030OEC’s This Week in Trees:

This week we have 30 news articles from: British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Montana, Maine, Florida, Hawaii, Canada, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Cyprus, Mexico, Chile, India, Bangladesh, New Zealand Indonesia, Malaysia, and Australia.

British Columbia:

1) Future visitors to Manning Park can expect to see logging operations in some of the park’s most heavily travelled areas. Penner said that he expects to receive a report this fall assessing “the need for fuel reduction” in and around Manning Park. He added that it will be done through selective harvesting or prescribed burns rather than large-scale logging. bWhatever the method, it means crews will be felling trees affected by the mountain pine beetle, which Penner said has infested as much as 8,000 of the park’s 71,000 hectares. The environment minister also said that there will be replanting, and he noted that Manning Park may be used as a pilot project in “carbon seques?tration” to help meet Canada’s commitment to greenhouse-gas reduction under the Kyoto Accord. Penner said that it would show how forests can be used to remove carbon from the atmosphere. “It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see that in the not too distant future, all of our rural areas will be used by human beings as part of productive activities. If we don’t preserve certain areas, we will lose wilderness spaces that are essential for recreation, research and education,” he warned. “The constitution upholds private property above everything else, and private owners are allowed to do whatever they please with their property, with no one questioning them,” said Liberona. But in this case, it is “the Chilean state, which administers the natural wealth of all Chileans, like the national parks and reserves, that is failing to live up to its duty. It is the state itself that is breaking its own laws,” said the environmentalist. (END/2005) http://www.ipsnews.net/new_nota.asp?idnews=30374

2) West Fraser Timber Co., one of three major companies operating sawmills in Quesnel, is constructing a supermill in the city that will consume 1.6 million cubic metres of timber a year, enough to fill 45,000 trucks. Simpson said he has been told the annual cut in the Cariboo will fall to one million cubic metres a year once beetle wood is cleared in five to eight years. That figure is barely enough to fill half the supply needs of the newest mill. Hundreds of jobs in forest-dependent communities may vanish along with the wood supply. The Cariboo North MLA said government supporters note capital spending by big players as a sign of confidence and health of the industry. But return on capital for those mills is as little as two years “and everything else is gravy.” Meanwhile, woodlot operators, salvage companies and community forest licence operations must sell logs to the major companies at a loss in some cases because of the amount of timber on the market. Those small operators are paying inflated stumpage fees to government based on the price of dimension lumber rather than on the value of the log they just sold. “The woodlot people I’m told are walking away. I don’t know any community forest licence making money, except in Likely.” Simpson said woodlot operators and community forest licence holders are the future of the industry after the major beetle-salvage harvest; steps must be taken to ensure those groups remain in good shape. –Kamloops Daily News, Sept 27 2005

Washington:

3) A King County Superior Court judge has set aside the state Board of Natural Resources’ new 10-year plan for increased logging in Western Washington state forests, saying the panel did not adequately consider the environmental impact. The plan, approved in September 2004 by the panel that sets policy for the state Department of Natural Resources, called for harvests of 597 million board feet a year — an increase of about 30 percent — from the 1.4 million acres of state trust lands west of the Cascade Range. Judge Sharon Armstrong e-mailed her ruling to the parties Tuesday, saying she had concluded that the final environmental impact statement was insufficient as to effects on the threatened northern spotted owl and salmon. She also said the impact statement also did not sufficiently explore the effects of less environmentally costly alternatives, and fell short in assessing cumulative effects of the new logging levels. “Presumably they’ll have to go back and craft a more responsible plan,” said Becky Kelley of the Washington Environmental Council, which had challenged the plan with Audubon Washington, Conservation Northwest and the Olympic Forest Coalition. In a news release, the groups said that trust-land timber harvests in Western Washington had rarely exceeded 500 million board feet annually. “During planning, DNR projected that logging levels of only about 400 million board feet per year could be sustained if existing levels of resource protection were continued,” the release noted. “Commissioner (Doug) Sutherland overreached in his effort to sharply increase logging in our state forests,” said Joan Crooks, executive director of the environmental council. “Now, he will have to fully disclose how increased logging could damage sensitive areas and look at more sustainable alternatives,” she added. The lawsuit said the state had not fully considered how cutting more timber near streams, across slopes prone to landslides and in ecologically sensitive areas would affect wildlife habitat. About 470 million board feet of timber were scheduled for harvest in 2004, most of it in Western Washington, where there are 1.4 million acres of state trust lands. There are 700,000 acres of trust lands east of the mountains. http://www.theolympian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200550927007

4) A corridor of 2,500 acres along the White River has been home to elk, deer, cougars, bears, bald eagles and great blue herons but no humans for the past 93 years, and the people who live nearby would like to keep it that way. Citizens are urging government officials to protect this natural wildlife refuge before private developers get their hands on it. Puget Sound Energy owns the land between Buckley and Auburn on the White River, which includes Lake Tapps, and has talked of selling it to Cascade Water Alliance, a group of King County water utilities that want to use the lake for drinking water. If the deal goes through, about 500 acres would be used for wildlife habitat as part of the water deal. Puget Sound Energy has managed the land exclusively for wildlife habitat since 1990. State Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, held a public meeting in this town west of the property to hear what local citizens think of the plan. “Acquiring the land is the first and most important thing you will do,” said Bart Madison of the Tacoma chapter of Trout Unlimited. “If you don’t, somebody else will buy it.” Roach said she wants to prepare to buy the land, but wants to know what the public thinks before looking at specific uses. Mayor John Blanusa of Buckley said the property was last logged in the 1950s and 1960s. Gerald Schmitz, who lives near the corridor, said the land should be preserved as a wildlife refuge with limited hunting and fishing. The forested corridor allows wildlife movement between the lower elevations in the Puget Sound region and the Cascade Mountains all the way to Mount Rainier, he said. “You make it a park and you’ll drive the animals out,” Schmitz said. http://www.registerguard.com/news/2005/09/25/c3.cr.wa.whiteriver.0925.p1.php?section=nation_world

Oregon:

5) Micah Griffin gripped the jug awkwardly as he spoke into the telephone at the Lane County Sheriff’s Department on the morning of Sept. 14. “I’d like to report a shooting, possibly attempted murder,” he said. “I tried to report this several days ago, and now I’m physically here at the station, so I demand some — ” He stopped abruptly and turned to us. “I’m on hold. He says they’re swamped right now.” Griffin, an independent filmmaker, had brought the pierced jug to the Lane County police as evidence for an alleged assault against tree-sitters in the Willamette National Forest. Accompanying him were Josh Schlossberg, an activist with the Cascadia Forest Defenders; Cascadia Wildlands Project Executive Director Josh Laughlin, the blunt public face of the movement; and somber-eyed supporter Mahogany Aulenbach, who seemed to be there for fortitude. They said that the bow-and-arrow incident was the second assault on tree-sitters, and that on Aug. 27, someone shot at them with a .45-caliber pistol. They wanted the police to step in to protect the activists CWP The first two tree-sits were down, but the third remained. To get to it, Laughlin drove up a logging road, then parked the car at a barricade. A sign read, “Closed to all motor vehicles to protect wildlife habitat.” The irony was not lost on the activists. and other environmental groups organized opposition on the ground. Meanwhile, a dozen small businesses along the McKenzie River and more than 5,000 local residents signed a petition demanding that the Forest Service stop logging mature and old-growth trees in the McKenzie River watershed. Last May, the Eugene City Council voted 7-1 in favor of a resolution to do the same.. http://www.ecobc.org/NewsToday/2005/09/TodaysNews916/index.cfm

6) The people at Evo’s coffeehouse fell so in love with the spindly little elm tree that sprouted through the concrete in their parking lot that they nominated it for Ashland’s Tree of the Year. Summoned to the site, Pennie Rose, a member of the town’s tree commission, pronounced it a Siberian elm, one of the most hardy and invasive species around — and considered so noxious that even the Nature Conservancy Web site advises people to girdle it or cut it down. Horrified at the news, Evo’s owners circled their wagons for the scruffy “swamp tree,” as Rose called it — and say they will persist in their campaign to honor it as the best tree around. “It represents the spirit of Evo’s — hardy, for sure, but not invasive,” said co-owner Debbie Lorray, petting the elm’s leaves. “It represents our ideals. All those qualities of hardiness and will to survive and thrive are what we’re all about.” Evo’s co-owner Brandon Bryant played nursemaid to the sprout, chipping a foot-wide bed through 18 inches of asphalt-covered concrete with a pneumatic drill, then filling the hole with compost and steadying it with a bamboo pole. The tree became an Evo’s folk legend by braving not only a bed of cement right outside the entrance, but kids playing, adults milling around outdoor tables, dogs doing their duty on it and cars backing up to it, belching their exhaust. Said longtime Evo’s customer Rick Harris, “We love it. I watched it get born. It fought for its life and it’s our precious little baby.” Siberian elms were brought to this country in the 1860s for the very qualities that now make them undesirable — their rapid growth, hardiness and ability to thrive in poor soil and moisture conditions, he said. “But their disadvantages outweigh their advantages,” said Todt. “There are no criteria or preconceived ideas for Tree of the Year, so they’re encouraged to do it. We consider a tree’s spunk, perseverance and survivability, as well as the humor in nominating it. Just because it’s an invasive species doesn’t mean it’s not a champion tree.” While the Siberian elm is known to take over swamps and prairies in the Midwest, it poses no threat in Ashland, where most people quickly pluck it out of their yards, Rose added. “If you listened to the negative stories of how awful anything or any person can be, what kind of world would this be?” said Lorray. “They say it grows all twisted and strange. Well, I like the way it grows twisted and strange. As of right now, we love our Siberian elm.” http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2005/0924/local/stories/05local.htm

7) Off the beaten path, in the hills of the Coast Range, the rural Benton County roads are winding paths of gravel and dirt. Cpl. Jeff Wilcox, forest deputy for the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, knows pretty much all of them. Snaking up and down mountains, intersecting with each other again and again, these roads were initially built for logging access. Hunters, fishermen, all-terrain vehicle enthusiasts and others have since made use of these roads as well. When Wilcox heads out for his daily patrol of the county’s back roads, he knows where he’s going, what he’s looking for, and often, who he is likely to encounter. A logging supervisor had called Wilcox to inform him that a group known to harvest forest products illegally had been seen recently in the area. “They’re dumb as mud,” the supervisor told Wilcox. “They’ve come through here three times, and they know we’re here.” Intent on harvesting salal, a native, bushy evergreen sold internationally for use in floral arrangements, the group was spotted in part because the logging supervisor recognized their black van. “I’m pretty sure it’s the same van, but they have a different license plate,” the supervisor said. Wilcox assured the logger he would keep an eye out for the salal harvesters and continued on. And so began a day of forest patrol. http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2005/09/27/news/top_story/tue01.txt

California:

8) I’d wanted to go to Wheeler Peak to see the bristlecone pines, celebrated as among the most long-lived trees (if not the most). I had assumed from their reputation that they only grew above timberline, and I expected to see only a few gnarled, dwarfed, half-dead trees hanging on in isolation or in scattered groups. But it wasn’t that simple. In the forest lower down — a forest unlike any I’d seen — I found bristlecones growing straight and tall with the Engelmann spruce and limber pines. In fact, bristlecones actually grow bigger than some other pines, 60 feet tall and 2 feet in diameter, and like most conifers at that elevation, they are not particularly long-lived (about 400 years at the most). Above timberline, the trees live longer because the harsh conditions slow their metabolisms, and because the wood has a high resin content, it is less susceptible to parasites and disease. At these higher elevations, white bark, limber and foxtail pine also survive as gnarled, dwarfed specimens; they just don’t live as long. Seeing the bristlecones growing as “normal” forest trees was a revelation. During the ice age, a forest of bristlecone, limber pine and spruce grew all across the Great Basin, except of course in basins flooded by enormous lakes or on slopes covered by montane glaciers. A trip across Nevada would have been mainly by boat, with portages through forests. I’ve been looking at these ancient lake beds ever since I first drove across Nevada more than 30 years ago, but the ice age landscape never seemed as real as when I saw those straight bristlecones growing in the forest under Wheeler Peak. After walking through that forest with the glacier in sight, I got a sense of how different the world can be from what we think of as normal and of how quickly normal can become strange. http://www.latimes.com/travel/outdoors/la-os-wildwest27sep27,0,325676.story?coll=la-home-outdoors

9) The U.S. Forest Service released new management plans for four national forests in Southern California on Friday, describing them as an attempt to meet the changing recreational demand of the public while also protecting the forests and their wildlife. The plans, which took four years to compile and cost between $8 million and $10 million, cover about 3.5 million acres in the Angeles, Cleveland, Los Padres and San Bernardino national forests. Forest Service officials said the new plans will protect the fragile forest ecosystem while accommodating the public’s growing demand for access to the backcountry. While each forest will have its own individual plan, the Forest Service will incorporate many of the decisions regionwide. Most notable is the agency’s approach to recreational use. Mathes said an increasing number of Southern California forest visitors today are interested in mountain-biking, hang-gliding and exploring the forest with off-road vehicles. The new plans will limit some recreation to certain areas. Mountain bikes will be allowed on roads but will not be free to roam the backcountry. Target shooting will be allowed in designated areas. The plans will protect a majority of the forests’ roadless areas but about 25 percent can be used by off-road vehicles. Environmental groups, however, said the plans fail to meet the needs of most forest visitors. “Four years and millions of dollars have been spent on a plan that will only lead to a further decline in the quality of visitors’ experiences and the health and beauty of the forests,” said Bill Corcoran, a senior regional representative of the Sierra Club. Southern California has the highest demand for recreational use of any of the 156 national forests nationwide, Mathes said. More than 8 million people visit the area each year. http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/living/science/12730440.htm

Montana:

10) Sprawled across the map are multi-colored polygons depicting fires that have occurred over the last 24 years. Many represent undesirable fires that involved firefighting efforts, but Wirt is looking at dozens of fires that were allowed to burn for “resource benefits.” Although the fires are usually out of sight and out of mind for most Montanans, they have been shaping the wilderness by U.S. Forest Service design nearly every year since 1981. Even this year, early in September, there were six fires burning in the wilderness. Now that roughly 22 percent of the land base in “the Bob” has burned over the last two decades, Wirt says fire is finally resuming its natural role in the wilderness. “When you look at the mosaic of fires that have burned over the last 20 years, it’s probably very similar to what occurred in the 1800s,” Wirt said. “Not a whole lot of fires occurred in the wilderness from 1929 to 1985.” Dave Bunnell, a Forest Service veteran who recently retired as the agency’s national fire use program manager, has calculated that between 1934 and the early 1980s, only 3,000 acres burned on the 1.5 million acres that now make up the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. Since 1981, more than 340,000 acres have burned over the same area. The change has introduced diversity, regenerating fire-dependent vegetation. It has led to browse growth, providing benefits for wildlife. And perhaps most significantly, the burns of the last 20 years have actually improved the Forest Service’s ability to manage future fires in the Bob. “We’re already seeing the benefits of larger fires keeping new fires smaller,” Wirt said. But overcoming the Forest Service’s firefighting culture to establish a limited, experimental wilderness fire program was easier said than done, Bunnell says. “We were kind of outlaws” within the agency, Bunnell says. http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2005/09/25/news/news03.txt

11) rest Service official has overturned a proposed timber harvest in the Kootenai National Forest because it did not adequately address potential effects on grizzly bears. In June, Bob Castaneda, Kootenai Forest supervisor, approved the North East Yaak timber sale in the Cabinet Ranger District. His decision authorized logging 13.5 million board feet of timber on about 1,860 acres in the Three Rivers Ranger District. It also cleared the way for harvesting in old growth on 116 acres and thinning another 286 acres, plus six temporary roads. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Ecology Center appealed the decision to the Forest Service’s regional headquarters in Missoula. On Monday, Lynn Roberts, Forest Service appeal deciding officer, ruled that the environmental impact statement did not adequately address effects of the project on grizzly bears. “This is the second time this month the Kootenai National Forest has been reversed on a timber sale in grizzly bear habitat,” said Michael Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies. “We hope the Kootenai National Forest gets the message that grizzly bear in the Yaak are in trouble, and they should try and protect them instead of keep trying to log their habitat.” On Sept. 12, Castaneda overturned a district ranger’s approval of another timber sale, known as the Green Mountain fuels reduction project. The project allowed logging of nearly 2 million board feet of timber on about 250 acres, a series of temporary roads and prescribed burning on 700 acres. http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?tl=1&display=rednews/2005/09/27/build/state/66-timberharvest.inc

Maine:

12) Maine’s North Woods: The arrangement was simple: The companies logged and pulped, while residents roamed, fished, and hunted throughout the backcountry. Not everyone liked the tree-cutting. But most are even less thrilled with the proposed new use for the land – the biggest development project in the state’s history. Developers want to rezone nearly half a million acres in the Moosehead Lake region, which would include 975 residential lots, two resorts, a marina, and a golf course. Supporters say the development would boost jobs – and the region’s dwindling population. Critics argue the move would squeeze the largest undeveloped land east of the Rockies. But they do agree on this: the North Woods, a region celebrated by writer Henry David Thoreau throughout the 19th century, will never be the same. The plan could generate 800 jobs and $41.5 million in personal income per year, according to a report commissioned by the company. Many residents lament that Maine is losing its pristine character and becoming too much like other places. They say new development will strain services and push prices up, bringing in wealthy residents who gate up their properties and care little for Maine’s heritage. Environmentalists also worry about the effects Plum Creek and other developments might have on the region. As an alternative, they propose to turn 3.2 million acres of the North Woods into a national park bigger than Yellowstone and Yosemite combined. Landowners “are no longer valuing forest land for harvesting, but as a commodity,” says Jym St. Pierre, the Maine director of Restore: The North Woods, which is leading the national-park effort. “It’s just real estate to be carved up and served.” He says rows of mailboxes set up around recent development in the North Woods symbolize the sprawl to come if the land is not protected. “It’s not wild lands anymore, it’s the suburbs.” At the Jackman meeting attended by area residents, Richard Petrin angrily held up a plastic bag of black muck that he says he scooped up from the shores of a local lake, where over 100 new lots are proposed. Years ago, that sample would have been white sand, he says. But pressures on the sewage system and other infrastructure has taken a toll.”It’s becoming Boston,” says Mr. Petrin. http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0926/p02s01-ussc.html

Florida:

13) The fringes of Eglin Air Force Base are under attack. Invaders already have crept onto Eglin’s reservation, threatening to depopulate the natives. The team of conservationists assigned to take out the pest, also known as the popcorn tree, is authorized to use any means possible to stop the encroachment along the 464,000-acre property. “Anywhere there are open areas, it’s easy for the tallow to get started,” said Dennis Teague, Eglin’s expert on exotic invasive species. “We’re battling it all along our urban interface.” The popcorn tree is one of hundreds of exotic, invasive plants and animals that have established themselves in northwest Florida. Popcorn trees threaten the military’s efforts to rebuild the populations of several local endangered organisms. “They can destroy the biodiversity of the natural environment,” Teague said. “They’ll form a stand and all of the other native species, all of the ground cover and the trees, are shaded out and out-competed for food and water.” Once the native plants go, the native animals that depend on them tend to follow, Teague said. “Insects and wildlife that depended on the native areas get pushed out, too,” he said. The popcorn tree, cogon grass, torpedo grass and the Japanese climbing fern rank high on local hit lists and are targeted for eradication. The privet and honeysuckle also appear in the mostdespised category. At Blackwater River State Park, a 194,000-acre forest that abuts Eglin, manager Bob Barlow has enlisted fellow rangers and volunteers to remove the invasive exotics. They attack the trees with Garlon, a substance that kills woody plants, and the grasses with poison such as Roundup or Rodeo. http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050926/NEWS/509260371/1004

Hawaii:

14) The Makauwahi Sinkhole, the largest limestone cave complex in the Hawaiian Islands, is yielding an unprecedented look into Hawai’i’s history, with a record of life that dates back 10,000 years. The impact from the arrival of the first humans in the Islands also is immediately visible in the cave’s sediments. There are the bones of rats, which traveled with voyaging Polynesians, and evidence of the immediate collapse of plant species on which rats fed, such as loulu palms. Later there are fishhooks, pieces of outrigger canoes, charcoal from early imu, and other artifacts such as stone tools and a round basalt mirror. And there are human burials, which are being carefully preserved in place. “You’ve got this continuous record, like a slow movie through the 10,000 years,” said David Burney, a Fordham University professor and director of conservation at the National Tropical Botanical Garden on Kaua’i. “Probably the key difference between pre-human times and now is that the early forests were much more diverse,” Burney said. Pollen and seed found in the pre-human layers prove many plants that are now rare or only known from isolated or upland areas were once part of a complex coastal forest. That led Burney to the theory that today’s dominant native forest trees like ‘ohi’a, hala and koa were once comparatively small parts of the forest ecosystem. Once the ecosystem was disturbed by human contact, these survivors were able to gain greater density as other plants disappeared. http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050928/NEWS11/509280357/1001/NEWS

Canada:

15) The Québec edition of Harry Potter et le Prince de Sang-Mêlé is being printed on the most ecological paper available (100 per cent post consumer recycled, processed chlorine free paper). The result? Zero trees were cut to produce this book. By choosing this Ancient Forest Friendly paper, the editor will save 6746 trees, i.e. a forest area equal in size to three and a half times the Montréal Olympic stadium, water to fill seven Olympic sized swimming pools and will divert tons of solid waste from landfills. “Currently recycled paper is more expensive than conventional paper. Our hope is that Harry Potter who has inspired so many young people to read, will also motivate us to create a less polluted world.”, says Rolf Puls, President of Gallimard in Québec. To print latest Harry Potter book, the publisher decided to use the Environ 100, a local paper made by Cascades Fine Paper Group at their St-Jérôme mill. “The enormous popularity of Harry Potter is helping to transform the world’s publishing industry,” said Josée Breton of EcoInitiatives, which spearheaded the work with Gallimard and works with publishers in Québec, the rest of Canada and around the world to switch to ecological paper and help protect ancient and endangered forests. http://toronto.fashion-monitor.com/news.php/books/2005092705harry_potter

Solomon Islands:

16) MAY I reiterate my total support for the call for the logging on Small Malaita to stop immediately. Not only that the concern my fellow bros Kaka and Pola are saying about the environment is true, but it is now going to ruin and destroy the peace and harmony that the loving Small Malaita descendants have been enjoying under their tribal and chiefly system from generations. I always try to come into term why my wantoks negotiated these destroyers to come at the first place? Look now at the damage they’ve done to the beautiful Matangasi Bay and Roasi water source. Can’t we learn from that? Are we that poor? I am not opposed to development, but I just think logging is the wrong move. We do not even have a fraction of the required forest volume that would last for even a year. Think of all our mangroves where our livelihood depends on for food such as fish, shells and so on. Will those so called royalties last for our next generations?
I now plea the operators not to reconsider but to stop immediately. Logging is not development rather it is a destroyer. http://www.solomonstarnews.com/drupal-4.4.1/?q=comment/reply/5043

Fiji:

17) Villagers of Monasavu were deprived of their livelihood and rights as landowners when the country’s hydro-electric dam was built in the 1980s, the High Court heard yesterday. Reading his statement before Justice Gerard Winter in the $52.8million compensation claim by landowners, clan member Solomoni Yadraikana of Nadrau Village said they were told not to touch the forest from which they depended on for their livelihood. He said the forest provided them with a logging business which earned about $800 per truck load. Mr Yadraikana told the court that money from logging was used to pay for school fees and village projects. He said when the Fiji Electricity Authority started construction work on the dam, things changed. Mr Yadraikana told the court that they were not allowed to cut trees from the area surrounding the dam and that they had to get permission from the Ministry of Forestry if they wanted to cut any tree. This prevented many villagers at that time who were dependent on the forest for logs to build their homes. Mr Yadraikana said the villagers were even ordered not to enter the catchment area. http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=29408

Cyprus:

18) Last Wednesday evening, I sat with a group of others in the Hilton Park Hotel listening to a lecture by the environmentalist, Dr. Paul Toyne. Despite his natty suit, pink shirt and cufflinks here was a tree-hugger par excellence. Having been Head of the World Wide Fund for Nature’s Forest programme he had a wealth of knowledge and experience. As always with these occasions there is one key fact or piece of information that sticks in your mind. For me, it was that 90 per cent of Brazilian forest is being illegally logged. This seemed an awful lot, but it appears it is only the tip of the iceberg. In large parts of South East Asia and Africa 80 per cent of logging is illegal and much of this timber is heading our way. A case of “I’m a lumberjack but it’s not OK”. The serious message is that with 23 million acres of forest disappearing every year, illegal logging is destroying habitats, economies and development. It is literally fuelling armed conflict and loses governments approximately $150 billion worth of revenue worldwide. With over 200 million cubic metres of wood being imported into the EU, it is almost certain that in most of our homes we are sitting on, eating off or using some kind of illegal timber.There are some success stories and the key word is sustainability. One of the messages that Dr. Toyne was exploring was how to involve us all in the process of conservation and responsible management of the environment. Getting the message across is the dilemma. Does one literally “hug trees” in the face of bulldozers, like the infamous Swampy? Are environmentalists justified in breaking the law or using violence? He acknowledged that some of the problems surrounding the charitable NGO sector is that they get themselves bad publicity by not all always applying the same levels of accountability and self scrutiny to their own organisations as they do to governments and business. Breaking the law, using violence and producing inaccurate data is not helpful to their cause. The truth is that getting yourself labelled as a “tree-hugger “ will not help influence governments or the majority of the population. Presenting rational and reasonable argument will. Responsible management of the environment should be at the heart of all societies and not left to the charity sector. It should be on the political agenda, and, as voting citizens, we should expect our representatives to show the concrete policies they are going to introduce to combat such issues as illegal logging. http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.php?id=22054&cat_id=1

Mexico:

19) Restoring the rich diversity of trees that once characterized expansive tracts of tropical rainforest gets a helping hand from native birds and bats. Just how big a role these winged gardeners play is a question ecologists from the University of Illinois at Chicago and several Latin American universities are about to find out by setting up essentially a living laboratory in Mexico’s gulf coast state of Veracruz. Replanting often leads to monocultures that support only a limited variety of animal species. Poor lands are more likely to be abandoned. Better land parcels get replanted. But if nature had her way, more than 90 percent of replanted species would be dispersed by birds, bats and primates. That’s less and less the case today in tropical areas worldwide, leading to a destructive cycle of land fragmentation, habitat loss and — even with replanting using wind-dispersed trees — species loss. Howe and his colleagues will lease 16 land parcels in Veracruz located near or adjacent to forest remnants or UNAM’s protected rainforest to observe what trees grow, and why. Some tracts will be planted with 12 species of animal-dispersed trees, which will ultimately provide living bait with crops of bat- and bird-dispersed fruits. Birds and bats living in nearby forests will fly to the bait to eat the fruit and will likely drop seed from forest species they carried. Fruit will be available all year, so a seasonal progression of seeds from longer-living deep forest species should be carried with the bats and birds. Other tracts will be planted with wind-dispersed trees and will be far less likely to accumulate tree species from nearby forests. “In the tropics, things grow fast,” said Howe. “By the end of the first five years, we’ll begin to see the influence of animal and wind dispersal. “I think what it will show is that the replanting that almost everybody does in (tropical regions) is an extremely inefficient way to maintain and promote species diversity.” http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/09/050926074356.htm

Chile:

20) Environmentalists in Chile are upset over a government decision to hand over part of a national park that is home to endangered species of trees, birds and mammals to a local indigenous community that has long laid claim to the property. The “Mariana Osorio Farming and Livestock Community”, made up of 700 indigenous families whose ancestors have lived on the disputed land for centuries, says their ownership rights date back to the Spanish colonial period, in the 17th century, when colonial official Mariana Osorio left a will stipulating that the property belonged to the indigenous people under her charge. Early this year, the minister secretary general of the presidency, Eduardo Dockendorff, confirmed that the community would be given legal title free of charge to 900 hectares that formed part of the nature reserve, along with another 900 hectares of public land that border the park. He said the decision was based on documents held by the local community that proved that they owned the land in question. But local environmental groups like Ecosistema and the National Committee for the Defence of Fauna and Flora (CODEFF) are opposed to the government’s decision to hand over ownership of part of the park, saying it sets a bad precedent. And although the land within the park would legally maintain its protected status, they argue that there is no guarantee that the Mariana Osorio Community will fully respect nature in the area. CODEFF, a leading environmental group, argues that the government’s decision means the park will not be protected from future subdivision and sales of land. CODEFF activist Hernán Vercheure told IPS that the Mariana Osorio Community has not made any commitment to ensure that the land will continue to be protected. “All it would take is a change in the community leadership or statutes…to modify their activities in that area,” he said. http://www.ipsnews.net/new_nota.asp?idnews=30374

India:

21) The axe may fall mainly on mining companies and timber-based industries. Industries and projects which used or are using forest land for ‘non-forest’ purposes may have to pay a heavy price, literally. The Supreme Court has set up a committee of experts from the Institute of Economic Growth to calculate the cost of restoration of forest according to the cost of the land. The committee will determine the Net Present Value (NPV) depending upon the benefits accrued from the diversion of the land use so that it could be recovered from the agency which used the land for its own advantage. However, the court indicated that government projects like hospitals, dispensaries and schools could be exempted from the levy. But, the final decision will be taken after the committee submits its report. “A larger public interest has to be the guiding principle and not the present interest of the user agency only,” the court said. The judgment extensively dealt with the data on forests and pointed out that the forest cover of the country decreased from 638,879 sq km to 633,397 sq km between 1995 and 1997 alone, thus showing a loss of 5,482 sq km in just two years. Further, there has been a decrease of 17,777 sq km of dense forest cover while open forests and mangroves have increased by 12,001 sq km and 294 sq km respectively. http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?storyflag=y&leftnm=lmnu2&leftindx=2&lselect=1&chklogi
n=N&autono=201593

22) MYSORE: The forest department has decided to set up a ‘Tree Court’ to look into the problems and permit felling of trees. At a meeting of Mysore Agenda Task Force and Mysore Grahaka Parishat (MGP) activists at the Aryana Bhavan here, DCF Srinivasulu anounced that the tree court would meet on the third Saturday of every month and look into applications to fell trees. The applications will be forwarded to MATF and MGP members who will inspect and give a report to the forest officials. MATF member M Lakshmana alleged that about 2000 trees had been indiscriminately felled in the past one year in the City. http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEK20050928020337&Page=K&Title=Southern+News+-+Karnataka&Topic=0

Bangladesh:

23) The Forest Department of Chittagong has done a good job. It has brought 14,000 hectares of less fertile hilly land under forestry in a participatory programme with the local people. In different upazilas of Chittagong and in some parts of Cox’s Bazar district different species of trees have been planted by the department. According to the terms and conditions of the project, the forest department will plant trees and the local people will upbring and nurse them. For their service the people will get share of the trees. The people who have come up to participate in the project are poor. The Conservator of Forests of the Chittagong region told journalists that the department had received good response from the poor people. They are spontaneously participating in the programme with the hope of earning good money after some years. The programme has many-faceted benefits. In the first place, the vacant lands were losing fertility. With afforestation they will be gradually gaining fertility with organic matter being added to the top soil. Secondly, due to afforestation landslide of hills will gradually come down. This will improve the forest resource of the country and people will get timber at competitive prices. Forestry will help bring a balance in the ecology which is now under threat. Moreover, poor people of hilly areas who have little avenues of employment will have a surge in family income when these trees will mature after about six years. Over the last few decades a destructive trend of uprooting trees has started to change in our society. Our forefathers used to plant trees and that was an instinctive trend in them. Trees gave them shade, timber, food and protection. Life was interwoven with trees, shrubs and forests. At one stage due to lack of awareness and concern for the future our people forgot their forefathers’ lessons. They only enjoyed the benefits left by their predecessors without investing for the posterity. http://nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/article_21997.shtml

New Zealand:

24) The biggest single conclusion International Paper came to in a review of its business was that it did not need its forest estate in the United States, chairman and chief executive officer John Faraci says. It was a big call because IP is the world’s largest paper and forest products business. It owns 6.8 million acres of forests in the US, more than New Zealand’s total plantation forest area. Mr Faraci talked about the strategy the company unveiled in July on a visit to New Zealand last week. “The biggest single move in our restructuring was coming to the conclusion we don’t have to own forest land and it may be worth more to someone else,” he said. The company would not come to that conclusion in Brazil, however, because there was a shortage of plantation-grown wood fibre there. There was no shortage of softwood in New Zealand and the southern US. The company’s US forests made good returns because they had a low historical cost and, unlike in New Zealand, it was a domestic business. In New Zealand, forest assets had reduced the returns from IP’s 50.5 per cent stake in Carter Holt Harvey. IP had first invested in Carter Holt because it was in Australasia, was near Asia and it had a business in Chile. It was IP’s first big investment outside the US. These days, IP invests in Asia directly and has investments in more than 40 countries. Mr Faraci’s own experience managing Carter Holt for nearly five years was a “fantastic grounding”, he said. He learned that there were good things going on in the business world outside the US. He did not have any gripes about New Zealand foreign policy. How the economy was being managed was more of an issue. Electricity prices had increased and labour laws had become less flexible. Both were bad trends for big manufacturing businesses such as pulp and paper mills. http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3426170a13,00.html

Indonesia:

25) Herawati acknowledged the deep love felt by both herself and her husband for nature. Anshori can list of the names of a host of different plant species, even though he is a civil engineer by profession. Whenever he tours remote parts of Sumatra, he never fails to bring home seedlings to be grown on Mt. Betung. “The plants are often taken from ravines that are hard to reach. So, I’ve got to take good care of his gifts,” said Herawati, a mother of four teenagers. The pair resolved to do something to help conserve the Mt Betung ecosystem after witnessing the havoc being wreaked by squatters. Situated between Bandarlampung and South Lampung, Mt. Betung began to attract squatters in the 1970s, with most of the damage being caused in the late 1990s. By the end of the 1990s, almost 70 percent of the forest had been felled. “I could not just lament what was happening. As a responsible member of the college teaching staff, I decided to do something about it. In my view, captive breeding and habitat engineering are two ways in which successful conservation can be brought about,” continued Herawati. She has ensured that Gita Persada is now a model center for butterfly breeding and habitat engineering as a basis for conservation. Her pioneering park has attracted researchers, children and students at all levels, besides local and foreign tourists. Among the regular visitors are students from Sriwijaya University, the Bandung Institute of Technology and the Bogor Institute of Agriculture. “Around 1,500 visitors come here every year on average. But I don’t want to turn this place into a mere tourist attraction as its primary purpose is butterfly conservation. I want to show the public that conservation can be a simple and low-cost effort,” she explained. Her hard work has earned her recognition. She received the Kalpataru environment award from the Lampung provincial administration in 2004, and a doctorate from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) for her work on butterflies. She is perhaps the only butterfly specialist in Indonesia who lives in the same place as the insects being studied. http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailfeatures.asp?fileid=20050927.S07&irec=6

Malaysia:

26) loggers are illegally clearing the protected forest of Gunung Panti to plant oil palm. Gunung Panti, once a world class destination for bird watching, is designated as a permanent forest reserve but the area now suffers from logging, mining, and clearing for oil palm. The Gunung Panti bird sanctuary is now closed to the public, according to a website run by Singapore-based birder Paul Huang. BirdLife International says 742 species of birds have been recorded in Malaysia. Malaysia was once covered with biodiverse rainforests but today these have largely been reduced by development activities, especially logging and palm oil plantations. http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0926-malaysia_loggingl.html

27) The Selangor government, Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) and the Malaysian Forest Research Institute (FRIM) are teaming up to protect the firefly habitat in Kampung Kuantan here. Kampung Kuantan is famous for its fireflies dwelling along its river bank due to the berembang trees, or its scientific name Sonneratia Caseolaris, with open foliage, which is said to be suitable for the breeding of the phosphorescent beetle. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed here on Monday, among others, touched on efforts to create public awareness and education on nature conservation. Menteri Besar Selangor Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo, after witnessing the MOU signing ceremony told reporters that Kampung Kuantan villagers should safeguard the fireflies as their “own children” by ensuring that the berembang trees were not chopped down or destroyed by anyone. He said from his observation after a stroll along Sungai Selangor, he found that some of the berembang trees had been violated or chopped down by irresponsible parties and urged the public who saw the violations to immediately report the matter to enable immediate actions to be taken. Earlier in his speech, Dr Mohamad Khir said the related government linked corporations (GLC) and major companies who are currently prospering in Selangor should step forward to be involved in the nature and habitat conservation activities which should be preserved for the future generation. With the signing of the MOU, TNB would be providing and upgrading the infrastructure in Kampung Kuantan including the transportation aspect and would also provide an information centre in the village. FRIM would be carrying out detailed studies on fireflies in efforts to increase the population of the colony in the future. Meanwhile, TNB chairman Tan Sri Leo Moggie in his speech said the firefly as a kind of insect which could emit light, was very symbolic as it reflected the services provided by TNB. “The firefly’s characteristics in generating light prompted TNB to study the insect in detail and there is a possibility to make it TNB’s corporate mascot,” he said. http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=157601

Australia:

28) PROTESTERS returned to the Lower Weld Valley yesterday and climbed into eight tree platforms, vowing to stop a road planned for logging. And they are promising tree-sits, blockades, family picnics and a forest village to draw attention to Tasmania’s forests this summer. Huon Valley Environment Centre spokeswoman Jenny Weber described the eastern side of the Weld River – which is unlogged, unlike the western side – as the “forgotten forests” in the deal signed between Prime Minister John Howard and Premier Paul Lennon last year. She said the Weld Valley was mentioned in the lead-up to the deal but did not make it in the final package. The Wilderness Society said other forests left off the Howard-Lennon package were also in environmentalists’ sights this summer. Returning from a trip to the Florentine yesterday, campaigner Vica Bayley said the southern Styx, upper Florentine, the Blue Tiers and Great Western Tiers all needed protection. In the Weld Valley, Forestry Tasmania wants to log two coupes along the road this summer, but another 20 coupes – varying between 50-100ha in size – were also planned, Ms Weber said. “If the road goes through, 2000ha of forest will be open to logging,” she said. “There’s an urgent need for protection.” The Weld Valley protesters’ camp – called the village – is just 30km from Huonville, in the same direction as Forestry Tasmania’s Tahune AirWalk. “We are so close to the Tahune AirWalk,” she said. “But people don’t know [The Weld Valley] is there.” Protesters wanted to make sure the Weld Valley forests were on everyone’s mind when the state went to the polls next year, Ms Weber said. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16734853-1244,00.html

29) Environmentalists will meet Government representatives today in an 11th hour attempt to stop plans to log a forest block near Collie in south-west Western Australia. The Forest Products Commission is preparing to log the Palmer One Block as part of its harvest plan to supply local sawmills. The area has been logged twice before, but protesters are concerned the removal of old-growth trees will cause salinity problems and destroy the habitat of some endangered species. Environmentalist Jale Johnson says people concerned about the project should not feel like there is nothing they can do to stop it. “I think as resources become more and more scarce and more and more precious, both from an environmental point of view and I guess from a logging point of view, we’re going to have to be able to negotiate this kind of stuff a lot more than we have been. I think to keep the negotiation open and ongoing would be a really good outcome,” he said. Chaz Newman from the Forest Products Commission says logging needs to start as soon as possible because supplies to local sawmills are critically low. He says he respects the environmentalists’ right to voice their opinions and he is not concerned by the prospect of protest action during the logging process. “If there is some sort of protest action we will manage that situation at the time and hopefully things don’t get drawn out for too long,” he said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200509/s1470250.htm

30) Well its been cold and wet in Palmer over the last two weeks, but we have further improved camp conditions and put a tin roof up in place of the tarps, it much cosier now and we’re ready for further weather. The rain we have had has pushed palmer into the “too wet to log” category. This is part of Calm’s regulations to control soil disturbance in wet soil conditions, however the forest products commission can apply to CALM for special permission to log any way. Weve been told by the CALM district manager that there has been no such request and he would likley refuse any such request. In true CALM logic however they are still allowed to go in and clear vegetation, dig up soil and drive around the bush to construct roads!! So on one hand we hope that we now have more time to work on building support for further action, but on the other we need to be ready to stop road construction we could be imminent. More support is needed in camp to prepare to stop any move to construct roads, while we also need more support in perth to raise more awareness. Any questions call cassidy on 0427 558 963 or email: jarrahforests@gmail.com or http://al.perthimc.asn.au/palmerblock/news.html