291 – Earth’s Tree News

Today for you 33 new articles about earth’s trees! (291st edition)
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–British Columbia: 1) Drastic cutback in treeplanting, 2) Save South Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys, 3) Beetle hysteria, 4) Save Pinecone Burke Provincial Park, 5) Big ecogroups ruin GBR conservation efforts, 6) Market downturn leads to buyouts, –Pacific Northwest: 7) Loggers can’t cut Murrelet habitat, 8) 18 mills shutdown,
–Washington: 9) Pope is logging less this year
–Oregon: 10) Clearcutting the Climate conference, 11) WOPR comments available,
–California: 12) Log riders busted, 13) Pepper trees cut down without notice, 14) CalPoly logging in Santa Cruz county,
–Arizona: 15) Rim country in a mire of failed federal forest planning
–Montana: 16) Mainstream eco-groups want more logging, 17) NREPA: no logging?
–Vermont: 18) UVM Forest Crimes Unit
–New Hampshire: 19) Taves Reservation looks like a timber graveyard
–Pennsylvania: 20) Damages caused by nonindigenous species
–New York: 21) 2007 farm bill contain a wide range of forest conservation provisions
–West Virginia: 22) Forest cover at 12 million acres
–Alabama: 23) RIP: Nancy Cammack
–USA: 24) Save the Forest: a real-time strategy game, 25) Wildlife management history,
–Canada: 26) Saxton Lake Road overrun by logs, 27) Books have more recycled content,
–UK: 28) protesting Tescos destruction of carbon sinks, 29) insurance solutions for forestry, 30) Norfolk’s amazing trees,
–Ireland: 31) Forest funding for the long run, 32) 16,000 employed in forestry,
–Scotland: 33) Black grouse habitat restoration

British Columbia:

1) Tree planters say there has been a drastic cutback in the number of seedlings being ordered in B.C., raising questions about the effectiveness of provincial strategies to replant forests in the wake of the mountain pine beetle epidemic. John Betts, executive director of the Western Silvicultural Contractors Association, said requests for seedlings for the 2009 season are down 25 per cent, a drop of 70 million trees from 2007, when 276 million were planted. “That’s significant,” Betts said in an interview today. The association’s 60 members, who plant most of the trees in B.C., are meeting this week in Kamloops where the cutback in future seedlings is raising alarms. Betts said members are distressed at seeing numbers drop. Forest companies and the province’s B.C. Timber Sales program place orders for seedlings more than one season in advance, providing contractors with an accurate forecast of future tree planting demand. Even if the province had a beetle-reforestation strategy in place, there would be no seedlings available until at least 2010 because of the lag in ordering new seedlings – called sowing requests – and replanting the seedlings in a cutblock. “We are in a bit of a forestry crisis and we are not really sure what the strategies are and how well they are working. Then we get these alarming drops in sowing requests, which sets our hair on fire a bit,” Betts said. Nurseries contacted by The Sun today confirmed orders are down this year. John Kitchen, president of Pacific Regeneration Technologies, the country’s largest seedling producer, said seeds are not planted until orders come in as each site has specific requirements. He said nurseries are scaling back but his biggest concern is that the silvicultural contractors will lose their skilled workforce if the downturn in orders continues. “It’s a major undertaking to plant 250 million to 300 million seedlings a year. Keeping those workers over the short-term is going to be tough.” Kitchen said the nursery industry is eager to see progress on provincial strategies to replant beetle-devastated stands. “Those strategies are not underway yet. As they get underway, there will be a need to scale up. We would love to see it come, along with a whole bunch of people in B.C.” http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=f7f7702d-5de1-414b-be75-7fc8ea71b64b&k=554
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2) The BC and federal governments have agreed to undertake a Feasibility Study for a potential national park to protect the desert, grasslands, and Ponderosa pine ecosystems of the South Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys in southern British Columbia. The local residents and the millions of Canadians who’ve visited the area know it is perhaps the most beautiful region of the country. Whether the national park becomes a reality – or a lost opportunity – depends on YOUR input and the input of all Canadians. This region, around the towns of Osoyoos, Oliver, Keremeos and Cawston, has more species at risk than any other region of BC. Canyon wrens, white-headed woodpeckers, badgers, California bighorn sheep, tiger salamanders, spadefoot toads, pallid bats, spotted bats, scorpions, and rattlesnakes all inhabit the area. A national park here would encompass a greater diversity of ecosystems than any national park in Canada – 6 of BC’s 14 major ecosystem types (“biogeoclimatic zones”) are found in this little region. National parks are very rare – there are only 7 national parks in BC, in contrast to almost 1000 provincial parks and protected areas here. National parks tend to be much larger than provincial parks and have the highest standards of environmental protection. A national park reserve in the South Okanagan-Similkameen region would be the greatest conservation opportunity for a region that is the greatest conservation priority in Canada right now. Anyone who lives in North America knows that national parks greatly enhance local economies by increasing tourism revenues and providing local jobs, not to mention increasing the environmental quality of life for local people and all Canadians. This proposed park – a once in a lifetime opportunity – will only become a reality if enough Canadians speak up to the political decision-makers! Petition Drive needs YOUR help!Once you download copies to circulate at http://www.okanaganpetition.org

3) Aboriginal leaders are warning that more than 100 native communities are in danger of being ravaged by fire come spring due to the massive swath of dry, dead timber left behind by British Columbia’s pine beetle outbreak. Raising the spectre of fires and evacuations rivalling last year’s infernos in Greece and California, native leaders from B.C. are in Ottawa this week urging Conservative cabinet ministers to act now. The pine beetle damage is already wreaking havoc on native communities through forestry job losses, as well as fear that traditional methods of hunting and gathering are disappearing along with the trees. But in these remote villages, fire is the immediate worry. “We’ve got a fire season approaching and the potential for a disaster to be compounded with runaway wildfires is huge. It’s imminent. It’s very real. And people are very worried,” said Dave Porter of B.C.’s First Nations Summit, which represents a majority of aboriginal communities in the province. Mr. Porter, of the Kaska Dene in the province’s north, attended last fall’s United Nations climate change meetings in Bali, Indonesia, to warn delegates that Canada is at risk of losing its entire boreal forest due to the pine beetle, with little national or international awareness. “This is a natural disaster that is occurring in British Columbia. It is evidence of climate change in all of its devastating effects,” Mr. Porter said, explaining that Canada no longer gets the cold winters that would kill off the bugs. “We’re talking about an area that’s the size of the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick combined.” Joined by Chief Leonard Thomas, president of the First Nations Forestry Council, the two met yesterday with Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl and Environment Minister John Baird. A map compiled by the forestry council using provincial data illustrates how the strip of devastation caused by the pine beetle snakes up the middle of the province from the southeast. In its path are about 100,000 natives living in 103 aboriginal communities. Off-reserve cities and towns, such as Kelowna and Kamloops, are also in the area, but the small aboriginal communities argue they are more at risk because of their remoteness and the fact that homes are nestled so closely to the forest trees. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080206.wnatives06/BNStory/National/?page=r
ss&id=RTGAM.20080206.wnatives06

4) The 38,000 hectare Pinecone Burke Provincial Park was designated in 1995 after a hard fought wilderness preservation campaign by the Burke Mountain Naturalists, the Wilderness Committee and other conservation organizations. Many thousands of people wrote in to support this park?s designation. The park?s wilderness habitat protects threatened populations of fish and wildlife. The Upper Pitt hydro project, proposed by a private company, Northwest Cascade Power, is a very large 180 MW (megawatt) project. The company proposes that section of all eight of the major tributaries of the Upper Pitt River system be diverted into over 30 kilometres of large pipes, then run through seven powerhouses to produce electricity. A network of power line corridors would then be clearcut throughout the Upper Pitt Valley, to a series of power lines to link the powerhouses to a main power line. The proposal calls for a main power line right of way to the west, through the northern portion of Pinecone Burke Park, to transmit power to a substation just north of Squamish. The Upper Pitt valley is remarkably rich in its wild salmon and wilderness-dependent species. Clearing a spider-web of power line right of ways throughout the watershed would be an environmental disaster for the region?s fish and wildlife populations. The Provincial Government has recently started a 60 day review process of the company?s proposal to clear the power line right of way through the park. So far the company has not received approval from the Provincial Government for any part of the private power project. Construction of a power line right of way through pristine wilderness in a Class A Park is unprecedented; in fact, it is prohibited under the BC Parks Act. Fears are high that the BC government will get around the law by removing park protection for the swath of land needed for the power line right of way. This would set a precedent for removing park protection and industrializing lands in parks and protected areas across the province. Here’s what you can do to help save Pinecone Burke Park: BC Parks Minister Barry Penner has said that he will listen to the public regarding Pinecone Burke Park. The comment period from the public is open until April 2, 2008. Please submit your comments to: PineconeBurke@gov.bc.ca or fax to 1-250-387-5757 http://www.wildernesscommittee.org/act/wcalerts/

5) Greenpeace and Forest Ethics and Sierra Club made a new secret deal to log 70% of the Great Bear Rainforest. After many attempts to get Forest Ethics to get the Raincoast Conservation Society involved in this latest deal I was rebuffed. It seems that even when Raincoast, who started this Great Bear Rainforest Campaign and who does over a million dollars in research per year on the Great Bear Rainforest, have been described by FE reps and a bit player. When I stated the fact that inclusion of Raincoast research into the EBM would benefit all involved the response was, “we have all the reseach we need”. Note that the Nuhalk are not involved and the big question is “has this deal reached for over the 65% of the whole GBR being off limits to resource extraction and hydro plants and roads.” Way back in the beginning of the negotiations Valhalla, (Colleen McCrory) got all 9 environmental groups to sign an agreement that if the big four enviros (this included RAN) were to go on and further negotiate on the GBR the minimum area they would agree to sign off on would be a minimum of 65% in order to preserve ecological integrity in the GBR. RMariner@aol.com

6) Over the past year, and especially in recent months, some of the names in the pantheon of Canadian and global investing have quietly parked their cash in an industry that has not generated a positive headline in a very long time. Peter Kellogg, a New York investing legend Forbes ranks the 108th-richest man in the United States, is one. He has been buying shares in Mercer International Inc., a U.S.-headquartered pulp producer with assets in Canada. Kellogg’s latest splurge came in mid-December. That’s not to mention the funds that are surprisingly overweight in forestry: Paper and forest products make up 17 per cent of the holdings in Brandes’ Canadian Equity Fund — well over double the weighting in the next-highest sector — while the Mackenzie Cundill Canadian Security Fund has a 12.8 per cent exposure to lumber. All of which may prompt one question: Huh? Why so much buying into forestry at a time when, according to the latest Natural Resources Canada numbers, the past 12 months brought a staggering 12,116 forestry layoffs and 112 closures of production capacity? “Because they’re going to make so much money in 2008,” Wade Burton, Cundill’s vice-president for investments, said with a sarcastic laugh. He has grown used to explaining the company’s strategy to worried investors who have watched his security fund drop five per cent last year.The reasoning is simple enough: Buy when the industry is in the basement, and wait for it to climb higher. But there’s an added bonus. A number of companies won’t make it out of the cellar, meaning there will be more to go around for those who do. “Canfor and West Fraser [Timber Co. Ltd.] have 12 to 15 per cent of the North American lumber market today. If they do nothing and just survive the cycle, they will have significantly more of the market share of structural lumber in 2010, and they’ll get that at no cost,” said Burton. http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/story.html?id=c2f77511-40e7-45b6-a315-9d435c4bc42c

Pacific Northwest:

7) A federal judge Tuesday rejected an attempt by the timber industry to remove federal protections for the marbled murrelet, an imperiled Northwest seabird that nests in coastal forests and stands in the way of logging. The American Forest Resource Council, an industry group based in Portland, sued the federal government arguing the bird should be removed from the federal list of threatened and endangered species. But U.S. District Judge John D. Bates in Washington, D.C., turned down the lawsuit Tuesday, concluding that there had been no official federal decision to keep the bird protected, and therefore there was nothing for the timber group to challenge in court. He said, however, that the timber group could still petition the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the bird from the list. Chris West, vice president of the council, said Tuesday that the group is assessing its options and may do that. The Forest Resource Council tried to force the issue in court after the Bush administration concluded that marbled murrelets in the Northwest do not differ enough from more plentiful birds in Alaska to merit protection on their own. But the administration, through the Fish and Wildlife Service, has not taken any further action on that conclusion. Instead, the federal agency said it would first review the condition of the entire murrelet population, including the Alaska birds. That review found the birds are declining sharply, but the Fish and Wildlife Service is still considering what to do next, spokeswoman Joan Jewett said. The inaction frustrated the Forest Resource Council, which went to court saying that since the administration had found the Northwest birds do not merit protection, it should be removed. “It has already been determined that this is not a listable population,” West said. The federal government in 1992 declared marbled murrelets threatened in Oregon, Washington and California. Federal protections for the birds, along with safeguards for the northern spotted owl and salmon, contributed to dramatic slowdowns in Northwest logging through the 1990s. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/120226831466250.xml&coll=7

8) For the Simpson Timber mill in Longview, the shutdown this week is the second curtailment of production of 2-by-4,s 2-by-6s and other lumber made from Douglas fir in a month. Work hours also were cut for a week starting Jan. 21. Analyst Claudia Shank Hueston of JP Morgan told The Daily News of Longview four other mills around the region also are shut down this week. All told, she said, 18 mills in the region are being shut down for varying periods, including indefinite closures of Hampton Lumber operations in Morton and Willamina, Ore., Seneca in Eugene, Ore., and Rosboro Lumber in Vaughn, Ore. With homebuilding drastically reduced, lumber prices fell to $238 per 1,000 board feet at the start of the month, 15.6 percent lower than a year ago, according to the trade publication Random Lengths. In Longview, where 100 workers have been idled, the mill received logs Monday and Simpson officials will decide on a week-to-week basis when to resume production, said Dave McEnntee, vice president of operational services and external affairs. “As we take downtime, that affects inventory. It just depends on where prices are in the marketplace,” McEnntee said. Simpson paid $26.5 million to buy the mill from Caffall Bros. at the end of 2006. http://www.tdn.com

Washington:

9) Pope Resources reported net income of $6.3 million, or $1.30 per diluted ownership unit, on revenues of $17.6 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2007. Our Real Estate segment generated fourth quarter 2007 operating income of $5.6 million on revenues of $12.5 million, compared to $7.9 million of operating income on $13.0 million of revenue in the last quarter of 2006. Nearly $5.3 million of the 2007 income related to deferred revenue on two sales that closed in 2006, one a 6-acre commercial site in Gig Harbor and the other residual to the sale of a 200-acre residential property in Bremerton. As announced previously, we will be reducing our 2008 timber harvest volume by 36% from our long-term sustainable level in response to expected soft prices for logs in the coming year since the slowdown in housing starts has curtailed demand for solid wood products. Our planned timber harvest for 2008 is 37 MMBF, which is 33% below the 55 MMBF we harvested in 2007. http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/industries/real-estate/article/pope-resources-reports-fourth
-quarter-net-income-63-million_467550_17.html

Oregon:

10) The Native Forest Council held their first conference on Clearcutting the Climate: Uniting the Climate and Forest Protection Movements, a conference of science and action, at Oregon State University, January 26, 2008 in Eugene. Several excellent presentations filled the morning program. The Conference was video taped and can be viewed at: http://www.stopclearcuttingcalifornia.org/html/expertsonvideo.html Look for Doug Heiken’s power point presentation on Forest Carbon Myths: http://www.stopclearcuttingcalifornia.org/ (Scroll down to Power Point Presentation) Heiken started with a collection of myths promulgated by the California Forest Products Association and proceeded to debunk them backing up his arguments with scientific citations. His paper on the same topic can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/2n96m5 . Here’s an excerpt from an article by Mark Harmon, et al. Harmon was one of the presenters at the conference. He’s teaches in the Forestry Department of Oregon State. “Simulations of carbon storage suggest that conversion of old-growth forests to young fast-growing forests will not decrease atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) in general, as has been suggested recently. During simulated timber harvest, on-site carbon storage is reduced considerably and does not approach old-growth storage capacity for at least 200 years. Even when sequestration of carbon in wooden buildings is included in the models, timber harvest results in a net flux of CO2 to the atmosphere. To offset this effect, the production of lumber and other long-term wood products, as well as the life-span of buildings, would have to increase markedly. Mass balance calculations indicate that the conversion of 5 x 109 to 1.8 x 109 megagrams of carbon to the atmosphere.” From: Effects on Carbon Storage of Conversion of Old-Growth Forests to Young Forests
Mark E. Harmon 1, William K. Ferrell 1, and Jerry F. Franklin 2
http://www.stopclearcuttingcalifornia.org/html/misguided.html

11) The National Wild Turkey Federation loves it. Eugene City Councilor Bonny Bettman doesn’t. Some Lane Community College teachers worry it will ruin a special place they take their students. Several Oregon counties don’t see how government services can survive without it. They are among the 30,000 individuals, government agencies, elected officials, unions, and environmental and recreation groups who have responded to the Bureau of Land Management’s plan to increase logging in Western Oregon forests. The proposal, titled the Western Oregon Plan Revision, will overhaul the way the BLM manages forests on the 2.2 million acres it oversees from Portland south to the California border. Federal rules require the agency to invite public comment on its management strategies, and this week the BLM put the bulk of the comments it has received online. Making the comments easily available to the public was an unprecedented move by the BLM, said agency spokesman Michael Campbell. The BLM had heard from many groups, including news outlets, that wanted access to the comments, he said. The most transparent and cost-effective way to do that was to post them online, he said. Many comments came in the form of pre-printed post cards with a message calling for permanent protection of older forests. They came from as far away as Iceland and from the heart of Western Oregon: little towns like Talent and Cave Junction and Lorane as well as big urban centers like Portland, Salem and Eugene. Federal law requires that the BLM respond to “substantive” comments about its management plan, Campbell said. And there are plenty of those: lengthy analyses on the impact of increased logging on watersheds, comments on the financial effects of the plan, concerns about its effects on wildfire. Some of the most serious critiques come from other federal agencies, such as the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The agency, which is charged with protecting species at risk of extinction, expressed concern that the logging plan will undermine conservation efforts for northern spotted owls and marbled murrelets. Bettman, the Eugene city councilor, wrote that the BLM’s preferred alternative, among other concerns “would unravel the protections of the landmark Northwest Forest Plan” and “reduce protection for wildlife and streamside reserves.” http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=60988&sid=1&fid=1

California:

12) Disturbing the peace guilty pleas resulted in fines of $100 each yesterday for Clifford J. Bates, 28, Redway and Eugene Calvin Smith, 18 of Oklahoma who were arrested after riding logs down the rain-swollen Eel River Wednesday afternoon. Fortuna Justice court Judge William Porter Guthrie suspended ten-day jail sentences and placed the young men on probation for one year. Wednesday’s log riding exhibition from Myers Flat to the Dyerville Bridge lined the riverbank with several hundred people and stopped traffic on Highway 101 when motorists paused to watch the rough-riding race. A rescue party was ignored by the pair and they didn’t stop their wild ride until ordered from the river by a sheriff’s deputy. http://kymk.wordpress.com/2008/01/31/logs-on-the-north-coast-what-do-they-say-about-logging-
practices/

13) LAKESIDE – Crews working for the county’s Parks and Recreation Department cut down 15 California pepper and arroyo willow trees around the park last week, triggering protests from residents who say they should have been told about the work sooner. Longtime resident Lynne McCleary, 67, said she discovered workers felling the trees during one of her regular walks around the lake Friday morning. She said she couldn’t believe the county didn’t notify the community first. “It’s a loss,” McCleary said. “It’s a loss for the environment and for the people that look at them and enjoy them and the birds that live and nest in them.” The trees posed a danger and needed to be removed as soon as possible, said Randy Ford, a county district park manager. Certified arborists hired by the county found signs of aging and disease, Ford said, making the trees susceptible to dropping limbs or toppling. The work is part of a larger effort to remove unsafe trees at county parks. The county didn’t see an immediate need to notify the community because the work wasn’t touching on private property and didn’t lead to any park closures, Ford said. McCleary and a handful of other residents gathered at the park Friday morning, one carrying a small poster board that read, “Save Historic Trees,” questioning the crews about their work. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080207-9999-1ez7trees.html

14) Cal Poly submitted a 701 acre NTMP for Swanton Pacific Ranch in Davenport in 2007, but it was returned by CAL FIRE. The NTMP was prepared by Big Creek forester, Nadia Hamey, RPF. It was returned on first submission with 68 items (some multiple-part questions) that needed addressing. These included such basics as 1) including the complete names of all the timberland owners rather than “et al”, 2) adding two named streams which run through the plan area and one just downstream which were not included in the Notice of Preparation (NOP), 3) adding “Group Selection” to the NOP and recirculating, 4) properly classifying roads as temporary, seasonal or permanent, 5) and adding the Molino Creek Coastal Commission Special Treatment Area to the plan maps. The resubmitted plan was accepted for filing on January 3, 2008 with an additional 26 first review questions to be answered. This NTMP proposes to use “Group Selection” (up to 1/2 acre clear cuts) on 565 acres of the 701 acre plan. These will include harvest of Doug fir, Redwood, hardwoods and/or Monterey pine. The plan also proposes using tractors inside cable yarding areas and will also utilize helicopter yarding for other sections. Artificial regeneration is being proposed to meet stocking standards, i.e. “group selection areas shall be planted with conifers”. The PHI has already taken place, as have a number of ‘pre-consultation’ site visits by various agency personnel. The plan is 300 pages long, though much of that is ‘filler’. You can review the plan and supporting documents at: ftp://thp.fire.ca.gov/THPLibrary/North_Coast_Region/NTMPs2007/1-07NTMP-020SCR/ – Santa Cruz Group / Ventana Chapter, Sierra Club JodiFredi@aol.com

Arizona:

15) National Forests in the Rim Country face dramatic changes and festering challenges — but managers’ attempts to plan for those changes remain lost in a frustrating bureaucratic limbo. Managers for the sprawling Tonto and Apache Sitgreaves forests say they badly need to update the forest plans they adopted in the 1980s — but can’t even start the task, thanks to a convoluted chain of events. Specifically, the Bush Administration in 2004 said forests that updated their plans could drop many previously required hearings and not prepare environmental impact statements. The new rules were supposed to cut the cost and time it took to prepare a plan. Instead, environmental groups promptly sued, and in 2007 a federal appeals court declared the new rules illegal. Then two weeks ago, the administration announced it would not appeal the ruling — but would soon issue yet another set of guidelines. Arizona Sierra Club Conservation Outreach Director Sandy Bahr welcomed that decision. “We just wanted them to follow the law,” she said, noting that the Sierra Club was one of the groups sued to overturn the last set of rules. “I wouldn’t want to predict what they’ll do next — but if you look at what they’ve done so far, you’d expect them to come out with another bad rule.” And that could mean more lawsuits. And more limbo. And more problems for local forest managers struggling to adapt a 20-year-old plan to sweeping change in the forest. “We’re in a new world,” said Jim Payne, spokesman for the 3-million-acre Tonto Forest. Since the Tonto adopted its plan in about 1982, grazing and timber harvesting have dwindled and the forest’s 6 million annual visitors make it the nation’s most-visited. “Back then, the primary mover was timber, now it’s the need to maintain a healthy forest” to protect wildlife and prevent catastrophic wildfires, he said. The two forests that cover a combined 5 million acres between Phoenix and the New Mexican border in the White Mountains typify the profound changes that have taken place across some 191 million acres of federal Forest Service lands in the 20 years. On the Apache Sitgreaves the once-dominant timber industry has nearly shut down, partly for lack of highly-profitable old growth trees and partly as a result of lawsuits and environmental concerns about wildlife and recreation use. In the meantime, dangerous “dog hair thickets” of young, stressed second-growth trees that result from logging and fire suppression have made a once fire resistant ponderosa pine forest vulnerable to catastrophic fires, like the Rodeo fire that consumed hundreds of homes. Forest managers are now waiting stoically for the next round in the epic bureaucratic bout — yet another set of rules expected out next month. http://www.paysonroundup.com/section/frontpage_lead/story/32675

Montana:

16) This is not a surprise, however, it still hurts to see the Montana Wilderness Association lobbying for MORE LOGGING than the forest service. MWA and its partners TU and NWF want to log up to 700,000 acres of the forest. The final forest plan calls classifies 299,000 acres as “suitable” for logging, however, the BDNF has only logged an average of 500 acres of forest annually for the past five years so it’s doubtful that it will ever come close to logging the 299,000 acres. Tim Baker, MWA executive director, said his organization had just received the proposal and was still reviewing it. But he said regardless of what the plan recommends, the partnership would continue to push for federal legislation that would designate the 529,000 acres, as well as institute larger “stewardship” projects that would enhance habitat and provide for more logging. wuerthner@earthlink.net DILLON — Federal officials released a final management plan for the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest Monday that calls for 81,000 acres of additional wilderness areas over a draft plan released two years ago. The final plan, a 1,400-page document that guides management of different areas within the forest, also adds 83,000 acres to the forest’s “suitable timber base,” a designation that targets those areas for logging. In total, the plan recommends to Congress that 329,000 acres be designated wilderness and 299,000 acres receive a designation as suitable timber base.
An additional 1.6 million acres is open to logging, although those lands aren’t managed primarily for timber harvest. The wilderness recommendation was largely the result of what the public said through comments, as well as a review by forest officials of current use of those lands, said Jack deGolia, forest spokesman. The additional lands slated as recommended wilderness over the draft plan include Garfield Mountain near Lima, Stony in the Sapphire Mountains and Table Mountain in the Highland Mountains. But the plan also left out large areas that were pushed as wilderness by a “partnership” of logging and conservation groups that came together to craft a proposal last year. The groups, which were led by Sun Mountain Lumber and the Montana Wilderness Association, asked that 529,000 acres of the forest be recommended for wilderness designation. http://www.mtstandard.com

17) If you follow the Wilderness issue like I do, you know that Congress is currently considering the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA), which would designate as Wilderness basically all of the remaining roadless land in Idaho and Montana, and most of northwestern Wyoming as well as smaller tracts in eastern Oregon and eastern Washington–22.7 million acres in all, including 3 million already-protected as national parks, a chunk of real estate about the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined. That might be too big of a bite for anybody to chew, but it seems like something a pro-Wilderness group could support, don’t you think? And sure enough, the Wilderness Society and Sierra Club support NREPA, as does the Idaho Conservation League, the major pro-Wilderness group in the Gem State. But you might be surprised to learn that the major nonprofit we depend on to protect wild land in the Big Sky State, the Montana Wilderness Association (MWA), not only won’t support NREPA, but opposes it. When I started asking around about why MWA wouldn’t support a bill that protects roadless Montana, I found an embarrassing state of affairs where dissension and a nasty, back-biting, power struggle have created such gridlock within the ranks of Wilderness advocates that I’m sad to say there’s little hope of ending twenty-five years of Wilderness drought in Montana. I was on the MWA Council back in 1983 when we passed the Lee Metcalf Wilderness Bill, but no congressional designations since then. And in recent years, in fact, we’ve seen no visible attempts by MWA to even have a Wilderness bill introduced. Over the past two months, I’ve talked to several key players in both the MWA and the Alliance for the Wild Rockies (AWR), the primary architect and flag-carrier of the NREPA. Because so much was given to me in confidence, I’m not putting names in this column, and besides, I doubt it would add much to this distressing story. At the core of the debate is a dramatic split in philosophy among the people who want more Wilderness. This disagreement goes back at least fifteen years and has worsened to the point of outright anger. Both groups believe they have the right approach and basically refuse to even talk about common ground–or to each other. Each side blames the other for lack of progress in preserving our roadless heritage. And, of course, if you’re among those who never want to see another Wilderness, rejoice. The opposition is playing your game. This is your perfect storm. http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/green_group_feud_stifles_efforts_to_protect_roadless_lands
/C41/L41/

Vermont:

18) Last Thursday, UVM students wearing t-shirts that read “UVM Forest Crimes Unit”, congregated in the Davis Center as part of Kleercut protest. Students carried signs that read “Know What You Flush Your Dumps = Stumps” This new independent activist group has temporarily dubbed themselves “UVM Forest Crimes Unit”. The UVM Forest Crimes Unit is working to help UVM join in the movement, along with schools like Harvard, Skidmore College and American University to cut ties with the corporation Kimberly-Clark. UVM students are starting with the Kleercut campaign. Kimberly-Clark, which makes Scott and Kleenex products, is distributed campus wide. Scott toilet paper has minimal amounts of post-consumer recycled content. Kleenex products have none. This means that both the tissues and tissue boxes are not coming from materials that are made from 100 percent virgin pulp. The paper comes from clear cuttting ancient old-growth boreal forests, which stretch across Alaska and Canada. Old growth forests help to support ecosystem biodiversity and are known for being among the most efficient in turning carbon into oxygen. Because most Kimberly-Clark products are simply flushed down the toilets, around 65,000 tons of custodial paper waste are generated at UVM every year. Kimberly-Clark doesn’t have the forest certifications to prove their “environmental practices”. Students held their first Kleercut meeting in early November.With increased knowledge and consciousness spreading around campus, the Kleercut meetings continue to have bigger turnouts. Basil Tsimoyianis, UVM junior and chief investigator into this issue said, “We’ve opened our doors to each other, ourhomes have become our offices.” The organization found more faculty support, and got over 800 students to sign a petition against Kimberly-Clark. The goal of this group is to help UVM find better alternatives and replacement industries to support. http://media.www.vermontcynic.com/media/storage/paper308/news/2008/02/05/News/Students.Organiz
e.Group.For.EnvironmentallyFriendly.Toilet.Paper-3186710.shtml

New Hampshire:

19) ROXBURY – With a tangle of branches and stumps giving way to a huge heap of logs, the Taves Reservation looks like a timber graveyard. A portion of the Roxbury forest, rich in pine, black cherry, birch, oak and hemlock, is being harvested by Bennington loggers D.H. Hardwick and Sons. Over the course of the one-month job, loggers will cut from the forest roughly 400,000 board feet of wood – the equivalent of 400,000 pieces measuring 12 inches by 12 inches by 1 inch – bound for use in everything from furniture to clean-burning biomass chips. And the landowner financing this? The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.The overlap of commerce and conservation may seem contradictory at first glance. But according to the forest society’s Education Director David K. Anderson, it’s all part of a delicate web helping to sustain the Taves Reservation, the local economy and even the forest society itself. “A lot of what you see out here is going to be visually disruptive,” said forest society Director of Land Management and Stoddard Conservation Commission Chairman Geoff Jones. “It’s not damage. It’s disruption. There’s a big distinction.” There’s also a difference between “preservation” and “conservation” – between letting a forest thrive untouched and managing it as a sustainable ecological, commercial and recreational resource, according to Anderson. The forest society and Steven S. Roberge – Cheshire County’s University of New Hampshire Extension educator of forest resources – recently hosted a tour of the Taves Reservation timber harvest to educate the public about logging and to dispel misconceptions about its environmental footprint. There are three general philosophies regarding forest management, Anderson said.There are those who view forests as wild repositories of biological diversity that should be left alone. Others, in contrast, see the forests purely as a source of fiber. The forest society falls somewhere in between, according to Anderson, who described a need to balance ecological, economic and social responsibilities. “We manage forests because we need wood,” he said, a demand he said should be met locally, in one of the world’s best wood-growing regions, rather than outsourcing it overseas. http://www.sentinelsource.com/main.asp?SectionID=31&SubSectionID=37&ArticleID=177967

Pennsylvania:

20) Invasive insects, plants, and microbes have had and continue to have a significant harmful impact on U.S. forests. It is estimated by the U.S. Forest Service that economic damages caused by nonindigenous species and costs for control and management of these species exceed $137 billion per year. It is estimated that native forest insect pests and diseases also cause losses of approximately 18% of forest products (e.g., lumber, pulp) valued at $9.8 billion annually. Pennsylvania annually surveys approximately 17 million acres of public and private forestlands to determine the impact of forest pests throughout the Commonwealth. Surveys focus not only on current pest threats, but also on pests that have historically caused damage to Pennsylvania’s forest resources, as well as invasive threats that are not yet here. As Bureau Service Forester for Cumberland and Franklin County, Zachary Roeder works on a county level to advise residents on sustainable forest management practices. http://mywaynesboro.com/news/index.php?itemid=369

New York:

21) From private woodlots and town forests to state lands like Adirondack Park, our forests are a green goose that continually lays golden eggs in the form of clean air and stable climate, pure drinking water, timber and sap, wildlife and outdoor recreation, including hunting and fishing. In an effort to help conserve these resources for the future, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-Hudson, have been particular leaders in creating new forest funding through the 2007 farm bill. While most media coverage of the farm bill has been focused on issues relating to agriculture and nutrition, both the House and Senate versions also contain a wide range of forest conservation provisions that could significantly aid communities and landowners across New York to conserve and carefully steward our forests. One particularly notable measure is a new Community Forest and Open Space Conservation Program that would help conserve forested open spaces close to where people live. Schumer and Gillibrand have worked tirelessly to get this new grant program into the farm bill. It would be open to any New York community or county seeking to purchase forestland for local ownership, providing a tool to conserve public access to those forests most important to local residents. The grants would also come with technical assistance in forest management from the state government to assure outstanding forest management. This proposal has drawn enthusiastic support from communities and forest interest groups across the country. In particular, the New York State Conservation Council, representing hunters and anglers throughout New York, has joined other sporting organizations from across the country to endorse it. Perhaps no users have suffered the effects of sprawl more than sportsmen and women who are dependent on access to woods and waters to pursue their favorite sports. Gillibrand, an avid sportswoman herself, has made sure that her House colleagues understand how the new program would help maintain this connection. Schumer and Gillibrand also have helped to assure that the House and Senate versions of the farm bill contain many additional provisions that could help New Yorkers manage precious forest resources. These include funding for each state to develop a new statewide forest plan to guide conservation and stewardship investments and renewed support for the Healthy Forest Reserve Program that rewards family forest owners who manage their lands for carbon sequestration or to provide habitat for threatened and endangered species. http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=661118&category=OPINION&newsdate=2/5/2008

West Virginia:

22) Today forests cover 12 million acres of West Virginia. They are not seen in decline. Increases have occurred steadily since some logging during World War II, about 1950. The increased forest area is due to more fields and pasture growing up than are being cleared. This more than off-sets losses from roads and development, mining, and logging. Of the forest that has been removed from 1990 to 2000, logging has removed 92%of it; this is twice as much as in the previous 10 years. However, growth is greater than removals almost 2 to 1. The other 8% of forest loss is due to land-use changes. Forest inventory figures indicate that 76% of W.Va. is forested, and that this figure is leveling off. Only two other states have a higher percentage. Not all counties have the same percent of forest cover. Webster and McDowell are 93% forested. Berkley and Jefferson have the least, only 44%. There are 24 other counties between 80 and 90%. Our forests are becoming older and bigger. Today these are not only generally more enjoyable for hiking and camping, but provide food and cover, cavities and bark flaps for wildlife, nesting and feeding sites, and large dead trees standing and fallen. The average acre has 14 standing dead trees, and 85% of these are from 5” to 12” in diameter. Today 70% of our forests average 10” in diameter with a stocking of 150 trees/ acre that are over 5”. Forests have tripled in this respect over these 50 years – increasing in size, volume and value. Hardwoods make up 94% of this volume; the evergreen-conifers make up the rest of our forests. Althugh our forests are composed of over 100 tree species, 15 species account for 84% of the volume. Yellow poplar leads with white oak, red maple, chestnut oak and northern red oak next, These are about half as abundant as yellow poplar, The oaks are declining; 50 years ago they made up 39% of our forest, today it is 34%. Oak accounts for about half the total volume logged. West Virginia’s annual tree mortality is .7%, and it is the same in near-by states. Fire, wind, frost, insects, and disease contribute to mortality. Highest mortality rates are in the Virginia Pine – 4%. This loss they attribute to fire control and it’s being over topped and shaded. The beech is next with 1.3%. This average annual loss constitutes a reduction in important game food by 10% in just 10 years. The beech bark disease is serious. The chestnut oak has a decline of .3%, and further reduces game food. This is attributed to gypsy moth defoliation. Oaks are declining as mentioned earlier. http://www.wvhighlands.org/wv_voice/?p=547

Alabama:

23) Nancy Adele Cammack, 54, died Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008. Arrangements will be announced by Lawrence Funeral Home, Moulton. She was a teacher at Decatur High School. http://www.timesdaily.com Nancy Cammack passed away last night about midnight. Nancy was a strong advocate for the environment and the earth. She fought for the Bankhead National Forest for many years in Alabama and on other issues in the Southeast. She worked with The Bankhead Monitor and Wild Alabama, spoke out at hundreds of meetings, wrote for the magazine and travelled across the nation attending national meetings. She will be missed. If you know any of her environmental friends across the region you might want to pass the news along. http://www.wildsouth.org

USA:

24) Eco Creatures: Save the Forest is a real-time strategy game in which players use the Touch Screen to control units of woodland creatures—named Ecolis, Ecoby and Ecomon—that will protect the naturally beautiful Mana Woods and recover the polluted land. All creature types have unique skills that must be strategically managed. With proper nurturing, they can evolve to learn new abilities that help a player complete the game’s more than 40 environmental missions. As players grow their woodland army, they must also plant new trees to prevent deforestation and revitalize the woodlands. http://www.gamecrazy.com/games/game.aspx?id=12528

25) The so-called North American model of wildlife management began with a U.S.
Supreme Court ruling in 1842 that declared that fish and wildlife are owned by the states and their people as a public trust. It also got a big boost from Theodore Roosevelt during his presidency, when he began protecting land and conserving wildlife, said Jim Posewitz, founder of the Helena-based Orion, The Hunter’s Institute. “The North American model was first articulated by two Canadian and one American wildlife biologists – Val Geist and Shawn Mahoney and John Organ. They published a paper in 2001 called ‘Why Hunting Has Defined the Model of North American Wildlife Conservation,’ ” Posewitz said. “The model has seven basic principles,” Posewitz said. “Wildlife is a public resource. Wildlife was recovered by eliminating the markets for wildlife. Wildlife can only be allocated by law. Wildlife can only be killed for a legitimate purpose. Wildlife is considered an international resource. Science is the proper tool for the discharge of wildlife policy. And the crown jewel of the seven is the democracy of hunting. Nobody gets privilege. We’re all equal. We all conserve, and we all share.” Posewitz said the North American model and the Supreme Court’s ruling that wildlife is a public trust are not viewed the same by all people in all places. “It spins differently all across the country,” he said. “The states have defended the integrity of the public trust of wildlife to varying degrees. Some did pretty good. Some have done poorly.” The worst may be Texas, Posewitz said, which has “has indulged property owners with virtually all the privilege they want. In Montana, probably the biggest sin is that we’ve started to accommodate the commerce of hunting – the outfitter set-aside and the privileged access to hunting for commercial purposes,” he said. “It’s probably not against the law, but it violates the public trust responsibility that has been such a valuable tool in wildlife restoration. It’s a growing problem here. It’s the assumption that commercial users make that their clients are so incompetent that they can’t hunt with the people in common. It comes with public exclusion, and it does not accept the basic principle that we need to share it in common,” Posewitz said. http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/01/27/news/state/20-accessmap_m.txt

Canada:

26) Janet Valdarchi and her neighbour Brian Ellison stress they are not against logging or log truckers, but they are concerned that traffic coming out a narrow section on Saxton Lake Road is unsafe. Valdarchi and Ellison are also worried about the additional logging traffic coming onto Saxton Lake Road from a new piece of road built recently to connect to the Reid Lake area. Valdarchi lives just off of Saxton Road at the turnoff to Vivian Lake, and Ellison lives at Vivian Lake, about 30 minutes northwest of the city past Chief Lake Road. The connector road from the Reid Lake area comes onto Saxton right at the Vivian Lake turnoff. The two-kilometre stretch of road from there to the beginning of Saxton Lake Road is of particular concern to Valdarchi and Ellison. They believe the road is too narrow for logging trucks to pass in both directions, and also believe the increased traffic creates a hazard for people who live in the area, especially when the road is slippery. Both of them say the stretch of road should be widened, particularly if more beetle-killed timber is going to be taken out of the area. “You just hold your breath — you don’t want to meet a logging truck,” said Valdarchi. Ellison said he can’t understand why log truck traffic has been diverted from the Reid Lake area onto Saxton Road since there are more people that live in the area of Saxton Road, which turns into Ness Lake Road. http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=116885&Itemid=556

27) More than 520 Canadian book publishers, magazines, newspapers and printers now have Ancient Forest Friendly or eco-paper purchasing policies in place, up from 172 publishers, printers and magazines at the beginning of 2007, a 300% increase. Meeting this increased market, seventeen additional eco-papers were available to publishers in 2007. Whilst most paper producers faced record losses and mill closures in 2007, green paper mills fared well with increased sales and market access. One mill, Cascades Fine Paper, saw a 235% jump in the sales of their 100% recycled paper. Sales for Domtar Inc’s FSC paper doubled from 2006 to 2007. Also, new polling unveiled in the report shows these environmental initiatives – including printing publications on recycled paper – are greatly supported by Canadian consumers. Ninety five per cent of Canadians say an environmental policy and progress toward meeting its targets are important benchmarks of a publishing company’s environmental integrity. “The only bright light for the paper industry this past year has been a green light,” said Nicole Rycroft, executive director of Markets Initiative. “The forestry and paper industries are often deemed to lack innovation, but with green product demand rising as it is, there are a number of Canadian mills already benefiting from environmental innovation. This is good news for the climate and Canada’s Boreal Forest.” She added while environmental leadership has been strong, companies must make concrete environmental actions to gain consumer trust. The report found 78 per cent of Canadians believe companies are marketing themselves to be greener than they really are in practice. The report noted recent examples of companies overstating their environmental actions, including US magazines that have run ‘green’ issues on 100% virgin paper, including Vanity Fair and Elle US, while Nippon Paper Group and Oji Paper, Co. Japan’s largest paper producers, have been caught in a green marketing scandal. As part of its recommendations, Markets Initiative cautions companies building green brands not to underestimate the ramifications of greenwashing to an increasingly informed and savvy consumer base. For further information: and to view the report and poll please visit http://www.marketsinitiative.org –

UK:

28) On Saturday 2nd February, five hardy souls from Greenpeace, The One Tonners and Camp Hope joined a gorilla in chilly Stroud to protest against Tescos involvement in the destruction of our carbon sinks. The temperature was almost as cool as the reception from the store manager who bluntly refused to allow screening of a laptop power point presentation, highlighting the dangers of agrofuels, to be shown to shoppers. Tesco customers were encouraged to email the presentation to Sir Terry. The manager did allow leafleting and over a hundred were distributed. He refuted in no uncertain terms that Tesco chopped down rainforests. Whilst it is true to say that Sir Terry doesn’t physically wield a chainsaw, protestors felt that such abdication of responsibility was irresponsible. Many young shoppers were pleased to see the gorilla, who was not only warm, (unlike the other campaigners), but highlighted the plight of Africa’s rainforest from the Congo to Uganda and the land grab in places like Ghana to grow jatropha – or what industry would like us to think is the good biofuel, when it is anything but. It is interesting to note a week earlier, The Guardian reported that Greenergy (whose boss describes the company as the ‘good guys’) who supply Tesco are looking to Africa to supply sugar cane, due to high demand for Brazilian sugar cane. One surreal encounter with the general public was with a man who said he had spent two years in the trees that once stood where the Tesco filling station now dispenses biofuel. Over two decades earlier he had been part of a protest that had tried to stop the supermarket being built. He was against biofuels, but not now apparently averse to filling his shopping trolley up. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/02/390736.html

29) London-based ForestRe has launched a range of insurance solutions for forestry and tree crops. The new facility, which has a line-slip arrangement with four Lloyd’s syndicates led by Ascot, can provide fire cover for a range of forestry businesses including timber plantations, industrial tree crops such as rubber, as well as natural forests. ForestRe is headed by chairman John Forgach, chairman of timber group Equator Environmental, and managing director Phil Cottle, an expert in forestry risk management. ForestRe Ltd. is majority-owned through its holding company by an affiliate of IBIS Asset Management Ltd, the London-based investment firm that specialises in the renewable and environmental sectors. Forestry is a massive industry with worldwide annual sales of paper and pulp estimated at around US$900 billion. Demand for forest fibre is expected to increase over the coming years by 1.7% annually, from 1.5 billion cubic metres to 1.9 billion cubic metres in 2010. But between 80% and 90% of forestry businesses are SMFEs – small and medium sized forestry enterprises – having a turnover from as little as US$10,000 up to US$30 million. Such SMFEs often face difficulties accessing insurance, says ForestRe managing director Phil Cottle, making it hard for them to grow their business. “Traditionally, forestry insurance has been bought by the pulp and paper sectors in high fire risk territories such as Chile, South Africa and Australia and premiums per account have been large,” Mr Cottle explains. SMFEs on the other hand have poor if any access to insurance. “For forestry businesses to grow they need access to credit. That is very difficult and expensive without securing bank loans through insuring forest assets,” Mr Cottle adds. ForestRe aims to build up a portfolio of insureds that includes corporations, lenders, investors in forestry businesses and importantly, SMFEs. “We are going to target SMFEs and hope to write 100% up to US$5 million per account and per location,” Mr Cottle says. Currently, cover is provided for fire only. Fire fighting expenses and debris removal is considered on a discretionary basis. In the near future, ForestRe intends to expand standard coverage to include wind and other perils. http://www.lloyds.com/News_Centre/Features_from_Lloyds/Forestry_business_puts_down_roots_at_L
loyds_04022008.htm

30) People from all over the county got involved to find Norfolk’s most amazing trees – those so big that two or more adults couldn’t join hands around the trunk. The survey saw more than 200 trees reported and more than 50 photographs of them submitted. And happily, for the NWT, the largest tree reported, an oak with a massive nine metre circumference, was in its own back yard. The oak was on one of the NWT’s own nature reserves at East Wretham Heath. Going by the rule of thumb that a tree grows in width by 2.5cm per year, it is some 360 years old. Since it sprouted from a humble acorn, it has seen the site become Breckland’s first nature reserve in 1940 and its use as an army training camp and airfield from 1941 to 1970. The majority of trees reported had a circumference of between 421-490cm, which would take more than three adults to hug. David North, project leader and education manager for NWT, said: “We are absolutely delighted with how many people have taken part in the Notable Trees of Norfolk. “Old large trees are fantastic for wildlife, they give us shelter and shade, and of course as probably the most ancient living creatures in Norfolk, they have wonderful stories to tell us.” The most frequently reported species, with over half of the results was the oak, which can live for more than 1,000 years. Oak trees provide a habitat for more organisms, especially insects, than any other tree There are over 10,000 veteran trees in Norfolk, a similar number to other counties. One of the oldest already known trees in Norfolk is the King’s Oak at Fairhaven which is over 900 years old. The survey results will support the Norfolk and Suffolk County Council heritage tree survey and will be fed into the Woodland Trust as supporting information for national tree surveys. http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/news/story.aspx?brand=EDPOnline&category=News&tBrand=EDPOnline&
tCategory=news&itemid=NOED04%20Feb%202008%2011%3A04%3A51%3A393

Ireland:

31) It is generally agreed that a thriving and profitable forestry sector greatly benefits the national economy. Forestry also provides many further benefits, by improving the landscape and the natural environment. So why do we continue to fund forestry on an annual rather than a long-term basis and thus perpetuate the stop- start attitude to funding which has plagued forestry in the past? The IFA farm forestry section has recently addressed these issues and has come up with a number of suggestions, including the following: 1. Pay woodland owners annually by means of a Green Forest Payment for the wide range of non-timber benefits that their forests provide. 2. Remove the Replanting Obligation under the new Forestry Bill. 3. Relax the restrictions on further afforestation in certain areas in recognition of the excellent current Forest Service Environmental Guidelines, The Code of Best Forest Practice and the National Forest Standard. – A Green Forest Payment of €250/ha/yr for all conifer forests, with a supplement of 30pc for broadleaf forests, would have an immediate effect on planting figures. The Kyoto protocol provides no mechanism to reward woodland owners for the positive environmental benefits provided by their forests. A Green Forest Payment should be paid to woodland owners because the services their woods provide are of no economic benefit to the owners themselves. http://www.independent.ie/farming/planning-for-the-future-of-forestry-1281517.html

32) Anyone who thinks that forestry is bad for rural Ireland should get out and about and see what is really happening. There are 16,000 people now employed in forestry and this especially benefits the more isolated rural townlands, where off farm employment is not readily available. Forests are also increasingly being used for recreation, and last year two out of every five families visited woodland. I visited Leitrim recently to meet my forester there and carry out the required inspection of my trees and complete a management plan. While eating out one night in a local restaurant, we noted the fact that of the 12 people present, 10 people, including ourselves, were there because they were working at forestry locally. In an area like this, which depends heavily on tourism for employment and revenue, workers coming in during the off season and supporting local B&Bs, pubs and restaurants are surely welcome. Many disadvantaged areas, which of course contain some of our best forestry land, have this one great advantage, and the increased employment created by the needs of woodland management bear this out. Plantations with some of the highest yield classes in Europe are to be found in disadvantaged areas. These areas benefit most from the presence of forest workers and the business they create. The part time nature of forestry contracting also makes it ideal for farmers who need additional off-farm employment and the combination of tourism and forestry can ensure the prosperity and survival of those dwelling in our more isolated rural areas. It’s strange now to recall the opposition that was prevalent against forestry around 15 years ago, but this has now largely disappeared as people realise that trees do not mean the end of farming or cause rural depopulation, but rather the opposite. Wicklow is not a poor county and it is our most afforested county of all. http://www.independent.ie/farming/bringing-benefits-in-all-sorts-of-places-1281518.html
Scotland:

33) As recently as 1991 there were estimated to be 25,000 pairs. At the last census there were only 5,000 pairs counted. Black grouse are now confined to remoter upland areas with the great majority of birds found in the Highlands, but with small pockets remaining in Dumfries and Galloway, the northern Pennines of England (where there has been a recent boost to the population) and a small population in Wales. Numbers of the striking, charismatic game birds have increased from 35 to 57 at RSPB’s Corrimony reserve between 2002 & 2007. Numbers at Forestry Commission Scotland’s Glenmore Forest are also thought to have at least doubled over the same period, with the most recent count spotting 28 birds in the area. At Corrimony deer fences were removed and exotic plantation trees were felled – opening up the woodland structure and creating areas for planting with native trees. Areas of damaged wetland were also restored and numbers of deer lowered to reduce their browsing on young saplings and natural regeneration. Since 2006 about 40 hectares – equivalent to 65 football fields – have been planted at Corrimony with 14,000 native Scots pine and 27,000 native broadleaves including birch, willow, rowan, hazel, alder and aspen – providing more ideal habitat for black grouse that will further boost their numbers in coming years. http://www.wildlifeextra.com/black-grouse990.html