084OEC’s This Week in Trees:

This week we have 39 News items from: British Columbia, Oregon, California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, Maine, North Carolina, USA, Canada, Russia, Uganda, Kenya, Central America, Brazil, India, China, Fiji, Indonesia, Australia and World wide.

British Columbia:

1) This is going to be a stand-off. And it’s time. It’s way past time. Citizens have been traumatized by the way Gordon Campbell’s government has been cutting and burning a swath through what’s left of our eco-systems like Attala the Hun. And that was the intent from the beginning of the Campbell government, to hit’em hard, below the belt, stun ’em, and while they’re reeling from all of the eliminations of environmental controls over everything that grows, swims, flies, breaths and moves, move in for the kill. Give ‘em something like a bit of the Great Bear Rainforest that can be taken back later and logged like the provincial parks are now open to logging, that will make the buggers shut up and shut up the other loud yappers. Oh, yes, it’s way past time. God and Goddess bless the citizens and supporters of Eagleridge Bluffs who are yelling they just ain’t gonna take it anymore. And you know what? Last night I listened to a lecture by Terry Glavan who is a renowned writer and conservationist and I couldn’t believe my ears. After citing all of the profound ecological disasters taking place (the name of his lecture was “Is this the sixth greatest extinction?) In the discussion following he put down any suggesting of peaceful civil disobedience, saying that writing letters to those in charge was the proper thing to do and that we didn’t need a revolution (he apparently equated peaceful civil disobedience with revolution). And yet, and yet…revolution is exactly what we need. Maybe not one big one at this moment but a lot of little ones would certainly get the ball rolling. Revolutions in democracy, is participatory democracy. So let’s journey to Eagleridge Bluffs on Easter Monday, the start of one demonstration of participatory democratic expression that will take place by the rare Arbutus trees that are now, cut, trashed, discarded, devalued, by a provincial premier to facilitate the Olympics and who promised the greenest games ever. Five pm. — Betty Krawczyk [mailto:betty_krawczyk@hotmail.com]

2) The Wilderness Committee is launching a reinvigorated call for the government to protect the entirety of Cathedral Grove, building on the success of last week’s announcement by the BC government to scrap the proposed parking lot in Cathedral Grove’s Macmillan Provincial Park.The battle for Cathedral Grove is not over – in fact, it has really just begun. The parking lot proposal threatened 2 hectares of Cathedral Grove. There are still 1300 hectares of Cathedral Grove that deserve protection and that are threatened by logging. About 400 hectares of Cathedral Grove’s ancient and mature trees lie on Brascan’s private lands to the west of the park, and another 900 hectares of ancient and mature forests lie on public (Crown) lands to the east of the park on the north side of Cameron Lake. An agreement announced in the spring of 2005 to purchase 140 hectares of private lands from Weyerhaeuser by the BC government and the Nature Trust of BC nearly doubled the size of MacMillan Provincial Park. About 30 hectares of these lands include the finest ancient Douglas firs in BC, while the rest consists of second-growth forest and cut-over lands that will grow back in time, helping to provide connectivity to future parkland acquisitions. However, another 400 hectares of Brascan’s private lands covered in some of the BC’s largest ancient trees still remain unprotected, adjacent to the new acquisition. http://lists.wildernesscommittee.org/listinfo.cgi/wc-elert-wildernesscommittee.org

Oregon:

3) Opponents of salvage logging in roadless areas burned by the Biscuit fire plan to take their message on the road. The Oxygen Collective, an environmental group based in Ashland, will fire up its 40-foot biodiesel bus to canvas Western Oregon beginning early Monday. The tour will include a stop in Medford beginning at 7:30 p.m. April 21 at the Central Library, 205 S. Central Ave., Medford. The goal is to bring public attention to plans by the U.S. Forest Service to enter roadless areas in the Rogue River- Siskiyou National Forest to salvage fire-killed timber, said group spokesman Stuart O’Neill. “The vast majority of the American public fully support protecting roadless areas,” O’Neill said. “With the Bush administration pushing going into the roadless areas, this is touching a nerve. “And that’s going to increase as more people are aware of it,” he added. Salvage opponents observe the two roadless-area sales are opposed by Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who has made his views known to the Bush administration. Entering roadless areas goes against the administration’s 2005 rule that allowed governors to petition for permanent protection of those areas, they note. http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2006/0412/local/stories/07local.htm

4) Though this summer marks four years since the 2002 Biscuit fire, timber companies remain interested in salvaging the fire-killed trees. But enthusiasm is waning over concerns of wood deterioration in the Siskiyou portion of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. “We are interested in the volume — we need the wood,” said Steve Swanson, president of Swanson Group Inc. in Glendale, which purchased a sale two years ago. But Swanson was quick to observe that interest depends on the appraisal and the condition of the wood. “Without a doubt the quality and value of that wood has diminished,” he said. “And it’s not going to get any better. The chance of a viable sale diminishes every single day.” Darrel Bonde, timber manager for South Coast Lumber Co., appeared to agree. The Brookings-based firm has purchased three Biscuit salvage sales. “We’re interested in seeing what they propose,” he said of two planned salvage sales in the national forest. “But this year will be the last shot at anything — it’ll all be gone after this summer,” he added, referring to commercial value. Forest officials say they will offer two salvage sales — Mike’s Gulch and Blackberry — in the roadless area this year, although no date has been set for auctioning the timber. The logging would be harvested by helicopter to reduce soil damage, officials said. No logging is expected to begin until early summer. http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2006/0412/local/stories/06local.htm

5) On the drive to yet another undisclosed location, this time northeast of Eugene – the Pacific Tree Climbing Institute www.pacifictreeclimbing.com has an agreement with a private landowner that allows the company to bring out clients for a climb as long as it doesn’t result in a parade of uninvited visitors – guide Rob Miron talked about his love of just hanging out in a tree, oftentimes taking a nap. Even an outdoors lover such as myself took pause to wonder. I mean, I dig nature, too. But the idea of just hanging out in a harness while strapped to a rope 10 to 20 stories above the ground didn’t register as a possible mellow experience in my mind, much less napping potential. Until I got here. Memories quickly flooded back, from the first tree climbs with my brothers in a scraggy pine tree in our yard to high adventure with my buddy Jack to the top of an old oak where we’d discuss possible junior high love connections that never came to fruition. We continued up, through the maze of limbs that, still, 150 feet above the ground, would make for impressive backyard trees by themselves. Never far from the massive trunk of a Douglas fir that Rob estimates at 600 to 800 years old, but never really clinging to it like childhood climbs, the relationship took on a life of its own. Call me crazy if you like – you wouldn’t be the first – but the more I thought about what I could learn from a tree that was big enough to house countless woodland creatures back when Columbus sailed the ocean blue, the more I realized that this was its lesson. When my daughters learned I’d eventually find myself 200 feet up a tree – that is, higher than the tallest building in Eugene – they asked if I’d be scared of the height. Considering I’d duck to the floor (before seat belts) as a child whenever we’d drive over a high bridge, I tried not to think about it. But as I ate lunch with Rob near the top of the tree, looking out at amazing views of endless trees blanketing the mountainside under wonderfully blue skies dotted with pillowy clouds, I never felt more safe. My unconditional confidence in Rob was founded in his endless stories of climbing experiences, but the real roots of peace and serenity came from this grand old tree itself, knowing without question it would watch over us with the same strength it has shared with this forest for hundreds of years. http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/04/12/home.php

California:

6) Save the Redwoods League has completed a deal to double the size of Montgomery Woods State Reserve, a secluded Mendocino County site where some of the world’s tallest trees grow. The San Francisco-based conservation group has turned over title to a 1,240-acre parcel to the state parks department. “The acquisition is significant because it contains stunning ancient redwood trees in an area of the redwood range where there is relatively little old growth left,” said Katherine Anderton, the league’s executive director. The league pulled together the $2.4 million expansion cost with financial assistance from the state Wildlife Conservation Board, the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, the Coastal Conservancy and the state parks department. The non-profit league put up $700,000 to complete the deal. Former owners of the once private land located northwest of the state reserve were not identified by the league. Besides protecting more old growth redwoods, the expansion also provides watershed protection for two tributaries of the south fork of Big River. It also includes a portion of an ancient Native American trade route that Indians used to follow from the Ukiah valley to the Mendocino Coast. Anderton said the expansion also features oak woodlands, striking rock outcrops and beautiful views from ridge tops. “The land is exceptionally beautiful,” said Anderton. Montgomery Woods is located in a canyon along Orr Springs Road, about 13 miles west of Ukiah. It was created in 1945 with a nine-acre donation by landowner Robert Orr. Over the years, the redwoods league enlarged it to 1,142 acres through purchases and additional land donations. A two-mile long trail loops around a magnificent bowl-like grove of ancient redwoods. Among them is the “Mendocino Tree,” a 370-foot towering redwood that in 1999 was named the world’s tallest tree. It has since been eclipsed by a slightly taller tree in Humboldt State Redwoods Park, about an hour’s drive north on Highway 101. http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060411/NEWS/604110401/1033/NEWS01

7) The Mad River Ranger District of the Six Rivers National Forest has just announced a massive timber sale called Little Doe and Low Gulch that would remove trees in 87 logging units covering 923 acres. We need your help to convince the Forest Service to abandon destructive aspects of the proposed sale. The area that would be logged is in the headwaters of the Mad River, south of Ruth Lake and just north of the Yolla Bolly Wilderness. The Upper Mad River Watershed is a popular recreation destination and still provides much-needed habitat for rare species such as the Northern spotted owl, Bald Eagles, Peregrine falcons, Northern goshawks, Pacific fishers and Western pond turtles. Unfortunately, aggressive logging of this watershed has already placed 8 out 14 known spotted owl pairs in the area into “take” (the agency euphemism for death) and more logging is on the way. While the Forest Service admits its intensive logging program over the past 40 years has greatly harmed old-growth forests and critters in the Mad River watershed, the agency just can’t break its addiction to clearcutting. A little over 220 acres of the proposed logging call for “regenerating” (clearcutting) mature forest stands, turning them into flammable industrial tree plantations. The remainder of the proposed logging would focus on thinning smaller trees. Please take a moment to let the Forest Service know that you value the forests, water and wildlife of the Upper Mad River Watershed. Initial (scoping) comments on their logging proposal are due by April 30th. http://kswild.org/KSNews/madriver

8) In other news, the item on the agenda regarding the Tree Conservation ordinance brought several people out in the weather to make comments. The ordinance took the planning commission over a year to create, with many groups participating in providing input. Both environmentalists and developers created an ordinance, which would make regulations to protect the environment and make it easier for property owners to cut trees on their property. The general attitude before the bark beetle infestation and the lingering drought causing many trees to die was generally to keep every tree. After the Willow and Old Fire, many realized that this was much more hazardous to the community as well as the environment. The forest environment has its own way of reducing the fire fuels and thinning the forest, however with man’s intervention, the forest has become over grown with about 200 trees per acre, where a healthy forest environment is about 50 trees per acre. Several people spoke, including Christie Walker of the Big Bear Sierra Club and ordinance creation participant, that the one year old ordinance was a great compromise between environmentalists and developers. Walker had done some personal construction on her property and could view the new ordinance in action. She stated that with the regulation to protect trees that were not to be removed was actually more complex than to remove trees. The changes in the ordinance have not seeped down to public, which was the one thing both the board and the public speakers had concerns with. The staff will promote more information to property owners and the Board of Realtors will be approached to add this information to home buyers in the Valley. http://www.bearvalleynews.com/bvn%201041106.htm

Illinois:

9) Tramping through a 13-acre plot that has been clear-cut of trees and brush, Spreyer knelt by the stump of a silver maple and measured it. “Over four feet,” he said. “These trees have been here for decades. This just breaks my heart.” Cherry, ash, cottonwood and red oaks were also cut, he said. Trees were taken down on this plot and another of similar size to become part of a 110-acre grassland, according to the partners in the $55,000 project — Cook County Forest Preserve District, Audubon-Chicago Region, Bird Conservation Network and Citizens for Conservation. It’s part of a larger restoration effort at the 3,910-acre preserve, begun three years ago, that includes transforming prairie, woodland and wetland. The new grassland is expected to attract bobolinks, meadowlarks and other birds in addition to Henslow’s sparrows. Steve Packard, director of Audubon-Chicago Region, said it’s one of several such local efforts to ease the plight of grassland birds, which are 90 percent less plentiful in the Midwest than previously. Audubon officials don’t present a united front at Spring Creek. Wendy Treptow, president of Prairie Woods Audubon — which takes no official position on the project — is “heartsick” at the tree destruction. Although Spreyer insists some of the trees coming down are 60 to 70 years old, Rogner said the forest preserve district planted them in 1974. Their explanations don’t sway Spreyer, who has no doubt that when it comes to restoration, he gets it. “There’s an old saying that the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and the second best time is now,” he said. “These guys are saying the best time to kill a tree was 20 years ago, and the second best time is now.” “I would die to have these trees at Stillman,” he said, nudging the stump of a white oak with his toe. He cares about birds, too. He wrote his master’s thesis about the habitat for the great gray owl, published a 30-page “life history” of the monk parakeet and started the peregrine release project in downtown Chicago. Spreyer, who is growing a grassland at his preserve, added, “We should be supporting all habitats, not trading one for the other, and not favoring one species over another. Restoration is OK — except when we displace native plants that are home to native animals.” Oaks, for example, provide food for jays, nuthatches, thrushes and woodpeckers. “It makes no sense to have skinny red oaks in the middle of a grassland,” Packard said. “They would only be tall perches for predators to sit on.” John Rogner is director of the Chicago field office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is funding the work. http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-trees10.html

Pennsylvania:

10) George McNally and Hank Smelter trudge up the stone-covered trail, mud clinging to their feet. They point to where, until recently, a swath of red pines stood. In the distance, a bulldozer was working on timbering another area. “This used to be a great place to ride,” McNally said. As part of York Water Company’s ongoing forest-management program, pine trees standing along the south side of Water Street, just outside Jacobus, were cut down recently. McNally and Smeltzer are members of the York Area Mountain Bike Association. Members of the group work with the York County parks to maintain the trails. The organization’s mission statement says it “seeks to promote the conservation of the trail … to ensure the longevity of trail access for all trail users.” But one of the popular trails that cut through this area was destroyed by the logging. Jeffrey Osman, water company president, said the trees in William H. Kain County Park had reached maturity and that it was time to replace them with younger trees. He said any trails destroyed by logging will be replaced once the areas are cleared. A certified trail builder, Smeltzer said he wants to know that the trail that will be replaced will have little impact on the environment.” We don’t want it to wash out and get gullies,” he said. Smeltzer and McNally also pointed out that trees on the other side of Water Street were cut down almost two years ago and they have not yet been replanted with seedlings. While they recognize there is little that can be done regarding the recent harvest, Smeltzer said he is hoping that the bike club can work with the water company in the future. He would like to see it serve in an advisory capacity regarding decisions affecting the trail. http://www.ydr.com/newsfull/ci_3693211

New York:

11) International Paper (NYSE: IP – News) has signed a definitive agreement with The Lyme Timber Company for the benefit of the Lyme Forest Fund L.P. for the sale of approximately 275,000 acres of forestland in New York’s Adirondack Park for approximately $137 million. The sale of forestlands is part of International Paper’s previously announced transformation plan to focus on uncoated papers and industrial and consumer packaging globally. The Lyme Timber Company is a New Hampshire Limited Partnership organized in 1976 to invest in forestland and rural real estate for its own account and in partnership with other investors. This agreement substantially completes International Paper’s sales of its U.S. forestlands identified as part of the company’s transformation plan. Anticipated proceeds from this and other recently announced sale agreements, totaling about 5.7 million acres, are approximately $6.6 billion. International Paper is retaining approximately 830,000 acres, some of which may be later sold to maximize the value of the land. “With sale agreements for the bulk of our U.S. forestlands largely complete, we are well on our way to completing an important step in our plan to improve shareowner returns and strengthen our business,” said International Paper Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Faraci. Under the terms of the agreement, Lyme Timber will continue to provide wood fiber to International Paper’s Ticonderoga, N.Y., paper mill for 20 years. In conjunction with the sale agreement, Lyme Timber will assume a 257,000-acre conservation easement agreement IP negotiated with the State of New York and The Conservation Fund in 2004. The first phase of the easement, comprising about 40,000 acres, closed late last year. The remaining phases of the easement are expected to close throughout 2006 as funds become available. We are
committed to completing the agreements reached between IP and the State of New York to sell working forest conservation easements to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation.”

12) When logging began in February on a section of Erie County-owned forest in the Town of Holland, County Forester Brian Grassia said it would be a good thing for both the county economy and the woods ecology – “if we do this right, and we will.” Two months later, some local environmentalists, loggers and foresters are questioning whether the right thing was done to the 17-acre plot of valuable sugar maples off South Protection Road. Roughly 185 trees, most of them valuable hardwoods, were cut down, and the county stands to make about $72,000, according to Grassia. But critics contend that too many high-value trees, many about 150 years old, were taken. They also say the way the timber sale was publicized and structured was unusual. “There’s something radically wrong here,” said Bruce Kershner, an expert on old-growth forests. The Sierra Club’s Larry Beahan believes the county government’s fiscal crunch had something to do with the sale. “They have thoughtlessly started to give away a scenic treasure of ours,” he said. Grassia denied there were improprieties. “We’re not afraid to hold this up to public scrutiny,” he said. Erie County owns about 3,500 acres of woodlots on 13 tracts in the towns of Boston, Concord, Sardinia and Holland. Among the trees are hardwoods such as sugar maple and black cherry that are in high demand and can fetch prices as high as $1,000 a tree before they are cut down. A draft county forest management plan was outlined in 2003. It included the often conflicting goals of harvesting an economically valuable resource while protecting and enhancing the ecology for educational and recreational uses. Action on the plan stalled while county officials dealt with the more pressing matter of solving the county’s budget crisis. Once that situation stabilized, Grassia said, he decided to move forward. “I take responsibility for trying to jump-start this plan that I really didn’t want sitting on the shelf,” he said. The owner of the company that did the logging, Hillview Logging of Holland, and the forester who guided the cutting, strongly defended their work. “If we wanted to take just the best stuff, we would have taken just the young trees,” forester Fred Safford said. “I stayed well within the guidelines of what the thinning should have been.” http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20060410/1059672.asp

Maine:

13) State parks are not areas where people expect to see forestry equipment or trees being cut down, but that is all about to change. The State Department of Conservation is selectively cutting trees and harvesting timber on some acreage at Range Pond State Park in Poland. It’s part of a new demonstration forest project. Crews are using new state-of-the art equipment, which is more environmentally friendly. The department says the primary goal is to inform the public about forest ecology, resource management and conservation. “A lot of people have been left with the belief that forest management is a commodity extraction operation and there aren’t any benefits. So we thought that there was an opportunity to put some demonstration areas into the park where we’ve got visitation, whe’re we’ve got an opportunity for educational outreach,” said Thomas Morrison from the Department of Conservation. The state says the forest demonstration project is expected to generate up to 500 thousand dollars in new revenue from the timber that is harvested. The added revenue will help offset a nearly two million dollar budget cut that would have required some state park closures and layoffs. http://www.wlbz2.com/newscenter/article.asp?id=33817

North Carolina:

14) Dick Webb, chairman of the Walthour-Moss Foundation Board of Directors, welcomed the gathering. Over his shoulder, members of the crowd could see the burial place of Ginny and Pappy Moss, who donated the land to start the foundation. Pappy Moss died in 1976, and Ginny died last year. She gave her last gift to the foundation in her will. “We’ve got something special here,” Webb said. Larry Early, the author of “Looking for Longleaf: The Fall and Rise of an American Forest,” talked about the history of the forest and gave some explanation of how the ecosystem works. He told members of the audience to look at the forest around them. The longleaf pines have wide spaces between them allowing the sunlight to shine on the golden Savannah beneath. In other parts of the forest, people could see the blackened and charred pine straw from a recent burn. “This is what a well-managed longleaf forest looks like,” he said. “This forest has a history. It also has a future.” The longleaf forest thrives on fire, Early said. Twenty years ago, the type of forest that can be seen on the Walthour-Moss land would not have been common at all, he said. Turpentine production, over- logging and fire suppression tactics practiced by forest managers decades ago nearly destroyed the forest, he said. There was a time when the longleaf pine forest stretched from southeastern Virginia down to Lake Okeechobee in Florida and west to parts of Texas. The original settlers called it the “Great Piney Woods,” Early said, who likes that name. It fits in with the mythology of early America, he said. People know about the Great Plains because of the many stories about cattle drives and cowboys and Indians. http://www.thepilot.com/news/040906Longleaf.html

USA:

15) America’s timberlands are in turmoil. From the remote backwoods to groves near small towns, forests are shrinking: 35 acres here, 500 there. The decline is so incremental it masks a crisis. Viewed from a national perspective, however, the pace of the losses is staggering: The United States loses 1 million acres of forests annually, an area larger than all of Rhode Island, according to the U.S. Forest Service’s Forests on the Edge: Housing Development on America’s Private Forests, which also reports: 13 million acres lost since 1992, almost the size of West Virginia. 23 million acres gone by 2050, an area larger than all of Maine. The culprit is clear. America’s timberlands are being converted to development. “You wake up one morning and the forest you took for granted down the road has bulldozers tearing up the trees,” says Bob Simpson, vice president of forest programs for the American Forest Foundation. Far more is at stake than neighborhood ambiance. The decline in forest acreage will put 340 animal species at risk of extinction, 20 percent of the total that depend on forests for their survival. It will affect the 180 million people who depend upon forests for their drinking water. Nearly 40 watersheds scattered across the eastern United States will shift to urban uses, increasing stormwater runoff and reducing both the quality and quantity of the water they provide. Even the air we breathe is at risk. This is not the first era in American history to witness a widespread reduction in timberlands. When Europeans arrived, a billion acres of forests covered half of the land that would become the United States. The new settlers set to work immediately, whittling at the woods to make way for farms and cities. As settlements moved from the East to the Midwest and on westward, the clearing continued. By 1900, forests covered less than a third of the United States. That acreage has remained relatively stable for nearly a century despite some forest growth in the East, where former farmlands are maturing into second-growth forests. Today America’s forests include 504 million acres considered productive timberlands. The U.S. Forest Service and other government agencies own and manage around 29 percent, according to the Heinz Center for Economics and the Environment. The rest belongs to 10 million different private owners ranging from lone individuals to International Paper, whose 6.8 million acres make it the nation’s largest forests-products company.
http://www.americanforests.org/productsandpubs/magazine/archives/
2006winter/feature2_1.php

Canada:

16) Victoria’s Secret produces a million catalogues a day (www.victoriasdirtysecret.net). Much of their fibre comes from Canadian Boreal forests, specifically from the Rocky Mountain Foothills, a region that has less than 2% protected and is home to declining caribou herds. Tomorrow ForestEthics and allies will hold a Day of Action in the United States to raise awareness of these issues. Over 225 protests are planned across the US. You can help too! We would like to request 5 minutes of your time to call Victoria Secret and ask them about their paper policy. Pls forward this message and ask your friends to do the same. Victoria’s Secret Call-In Day April 11, 2006 Victoria’s Secret Phone Number: 614-577-7000 or 800-411-5116 E-mail catalogs@forestethics.org and let us know that you called!

17) A Rainforest Action Network report published today on FreeGrassy.org confirms that Weyerhaeuser building products and new homes marketed in the United States as “environmentally friendly” use wood clear-cut without consent from treaty-protected indigenous territory within Canada’s threatened Boreal Forest. The report documents the movement of wood from massive clear-cut operations on the traditional territory of the Grassy Narrows First Nation community into new American homes marketed as “Built Green” by Quadrant Homes, a subsidiary of Weyerhaeuser, the largest lumber company in the world. Despite decades of negotiations, environmental appeals, protests, and what has become the longest running road blockade in Canadian history, industrial loggers like Weyerhaeuser continue to use wood systematically extracted from ecologically sensitive old growth areas and destroy the traditional way of life of the Grassy Narrows indigenous community who have lived on the land since pre-Columbian times. Representatives from the Grassy Narrows First Nation community, Rainforest Action Network, green-building leaders, social investment funds like Calvert Group, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, The Boreal Forest Network, green-building industry leaders and other stakeholders are all headed to Seattle for Weyerhaeuser’s April 20th shareholder meeting to call on the lumber giant to join a growing movement of multinational corporations bringing policies and practices into alignment with best practices on governance, the environment, and human rights. A solidarity stakeholder meeting is planned for outside Toronto’s stock exchange. “American Dream Native Nightmare” outdoor ads, which began appearing Monday in Seattle, Montreal and Toronto, highlight the link between “green” homes and environmental destruction and human rights violations on Grassy Narrows’ territory. Read a summary and the report at www.FreeGrassy.org

Russia:

18) The authors analyzed trends in forest biomass in all 28 ecoregions covering the Russian territory, based on data collected from 1953 to 2002 within 3196 sample plots comprised of about 50,000 entries, which database, in their words, “contains all available archived and published data.” What it means. Where trees are not cut down but are allowed to grow, and where new trees are either planted or allowed to naturally regenerate, the greening of planet earth continues, in spite of all the doom-and-gloom prognostications of the planet’s radical environmentalists. http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO2ScienceB2C/articles/V9/N15/B2.jsp

Uganda:

19) A British forest company has established the largest commercial tree plantation in Uganda. The New Forests Company (NFC) leased Namwasa Central Forest Reserve, an area of 9,000 hectares from National Forest Authority (NFA) 18 months ago. However, only 6,000 hectares are plantable. “Every rainy season, 400 hectares will be planted with pine and eucalyptus. Each hectare will take up 1,100 seedlings making a total of 880,000 seedlings per year,” said Julian Ozanne, the managing director of NFC. The indigenous and riverine forests that fall in the 3,000 hectares will remain intact or improved upon. Fifty metres on each side of the riverine forests will be left in one piece. The company also leased Luwunga Forest Reserve in Kiboga district with 8,000 hectares. However, it has encroachers on it and Ozanne has appealed to the Government to help them out Ozanne said once the encroachers in Luwunga have been dealt with, they would plant trees at the same time with Namwasa. “However, we still need more land and we welcome out-growers. They will be given free seedlings to plant,” he said. The New Forest Company employs between 400 and 450 people. They expect to employ over 700 people during next year’s peak time. They will be involved in clearing, spraying and planting. They plan to set up a mechanised nursery next year and community roads will be improved. NFA manages 506 Central Forest Reserves, which cover 1,173,754 hectares of which 27.2% is covered by tropical high forests and 35.3% by woodlands. About 180,500 people, 136,000 herds of cattle and 101 illegal land titles are found in central forest reserves. These are hampering plantation development strategies and contributing to an estimated annual loss of 2% of Uganda’s forest cover. Uganda forest coverage has shrunk over the past century from 52% to 24% of the total land area. Forestry is a major source of energy and construction materials accounting for 92% of the total energy consumed by the nation, according to the State of Uganda Population Report 2005. http://allafrica.com/stories/200604101183.html

Kenya:

20) With the increasing clear-cutting of forests, the century-old respect of nature perished. This was also noted by GBM staff when they visited the villages. In the words of the Peace Nobel Prize laureate: Too often, when we talk about conservation, we don’t think about culture. But during our work with the Green Belt Movement, we realized that some of the communities had lost aspects of their culture that facilitated conservation of the environment. Culture defines who we are and how we see ourselves. A new attitude toward nature provides space for a new attitude toward culture and the role it plays in sustainable development. Mount Kenya, Africa’s second highest peak, is a World Heritage Site. It is topped by glaciers and is the source of many of Kenya’s rivers. Now, partly because of climate change and partly because of logging and encroachment due to crop cultivation, the glaciers are melting. Many of the rivers flowing from the mountain have dried up or their levels have declined. Biological diversity is threatened as the forests fall. Mount Kenya used to be sacred to the Kikuyu people. If the mountain were still given the reverence the culture accorded it, people would not have allowed illegal logging and clear-cutting in the forests. Cultural revival might be the only thing that stands between the conservation or destruction of the environment. Wangari Maathai feels that the importance of trees cannot be estimated too highly, for: »Trees help heal the land and help break the cycle of poverty and hunger. Trees also provide a source of fuel, material for building and fencing, fruits, fodder, shade and aesthetic beauty. This is particularly important for women, who are expected to overcome resource deficits – for example, by walking further to find wood for cooking and heating, and clean water – and growing or gathering new sources of food as old ones disappear. Trees, and intact forests, also keep the soil healthy, stem erosion, protect rivers and streams (critical sources of clean water), and promote regular rainfall so droughts are avoided. The tree is also a wonderful symbol for peace. It is living and it gives hope. Trees are also actual places of peace. Many African communities – including my own, the Kikuyu – have special trees under which individual and community conflicts are resolved. In this, and in so many ways, the planting of trees lessens the potential for conflict and fosters peace. http://peacejournalism.com/ReadArticle.asp?ArticleID=8433

Central America:

21) Every spring farmers use fires to clear thousands of hectares of forest and scrub land for agricultural use. Burning vegetation not only makes land available for planting but releases enough nutrients to support vigorous crop growth for the season. However, as generally practiced, such techniques are associated with erosion and biodiversity loss. These fires, combined with logging and other forms of development, have given Central America the highest deforestation rate of any region in the world over the past 15 years. Between 1990 and 2005, Central America lost 19 percent of its forest cover, or about 1.26 percent annually. Forest cover fell from 27,639,000 hectares to 22,411,000 ha in that time. Today, very little of Central America’s forest area can be classified as primary or virgin forest. According to the UN, the countries with the highest rate of forest loss in Central America between 1990 and 2005 are Honduras (37.1 percent), Nicaragua (20.6 percent), El Salvador (20.5 percent), Guatemala (17.1 percent), and Costa Rica (6.7 percent). Despite this loss, Central America remains one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth. Several countries, including Costa Rica, Panama, and Honduras, are capitalizing on their biological wealth by promoting ecotourism. This year, reports indicate that fires have burned a section of Tikal National Park in northern Guatemala, a UNESCO World Heritage site known for its ancient Maya ruins. In past years, several national parks have suffered damage from forest fires. For example, in 1998 fires burned more than 160,000 acres (65,000 hectares) of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala. http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0410-central_america.html

Brazil:

22) Environmental authorities shut down an illegal logging operation in the Amazon on Monday, confiscating dozens of felled tropical hardwood trees in an area that only recently was pristine rain forest. The Norte Wood logging company was operating without a license in the Amazonas state town of Novo Aripuana, 2,600 kilometers (1,600 miles) northwest of Rio de Janeiro, according to Wallace Alencar, an agent with the state’s environmental authority Ipaam.The agency seized 500 cubic meters (17,655 cubic feet) of wood and arrested one man in the raid. It was the largest seizure of illegal hardwood this year in Amazonas, the country’s largest state.Alencar said an overflight revealed extensive logging in the region, which only recently was largely untouched rain forest where scientists had discovered several new monkey species. During the past three years, loggers from the neighboring state of Para have been moving to Novo Aripuana after having largely deforested the southern edge of their home state. “It’s one of the biggest problems, people from Para coming and cutting down everything. They are buying up land from the locals who live along the river and cutting down the most valuable trees,” Alencar said by phone from the Amazonas state capital Manaus. “Three years ago there was only one sawmill in Nova Aripuna. Now you have around a dozen,” said Pereira. Brazil’s rain forest is the size of Western Europe and covers 60 percent of the country’s territory. Experts say as much as 20 percent of its 4.1 million square kilometers (1.6 million square miles) has been destroyed by development, logging and farming. The rain forest lost 18,900 square kilometers (7,300 square miles) — an area more than half the size of Belgium — between July 2004 and August 2005, down from 27,200 square kilometers (10,500 square miles) the year before, according to Environment Minister Marina Silva. http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/04/10/brazil.logging.ap/

India:

23) Western Ghats, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests R.M. Ray has said ecology should take precedence over the felling of trees done for the cultivation of coffee and other commercial crops on the hilly terrain of the Western Ghats. This order comes at a time when non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are expressing concern over the decreasing forest cover in the Kodagu region. NGOs in the region have been protesting against the alleged indiscriminate use of discretionary powers under the Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act, 1976 by Forest Department officials to give permission to coffee growers to fell trees. http://www.hindu.com/2006/04/11/stories/2006041105520400.htm

China:

24) GUANGZHOU: An investigation has been launched to determine whether eucalyptus trees have done damage to the environment. Special task forces that consist of forestry officials and experts have been sent to the cities of Yunfu, Zhaoqing and Meizhou, where many eucalyptus trees are being planted for field investigations, according to sources from the provincial forestry department. The findings will be published before the end of April. The investigation campaign was initiated after local deputies to the Guangdong provincial people’s congress and members of Guangdong provincial people’s political consultative conference put forward their observations about the damage caused by eucalyptus trees to the province’s ecological environment. Li Sidong, a member of Guangdong provincial people’s political consultative conference, urged the forestry department to further strengthen the management of the planting of eucalyptus trees. Li, a professor from Guangdong Ocean University, said he was worried that large-scale eucalyptus planting would reduce soil quality, suck up moisture and create “a green desert.” The increasing number of eucalyptus trees has partly contributed to the worsening drought in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong in recent years, according to Guangzhou-based New Express News. The city government of Yunfu enforced a ban on planting eucalyptuses a month ago. And Zengcheng, a suburban city of Guangzhou, has decided to follow this move. But many forestry experts have refused to believe that eucalyptuses have absorbed underground water and contributed to the drought. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2006-04/10/content_563658.htm

Fiji:

25) THE Ra Provincial Council must have input in logging operations carried out on its land, says a report on the province’s development plans. The report said currently the council had no say, which was unacceptable. The province’s Strategic Development Plan released last week said there should be an input and understanding between all stakeholders. “The tangible benefits from forest exploitation have always been many but its sustainability questioned. “This is a weak link in the logging cycle and operations and steps must be taken to improve this failure. “There is nothing in the legislation or guideline; it was between the logger and forest owners on this aspect of forest development,” it said. The plan said pine logging and log cartage was a major economic activity enjoyed by the landowners of Drauniivi and Naseyani for some years now and experience gained in the operation and business set-up was an asset. It said likewise minor pine logging activities were a success for some pine owners in villages like Rokovuaka and Nababa. It noted a major part of the province had distributed landscape, open canopy dominated by open grassland, reeds, ferns and dry forests shrubs. Challenges faced by forestry in the province include lack of infrastructure to facilitate and process forest products. http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=40231

Philippines:

26) “The sacred aura of Mt. Banahaw is now beginning to show again. It’s now peaceful and quiet just like the old days when this place was not yet known to non-devotees,” said Supremo Jose Illustrisimo, leader of religious sect “Tatlong Persona Solo Dios” based in the village. He recalled how it was in 1936 when his late father, Agapito Illustrisimo, founded the religious sect as well as a settlement near the river, which they now revere as holy. Almost all residents in Kinabuhayan belong to “Tatlong Persona Solo Dios.” “I was then 7 years old. The place was surrounded by huge forest trees,” the religious leader recalled. Illustrisimo recalled that when the Kinabuhayan river near the sect compound was still crystal clear, devotees washed their feet there before starting the trek to different sacred spots atop the mountain. He remembered the times when former President Manuel Quezon visited the place to meditate. Gloria Diala, 69, also a member of the religious sect and long time inhabitant of Kinabuhayan, reminisced about the first time she set foot in the serene village in 1958. “This place was so beautiful. The climate was cool, birds were chirping and there was fresh flowing water. It was like paradise,” she said. Nowadays, Diala said she wants to spend the remaining years of her life amid very serene and quiet surroundings. “It’s alright with me if Mt. Banahaw will stay closed forever,” the old woman said in a whisper. According to the leaders of “Ciudad Mistika de Dios” based in Barangay Santa Lucia, majority of the 80 sects that hold their rites in the mountain would respect the decision to insulate San Cristobal-Banahaw from outside intrusion for much-needed rehabilitation. Of the 80 groups, 20 are based-or have places of worship-within the area covered by the Protected Area Management Board directive. The mountain forms part of the Mt. Banahaw-San Cristobal National Park, declared as a protected area in June 2003. The park covers the municipalities of Sariaya, Candelaria, Tayabas, Lucban and Dolores, all in Quezon, and Rizal, Nagcarlan, Liliw, Majayjay and San Pablo City, all in Laguna.To many, Mt. Banahaw is inhabited by spirits, elements and other-worldly beings. Many believers trek its slopes in hopes of experiencing something divine, particularly during the Lenten season. http://news.inq7.net/regions/index.php?index=1&story_id=72547

Indonesia:

27) Papua, Indonesia, April 11, 2006 – Activists from the Greenpeace flagship the Rainbow Warrior today unfurled protest banners saying “Stop ancient forest destruction” in front of the ship MV Ardhianto as it is being loaded with a large consignment of plywood from some of the world’s most endangered forests, the Paradise Forests of Asia Pacific (1). The ship is being loaded with up to 6,000 cubic metres of plywood destined for Japan and Korea and 3,000 cubic metres for the US. The timber is from the Henrison Iriana mill, a subsidiary of one of Indonesia’s largest logging companies, Kayu Lapis Indonesia (KLI), and is destined for Japan, Korea and the US. Papua is home to Asia Pacific’s largest intact ancient forests but they are being destroyed at an unprecedented rate by logging companies, like KLI (2). At least 76% of logging in Indonesia, including in Papua, is illegal. (3) Stolen timber is frequently sold on to milling operations, like KLI, in Indonesia or ‘disappears’ offshore to feed the global market. “Over the next couple of days a massive 9,000 cubic metres of plywood, equivalent to 4,500 trees, will be loaded onto two ships bound for markets in Asia and the US,” said Greenpeace forests campaigner, Hapsoro. “It’s appalling to see unscrupulous companies, like KLI, exporting Papua’s precious ancient forests, fuelled by a global market, hungry for plywood and other cheap timber products.” http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/kayu-lapis-crime-file

Australia:

28) POLICE have arrested three anti-logging protesters and moved 17 other demonstrators from a blockade in the East Gippsland region of Victoria. Goongerah Environment Centre (GEC) spokeswoman Fiona York said the protest was in an area of old growth forest being logged less than 100m from the Goolengook forest. The three protesters who were arrested had chained themselves to logging machinery, she said. “The rest of them have been moved out of the coupe by 20 or so Parks Victoria, DSE (Department of Sustainability and Envirnment) and police,” Ms York said. Thirty arrests had been made at 15 blockades in East Gippsland since December 2005, she said. The Goolengook Forest is the subject of an investigation by the Victorian Environment Assessment Council (VEAC). “This particular coupe is right on the border of the assessment area that VEAC is looking into protection for Goolengook,” Ms York said. “While the Goolengook Forest is being investigated and under moratorium from logging, forest of comparable value is being logged right next door.” The area was at the headwaters of the Arte River, and the old-growth forest and rainforest were habitat for endangered flora and fauna, she said. Its unique eco-system was home to more than 300 rare and threatened plant and animal species, including the tiger quoll and the powerful owl. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18770115-29281,00.html

29) “I’m going out on a limb here, but I’m doing it for the forests. There’s not much I won’t do to help save the forests,” said the federal Greens senator from Tasmania, who will play himself in the cabaret Me & Mr Brown. Senator Brown will be the special guest of talk-show host Dolly Putin, an opinionated blonde described (by herself) as a heady cocktail of Pamela Anderson and Germaine Greer. The proud owner of a petrol-guzzling four-wheel-drive, Dolly doesn’t believe in global warming or the scarcity of water. And the problem with endangered animals, she says, is that there are just too many of them. http://www.theage.com.au/news/arts/top-green-branches-out-for-his-beloved-trees/2006/04/11/1144521340638.ht
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30) Forestry Tasmania has accused the Greens of misrepresenting the position on forestry operations in the Upper Florentine. Greens MHA Tim Morris says work has stopped on a road into a logging coupe there, leaving a trail of destruction of valuable specialty timbers including blackheart sassafras and myrtle. Mr Morris says 70 per cent of the logs to be removed from the coupe are for export woodchips and only 9 per cent, or 500 tonnes, have been identified as specialty timber. However, Forestry Tasmania’s Kim Creak says one third of all timber selectively harvested will provide high-value products. “The work there is being carried out on a very narrow width in order to have a minimum impact road,” he said. “The road is being built under the Community Forest Agreement, its aim in the long-term is to produce selectively, special species timbers. “I would be very surprised if we would be prepared to waste a stick of valuable timber in that land, why would we?” http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200604/s1610611.htm

31) The Sunshine Coast Environment Council says the Queensland Government’s transfer of 44,000 hectares of state forests to national park will mean better protection of land for future generations. The State Government announced the transfers, from Gladstone to the Sunshine Coast, as the first under the South-East Queensland Forest Agreement. Spokesman Ian Christesen says the transfer, which includes 63 hectares being used to create Cromhurst National Park near Caloundra, will see less logging and wildlife better protected. “It’s always pleasing to see public lands being afforded the highest level possible of protection and obviously moving from state forests to national park is a really great move and the Government’s to be applauded on this transfer,” he said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200604/s1610000.htm

32) BRAVING snow and freezing winds, a young forest activist is defying police from his perch 50 metres up a gum tree in Tasmania’s Styx Valley in a protest against continued logging of its old growth forest. Peter Firth, 21, spent the 16th day of his tree-sit up the eucalypt he has named “John Howard’s Promise”, as other tall trees were felled nearby. His protest is one of a growing number of clashes in the old growth forests that fringe the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Wild weather has buffeted Mr Firth. Snow and steady rain have fallen, and he said the tree was swaying about three metres from the vertical in 100kmh winds. “My feet and hands get really cold,” Mr Firth, from Albany, said by satellite telephone yesterday. “I put them in plastic bags of warm water to try to warm them up. I’ve had a bit of cold shock, where you start vomiting. But it’s worth it for what I am doing.” Mr Firth said he had hampered police attempts to bring him down, by throwing away lines fired into the tree on arrows. http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/protester-at-home-atop-a-gum-tree/2006/04/09/1144521210936.html

33) Never in her wildest dreams did Aboriginal Australian scholar Samia Goudi imagine she would one day win a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship. The academic kudos she is enjoying today is a far cry from the alternative hippy lifestyle of her late teens, when she ran away to chain herself to trees in the NSW Far North Coast Terania Creek rainforest protests. It is also an ocean away from the daredevil young woman who, with a wish for adventure, sailed off in a catamaran to South East Asia – a perilous voyage that saw the crew helping Vietnamese and Cambodian boat refugees and outrunning pirates in cyclonic conditions in the Malacca Straits. Samia only began her university education as a mature age student in 1995 when she was 35. Today, at 46, the Southern Cross University (SCU) scholar, completing her PhD in Indigenous trauma and grief, has become one of the few Fulbright Scholarship recipients from an Australian regional university and the first ever from SCU. http://www.abc.net.au/message/news/stories/s1613033.htm

34) PREMIER Paul Lennon has chosen the man dubbed the Labor attack puppy to be his “strong right hand man”. And new Deputy Leader Bryan Green will need all his strength over the next four years when he will face plenty of fresh challenges. As the new Economic Development Minister Mr Green will be responsible for the Gunns $1.3 billion pulp mill at Long Reach. He has retained the controversial resources portfolio which contains forestry and mining and added sport and recreation to his responsibilities. Mr Green and Mr Lennon worked closely together during the Community Forest Agreement negotiations. Mr Lennon said he had kept a close eye on the Mr Green’s career. The former fitter and turner, who became involved in the union movement at the Burnie pulp mill, is a strong performer in State Parliament.His aggressive style prompted the State Opposition to label him Lennon’s attack puppy. “I enjoy parliament,” Mr Green said. “I love being in the house. “I look forward to the challenge every day with nervous anticipation.” http://www.themercury.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,18726607%255E3462,00.html

World-wide:

35) ACID rain, the forgotten scourge of Europe’s forests and lakes, is emerging as a prime threat to biodiversity across the tropics. As countries like India, Brazil and China industrialise, emissions from cars, power stations and factory farms are dousing the rainforests and other biodiversity hotspots in acidic, nitrogen-rich rains that threaten to exterminate thousands of species over the next 50 years. “Air pollution poses a far greater threat to global biodiversity than previously considered,” says Gareth Phoenix of the University of Sheffield, UK, the author of a study on nitrogen deposition published in the current issue of Global Change Biology. Phoenix looked at 34 biodiversity hotspots identified by the Washington DC-based group Conservation International, which between them contain more than half of the world’s plant species. Using a combination of emissions predictions and models of atmospheric chemistry, he then estimated how much nitrogen fallout they now receive, along with likely … http://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg19025464.100-diversity-hotspots-face-fatal-dousing-with-acid.ht
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36) Nearly 4 billion hectares of forest cover the earth’s surface, roughly 30 percent of its total land area. Though extensive, the world’s forests have shrunk by some 40 percent since agriculture began 11,000 years ago. Three quarters of this loss occurred in the last two centuries as land was cleared to make way for farms and to meet demand for wood. Over the last five years, the world suffered a net loss of some 37 million hectares (91 million acres) of forest, according to data from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. This number reflects the felling of 64.4 million hectares of trees and the planting or natural regeneration of 27.8 million hectares of new forest. Each year the world loses some 7.3 million hectares of forest, an area the size of Panama. Due to extensive reforestation, this net forest shrinkage has slowed slightly from the 8.9 million hectares lost annually in the 1990s. While this is encouraging, it obscures the sobering fact that gross deforestation has not declined significantly since 2000. Forest degradation is also cause for concern. Of the world’s 1.4 billion hectares of remaining primary forest—natural forest that shows no sign of human impact—6 million hectares are lost or degraded each year. We are losing not only forest area but some of our best forest stands. Africa lost 64 million hectares of forest between 1990 and 2005, the greatest decline of any continent. (See data at www.earthpolicy.org/Indicators/Forest/2006_data.htm.) Fuelwood gathering drives much of this forest depletion. Timber exports also play a role, with 80 percent of the Congo Basin’s timber production being exported, mainly to China and the European Union. South America has sustained the second greatest forest loss since 1990—59 million hectares—and deforestation has accelerated somewhat over the last five years, from 3.8 million hectares a year in the 1990s to 4.3 million hectares annually since 2000. This recent acceleration reflects Brazil’s reported net loss of 16 million hectares between 2000 and 2005—three fourths of the regional total. If Amazonian deforestation continues unchecked, the world’s largest rainforest will be cut down to 60 percent of its current size by 2050. http://www.earth-policy.org/