdt who argued this in District Court and all those who helped put this case together and went out on the ground doing surveys and writing expert witness documents. A win for unroaded/roadless areas for sure, unfortunately not for burnt old growth trees. The Forest Service violated federal environmental law when it failed to protect significant roadless areas in the Umatilla National Forest. The two uninventoried roadless areas, the West Tucannon roadless area (4,284 acres) and the Upper Cummins Creek roadless area (2000 plus acre) lie adjacent to and on different sides of the Willow Springs inventoried roadless area which contains more than 12,000 acres. The agency proposed to conduct post-fire “salvage” logging and The Lands Council, Oregon Wild, Hells Canyon Preservation Council, and the Sierra Club challenged the plan and obtained an injunction against further activities. The Court held that intact roadless areas less than 5,000 acres in size are significant environmental resources for fish, wildlife and biological diversity and eligible for protection under the Wilderness Act. …Cheers for Roadlessa areas, fighting terrible salvage proposals, and to the incredible Umatilla National Forest! Tania Ellersick Forest Watch Director, The Lands Council

6) Wyden outlined his plan last week, and it deserves high marks for creativity and balance. The same is true of DeFazio’s forest strategy, which has been on slow simmer in recent weeks as drafts have been scrutinized by the timber industry, environmental groups and others, then revised to reflect their concerns. Both plans start with the undeniable premise that the Northwest Forest Plan, the federal policy approved by President Bill Clinton in 1993, has failed to achieve its goals: ending the “forest wars,” preserving the habitat necessary for recovery of the northern spotted owl and for protection of other species, and providing the timber industry with a steady, dependable source of logs. Both plans seek to remedy those failings by shifting the forest management paradigm from timber production to forest restoration. Both would increase logging through ecologically based thinning operations aimed at reducing wildfire risk and breaking up dense tree plantations. Both would remove the most contentious issues involving forest management in recent decades by prohibiting old growth logging and clear-cutting. Both would provide separate strategies for the moist forests on the west side of the Cascades and the dry forests on the east side of the Cascades (Wyden’s plan would include the Klamath-Siskiyou region as dry forest). Both provide for limiting environmental and administrative review if projects satisfy certain criteria. But there are also significant differences between the two plans, which the two lawmakers should resolve before introducing what should be the DeFazio-Wyden (or Wyden-DeFazio — they can arm wrestle for top billing) Forest Management Act in Congress. For example, Wyden’s proposal would apply only to the state of Oregon, while DeFazio’s would extend into Northern California and Washington state. Because ecosystems don’t align with state boundaries, DeFazio’s plan makes more sense on this point, although Wyden’s approach recognizes the political difficulties involved in drafting a bill that has the necessary support of lawmakers from the neighboring states. Wyden’s proposal provides precise definitions of old growth and would prohibit any logging of trees older than 120 years in damp forests and of trees more than 150 years old in drier forests. DeFazio moved away from similar specificity in early drafts of his plan, citing the need for flexibility to deal with situations where forests might benefit from thinning older trees. http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=118000&sid=5&fid=1

7) I wanted to share some exciting news with you. I recently returned from a three-day trip to Washington, D.C., where I met with legislators, staff and members of national conservation groups to talk about our campaign to create a SISKIYOU WILD RIVERS NATIONAL SALMON AND BOTANICAL AREA. I’m happy to report that our proposal has the support of national conservation groups, and we have the ears of key legislative officials. Now, Siskiyou Project needs to begin building a groundswell of broad-based public support throughout the region. And in order to accomplish this, we need your help! This summer, Siskiyou Project will launch an extensive outreach program, traveling to small towns and large cities throughout the Pacific Northwest to share our vision of a SISKIYOU WILD RIVERS NATIONAL SALMON AND BOTANICAL AREA and enlist support for our proposal. The cost of conducting this outreach program is high, but there is no more important work that we could be doing right now! Our goal is to raise $10,000 over the course of the next six weeks to jumpstart our 2008 Siskiyou Wild Rivers outreach campaign. We’re asking for you to help us reach that goal by making a gift to Siskiyou Project today. Your donation will help us take the story of our rugged mountains, ancient forests, wild salmon and stunning botanical diversity to communities throughout the Pacific Northwest. Imagine a Siskiyou Wild Rivers area where pristine mountain rivers continue to run clean and cold, harboring stable populations of wild salmon and steelhead. Imagine old-growth forests, with their ancient, moss-covered trees, forever safe from threats of logging. Imagine present and future generations of Americans finding refuge and a renewed sense of wonder as they explore the forests, rivers and serpentine outcroppings of the wild Siskiyou. And imagine the small towns and cities of the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area with healthy, robust economies – no longer dependant on resource extraction, but sustained by resource preservation. Yes, it’s an audacious dream, but one that’s within our reach – with your help. https://www70.ssldomain.com/siskiyou/join/donate.php

8) Despite the relentless efforts of Oregon’s elected officials, counties will confront the coming year without federal payments to compensate for their inability to tax public lands. It appears unlikely that Congress will renew county payments in time to prevent drastic cuts in critical county services, including public safety. Douglas County, in particular, will be hit hard as war and tax cuts for the rich drain resources from rural communities. In this context, Douglas County Commissioner Doug Robertson said in his June 8 guest viewpoint that, “Counties will once again have to rely on timber revenue” from Bureau of Land Management lands by way of the Western Oregon Plan Revision. Robertson’s position is short-sighted, because the plan revision is destined for failure. Recall that the WOPR resulted from a 2003 sweetheart settlement in which the Bush administration gave the old growth logging industry everything it sought in a meritless lawsuit erroneously claiming that former O&C Railroad grant lands managed by the BLM must be logged intensively forever. The settlement required the BLM to consider revising management plans for 2.1 million acres west of the Cascades. Last year, the BLM met its legal obligation by proposing a 700 percent increase in old growth logging. To accomplish this, it would revive the archaic practice of clear-cutting in areas now protected as key watersheds and habitat reserves. Many federal agencies, including BLM scientists, found the WOPR would foul water quality, harm salmon and increase catastrophic fires, and that it relied on faulty assumptions about tree growth. Oregonians do not have to choose between old growth forests and essential county services, as Commissioner Robertson proposes. Our few remaining healthy rivers and old forests drive Western Oregon’s economy. People come from all over the world to visit cathedral rain forests and cascading waterfalls. Old forests filter our drinking water, produce oxygen we breathe and mitigate climate change by storing an incomparable volume of carbon. Unlogged forests shelter salmon and other wildlife on the brink of extinction. They define Western Oregon. http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=117427&sid=5&fid=1

9) One hundred and twenty acres up the Alsea River off Highway 34 are scheduled for harvest beginning this August. On June 19, an open forum was held at Waldport’s forestry center to discuss the project, how it will be accomplished and how the public will be affected. Next month roads to the area will be completed. The only available access to the harvest area is Merten Road, which runs through a residential area. After a year of researching possible options, Forest Capital claims that Merten Road is the only possible access to the land and have acquired the use of an easement. Forest Capital intends to log from the south end to the north of the property over a 10-week period. After the logging is completed, the company will pull out the roads and slash piles. Then the area will be spayed with herbicides, dropped by helicopter three times over the entire 120 acres. The first spray is scheduled before the area is replanted with hemlock. Company representative Rudy Frazzini assured the group that using chemicals is common forestry practice and that the spray is controlled with drift control nozzles. Aerial chemical drops of this kind have been banned in other states. Concerns were expressed about possible contamination of wildlife and eventually humans when rain washes into the slough and the Alsea River. Approximately 30 full logging trucks may drive down Merten Road headed for Highway 34 each day, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. to continue for a period of four to eight weeks. People are concerned about a sharp turn in the road and the need for flaggers and signs on Highway 34. Pedestrians may be at risk, said citizens during the meeting. They are also concerned about damage to their homes caused by vibrations from heavily loaded trucks. The company will not be responsible for any such damages, but it has agreed to comply with city ordinances regarding the use of jake breaks, hours of operation, and speed limits; trucks cannot exceed 15 mph. Forest Capital has assigned a wildlife biologist to the project who assured the group that there are no nesting eagles on the acreage, though locals disagree. http://www.southlincolncountynews.com/V2_news_articles.php?heading=0&page=&story_id=536

California:

10) On June 4, 2008, the Mustang Daily published an article “Why environmentalists hurt the environment” by Jennifer Gilmore. This was an opinion piece, and as such it was open to wide interpretation. In the article, Jennifer missed some important aspects of wildfire management. For example, it is correct that thinning a forest does usually reduce wildfire hazard. But she is mistaken when she goes on to suggest that “a little bit of logging” will also reduce wildfire problems. Her article accuses environmentalists of regurgitating what has been printed in the liberal media. She seems to be unaware of her own bias toward the timber industry. Historically, logging is the root cause of our present wildfire problem in the Western United States. Starting in the 1930s and accelerating after World War II, the U.S. Forest Service came under heavy pressure from the timber industry to extinguish all fires for commercial logging. This fire policy was too successful, and a mix of thick forest and brush grew up. These thick tree and brush stands were ideal fuel. Next, the very thick forest was made-to-order for insect and disease epidemics that created more fuel. Finally, in many western areas, a large number of expensive homes were built in these thick forest sites, adding another fuel layer. The process of thinning as a wildfire hazard technique has been abused by many commercial timber companies. In some situations, a stand that is supposed to be thinned ends up looking like a “seed tree” harvest. Most professional foresters agree that responsible wildfire management does require appropriate tree removals – but, not very often a full-scale timber harvest. Economics and culture are the two reasons why more thinning is not accomplished. Thinning is a very expensive operation to do by hand. So, some less successful attempts to lower cost by controlled burning and use of herbicides have been used in some places. Culture is a part of the thinning problem in those situations where the USFS has attempted to pay (at prevailing rates) unemployed loggers to thin forest stands. A decade ago, in Oregon, not a single logger signed up for thinning work, because it wasn’t “big timber.” http://media.www.mustangdaily.net/media/storage/paper860/news/2008/06/26/Columns/Logging.Partly
.To.Blame.For.Fires-3385632.shtml

Nevada:

11) Over and over, angry citizens came to the microphone to proclaim that no outsiders were going to tell them to keep their trucks and ORVs out of the hills they considered their heritage. Jim Sanford, former publisher of the local paper, summed up the mood: “I don’t think this group here tonight is interested in compromise.” But without compromise, there would be no public-lands bills like the ones approved over the past six years for three other Nevada counties, bills that called for the sale of thousands of acres of federal land and — in conjunction with a 1998 law generated billions of dollars for everything from school funding to park development. Pushed by Nevada Sens. Harry Reid, D, and John Ensign, R, the bills sought to eliminate the management headaches and local resentments that are rife in a fast-growing state where more than four of every five acres is federal property. The bills also designated major new wilderness areas. In Congress, the rough political calculus for such bills is this: If locals get to benefit from the sale of land owned by all Americans, the broader public receives additional wilderness in return. That seemed fair enough to folks in Clark, Lincoln and White Pine counties, where a total of 164,000 acres of federal land was identified for auction and about 1.7 million acres were added to the wilderness system. And the state’s congressional delegation had every reason to expect success in other counties. But in western Nevada this winter, that calculus was faulty. In quick succession, three counties — Lyon, Mineral and Esmeralda — rebuffed efforts to craft compromise bills for lands within their boundaries. Fear and misunderstanding fueled a revolt against what locals perceived as a land grab. And now that the state’s anti-wilderness forces are energized, their efforts may derail what until recently seemed like a collaborative way to both meet local needs and protect wild lands. “We just found out about this in February,” says Mineral County Commissioner Richard Bryant, who says he and others were “dumbfounded” when they learned that almost 500,000 acres of federal land in the county were being considered for wilderness designation. Lyon County residents say they were similarly surprised. http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=17769&utm_source=newsletter1&utm_medium=email

Arizona:

12) Dense, closed forests provided little for these paleoindians in terms of food; the grasses, shrubs, and forbs they needed for themselves and for wild game were more available in open forests, as were trees and shrubs that produced nuts, acorns, and berries. These intelligent and creative people used fire to thin and open dense stands. Evidence shows few, if any, landscapes unaffected by paleoindian fire. The structure and makeup of American forests first viewed by Europeans were greatly impacted by, and to a great extent the result of, intentional manipulation by Native Americans. Many Europeans learned the value of these techniques. The founder of the Rhode Island colony, Roger Williams, documented this observation of native forest management: “This burning of the wood to them they count a benefit, both for destroying of vermin, and keeping down the weeds and thickets.” European settlement had its own impact on forests, largely in the form of their removal for agriculture, fuelwood, and building materials. The story of the decline of American forests, particularly in the East, as well as their recovery, has been well documented since 1900, following the birth of the modern conservation movement. A key element of that movement was the emphasis on, and growth in, the forest sciences. This is indicated in part through the increase in number of forestry schools. Only two colleges offered forestry curricula in 1900, but by 1915 there were 13. In addition, the advancement of science in forestry became one of the objectives tied to the creation and management of the nation’s forest reserves. Experimental Forests Shortly after President Roosevelt created the USDA Forest Service in 1905 and placed it under the supervision of his friend Gifford Pinchot, the agency’s first chief, the department worked to establish experimental forests. In August of 1908, Raphael Zon, the first chief of silvics, planted a ceremonial tree at the initial experiment station at Fort Valley in Arizona, saying, “Here we shall plant the tree of research.” One hundred years later, the Forest Service manages more than 80 experimental forests and ranges for the purpose of conducting applied research—living laboratories where long-term science and management studies can be done on all of the nation’s major vegetation types. http://www.forestrycenter.org/headlines.cfm?refID=103092

Colorado:

13) Two conservation groups, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council filed a lawsuit yesterday afternoon in Federal District Court in Missoula against the U.S. Forest Service and Regional Forester Tom Tidwell to stop the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest’s Price Powder Timber Sale which authorizes clearcutting 133 acres in the Fleecer Mountains, near the continental divide approximately 10 miles southwest of Butte. The groups contend the Forest Service is violating the Forest Plan requirements for big game, old growth and snags. Dr. Sara Johnson, a former wildlife biologist for the Gallatin National Forest and Director of Native Ecosystems Council said, “The Forest Plan requires the Forest Service to designate replacement snags for wildlife but instead the Forest Service is clearcutting an area where the they admit there probably are not enough snags. The Forest Service needs to get off this clearcutting binge. The Forest Service is addicted to clearcutting and they need to stop. It is bad for wildlife, it is bad for soils and is bad for hunting because the elk leave when their hiding cover is clearcut.” Dr. Johnson said, “The Forest Service’s own studies concluded that clearcutting will harm old growth and snag dependent species such as the hairy woodpecker, pine martin, goshawk and pileated woodpecker and remove elk security cover.” Michael Garrity, Executive Director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies said, “The Forest Service wants to log old growth forests and destroy important elk habitat at a cost to taxpayers of nearly $200,000. At a time when the price of lumber is at a 35 year low in real terms, the Forest Service should not be clearcutting elk habitat to dump more timber on an already saturated market. Montanans like elk hunting, not clearcutting. The Forest Service needs to follow the law and stop clearcutting critical big game winter range. http://www.wildrockiesalliance.org

Texas:

14) In the early 1800s, when East Texas was settled by Southern families, they were greeted by vast pine forests where massive trees towered over the land. It wasn’t unusual to see pines as large as five feet in width. An early settler wrote his family back in Alabama, “The forests are so thick with giant trees that our wagons could not pass that way.” But with the coming of the railroads, sawmills began to sprout up throughout the forests. The giant pines came down and became lumber that helped build cities like Houston, Dallas, Beaumont and Shreveport. Today, only a handful of plots in East Texas retain the appearance of the early forests. But a new book published by Jane G. Baxter of Nashville, Tennessee, and Dan T. Barnes of Trinity, Texas, has captured the appearance of the old forests that existed in the early 1900s. “Lone Star Pine” is actually a reprint of a copy of American Lumberman magazine, which devoted its September 28, 1908, volume to the Thompson Lumber Company, the oldest lumber manufacturer in Texas. Lucile Slocumb Thompson and John Gray Thompson, great-great-grandchildren of John Martin Thompson, gave a copy of the 1908 volume, “The House of Thompson,” to the Texas Forestry Museum at Lufkin. What makes “Lone Star Pine” so unusual are photos of forests that will never be seen again, as well as scenes from sawmill towns that vanished or have become shells of what they were in 1908. The book contains more than ninety pages of rare photographs that show the woods as they looked when the earliest settler came. One of East Texas’ most famous photos is a scene showing rotund Peter Doucette, for whom the town was named, standing by a 56-inch upland shortleaf yellow pine tree. http://www.c-bstatesman.com/news/2008/0626/historical/018.html

Mississippi:

15) Jeff and Jeanie Gail Bowman still laugh about their impressions as they viewed an 80-acre tract of Mississippi cutover land nearly 30 years ago. “Logging debris covered the ground,” Jeff recalls. “Only a few scraggly trees were standing, and the road was so badly rutted we couldn’t drive anywhere. It was almost like a war zone.” The Bowmans made that land purchase in 1980, and they did it without any clear expectations of where it might take them. Today they say they haven’t been disappointed. They also say the transformation was a bigger job than they ever could have imagined. They started by meeting with a consulting forester to lay out a plan of action. The forester windrowed the logging debris and planted second-growth loblolly pine seedlings. More pines were planted as additional land—about 100 acres—was acquired. In addition to planting more than 100,000 pine seedlings, the Bowmans have set out 2,500 cypress trees in a 15-acre wetland area near the lake. And Jeff has transplanted Eastern red cedars from his parents’ Kentucky farm for use in barrier plantings. While building the tree farm, the Bowmans have worked to enhance wildlife habitat. Food plots consisting of ryegrass, oats and clover help support the deer population. Many other species, including squirrel, raccoon, opossum, bobcat, fox, turkey and quail, populate the acreage. Duck nesting boxes have been placed at the edge of a lake on the acreage; bat houses hang in the wetlands; and bluebird boxes are located along a designated trail. Ducks and geese are regular visitors. The Bowmans’ work has set such a good example that it has been recognized by the Mississippi Wildlife Federation. On Aug. 29, 2005, the Bowmans, like thousands, experienced the wrath of nature as Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Louisiana-Mississippi Gulf Coast. Even some 65 miles inland, winds of up to 120 mph caused widespread devastation to the Bowmans’ property. Although their home escaped damage, the Bowmans lost about 35% of their pines. Additional trees are still dying from the damage.” When the storm hit, the Bowmans were approaching their first timber sale—a thinning of their oldest trees. Harvest was one to two years out at most. After Katrina and all the necessary repair work, it will be 10 years before a normal thinning can take place. http://www.progressivefarmer.com/tabid/1586/Default.aspx

Missouri:

16) About 150 kids from five Kansas City community centers are spending a day at Loose Park this week learning to recognize the mitten-like leaves of sassafras, the fan-shaped leaves of ginkgoes and the prickly needles of pines. In this new Tree Camp, they are hearing — perhaps for the first time — that some trees are far older than their grandparents, that trees contribute to clean air and filter our water, and that they provide shelter for squirrels, birds and insects. “We wanted to be part of a growing movement to reach children at a time in their lives when they are eager to learn about their surroundings,” says Ginny McCanse, one of the camp’s founders. Nature programs for kids give young people a chance to get outside and learn about trees, flowers, bugs and birds while they explore parks and public gardens. The emphasis is on fun, but the programs are all designed to plant a seed that will take root in kids’ imaginations and grow into a lifelong appreciation for nature. Tree Camp, developed by the Garden Center Association of Greater Kansas City and Kansas City’s Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners, puts the emphasis on mighty oaks, weeping willows and other magnificent trees in the Stanley R. McLane Arboretum at Loose Park. The daylong camp, held every day this week, is the centerpiece of the garden association’s 50th anniversary celebration. “This is our big thing,” says McCanse, the group’s president. “Instead of having a gala for our anniversary, we decided to focus on education.” Kids are wide open to the wonders of nature, says Eric Jackson, director of education at Powell Gardens, which also holds nature and gardening camps every summer. “They have book-knowledge from school,” he says, “but getting out and seeing gardens, discovering different spiders and bugs — it’s a wow experience.” Powell Gardens campers take soil samples, plant flowers and record their experiences in notebooks. http://www.kansascity.com/238/story/676866.html

Maine:

17) Sullivan, Maine, already has “logging,” or “tree cutting,” regulations, to protect the value of its ocean-side properties. Thus, when William Badyna, of Brooklyn, clear-cut his 1.2 acre, heavily wooded seaside lot (legally owned by his wife, Angelique) on Flanders Bay he blamed it on a “misunderstanding” and the hiring of local workers who did not adhere to the local tree-removal ordinance. Sullivan’s Shoreland Zoning Ordinance bans the cutting trees within 75 feet of the property’s shoreline (that is 250 feet) and limits tree removal beyond that 75-foot setback to 40 percent of the parcel’s area (including a house lot). Badyna publicly apologized and agreed to pay a $5,000 fine and foot the bill for a tree-planting plan to be overseen by a forester. However, the couple’s assets have since been frozen by the order of a New York Supreme Court. Badyna was among eight people arrested in July, 2003, and charged with running what was described at the time as “one of the largest prostitution rings in New York City.” On March 4, 2008, Badyna pleaded guilty to the charge of money laundering in the second degree. He is facing a prison term that could range from 5 to 15 years. His wife will appear before Hancock County for a hearing re the damages owed to Sullivan. And the parcel in question is being marketed for $350,000, the same price paid by the Badynas in 2005. Other Oceanside lots are less expensive, but none has an unrestricted view of the sea. http://carolyncholland.wordpress.com/2008/06/25/logging-in-maine-and-on-the-peru-brazillian-bor
der/

Florida:

18) Of all the ways to gauge Green Circle Bio Energy’s effect on Northwest Florida and surrounding states, 1 million tons provides a good measurement. That is the amount of wood Green Circle Bio Energy estimates it will need annually to supply its Jackson County pellet facility. And with that level of pellet production comes, potentially, more work for timber harvesters, increased job creation for truckers and higher revenues for Port Panama City. “This project will have such a huge economic impact, not only on the Panhandle, but the whole state,” said Rep. Marti Coley, R-Marianna, as she talked about the plant affecting the region’s forestry industry, timber trucking and Port Panama City. The Jackson County Development Council has estimated the new business will generate $30 million in revenue for the region’s timber industry, with the finished pellet product resulting in annual export sales of more than $65 million. That’s in addition to the $104 million in private investment poured into the Green Circle plant, the $700,000 annually in ad valorem tax revenue going to Jackson County and about 50 jobs created at the facility. “I think that any time you can add a new market in an area, it makes everybody more profitable,” said company wood procurement manager Bill Waller, as he described the pellet plant’s wood needs. To supply its plant daily with a wood diet that includes 30 truckloads of groundwood and 10 loads of sawdust and shavings, Green Circle is employing 15 different area wood suppliers, Waller said. http://www.newsherald.com/news/green_4570___article.html/state_business.html

USA:

19) Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and one of Capitol Hill’s main voices on farm policy, on Friday urged the Agriculture Department to release tens of thousands of farmers from contracts under which they had promised to set aside huge tracts as natural habitat,” wrote David Streitfeld. “An Agriculture Department spokesman said Friday that the Grassley proposal would be considered.” One quarter of the U.S. corn crop is used for ethanol production. Critics say the use of corn as an energy feedstock is distorting the global food market, driving up prices for a range of commodities, including soybeans and livestock. Some have blamed corn ethanol production for indirectly fueling pollution in the Gulf of Mexico as well as deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0623-corn.html

20) For retailers and importers, the law has a flexible “due care” concept, which could cause larger importers to be held to a higher standard than smaller independent purchasers. Countries with a higher record of illegal logging could also be more closely targeted by the enforcement community than countries with stricter logging laws, Groves said. For example, big-box retailers could be expected to send groups to talk to long-term suppliers in source counties to make sure their wood is sourced responsibly, rather than relying strictly on paperwork. “A mom-and-pop shop isn’t going to be expected to go overseas,” Groves said. “The main purpose of the declarations is to provide the most basic information to the enforcement community. If teak is coming from China, there was good chance it was cut in Burma and is illegally funding the junta.” With the passing of the law, the U.S. became the first country in the world to prohibit the import, sale or trade of illegally harvested wood and wood products. Groves added that the new law is more stringent that the European Union’s voluntary Action Plan for Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade, which targets countries that contain nearly 60% of the world’s forests, namely Central Africa, Russia, Tropical South America and Southeast Asia. “The U.S. has leapfrogged and taken the most significant steps toward addressing illegal logging,” Groves said. The EIA is most concerned about wood sourced from the following regions: 1) The Russian Far East, primarily the Primorky Region, which hangs over Far Eastern China and extends through Suifenhe City in the Heilongjiang province. 2) Russian timber moving through Manzhouli in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. 3) Exotic species from Indonesia, specifically grown in areas such as Papua, New Guinea. http://www.furnituretoday.com/article/CA6572794.html?industryid=23184&industry=Global