119 Earth's Tree News

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119 Earth's Tree News

Today for you we have 41 news items. The subject and number are below and the news stories and links are further below.--British

Columbia: 1) Deforestation is a global crime, 2) Forest activist Betty

released from Jail, 3) Logging of ancient cedars Walbran, 4) Timber

West profits up from log sales, 5) Sea Shepherd on Clayoquot, 6) Great

Bear guides want more eco-protections, 7) proposed deal with the

Lheidli T'enneh native band, --Washington: 8) Trees dying on both sides of Washington Pass,--Oregon:

9) Bark-About will visit a logging project close to Sandy, 10) $1.7

million for rights to log the Blackberry salvage sale, 11) Three BLM

Sales, 12) Bend Urban forest vanishing to lawlessness, 13) Bark saved

355 acres of No Whiskey timber sale, 14) 77,216 Wilderness Bill for Mt.

Hood passes US House. --California: 15) Grassy Narrows protests in

LA, 16) Conservation Fund seeks to buy more land in Mendocino by

raising logging revenue, 17) Logging in Stanislaus NF, 18) Sierra

Nevada EF! Groundtruths timber sales, --Montana: 19) 3,800-acre Cabin Gulch logging project proposed, --Colorado: 20) Roadless task force recommends… --USA: 21) Violent incidents involving forest service personnel

--Canada

22) Amazing Grassy Narrows protest photos, 23) Save the Northern

Ontario wilderness, 24) Genetic analysis of Spruce says they migrate

slower than thought,--Venezuela: 25) Organic chocolate growers, --Brazil: 26) Direct Action: Quilombola communities reclaim plantation land,--Chile: 27) Mapuche people in the Lumaco region harmed by plantations

--India: 28) Forest department guilty of manipulating the numbers, 29) Tea Garden Shade Tree Uprooting Association is thievery, --North Korea: 30) Decades of reckless deforestation leads to catastrophic flooding

--Myanmar: 31) government-to-government logging deal with Thailand, --Philippines: 32) 443 pieces of illegally cut logs smuggled as a "sandwich"--Indonesia:

33) army, navy and air force throughout the country to arrest any

soldier involved in illegal logging or timber smuggling, 34) History of

Borneo, 35) forest-and peat-burning cause as much as 2.67 billion

tonnes of carbon dioxide to be released,--Australia: 36) Save Arcadia Forest Ecosystem, 37) Gunns stock value plummet, 38) 14,000 hectares of new timber plantations--World-wide: 39) Rate of tree migration, 40) Green Deserts, 41) Global Justice Ecology Project,

British Columbia:1)

Deforestation is a global crime against humanity and all life at this

juncture in time considering the shifts and weather patterns that are

taking place. With fires, drought and extreme changes happening, the

idea of logging of old growth coastal forests, especially in areas

where change was hard fought for, is a backward step for all, "

explained Lawson. Not many will profit and all will lose in the long

run. Steve Lawson, a resident of Clayoquot Sound and Coordinator of

FNEN, (First Nations Environmental Network) a National Organization

that had been previously involved in the early efforts to stop the

logging of old growth forests in Clayoquot Sound, has said that " In the

hard face of climate change challenges, no further logging of old

growth forests in Clayoquot nor on Canada's west coast should be taking

place. " The Steering Committee of FNEN across the country agrees. The

First Nations Environmental Network hears from communities across the

country. They have noticed a disturbing pattern. Wherever First Nations

opposed the extraction of the resources in their territory, they are

oppressed and harassed such as at Grassy Narrows in Ontario where they

have been fighting Abitibi for years, or Blueberry River against

mining. When First Nations negotiators or councils approved resource

extraction in their territories, they were applauded and given

recognition, money and promises of future prosperity. --Steve Lawson,

Phone: 250 726-5265 councilfire2) Betty's lawyer

Cameron Ward argued in court today, with Judge Brown presiding, that

Section 10 of our charter of rights and freedoms states that everyone

who is arrested has a right to be informed PROMPTLY of the charges for

the arrest, and to be given a fair trial in a summary fashion. Neither

has occured for in the case of Betty Krawczyk, who was first arrested

on May 26th for protesting the destruction of the Eagleridge Bluffs to

make way for a faster tract of highway to access Whistler. Betty

celebrates her 78th birthday on Friday. Ward filed for " Habeous Corpus "

which can be invoked at any time if an arrest is considered unlawful

and unconstitutional.The most serious punishment that the Canadian

court system can inflict on another human being is to deprive a person

of their liberty This should be taken very seriously by a judge or any

person with the authority to do so. Ward stated that the decision to

incarcerate Ms Krawczyk was arbitrary and whimsical. There was no

statuatory principle to found this decision upon. It is not up to the

whimsey of any judge as the whether and in what circumstances a person

can be deprived of their liberty and be forced to sit in a jail cell.

" The cloaking of a whimsey in judicial robes is not enough to satisfy

the principles of justice. " Betty was released from prison after

today's court hearing. For more details, or to set up an interview with

Betty, please contact. Monika Marcovici, monika at

604.733.48843) In recent weeks, loggers working for the

Teal-Jones Group have chopped down dozens of ancient cedars in the

Walbran Valley, reports the Western Canada Wilderness Committee's

Victoria campaign director, Ken Wu. " It's the central part of the

Walbran where everybody goes, " he says. " It's right adjacent to the

most spectacular red cedar grove in the country. It's basically going

to become a war zone if they don't back out of there. " Wu and others

discovered the clearcut during a July 23 visit to the valley. The

stumps are up to four metres across, he says. The trees were at least

700 years old. The Vancouver-based Teal-Jones Group has six divisions,

two of which specialize in cedar products. An environmental policy

posted on the company's website and attributed to Teal-Jones president

Dick Jones, says the company is committed to " Educating the public

regarding sustainable forest management and the use of wood products as

an environmentally friendly choice. " A company spokesperson didn't

return calls by deadline. http://web.bcnewsgroup.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=117 & cat=23 & id=700943 & more=

4)

The second quarter of 2006 was another strong quarter for TimberWest.

Log sales volumes for the quarter were up 11% over the comparative

period in 2005. While volumes sold into the domestic market were down

slightly, export log sales volumes in the second quarter were up about

25% over the comparative period in 2005, and on a year to date basis

were up 30%. As noted in our previous results releases, much of the

increased export volume in the current year can be attributed to fibre

freed up as the result of the repurchase of a fibre supply agreement in

late 2005. Heavy snow pack at higher elevations resulted in harvesting

taking place predominantly at lower elevations during the second

quarter. As a result, the harvest mix and resulting sales mix remained

weighted to Douglas fir, which is a higher-value species. " TimberWest

is continuing with its enhanced real estate program, " added McElligott.

" Proceeds from the sale of real estate were $11.4 million for the

quarter, with the sale of the former Youbou sawmill site accounting for

the majority of these proceeds. This is significantly higher than the

second quarter of 2005 when real estate sales proceeds were $0.3

million. " As disclosed in the Company's first quarter unitholder

materials, real estate values on Vancouver Island have climbed in

recent years and this triggered an updated strategic review of

TimberWest's entire land portfolio. During the second quarter, the

Company completed the work with its real estate consultants in

ascertaining what the portfolio of HBU properties was for the 6- to

15-year time horizon. TimberWest is pleased to report that an

additional 28,000 hectares of HBU lands have been identified, making

for a total potential portfolio of 38,000 hectares of HBU properties

available over the next 15 years. " As is, where is " , our external

consultants have estimated the current market value of the Company's

entire HBU portfolio, excluding timber, to be in the range of $300

million to $450 million, with the potential to increase this value. http://biz./prnews/060803/to349.html?.v=25)

April 1993, the Sea Shepherd ship Edward Abbey entered Clayoquot Sound

to launch what would become known as the "War in the Woods." As the

Edward Abbey approached the dock at Tofino, dozens of loggers stood

jeering and waving protest signs telling us to "kiss our axe" and "eat

a spotted oil and save a logger's job." With a smile I touched a spark

to our replica civil war cannon and 8 oz. of gunpowder let out a

thunderous roar that echoed across the Sound causing the loggers to

dive cowardly for cover. My shot was a blank of course and the loggers

looked pretty damn sheepish as they got to their feet. It was however

the opening shot in what would be a summer of protests that would see

12,000 people blocking logging roads and nearly a thousand arrested.

The Clayoquot summer protest of 1993 was initiated by a British

Columbian provincial government decision to open 62 per cent of the

350,000 hectares of land around the sound to logging. After hundreds of

arrests the B.C. government later handed the issue to an international

panel of scientists, who were asked to come up with a sustainable plan

for logging areas not already set aside as parks. That in turn led to

the UN biosphere designation in 2000. But that did not restrict

industrial activity in a 58,000-hectare buffer zone and a

180,000-hectare transition area. Sea Shepherd did not participate in

the protests because mainstream environmental groups felt we were

overly aggressive and out-spoken and because we did not agree with the

other groups that said they would accept whatever decision the

aboriginal nations made concerning the logging. We warned that the

Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, representing 14 tribes on Vancouver

Island, would support the logging if they were included in the profits.

The Nuu-chah-nulth did exactly what I predicted they would do. The

logging company Intefor partnered up with the Nuu-chah-nulth run

company Iisaak Forest Resources to rape the Sound together. http://www.Seashepherd.org6)

With the confidence bred from years of familiarity with this land,

Seiler steers the boat through the channels that wend their way through

the 3.2-million hectare Great Bear Rainforest, home to one of the

largest grizzly bear populations in North America. Of the 150,000

grizzly bears worldwide, about 13,000 are to be found in British

Columbia. Heavily forested mountains surround us, some still wearing

their winter-white snowcaps. Steep granite rock faces form the banks of

the channel, with trees growing from every crevice, covering the

landscape in a lush, thick carpet of green.Around us the head of a

curious seal glints in the light, while a bald eagle scans the water in

search of lunch. Soon we reach the estuaries that comprise prime

grizzly bear-watching. A large stretch of field is covered with green

sedge, shaking gently in the breeze. Its high protein content makes

this the food of choice for grizzly bears in May, as they patiently

await the arrival of spawning salmon in late July. With abundant food

and a dense forest nearby that will serve as an escape route should

another grizzly come too close, this is the perfect setting for a bear,

and one that receives high traffic, according to Seiler. Seiler and his

business partner, Greg Knox, have found themselves the sole advocates

for the bears' rights in this area, defending their privacy and

territory with passion. When a segment of the rainforest was recently

logged, the two were up in arms. They hired a biologist to prove the

area was rife with grizzly tracks, scat and hair, and protested that

further terrain in the vicinity should be protected from logging and

preserved for the bears. This battle, they won. But the next battle

promises to be even more formidable. As Alberta-based Enbridge is

pursuing plans to build an underground crude oil pipeline from Alberta

to northern B.C., Seiler hasn't a hope of stopping them. Instead, he's

resigned himself to be involved in the implementation process, to try

to ensure its impact on grizzly habitat is as minimal as possible.

" Once it's built, it's only a matter of time until there is an oil

spill, which will devastate everything, " he predicts. " This is a

disaster waiting to happen. " http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/travel/story.html?id=45074f36-a9ed-4f5b-a0f6-85c6c9783

3d37)

A proposed deal with the Lheidli T'enneh native band raised hopes this

week that the 13-year-old treaty negotiation process is finally

producing results. The still-to-be-ratified final agreement is a

landmark for other reasons as well. For it provides the latest evidence

of the rising cost of settling native land claims in B.C. Six years

ago, the then-New Democratic Party provincial government and the

then-Liberal federal government tabled the first serious offer to the

Lheidli T'enneh. The band, whose traditional territory is in the Prince

George region, was to receive $7.5 million and just under 3,000

hectares of land.Three years later, negotiators for the two governments

and the band initialled an agreement in principle with much-improved

terms of settlement. Now the band was to receive $12.8 million up front

and 4,000 hectares of land, plus significant access to fish, timber and

other resources. The proposed settlement announced Tuesday of this week

is richer again, delivering $27 million and 4,330 hectares of land. So

the land component is half again as great as the original offer and

there are three and a half times as many dollars on the table. There

are other sweeteners as well. The timber allotment, subject to

negotiation in the 2003 agreement, has now been specified. The band

will have access to 107,000 cubic metres of wood annually, worth

several million dollars in the current provincial reckoning. The

Lheidli T'enneh will receive a further $400,000 a year for 50 years,

representing a share of the resource revenues the Crown collects from

the band's traditional territory. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=a351b7d4-3768-48c2-8409-3a679e6a60e3 & k=1

525Washington:8)

I was just up in BC and thousands of acres of lodgepole forests are

turning red, dying - response to global warming? Then I drove over the

North Cascades Highway and the high elevation forests are turning red,

dying on both sides of Washington Pass. From others, I've learned that

it's all along the Cascade Crest, at least as far down as Mt. Adams.

Response to global warming? The climate change models, and the Gore

movie, said such might happen in 2050, or we have ten or twenty years

to make changes. I think we have no more time to make changes. When are

our other forests going to reach the point where they start dying? When

these forests die, they no longer change carbon to oxygen and global

warming worsens. These are all protected forests in national parks and

wilderness. It looks like we can't protect them from global warming.

patrOregon:9) Traditionally we take

people out to the Mt. Hood National Forest to examine various threats

to the area. This day we will be doing less walking and more examining.

We are going to examine the claim by the Forest Service that their new

logging techniques are able to remove specific trees while leaving

important features of the forest ecosystem in place...in particular,

snags. Snags are standing dead trees and provide critical habitat for

wildlife such as squirrels, woodpeckers, and bats. They are considered

by many to be the most important wildlife habitat in the forest and

unfortunately also the rarest due to past logging. On the August

Bark-About we will visit a portion of a planned logging project close

to Sandy and inventory this especially important component of the

forest ecosystem to see how it is able to survive the logging. This

will go a long way towards showing whether or not these new logging

projects are any less destructive than those done in the past. http://www.bark-out.org/calendar/listing.php10)

The Siskiyou National Forest auctioned a second timber sale Friday in a

roadless area where the Biscuit Fire burned four years ago. The Silver

Creek Timber Company offered $1.7 million for the right to log the

Blackberry salvage sale. Forest Service spokeswoman Patti Burel says

that was five times the minimum bid. Patti Burel: " So it went for much

higher than the advertised price and that will ensure that dollars go

back into the local economy as well as we can reinvest some of these

additional dollars into restoration activities. " Silver Creek also

holds the contract for the first roadless sale in the Biscuit salvage

project. The company plans to start logging the Mike's Gulch sale

Monday. The state of Oregon has sued the federal government over that

sale. Demonstrators plan to gather Monday in Medford to protest the

logging. It would be the first tree-cutting in a federal roadless area

since the Bush Administration revoked President Clinton's protection of

those lands. http://publicbroadcasting.net/opb/news.newsmain?action=article & ARTICLE_ID=950784 & sectionID=1

11)

Three BLM Sales: 1) Anderson West: Giant old growth trees, wildflowers,

scenic views and rare wildlife would likely be harmed by this logging

project. A mixture of mature and old-growth forest, pine-oak woodlands

and open serpentine savannah gives the Anderson West area the

biological mix for which the Siskiyous are famous. In addition to

harming some of the best native forest near Selma, the Anderson West

logging project woudl degrad the historic Lone Pine Prospect Trail. 2)

Tennessee Lime: This project extends east and west of Hwy 199 from Cave

Junction north to Kerby. The Tennessee Lime logging project brings the

moth-balled "Free and Easy Timber Sale" back on the chopping block. The

sale calls for logging of hundreds of acres and would involve building

new roads. The Kerby watershed boasts some of the last low-elevation

old-growth habitat in the Illinois Valley important to recreation and

wildlife. Many species including the spotted owl require mature and old

growth habitat, and wildlife like northern spotted owls may have moved

into the area due to the Biscuit fire. 3) East Fork Illinois: The

beautiful forests viewed from the town of Takilma are threatened by the

East Fork Illinois logging project. The East Fork Illinois logging

project would affect Allen, Sailor and Scotch Gulches, parts of Hope

Mountain, the Takilma Prayer Circle, steep hillsides above the popular

Green Bridge swimming hole, the tract between Rockydale Road and the

Illinois river, and lands along Little Elder Creek. If the worst

alternative (#2) is adopted, 938 acres of forest would be subjected to

industrial logged. Commercial logging will reduce forest canopy closure

to 40% and less in some areas, degrading Northern Spotted Owl habitat

and increasing fire risk. Seven half-acre helicopter landings, and one

mile of new logging roads would be constructed.http://www.siskiyou.org/ecodefense/BLM_iv_logging_map.cfm12)

The melodic chirping of our feathered friends has been silenced by the

roaring buzz of area chainsaws. Thankfully, City Councilor John Hummel

has proposed that a tree ordinance be placed on the city books. A

municipal tree ordinance is long overdue in Bend. Developers and

homeowners alike have had too much leeway in hacking away our most

treasured trees. With no regulations currently in place, it's time for

The Bend City Council to take clear and precise steps toward protecting

our cherished landscape. Longtime Bend residents concerned about

additional restrictions placed on them need only to look outside. Our

landscape has changed considerably over the past few years. Wide-open

clearings where forests once flourished are becoming far too common. A

proactive approach is needed to protect our lush landscape. With over

62% of Oregon cities enacting preservation ordinances, Bend need not

lag behind. According to the United States Department of Agriculture

Forest Service, for every $1 cities invest in managing their trees,

$2.70 is returned in the form of community benefits. http://www.bendweekly.com/Local-News/626.html13)

Last week Bark finalized negotiations with the Forest Service on the No

Whisky Timber Sale after six years of groundtruthing, writing letters,

documenting agency failures, and educating thousands of Oregonians

about logging in Mt. Hood National Forest. The good news? Thanks to

Bark's dedicated Groundtruthers and volunteers we: 1) saved 335 acres

of forest from being logged, including all of the native mature forest,

2) increased "no-cut" stream buffers to protect water quality, 3)

stopped the Forest Service from facilitating more off-road vehicle

abuse and, 4) brokered a deal to ensure that money from logging will be

used to restore areas destroyed by illegal off-roaders. The down side?

Starting as soon as this year, the remaining 1,643 acres (two and a

half square miles) of the No Whisky Timber sale will be logged and

regardless of the age of the trees, logging equipment will damage soil

and degrade water quality. Worse, the commercial timber sale program

still rules the Forest Service and Mt. Hood National Forest. In fact,

the timber program is the only one of all the various programs in Mt.

Hood National Forest (including recreation and wildlife) that received

a budget increase this year. Despite the program losing taxpayer money

and leaving Oregonians a legacy of clearcuts and degraded watersheds,

timber is still king. http://www.bark-out.org/14)

Mt. Hood National Forest has 189,000 acres of protected wilderness,

280,000 acres of unprotected roadless forests, and over 500,000 acres

of unprotected forest fragmented from past logging. Last week

Congressmen Earl Blumenauer and Greg Walden's bill to protect 77,216 of

those unprotected roadless acres as Wilderness passed the U.S. House of

Representatives. The next step is for Senators Ron Wyden and Gordon

Smith to introduce and pass a senate version of the bill, then the two

bills will go through committee and a final version will be offered to

the president for signing. On the surface HR5025 it appears to be a

step in the right direction, but as a whole the bill only protects 9

percent of Mt. Hood's threatened forests AND it contains a loophole

that could increase logging of Mt. Hood's eastern pine forests for the

next ten years! Specifically, the bill states at Title V, "The

Secretary of Agriculture shall prepare an assessment to identify the

forest health needs in those areas of the Mount Hood National Forest

with a high incidence of insect or disease infestation (or both),

heavily overstocked tree stands, or moderate-to-high risk of unnatural

catastrophic wildfire for the purpose of improving condition class,

which significantly improves the forest health and water quality." For

the past 10 years every timber sale proposed in Mt. Hood National

Forest, including all the clearcuts of old-growth, has used this type

of "forest health" language as its justification. This language simply

does not belong in a bill that is supposed to protect Mt. Hood forests.

There is only one way to change it, and that is for Senators Wyden and

Smith to introduce a better version of the bill that does not contain

this language. http://www.bark-out.org/California:15)

This Fall, we need your help to push homebuilders in your area to stop

buying products from Grassy Narrows. Already this month, about a dozen

folks in LA visited model homes and went door-to-door in a new housing

development built by Pardee Homes, one of Weyerhaeuser's homebuilding

to tell the story about Grassy Narrows and collect letters of support

from homeowners tricked into thinking they were buying environmentally

friendly homes. I walked into Pardee's sales office and asked to speak

to a sales manager. He told me that Weyerhaeuser is committed to

sustainable logging and that he didn't understand why we were there. I

gave him some of our campaign information and told him about how Pardee

homes are built from forests clearcut from Grassy Narrows' homeland—a

good example of Weyerhaeuser's destructive logging practices and

disregard for Indigenous rights. http://understory.ran.org/2006/07/24/come-and-knock-on-our-door/16)

He manages the land for the Conservation Fund, a 21-year-old Arlington,

Va.-based organization that strives to balance natural resource

protection with economic goals. And timber sales here will be used to

pay for forest and watershed restoration. " People will say, 'A

conservation group doing logging?' " said Kelly, who manages its

California operations. " This is all new to me. I am learning as I go. "

The group says it is the first nonprofit to own and run a major timber

operation in the state. And the second- and third-growth redwood

forests it has chosen are in a region where intensive logging has left

a legacy of environmental problems and relatively young trees. More

than 95% of the ancient redwoods along the North Coast have been

felled, according to the Save-the-Redwoods League in San Francisco. The

heaviest logging came during the rebuilding of San Francisco after the

1906 earthquake and during the post-World War II housing boom, when

companies such as Georgia-Pacific, Louisiana-Pacific and Masonite

operated here. " There now is much less ancient redwood forest in

Mendocino County than in any other part of the range, " said Ruskin

Hartley, conservation director of Save-the-Redwoods League. " You have

an opportunity to do restoration on those lands. " The Conservation Fund

is banking on transforming the sustainable production and sale of

timber that has grown back on previously logged land into dollars that

can be used to permanently shield the property from development while

improving wildlife habitat and providing jobs. After buying 24,000

acres along the Garcia for $18 million in 2004, the Conservation Fund

is purchasing an additional 16,000 acres in two nearby watersheds for

$48.5 million ? mostly with state financing. And the group hopes to buy

165,000 acres more, which would make it one of the biggest timber

concerns on the North Coast. When Kelly recently submitted a plan to

the state for logging a few hundred acres, local environmentalists who

had been supportive of the purchase issued a stinging critique and

questioned the proposed use of herbicides to kill tan oaks that have

taken over in some previously logged areas. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ecologging6aug06,0,73704.story?coll=la-home-headlines

17)

ARNOLD - Logging and tree thinning soon will begin in parts of the

Stanislaus National Forest immediately west and north of Arnold in the

area known as " The Interface. " Forest officials have made an agreement

under which loggers will be able to take commercial-size trees on 274

acres in exchange for thinning smaller trees on 176 acres that poise a

fire hazard. The work is expected to continue until November and then

to resume as early as April, weather permitting. The entire cut is

scheduled for completion by March 31, 2008. Loggers are expected to get

about 1.1 million board feet of wood from the cut. Forest officials say

the project is designed to reduce fire danger to the neighboring

communities of Hathaway Pines, Avery and Arnold. Some of the area to be

thinned is in a zone closed to motorized use. Loggers will get limited

motor access to the area but will be required to water roads each day

to reduce the amount of dust that blows onto nearby homes. Also,

logging will be limited to 8 a.m.to 6 p.m. when the cutting is within a

quarter-mile of homes. Thinned trees will be chipped and removed from

the area. http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/stanislaus18)

Sierra Nevada Earth First! activists surveyed units in the Burton

Timber sale last weekend, discovering a continuing trend of desolation

in the Giant Sequoia National Monument. The Burton sale, like the

Saddle, Frog, White, and Ice sales further to the south, were

grandfathered in when Bill Clinton signed the Giant Sequoia National

Monument Proclamation in 2000. The company involved, Sierra Forest

Products of Terra Bella California, was granted extensions of its

contracts fore these sales on a number of occasions when timber prices

were low. Now they're cutting the heart out of forests that, according

to the Monument Proclamation, were to be absolutely protected from

commercial timber cutting. This iron clad protection has been gutted by

two predominant factors: Clinton's assigning the Monument to the Forest

Service (whose sole mission seems to be to dis-serve forests by selling

them off to private interests) rather than to the National Parks; and

by Bush's Orwellian " healthy forest initiative " set up by former timber

lobbyist Mark Rey. Under the smoke screen (pun intended) of preventing

catastrophic fires, the Bushies have opened up the monument to

catastrophic cutting of big trees. As in the Saddle, Frog, White, and

Ice sales, forest defenders located uncut and cut trees that were in

excess of the 30 " diameter breast height limit. In many instances,

trees were cut in bunches rather than selectively. This illegal

practice opens up the canopy of the forest allowing forest soils to dry

out and exposing the critically imperiled southern Pacific Fisher, to

greater predation by hawks and eagles. Worse, Earth First! activists

discovered what appeared to be the burnt stump of a huge tree, far in

excess of the Forest Service's 30 " limit--a limit already successfully

challenged in the Saddle case. This follows a pattern, uncovered by

activists, of illegal cutting and hiding the evidence in a unit of the

Saddle sale. At this stage in the game is it really necessary to argue

about the need to stop commercial timber cutting in our national

forests? http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/08/02/18293899.phpMontana:The

U.S. Forest Service is dropping plans for one logging project in the

Townsend area and advancing another. The agency had presented the

450-acre Edith Holloway Boundary Fuels Project, with removal of trees

and shrubs, as a way to reduce risk of a catastrophic wildfire on

Forest Service land east of Townsend. An environmental group protested,

saying the Forest Service did not address cumulative effects of logging

on public and private lands in the area, and of a fire in 2000. " We

wanted them to look at the cumulative impacts on the elk there, " said

Michael Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild

Rockies. " There is a lot of logging in that watershed right now, one

piece of private property took 24 million board feet of timber off it. "

Townsend District Ranger Mike Cole withdrew his authorization of the

Edith Holloway project. A few days ago he released a draft

environmental impact statement for the 3,800-acre Cabin Gulch project,

near the Edith Holloway land. The Forest Service wants to enhance

wildlife habitat in the Cabin Gulch area while making the place more

resilient in the face of natural processes such as fires, said Sharon

Scott of the Helena National Forest staff. " We also want to promote

species of concern, such as aspen, whitebark pine trees and ponderosa

pines, " Scott said. " We are losing that component of our ecosystem out

there, and when we have an opportunity to enhance and create a more

sustainable environment for those, we try to do that. " Two involve

logging in parts of the 3,789-acre project area. Construction would

include nine miles of roads and 17 helicopter landing sites. About 17.4

million board feet of timber would be removed on some 2,800 acres. The

two alternatives differ in that one removes three miles of an existing

forest road and one does not. Another alternative focuses on providing

elk with cover and security, Scott said. That option requires five

miles of new roads and 17 helicopter landing sites, and would remove

about 9 million board feet of timber on 1,629 acres.http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/08/05/news/state/48-logging.txt

Colorado:20)

DENVER — A one-of-a-kind task force recommended Thursday that new roads

be banned on millions of acres of remote national forest land in

Colorado, but also carved out several exceptions and rejected attempts

to protect the land until the federal government gives its OK. Colorado

is among several states debating how to manage forest land declared

off-limits to development under the Clinton administration but opened

to logging and other activities by the Bush administration. Other

states petitioning the federal government to protect the sites have

held public hearings, but Colorado is the only state where the governor

and Legislature formed a task force to help decide how the public land

should be managed. The 13-member, bipartisan panel, which included

agriculture, environmental and government leaders, held 10 months of

public hearings, meetings and sessions with state and federal agencies.

"On the whole, I think we have a pretty solid package," said panel

member Doug Young, the district policy director for Rep. Mark Udall,

D-Colo. But Young lost his fight to seek protection for Colorado's 4.1

million acres of roadless forest land in the interim while the state

and federal governments decide how to manage it. http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=9134USA:21)

Over the past decade, violent incidents involving forest service

personnel have increased - but just how much is in dispute due to

varying data. The number of cases logged by forest service law-

enforcement officers rose 9 percent from 431 cases in 1995 to 477 last

year, according to just released US Forest Service data. But these data

differ significantly from other forest service data on violence

collected for years by Public Employees for Environmental

Responsibility (PEER), a Washington advocacy group. Citing PEER's data,

The New York Times reported last month that 34 incidents took place in

1995, rising to 477 in 2005 - a 13-fold leap. The Forest Service in

Washington says there never was a huge leap in incidents, adding that

those incidents categorized as " serious " and " less serious " have

actually declined. There is an increase in total incidents over a

decade, though not a huge leap, when a third category of " other "

incidents is added, officials say. " Law-enforcement issues are always

serious, and we're not trying to understate that, but the figures

pretty much speak for themselves, " says Christie Achenbach, a forest

service spokeswoman. " The job's a dangerous job, and we don't want to

minimize that. " The US Forest Service has fewer officers and smaller

budgets than it used to, which may explain why Mr. Gregory and other

officers say the action in the woods has intensified for them even

though the rise in incidents may be more gradual. The number of

forest-service law-enforcement officers has dropped by one-third since

1993 as a result of a " steady decline, " PEER reported recently. Today

there are 660 forest service law-enforcement officers - one officer for

every 291,000 acres of US forest service land and for every 733,000

visitors each year, according to PEER. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0802/p02s01-ussc.htmlCanada:22)

Weyerhaeuser continues to turn its back on Communities and the

Environment, but this month, Rainforest Action Network joined with

Grassy Narrows First Nation to send the notorious logger its biggest

Wakeup call yet. Amazing photos of both the hiway and logging road

blockades are available at: http://flickr.com/photos/rainforestactionnetwork/sets/72157594213840498

http://flickr.com/photos/rainforestactionnetwork/sets/72157594204828391/23)

It's about a landscape and a way of life: Both are about to change

forever as the provincial government pushes development into the Far

North, Ontario's last frontier. But Natural Resources Minister David

Ramsay vows things will be different than in the south: " We've got a

brand-new fresh slate up there ... We've learned from all our past

mistakes, and our history. " But that's an illusion. Ontario's northern

forest is, in fact, a fragile remnant. It's also part of a global

pattern. Three-quarters of Earth's original forests have been chopped

down. Canada's boreal is one of just three with large areas still

intact. The others are a similar landscape in Russia and Brazil's

Amazon rainforest. All are dwindling. A couple of centuries ago,

Ontario was nothing but trees. First, the southern forest of thick

maple, oak and pine was cleared. Then, loggers moved up past the French

River, which flows between Lake Nipissing and Georgian Bay, and into

the boreal. Now, only the most remote 40 per cent remains in close to

its original state. The limit of development is known as the cutline,

which meanders along roughly the 51st parallel of latitude. To the

south are highways, big-box stores, power lines, cottage developments,

mines and loggers. The province has turned over almost all of the

forest to companies that produce lumber and paper. Most is sold in the

United States. The land is dominated by massive clear-cuts and a

spider's web of rutted access roads that quickly become permanent

public thoroughfares. Environmentalists consider it an ecological

disaster that threatens countless bird, animal, fish and plant species,

and contributes to climate change. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1 & c=Article

& cid=1154728213619 & call_pageid=97059911941924)

Genetic analysis of living spruce trees provides strong evidence for

the presence of a tree refuge in Alaska during the height of the last

glacial period (17,000 to 25,000 years ago), and suggests that trees

cannot migrate in response to climate change as quickly as some

scientists thought. The DNA survey and analysis, led by researchers at

the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will be posted online

this week ahead of regular publication by the Proceedings of the

National Academy of Sciences. " White spruce (Picea glauca) is a

dominant species in the boreal forests of North America, " said Lynn L.

Anderson, lead author and doctoral student. " In the face of global

warming, we need to study how plant and animal populations have

responded to climate change in the past, to better predict what will

happen in the future. " In their study, the researchers analyzed

chloroplast DNA from 24 spruce forests in Alaska and Canada. Because

chloroplast DNA contains genes inherited from only one parent, there is

no confusing genetic recombination to take into account. " We found a

significant pattern in the geographic distribution of the chloroplast

DNA haplotypes (groups of individuals with similar sequences of base

pairs of genetic material) that differentiates into two regions, "

Anderson said. " Our results suggest that estimated rates of tree

migration from fossil pollen records are too high and that the ability

of trees to keep pace with global warming is more limited than

previously thought, " said Hu, who has studied plant responses to

climate change for 15 years. " Additional analysis of fossil pollen in

sediments, as well as DNA data from living trees, could help pin down

the actual rate of tree movement over time. " http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Trees_Appear_To_Respond_Slower_To_Climate_Change_Than_Previously_Thought_999.html

Venezuela:25)

Deep inside Venezuela's tropical forest a quiet revolution is taking

place. In the shade of the trees, pink cocoa pods ripen ready for the

next harvest in early November. The pods carry a white, sticky pulp and

the cocoa beans, which are used to make chocolate. The type of

agriculture being used just outside the village of Ocumare de la Costa,

is having a big impact on the farming community and its families.

Ocumare is just one of several communities in Venezuela to have

switched from conventional to organic farming and they are now reaping

the rewards. Jose Lugo spends five hours a day nurturing his three

hectares of cacao trees to protect them against pests, insects and bad

weather. " We don't use any artificial fertilizers, just natural

compost, " he says. " It's twice as much work as before but it's

definitely worth it. " However, the financial rewards help compensate

for the extra work because organic cocoa beans fetch up to four times

as much as ordinary beans. Mr. Lugo and his friends now earn about $7

for a kilo of beans, whereas they used to get paid just less than $2

for conventional produce. They no longer sell their cocoa to local

intermediaries, which have been priced out of the market, but straight

to foreign chocolate manufacturers, which are willing to pay high

prices for organic produce. The farmers have joined forces to form an

association of organic farmers consisting of 50 families. It seems like

a lot of hard manual labor, particularly during the rainy season when

floods can wipe out the crops. Only a week ago, the river burst its

banks and destroyed several hectares of fledgling cocoa plants. Yet, in

the last three years their annual cocoa production has doubled from

close to 20 tonnes to more than 40 tonnes, Mrs. Arevalo. " At first we

didn't want to know anything about organic agriculture. It seemed too

much fuss. But you see that we've been converted. " http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=65063Brazil:26)

On Saturday morning, 29 July 2006, 300 black men and women from the

Quilombola communities in the Sapê do Norte region of Brazil initiated

a new struggle to re-occupy their lands. Eucalyptus trees were cut down

in the cemetery area, and an afro-descendant ritual was performed in

honour of the male and female warriors who freed their brothers and

sisters from slavery and constituted the first 'Quilombos' (villages of

Quilombolas) in the region. Fruit trees were also planted to symbolise

the new use for the land. In the afternoon, a Quilombola assembly

discussed plans for the area where the eucalyptus had been cut down,

hoping to put pressure on the government to demarcate the Linharinho

territory. This includes 9,425.57 hectares that have already been

identified as Quilombola lands by the governmental agency INCRA, whose

study in the National State Gazette was challenged by Aracruz

Cellulose. INCRA is currently analysing the Aracruz submission and the

communities are awaiting a favorable response from the agency.

Eucalyptus plantations owned by Aracruz Cellulose and large

agro-businesses have covered the area since the 1970s. With the support

of organisations and movements from the Alert against the Green Desert

Movement – including MST, Movement of Small Peasants (MPA), Human

Rights Movement, Tupinikim and Guarani Indians and students – they

occupied part of an ancient Quilombola cemetery in the Linharinho

community, in the Conceição da Barra municipality. " We want productive

land for future generations, not eucalyptus, " says Domingos Firmiano

dos Santos (Chapoca) of the Quilombolas Commission, Sapê do Norte. He

explains that when Aracruz Cellulose arrived, the Quilombola

communities were expelled from the region, forests were destroyed, and

rivers and streams were polluted with agrochemicals. This had a huge

impact on the communities' way of life, but some have resisted. " Today,

we took a first step in the struggle to gain all of our territory

back, " said Chapoca. http://www.globaljusticeecology.orgChile:27)

In Chile plantations are concentrated on former farmland in the

traditional territory of the Mapuche people in the Lumaco region. Since

1988, plantations in Lumaco have increased from 14 percent of the land

to over 52 percent in 2002. Ninety-eight percent of Chile's forestry

products are exported to the North and to Asia. Throughout the country

over two million hectares of eucalyptus and pine plantations are

controlled by only two companies. As a result of this farmland

conversion, Mapuche communities are being forced onto poor quality

lands where they are surrounded by plantations. The communities lose

access to water from the end of spring until the beginning of autumn

and must rely on water trucks. The contamination of ground and surface

water from toxic pesticides and herbicides used on the plantations are

resulting in rising levels of sickness. In addition, the heavy

pollination from the pine plantations contaminates water and causes

allergies and skin problems. Poverty rates among Mapuche communities

have risen dramatically. In Lumaco, one of the poorest regions of

Chile, 60 percent of the population lives under the poverty level, with

33 percent in extreme poverty. http://www.globaljusticeecology.orgIndia:28)

BNP men cut over 20,000 costly trees in 3 years through secret tenders,

local MP denies link Hasibur Rahman Bilu, Back From Dharaborosa Char,

Bogra The forest department in Bogra sold over 7,000 trees at a

throwaway price of about Tk 135 each through a secret tender and

allowed local BNP men to have nearly the same number of timbers for

free allegedly under pressure of a ruling party lawmaker. In the last

three years, the same BNP lawmaker-- Kazi Rafique-- also reportedly

influenced the forest department to let BNP leaders and activists

plunder 14,000-15,000 more trees on a Bogra sandbank-- Dharaborosa Char

in Shariakandi, according sources at the district administration. The

latest controversial tender was put to the fridge after a probe

committee of the district administration detected three months back

instances of staggering corruption. The inquiry committee, headedby

Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Sayed Mizanur Rahman following

a complaint by Shariakandi Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Firdous Alam,

found over 7,000 shishu, korai, babla trees worth about Tk 90 lakh were

sold out for a meagre Tk 9.78 lakh to M/S Redwan Enterprise, a company

owned by a BNP leader. The 12-year-old trees were put on sale, dividing

the area in 18 blocks and showing 400 trees in each section. The

investigation found the forest department guilty of manipulating the

number of trees on each block. At least 800 trees were found on each

block, said a probe committee member, estimating the total price of the

trees at nine times the sale price. http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/08/05/d6080501011.htm29)

According to the conservator of forest, northern circle, Mr MR Balooch,

the tea plantations can fell shade trees with prior permission and the

forest department issues transit pass for the timber. "But the

plantations, by law, are supposed to distribute the stumps of the

felled trees to its workers as firewood in keeping with the Plantation

Labour Act. But it has come to our notice that almost 90 per cent of

the tea plantations engage contractors to uproot the stumps once the

trees are felled and sell these off to those contractors," the CF said.

"It is a serious crime and untold sums get exchanged in the process.

What makes it all the more serious is that the forest department does

not issue transit pass for transporting shade tree stumps from the

plantations, yet it is happening depriving the workers and flouting the

forest rules," he added. According to the CF, no forest produce can be

transported without the transit pass, which makes the buyers, who are

the contractors and the sellers, who in this case are plantation

management, equally guilty. The forest department, which has already

"identified," some plantations and contractors engaged in the offence

had hauled up the Tea Garden Shade Tree Uprooting Association president

Mr Saibal Dasgupta at Jalpaiguri today. Facing a tight situation

though, Mr Dasgupta defended his association stating that members of

his association purchased only legally felled timber from the tea

plantations against proper document. "We shall try to find out which

contractors are engaged in the crime," he said. The forest department

authorities refused to buy his argument and are planning action of

their own. http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=10 & theme= & usrsess=1 & id=125232North Korea:

30)

Decades of reckless deforestation have stripped North Korea of tree

cover that provides natural protection from catastrophic flooding,

experts say. Energy-starved residents have used every scrap of wood

from the countryside to cook food or heat homes through the bitter

winters. This leaves the country vulnerable to flooding and landslides

on a massive scale, they say. Government officials have made the

problem worse by encouraging residents to expand farmland into the

hillsides in a bid to boost food production, said Kwon Tae-Jin, of

Seoul's state-funded Korea Rural Economic Institute. " North Korea began

stripping hillsides for farming from the 1970s in an effort to boost

food production. North Korea's policy, however, has aggravated its food

shortage as it is now very vulnerable to heavy rains, " Kwon said.

" Along with the lack of facilities to control floods like reservoirs,

chronic energy shortages have also played a role. " Those factors all

contributed to flooding triggered by a July 10 typhoon that left up to

10,000 North Koreans dead or missing, according to an independent aid

group Good Friends. Most analysts here say the scale of the disaster

stems from the communist government's misguided policies. " The erosion

of earth and sand is getting more serious by the year in North Korea

because of a wrong-headed government policy, leading to heavier

damage, " said Kwon. North Korean residents are still chopping down

trees recklessly for fuel, according to officials at South Korean's

unification ministry which handles relations with the North. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Up_To_10000_Dead_Or_Missing_In_North_Korea_Flooding_999.html

Myanmar:31)

Myanmar's junta leaders asked Thailand to sign a

government-to-government deal to import Myanmar timber, hoping it would

stop illegal logging in its soil. Noppadol Pattama, Thailand's vice

minister for natural resources and the environment, was assigned to

travel to Myanmar next week to ink the agreement to purchase logs which

would feed Thailand's increasing demand for wood. He said the move was

a response to Myanmar's request made to visiting Thai prime minister

Thaksin Shinawatra Wednesday as the military regime believes such a

deal would help in solving the problem of illegal logging, which has

caused Myanmar a heavy economic and environmental losses. Mr. Thaksin

visited Myanmar Wednesday to promote bilateral relations, according to

Mr. Noppadol. He said Myanmar also asked the caretaker premier to look

after its citizens working in Thai factories along the border, in Thai

industrial centres and in fisheries. ''Myanmar wants to rid the country

of illegal logging which has taken away an enormous stake in the

country's revenue. The agreement would also promote our relations,'' he

said. http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=111992Philippines:32)

Task Force deputy head, Undersecretary Roy Kyamko said the new modus

operandi is known as " sandwich " where a documented log is place on top

of undocumented log to hide it and avoid being detected. " In this modus

operandi, narra and other premium hard trees the cutting of which are

strictly regulated by the Department of Environment and Natural

Resources (DENR) are tied underneath a documented timber like Falcatta,

a common tree plantation species harvested from private tree

plantations, to evade detection by forestry officials, " Kyamko

explained. " Sandwich is usually done when the water rises during heavy

downpour as in the case of the confiscation made in Prosperidad, Agusan

del Sur, " he added. He said that 443 pieces of illegally cut logs

valued at P1.1 million were seized recently by his operatives, in

coordination with the Agusan del Sur DENR office, after the logs were

spotted being stockpiled under a cement bridge in Prosperidad town.

Kyamko also raised the danger to bridges being used to hide illegally

cut logs since they may damage the structural integrity of the bridges.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/zam/2006/08/06/news/denr.uncovers.illegal.loggers.modus.operandi.html

Indonesia: 33)

Chief of General Staff (Kasum TNI), Lt Gen Endang Suwarya, on Friday

instructed the chiefs of regional army, navy and air force commands

throughout the country to arrest any serviceman in their respective

jurisdiction believed to be involved in illegal logging or timber

smuggling. " Arrests should be based on preliminary evidence and with

reference to Presidential Instruction (Inpres) No. 4/2005, " said

Suwarya in his instruction, according to a TNI Headquarters statement.

He also called on the regional commanders to intensify security

measures in forest areas prone to illegal logging and keep an eye on

timber transportation and distribution in the areas concerned. The

commanders were also asked to keep a watch on the logging industry and

timber trade in coordination with the relevant government agencies in

their respective regions and to promote the local people`s

participation in efforts to fight illegal logging nnd timber smuggling.

Meanwhile, police are currently trying to locate a retired high-ranking

army officer for his alleged involvement in illegal logging in

Kalimantan. http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=1771634)

In the 1980s and 1990s Borneo underwent a remarkable transition. Its

forests were leveled at a rate unparalleled in human history—perhaps 80

percent of the island's primary forest was lost since 1980. Borneo's

rainforests went to industrialized countries like Japan and the United

States in the form of garden furniture, paper pulp and chopsticks.

Initially most of the timber was taken from the Malaysian part of the

island in the northern states of Sabah and Sarawak. Later forests in

the southern part of Borneo, an area belonging to Indonesia and known

as Kalimantan, became the primary source for tropical timber. Today the

forests of Borneo are but a shadow of those of legend. In recent years

Borneo's remaining forests had been cleared for oil palm plantations.

Indonesia's oil palm plantations grew from 600,000 hectares in 1985 to

more than 4 million hectares by early 2006 when the government

announced a plan to develop 3 million additional hectares of oil palm

plantations by 2011. Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) is an attractive

plantation crop because it is the cheapest vegetable oil and produces

more oil per hectare than any other oilseed. In the current environment

of high energy prices, palm oil is seen as a good way to meet

increasing demand for biofuel as an alternative energy source. When the

Indonesian government announced plans to significantly expand oil palm

acreage in Borneo it met strong condemnation by environmental groups,

especially WWF, which produced a number of reports that revealed the

island's striking biodiversity. WWF's findings also likely played a

part in Malaysia's recent decision to phase out logging in more than

200,000 hectares of key forest habitat in the Bornean state of Sabah. http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0802-borneo.html35)

Late every summer, large areas of central Borneo become invisible.

There's no magic involved - most of the densely forested island simply

gets covered with a pall of thick smoke. Huge areas of forest burn,

while beneath the ground peat many metres thick smoulders on for

months. These trees are burning in a good cause, however. They are

burning to help save the world from global warming. Here is how the

logic goes. As the natural forest is cleared, land opens up for

lucrative palm-oil plantations. Palm oil is a feedstock for biodiesel,

the " carbon-neutral " fuel that the European Union is trying to

encourage by converting its vehicle fleet. By reducing use of fossil

fuels for its cars and trucks, the EU believes it can reduce its carbon

emissions and thereby help mitigate global warming. Everyone is happy.

(Except the orang-utan. It gets to go extinct.) It's a con, of course.

In 1997, the single worst year of Indonesian forest- and peat-burning,

2.67 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide were released by the fires,

equivalent to 40 per cent of the year's entire emissions from burning

fossil fuels. That was a particularly bad year: most summers, the

emissions are only a billion or so tonnes, or about 15 per cent of

total human emissions. http://www.newstatesman.com/200608070031Australia:36)

Members of the Save Arcadia Forest Ecosystem (SAFE) will conduct a

quokka poll in Victoria Street tomorrow and Friday to gauge public

opinion on the fate of a small colony of rare quokkas in the forest

between Bunbury and Collie. SAFE convener Peter Murphy said recent

scientific reports pointed to impending extinction for the few

remaining mainland quokkas unless their habitat is protected. Earlier

this year, Dutch researchers called for an immediate halt to logging

plans after they found the forest contained rare quokka habitat. A

report by research fellows from the University of Utrecht said the

quokka habitat was the best example of old growth forest in Western

Australia. spent several months in the jarrah forest as part of a three

year study to measure forest canopy light intensity. " Conservation

groups are outraged that Arcadia forest is to be logged this spring

destroying the Western Australian tourism icon's habitat, " Mr Murphy

said. Mr Murphy said local conservationists were working with their

peers in Europe and New Zealand to try and stop counties accepting

timber that came from forests containing rare animals. Meanwhile,

environment minister Mark McGowan has agreed to meet with the Preston

Environmental Group in mid August to discuss the Arcadia Forest. But

the State Government says logging of the forest, near Collie, will go

ahead as planned. Environmental groups have fiercely protested the

decision due to a number of environmental concerns, including the value

of the old growth forest and the number of quokkas who live there. http://bunbury.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=news & subclass=columns & story_id=497412 & categor

y=Columns & m=7 & y=200637)

The latest bout of negative sentiment towards the volatile MIS sector

has been blamed on uncertainty over whether the Federal Government may

react to mounting criticism of its rapid growth over the past three

years by removing the 100 per cent tax deductibility of the

investments. Gunns boss John Gay yesterday described the controversial

timber giant's shares as "bloody cheap" and said he was buying them

himself as other investors continued to dump stocks heavily involved in

tax. Mr Gay said it hoped to start establishing plantations near

Manjimup this year and eventually build a renewable resource of about

20,000 hectares which would be progressively harvested at 18 to 20

years for structural and flooring timber. He said the trees could be

processed at Deanmill, which was being upgraded to better handle the

smaller, lower quality jarrah logs to which the industry was now

restricted. Mr Gay said the plantations would either be funded by

outside investors through managed investment schemes or Gunns would

fund them itself. The 300,000ha of eucalypt plantations so far

established in WA, mostly by MIS companies, are shorter-rotation trees

intended to be harvested at 10 years for woodchips. Gunns shares shed

another 5¢ yesterday to close at a three-year low of $2.54, about a

third below their level a year ago. -effective managed investment

schemes. http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=33 & ContentID=154838)

Tasmania is likely to have 14,000 hectares of new timber plantations

funded by managed investment schemes this financial year. Forestry

companies Gunns, Forest Enterprises and Great Southern are all

involved. Gunns is the biggest, with 11,000 hectares this financial

year. Gunns Plantations manager Ian Blanden says investors are clearly

confident about the demand for plantation-grown eucalypts and pine

trees. " The proposed pulp mill at Bell Bay will require both softwood

and hardwood, and so we are in the process of planting softwood

plantations as well, which will produce both sawlogs as well as

pulpwood, " he said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200607/s1701941.htmWorld-Wide:39)

By 2040 to 2050, trees will still need to migrate at a rate of about a

kilometre a year to survive, 10 times faster than they migrated

northward in the warming period following the last ice age. It's

questionable whether some will be able to move that fast. Malcolm and

his team based their predictions on computer models. Their report was

prepared for the World Wildlife Fund, and is called Implications of a

2'C Global Temperature Rise for Canada's Natural Resources. Only rarely

has the paleorecord shown climate envelopes shifting northward at more

than one kilometre a year, they say. However, because the depth of

climate envelopes can be great, measured north to south, trees don't

need to migrate at the same rate as the envelopes. Only those at the

back of an envelope will die out; those toward the front will have much

more time to adapt and move northward. What forests eventually will

look like depends on many things, the report says, including: The

ability of trees to disperse seeds northward fast enough. Competition

from trees migrating from the south, some of which can travel more quickly than northern species.http://assets.panda.org/downloads/2_degrees.pdf.

40)

In Brazil plantations are referred to as " green deserts, " due to their

reputation for destroying biological diversity. In South Africa they

are known as " green cancer " because of the tendency of the eucalyptus

in the plantations to spread wildly into other areas. In Chile

plantations are called " green soldiers " because they are destructive,

stand in straight lines, and steadily advance forward. One of the more

interesting common themes that emerged was the fact that, in many

cases, takeovers of land for timber plantations occurred under

authoritarian regimes-in Chile under Pinochet, in Brazil under the

dictatorship, in South Africa under apartheid. Another common theme was

corporate strategies to continue plantation expansion under the

neoliberal economies that have flourished in the post-authoritarian

years. Corporations have begun cutting " deals " with local communities

and poor landowners to enable plantation expansion without having to

purchase land. Given the tendency for fast-growing plantations to

rapidly desertify soil and deplete ground water, this strategy enables

companies to easily abandon the land after it is no longer productive.

Corporations promise communities that, in exchange for tending the

plantations, they will be given a portion of the proceeds when the

trees are sold. The price the communities receive, however, does not

even cover the arduous labor that went into caring for the remote

plantations. Some communities have begun to rebel, breaking contracts

and burning plantations. http://www.globaljusticeecology.org41)

The Global Justice Ecology Project reaches out to groups around the

globe in order to help prevent the introduction of GE trees into

plantations. GJEP and other GE tree and forest protection activists

have also spoken at United Nations meetings around the world about the

GE trees threat, including the UN Forum on Forests and the UN Framework

Convention on Climate Change. (At their 2003 convention, UNFCCC

delegates agreed that GE trees could be used in plantations developed

to offset carbon emissions.) With no indication of help from

either of these UN bodies, the international campaign is turning to the

United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to pursue an

international ban on the technology. Even the UN FAO seems to be in

favor of such international regulations. Their report on GM trees

concludes, " New biotechnologies, in particular genetic modification,

raise concerns. Admittedly, many questions remain unanswered for both

agricultural crops and trees, and in particular those related to the

impact of GM crops on the environment. Given that genetic modification

in trees is already entering the commercial phase with GM populus in

China, it is very important that environmental risk assessment studies

are conducted with protocols and methodologies agreed upon at a

national level and an international level. It is also important that

the results of such studies are made widely available. " http://www.globaljusticeecology.org