297 – Earth’s Tree News

Today for you 29 new articles about earth’s trees! (297th edition)
Subscribe / unsubscribe send blank email to: earthtreenews-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com
To Donate: Click Paypal link in the upper left corner of: http://www.peacefromtrees.org

–Alaska: 1) Trees growing up the mountain
–British Columbia: 2) Dancing on the ruins stops the destruction, 3) Trees take action, –Washington: 4) Forest Board clears agenda to obfuscate logging-caused floods
–Oregon: 5) storms and fall small forestland owners, 6) Panel on planted forests, 7) Stewardship contracting OK for Oregon wild, 8) Private not federal forest taxes, 9) 150 workers 150 machine for one landslide for months,
–California: 10) bureaucratic battle has waged to fight university expansion, 11) Mattole defenders ground truth unlogged stands, 12) Ebbetts Pass Forest Watch wins in court 13) CALTRANS hands over 176-acres, 15) Ebbetts Pass Forest Watch win support,
–Idaho: 15) Draft plan didn’t go over so well
–Montana: 16) Hitting it pretty hard this past year, and we will continue to do that
–Colorado: 17) Issues facing Colorado’s forests have grown exponentially
–Southwest: 18) Spotted owl protections hold up in court
–Oklahoma: 19) Come visit Weyco’s Oklahoma
–Iowa: 20) Bird habitat may be threatened by biofuels, 21) Woodland camping,
–New York: 22) 161,000 acres for Nature Conservancy
–Vermont: 23) New must-have for American cities
–Kentucky: 24) Tough new law to address illegal logging, 25) Mine battles,
–USA: 26) S. 2593 means Forest Service solicits for logging collaborations, 27) FS planning rules goes from an F to a D minus, 28) Potomac Forum on Illegal Logging and Associated Trade, 29) Budget plan is an unmitigated disaster,

Alaska:

1) The late Yule Kilcher, a Swiss homesteader who knew the landscape around Homer better than anyone, once told ecologist Ed Berg that trees in the area had crept “at least several hundred feet” up the hills. Two students at Alaska Pacific University recently confirmed at least part of Kilcher’s observation. They looked for changes in the tree line of the western Kenai Peninsula and found it has risen about a yard each year since 1951 on north-facing slopes. Tree line didn’t change much on south-facing slopes, but trees and bushes got denser there. Katrina Timm and Alissa McMahon compared photos of the western Kenai hills from the 1950s to photos of the same area taken in 1996 to see the changes in tree line, which is among the most gradual and spotty indicators of warming. In comparing the photos and hiking into the hills to sample trees and take detailed measurements, the pair also found that 20 percent of the alpine tundra that existed in 1951 had become shrubbery or open woodlands by 1996. They wrote up their results in the Journal of Geological Research. Ed Berg, an ecologist with the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge for the past 15 years, has noticed other subtle changes in the trees of the Kenai. Since Yule Kilcher alerted him to what he perceived to be a fast-moving tree line, Berg kept his eye on the trees growing at the edge of alpine areas. He noticed that gnarled dwarf evergreens up high were becoming a rarity. These trees, called “krummholz” (“twisted wood” in German) by foresters, have lush growth near the ground where snow protects them from wind-driven ice crystals. They are quite small for their age; Kenai krummholz hemlock six inches in diameter have been alive since the 1500s, Berg wrote in a 2004 article for the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. In the article, he wrote of the major change he noticed in the forest of “twisted gnomes,” possibly due to less extreme weather. “Kenai mountain hemlocks aren’t doing krummholz anymore,” Berg wrote. “Baby hemlocks now grow straight up at tree line, and have probably been doing so for much of the 20th century, to judge from the upright saplings growing amidst the krummholz ancients.” .http://thedutchharborfisherman.com/news/story/1445

British Columbia:

2) About 40 people showed up at today’s rally in Langford and marched up the highway to view the destruction. Two dozen or so were inspired to scramble over the fresh-cut trees and stand in front of the yarders and excavators that were working. All four machines had to be shut down for the day. The handful of police on the scene made no arrests and issued no warnings. After stopping the machines, many of us made our way through the stumps and slash to Langford Lake Cave, which has a huge mass of rebar crisscrossed over the entrance like a drunken spider web. The second entrance has a triangular steel cap welded onto it. The forest was cut down to within a few meters of the cave entrances. We found the spot where the camp kitchen had stood, and we were able to salvage much of the food, camping gear, and personal belongings that were piled up and left on the site. Without a medium-sized army of RCMP and special officers to back them up, the contractors had no choice but to give up and go home. The police forces withdrew on Friday evening, and one officer said the operation had required 300 officers in rotating shifts on patrols, command and communications. We have raised the cost of aggressive development on the Island – if the development thugs want to force through this kind of horrific, destructive project, they will need to call in the army. ef.vancouver@gmail.com

Pacific Northwest:

3) A spokes tree has asked consumers to refrain from buying all wood and paper products until tree coalition demands are met. Woody Tree says “We have done all anybody can expect a tree to do, but no longer will we stand still and do nothing.” Avowing to continue the strike Tree barked “Until we have more people, including the loggers hugging us we will move around.” It seems the trees in the forest have become accustomed to the affection given to them by the anti-logging industry. By individual trees gathering together as a group to demand loggers hug them prior to harvesting they hope to receive more love and affection. George Dahl who has been logging for nearly thirty years makes the comment that he can’t see that it would matter one way or the other if he hugs trees prior to felling. He told our investigator on Wednesday that “I ain’t going to hung no dang tree. Besides if we give in to the trees demands people will think we’re loggerheads”. He stated this matter is dead wood as far as he is concerned. Another lifetime tree cutter, Canis Haw relates to our investigator, “I might be willing to pet the tree, but I feel hugging is going too far. The next thing you know they’ll expect us to sing to ’em like weirdos do for their houseplants.” Hoping to avoid any further problems Serf has suggested that petting the tree may be enough to keep peace with the tree coalition. Serf says they may have to hug the trees if the petting concession doesn’t work, “Once these trees start running they can go pretty fast, the loggers are having a hard time catching them.” The Northwester Tree Coalition said they will continue to move around and confuse the loggers until a solution is reached. Tree sadly states “This may be a case of where a tree falls in a forest and nobody is around to hear it fall.” “It’s all the fault of those tree huggers, now we’re all going to look like saps”, says Canis Haw. http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s8i30560

Washington:

4) The state Forest Practices Board cleared its entire agenda Wednesday to dig into logging’s possible connection to the Lewis County floods. In the days after the flooding, giant logs were found scattered over farmlands and blamed for destroying homes and businesses. Farmer Dave Fenn’s fields were covered with logs deposited by the raging south fork of the Chehalis River. He thinks logging in the hills above is to blame. “I’m not an opponent of logging or clear cutting, but I just think it’s irrational to log as fast as they logged it,” he said. Fenn’s referring to the Stillman Creek drainage above his farm, where Little Mountain is bald and scarred by recent slides. Slide shutes ring the entire drainage. They’re the trails left by tons of soil, rock and debris that raced down the canyons to the creek beds below. Scientists say a mega storm event slammed Lewis County with an unprecedented amount of rain, which set the slides in motion. Climatologists say the event was so powerful, it may not have mattered whether it was logged or not. But it’s obvious by flying over that most of the slide activity took place in the clear cuts. Industry officials said they too are farmers who were caught by surprise by the big storms. “The woody debris that came down in these landslides, that wouldn’t have made a difference,” said Frank Mendizabal, a spokesperson for Weyerhaeuser. “There’s 200-year-old trees and there’s 15-year-old trees.” Dave Fenn says he doesn’t oppose logging, he just has one request from farmer to farmer. “I think their rotations should be longer,” he said. “In my opinion it should be at least 70 years.” http://www.king5.com/localnews/environment/stories/NW_021308ENV_flooding_logging_KS.bc7f3fed.htm
l

Oregon:

5) ASTORIA – More than 400 family forestland owners in Clatsop County have property in the December storm’s severe wind damage zone, according to Glenn Ahrens, an Oregon State University extension forester here. He’s working to help landowners pick up the pieces, and possibly drum up some form of compensation for their loss. Small woodland owners with storm damage face an expensive catch-22. Timber markets are grim, and salvage logging costs are higher than normal timber harvests. If landowners wait too long for timber markets to improve, the wood will begin to degrade. Most of the wood that’s down has a 12-18 month window to be sold before it falls victim to rot and insect infestation. “These are not big companies with a buffer and other properties elsewhere,” said Ahrens. “The timber industry, they can recover from these things. But if you’re a landowner with 20 to 100 acres … the cost to try to salvage any of the timber will be high because it’s more difficult to do when it’s all laid down. The markets are terrible right now, so people wouldn’t have chosen to harvest in this market if they had a choice. … All these forces have combined, and now the fruits of decades of labor of a private forest owner to put care into managing their forest will be on the ground and damaged.” Landowners have an obligation to reduce fire hazards and replant an adequate stock of trees under the Oregon Forest Practices Act, he said. “We’re worried about what that might cost people and where they might get the money to do it. … The way it is now, without any financial assistance, there’s going to be some pretty serious losses to people because there’s no insurance and (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) doesn’t provide any compensation for losses to forests.” Some area woodland owners, such as Dave Drury, started from square one when they saw the wind-ravaged trees scattered across their land. On his 4.5 acres, Drury saw piles of 90-year-old hemlock on the ground when he emerged from his house after the storms. In his 25 years on the property, he’d never harvested his trees, and he didn’t have experience working with logging companies. “His intent was to enjoy the trees, not to manage them,” said Ashley Lertora, a stewardship forester for Clatsop State Forest whose job is to help dozens of landowners in similar situations. “But the storm hit, and it’s like: ‘Now what?'” http://www.capitalpress.info/main.asp?SectionID=67&SubSectionID=782&ArticleID=39335&TM=73058.05

6) The title for this year’s series is “The Role of Planted Forests in the Pacific Northwest: Meeting Societal Demands in a Dynamic Environment.” Each presentation will be on a Thursday at 3:30 p.m. in Richardson Hall Room 107 on the OSU campus. The lectures will also be available via streaming video on the web, with more information about the web broadcast, speakers and topics available at http://www.cof.orst.edu/starkerlectures. The presentations and topics include: Feb. 21: Robert Flynn of RISI, an information provider for the forest products industry, and Darius Adams of the OSU College of Forestry will explore the evolution of plantation forestry and its current and potential impacts on markets, especially with respect to the Pacific Northwest. Flynn will speak on “International Timberland Investments, Plantation Development, and Global Forest Products Markets,” and Adams will discuss “The Impact of Forest Management Investment on Pacific Northwest Timber Supply.” March 6: Speakers will discuss environmental services from forest plantations, including biomass, biofuels and carbon sequestration, as well as the challenges involved, such as compensating landowners for conservation of biodiversity, enhancing water quality or supporting wildlife populations for hunting or viewing. Gordon R. Smith of Ecofor will speak on “Greenhouse Gas Emission Mitigation and Planted Forests: Hype, Unintended Consequences and Real Opportunities.” April 3: The presentation will continue its discussion of environmental services from plantations. Robert Powers, program manager for the Pacific Southwest Research Station Silviculture Laboratory, will present “Carbon Sequestration and Biomass Production in Ponderosa Pine Plantations: Does Management Really Matter.”
April 17: The lectures will examine the role of planted forests in conserving biodiversity in forest stands and landscapes. T. Bently Wigley Jr., of the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement, will discuss “Planted Forests and Conservation of Biodiversity: An Industry Perspective.” Brenda McComb of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst will speak on “Putting Plantations Into the Landscape Puzzle: Bicoastal Ideas for Biodiversity Conservation.” http://www.dhonline.com/articles/2008/02/16/news/local/2loc05_starker.txt

7) “Stewardship” refers to a specific set of authorities granted to public land management agencies. It allows for innovative harvest prescriptions, trading goods for services, multi-year “best value” contracting and retention of receipts from a timber sale within the local area. The authority places conditions on the types of projects that can be implemented as stewardship: focusing on the restoration of forests and watersheds, benefit to local communities and collaborative development of management options. While initially skeptical of the authority, Oregon Wild has, since 2003, been involved in numerous stewardship planning efforts by the Forest Service and BLM, and we have come to support stewardship contracting as part of a win-win solution to balance the needs of rural economies with the need to protect and restore our forests for future generations. With buy-in and agreement from the public on restoration principles, management agencies can successfully plan and implement projects that supply contractors with work, mills with logs and wildlife with improved habitat without the controversy of the past. Stewardship makes up only a small fraction of public land management. Even so, in the Siuslaw stewardship contracts have to date resulted in thinning 2,000 acres, yielding 25 million board feet of plantation trees to local mills. In addition, the funds retained from the timber harvest have led to more than $1.7 million spent on additional restoration projects on both public and private lands — projects that restore endangered fish and wildlife habitat, improve water quality and build relationships between rural landowners and the managers of neighboring public land. There is the potential for abuse of any authority, including stewardship: Who defines “restoration”? How do you address the negative impacts of logging and roads on soil, water and wildlife? These are important concerns. Solutions include a collaborative process with broad agreement about restoration goals, multi-party monitoring to hold managers accountable for their actions and careful planning that minimizes negative impacts and maximizes ecosystem benefits. These are safeguards that are all present in the stewardship process. http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2008/02/14/views2.html

8) The WOPR for tax revenue generation? Lane County has 675,000 acres of federal land. They want, not the $20 million mentioned here, but $47 million this year from the Feds to the County under this subsidy proposal. At the same time, Lane County has 600,000 acres of its best tree-growing land (far out-produces the Federal lands which are among the best the Public own) owned by Big Timber concerns. The County gets just over $2 million per year from that “tax base.” The biggest, most destructive business gets huge subsidies all around, so the National Public are supposed to foot a tax bill 25 times as much for lesser economic value lands? The vast majority of County Commissioners in Lane County over time have been tied to Big Timber. A few years back The Oregonian estimated that Big Timber, in total, in Oregon gets a billion dollar per year tax break and other subsidies (probably a wide under-estimate!). Eliminating that and redirecting the money sure could provide some fixes for “roads deteriorating and public safety in decline” and all the other “economic” excuses for liquidation ecosystems. Amazing that people are still talking of the oh-so-needed “products” from clear-cuts on public land; while water, an irreplaceable necessity from intact forests is somehow missed. There are alternatives to wood products; while clean water is ever scarcer. And again, Big Timber owns the most productive lands. If they can’t make a sustainable industry with their own landbase. Pahtoo@aol.com

9) OAKRIDGE — It will take at least another six weeks and millions of dollars to clear away the massive landslide that demolished the Union Pacific Railroad tracks eight miles southeast of this rugged mountain community in January. The slide has severed Union Pacific’s main north-south line in Western Oregon. The 15 daily freight trains using the tracks have been rerouted. Some are detouring through Bend; others have to go as far east as Salt Lake City, creating 24 – to 48-hour delays, Union Pacific spokeswoman Zoe Richmond said. Amtrak’s Coast Starlight trains between Seattle and Los Angeles remained canceled, although regional trains still carry travelers in California, Oregon and Washington. Meanwhile, on Coyote Mountain where the slide occurred, a half-dozen contractors with crews totaling about 150 workers and more than 100 machines are stabilizing the base of the slope with gravel and rock crushed on site from the landslide debris itself. Soil and silt too fine to be used are being trucked to a nearby location. Small landslides are still occurring, one most recently on Friday morning that shut down work for a period of time, officials said. Three spotters stand watch along the upper portion of the slide to give the alarm to workers below when the ground shows signs of moving. Water from snow melt continues to sluice down the hillside. The slide, covering 60 acres, obliterated 1,500 feet of track in one spot and another 150 feet below that where the railroad switches back down the steep slope. The lower section of the track has been replaced, but crews face weeks of work to repair the larger upper section. The slide destroyed the rail bed, tore out the tracks and scoured away another 30 or 40 feet of hillside as trees, mud and boulders thundered downward. Geologists believe the slide started in a section of the Willamette National Forest with trees well over 100 years old. As that portion of the ground gave way, part of the slope that had been clear cut in 1992 slumped down, leaving large vertical gashes on the hill and boulders the size of travel trailers sticking up amid the rubble. About 700,000 board feet of timber has been recovered, the large logs stacked neatly along the railroad right-of-way in Oakridge. Once all the downed trees have been recovered, the Forest Service will put them up for bid. http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=65538&sid=1&fid=1

California:

10) Since November, students have been perched in a stand of trees to protest the university’s Long-Range Development Plan and the removal of redwoods that would come with it. But behind that scene, a bureaucratic battle has been waged to fight university expansion. To cut the trees, the university has to get a timber harvest plan approved by the California Department of Forestry. “We’re opposed to the expansion,” said Don Stevens of the Coalition for Limiting University Expansion. “They have to cut the trees to expand, but if they’re going to cut the trees they have to be following all the regulations.” The university says it is following all the rules and has a sound plan in place for removing trees. It received the preliminary permit for timber harvest approval in January 2007, a document called a timber conversion permit. While these kind of plans are typically associated with larger logging operations, in this case it involves less than 3 acres. “It is very few trees,” said Stephen Staub, a Felton forester who is coordinating the plan for the school. Nonetheless, CLUE is opposing the university’s plan. CLUE contends, in part, that because a court last September set aside the university’s growth plan and its accompanying environmental review, the timber harvest plan should be rejected. Oakland attorney Sharon Duggan on behalf of the Coalition for Limiting University Expansion said the harvest plan should be denied because it relies on a decertified environmental impact report and an invalidated long-range growth plan. She also said it fails to comply with the Forest Practice Act and its rules. The university counters it has worked for the past year to address concerns of government agencies such as the Department of Forestry and Santa Cruz County. “We believe that our current application is in full compliance with the state’s forest practice rules and regulations,” UC Santa Cruz spokesman Jim Burns wrote in an e-mail. The university is in mediation over the judge’s decision last fall. The timber plan is related to four different campus projects and totals less than 3 acres. The flash point is the removal of trees to make way for the planned Biomedical Sciences Facility, but removal is also needed for a seismic retrofit at McHenry Library, expansion of the Student Health Center and building a new cooling tower near the Earth and Marine Sciences Center to provide chilled water for research activities. http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_8281568

11) Mattole defenders recently braved the snows of Rainbow Ridge to check on the Old-Growth forests of the North Fork Mattole River. Though there are no new logging plans in this area the Pacific Lumber Company is engaged in a watershed analysis which they hope will result in a weakening of watercourse protection rules thereby gaining access to currently off limits areas of Old-Growth and other mature forests. Maxxam, the holding company that owns PL, may lose control of PL through the bankruptcy and upcoming reorganization of the company. This would be a great thing as Maxxam owner and corporate raider Charles Hurwitz has basically sucked the company dry and run it into the ground. He aquired PL in the 80’s through a hostile takeover and just about tripled the rate of logging of the company that had the world largest privately held Ancient Redwood forests. He kept Pacific Lumber in debt the whole time. The results- bankruptcy and a depleted forest. But back to the Mattole. Activists and community members have fought long and hard to slow or stop Maxxam/PL’s forestry practices with mixed results. There has been much direct action, lawsuits and at least two failed attempts to purchase the 18,000 acres of Mattole lands from PL. On our patrol we visited two large areas of Old-Growth forest that has been stopped (though not permanantly) thanks to the hard work of activists and community members. One area was in Sulpher Creek where, in 1998, activists climbed threatened trees and faced violence daily while the clear cut logging was fought in court. The lawsuit eventually prevailed and the remaining trees still stand. The other grove we visited is on the steep north face of Long Ridge. This hillside is covered with cold springs that run year round. Pacific Lumber tried to log here years several years ago but met resistance in the form of widespread logging marker removal and, later on that year, a tree sit occupied by nine people right next to the Columbia helicopter landing deck. We later discovered that nearly all of the Old-Growth on the north face of Long Ridge that had been marked for cut was still standing. Hiking in this forest heightens ones awareness that although we have had some success here, the oldgrowth in this area is still threatened and PL, or a new owner, may very well come back here and try to take these trees once again. http://mattolewild.blogspot.com/2008/02/patrolling-mattole-wildlands.html

12) Arnold – The 5th District Court of Appeals published its legal judgment this week, finding that the California Department of Forestry (CDF) failed to follow the law by approving three disputed clearcutting plans by timber giant Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI). The court agreed with the plaintiffs, Ebbetts Pass Forest Watch (EPFW) from Arnold and the Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center (CSERC) from Twain Harte. “Again and again we have pressed CDF to look at the big picture,” stated Bruce Castle, president of Ebbetts Pass Forest Watch. “We’ve repeatedly urged the State to require SPI to follow the law by carefully analyzing what the cumulative effects will be for the rare wildlife and plant species that are most at risk from clearcutting. This is one step in getting SPI to admit the environmental impacts of turning areas of living forest into sterile tree plantations.” In its legal opinion published this week, the Appeals Court found that CDF must require SPI to provide a fuller analysis of the effects of widespread herbicide treatments and to use appropriate assessment areas to judge the cumulative effects of logging on different kinds of rare, declining species. Since the mid-1990’s, SPI has aggressively pursued clearcutting or similar types of logging treatments on its vast timberland holdings in Northern California. In many years, just within Calaveras and Tuolumne counties, the company has stripped more than 150 blocks of forest of up to 20 acres each in size. That kind of logging treatment has often resulted in a total of more than 3,000 acres per year of clearcut-type logging just within those two counties, with thousands of additional clearcut acres being denuded elsewhere in the mountains. In response to the public outcry, SPI has steadfastly maintained that the company’s timber harvest plans were legal and that their chemically treated, heavily-managed tree plantations produce lumber faster than natural, diverse forests stands. Ebbetts Pass Forest Watch and the Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center challenged the legality of the three disputed plans, contending that impacts to water quality and other concerns were not legally or adequately addressed. The court’s ruling determined that CDF abused its discretion and was prejudiced toward approval of the plans in violation of state law. http://www.epfw.org/

13) The Sutter Creek City Council approved an agreement with the California Department of Transportation to manage a 176-acre parcel which has been transferred to the city as part of the Highway 49 bypass project. Part of the agreement is to record a conservation easement on the property with the Amador Land Trust, which will ensure that the property remain undeveloped in perpetuity. The agreement provides the city with a lump sum of approximately $50,000 for maintaining and managing the property. I agree that this property should be zoned and maintained as open space as part of the mitigation for the bypass project and, a conservation easement with the Amador Land Trust is a good mechanism to ensure it remains in open space. What I don’t agree with is the recent mitigation work that has occurred on the property by Caltrans. What was a beautiful oak woodland parcel is now scarred by heavy equipment excavating ponds and cutting roads to install an irrigation system to irrigate oak acorns and willow planting, all at a cost of approximately $3 million. The ponds were excavated to create wetlands or “seeps” similar to vernal pools, which don’t exist in the geographic area. Historically, the site did not support any riparian plant species, but Caltrans is planting water-loving plants that will require an expensive and unsightly irrigation system to survive. One Sutter Creek City Council member discussed pumping treated wastewater to keep the ponds full. Lack of natural oak regeneration is a problem statewide, but irrigating oak acorns at a cost that may exceed $1,000 per surviving tree is not the solution to our statewide problem. What has caused me the greatest concern is that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has imposed a mitigation to not allow the public on the property unless a trail is constructed and completely fenced to keep the public from impacting this “natural” wildlife and plant refuge. The cost of the trail construction and fencing may take all of the $50,000 the city received to manage the property in perpetuity. If the trail is not fenced, then the public will not be able to walk on the property. Also, one wildland fire will destroy all the irrigation system and planted trees. We already had two wildland fires on this property last year, which came close to destroying part of the oak planting area. What else could Caltrans do to mitigate the impacts from their projects? They could have spent the taxpayers’ $3 million on conservation easements to protect critical oak woodland and riparian habitat. http://www.ledger-dispatch.com/opinion/opinionview.asp?c=236295

14) Ebbetts Pass Forest Watch has gotten 125 Calaveras County businesses to sign a request directed at California’s largest private landowner, Sierra Pacific Industries, to stop the clear-cutting of the area’s forest. Four local businesses will be honored for their efforts in the “Save the Sierra” business sign-on campaign at a Valentine’s Day reception in Murphys today. Ebbetts Pass Forest Watch has been identifying local businesses that want to stop area clear-cuts and push for selective timber harvesting to join the effort led by the nonprofit Forest Ethics, said Josh Bridges, the group’s outreach coordinator. More than 100 businesses in Calaveras County have signed on. “We’re doing our part,” Bridges said of Calaveras County businesses. “We see the logs getting taken out everyday, but people around the state need to stand up also.” SPI is the largest private landowner in California, owning more than 1.7 million acres in the Sierra Nevada, according to EPFW. SPI is also the largest private landowner in Calaveras County, owning approximately 74,000 acres of the county’s forest. This amounts to about 48 percent of the forested property above 3,500 feet in Calaveras County, according to EPFW. “It’s a request that SPI do the right thing,” Bridges said. “It’s a pledge directed at Red Emmerson (owner of SPI) that we don’t have to clear-cut. Up here, it’s doing more harm than good.” Documents filed with the California Department of Forestry show that SPI intends to clear-cut two-thirds of their property over a span of 80 years, according to EPFW. “The Sierra are a shared resource — how much is being compromised?” asked Bridges. The four businesses that will be honored at today’s reception are Bridges Construction, Sustenance Books, Sierra Nevada Adventure Co.and Two Rivers Trading Co. “It’s important because I live here,” Susan Shoaff, owner of Sustenance Books in Murphys, said of the surrounding forest. “I’m watching it get completely taken apart.” “I see more clear-cuts every winter,” she added. Businesses interested in joining the campaign can contact EPFW at 795-8260. http://www.uniondemocrat.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=25788

Idaho:

15) A draft plan for managing Idaho’s 9.3 million acres of roadless national forest land didn’t go over so well during a public meeting in Hailey late Wednesday night. In fact, not one of the 15 speakers who commented during the meeting said they preferred the plan backed by Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter. Lt. Gov. Jim Risch had petitioned the federal government to implement the state-specific rule in 2006 while he was governor. As one, the speakers indicated they would like to see the U.S. Forest Service keep in place in Idaho the existing roadless rule issued in the waning hours of the Clinton administration in early 2001. The public comment period on the new Idaho roadless rule will remain open until April 7. Copies of the revised Idaho rule can be downloaded at roadless.fs.fed.us/idaho.shtml. Comments can be sent by e-mail to IDcomments@fsroadless.org or by regular mail to Box 162909, Sacramento, CA 95816-2909. Nationally, the Clinton-era roadless rule preserves 58.5 million acres of roadless national forest lands, or nearly one-third of the roughly 193 million acres the Forest Service manages in 43 states. In Idaho, the Clinton rule preserves all 9.3 million acres of roadless national forest land in the state under one management designation. But if state and Forest Service officials have their way, management of roadless lands in Idaho could soon change. Instead of the Clinton rule, the state’s roadless lands would be managed under what some say is both a less protective and more complicated plan. http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?ID=2005119396

Montana:

16) Stupack, the owner of Tough Go Logging, is now neck deep in fuel reduction projects on the Flathead National Forest as a subcontractor on projects in the Swan Valley and on his own contract in the Blankenship area north of Columbia Falls. But those projects and others — nine across the Flathead Forest and hundreds across the country — were approved under a special rule that has been found unlawful by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In ruling in favor of the Sierra Club, the court ordered a lower court to issue an injunction to stop projects approved under the “categorical exclusion” rule, but that has yet to happen. Until the injunction is issued, projects on the Flathead and other national forests will proceed. “We have been hitting it pretty hard this past year, and we will continue to do that,” Stupack said of the Blankenship project, which involves brush removal and tree thinning that is projected to yield 4.7 million board feet of timber off 830 acres. The Blankenship project concentrates on a spit of national forest land that is mostly surrounded by private property. When the work started, Stupack said he encountered a “wall of lodgepole” in one area that presented a clear threat to neighboring properties and structures. “When you have that much fuel in your back yard, if it ever does catch fire, there’s nothing that’s going to save you,” Stupack said. Blankenship is considered a “100 percent utilization” project, with Stupack using specialized chipping equipment to grind up small trees for use as boiler fuel. There are no slash piles to be burned. “We’re supplying about 12 different businesses in four western states with materials off this project,” Stupack said. Last year, that aspect of the project attracted visiting foresters from Kosovo, Jamaica and the west African nation of Liberia. http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2008/02/17/news/news01.txt

Colorado:

17) MONTROSE — Local leaders appointed to a recently formed Forest Health Advisory Council say that a concerted effort representing diverse voices could help strengthen forest health measures. Gov. Bill Ritter on Tuesday announced the formation of the council, which includes representatives from Montrose and Olathe. The council will begin work on a short-term action plan to address forest health concerns, while also developing strategies for long-term sustainability, according to Ritter’s office. In the past several years, the issues facing Colorado’s forests have grown exponentially — aided by drought, the invasion of beetles and development of sudden aspen decline. Olathe-resident Ronald Turley, an electrical utility industry representative and council member, said he would like to see electrical transmission grid reliability given consideration in forest plans. Much of these grid components run through forested areas. This infrastructure should also be addressed in the creation of community wildlife protection plans. Renewable energy should be discussed, he added. Before any action is taken, however, the council must get everyone up to speed and on the same page, Fishering said. This may be the immediate challenge for the council. “The goal is to try to pull it all together so we aren’t fragmenting our approach,” she said. “How you get that done will be tricky.” The 24-person group model originating from Arizona is viewed by Turley as a good format and approach. “The issues are so complex that you need a diverse field of expertise to find these solutions,” he said. In its short-term plan, the council is to address implementation of community wildlife protection plans, forest improvement districts, economic incentives to reduce forest treatment costs and stewardship and forest restoration projects. Southwestern Colorado’s forests have had some of the deepest budget cuts in the state. Locally, efforts are focused on budget issues for the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests, Fishering said. http://www.montrosepress.com/articles/2008/02/13/news/doc47b3a39f385b9752182664.txt

Southwest:

18) The federal district court in Phoenix has upheld protection of 8.6 million acres of critical habitat for the threatened Mexican spotted owl in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado. For the Mexican spotted owl, critical habitat ensures that Forest Service logging does not drive the owl to extinction or limit its recovery. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated the critical habitat for the owl in 2004, but the designation was challenged in court by the Arizona Cattle Growers’ Association. The cattle growers alleged that the Fish and Wildlife Service’s critical habitat designation unlawfully included areas not occupied by the species, failed to rely on the best available science, and failed to account for the economic impact of the designation. In a ruling handed down February 1, the court rejected all the Cattle Growers’ arguments. “This was a complete victory for the Mexican spotted owl,” said attorney Matt Kenna of the Western Environmental Law Center, which represented the Center for Biological Diversity in the case. “All arguments of the Arizona Cattle Growers were rejected, and the critical habitat designation was upheld.” A published study by the Center for Biological Diversity found that species with designated critical habitat were more than twice as likely to have an improving status and were less than half as likely to be declining as compared to species without critical habitat. “Despite the efforts of the Cattle Growers, the Mexican spotted owl has a chance at recovery,” said Greenwald. “Critical habitat provides an absolutely essential tool to save the owl and the forest habitats it depends on.” The Mexican spotted owl occurs in forests and rocky canyonlands throughout the southwestern United States and Mexico. Their breeding range extends from the southern Rocky Mountains in Colorado and the Colorado Plateau in southern Utah, south through Arizona and New Mexico, and extends along the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains to the southern end of the Mexican Plateau. Although widely distributed in the southwest, this bird is restricted to isolated tracts of breeding habitat and may be susceptible to habitat loss and climate change due to the owl’s dependence on certain microhabitats that mimic mature forests, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2008/2008-02-15-094.asp

Oklahoma:

19) Several changes affecting the public’s access to 450,000 acres of Weyerhaeuser Company private land are expected to be part of an agreement being drafted by the timber company and the state. The likelihood of greater restric-tion access was cited during testi-mony by assistant wildlife director Richard Hatcher before the House Environment and Wildlife sub-committee. The bill debated by the subcom-mittee is House Bill 2544. Changes in the bill were OK’d. The amended legislation, which may be used in the negotiations, now goes to the House Natural Resources Committee for a vote. The state is negotiating a new contract as the 10-year-old agree-ment establishing the Three Rivers Wildlife Management Area is due to expire in less than three months. Negotiations with the company have been ongoing for some time, and have most recently been with officials at the highest level of the wildlife department. There was no indication by either Hatcher or Chapman when a new contract may be signed. “We may not enjoy free access in the future,” Hatcher said. He said people shouldn’t expect to have automatic access as in the past, and the length of the agreement proba-bly will be no more than two or three years, he said. It could possi-bly be from year to year, he added. “We just don’t want people out there wandering around” on the 5,000 miles of roads that are some-times used by groups of unsuper-vised visitors, he noted. The company legislative and public affairs spokesperson said Weyerhaeuser officials want to address the safety issue before an accident occurs, and noticed while there have not been serious acci-dents on the acreage there have been “a lot of close calls.” Hatcher said that Weyerhaeuser has been insisting on new restric-tions. Also, apparently the company wants the fees to go up, and wants some remuneration for giving to state wildlife officials the privilege of managing the large timbered area, and giving to the public the privilege of fishing and hunting. The existing bill states that a special use permit “shall not exceed $25” and that a fee for the three-day special use permit “shall not exceed $5.” But under HB 2544, this part of the paragraph on fees would be stricken, leaving open the likeli-hood of raising the fee amount. http://www.lonestarjeepclub.org/board/showthread.php?t=18312

Iowa:

20) MAQUOKETA – Iowans must really love their birds — they spend $45 million every year on bird food alone, according to an Iowa wildlife specialist. Jim Pease, an associate professor at Iowa State University and an extension wildlife specialist, spoke at the Hurstville Interpretive Center near Maquoketa recently on migrating birds and birding in Iowa to about 100 avid avian fans. Some migrating birds come from the north to winter locally. They consider Iowa as their “tropics,” Pease said. Other species migrate from this area south, some flying thousands of miles in both directions. They all face the same dangers and challenges in their annual journeys. “Migration is dangerous. Storms and big fires can affect their navigation. Thousands fly into tall buildings, towers and guide wires. We’re losing a lot of their resting habitat — wetlands, woodlands and prairie,” Pease said. In Iowa, nearly 99 percent of glacial potholes, which covered the state in the early 1800s, have been drained, so migrating waterfowl have few natural resting sites. Wood thrush have disappeared with the woodlands and Eastern meadowlarks with the prairies. But Iowa has made progress since 1985, with 100,000 acres of woodland restored, a million acres of trees replanted and twice as much cropland converted to grassland, Pease said. Now those conservation successes are being eroded due to the demand for ethanol and the cropland to grow it. “People look at woodlands and grasslands as biofuels now, and the potential consequences for birds is dire,” Pease said. “We could lose another half a million acres this year again.” http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=191109

21) It was not much, really, just a narrow strip of woodland alongside the Wapsipinicon River in Northeast Iowa. My dad’s younger brother, Wayne, had purchased the land from the county sometime in the mid-1960s. I have no idea what he paid for it; I was much too young to care about financial matters. For almost three decades, this bit of timber provided the adults of my family with a quiet place to relax, and for us kids, it was paradise – a wilderness in which we were free to run wild in relative safety. Every trip out to the Timber was cause for excitement and anticipation. I remember leaning over the front seat of the family station wagon as we approached the access road that led down to the river. Dad would slow the car to a crawl and steer carefully over the narrow wooden plank bridge, then into the stand of small evergreens, and past Uncle Arnold’s potato garden. Then the road narrowed again, becoming little more than a wide path, deeply rutted by spring rains and winding through taller stands of hickory, walnut, oak and elm trees. When we finally emerged into the clearing that had become our private campground, we would first look around to see if other members of the family might be there, and then we were off to explore. There was always something new, some little change that Mother Nature had created since the last time we had visited. When I was very young, we camped in tents, the heavy canvas kind with exterior aluminum frames that had to be laid out, fitted together, raised up, and secured to the ground. It took at least two adults – or four kids – to slip the poles through the loops attached to the canvas, and then hoist the tent into place. Our large, drab green tent was big enough for our entire family of six, our sleeping bags and personal items. During the summer months, the Timber and the Wapsi became like a second home to us. Each year my dad and his three brothers would make improvements to our outdoor living quarters. They were all excellent carpenters, skills passed on to them from my grandfather, who was also on hand to give assistance and advice on various projects. Soon, our campground resembled a county park with two screened wooden shelters, a large cinderblock fireplace, swings and a volleyball net, a smokehouse, wash area, clothes line, and of course, the latrine (a two-holer with real toilet seats!). http://kspitz.wordpress.com/2008/02/15/the-timber-2nd-draft/

New York:

22) As was fervently hoped, the bulk of the 161,000 acres of the stunning Finch, Pruyn lands acquired last year by the Adirondack Chapter of the Nature Conservancy for $110 million will be transferred over time to the state and become part of the forever wild Forest Preserve. Or through easements will become accessible for public recreation for the first time since the Civil War. Much of the heartland of the property will continue as a sustainable forest, to be sold eventually to a green certified timber company. Trees will be cut. Logs will be hauled, and jobs kept. What an accomplishment, an acquisition for the ages that keeps the forest working. Now, the deal is not sealed. The wildly varied lands need to be appraised and prices agreed to, and various towns need to sign off as well on what is an agreement in principle. Probably around $50 million will be involved in the first phase of what is expected to be a set of multi-year transactions. But at this juncture, that seems to be no problem. The money is in the Environmental Protection Fund, at least for now. It’s unprecedented that so many stakeholders, often at odds with each other, are OK with this. A relieved Nature Conservancy, which teetered out on a limb to acquire this enormous gem of a property, can look forward to shucking a staggering tax and loan interest load sooner rather than later. For a sense of the commitment involved, the Nature Conservancy is in a $35 million fundraising effort, just to cover the carrying charges and for whatever remains in its hands at the end of a long line of transactions. The risk the Nature Conservancy took on behalf of future generations of New Yorkers should never be lost in our euphoria over getting into the public domain the Essex chain of lakes, Boreas Pond, the Hudson River gorge leading down to the Blue Ledges, and more than 57,000 additional acres in the Forest Preserve. Over time — and that’s to be stressed — what has been private for so long, and inaccessible except to the paper company and hunting and fishing leaseholders, will be open to you and me. But not anytime soon. Hudson River white water rafters, for the next three years and probably longer, will be prohibited from going ashore along those tempting miles of former Finch, Pruyn lands. Leaseholders, the Gooley Club in this instance, will be phasing out of exclusive use over lands destined for the Forest Preserve over a 10-year period. http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=664509&category=REGIONOTHER&BCCode=&newsdate
=2/17/2008

Vermont:

23) BURLINGTON —Increasingly, trees are the new must-have for American cities. Some prodded by environmental awareness, some by regulatory edict, they’re stepping up tree plantings in hopes of improving air quality, reducing energy consumption and easing stormwater flows. And a four-man team of scientists at the University of Vermont is helping urban planners and foresters gauge the existing “tree canopy” — or cover — in their cities and set realistic goals for increasing it. Their expertise has been tapped by public and private groups in New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., and several Maryland towns eager to green their cities with the help of private property owners. “Everybody’s trying to do their best to improve tree canopies and work with developers and urban planners to make sure they remove as little tree canopy as possible in their projects,” said Mark Buscaino, executive director of Casey Trees, a not-for-profit in Washington, D.C., that works to green the nation’s capital. “The benefits are many,” Buscaino said. “First, there’s the environmental. Trees cool things. They remove particulates in the air. They’re linked to mitigating storm water flows, which is an enormous problem in all urban areas because there’s so much impervious surface.” http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2008/02/17/growing_trend_vermont_scientists_he
lp_boost_cities_tree_efforts/

Kentucky:

24) FRANKFORT – Mitchum Whitaker’s heart sank when he saw what loggers had done to his property. Bulldozer tracks running to and fro. Freshly sawn stumps left where giant oaks had towered above the understory. Broken tree tops cluttering the ground. On the timber market, the 12 trees that were taken from his Letcher County property were worth an estimated $5,000. To Whitaker, they were priceless, especially one that he had often sat beneath whiling away the hours with his grandfather, father and later his son. “We had our initials carved into that tree,” Whitaker said. “When I went up there and saw that tree cut down, it was like sticking a knife in you.” Tree thieves have been blamed for stealing timber across the country, often taking advantage of elderly and absentee landowners. When confronted, some may claim they didn’t realize they had crossed property lines. In many cases, they’ve had little to fear from prosecutors who may consider the matter a property dispute. That could be changing in Kentucky. Lawmakers are considering two bills in the General Assembly that would make sawing down someone else’s trees a felony, punishable by one to five years in prison. State Rep. Leslie Combs, D-Pikeville, is sponsoring legislation that also would require land owners, under penalty of prosecution, to mail written notification to adjacent property owners if loggers are going to be cutting trees. The legislation would require that logs be marked or branded to show which company cut them, in case a dispute arises. And rangers from the state Division of Forestry would be given additional responsibility to investigate complaints. “It’s a pretty tough bill,” Combs said. “People see it and they immediately cringe.” http://www.sunherald.com/306/story/375386.html

25) Standing on a rocky outcropping high on Black Mountain in Wise County, the horizon stretches for miles. But the view isn’t suitable for a picture postcard. Tree-covered ridges once stood here, but now there is a vast, empty stretch of disturbed earth. No birds sing. Nothing moves – except the coal and logging trucks that traverse the winding, mountain road that leads to Kentucky. For better or worse, this is what surface mining looks like. It is an inherently destructive process that is consuming more of the nation’s mountains in a bid to slake an unquenchable thirst for energy. “THIS IS bigger than we are. It’s bigger than Black Mountain,” Kathy Selvage, a coal miner’s daughter turned activist, said as she led visitors on a tour of her home county last week. “The big story, the big picture is how we derive the energy we need.” About 25 percent of Wise County’s land has been subjected to surface mining with even more under lease and at risk, according to environmental groups. State officials don’t dispute the figure, but are quick to point out that not all the mining is recent. And some involves re-mining of abandoned mine sites – a process that can be beneficial if proper reclamation work follows. Surface mining has a long history in Southwest Virginia, but it only recently became the dominant form. Proponents argue economics. Surface mining requires far less manpower than underground mining and it can be used to recover much thinner seams of coal. Once mining is completed, newly flattened land can be used as a site for schools, hospitals and shopping centers. The best mining companies work to minimize impact on communities and the land. Others operate with little regard for residents – blasting close to homes and driving down property values. Surface mines have grown in size and crept closer to communities, some of which have disappeared. The Black Mountain mines are moving steadily toward Appalachia, with predictable results. “Appalachia, itself, is dying,” said Laura Miller, who recently moved back to Wise County from Louisiana after weathering Hurricane Katrina. RECENTLY, THE U.S. Department of Interior’s Office of Surface Mining floated a proposal to weaken the stream buffer zone rule, which limits the amount of mining debris that can be deposited in small creeks and streams. More than 43,000 Americans commented on the rule change; most were opposed to it. Meanwhile, a survey by the nonprofit and nonpartisan Civil Society Institute think tank found that two out of three Americans opposed the rule change. A similar number of those surveyed opposed mountaintop removal, a particularly virulent form of surface mining. Even the state of Kentucky is getting involved. The state took action to protect the Kentucky side of Black Mountain from mining and to preserve the forest. http://www.tricities.com/tristate/tri/opinions.apx.-content-articles-TRI-2008-02-17-0003.html

USA:

26) Focus on the whole forest and think big. That’s the intent of a bill, introduced in the U.S. Senate last week, that would direct the Forest Service to fund large, collaborative projects to reduce fire risk, improve forest health, and stimulate economic development. “It’s going to be more holistic, and Lord knows we need it,” says Jerry Franklin of the University of Washington, Seattle. Although they praise the bill, scientists and environmentalists say there is still room for improvement. Fires have taken an ever-larger toll on forests, communities, and the Forest Service budget. The Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 was designed to lessen the risk of conflagrations by expediting projects to thin forests and clear out flammable undergrowth. But the projects have typically been small and picked in a scattershot fashion, says Laura McCarthy of The Nature Conservancy in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Environmentalists have also objected to the logging of old-growth trees, revenues from which helped fund the projects. Under the new bill, S. 2593, the Forest Service would solicit proposals from collaborations involving regional Forest Service staff, local groups, and nongovernmental organizations. Each project would encompass at least 20,000 hectares, although only part of the landscape might be treated. In addition to lessening fire risk, the 10-year projects should benefit the ecosystems by improving fish and wildlife habitat, for example, and clearing out invasive species. Another goal is to stimulate local economies by selling the small wood removed from forests to sawmills. With the guidance of a new science advisory board, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture would pick up to 10 such projects a year. To help pay for the work, the bill authorizes $40 million a year for 10 years. That amount is equivalent to recent increases to the service’s “hazardous fuels” reduction program, which has a budget of $320 million in fiscal year 2008. These funds would have to be matched by the partners in the collaboration. SCIENCE
VOL 319 15 FEBRUARY 2008 887

27) In its ongoing effort to boost commercial logging, the Bush administration on Thursday proposed giving managers of the nation’s 155 federal forests greater discretion in letting timber companies cut down more trees on the federally controlled land. The new planning rule is the latest response by the Forest Service to court rulings that have rejected previous policies as not doing enough to protect wildlife and the environment. Officials said the new rule would ensure public involvement in the nation’s 193 million acres of national forests. But environmentalists said the Bush administration was again trying to strip important protections for wildlife and clean water for the benefit of the timber industry. “In general I would say they have moved up from an F for the 2005 regulations to a D-minus for the 2008 rule,” said Marc Fink, a lawyer for Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group that has challenged the planning rule. “They have started to move slightly in the right direction, but are far from ensuring the protection necessary for the fish and wildlife that depend on our national forests.” Fink and other critics said the new rule suffers from the same defect as the 2005 rule, which a federal judge rejected last year. Both hold that there is no direct or indirect impact on the environment from a rule that governs the national forest system from the Atlantic to the Pacific. “It really is like Alice in Wonderland, where planning for … our country’s 193 million acres of forest land can’t have an impact on the environment. It’s preposterous and the courts haven’t agreed with it,” said Trent Orr, an attorney for Earthjustice, another advocacy group that challenged the forest management rule in court. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23057561/
The Nature Conservancy is supporting new bipartisan legislation to heal America’s forests and provide economic opportunities to rural communities. The Forest Landscape Restoration Act embraces natural and realistic forestry management techniques. For example, the new policy utilizes the idea that some forests need intermittent or frequent forest fires to be healthy. The idea seems counterintuitive at first but many species actually need the heat from forest fires to trigger seed dispersal. Furthermore, managed forest fires actually prevent mega wildfires since managed forest fires reduce hazardous kindling or brushwood which builds up and results in mega wildfires. A policy of prescribed burning is actually more natural than the practice of fire exclusion. Frequent and controlled burning will save communities from the monetary and social costs incurred due to mega wildfires. The Act isn’t all theory either. It is built upon a case study from Arizona’s White Mountains. That case study was a success. Thinning is also used to produce healthier forests and the byproducts from thinning will be used to support local economies. The Forest Landscape Restoration Act reflects holistic thinking and management since the Act considers not just ecological health but economic health and embraces collaboration amongst stakeholders. Some of the potential goods and commodities derived from the Act include, animal bedding, fuel logs, sustainable timber and wood pellet fuel. http://www.conservationreport.com/2008/02/environmental-policy-new-legislation.html

28) An international forum has concluded that while some major initiatives are being developed to address the critical issue of illegal logging, stakeholders around the world must work together to develop tools to address this problem. More than 100 experts from around the world came together to examine the complex issues around illegal logging and associated trade – from legislative changes in the United States to carbon credits for better forest management – at Forest Trends’ 2nd annual Potomac Forum on Illegal Logging and Associated Trade. Illegal logging and associated trade is a major international problem that depresses prices, frequently leads to unsustainable harvesting and great environmental damage, deprives governments and local economies of revenues, ndermines the rule of law and sometimes generates funds to support and perpetuate armed conflicts. A recent study estimated that illegal timber and wood products flooding the marketplace have depressed world timber prices by even to 16 percent on average. U.S. wood exports are estimated to lose more than US$460 million in revenue each year. Globally, illegal logging results in annual losses of at least US$10 billion to US$15 billion of forest resources from ublic lands alone, according to the World Bank. http://www.forestnewswire.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=102&Itemid=26

29) USFS. The United States Forest … no, strike that. Call it the United States Firefighting (Mostly in Forests) Service. This, members of Congress say, is the state to which this venerable agency is being reduced. The Bush administration budget for the Forest Service just released would cut the agency’s funding by another 8 percent, to $4.1 billion in 2009, which would follow on a stream of streamlined budgets. This sounds like a great deal of money for a specialized natural-resources agency until you consider the Forest Service manages and cares for 193 million acres of our most precious public land. Money set aside to fight fires will increase by at least $148 million, but that money will come by reducing efforts to safeguard and care for forests as yet unburned. Firefighting will consume 48 percent of the agency budget. It took as little as 13 percent as recently as 1991. Virtually every other program will be thinned. Estimates are 10 percent of the Forest Service work force, 2,700 jobs nationwide, will have to go, perhaps through retirement and attrition. (“We are not using the word ‘layoff'” Forest Service spokesperson Allison Stewart commented.) Funds to manage and monitor the health of the forest will be cut. Funds to thin overgrown stands and remove fuels, once the highest priority, will be cut. Funds to prepare and train firefighters will be cut. Funds for recreation and trail maintenance will erode. This is significant for the people living next to the national forest. The agency that acre for acre owns and manages most of Chelan County and a good share of Okanogan will in large part be paid to stand by and wait for it all to catch fire. “The Forest Service might be more appropriately called the Fire Service,” said Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. “It’s bad,” said Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., the chairman of the House Appropriations Interior Subcommittee. The budget plan is “an unmitigated disaster,” he said. The budget cuts money for programs to avoid fire in order to boost funding to fight the fires they will not try to prevent. This is not sudden discovery, but the continuation of a trend approved by Congress in previous budgets. http://wenatcheeworld.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080214/OP03/742305401/-1/OP