141 - Earth's Tree News

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Today for you 35 news items about Mama Earth's trees. Location, number and subject listed below. Condensed / abbreviated article is listed further below.--British Columbia: 1) Lheidli T'enneh First Nation will receive money and land--Oregon: 2) Civil Disobedience against ski expansion, 3) logs in streams, 4) You can grow a food forest, 5) Eight Mile forest is cut far beyond expectations, --California: 6) Enviros demand YMCA rescind a plan to thin forest--Michigan: 7) Students in the Rapid River School District mange their school's forest,--New Jersey: 8) Audobon want to slash and burn pine barrons,--Vermont: 9) Wilderness debate continues,--Georgia: 10) 2,000 trees have been marked to cut on Forest Hill Road--Florida: 11) Cathedral Arch in Lady Lake threatened,--USA: 12) Fake scientist works for industry,--UK: 13) Outrage as Paisley St. trees cut for a new cycle track, 14) Cut trees for safety,--Scotland: 15) Blowing up the oldest trees to make habitat--Switzerland: 16) Lynx recovery in the alps--Palestine: 17) Court order allows access to olive trees--Russia: 18) Six Million acres protected North of Japan for Salmon--Kenya: 19) More of the Wangari Mathai story--Namibia: 20) Uukwambi Traditional Authority won't tolerate chopping down of trees--South Africa: 21) Very cunning and devious of South African National Parks--Mexico: 22) Friends of Calakmul want to save contiguous forest--Brazil: 23) Al Gore and Environment minister collaborate, 24) In Cerrado region agriculture has improved - not hurt – soil erosion, --China: 25) Cathay Forest acquires 4,000 hectares 26) Pumi people say roads ruin forest,--South East Asia: 27) Protection of Marine Environment from Land-Based Sources--Philippines: 28) Ten Pythons released to discourage loggers, 29) Timber Poaching, 30) Three alleged illegal loggers, 31) Typhoon hurt coconut-biodiesel market, 32) Reyes imposed a total logging ban in Lanao del Norte--Australia: 33) Direct Action stops logging in the headwaters of Blue Rock Dam, 34) More corporations promise to not buy illegal lumber, 35) Water Minister will not halt logging in catchments,British Columbia:1) The Lheidli T'enneh First Nation will receive $914,000 and access to more than 1.2 million cubic metres of timber through a five-year agreement reached with the province, Forests and Range Minister Rich Coleman announced Wednesday while helping open the First Nations' Mountain Pine Beetle Office in Shelley. "First Nations are important partners in our ongoing effort to salvage as much economic value as possible from beetle-attacked wood," said Coleman in a press release. "This agreement not only supports that partnership, it gives the Lheidli T'enneh a foundation to create new jobs and new opportunities for band members." Timber harvested under the agreement will come from the Prince George Timber Supply Area. The new volume will help expand the Lheidli T'enneh's existing operations under LTN Logging – a joint venture with Roga Contracting Ltd. that employs about 30 people. "Our community's long-term goal is economic stability so our children, and our children's children, will have a better way of life," said Lheidli T'enneh Chief Dominic Frederick. "The revenue and timber provided in this agreement will help open new doors for our people by strengthening our foothold in the forest industry." http://www.pgfreepress.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=26 & cat=23 & id=753576 & more=

Oregon:2) In the bottom floor of the Ashland Library Wednesday night, a small group of people began to sew seeds of civil disobedience. Anna Boyd, former director of Peace House and one of the organizers of " Watershed Week, " said the threat of logging old-growth Engelmann Spruce on Mount Ashland could be real in coming weeks, and people need to be ready to stand as a last line of defense. " You're trying to use all the tools you have while living in a country where you're not going to get shot for standing up for what you believe in, " Boyd said. Eighteen people gathered to learn about " direct action " and nonviolent communication, motivated by a proposed 71-acre ski area expansion at the top of the Ashland Watershed. A federal district court judge has yet to file an opinion in a lawsuit where he ruled in favor of the Forest Service in its approval of the expansion in 2004. The City of Ashland holds a special-use permit through the U.S. Forest Service to operate the ski area. The city revoked the permit to the Mt. Ashland Association — the non-profit entity that operates the ski area — until it offers a detailed business plan to prove that the city will not be responsible if the ski area fails. For those gathered Wednesday, however, the judicial process may not be enough to stop a logging project. Direct action could be a last resort. " Ideally, we're not going to get to a point where we say we've exhausted all our resources, " Boyd said. But just in case, people practiced building consensus and mock planning for a protest. They discussed planning for how far each person is willing to go to get arrested or help people who would try to stop a logging operation. The training Wednesday night was a brief entry into possible further discussions about the possibility of nonviolent protest against logging on Mount Ashland. The expansion project will probably not incite action from larger environmental groups, Boyd said, so Ashland residents could be the only ones to step in to disrupt possible logging. " This is it, " she said. " It's us. " http://www.dailytidingsforum.com/index.php3) State foresters are clearing the way for loggers to drop a log or two in streams on state and private lands so that coho salmon will find quiet and shady places to hang out. For a half-dozen years, the Oregon Department of Forestry has talked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers to find a way for loggers to place the logs without getting cumbersome permits. Recently, the forestry department published a proposal and is accepting public comment through Nov. 27 (e-mail gbirch). In the mid-1990s, loggers used to do that routinely, said Ted Lorensen, assistant state forester. But then the Corps of Engineers started requiring that landowners get permits before they placed the logs - a process that could take as long as six months. So, a lot of forest land owners stopped building the fish shelters , Lorensen said. And that, he said, was a bad trend for fish and, in particular, coho salmon. " The opportunity, when we have harvest equipment there, will greatly facilitate positive, good, solid projects, " Hart said. Hart said the change in streams is really noticeable after a year. " You catch the gravel, you slow the current, you see the fish using the habitat that's created, " he said. Log placement on about 13 million acres of state and private land in Oregon should resume early next year if the Oregon Board of Forestry approves the proposal, Lorensen said. That should speed the reversal of some old state policies that are now considered to be mistaken. In the 1960s, 1970s and up into the early 1980s, state crews went out and removed woody debris from the streams. Some of the wood was remnants of an early-century logging practice. Loggers would build wood crib dams on streams, pile logs in the pooling water behind them - then blow up the dams to float the logs down to the sawmills. " The perceptions about those got extended to `wood is bad' and so wood got removed, so the streams were cleaned, " Lorensen said. http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/10/19/b1.bz.fishhabitat.1019.p1.php?section=business

4) The maritime Northwest wants to be forest. With our ample rain and fertile soil, trees will sprout almost anywhere. Homeowners know this: we constantly yank and chop woody seedlings from lawns and garden beds. The typical yard is trying very hard to become a forest, not only due to our climate and soil, but because the irrigation and fertilizer we use for lawns and gardens is perfect for trees. Only the lawnmower and pruning shears prevent the woods from taking over. So why fight this trend toward forest? Instead we can work with nature to fashion a multi-storied forest garden, sometimes called a food forest. This is a food- and habitat-producing landscape that acts like a natural woodland. In a forest garden, the yard is an open, parklike grove of fruit trees, some walnuts and chestnuts in larger yards, and other useful trees. In the bright openings are smaller persimmon trees, plums, cherries, paw-paws, and a few ornamentals such as golden-chain trees and pink-flowered silk trees (which just happen to put nitrogen in the soil). Catching the sunlight farther down, dancing with birds, are flowering shrubs and berry bushes. Occasional honeysuckle and hardy kiwi vines wind up tree-trunks, leaving a trail of blossoms and fruit. Beneath all this and in the bright edges are beds of perennial flowers, vegetables, a patch or two of lawn, and soil-building mulch plants that weave this multi-layered garden into a cohesive whole. These many-functioned plants extend a welcome to helpful insects, birds, and other wildlife, as well as to people. A food forest isn't a gloomy mass of light-defeating trees, but an open, many-layered edible woodland garden with plenty of sunny edges. http://www.columbian.com/lifeHome/lifeHomeNews/10192006news68766.cfm5) This Monday a company called Southside Enterprises Inc. began logging the Eight Mile Meadow Timber Sale. Despite hundreds of letters asking the Forest Service to stop the logging plan, over a thousand hours in the field by the Groundtruthing team, and a lawsuit challenging the legality of the sale, 222 acres of forest will be clearcut in thecoming weeks. Eightmile Timber Sale area is best known for its wildlife habitat and for the trail running through it that is popular with mountain bikers. But Eightmile was a Categorical Exclusion, cutting science, and the public, out of the decision making process. That is why no one knew about it when the Forest Service chose to double the volume of logging. That is why no one knew about it when the Forest Service chose to not only cut dead lodgepole pine but live western larch trees. And that is why Bark needs your help now. Please take action on the items below and then call us to find out how to get more involved. As if logging 90% of the trees wasn't enough, Bark Groundtruthers have discovered that Southside Enterprises Inc. is logging trees that are marked to save for video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3533838183062889414 & hl=en http://www.bark-out.org/content/article.php?section=news & id=321California:6) Environmentalists and La Honda residents are demanding that the San Francisco YMCA rescind a plan to thin the forest around a popular 927-acre camp in San Mateo County, arguing that the proposal threatens the environment and opens the door to removing old-growth redwoods. The YMCA insists its plan for Camp Jones Gulch is needed to protect the region against the potential of a catastrophic fire and improve the health of an overgrown forest, and said the plan has been mischaracterized by critics. Still, YMCA officials on Friday told some of their most vocal critics that the nonprofit would work with them to allay their concerns. " We are the stewards of some remarkable land, " President and Chief Executive Officer Charles Collins told activists, who gave him a petition signed by 554 people urging the YMCA to kill the plan. " What we want to do, and what we are doing, is postponing any action on this (plan) to get more public input. " But reaching a consensus could be difficult, as a vocal contingent of activists wants the YMCA to kill the plan entirely and adopt one they feel would ensure greater protection for the forest and cause less harm to the land. " We would like to see them withdraw the (plan) and show they will be better stewards of the land, " said Patty Mayall, an environmental activist and La Honda resident who was among those who presented the petition. At issue is an arcane and highly technical logging proposal called a " nonindustrial timber management plan " now pending before the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. YMCA officials said it is being revised to address concerns critics have raised in recent meetings. The public has until Nov. 15 to comment on the plan, which most likely would not be implemented before spring at the earliest. Some environmentalists doubt the plan would ease the risk of fire. They argue that large trees are effective fire barriers, and clearing them away allows more sunlight to reach the forest floor, drying out ground cover and increasing the risk of fire. Others note that the forest is home to the federally protected marbled murrelet, an endangered seabird that nests in old-growth redwoods. They also worry that the erosion of hills cleared of trees, and dirt kicked up by logging trucks, would pollute Pescadero Creek. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/21/BAGMTLTH8O1.DTLMichigan:

RAPID RIVER — Some days in the Upper Peninsula can be so pleasant, it's hard to stay indoors. Students in the Rapid River School District don't always have to. They have an outdoor classroom in the form of 200 acres of forest land given to them in 1987. "We definitely like getting out to plant trees or pick up brush," said junior Katie Erickson. It's her third year with the club. Public Act 217 of 1931 gave the Department of Natural Resources the right to convert property reclaimed for back taxes to public bodies such as schools, said retired DNR forest technician Ralph Lundquist. Schools were responsible for upkeep of the forest, but they acquired the land free. Many schools didn't want to get involved, said Lundquist, but he and teacher Darryl Lindquist, convinced the school board and the forest project began, Lundquist said. The 200 acres surround the Rapid River school which is built on a 40-acre section of the land. A board of 25 to 50 students participate each year. They help make decisions and work on projects such as trails and planting. In 1999, the school received a grant to develop a nature trail. One member who wanted to earn his Eagle Scout award planned the project with Lundquist's assistance. He made many of the decisions as to where the trail would go, Lundquist said. When it was time for the first timber harvest of mature jack pine in 1995, students observed the logging process. They learned to "cruise" timber, finding out how loggers estimate the volume of wood on site. http://www.dailypress.net/stories/articles.asp?articleID=5285New Jersey:ESTELL MANOR — The New Jersey Audubon Society has a novel idea for how to make the Pinelands National Reserve an optimum habitat for wildlife — log it and burn it. No, the 109-year-old environmental stewardship organization doesn't suggest clear-cutting or torching the nearly 1 million-acre national reserve, but it has begun advocating what hunters have suggested for years: selective forestry and burning to improve wildlife habitat. "One thing that's particularly clear, the more we look at the Pine Barrens, the more we look at the ecosystem there, (we see that) it's a classic ecosystem — it needs disturbance," says Troy Ettel, N.J. Audubon's director of conservation. "The Pine Bar-rens of New Jersey need fire like the rainforest needs rain." Historically, Ettel and others say, the Pine Barrens were routinely ravaged by wildfires, leaving wide open spaces that became grasslands and provided prime habitat for species such as the redheaded woodpecker and ruffed grouse. But with humanity settled throughout the Pine Barrens, naturally occurring forest fires have become taboo. Today, Ettel said, the forests of the Pine Barrens are just too homogeneous to provide good habitat for all the area's native species — and they're also a tinderbox waiting for a spark. "Because we have not had fires like this occurring in the Pine Barrens, we have a lot more trees than we would have had," he said. "In order to restore that to more natural conditions, what you need to do is do some selective thinning ... and controlled burns." Historically, some environmentalists have opposed any hands-on management of the Pine Barrens and other natural areas. "As time has gone on, the wildlife aspect of it has become more and more urgent," Banker said. "Some (species) are really going down the tubes in a hurry. Those are the ones that need special habitats. Deer, coyote — they can live anywhere." Species that benefit from grasslands and cleared areas include the threatened redheaded woodpecker and game fowl such as the ruffed grouse and quail. But orchestrating a controlled blaze can be difficult, because the Pine Barrens are dotted with development and smoke can affect air quality as far away as Philadelphia. That's why N.J. Audubon is also promoting selective cutting, to thin out and diversify the forest in areas where fires aren't feasible. Ettel calls it "ecological forestry."http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/story/6838199p-6704484c.html

Vermont:9) " I'm not a real spiritual person, but I do believe it would be good to protect this forest so that 100 years from now it's not crisscrossed with roads and trails and whatever form of mechanized transportation we have then, " he said. Sayre, part owner of the A. Johnson Co. lumber mill in Bristol, walked similar woods a few miles away. In the diseased beeches, broken-topped birch and crowded saplings, he saw lost opportunities to cut timber to improve the forest's economic value while creating habitat for animals partial to open spaces. This fall, longstanding disagreements over how much timber cutting and how much wilderness should be allowed in Vermont's national forest broke into open political war. The issue: a congressional bill to set aside 48,000 more acres of wilderness, with the Vermont delegation in support and Gov. Jim Douglas in opposition. Douglas and the delegation compromised on 40,000 acres, but the debate is far from over: Congress: The bill itself faces an uncertain fate when Congress returns post-election. Mick Petrie, the wilderness advocate, peered through the underbrush clinging to the banks of Grindstone Brook, its clear water plunging down the slopes of Monastery Mountain a few miles northeast of the Sucker Brook Trail. No trails scale the mountain, an outpost of the Green Mountain ridge. Petrie has bushwhacked up Monastery Mountain a number of times. He has seen evidence of bears but never another person. At the summit, someone has left a mayonnaise jar with a little sign-in notebook inside. " It's wonderfully inaccessible. One time I opened the notebook and found I had been there two years before, on the exact day -- and nobody had been there since, " he said. Creating the Battell Wilderness would insure Monastery Mountain is visited only by the occasional hiker or persistent hunter. In a country increasingly filled with people, machines and noise, Vermont needs more protected places like Monastery, he said. " There's an attraction to a place that very few people go, places where there are no crowds, " he said. http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006310200004

Georgia:10) " The trees are marked almost up to my front door, " said Alice Boyd, who lives in the 500 block of Forest Hill Road. " (They marked) everything within a 77-foot radius of the median. " More than 2,000 trees have been marked, but that doesn't mean they all will be cut down, said Tim Lake, whose company is handling the landscaping along the project. " We know that some of those are going to have to come out, " Lake said Wednesday. " Don't have any idea how many yet. " People are being urged not to remove the flags marking the trees, because " that's how we know which (tree) is which, " he said. It could be December before planners know which trees will come down to make way for the planned three- and four-lane sections of the road, new sidewalks and new power lines planned between Vineville Avenue and Northside Drive, Lake said. In the meantime, Lake said he and other planners are cataloging the trees and taking inventory of what's in the project's right-of-way. Boyd and others along the road continue to feel the new Forest Hill Road will be overbuilt - particularly considering that Vineville Avenue, which connects to Forest Hill Road, allows only one lane of traffic to turn off the road for much of the day. " Where is the traffic going? " Boyd asked. But planners have said repeatedly that expected traffic increases along Forest Hill Road necessitate the widening. Several attempts to force a redesign have failed, and the project is moving forward. http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/15792857.htmFlorida:11) LADY LAKE -- An ancient canopy shadows a sleepy road in historic Lady Lake. More than a century ago, town founders dug up saplings near Lake Griffin, hauled them uphill in wagons and planted them alongside a dirt lane they called Cathedral Arch. The street, still only wide enough for two buggies to pass, has been renamed East Lady Lake Boulevard. And tonight the trees are at the center of the town's first effort to preserve historic places. Earlier this year, development threatened the trees and residents rose up in fury. The proposal would have packed 27 homes into a few acres interspersed among the larger rural homesteads lining the road. The Town Commission denied the project, and will hold a public hearing at 6 p.m. today at Town Hall to find the best way to protect Lady Lake's history from its future. " You need those quiet spaces, " said Maria Sauerwald, a member of the town's Tree and Beautification Committee, who recommended the town prohibit dense development in the center of Lady Lake. " We're moving at such a fast pace these days. You grab so much in the few minutes or seconds you're there. It relaxes you. " Town officials invited residents to bring ideas about other historic areas that should be preserved, bits of the town Sauerwald calls " hidden places " that are " precious " to the past. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/orl-lladylake1906oct19,0,2160601.story?coll=orl-news-

headlines-lakeUSA: 12) In the perennial battle over how the West's vast acreage of federal forests should be managed, science is a favorite weapon. And on the pro-logging side no academic has been as visible as Thomas M. Bonnicksen, particularly in California. The Texas A & M emeritus professor of forest science has testified before Congress 13 times, written numerous op-ed pieces and been widely quoted in Western newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times. Always he sounds the same theme: Logging is the key to restoring public lands to their former fire-resistant state. In his writings, Bonnicksen has commonly disclosed that he sits on the advisory board of the Auburn, Calif.-based Forest Foundation. What he hasn't divulged is how lucrative his connection with the pro-logging timber industry-funded foundation has been. According to public tax documents, Bonnicksen collected $109,000 from the foundation in the last two years as an independent contractor. " He's always introduced as the leading expert on forest recovery, and he's just not. There's nothing in his record other than just talking and hand-waving, " said UCLA ecology professor Philip Rundel, one of several academics who issued an open letter to the media this week questioning Bonnicksen's credentials. " I don't care if people print his stuff or not. But he needs to be identified for what he is … a lobbyist. " The letter, signed by two other UC faculty members and the founding dean of Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, accused Bonnicksen of having misrepresented scientific facts, and advancing views that " fall far outside the mainstream of scientific opinion. " http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-bonnicksen21oct21,1,775316.story?coll=la

-headlines-pe-california & ctrack=1 & cset=trueUK13) ANGRY residents slammed Renfrewshire Council yesterday after trees in their scenic Paisley street were cut to make way for a new cycle track. Families living in Glenburn Road could only watch on in horror as council staff began hacking away at beautiful ash, willow and sycamore trees, some of which are 50 years old. Now upset locals claim their street has been left looking like a "North Korean nuclear bomb test zone." One community activist has even dubbed the stretch of road 'Crucifixion Hill' now that it is lined with a number of ugly tree trunks. A spokesperson said: "A new cycle route which will link into the national cycle network is being established and this has been approved through the normal planning process. "A row of mature trees is to be replaced with a row of semi mature lime trees. "The age and condition of the trees were likely to cause concern in the coming years. http://icrenfrewshire.icnetwork.co.uk/pde/news/tm_headline=fury-as-trees-get-the-chop & method=full &

objectid=17946471 & siteid=63858-name_page.html14) " I have been fighting to get them taken down for months. The problem is that the trees come off the path and into the road and buses and cars just can't see children if they runout into the road. " The council told me it can't chop the willows down until July, but gardeners tell me they can be chopped down at any time of the year. I'm very disappointed with the parks department. " Mr Bonney said he had spoken to five people at the council. He added: " It's not good enough. It's utterly ridiculous that they put a willow ahead of children's safety. " Mum-of-three Vicky Ochiela, 26, said the area was so overgrown her children called it 'the jungle'. She added: " There have always been bushes and trees around in the grassy area but you could look over them. Now they are so thick there have been reports of a man in the trees watching children. " Also there is a real danger of children running out into Nuffield Road. There are a lot of hooligans in the area and they whizz down that road. This is definitely something that a lot of mums worry about. The council have let it go and it's very worrying. " City council spokesman Louisa Dean said the trees were on the parks department list to be pruned back. She said the work was due to be carried out in two weeks. http://www.oxfordmail.net/display.var.970627.0.residents_fear_child_will_be_run_over_because_of_tre

es.phpScotland:15) Some of the oldest trees in Scotland were blown up yesterday - by conservationists. Staff at the Abernethy reserve, near Aviemore, took the drastic action against 10 Caledonian Scots pines to boost the amount of dead wood in the forest. According to the reserve's owners, the RSPB, the cull will improve the woodland's ecosystem by attracting diverse and important wildlife. The tops of the trees, aged between 100 and 200 years, were blown off using small amounts of explosive. The explosive charges, placed by demolition experts, were designed to expose ragged, torn and splintered edges, exposing raw wood in much the same way as a storm, avalanche damage or lightning strike might. It is the first time the charity has attempted such a measure. RSPB Scotland's Abernethy reserve is the largest remaining expanse of the once sprawling ancient Caledonian pine forest, containing roughly 3.5million Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris). In a natural forest ecosystem free of human interference, between 20% and 30% of the existing trees will be either dead or dying, according to the RSPB. However, much of the remaining ancient and semi-natural woodlands in Scotland have been highly modified over several millennia and this natural dynamic is either absent or much reduced. Desmond Dugan, site manager for the Forest Lodge section of Abernethy, said: " It may seem ironic but dead wood is a key driving element of our forest ecosystem. http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/72645.htmlSwitzerland:16) The lynx, like its fellow European predators the brown bear and wolf, was wiped out of Switzerland's alpine landscape by the end of the 19th century as a result of human population growth, combined with forest conversion for agriculture and logging that saw their habitat encroached upon and their main prey, roe deer, drastically reduced. They were also persecuted by local farmers who saw them as a threat to their livestock, especially when grazing high in the alpine meadows. It is believed the last lynx in the Swiss Alps was killed in 1894, not too far from where our excursion took place. Fast forward about a 100 years and the situation has changed. As large-scale deforestation came to an end, forest cover increased and deer populations dramatically recovered, creating the right ecological conditions for the lynx to return, albeit with a little help. According to the IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group, at least 14 lynx were translocated in the 1970s from the Carpathian Mountains in Eastern Europe to the Swiss Alps, making Switzerland one of the first European countries to endorse the re-introduction of this species, as well as grant it legal protection. Today, there are about 100 individuals in Switzerland, consisting of two main populations — one in the northwest Swiss Alps, which includes the Interlaken area, and the other in the Jura Mountains overlooking Lac Léman (or Lake Geneva) and continuing on to France. "The two populations are not enough," stressed Schoenenberger. "They are too small and isolated to be viable, and the lack of contact between the populations can lead to a decrease in the genetic pool. We have already observed several lynx with hip problems, a genetic defect that indicates inbreeding." http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/index.cfm?uNewsID=82460Palestine:17) Last year, he says, Jewish settlers set fire to his olive grove and destroyed his harvest. Before that, gun-toting settlers forced his family from the grove when they started picking. Israeli authorities, trying to avoid further confrontations, ordered him to stay away, Amer says, and the settlers helped themselves to his olives. But this season, an Israeli high court decision granting Palestinian farmers protection from settler violence means that Amer will be able to harvest the olives from his 60 trees. Hundreds of Israeli soldiers and police are patrolling stony hillside groves near Jewish settlements in the West Bank, vowing to keep the peace. Palestinians, usually fearful of Israeli authorities, are welcoming their presence. " We are happy that the army is here. We feel like we're being protected, " said Amer, who has been harvesting his olives within shouting distance of the hilltop settlement of Bracha. So far, he says, there have been no problems. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.harvest17oct17,0,204978.story?coll=bal-nationwo

rld-headlinesRussia:18) Now, in a nation with a dreary environmental record that is engaged in a rush to extract its resources, the peninsula's governments are at work on proposals that would designate seven sprawling tracts of wilderness as salmon-protected areas, a network of refuges for highly valuable fish that would be the first of its kind. Encompassing nine entire rivers and more than six million acres, the protected watersheds would exceed the scale of many renowned preserved areas in the United States. Together they would be more than four times the size of the Everglades, nearly triple that of Yellowstone National Park and slightly larger than the Adirondack Park, which is often referred to as the largest protected area in the lower United States. The government's position, set forth in documents in August, has surprised even the scientists and conservationists who have lobbied to protect habitat from the development pressures of post-Soviet Russia. They have rallied behind it. Until 15 years ago it was a closed Soviet military zone, untouched and almost without roads. Today, it remains a remote region of volcanoes and glaciers, ringed by forested slopes and tundra laced with aquatic habitats where salmon spawn and their young grow. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/world/europe/15salmon.html?ex=1161662400 & en=8006c1e7f87c83fe & ei=

5070 & emc=eta1Kenya:19) Wangari Maathai will be the first to tell you. It was faith that turned her little tree initiative into a national movement that mobilized more than 100,000 women to plant 30 million trees across Kenya; faith that gave her the courage to keep advocating for the environment and women despite being persecuted and beaten by government officials; faith that allowed a poor girl from the Kenyan countryside to dream that she could actually change the world. And she did just that. In 2004, Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement, an organization created to help restore the indigenous forests of Kenya, became the first African woman and first environmentalist to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Committee cited Maathai's " contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace " noting, " She thinks globally and acts locally. " From the time the prize was announced, she has not stopped traveling, accepting invitations to speak all over the world. " The world literally opened up to me. But it provides a very strong challenge to live up to the position. " A resident of Nairobi, where she serves as a member of parliament and assistant minister of the environment, Maathai is touring the United States with her memoir, Unbowed (Knopf), an eloquently written story of her life as single mother of three, biologist, political activist and feminist. At a youthful 66, resplendent in her native dress and headwrap of grass green, sunset orange and ocean blue, Maathai cuts a regal and confident figure against the backdrop of a Philadelphia hotel lobby. " You need a forum to talk about your problems, " she says. " And that forum for me was a tree. " For as long as she can remember, she has felt one with nature. Growing up in the central highlands in Nyeri, Kenya, Maathai writes of near-perfect weather, drinking clean water from local streams, and strolling among forests of banana, avocado and acacia trees. http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/magazine/daily/15792601.htmNamibia:

20) The Uukwambi Traditional Authority says it will not tolerate the chopping down of trees, which is destroying the environment and causing deforestation in the area. Chairperson of the Uukwambi Traditional Authority, Chief Herman Iipumbu, said this on the occasion of National Arbour Day, which was marked at Etope Combined School in the Omusati Region over the weekend. Iipumbu said his authority had urged its people to preserve the environment and to ensure that all types of trees were protected. He commended the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry as well as the Northern Namibia Forestry Committee (NNFC) for encouraging children to plant trees at their schools. Ipumbu said the idea of giving seedlings to schools, for the children to plant and take care of, encouraged the country's children and young people to love and respect trees. Etope Combined School and Elundu Combined School in the Ohangwena Region were declared the winners of the 2006 NNFC tree-planting competition. http://allafrica.com/stories/200610180019.htmlSouth Africa:21) He said that when the park took over 1,000hectares of the forests from the department of water affairs and forestry on April 2005, it had spoken about " continuation of routine harvesting " - or words to that effect. " But only now, in this final hour, do we realize that we're about to lose our treasured forests that we've had for almost a century, " Schlesinger said. " It's been very cunning and devious of South African National Parks. They didn't spell it out - they confused the public. Most people can't believe it's happening. " Geraldine Goncalves, of Friends of the Dog Walkers, said: " Though Tokai and lower Cecilia are to remain as designated dog-walking areas, as harvesting of trees progresses the lack of shade will render these former forests less and less hospitable for dogs whose internal cooling systems are much less efficient than those of humans. Pressure groups say they are dismayed by the decision of the Table Mountain National Park to allow the felling of the Cecilia and Tokai forest plantations. The Table Mountain National Park's head, Brett Myrdal, submitted the park's plan for the areas on Thursday - confirming that the 90-year-old pine trees in the 600-hectare forests will be removed by forestry company MTO over the next 20 years. He gave the assurance that all public amenities would remain for the public to enjoy, that the Arboretum and Afromontane forests would remain untouched and that shade would be provided in future by indigenous trees. But Mark Schlesinger, a member of the Urban Forests Protection Group, said: " Most people feel that it's a David against Goliath battle, that we're barking against thunder. People are disillusioned, upset and angry. " " Friends of the Dog Walkers understand the ecological imperatives of getting rid of pine plantations in such a water-hungry part of our country. " But if TMNP is to fulfil its objective to provide adequate recreational facilities for the local community, it needs to provide plenty of shaded areas for walkers with and without dogs, " Goncalves said. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=14 & click_id=14 & art_id=vn20061020125632290C322912

Mexico:22) Friends of Calakmul is focused entirely on securing large blocks of contiguous forest west of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. Just to give you an idea of how important this area is for jaguars, the population in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve (roughly 500) is the second-largest single population north of the Amazon. We are focused on protecting the remaining large contiguous blocks because every jaguar needs almost six square miles (roughly 3,700 acres) for its survival; in fact, studies in the area have shown the probability of jaguar extinction in Calakmul will increase by 40 percent if the forests where FOC is working are not protected. The jaguar needs such a large range because it needs a great abundance of prey. FOC's partner, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, has been studying the ecology of jaguars in Calakmul for nine years. Their findings indicate that one jaguar lives and forages a small area of its home range for seven to 10 days. After that, the jaguar moves to another small area where it has an abundance of new prey. This rotation continues until it visits the entire home range. These findings indicate why it is critical to preserve large intact blocks of forest. Regarding connectivity, our NGO partner, Unidos para Conservación, has been developing a strategy that outlines a conservation corridor from the eastern side of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve to the Sian Kaan reserve on the east coast of the Yucatan. This part of the reserve is much more fragmented than the area where we are currently working. However, it is still critically important for the survival of jaguars in the region. Once we have consolidated the large blocks to the west of the reserve, we plan to help implement a strategy to connect the two reserves, utilizing in some cases the tools we have used with the ejidos, or long-term conservation contracts, to the west of the reserve. http://www.kitsapsun.com/bsun/local/article/0,2403,BSUN_19088_5080674,00.htmlBrazil:23) " The ex-vice president of United States was very sympathetic to the Brazilian proposal, " Environment Minister Marina Silva told reporters after meeting with Gore in Sao Paulo. " He has a public commitment and is a respected activist around the world for this cause. He should analyze it and possibly become an ally " of the proposal. Gore, who was in Sao Paulo to promote his book " An Inconvenient Truth, " did not speak to reporters following the meeting. Brazil first proposed the idea in Rome last August at a preparatory meeting for the 12th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Climate Change and said it would make a formal proposal at the conference in Kenya in November. The idea would be to create a voluntary fund that would reward developing countries for how much they reduce deforestation below traditional levels. The countries then would get paid on the basis of how many tons of carbon the extra forest left standing was able to remove from the atmosphere. Developing countries are not required to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases under the Kyoto protocols. http://www.sci-tech-today.com/news/Brazil-Seeks-Deforestation-Plan-Support/story.xhtml?story_id=10

2005PVP2EI24) Opening Brazil's vast Cerrado region to agriculture has improved - not hurt - the environment, this year's World Food Prize laureates say. The three men - American Colin McClung and Brazilians Edson Lobato and Alysson Paolinelli - were credited with helping turn the 300 million-acre inland region in Brazil into some of the most productive cropland in the world.. Ed Schuh, a professor at the University of Minnesota and an expert on international trade, cited research showing that the opening of the Cerrado has slowed the cutting of the Amazonian rain forest. " The flow of people to the Amazon in the north is coming primarily from people living in the highly populated regions in Brazil's south, " said Schuh, who is married to a Brazilian and owns a 1,300-acre farm in the Cerrado. " Development of the Cerrado in the center of the country is cutting off some of that migration, and people are settling in the Cerrado and not going on the Amazon. " In the Cerrado, he said, trees are not being cut down to make farmland. " You don't cut one tree, " he said. " We're recovering the pastures in the Cerrado. " McClung, who did pioneering soil research in the Cerrado in the 1950s, said cover crops have been planted in the Cerrado to prevent soil erosion. " There's no evidence of degradation, " McClung said. Lobato, who built on McClung's soil research, said there was some soil erosion when the Cerrado was first farmed extensively but said that has been corrected. Brazilian farmers are required to keep 20 percent of their land in natural habitat. Conservation International, a Washington-based group, is working to get farmers to comply with the set-aside law. " We need agriculture, " John Buchanan, the group's director of agriculture and fisheries, has said. http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061021/BUSINESS01/610210333/1030

China:25) Cathay Forest is a forest products company managing standing timber properties and developing fast-growth, high-yield poplar plantations in the Peoples Republic of China. Cathay Forest is building a world class forest products company through a customer base that includes the domestic Chinese pulp and paper industry and harvesting customers serving a variety of wood product industries. Cathay Forest has acquired more than 4,000 hectares of standing timber in the area and will continue to add to this portfolio. Cathay's effective acquisition, management and harvesting strategy in this region provides immediate cash flow with low overhead costs, allowing the Company to continue developing fast growth plantations in eastern-central China as well as pursue opportunities for timber trading and acquisitions in northern China. http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/October2006/16/c8275.html26) With a population of around 30,000, the Pumi are one of China's smallest ethnic groups. Most members dwell in Lanping County of Nujiang Prefecture, in the country's rugged western province of Yunnan. Yushichang, a smaller village under Lanping's Jinghua administrative village, is almost exclusively Pumi. Local residents are especially proud of two traditions: protecting the area's natural forests by resisting the encroachment of government-backed logging companies, and enshrining the Pumi culture through a firm belief that anyone who wants to learn the group's language and traditions must make a pilgrimage to Yushichang. But today, both the area's pristine forests and traditional Pumi culture face a looming foe: road access. Zhouze Yang, the head of the Jinghua Administrative Village Committee, is a Yushichang native. Like other Pumis, the 44-year-old local has a deep reverence for the area's forests. "We Pumis should always be living and dying with natural forests," he says. He notes that Jinghua Village is one of the most heavily forested areas in Yunnan, and that Yushichang is the most forested area in Jinghua, with more than 90 percent original cover. "Senior people in the village were deeply concerned," explains Jinhui Yang, the 46-year-old director of the local cultural center and former president of Yushichang Village. "They warned us that disasters would come if the trees were cut down. They wanted us to assume our responsibilities for protecting the trees." According to Jinhui Yang, in order to prevent the forests from being cleared, dozens of villagers would rush to the village entrance, trying to stop the logging companies. "I, together with another villager, brought axes. When we could not stop them, we would chop their processed logs so they wouldn't be able to sell them." The protests caught the attention of the prefecture government, which pledged not to cut the forests surrounding Yushichang. Similar confrontations happened every time the logging companies tried to approach the village territory. There were also times when the logging companies were too strong to resist, and villagers were forced to give up portions of their forests in order to protect the remaining ones. But less than a year later, according to Yang, not many people are using the road. This past summer, heavy rains washed out large sections, leaving ditches and holes and returning parts of the route to their original state. "Zhe Chen doesn't gripe about it anymore," observes Yang. It may not be long, however, before competing viewpoints again create tensions between roads and trees in the Pumi heartland. http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4684South East Asia:27) Some 700 delegates from around 115 countries are attending the conference aimed at charting a new course for the Global Programme of Action (GPA) for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Sources -- a voluntary UNEP initiative. A major report - the " State of the Marine Environment " - compiled for Governments attending this week's review highlight untreated sewage, soaring sediments due to rampant deforestation, increased fertilizer use, and coastal developments as among the key threats facing the region's seas. Sewage treatment access varies widely – from roughly 60 per cent of Japan's population to 15 per cent in Mumbai, India, to about 6 per cent in Karachi, Pakistan. Discharges from many big industrial plants situated along the coast is also a threat and is a "common feature" in much of South Asia, Ms. Vandeweerd. Two thirds of the world's total sediment transport to the oceans occurs in South and East Asia. Rampant deforestation is particularly acute in Southeast Asia and studies in the Philippines and Indonesia estimate damage to coral reefs from logging-induced sedimentation greatly exceeds the economic benefits of logging. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20269 & Cr=Asia & Cr1=unepPhilippines:28) Ten large python snakes, some measuring 10 feet long, were released in a protected forest in Barangay Campuestohan, Talisay City Wednesday morning. Most of these snakes reportedly came from the Eco-Garden Rescue Center in Purok Eroreco, Barangay Mandalagan, Bacolod City. Talisay Mayor Eric Saratan said the release of the snakes will not only maintain balance in the ecosystem but will also hinder " kaingeros " (charcoal makers) and make them think twice before attempting to cut the forest trees in the area. Phython is a common name for nonpoisonous snakes of the boa and python family. Pythons are large and muscular, and kill their prey by squeezing or constricting until it suffocates. Although most feed on small mammals, some large species can kill and swallow small pigs and goats. Rarely have they killed humans. Pythons range from 1 to 10 m (3 to 33 ft) long and weigh up to 140 kg (300 lb). The female lays 15 to 100 eggs, and broods them until they hatch. http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/bac/2006/10/12/news/10.pythons.released.in.talisay.forest.html

29) Timber poaching allegedly done by a group of armed men, have damaged again more than four hectares of a forest area in Spur 7, Brgy. Bagong Silang, Don Salvador Benedicto, the Task Force Ilahas reported yesterday. At least 14,000 board feet of trees of banned species, estimated to have a market value of P420,000, were also cut from the damaged forest, the report added. The resumption of Task Force Ilahas operations on Oct. 16 in Salvador Benedicto led to the arrest of three persons caught in the act of cutting natural grown trees, which is prohibited by law, Chief Inspector Calixto Mabugat, TFI assistant action officer, said. The anti-illegal logging operation of Task Force Ilahas was cancelled early this month, following reports received by the military of alleged plans of rebels to ambush them in Brgy. Canlusong, E.B. Magalona. In his report to Governor Joseph Maranon, Mabugat identified the arrested suspects as William Villafuerte, Romeo Ugbamen and Mateo Senubehan, all residents of Brgy. Bagong Silang, Don Salvador Benedicto. Recovered from them were bolos, shovels and digging bars. Initial investigations of the Task Force Ilahas showed that the arrested suspects had tagged a group of armed men whom he refused to identify as the ones behind the cutting of trees in the northern part of Spur 7, damaging three hectares of the remaining forest cover of Don Salvador Benedicto. http://www.visayandailystar.com/2006/October/18/topstory7.htm30) Three alleged illegal loggers were charged in court here for violation of the Forestry Code of the Philippines. Caraga DENR Regional Executive Director (RED) Benjamin Tumaliuan identified the the suspects as Borres Cabaltis, Samuel Madelo Baja and Mario Escuadro. The suspects were being charged for allegedly transporting 12,459.93 board feet of illegally-cut lumber. They were apprehended by the team of 14th Regional Police Mobile Group and the anti-illegal logging task force of RED Tumaliuan led by CENRO-Western Monitoring Station Forester Roger Bucong. The case for violation of forestry laws, rules and regulations was being filed at the Prosecutors Office here by Butuan City Community Environment and Natural Resources Officer (CENRO) Achilles Ebron. Meanwhile, RED Tumaliuan ordered Talacogon CENR Officer Jovencio V. Munoz to conduct final scaling, seizure and administrative proceedings on their confiscated 1,500 pieces of illegally-cut logs in La Paz town, Agusan del Sur. The illegally-cut logs were seized by the CENRO illegal logging task force along the tributaries of Agusan river, it was learned. (PNA) http://news.balita.ph/html/article.php/2006101511150645831) BAGUIO CITY -- Typhoon "Milenyo," which struck Luzon two week ago, wrought havoc on the coco biodiesel sector. It destroyed 24 million coconut trees, the Department of Agriculture said, and the main convener of the Philippine Biodiesel Association (PBA), Chris Michelena, said this number represented 30-40 percent of the coconut trees in the Southern Luzon region and almost five percent of coco biodiesel exports. A biofuels bill approved in the Senate this week proposes to require at least one percent cocomethyl ester, or coco biodiesel, to be blended into all diesel fuel products and five percent ethanol to be blended into all gasoline products. http://business.inq7.net/money/breakingnews/view_article.php?article_id=2646532) Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Angelo Wednesday following persistent reports of illegal logging and cutting of trees and transport of illegally sourced timber products in the province. Under DENR Administrative Order (DAO) No. 13 issued on Oct. 13, Reyes said the total logging ban would cover both naturally grown and planted trees. The ban would affect a total of 27,119.73 hectares of public and private lands with existing forest agreements with the government. " The order effectively prohibits logging, cutting, and transport of logs, timber and other forest products in Lanao del Norte, " he said. Reyes sternly directed officials of the DENR Region 10 and provincial environment and natural resources office of Lanao del Norte and other DENR officials and personnel concerned to implement DAO No. 13 " under threat of administrative, criminal or civil sanctions. " Reyes instructed the DENR regional officials and staffers to coordinate with local officials, the Philippines National Police and Armed Forces in implementing the order. Lanao del Norte hosts two timber license agreements (TLA). The TLA of Lanao Agro Industrial Corp. was issued in 1982, covering a logging concession area of 19,608 hectares. Lanao Agro's operation, however, was suspended in 1986 by then Environment and Natural Resources Minister Ernesto Maceda. The company has not operated since then. The company's TLA will expire on Dec. 31, 2007. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=53661Australia:33) Twenty activists are continuing to lock down machinery and stop logging in the headwaters of the catchment feeding the Blue Rock Dam, earmarked by the Bracks government to be Melbourne's next water supply catchment. Twenty activists are continuing to lock down machinery and stop logging in the headwaters of the catchment feeding the Blue Rock Dam, earmarked by the Bracks government to be Melbourne's next water supply catchment. Two people are locked to machinery and one person is in a tree sit. Police and Department of Sustainability and the Environment Officers have arrived and forced the support crew to leave. The planned logging is happening in our newest water supply catchment in the Central Highlands. Protests spokespwerson Lauren Caufield said "Victoria is facing its worst ever drought and Melbourne is in a water crisis. One of the solutions touted by the Bracks government is to connect the Blue Rock Dam to Melbourne's water supply grid, yet we are logging its catchment.Its madness, while Melbourne Water tells us that 'every drop counts' ordinary Victorians must put their bodies on the line to stop logging in water catchments" she said. Logging reduces water supplies by up to fifty percent and over half of Melbourne's water is already coming from logged catchments The area also contains old growth forest, habitat for the Sooty Owl and is a site of Global Zoological Significance for a number of threatened animals including the Baw Baw Frog and the Leadbeaters Possum. http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/10/128128.php34) WWF's Australia Forest and Trade Network has secured signatures from listed agribusiness Timbercorp and plantation manager ITC Ltd, timber importers and wholesalers Simmonds Lumber, print management business Complete Print Solutions, commercial printer Complete Colour Printing and communications consultant UP & UP Creative. The forest products covered by the agreements extend right across the supply chain, including wood and building materials, woodchips, furniture, pulp and paper. The Australian businesses join some of the world's biggest companies by signing on to the WWF global campaign, including Fuji Xerox Office Supply and Mitsubishi Paper Sales in Japan, Ikea and Stora Enso in Sweden, Johnson & Johnson in North America, and big British DIY retailer B & Q. WWF's Global Forest and Trade Network covers more than 300 companies in 30 countries. The costs of illegal logging are immense. While environmentalists tend to emphasise damage to the habitats of animals such as Borneo's orang-utans, there is also a severe economic and financial impact. http://www.theage.com.au/news/business/timber-companies-join-origins-debate/2006/10/18/116085099789

1.html35) Victorian Water Minister John Thwaites today dismissed calls to halt logging in forest catchments, despite concerns tree loss will dry up desperately needed water supplies. The appeal by a doctors' lobby group comes as much of Victoria experiences its driest decade ever, while a national audit on water management also has found the states have failed to properly tackle supply shortages with conservation measures. But Mr Thwaites rejected a request by Doctors for Native Forests to protect the catchments, after a study they commissioned confirmed logging was damaging water supplies. " The amount of logging that's done in the water catchments is very small, " Mr Thwaites told ABC Radio. Nevertheless, the water minister acknowledged felling trees would " cost " water supplies. " It does cost some, although the amount is subject to a scientific research inquiry that we're doing now, " he said. " The possible effect is in the longer term. You're talking about 20 or 30 years hence before you'd get a significant effect on your water if you stop all logging. " A report commissioned by the doctors' group found logging in six of Melbourne's catchments will result in a loss of 30 billion litres of water per year by 2050. http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/thwaites-rejects-catchment-logging-call/2006/10/13/1602462993

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