Guest guest Posted September 25, 2006 Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 Today for you 39 news items about Mama Earth's trees. Location, number and subject listed below. Condensed / abbreviated article is listed further below. --British Columbia: 1) Marbled Murrelet research, 2) stewardship plan in East Canoe creek, 3) compliance and enforcement staffer confided to me, 4) Island Timberlands will begin logging private lands in Ucluelet-Tofino, 5) Gov tries to get Betty in court, 6) Betty replies to court charade, 7) Teck Cominco to protect 2,200 acres in Trail, 8) GBR agreement about to be violated, 9) Spirit Bear Youth Coalition to attack government with cartoon characters, --Washington: 10) Marbled Murrelet research--Oregon: 11) Mount Ashland Ski Area expansion wins in court, 12) New strategies to close FS facilities, 13) First Appeal filed in roadless ruling,--California: 14) Editorial against HR 4200--Idaho: 15) Idaho Gov. Jim Risch fails to upstage roadless ruling--Colorado: 16) bristlecone pine, 17) artworks depict how different species relate --New Mexico: 18) Lawsuit against a 2,282-acre project--Michigan: 19) Flying trees for stream protection--New Jersey: 20) Ruth Fisher fights for dead trees for woodpeckers--Vermont: 21) Legacy of red pine falls to the saws, --Maryland: 22) Chesapeake Bay watershed is losing 100 acres of trees every day--Massachusetts: 23) Nine new large and many smaller forest reserves --North Carolina: 24) Logging to beat new Woodpecker restrictions --Maine: 25) Plum Creek fiasco, 26) Plum Creek fiasco #2--Canada: 27) Start of the National Forest Congress, 28) Boreal's value as a reservoir,--Finland: 29) Held accountable for Russia's illegal logging--Palestine: 30) Israeli bulldozers clear old trees --Russia: 31) Shortage of raw material in Russia?--Madagascar: 32) Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden--Malaysia: 33) Gvernment will continue to keep a close watch over the theft of logs --New Zealand: 34) New Zealand's richest man has pulled the plug on conservation --Australia: 35) Save Arcadia Forest changes direction, 36) 2.5 million trees will be planted along River Murray, 37) Resorting to extreme tactics, --World wide: 38) Deforestation Diesel, 39) Deserts are on the march along with deforestation and biofuels are more of the problem not the solution.British Columbia:1) VANCOUVER Ms. Chatwinm a rare- and endangered-species biologist for the provincial government on Vancouver Island, is doing one of the most difficult wildlife-protection jobs on the West Coast. She and other members of the British Columbia Marbled Murrelet Recovery Team are mapping the nesting sites of an endangered bird that simply doesn't want to be found, in order to help protect the sites from logging. For a century on the Pacific Coast, researchers hunted in vain for the nests of marbled murrelets. They did not find the first one until 1990, when an egg was located in a small mossy indentation 50 metres up in an old-growth tree on southern Vancouver Island. Many more have been found since then, but for the past decade, working with scanty information about where the birds might nest, the provincial government has been setting aside small areas of old-growth forest in the hope of saving marbled murrelet habitat. Without hard evidence to back up their choices, there was always concern that the areas being protected weren't actually being used by the birds, which nest by simply settling down on thick pads of moss on branches high in the forest canopy. But this summer Ms. Chatwin and the other members of the recovery team got a boost when a U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service study in Washington tagged about 40 marbled murrelets, caught in Juan de Fuca Strait, and tracked two of them back to near Port Renfrew on southern Vancouver Island. One of the birds was found nesting in a protected wildlife habitat area at Fairy Creek, and the other was just outside a habitat area at Hemmingsen Creek that can be expanded to include the nesting tree. " We were thrilled, " Ms. Chatwin said yesterday. " There are only nine wildlife habitat areas in that timber supply area [on southern Vancouver Island near Carmanah Valley]. To have two of them now confirmed as nesting sites is a real validation of the work we've been doing. " Researchers had long observed murrelets feeding at sea. They always lost the birds, which take to the air just before nightfall to fly on small, rapidly beating wings deep into the woods where they vanish into the lush, coastal rain forest. " They are extremely difficult to find because their whole lifestyle is set up to avoid predation, " Ms. Chatwin said. " They come out of the forest early in the morning, just before dawn, and fly out to sea to feed. They don't come back until just at dusk. They take on a brown [camouflaged] colouring during nesting season. And they are very quiet. They are just a secretive bird. " http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060923.BCBIRD23/TPStory/National2) Attending the meeting was Federated's planning forester Greg Hislop, who explained the reason for the referral to the city. " The stewardship plan is of course a planning mechanism that the province has come up with for Crown forests, " said Hislop. " The next step would be a cutting permit. It used to be we'd have a forest development plan in place and then we'd create applications to amend certain blocks in. Now it's more we focus on results and strategies towards objectives by government. " Forest stewardship plans must be made available by forest licensees in advance to First Nations and resource users for review, and comment. They are a part of the Forest and Range Practices Act, designed, according to the Ministry of Forest and Range, to " avoid overlap with other statutes such as the Heritage Conservation Act an the Drinking Water Protection Act. " Hislop noted that of the watershed's 1,985 hectares, Federated - if it proceeds with a cutting permit - would only be looking at two per cent or 35 hectares for harvest. " We want to be open and proactive with anything we do in that area, " said Hislop. With appreciation for Hislop's presence and openness, council approved Paiement's recommendation for ongoing consultation between the city and Federated. http://www.saobserver.net/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=29 & cat=23 & id=733855 & more=3) B.C. government compliance and enforcement staffer confided to me the other day about the sad state of current forest management. " They have legislated us out of the bush, " he complained. " Companies are controlling prices and are bullies in the forests. " He had heard that his union was going to do a survey to determine the level of job satisfaction under the province's Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA), but then survey was mysteriously canned. He does not know anyone that is satisfied, " except the managers. " Essentially, he said, some companies are " running amok. " His views coincide with another consulting forester who was once a major licensee woods manager, but now doesn't like to look anymore when he is out in the field. No wonder, as he now sees a management style similar to the 1970s, with openings that are too large, cut block boundaries that are too close in proximity to other blocks, improper riparian management, too much waste, and a lack of attention to visual quality. Although profits are finally falling for the industries because of the current low price of lumber, most companies have done very well this decade. Thanks to the provincial Liberals, logging rules are virtually non-existent and the subsidies have been generous. The provincial government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars buying back timber to establish its new market-based tenure system, timber that the companies never paid for in the first place. Another $125-million has been allocated for worker and community adjustment programs. This is public money being used to prop up an industry that always falsely claimed it pays for our schools and hospitals! http://www.watershedsentinel.ca4) Island Timberlands will begin logging its private lands in the Ucluelet-Tofino area within four weeks, say company officials. Inside, company representatives laid out plans to harvest 50,000 cubic metres in 2006 and 30,000 cubic metres in 2007 from its three Clayoquot, five Port Albion and one Toquart Bay cutblocks. "You never know how people will react," said Diane Medves, a corporate forester for Island Timberlands. "I think folks are glad we've offered them the opportunity." Rod Christie, an Island Timberlands planner, said road construction has begun in five of the cutblocks and harvesting will begin in about four weeks. He said the company will meet the Forest and Range Practices Act. In at least one Port Albion cutblock, Ucluelet residents will notice some disturbance to the forest's canopy. Eric Russcher said he's skeptical about the plans. "If you take them at face value, it's going to be a good project." Russcher said he feels "uncomfortable" because logging will take place on private lands, lands not protected in the same manner as Crown lands. "Overall, it makes me nervous." Maryjka Mychajlowycz, forest-watch coordinator for the Friends of Clayoquot Sound, said she's still skeptical – even though the plans look good on the site level. "What's in the plans is not necessarily what you're going to get." She said the company should not be operating at all. "They're clearing out the last fragments of old growth." Mychajlowycz said too little notice was given for the public meeting. "It's so last minute, so poorly advertised. It's amazing anybody was there." http://www.westcoaster.ca/modules/AMS/article.php?storyid=11845) The Crown is using television news reports of the Eagleridge Bluffs protests as a key part of its case in the criminal contempt prosecution of Betty Krawczyk. Excerpts from reports by CTV News and Global Television about an enforcement order obtained by the contractor of the Sea-to-Sky Highway, which required protesters to leave the area, were played in B.C. Supreme Court yesterday. The reports feature comments by Ms. Krawczyk as she is speaking to members of the West Vancouver Police Department, which were recorded by the news media. The 78-year-old great-grandmother is heard telling one officer to leave the area and another that she expected to be arrested. The noted environmental protester was arrested on May 25, along with more than 20 others who refused to comply with the enforcement order. Ms. Krawczyk is on trial on a charge of criminal contempt because she was arrested three times this spring for refusing to abide by the enforcement order to stay away from the construction area. If ultimately convicted of criminal contempt, she could be sentenced to more than a year in jail in the judge-alone trial presided over by Madam Justice Brenda Brown. The rarely prosecuted charge requires the Crown to prove that a defendant defied a court order " in a public way, " with the intent to " depreciate the authority of the court, " according to the leading Supreme Court of Canada ruling on the issue. There is a high burden on the Crown to prove criminal contempt. In a notorious case in Ontario several years ago, the provincial Court of Appeal found that a Toronto lawyer was not guilty of contempt for saying that the courts and police appeared to be stuck together with Krazy Glue. The news reports played yesterday by prosecutor Mike Brundrett are part of the Crown's assertion that Ms. Krawczyk publicly defied the civil court order to end Eagleridge protests. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060920.BCKRAWCZYK20/TPStory/National6) I've been in court an entire week now and the Crown hasn't yet finished their case against me.They have lots of police officers to get through on the stand (arresting officers who have to be examined and cross examined) lots of newspaper clippings, lots of video to be shown. But I think next Tuesday may be the last day of the Crown's case (there is no court on Monday for me) and then Cameron Ward, my lawyer, will start to present my defense, perhaps by Tuesday afternoon. Not that I have a defense. Not really. Not according to signals from Madam Justice Brown. She will only consider if I broke the injunction at Eagleridge Bluffs (she knows I did, everybody knows I did, my God, how could anybody in the court room have missed it?) and will not consider my motives, whatever they may be. Furthermore, she will not listen to legal argument (in any substantive way) why I, as were the others, arrested under a ruling where there is no defense (a ruling made especially for citizens who actually think there is such a thing as participatory democracy) instead of under the Criminal Code where we would have a defense as she would then have to take motive into consideration. Just think, under the criminal code we could actually talk about Eagleridge Bluffs! And why we went there! And Madam Justice Brown would have to take our motives into consideration! Because even though we are taking up all of this court's time this is not a fair trial. Madam Justice Brown will say it is, Crown Council Michael Brundrett will say it is, Wally Oppal will say it is (incidentally he is being subpoenaed by us to come to court as a witness. either he or his lawyer well also make some kind of an appearance on Tuesday or Wednesday) all three will point to how long the make believe trial took if asked. And by George, according to the mountains of paper and plastic disks generated it certainly looks like something of note might be taking place, some serious question of justice to be solved. But don't be fooled. It's a sham. A farce. betty_krawczyk7) TRAIL - In a move to protect a valuable ecosystem and wildlife area, Teck Cominco Metals Ltd. announced plans to transfer more than 2,200 acres of land in British Columbia along the Columbia River to The Land Conservancy (TLC). " We're very pleased to make this substantial contribution to The Land Conservancy to protect one of the Trail region's most unique wildlife and ecological areas, " says Mike Martin, General Manager of Trail Operations. " Our goal was to see the Fort Shepherd lands protected forever through a partnership with The Land Conservancy and with the support of the Trail Wildlife Association. " Owned by Teck Cominco Metals, the Fort Shepherd lands are located along the west bank of the Columbia River, south of the City of Trail. Teck Cominco will be transferring the land to the TLC at a substantial $1 million discount below fair market value. Known as the Fort Shepherd Flats, the lands contain a rare biogeoclimatic area unique in BC. It also contains a number of species-at-risk including Great Blue Herons, Canyon Wrens, Townsend's Big-Eared Bats, Racers and is valuable winter range for Mule Deer. The land also has historical value as it was once the site of the Hudson Bay Company's Fort Shepherd trading post from 1857-1870. For further information: Dr. Mark Edwards, Manager - Environment, Health & Safety, Teck Cominco Metals Ltd., Trail Operations, Tel: (250) 364-43088) Stalled commitments of the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement: 1) The first phase of legal objectives for new logging practices will not be in place by Sept 30; 2) The scientific oversight group for the agreements, the EBM working group, has not yet been formed or adequately funded, and; 3) Some forest companies still have not begun EBM practices, agreed to in December 2003. --- Sierra Club of Canada-BC Chapter, Greenpeace and ForestEthics call on the B.C. government and First Nations to take immediate action to make the commitments of the Great Bear Rainforest Agreements real on the ground. "Collaborative, credible science got us all to the Agreement in February and is still what is needed to secure the future of the Great Bear Rainforest," said Lisa Matthaus, Coast Campaign Coordinator for the Sierra Club of Canada, BC Chapter. "We agreed to a scientific oversight group for implementation. Without this up and running, logging decisions are being made on a piecemeal basis." A new system of logging, to be phased in between now and 2009, was agreed to by the logging industry, environmental organizations, communities, labour unions, First Nations and the B.C. government. These lighter touch practices would see more areas off limits to logging to protect old growth, wildlife habitat, sensitive watersheds and salmon streams. "We have a global model for the Great Bear Rainforest; now it is time for change on the ground," said Amanda Carr, Greenpeace Forest Campaigner. "Today, logging threatens the future of ecologically important areas creating uncertainty in the Great Bear Rainforest – it is time to get down to work and act on our agreements." For more information, please contact : Amanda Carr, Greenpeace (604-839-8760) Lisa Matthaus, Sierra Club of Canada, BC Chapter (250-888-6267) Merran Smith, ForestEthics (604-816-5636)9) The Spirit Bear Youth Coalition will attack the provincial government with cartoon characters if the Liberals don't protect the white bear's stomping grounds. Yesterday, the coalition sent out a news release urging Premier Gordon Campbell to " intervene immediately " to stop logging in the " 80,000-hectare Green wilderness " - which the group identifies as part of the bear's " core habitat. " But if that doesn't happen, the Campbell administration could have a fight on its hands in the movie theatres. The coalition is currently working to produce The Spirit Bear Movie - a computer-animated film slated for worldwide release in spring 2008. But the producers are prepared to release that movie a year later - coinciding with the next election - if the bear remains under threat. Under an agreement last February, the Campbell administration agreed to protect large swaths of the Great Bear Rainforest, including 200,000 hectares just for the spirit bear - constituting two-thirds of its habitat. The Green wilderness falls outside that protected area. http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/2006/09/21/1872507-sun.htmlWashington:10) Tom Bloxton, a wildlife biologist with the USDA Forest Service, led the research project, which attached temporary radio tags to birds captured along Washington's Olympic Peninsula. The radio tracking devices, each one about the size of a dime, fall off when the birds moult. Over two years, the study found nine nests in the Olympic National Forest and the two on Vancouver Island, leading to some rare photos of the secretive birds. Only one nest successfully produced a chick. The marbled murrelet is listed as " threatened " by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. The robin-sized bird's habitat ranges from Alaska to Northern California, with an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 on the B.C. coast. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060923.BCBIRD23/TPStory/NationalOregon: 11) MEDFORD — A federal judge ruled in favor of the proposed expansion of Mount Ashland's ski area Thursday, but environmental groups say they may appeal his decision. U.S. District Court Judge Owen Panner supported the U.S. Forest Service and the Mount Ashland Association, the nonprofit corporation that manages the ski area, which decided to add 16 new trails, two new chairlifts and 200 parking spaces on the mountain. " We're elated, " said Bill Little, president of the board of directors of the Mount Ashland Association. The decision frustrated environmental groups that previously sued to halt more development on the mountain and they say they may appeal his decision and possible use a recent decision on roadless area development in their case. " We're considering our options, " said Tom Dimitre, chairman of the Rogue Group Sierra Club, one of the groups that sued the U.S. Forest Service along with Ashland-based Headwaters and Portland-based Oregon Natural Resources Council. The expansion issue could be complicated by a federal judge's ruling this week that restored a Clinton administration's roadless rule that prevents logging and road building within large blocks of undeveloped forest. The area proposed for expansion lies within the McDonald Peak roadless area. Environmental groups could try to use the roadless rule to oppose the ski area expansion. Dimitre said the Mount Ashland ski area expansion threatens logging and road building in the McDonald Peak roadless area. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/outdoors/2003271237_webskiarea22.html 12) National forests around the region have begun unveiling new strategies to close, shorten seasons or levy new fees at campgrounds, trailheads and other recreation sites that they can no longer afford to maintain. Blueprints for the Deschutes, Willamette and Umpqua national forests in Oregon call for shutting down lesser-used campgrounds such as the Shady Dell Campground near Oakridge and charging fees at the Clear Lake picnic area east of Eugene. It's part of a nationwide strategy by the U.S. Forest Service to bring its aging array of recreation facilities into line with the shrinking pool of money it has to maintain them -- and with what the public wants. Funding for recreation sites in Oregon and Washington has dropped from $25.7 million in fiscal 2005 to $21.9 million proposed in President Bush's 2007 budget. While the sites targeted for closure may not be the most popular, officials acknowledge they may include favorite out-of-the-way spots where some families have camped for years. It reflects the hard times now faced by national forests no longer flush with money like they had during the logging heyday. Each national forest is ranking its recreation sites according to factors such as how closely it fits with the forest's main attractions. Highly ranked sites may be upgraded, while low-ranked sites may be closed or operated for shorter periods each year. The approach tries to do in an organized way what might otherwise happen haphazardly when a funding crisis hits, forest officials say. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/115899272421300.xml & coll=7 13) PORTLAND - It's taken only one day for an appeal to be filed in the legal fight over roadless national forests. Wednesday a federal judge ruled that roadless forests should be protected. Ley Garnett has more. The contract holder of two roadless timber projects in southern Oregon has asked the Ninth US Circuit of Appeals to overturn the decision. The Silver Creek Timber Company filed the appea,l but the company has not stopped logging. Rolf Skar, of the conservation group the Siskiyou Project, says the logging should halt immediately. Rolf Skar: " The judge declared that this is illegal to enter roadless areas to do this sort of logging. Well then, the whole project never should have happened to begin with. So whether they're cutting or whether they're pulling trees out with helicopters or bringing them back to the mill to make a buck off of what is now declared illegal logging, clearly none of that should happen. " Skar says conservationists may ask Judge Elizabeth Laporte to clarify her decision. A spokeswoman for the Siskiyou National Forest says the federal government believes the timber company can continue logging. http://publicbroadcasting.net/opb/news.newsmain?action=article & ARTICLE_ID=971479 & sectionID=1 California:14) Walk through any forest after a fire and you hear a cacophony of bird song. Chipmunks and ground squirrels scurry into the regenerating shrubs. Colorful wildflowers nod in the breeze. Many plants and animals thrive in and even need burned forests for their survival. Black-backed woodpeckers are rarely found anywhere but in the most severely burned patches, and many plants and trees require the heat of fire to open their seeds for germination.This is hardly surprising, since forests and the animals and plants that live there have existed with fire for millenniums.That's why a bill in Congress to boost logging in burned forests is a bad idea. The logging bill, HR 4200, which passed the House and has been referred to the Senate Agriculture Committee, would implement a system of preapproved logging practices after natural events such as a fire, and would exempt these practices from the National Environmental Policy Act. NEPA is the law that requires federal agencies to carefully examine and disclose the potential impacts of a logging project to the public. Whenever there is fire, drought, storm, disease, insect outbreak or other natural disturbances, HR 4200 would eliminate Endangered Species Act protections to rush the logging of trees. The Forest Service could proceed with a sale before getting input from the government scientists on avoiding harm to endangered species. In fact, timber companies would be preapproved to kill an unlimited number of threatened and endangered species while carrying out the logging project.These logging bills make a mockery of the nation's long-standing efforts to recover species pushed toward extinction. http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/27349.htmlIdaho:15) Hours before Idaho Gov. Jim Risch held a press conference Wednesday to unveil his petition to alter the management of Idaho's 9.3 million acres of road-free national forest land, a federal judge in California threw out the plan that would allow him to do so. But the governor remained undeterred and vowed to move forward with the petition, which was spearheaded by the Bush administration in 2004 to give states more control of their own public lands destiny. National and local conservation groups sent out a flurry of news releases touting the federal ruling as a major victory for roadless lands and people who want them to remain protected from logging, mining, excessive motorized use and road building. Furthermore, Caswell contends that Gov. Risch's petition does not stray much from current forest prescriptions. Currently, Idaho's 9.32 million roadless acres are divided into three categories: proposed wilderness (1.37 million acres); proposed backcountry (2.28 million acres); and proposed development (5.66 million acres). Wilderness areas are under federal protection and closed to mechanized travel. Backcountry lands do not have roads and do not allow harvest (logging), but in some cases do allow motorized use. Caswell said about 99 percent of the roadless acreage proposed for development was never developed. Risch's petition breaks up the 9.3 million acres into four categories: wild land recreation (1.43 million acres); primitive (1.68 million acres); backcountry (5.51 million acres); and general forest (521,169 acres). Breakdown of Idaho lands · Size of state: 52,960,000 acres. · National Forests: 20,458,000 acres. · Wilderness: 4,005,754 acres (fifth largest sum in United States). · Roadless: 9,322,000 acres (largest in Lower 48). http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?issue_date=09-22-2006 & ID=2005112592 Colorado:16) The dawn air freezes all but six weeks of the year. There is no sign of soil. But on this lonely ridge, the oldest known tree in Colorado's Pikes Peak region, a Rocky Mountain bristlecone pine, has been growing for 2,040 years. It probably got its start when a gray, jaylike bird called a Clark's nutcracker hid seeds filched from a nearby pine into a nook on the ridge, then forgot about the stash. Today, the tree's location is known to only six people, who keep the route hidden to protect the ancient pine. The annual rings laid down in the stout trunk, however, are much more widely known. Decades ago, a local boy drilled a core sample no wider than a chopstick from the tree's trunk that revealed the rings. Since then, scores of scientists have scrutinized the tiny dowel for insight into everything from ancient explosions to Aztec curses to global climate change. So many have used the pine to study the climate that it has become a sort of global black box - a flight recorder for the past 2,000 years of Earth. For all this, the pine doesn't look like much. It's about 15 feet tall. It has one living branch. Twenty centuries of storms have scoured all but 7 inches of bark off the 9-foot diameter trunk. So much of the tree is dead, gray wood that it looks a bit like a rhino wearing a wreath. Still, like all old bristlecones, it seems to exude an enduring nobility. " You feel like you are meeting a very important person, perhaps someone from mythology, " writer Darwin Lambert said of old bristlecones. At dawn on a recent morning, the first rays of light spilled over the prairie and bathed the rocky slope where the oldest tree stands. In the warm sunshine, its branch resumed the work passed down from a seed 2,040 years ago: use the light, grow new needles, draw water up from the rock.This year, the branch produced 19 cones. The tiny seeds between the scales will probably be snatched up by a Clark's nutcracker, or hidden in the rocks. http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/nation/15581746.htm17) Many of the beautiful pieces of artwork depict how different species relate to each other and have adapted to survive in the jungle. Each piece tells a story of rainforest life, which provides insight into how the dynamics of the rainforest are essential to the overall health of our planet. Pieces in the exhibit are from ten artists who have produced a body of work of consistent quality over time. Each artist was invited to exhibit several works to demonstrate their versatility and range of artistic treatment. Artworks were chosen for their assorted subject matter and for their creative combinations of elements and principles of composition and design, extraordinary technique and resulting style Experience the rainforest yourself from August 19 through November 19 at The Wildlife Experience. http://denver.yourhub.com/GREENWOODVILLAGE/Stories/Entertainment/Art/Story~127816.aspx New Mexico:18) Co-plaintiffs, Forest Guardians, Colorado Wild, Center for Native Ecosystems, Carson Forest Watch, Randal McKown, and Gilbert and Alice Duran, filed for a preliminary injunction to temporarily stop a large logging project in the Rio Grande National Forest in New Mexico. The 2,282-acre project has been described as Colorado's largest logging in a decade and it is adjacent to the South San Juan Wilderness Area. The plaintiffs sued the Forest Service in late June requesting that the judge withdraw approval of the project. Although the lawsuit has not been resolved yet, the Forest Service may continue with the project. The injunction would prevent the Forest Service from implementing the project until the lawsuit is settled. While the Forest Service asserts that the logging is appropriate to deal with severe beetle infestation in the trees and to provide revenue to replant trees, the opponents allege that the logging and related road construction " will cause irreparable harm to the area's spruce-fir forest, the forest's wildlife, soils and streams. " Nearly 16 miles of inactive and recovering roads would have to be reconstructed to access the trees. The plaintiffs also allege that the Forest Service violated federal law by failing to collect population data for species the project might affect. These species include trout, elk, black bear, boreal owl, and boreal toad. Not only are the opponents concerned with the threats to wildlife, but also that the Forest Service did not follow procedure to protect water resources as the logging area is a critical water production for downstream users. For more information contact Bryan Bird, Forest Guardians, at 505-988-9126 x157, bbird or Ryan Demmy Bidwell, Colorado Wild, at 970-385-9833, ryan.Michigan:19) During the week of Sept. 18, whole trees will once again be flown and placed in the Au Sable River as habitat enhancement work continues. Huron Pines will administer the funding acquired through two grants, strengthening a partnership with the United States Forest Service and Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The partnership, which represents participation on the federal, state, and local non-profit levels, is focused on replenishing a diminished resource in the riverine ecosystem. That resource is the presence of large woody debris. Historically, large woody debris entered the river system as fallen trees from forested areas along the riverbank. Large woody debris structures provide numerous functions in the river system. " In addition to providing habitat diversity for numerous species of fish, invertebrates, reptiles and amphibians, the debris protects the stream banks from erosion and buffers the effects of high water flows, " adds Patrick Ertel, Huron Pines Restoration Project Manager. As the debris decomposes, organic matter is contributed to the base of the aquatic food chain. With the onset of the logging era in Northeast Michigan, woody debris in the river was cleared to allow downstream transport of timber. The forested banks were logged which further prevented the input of new woody debris. To accomplish the goal of placing nearly 500 whole trees into two stretches of the Au Sable River, a helicopter is being contracted to fly the trees from nearby Forest Service land. Use of the helicopter allows for the placement of whole trees. With the root mass still intact when these trees are placed, the complexity of the structural habitat increases, beyond the practice of cutting trees and just placing the above-ground portion in the river. The root mass also helps anchor the trees at the predetermined site where they will be placed. http://avalanche.townnews.com/articles/2006/09/22/news/news07.txtNew Jersey:20) DENNIS TOWNSHIP — Ruth Fisher has been a self-avowed tree hugger for decades with several battles on her resume against people operating chainsaws, axes and bulldozers. Now, the South Dennis environmental activist is on a push to save dead trees. Does that make her a dead-tree hugger? Fisher laughs at the joke and then makes it very clear she is very much alive and on yet another ecological mission. This one concerns woodpeckers, a family of birds that owes its very existence to dead trees. Woodpeckers need the trees for nest cavities and eat the insects that feed on the dead wood. Saving the whales, which started Fisher on her environmental crusade decades ago, was easy compared to saving dead trees. The woodpecker's trick of head-banging dinner out of a tree, with a long tongue it can wrap clear around its thick skulls has appealed to birdwatchers for years. There are others besides Fisher worrying about the future of New Jersey's woodpeckers. In a state that loses 45 square miles of wildlife habitat every year to development, the government has become the major holder of the forests that are left. The state Department of Environmental Protection oversees 307,000 acres in its wildlife management areas, or WMAs. It's 44 percent of the state-owned open space and it doesn't even include the newest WMA, the Villas Wildlife Management Area just created at the former Ponderlodge Golf Club. A red-headed woodpecker has already been seen there. The state also has 42 parks and 11 state forests. Fisher is not necessarily sold on the state's effort. She said the state seems to manage more for the deer herd than for woodpeckers. She opposes programs that allow homeowners to cut firewood on state lands and once stopped a neighbor from crossing her property to harvest dead trees."He thought I was crazy for not letting him take dead trees, just because they would fit in his stove. My neighbor was not mean-spirited. He just wasn't educated," Fisher said Development is also a problem. While the decline of the family farm was leading to more woodland for several decades, those farm fields are now going straight from agriculture to subdivisions, said David Mizrahi, director of research for the New Jersey Audubon Society. "Not a lot of agricultural land is going to old fields and forest," Mizrahi said. http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/local/capemay/story/6776257p-6644242c.html Vermont:21) LANDGROVE -- The outlines of an old farm field are visible along a narrow dirt road, but the area is thick with 80-foot red pine trees, with saplings of maple, beech, black cherry and white ash spread across the forest floor. The hardwoods are native here, along the spine of the Green Mountains. Not so the red pines, which were planted by the thousands in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps and now dominate the forest canopy, blocking sunlight from reaching the hardwoods. Now, a plan being considered by the National Forest Service would clearcut the red pines as part of an effort to increase tree diversity, improve wildlife habitat, preserve historic sites and make the area more accessible to the public for winter recreation. Under it, red pines in this 21-acre parcel _ some of them 20 inches across, at the base _ would be felled to help the native hardwoods grow to maturity. " We want to convert that to a native mixed-stand and at the same time take advantage of the wood products. Some are starting to rot and fall over, " said U.S. Forest Service Resource Biologist Joseph Torres. The strategy for the Landgrove parcel is a small part of a Forest Service management plan for the 5,471-acre area in the towns of Landgrove, Londonderry, Peru and Winhall. The plan, known as the Nordic Project, would also help preserve historical remnants that lie within the forest, including abandoned cellar holes, stone walls and other reminders of the European settlers who carved Vermont out of the wilderness in the 18th and 19th centuries. " What we are looking for is to make this a model of diverse forest use, " said Torres. http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=5450681 & nav=4QcSMaryland: 22) The Chesapeake Bay watershed is losing 100 acres of trees every day - a trend that needs to be reversed if there's any chance of saving the bay, political leaders said yesterday Leaders of bay-area states gathered on Kent Island for the annual meeting of the Chesapeake Executive Council and put saving trees at the top of their agenda to help the bay. " We've lost a lot of ground with respect to forests, " said Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who is chairman of the group.The council is made up of the governors of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia; the mayor of Washington, D.C.; the head of the Environmental Protection Agency; and a representative of state-level lawmakers from the region. Council members agreed to come up with a plan for increasing forest lands in the 64,000-square-mile Chesapeake Bay watershed, both through planting new trees and preserving existing ones. http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2006/09_23-23/TOPMassachusetts:23) Egremont – The Nature Conservancy today joined Massachusetts environmental officials in celebrating the state's diverse and vibrant woodlands with the announcement of nine new large and many smaller forest reserves covering about 100,000 acres of state-owned forestland. Reserves will be managed for their ecological and recreational value and will be allowed to develop into the old growth forests of our future. The Conservancy applauded the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs' action - which also included the announcement of a sustainable forest management initiative on the remaining 400,000 acres of state-owned forests. The announcement took place at Jug End State Reservation and Wildlife Area in the southern Berkshires – part of the new Mt. Washington Forest Reserve. The nine new large reserves, totaling approximately 50,000 acres, range from about 800 to 11,000 acres. Klockner noted that several fall within the Massachusetts Chapter's regional landscape programs – providing opportunities to enhance The Nature Conservancy's conservation efforts in these areas. In the Westfield River Highlands, for example, the Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation provided the first charitable investment devoted to protecting land around Massachusetts forest reserves with a generous gift that enabled The Conservancy to purchase 270 mostly-forested acres abutting the Middlefield Reserve. Elsewhere, the Berkshire Taconic Landscape's Mt. Washington Reserve completes a 15,000-acre block of protected and ecologically managed forestland spanning the Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York borders. In Southeastern Massachusetts, the Myles Standish Reserve protects globally-rare and fire-adapted pitch pine-scrub oak forests - home to rare species such as the endangered Northern Red-bellied Cooter. Other large reserves include Greylock, Otis, Chalet, East Branch of the Westfield River and Mohawk/Monroe/Savoy in the state's western regions; and Cunningham Pond in central Massachusetts. he state is also in the process of defining some 50,000 acres of smaller reserves, most ranging from dozens to hundreds of acres. Scattered throughout Massachusetts, these smaller tracts will protect specific landscape features, such as vernal pools, or safeguard rare species habitat and other unique resources, while allowing hiking, bird watching, and other forms of non-motorized recreation. http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/massachusetts/press/press2633.html North Carolina:24) BOILING SPRING LAKES - The chain saws started in February, when the federal Fish and Wildlife Service put Boiling Spring Lakes on notice that rapid development threatened to squeeze out the woodpecker. The agency issued a map marking 15 active woodpecker 'clusters,' and announced it was working on a new one that could potentially designate whole neighborhoods of this town in southeastern North Carolina as protected habitat, subject to more-stringent building restrictions. Hoping to beat the mapmakers, landowners swarmed City Hall to apply for lot-clearing permits. Treeless land, after all, would not need to be set aside for woodpeckers. Since February, the city has issued 368 logging permits, a vast majority without accompanying building permits. The results can be seen all over town. Along the roadsides, scattered brown bark is all that is left of pine stands. Mayor Joan Kinney has watched with dismay as waterfront lots across from her home on Big Lake have been stripped down to sandy wasteland. "It's ruined the beauty of our city," Ms. Kinney said. To stop the rash of cutting, city commissioners have proposed a one-year moratorium on lot-clearing permits. The red-cockaded woodpecker was once abundant in the vast longleaf pine forests that stretched from New Jersey to Florida, but now numbers as few as 15,000. The bird is unusual among North American woodpeckers because it nests exclusively in living trees. In a quirk of history, human activity has made this town of about 4,100 almost irresistible to the bird. Long before there was a town, locals carved V-shaped notches in the pines, collecting the sap in buckets to make turpentine. These wounds allowed fungus to infiltrate the tree?s core, making it easier for the woodpecker to excavate its nest hole and probe for the beetles, spiders and wood-boring insects it prefers. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/us/24woodpecker.htmlMaine: 25) Strangely, I am neutral on the project right now. I am against raping the land, of course. Plum Creek says they won't do that, but who knows once the backhoes swing into action. But here are two thoughts: Maine is a huge state, with more forest than any state east of the Mississippi. It seems to me that the more stakeholders there are, the more people will want to preserve what we have. I have enjoyed my cabin greatly; I am much more attuned to environmental issues now that I have trees and river water to protect. To have several hundred cabin owners at Moosehead might be a positive thing. (OK, they are selling homes more grandiose than " cabins " ). Secondly, people need jobs.Your Scribe used to yawn at such an argument but no longer. Maine's fishing industry is disappearing Jobs related to logging are also in short supply. Cities producing pulp and paper like Millinocket are threatened with economic disaster. Communities like Waterville and Winslow are stagnant because corporations like Scott Paper have closed up shop.(Sad aside: I bought a house in Waterville in 1991 for $106,000. I sold it SEVEN years later for the same price!) And now MBNA, the tech-savvy financial services company, has been sold and new owners will close a half-dozen offices that were once a boon to Belfast, Rockland and Farmington. Grim truth: The Maine economy has tourism and old people. http://outdoors.mainetoday.com/cabincountry/007237.html26) In 2003, Bob LeRoy, owner of Little Lyford for seven years, was becoming increasingly alarmed about this new breed of timber company he was seeing enter the North Country. The Plum Creek Timber Co. had begun subdividing some of its vast properties into smaller lots and selling them to private developers. LeRoy knew he couldn't stop Plum Creek from developing its own land, but, facing increasing financial pressure, he was afraid Little Lyford would soon meet the same fate. " I was determined to protect this landscape and keep it open to traditional uses, " he says. LeRoy needed a new owner for Little Lyford, an owner who wouldn't hinder the local multimillion-dollar logging industry but who also had muscle, money, and an army of supporters as dedicated as he was to making sure that picturesque parts of northern New England were not going to be sold off and turned into developments of condos and new homes. " I think, " LeRoy says, " I found a perfect match in AMC. " http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2006/09/24/delicate_terrain/Canada:27) To mark the start of the National Forest Congress, which begins in Ottawa on Monday, over 60 companies from across North America announced their support today for the Boreal Conservation Framework - a balanced vision for conservation and sustainable development in Canada's Boreal forest. " A broad range of companies from outdoor adventure companies --including Mountain Equipment Co-op, Patagonia, JanSport and Lonely Planet - to paper companies such as Seventh Generation, recognize the real economic importance of the boreal forest, " says Mike Martel, chairman of the Boreal Leadership Council (BLC), a group of leading companies, Aboriginal organizations and conservation groups, who jointly support the implementation of the Boreal Forest Conservation Framework vision in Canada. Martel, who is also Senior VP Forest Resource Management at Tembec Inc., adds, " In the last two months, we've really seen the momentum build, with more and more companies stepping forward to be part of a solutions-based balanced vision to keep Canada's Boreal forest a place with a truly sustainable future ecologically, culturally and economically. " Canada's Boreal forest spans over half of Canada, and is home to over 600 Aboriginal communities. It provides vital habitat for some of the planet's largest populations of woodland caribou, wolves, lynx and grizzly bears. It is the breeding ground for billions of North America's birds, has huge populations of waterfowl, and is essential to the survival of over half of North America's bird species. Canada's Boreal forest represents over 25% of the remaining intact forest on the planet. The Boreal contains internationally important wetlands and is the largest terrestrial storehouse of carbon, making it one of the world's best defenses against global climate change. Jeffrey Hollender, President and CEO of Seventh Generation, one of the recent Framework supporters explains, " The Boreal Framework's vision to protect at least 50% of the Boreal forest is one that we wholeheartedly embrace and are committed to supporting through sourcing and selling ecologically responsible products. " http://www.borealcanada.ca28) The forests' huge value as sinks and reservoirs of atmospheric carbon, for example, is unaccounted for today but needs to be recognized in future, according to Mark Anielski of Edmonton, who will make a presentation to Canadian and international forest officials, and experts from native peoples communities, the energy, farming and tourism sectors and other stakeholders assembling for the Congress at Lac Leamy, Gatineau-Ottawa. Anielski and research colleagues estimate that environmental services from the boreal – from climate regulation via carbon capture and storage, water filtration and waste treatment, to biodiversity maintenance, pest control by birds, etc. – are worth about $160 per hectare, or $93 billion per year in Canada. Globally, the estimates produce a rough value of ecosystem services rendered by boreal forests (almost 10 million northern square km spanning Canada, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Alaska) of US $250 billion per year, a huge figure unrecognized in national income accounts or measures such as Gross Domestic Product. " If these ecosystem services were counted in Canada, they would amount to roughly 9% of GDP. Ignoring these values would be like leaving out the combined annual contribution to GDP made by Canada's health and social services sector and half of the public services sector. " " Resource extraction and development in the boreal are vital to human well-being, of course. The point of our research is that services provided by the boreal ecosystem make a quantifiable contribution to well-being as well – values that are important to reflect in national and regional economic balance sheets and measures like Gross Domestic Product. " http://www.nfc-cfn.ca/pdfs/nfc-program-e.pdfFinland:29) Finland-headquartered forest group Stora Enso announced on Thursday its initiation of a dialogue with the Russian authorities in order to establish the legality of wood logging practices in the Republic of Karelia. This move was provoked by claims from the environmental organisation Greenpeace that half of the wood imported from Russia is in fact illegally logged. Greenpeace further claimed that it had received evidence that illegally logged wood had been imported to Stora Enso's mills, among others. According to Greenpeace, the Karelian authorities are issuing logging licences without environmental impact assessments, which are required by Russian federal law. Stora Enso's sustainability manager for its wood supply in Russia, Helena Jantunen, said that the company's subsidiary has requested that the Karelian authorities clearly state their position on the matter and its legal basis. Should it emerge that wood bought by Stora Enso has been illegally logged, the company says that it will require immediate changes and a halt to the purchase of such wood. http://newsroom.finland.fi/stt/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=13780 & group=Business Palestine:30) SOUTH LEBANON: Israeli bulldozers started to level the soil and cut down olive trees in Yarin in the Tyre region on Monday, spoiling several cultivated fields and preventing farmers from inspecting their lands. " Israeli bulldozers have spoiled my land, cutting down the fruit trees I've planted, " said farmer Shaker Afleh on Tuesday, as he and his daughter watched the bulldozers on his land from a kilometer away. Israel's earth-movers have cut down several trees belonging to more than 10 members of the Abu Dellah family. " Bulldozers have been leveling the soil for two days, trying to expand the Blue Line at the expense of our land and livelihoods, " Abdallah Abu Dellah said on Tuesday. " The international force has done nothing but register Israel's daily violations of Lebanon's territory, " he said. " Israeli bulldozers are trying to level the greatest number of trees in order to monitor the border easily, " the source said. The area's residents said they feared that Israel would erect barbed-wire fences in their lands and set up a so-called " buffer zone. " http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1 & categ_id=1 & article_id=75576 Russia:31) One of the main problems in the forestry development in Siberia is shortage of raw material. Such a conclusion was made by participants of the discussion " The concept of the development strategy of forest industry in Siberia and Far East " , which was held at Baikal Economic Forum on September, 21, a KNews correspondent reports. Shortage of timber is explained by great volumes of round wood export and poor development of road network in the forests. According to Victor Dolgov, a deputy-governor of Irkutsk Territory, there are 1,3 km of roads per one thousand ha of forests in Irkutsk Territory. For comparison, in Finland there are 40 km of roads per the same area of forest. Moreover, the cost of 1 km of road construction is $130 thousand. In his opinion, this problem cannot be solved without investments. Heads of companies, who were present at the meeting, in particular, Ilim Pulp, noted they were ready to participate in road construction. But, in their turn, they need guarantees of authorities that the social sphere of this area would be developed. The forest companies explained that it would be not profitable for them to invest into infrastructure and then develop the new areas by watch method. The companies noted that shortage of raw material was the reason why a lot of investment projects had not been implemented. Business will not make investments into new production if there is no guarantee that an enterprise will have sufficient wood stock for a long time. http://english.newslab.ru/news/201697Madagascar:32) If there were a Cirque du Soleil for plants, these would be among the stars. A new exhibit at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden includes octopus trees, swollen and thorny pachypodiums, wicked euphorbias and a gray-skinned baobab. These plants are threatened with extinction in Madagascar, a country where Fairchild is expending a good deal of conservation energy. After 160 million years of isolation in the Indian Ocean east of Africa, Madagascar's flora and fauna are distinctly its own. Some 80 percent of the country's plants and a majority of its animals are found nowhere else on Earth. Because less than 10 percent of the original forests remain, conservation groups are helping Malagasy people conserve their island's diversity. Fairchild now has a three-pronged program in the country, including work in the arid spiny forest of southern Madagascar; a program in a fragmented coastal forest; and a relationship with the University of Antananarive in the capital city that may bring a Malagasy graduate student to Miami within a year. Around the famous Berenty Reserve, where ringtail lemurs draw tourists as well as doctoral researchers, 100 square miles of forest have been cleared for fierce and monotonous sisal plantations. Fairchild's spiny forest work is focused farther west, at Arboretum D'Antsokay, near the town of Toliara. Here, Andry Petignat inherited an ''amazing collection of spiny forest plants,'' says Fairchild director Mike Maunder, who visited there last year. Petignat's father, Hermann, began a collection of the plants in the late 1960s. In the 1980s, the elder Petignat made his collection into a botanical garden containing nearly 900 species of plants, including about 100 species of euphorbias and 60 kinds of kalanchoe. It's a spot on many birders' priority list, and has a few basic bungalows for ecotourists. The small forest contains a tree called Sakoanala madagascariensis, which is nearing extinction, with only 33 mature plants and 13 seedlings left. In that same forest, two other trees are slipping down that same slope into oblivion: 1) Schizolaena laurina, with 20 mature trees and 15 seedlings. This group represents an entire plant family, not just a species. 2) Humbertiodendron saboureaui, with 25 individuals, two of them producing fruit. http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/home/15585260.htmMalaysia:33) KUANTAN: The state government will continue to keep a close watch over the theft of logs and bring to book the culprits involved. Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob said the relevant authorities had been told to step up monitoring and enforcement activities. "The enforcement teams have been doing their work quietly as they do not see the need to announce their success. "We will prosecute the culprits involved if there are enough proof of them stealing our logs," he said. Adnan was asked to comment on the detention of eight people, including a land owner, who were believed to have been involved in the theft of logs. The eight men were detained in Muadzam Shah, Rompin last week by Forestry Department officers following a tip-off. A consignment logs believed to have fell illegally wereseized during the raid. Sources said among the areas targeted by the culprits were Cini, Rompin and Keratong. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/9/21/southneast/15368883 & sec=southneastNew Zealand: 34) The company owned by New Zealand's richest man has pulled the plug on its 16-year sponsorship of " Project Crimson " , a conservation scheme designed to save the country's pohutukawa and rata. Forestry giant Carter Holt Harvey dumped the sponsorship - worth hundreds of thousands of dollars a year - soon after being taken over by billionaire Graeme Hart in March. Hart did not return calls from the Sunday Star-Times. " If the company hadn't been sold, I'm sure the sponsorship would have continued, " he said. Project Crimson confirmed it was in the final stages of negotiations with a new partner. In 1989, research by Hosking found 90% of coastal pohutukawa stands were dead or dying as a result of possums, fires or farming. Concerned by the findings, the Department of Conservation and Carter Holt Harvey's predecessor, New Zealand Forest Products, set up the trust in 1990 to protect pohutukawa. Rata was added in 1996. In 2000, Hosking did a repeat survey and found possum damage had plummeted because of pest control measures and regeneration of pohutukawa in Northland, the worst-affect region, had increased 10-fold. Protection for individual trees and restoration plantings had also increased dramatically. He attributed the spectacular turnaround to the trust and its community focus. http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3807554a13,00.htmlAustralia:35) An environmental campaign to stop the logging of the Arcadia Forest near Collie in south-west WA has changed direction, with the organisers now accepting the project is inevitable. The Save Arcadia Forest Ecosystem Group has been lobbying WA Minister for Environment Mark McGowan to stop the logging, which they claim will threaten a colony of quokkas living there. Spokesman for the newly-named Arcadia Action Group, Brian Green, says it is now assessing ways of working on the ground to save the quokkas once logging begins shortly. Mr Green says the Department of Environment and Conservation is doing little to help. " They are meant to be conservation and land management, " he said. " [but] they seem to have passed the ball onto the Forest Products Commission to continue with the logging campaign without any consideration to the threat to the forest and its ecosystem and the endangered species found within the forest. " Mr McGowan says he met the Save Arcadia Forest Ecosystem group on two recent occasions while visiting the proposed logging area. He says he is well aware of the group's concerns and the Government is considering the issues the group has put forward. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200609/s1747716.htm 36) More than 2.5 million trees will be planted along the River Murray between Morgan and Renmark as part of the South Australian Government's Budget commitment to the waterway. The Government will spend $5.7 million over the next four years establishing the native forest. It is one of a number of River Murray projects to share in a $241 million Budget package for the next four years. Other projects include $3 million for salt interception schemes at Murtho, Chowilla and Pike. Minister for the River Murray Karlene Maywald says the funding will also go towards the state's target of returning 35 gigalitres to the river under the Living Murray Initiative. " There's $10 million projects in this financial year towards recovering that 35 gigalitres which includes also the purchase of water from willing sellers, " she said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200609/s1746277.htm37) Conservationists have been accused of resorting to extreme tactics in their battle against the pulp mill planned for northern Tasmania. The Forest Industries Association of Tasmania (FIAT) says it understands anti-mill campaigners are planning a boycott of businesses that support the pulp mill, and also intend to disrupt next month's historic parliamentary sitting in Launceston. The FIAT's chief executive, Terry Edwards, says environmentalists are getting desperate due to a lack of support for their cause. " There is no point in trying to garner a process of community in opposition to the mill when the process clearly allows for their science, if they have some, to be analysed against the science that's already been presented to the RPDC through the Gunns pulp mill, " he said. Geoff Law from the Wilderness Society says he knows of no plans for a business boycott or a disruption of Parliament. " This is a fanciful proposal put forward by the logging industry at a time when they're obviously very concerned about the public disquiet which is growing against the pulp mill and which is being demonstrated on talk back radio, in letters to the editor and on the streets, " he said. However, Mr Law says a peaceful demonstration at the parliamentary sitting could be a good idea. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200609/s1746941.htmWorld-wide:38) Deforestation Diesel: Such is the moniker applied to biofuel by none other than a commentator for the BBC, in an opinion piece posted today entitled " Biofuels: Green Energy or Grim Reaper? " We have always been optimistic about the potential of biofuel with a couple of big qualifiers: They do not always offer a positive economic or energy payback, even though in some places - palm oil in Africa, sugar cane in Brazil, their payback in both senses is quite positive. They also are not going to replace petroleum, or even come close. As we prove in our post " Biofuel vs. Photovoltaics, " the best biofuel crops produce about 6,000 barrels of fuel per square mile per year. This equates to about 55 million Btu's of energy per square mile per year. To produce enough fuel to fulfill energy requirements of the human race (400 quadrillion Btu's per year) we would need to devote 10.8 million square miles to growing biofuel. There are only about 5.5 million square miles of arable farmland on the entire planet. Returning to today's commentary on the BBC website, it isn't some petro-puppet coming up with this scorching criticism of biofuels, it is Jeffrey McNeely, the Chief Scientist of the World Conservation Union. He makes several sobering points, including the following: Because biofuel is a profitable business in many parts of the world, deforestation is now accelerating to feed demand for biofuel crops. This in turn is causing habitat destruction. This practice as well puts fragile topsoils that should never have been taken out from under a forest canopy on track to eventually become desertified. http://www.ecoworld.com/blog/2006/09/22/deforestation-diesel/39) Why aren't we planting new forests in the Congo, instead of burning away more forests to grow Cassava, a biofuel? Why aren't we planting new forests in the Amazon, instead of burning them to grow Sugar Cane, another biofuel? Why shouldn't an investment in carbon sequestration go instead into stopping desertification? What if biofuel plantings were only allowed on desertified lands? Or even more restrictive, biofuel plantings would only be allowed as the vanguard plantings, to begin to restore desertified topsoil, often immediately followed by plantings of more permanent forest plants. To avoid any deforestation, have you thought of factory farming biofuels? The original forest canopy on the planet earth constituted over 20 million square miles, and at this time there are only about 12 million square miles of forest in the world. To think this change in land use, combined with the increasing presence of urban heat sinks on the planet (also something that can be ameliorated by planting trees), is not responsible for global warming is counterintuitive, to say the least. Put the forests back. When only 5% of the carbon dioxide emissions each year into the earth's atmosphere are from human sources - at most, many estimates cite an anthropogenic CO2 contribution of only 2% - and over 40% of the world's forests are gone, you have to conclude the presence (or lack) of forests has something to do with higher atmospheric CO2, and/or higher global temperatures! Forests are cool, deserts are hot. Not only are something like 8 million miles of forest are gone in the last 50 years, but there are equal millions of square miles of new deserts in the world. Deserts are on the march along with deforestation on a planet with only 56 million square miles of land surface. http://www.ecoworld.com/blog/2006/09/23/alternative-energy/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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