392 PNW-USA

Index:

–Alaska: 13) Residents poaching trees on public lands,
–Oregon: 14) What it truly means to speak for the forests that give us life, 15) Problems with Orleans Healthy Forest timber sale, 16) Horrible helicopter herbicide, 17) Logging and debates on logging continue, 18) Free Trade cost state 10,000 forest products jobs,
–California: 19) Fire Salvage in Santa Cruz, 20) They always use deaths of firefighters to promote increased logging, 21) Considered a cardinal sin in Palo Alto, 22) County demands a mass fire salvage logging debacle, 23) Understand how to live compatibly with nature and fire,
–Idaho: 24) Yet another unlikely truce in roadless forests
–Missouri: 25) Wilderness for Mark Twain NF
–Georgia: 26) College students to study timber corruption in Uruguay
–West Virginia: 27) West Virginia Northern Flying Squirrel removed from ESA list
–Kentucky: 28) How old trees came to be
–Pennsylvania: 29) It’s the loggers, not the Gypsy moths that are rampaging,
–South Carolina: 30) Save the Angel Oak Tree woodland from being condos,
–USA: 31) Difference between real and fake enviros, 32) Handing keys of our national forests over to industry, 33) US Forest Service is bankrupt,

Articles:
Alaska:

13) Fairbanks area forests subjected to illegal axes: Posted in Alaska News The scramble to find dry firewood has some Fairbanks area residents poaching trees on public lands. Northern Area State Parks chief ranger Matt McClure says he’s seeing more illegal firewood harvesting than normal in the Chena River State Recreation area east of Fairbanks. Download Audio MP3: http://media.aprn.org/2008/ann-20080826-03.mp3 – http://aprn.org/2008/08/26/fairbanks-area-forests-subjected-to-illegal-axes/
Oregon:

14) In the summer issue of Forest Voice, we explore what it truly means to speak for the forests that give us life. In this issue we hold to the light some of the more questionable actions of corporate “environmental” groups claiming to work in the public’s best interest. The intention of this issue of Forest Voice is to educate the public that only by holding accountable those whose jobs are to advocate for Nature, will we be able to create a strong and united movement to save life on Earth. In this summer issue we bring you more than 50% never-seen-before content written exclusively for the Forest Voice, including: 1) A testimonial from a former Sierra Club chapter chairperson whose entire group resigned in protest of the Club’s controversial deal with toxic giant Clorox to endorse their products 2) A hard look at the latest ploy to increase the cut on public lands: “stewardship” logging 3) Several in-depth analyses of what it truly means to be an advocate for life on Earth — If you’re not already an NFC member, click on weblink to download a PDF of the summer Forest Voice. Request a copy now: info@forestcouncil.org or 541-688-2600.

15) KS Wild has closely analyzed the Orleans Healthy Forest Restoration Act (HFRA) timber sale on the Six Rivers National Forest near the community of Orleans. While KS Wild supports the small-diameter thinning, hand-work and prescribed fire elements of the project, we objected to the logging of a number of large, old-growth trees. In early August, KS Wild and partners spent a day in the field looking at the Orleans project with the Forest Service and timber representatives with the purpose of resolving conflicts. The Forest Service agreed to drop the worst logging unit that provides the best habitat for old-growth dependent species. In exchange, KS Wild agreed to drop our objection to the project. As a result of this process, more than 2,600 acres of forest in the middle Klamath watershed will receive some ecologically-based thinning and prescribed fire while maintaining old-growth. That makes KS Wild, and the Klamath River salmon, happy! http://www.kswild.org

16) “It’s horrible,” she said, of the helicopter herbicide application being conducted that morning, a mere few hundred feet from the hill upon which she lives. “You can smell the chemicals. I don’t know if I can come back.” Tuesday morning, having tarped her garden and sealed her windows and door, Holliday left Wheeler and the whup-whup sound of helicopter propeller blades, to drive to a friends’ house in Neahkahnie to wait out the spraying. She wasn’t alone. “Lord knows I won’t be staying in my home tonight,” said Angelina Martin on Monday evening upon learning that Green Diamond Resources – the company that owns 7,000 acres of local commercial timberland, a solid block of which abuts the City of Wheeler – planned to spray the following morning. “Neither will my pets.” Staff, volunteers and residents of Nehalem Valley Care Center are equally apprehensive. More than 40 of them signed a petition asking Green Diamond to forego spraying. “We have 50 beds for our skilled care center residents and about 50 employees as well,” said Katherine Mace, NVCC activity director. “The care center is directly below one of the clear-cuts that is scheduled to be sprayed by controversial chemicals that have a potential of causing health problems in humans and wildlife. As an employee of the care center and resident of Wheeler, I’m very worried about chemical drift exposure, especially if they spray with helicopters or if it is foggy when they spray from the ground.” “The herbicide could make its way down the creek into the bay,” said Holliday. “Some of these chemicals are known to be lethal to amphibians and salmonids.” Holliday, Martin and a few dozen other Nehalem Bay area residents are aghast that Green Diamond is legally permitted to employ a helicopter to spray herbicide on a clear-cut so close to a residential zone. Their fears include the health risks associated with inhalation of poison as well as the effects it could have on the environment. A coalition – which includes Wheeler residents, as well as those who live in Nehalem, Manzanita and outlying areas – is aiming to change the law. “We have the right to protect ourselves, our homes and our children,” said Judy Stone-Aaen, of Wheeler. “We need to pass local, state and federal laws that stop this wholesale rape of our land, animals and rights.” In an effort to stop future spraying so close to a city, the coalition is drafting what it hopes are the seeds of a bill limiting clear-cutting and chemical spraying near residential areas, to be presented to the Oregon Legislature. They plan to present their proposal to the joint legislative Environment and Natural Resources Committee during its Sept. 12 meeting in Newport.
http://tillamookheadlightherald.com/main.asp?SectionID=8&SubSectionID=8&ArticleID=10082

17) The Medford Mail Tribune printed an editorial on August 15 entitled, “Here we go again” regarding a salvage logging proposal northeast of Medford on BLM land. Two days later the paper printed a opinion editorial response entitled, “Hard questions about salvage logging,” from George Sexton, KS Wild’s Conservation Direction. On August 24, the paper printed another opinion-editorial entitled, “Anti-salvage arguments irrelevant,” from Ed Kupillas, a timber industry representative. Of the proposed 35 million board foot timber sale, KS Wild estimates that up to 20 million board feet of timber could be responsibly salvaged from this blowdown area without sacrificing watershed and fisheries values. That is a lot of wood, yet Mr. Kupillas claims KS Wild is an “unbending extremist” group. Four creeks in the proposed salvage area are listed under the Clean Water Act as violating sediment standards, which is primarily the result of logging and road construction. Yet the salvage proposal currently calls for the construction of 7.8 miles of new logging roads, which would be detrimental to water and fish. Contrary to what Mr. Kupillas states, we believe it is essential to examine the past in order to make informed decisions today and for the future. We also believe that old-growth and salmon are worthy of steadfast protection. Take Action: This editorial thread offers the community an important opportunity to discuss issues with regard to responsible logging. If you would like to add to the public discussion, we encourage you to submit a Letter to the Editor (200 words or less) to letters@mailtribune.com – http://www.kswild.org

18) The Oregon Fair Trade Campaign released a report on August 12 documenting the negative effects of unmitigated free trade on forest products jobs in Oregon. The report, based on new statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor, shows that trade agreements since 1994 have cost Oregon over 10,000 forest products jobs, with southern Oregon being hit the hardest. The lion’s share of forest products jobs eliminated in Oregon since NAFTA and the WTO were enacted have been lost as a result of increased imports. Under today’s trade policies, local businesses are forced to compete against corporations in places like China that pay their workers pennies on the dollar and face almost no environmental enforcement. The way to save jobs isn’t to reduce our standards to their abysmal levels in a race to the bottom; it’s to require that U.S. imports meet the standards we choose to set. Free trade deals supported by politicians like Gordon Smith and Greg Walden undercut efforts at sustainability by flooding American markets with artificially cheap, sweatshop-made, environmentally destructive imports. In order to strengthen our environment and economy, KS Wild joins our union brothers and sisters in calling for an entirely new international trade model. http://www.kswild.org

California:

19) Charred trees and brush, remnants of last June’s Trabing Fire, are being removed from along roadways and power lines north of Watsonville. According to Amador Delgado of Davey Tree, the company handling the tree removal for Pacific Gas and Electric Co., burned trees within about 50 feet of power lines pose the greatest threat and are being targeted to come down. He estimated that 1,800 trees will be cut down. The Trabing Fire started June 20, one mile north of Watsonville, and destroyed 26 homes and 48 outbuildings. It spread from the shoulder of Highway 1 through dry brush and trees, covering 630 acres and displacing about 2,000 Larkin Valley-area residents. While crews from Davey Tree will cut down the trees, the downed trunks will be left for property owners to dispose of, according to Delgado. He said about 18 men are working on the project, which should take three to four weeks to finish. Along Highway 1 for a half-mile, from Buena Vista Drive to Vista Point, CalTrans crews are working to remove small pine trees, scrub and brush burned in the Trabing Fire. According to CalTrans spokeswoman Susana Cruz, the crews began working Sunday and will continue, as work schedules permit, until mid-October, when rains usually begin. While most of the clearing involves the burned remains of scrubs and brush, close to 100 small trees burned in the fire will also be cleared from the roadside. On steep slopes, CalTrans will implement hydro-seeding to prevent erosion. Within days after the fire, crews from PG&E began repairing power lines and replacing burned poles, while contractors removed hazardous trees and brush posing an immediate danger in the fire area. http://www.register-pajaronian.com/V2_news_articles.php?heading=0&story_id=5477&page=72

20) It’s as disturbing as it is predictable that a timber industry booster like state Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley, would use the tragic deaths of firefighters to promote increased logging. It’s also not surprising then that he resorts to falsehoods to promote this agenda. His “solution” to catastrophic forest fires is to promote more cutting, yet study after study has shown that catastrophic fires generally take place in areas where natural, ancient forests have been cut and replaced. The Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project Final Report to Congress put it succinctly: “Timber harvest, through its effects on forest structure, local microclimate, and fuel accumulation, has increased fire severity more than any other recent human activity.” This doesn’t seem to matter to timber industry supporters like Aanestad. Nor does it seem to matter that when fuel reduction is necessary, the trees the timber industry wants to cut are inevitably big old commercially valuable trees, not dog-hair trees more prone to fire. A Government Accounting Office report stated that Forest Service managers “tend to (1) focus on areas with high-value commercial timber rather than on areas with high fire hazards or (2) include more large, commercially valuable trees in a timber sale than are necessary to reduce the accumulated fuels.” Nor does it seem to matter that a report by the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture stated, “The removal of large, merchantable trees from forests does not reduce fire risk and may, in fact, increase such risk.” Nor do these words from Forest Service fire specialist Denny Truesdale seem to matter: “The majority of the material that we need to take out is not commercial timber. It is up to three and four inches in diameter. We can’t sell it.” Commercial logging removes large, fire-resistant trees. What’s more, removing the overstory reduces shade, drying and heating the materials below. Tree plantations are far more vulnerable to fire than natural forests, and there is a direct correlation between roads and fires. Add to this the fact that the overwhelming majority of forest fires are caused by humans (not lightning, as Aanestad improperly implies), and many of these are arson. There have already been many cases of people lighting fires specifically so they can benefit financially, whether through gaining employment as firefighters or through giving the Forest Service an excuse to offer up the dead trees as a timber sale, quite possibly in some cases to the arsonists themselves. So far as protecting homes, the Forest Service’s own fire laboratory found that the main factors determining whether buildings ignite are the materials used in the home and the amount of underbrush within 200 feet, not the proximity of merchantable timber. http://www.triplicate.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=9960Coastal

21) Every weekday afternoon, the street in front of Betsy Fryberger’s Palo Alto home turns into a stagnant river of metal, rubber and exhaust fumes, otherwise known as rush-hour traffic at the corner of Middlefield Road and Oregon Expressway. So you’d think she would welcome the efforts of Santa Clara County to widen the intersection as part of a $3.5 million plan to streamline Oregon Expressway and its extension, Page Mill Road, the main Palo Alto commuter route linking Highway 101 and Interstate 280. Instead, she’s circulating petitions against the expansion and has collected more than 500 signatures. Why? Because the only way to widen Middlefield is to commit what’s considered a cardinal sin in Palo Alto: cutting down about a dozen street trees. Fryberger has the petitions in a box on her driveway, enticing passersby with a sign that says “Save this Tree. Be green, not concrete.” “In Palo Alto, trees are like your children,” Kniss said. “You don’t just take out a tree any more than you would cut down a child.” But it’s not just about trees. The county had the best intentions five years ago when it embarked on a plan to spiff up its expressway system. And heaven knows that Oregon Expressway is a traffic nightmare, clogged with commuters heading to high-tech firms in the Stanford Research Park as well as Palo Altans trying to get to jobs in other cities. But Oregon is not your typical expressway. It’s not Lawrence or San Tomas or Almaden. It’s a road with a turbulent past. A lot of people still see the expressway, which was built in the 1960s right through the middle of existing neighborhoods, as an affront. Over the years it has become a fault line that divides north and south Palo Alto. Every time a school gets a new field or a library project is proposed, the geographic jealousies of the north and south have to be balanced. The county’s plan includes several proposals that rekindle that 40-year-old anger and send tremors along that fault line — like building sound walls, which some residents have likened to walling off Berlin. “The county should understand that this is probably the most sensitive issue in Palo Alto,” Kniss said. “This is about cutting a community in half.” Masoud Akbarzadeh, the county’s traffic manager, seems a bit baffled by the controversy. He said he’s just trying to make the road safer, less congested and more pedestrian friendly. http://www.mercurynews.com/columns/ci_10319170

22) With approximately 200,000 acres of national forest lands burned in Trinity County to date by wildfires that started June 20, the board of supervisors is asking the U.S. Forest Service what its recovery plans are for the burned areas. In a letter to Pacific Southwest Regional Forester Randy Moore, the board noted the need for cleanup of burned vegetation to reduce fuel for future fires, as well as ongoing maintenance and forest management to create healthier forest conditions. The letter claims that many of the fires this summer moved into old burns that never had the burned materials removed and consequently burned hotter and with greater intensity. In approving the letter last week, the board heard comments from several county residents on wide-ranging issues related to the fires that have resulted in extensive damage to private properties as well as national forest lands. But In a letter to the board, John Rapf of Hyampom noted that areas where massive salvage and re-planting occurred after the 1987 fires were some that burned the hottest this summer. He urged the board to seek a lot more input from local residents before meeting with the governor because many have had experiences and opinions that need to be heard. Roger Jaegel said this summer’s fires have provided a perfect opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of previous actions because “we have burned areas that were salvaged adjacent to areas that weren’t, so let’s go out and look.” Also, some people targeted a firefighting strategy that relies heavily on deliberately set backburns to eliminate fuels in advance of the wildfires. Others complained of heavy-handed tactics that resulted in property damage from firefighting equipment and not the flames. Several urged the board to conduct public forums to hear from many residents throughout the county that have suffered trauma from the fire siege and have numerous concerns to share before Supervisors Howard Freeman and Roger Jaegel meet with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in Sacramento this fall to discuss the fires’ aftermath. The board agreed to hold additional hearings and to take a field trip to tour some of the burned areas around Big Bar and Hayfork impacted by the Iron-Alps and Lime complexes. As of Tuesday, firm dates had not been set for those meetings, but a tentative plan was in the works for a trip downriver next Wednesday, Sept. 3. http://www.trinityjournal.com/news/2008/0827/front_page/001.html

23) As environmentalists, we must understand how fire affected our landscape before anthropogenic ideals. In reality, “Skies were likely smoky much of the summer and fall in California during the prehistoric period” (Stephens et. al. 2007). If we truly would like to return the Sierra Nevada bioregion to the natural ecosystem that once dominated this area, we must understand how to live compatibly with nature as well as fire. We must educate ourselves on the benefits that fire can have in our ecosystems. There are many beneficial effects that fire has on our ecosystems including: recycling of soil nutrients, removal of dead and dying vegetation, reduction in ladder fuels, and creating conditions that allow for healthy forest re-growth. What we must remember is that fire is an essential and natural process, and although it can be destructive where homes and lives are concerned it does play an important part in the future health of forest environments. We must all be a part of the solution to create a more natural ecosystem within the Sierra Nevada, and this starts with YOU. I will leave you with this to think about, “In the main forest belt of California, fires seldom or never sweep from tree to tree in broad all-enveloping sheets…. Here the fires creep from tree to tree, nibbling their way on the needle-strewn ground, attacking the giant trees at the base, killing the young, and consuming the fertilizing humus and leaves”–John Muir, 1895. Click here for further prehistoric fire information about California, and here to learn more about how you can be part of the solution through sound Firewise Communities practices. Stephens, S.L., R.E. Martin, and N.E. Clinton. 2007. Prehistoric Fire Area and Emissions from California’s Forests, Woodlands, Shrublands, and Grasslands. Forest Ecology and Management, 2007.

Idaho:

24) On Friday, Idaho, one of the most forested states in the country — and one of the most conservative — announced an unlikely truce. With the support of hunters, fishermen and some environmental groups, the state and the Bush administration agreed on regulatory safeguards for 9.3 million acres that had been designated as roadless areas by the Clinton administration — and thus free of commercial activity. The compromise would leave about 3.3 million acres of the total roadless. About 5.6 million acres would enjoy similar protections, though exceptions could be made for logging in areas where fires could put communities at risk. An additional 400,000 acres would be open to all development. Mark E. Rey, an under secretary of the federal Department of Agriculture who oversees the Forest Service, said the roadless rule “was an issue that we engaged throughout.” Mr. Rey added, “Today is a kind of epiphany because we might have a solution for at least one state.” Chris Wood, the chief operating officer of the environmental group Trout Unlimited who worked for the Forest Service in the Clinton administration, said Friday: “I believe the 2001 roadless rule to be one of the most effective conservation measures of our time. However, conservation cannot endure if the people most affected by it don’t support it.”Lt. Gov. James E. Risch, whose background in forestry gave him a shared experience and vocabulary with the competing interests, said Friday, “We are proud of the way we manage our own state lands, and our own private lands.” But it is clear, Mr. Risch said, that officials resent the federal government’s dominance. “They own two out of every three acres in Idaho,” he said in asserting that that automatically limited the state’s ability to control land within its own boundaries. Idaho, in fact, was the first state to go to court to block the Clinton administration’s rule, a suit that is still unresolved. The plan originally submitted by the state drew sharp criticism from environmental groups. But some groups moved to support it after it became clear that about 3.3 million acres would have a higher degree of protection, equivalent to federal wilderness areas. Negotiations ensured that there would be substantial barriers to road construction in much of the rest of the 9.3 million acres. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/30/us/30forest.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1220115715-cPSq7F2zwX3AFWUKzo3o2g

Missouri:

25) Wilderness advocates will gather next week in Salem to map out strategies for winning federal protection for 50,000 acres of public land in Missouri’s Mark Twain National Forest. The Missouri Wilderness conference Sept. 6 is aimed at building public awareness and support of the proposal before approaching potential sponsors in Missouri’s congressional delegation. Four percent of the Mark Twain forest is designated wilderness, meaning it is free of roads, all-terrain vehicles, mining and logging, but open to hiking, camping, fishing, horseback riding, hunting, canoeing and picnicking. The additional acres would bring to 7 percent the amount of land in the state with that kind of protection. The entire forest is 1.5 million acres. http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/story/772120.html

Georgia:

26) A delegation from the University of Georgia’s Center for Forest Business visited Uruguay Aug. 3-8 to investigate possible partnerships with Uruguayan universities to encourage further growth of the forest products industry in the South American country. The center, housed in the Warnell School of Forest and Natural Resources, is interested in creating student, faculty and research exchanges to train Uruguayan and U.S. master’s students in the business of forestland investment and wood products manufacturing, with special focus on the industry’s development in Uruguay. Led by Warnell School Dean Michael Clutter, the six-person Georgia delegation met with Uruguayan university, business and government representatives in the capital city of Montevideo and the northern province of Tacuarembó. “We are quite impressed with Uruguay’s dynamic forest sector and the opportunities present. With increasing wood-using plants and productive plantations, the future is bright for forestry and the forest products industry in Uruguay,” Dr. Clutter told GlobalAtlanta during the trip. “We look forward to developing joint education programs, faculty exchanges and synergistic research projects between the University of Georgia and universities in Uruguay.” He said that he envisions Georgia faculty and graduate students doing research projects in Uruguay, and the Warnell School could make assistantships available for Uruguayan master’s and doctoral students. The exchanges would focus specifically on forest business and investment, including the financing of forestland purchases, forest products manufacturing and, possibly, new business opportunities in bioenergy. UGA Center for Forest Business Director Bob Izlar said the center has worked with other international institutions, but these exchanges would be different in that they would incorporate more direct cooperation with the forestry industry. “We have had partnerships with forestry schools at the University of Helsinki and Royal College of Agriculture in Uppsala, Sweden. But they are nothing like we propose for Uruguay,” Mr. Izlar said. http://stories.globalatlanta.com/2008stories/016269.html

West Virginia:

27) The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared Tuesday that it has removed the West Virginia northern flying squirrel from protection under the Endangered Species Act – despite the squirrel’s small population and the looming threat that climate change poses to its habitat. The squirrel was declared recovered despite the fact that it has yet to meet recovery goals in a recovery plan that was developed by the world’s leading experts on the squirrel’s biology and status, and that scientists have been raising alarm bells about the increasing threat of climate change related to anthropogenic release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. “The delisting of the West Virginia northern flying squirrel is part of the Bush administration’s plan to gut the Endangered Species Act by keeping rare species off the list, undercutting protections for some on the list, and removing others from the list altogether,” said Judy Rodd, director of Friends of Blackwater, a Maryland-based conservation group. “This is consistent with the Bush administration’s move last week to weaken regulations so that Fish and Wildlife scientists no longer advise federal agencies on the impacts of their projects on endangered species or consider the impacts of greenhouse emissions on endangered species,” Rodd said. Bush administration officials claim that threats to the squirrel have been alleviated and that continued presence of the species in some areas for 20 years prove that it is not endangered. In drawing these conclusions, however, the officials ignored the fact that all climate change models show decline for the northern hardwood/red spruce forests that the West Virginia northern flying squirrel calls home. http://stopstripmining.gnn.tv/blogs/29206/Bush_gives_another_parting_favor_to_the_logging_industry

Kentucky:

28) Research by former University of Kentucky post-doctorate student Ryan McEwan suggests the old bur oaks, chinquapin oaks and blue ashes got their start growing straight but slow in the middle of a forest. The research contradicts the long-held view that pioneers found open savannas, with large, widely spaced trees, when they arrived in the region in the late 1700s. McEwan, in an article co-written by Brian McCarthy, suggests that thick forests could have grown up because the Native Americans who had been keeping the landscape open were decimated by diseases that Europeans brought to the New World. Around 1800, the research found, the trees suddenly began growing a lot faster, and they sprouted lower branches. That, McEwan said in an interview, suggests that they suddenly were getting a lot more sunlight because competing trees had been cleared. The research was conducted by taking pencil-thick cores of living and dead trees. The trees left standing after (roughly) the year 1800 could have been spared because they produced acorns that were food for livestock, or for their shade, McEwan said. It also is possible that other species were also left but have since disappeared because they don’t live as long as the oaks or blue ashes. In any event, he said, the big old trees are becoming rare. Development has cleared many, and others are approaching the end of their lifespan. “We’re on the verge of losing them,” he said. Andy Mead. http://www.kentucky.com/211/story/505153.html

Pennsylvania:

29) At the J. Edward Mack Boy Scout camp near Brickerville, officials this fall will reluctantly cut down trees killed by rampaging gypsy moths to keep the timber from falling on buildings occupied by Scouts. At popular Gov. Dick Park, also in the Furnace Hills, officials expect to have to “salvage cut” several hundred dead trees and replant parts of the forest. And earlier this summer, the Pennsylvania Game Commission announced it was felling thousands of dead trees on 164 acres at four different game lands in the Furnace Hills, including prized old oak stands beloved in nearby Mount Gretna. Forests at all these locations had been sprayed with a bacteria insecticide this spring, but the dreaded gypsy moth caterpillars defoliated and killed mature oak trees anyway. Against this backdrop, and despite the appeals of Elizabeth Township supervisors and some worried county residents, the Lancaster County Commissioners this morning elected not to participate in a state-subsidized program for aerial spraying to thwart more gypsy moth damage next spring. Even though surrounding counties have signed on to the state spraying in recent years, the commissioners decided not to. The state spray program would cost public and private landowners a vastly reduced spray rate compared to contracting with private sprayers. http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/226471

South Carolina:

30) This site is intended to inform the public of an upcoming development that will destroy the beautiful and dense forest that protects The Angel Oak Tree, one of Charleston’s most visited and talked about natural scenes, The Angel Oak Tree (AO) is located in the Angel Oak Park (AOP) on Johns Island, SC. The AO is a natural Low Country treasure visited daily by schools, tourist and locals. The City Council of Charleston has approved the development of Angel Oak Village (AOV) a 600 multi-family housing project with 80,000 sq. feet of retail space around AOP. Thousands of protected trees that surround the AO will be destroyed and protected wetlands will be filled in for the 42 acre project. http://www.savetheangeloak.org/

USA:

31) What’s the function of an environmentalist but an attorney for the Earth, an ecosystem advocate? A forest can’t speak for itself, so the job of greens is to argue for their client’s best interest. The forest wouldn’t ask for a kinder, gentler form of logging; it would say “Get the hell out now!” Like a successful attorney, environmentalists aren’t supposed to be objective, but to have a clear bias: in this case, a bias for life. Deep greens understand that anything less than a complete chainsaw acquittal means a death sentence for our public forests. Yellow enviros will jump at any chance to “settle,” especially since it’s the only way to guarantee their paycheck. Predictably, yellows will say any big changes are long-shots and to be really “effective” you can’t aim so high. Which is why Yellows would rather work to increase streamside buffers by a few feet than even mention returning to the public domain tens of millions of land grant acres sold from railroad companies to private logging companies, like Weyerhaeuser, Boise Cascade and Plum Creek. Let’s not forget that it’s also the role of enviros to kindle the imagination and inspire citizen involvement and action. A winning movement needs a cry to rally around, like: “No Compromise in Defense of Mother Earth!” or “Not Another Black Stick!” Good luck trying to jolt the American people out of their apathy with the slogan: “Save the old growth—well, at least trees over 200 years old—and sometimes you can thin them and, of course they’ll build a few roads, but don’t worry, they’re just temporary…!” Green groups pushing for thinning in both native forests and tree plantations on public lands, thinvironmentalists, believe they can somehow convince industry to shift operations into this barely profitable, labor-intensive (though plenty destructive) model, in the name of “restoration.” Even if the science on forest restoration through chainsaw surgery was unanimous—it’s not—to expect a rape-and-run logging industry to transition into a benevolent presence in our public forests is pure fantasy. Still, thinvironmentalists insist they’ve tamed the Timber Beast, ignoring past experience that shows that when you let the Timber Beast into the forest—for any reason at all—it’s going to mark its territory in a big way. http://www.counterpunch.org/schlossberg08302008.html

32) As it heads out the door, the Bush administration is handing the keys to our national forests over to the mining, timber and oil and gas industries. Its targets are the crown jewels of our national forest system – millions of acres of pristine landscapes in Alaska’s Tongass Rainforest and Idaho’s Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Now the Administration has set its sights on Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, where it is moving forward rapidly with a rulemaking that would remove the landmark Roadless Area Conservation Rule, the popular policy that protects the last one-third of the nation’s most pristine forests for future generations to enjoy. If adopted, it would dramatically increase logging and road-building in 4.4 million acres of Colorado’s best backcountry, while giving the green light to roughly 100 new oil and gas drilling projects, impacting valuable fish and wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation opportunities. Your help is needed now! Please sign the letter below now to ask the Forest Service to stop its 11th hour efforts to open up Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Forests to more drilling, mining, logging and road-building. We encourage you to include your own personal comments — comment emails are much more effective when you take the time to add your own thoughts. http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/colorado_wild_forests?rk=i11SA17qO8-kW

33) The US Forest Service is bankrupt. They have spent their entire 2008 fire budget of $1.2 billion, and an additional $400 million besides, and it is still mid-August, and fires are burning right now in every western state. The extra $400 million spent to date is coming out of non-fire USFS programs [here]. There is a hiring freeze, forest rehabilitation projects on burns of prior years have been canceled, as have been every other kind of USFS project, and layoffs are forthcoming. The attitude expressed by USFS Chief Gail Kimbell is, “pray for rain.” Maybe we should pray for a new Chief. Useless and unnecessary fires have consumed the budget. The Basin/Indians Fire burned 244,000 acres and is the 3rd largest fire in California history. With more than $120,000,000 spent on fire “suppression,” it is now the most expensive fire in California history, and the 2nd most expensive in U.S. history (the Biscuit Fire in Oregon in 2002 cost $150,000,000). Most of those acres were incinerated in backburns. The Long Range Fire Implementation Plan was not suppression but burn it all. The Iron Complex on the Shasta-Trinity NF will burn over 100,000 acres at a cost of over $70 million. Those fires could have been contained and controlled a month ago, but the Plan from ignition was to burn, baby, burn. The combined acreage burned in Northern California forests this summer exceeds 500,000 acres and the cost of “suppression” is in excess of $300 million. Many of those megafires are still burning, consuming thousands of acres and tens of millions of dollars every day. http://westinstenv.org/sosf/2008/08/15/destroying-forests-has-destroyed-the-us-forest-service/