179 - Earth's Tree News

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179 - Earth's Tree News

Today for you 41 news items about Earth's trees. Location, number and

subject listed below. Condensed / abbreviated article is listed further

below.Can be viewed on the web at http://www.livejournal.com/users/olyecology or by sending a blank email message to

earthtreenews---Alaska: 1) 80 residents attended Tongass meeting--British

Columbia: 2) Home Depot never stopped selling old growth, 3) New

direction in land use planning? 4) Beetle floods, 5) Public input for

Caribou, 6) Clayoquot Sound, --Washington: 7) Weyerhauser CEO is gonna get your opinion--Oregon: 8) 53 trees, 9) Hermach responds, 10) RIP - Andrew Bortz, 11) End of BLM ,--California: 12) Was it worth it Hurwitz? 13) Bigfoot prints are legit, 14) Fisher savers, 15) Heavenly trees to be cut down, --Arizona: 16) Kid speaks out for trees, 17) Circumventing tree ordinance,--Illinois: 18) Subdivision developers trying to save trees, --Indiana: 19) Purdue U. tells landowners to get rich cutting the big ones

--Ohio: 20) Four-lane bypass, 21) Columbia Gas Transmission cutting rites,--Alabama: 22) Reinveneting Bankhead National Forest--Massachusetts: 23) Fresh Pond Reservation destroyed, 24) Legget's legacy destroyed,

--Virginia: 24) Billion Stoves program--Maine: 25) Brook trout don't want housing developments--USA: 26) Outing your own agency, 27) Save the Roadless,--Canada: 28) Manitoba not saving Poplar-Nanowin,--Germany: 29) What's logging like?

--Turkey: 30) Whirling dervish-shaped trees--Congo: 31) Sustainable management?--Malawi: 32) Military won't be able to protect forests--Brazil: 33) Riparian Forest Restoration Project--Fiji: 34) It's not agriculture deforestation is the problem

--Himalayas: 35) political motivations blame ethnic minorities for deforestation,--Malaysia: 36) Rainforest Challenge in a road of devastation, 37) Buying land, --New Zealand: 38) Six-point plan to get tree planting underway again, --Australia: 39) Cool while it lasted, 40) Stop illegal logging, --World-wide: 41) UN conference to amend rules for endangered speciesAlaska:1)

Juneau residents at Centennial Hall on Tuesday night said they want

forest officials to consider the benefits of less logging when choosing

a blueprint for future use of the Tongass National Forest. About two

dozen of the roughly 80 residents who attended the Tuesday meeting

represented a very vocal contingent of off-road vehicle users. Several

urged forest officials not to forget their needs when evaluating forest

management. " I really agree that there is a need for places for those

who would like to use motorized vehicles in the forest. It is not in

our best interest to destroy the forest. I'm not sure which of the

alternatives I have seen so far I would most agree with, but one with

less logging, " said lifelong resident Jeremiah Blankenship, an off-road

vehicle user. A study by Juneau's McDowell Group found that many

Tongass timber sales were unable to attract bidders and about 40

percent of the timber harvest wasn't profitable because of low-quality

wood. Forest Service officials say they have received more than 36,000

comments from people throughout the nation, many of them via e-mail.

Before a plan is selected, each concern will be noted with an

explanation as to how it was - or wasn't - addressed. http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/022807/loc_20070228012.shtmlBritish Columbia:

2)

Yesterday Desmond and I decided to head down to the local Home Depot

here to buy some slats for our giant banner that we're going to fly

tomorrow. Afterall, we knew that the Home Despot had capitulated to

Markets Campaigns about 10 years ago, and was now selling ethical wood

products. But to our shock, horror and outrage, we soon found that the

Home Despot continues, not only to sell Weyerhaeuser product, but they

are selling Old Growth cedar lumber as well. (see photos) I'm

wondering: are the Home Depot's Market Campaign committments over? Has

the Home Depot returned to its former nefarious ways? Or does this

ancient cedar come out of the Great Bear Rainforest, where Weyerhaeuser

logging is now " ethical? " ingmarz3) I have read

the document " Synopsis: A new direction in land use planning in BC "

(attached). What follows is my personal interpretation of implications

of " The Synopsis. " The existing land use planning policies and

practices were inherited by the BC Liberal government. These

policies/practices were not a good fit with the stated intentions of

the Liberal government (i.e., rationalization/minimalization of gov't

regulation, the shift to " results based " programmes, the reduction of

red tape, maximization of certainty for business, privatization of

services where possible, and the shift from 'prescriptive' to

'adaptive' management regimes.) The suggestions made in the " Synopsis "

are consistent with the initiatives that have been already made by the

Liberal gov't in other areas. (e.g., the new results-based, Forest and

Range Practices Act) As with other broad-based Liberal gov't

initiatives of this sort, the implications of this shift towards

" greater accountability " are complex and far reaching - I doubt that

the gov't itself fully fathoms or appreciates the possible problems

that may arise from the changes that it proposes. The proposed stricter

adherence to a 'business' model has good points and bad points. It will

establish clearer objectives, standardizing and streamlining the

ongoing land use planning. It will tend to overlook/ignore the

local-level irregularities and special problems providing less

flexibility to response to small stakeholder inputs. dani rubin

dlrubin4) In his 20-minute presentation, entitled

"Mountain Pine Beetle in the Fraser Basin—Implications for Floods", he

noted that the beetles spread from five separate epicentres, aided by

global warming in the 1990s. Provincial and federal government

scientists, he said, are predicting that if abnormal weather trends

continue, more than 80 percent of all of B.C.'s pine forests will be

dead by the end of 2013. Pine trees make up about a third of all B.C.

forests species. Chapman said that most of the forests in this

region—60 percent, or 13 million hectares—extend from valley bottoms up

the sides of mountains. Of those, 40 percent are pine forests. This

means that there are 5.2 million hectares of pine forests in the Fraser

River watershed—pine forests that are currently being destroyed, have

been destroyed, or possibly will be destroyed by the mountain pine

beetle. As any forest hydrologist will tell you, forests slow down the

rate of melting snow. The trees partially or completely block the sun,

providing shade that delays the melt. In addition, living trees' roots

absorb water, which also regulates the runoff. Chapman pointed out to

his audience that the death of so many pine trees will change the

forest hydrology in large parts of the Fraser River watershed. Dead

forests will not be able to slow down the rate of melting snow as

intact forests have traditionally done. This could result in a rapid

rise in water levels in the Fraser River from its many affected

tributaries. And that, he predicted, will eventually cause widespread

flooding. http://www.straight.com/article-73041/pine-beetle-blight-may-bring-fraser-flooding5)

Environmentalists say the BC government has received a flood of

mountain caribou "fan mail" – at least 12,000 messages -- in response

to a public comment period seeking input on the government's draft

mountain caribou recovery plan. The public comment period, which closes

February 28th, 2007, was never formally announced or advertised beyond

a brief posting on the Integrated Land Management Bureau's website.

Non-profit environmental organizations were left to raise public

awareness of the comment period on their own. "These letters are a

testament to how strongly British Columbians and citizens around the

world value the recovery of BC's endangered mountain caribou herds and

the protection of the inland rainforest ecosystem," says Candace

Batycki, Endangered Forests Program Director for ForestEthics. "People

are eager to provide public comment, they just need to be informed that

the opportunity exists." To get their message out, environmental

organizations hosted public meetings, sent out post cards and emails,

and even posted videos on YouTube, including a mountain caribou

Christmas Song and a mini-documentary titled Staring at Extinction, a

look at the importance of mountain caribou habitat protection.

"Minister Bell should not be surprised at the outpouring of support for

mountain caribou and their habitat," said Batycki. "A recent poll

showed that 86% of British Columbians want mountain caribou habitat

protected. British Columbians are responsible people who care deeply

about wildlife and ecosystems. Now it's up to the Minister to follow

the will of the people." Habitat protection has become a contentious

point in public discussion of mountain caribou recovery efforts,

because the government's initial draft recovery plan falls short of

recommending what its own mountain caribou science team said was

necessary to fully recover all the herds. A government decision on the

mountain caribou recovery plan is expected by June. http://www.mountaincaribou.ca/6)

The B.C. government says forest companies must switch over to a new

legally binding planning process by the end of March, raising alarms in

Clayoquot Sound where the province has excluded regionally developed

plans that ensure the sound retains its special ecological status.

" Legally, the Forests and Range Practices Act doesn't include

[Clayoquot] plans, " said Dianne St. Jacques, mayor of Ucluelet,

referring to a forests ministry decision to implement a new planning

process before the legal language defining Clayoquot Sound's special

forestry practices has been written. " And we are not clear on where

this leaves us. " St. Jacques, a provincial appointee to the Clayoquot

Sound Region Board, said forest companies could ignore the region's

eco-friendly logging requirements yet still be in compliance with

provincial regulations. The board was established under an agreement

between the province and the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation to oversee

development plans in the region. Board co-chair Jim Lornie said

Clayoquot Sound is caught in the transition from one planning regime to

another. " The dilemma is that forest companies have to bring new

forward forest stewardship plans by the end of March. " But it could

take up to 18 months to draft the legal language required to make the

Clayoquot plans binding by the ministry of forests. Valerie Langer of

Friends of Clayoquot Sound said the citizens throughout B.C. want the

area to have special protection. " It requires legal language to

entrench that, " she said. " Hopefully this will light a fire under

whoever is responsible for this, " she said. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=33210ca8-4d0c-433a-b0a3-b0549297

74eaWashington:7)

As you may know, Weyerhaeuser is world's largest lumber company, and

one of North America's worst environmental performers. In fact

Weyerhaeuser logs more old growth forests than any other company in

North America, turning our ancient ecosystems and old growth forests

into two-by-fours, newsprint and copy paper. Even as leading businesses

like Home Depot, Kinko's, Nike and more than 400 others pledge to avoid

products from endangered forests, Weyerhaeuser continues to cut-and-run

its way across the continent, leaving a wake of barren clearcuts and

abandoned communities its path; Proving most evident in the Grassy

Narrows' First Nation Traditional Territories. Weyerhaeuser falsely

claims to be "Environmentally Friendly," but in all reality, that is a

proven lie that they market to challenge environmentalists and impress

shareholders. With deceptive commercials funded by massive clearcutting

operations, Weyerhaeuser continues to ignore and deny all allegations

of irresponsible logging. Today, Weyerhaeuser owns 2.5 million acres in

the Pacific Northwest, almost all of which has been converted into

industrial farms. In these monoculture farms, trees are harvested like

crops—wiping out habitats, depleting groundwater and leeching

irreplaceable nutrients from the soil with chemical herbicides and

fertilizers; that are hazardous to all species throughout the region.

It's time that we take action, and voice our stand for the planet. Join

SEARAG in sending a message to Weyerhaeuser CEO Steven Rogel. http://www.searag.org/dear_rogel.html Oregon:8)

OREGON CITY -- An Oregon Department of Transportation maintenance crew

will cut down a hazardous tree next to McLoughlin Boulevard on

Wednesday, but the fate of 53 other trees remains undecided. The city

wants to remove trees as part of a highway safety and beautification

program. Local environmentalists said the trees on the Willamette River

shore provide shelter for animals and should be preserved. City

commissioners will discuss the tree-removal plan next week. The tree

that will be removed Wednesday is in bad shape and poses a threat to

motorists and pedestrians, according to the transportation department. http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/02/oregon_city_considers_cutting.html

9)

The Register-Guard published a profile of me and the organization I

head, the Native Forest Council. I was portrayed as uncompromising -

which is perfectly accurate. But what was missing from the article was

the urgency of the cause we are fighting for: humanity's dependence

upon the natural world for its survival. Our forests, the commons of

the Earth, are a crucial component of our planet's self-regulating

climate system. Overcutting our forests contributes significantly to

global warming, and is a threat to ecosystems, habitat and water

quality. The continuing degradation of water quality is plain. The dams

on the McKenzie River, Eugene's water supply, were engineered in the

1960s, before the steep mountainsides above the river were clear-cut.

The Eugene Water & Electric Board has spent $15 million on drinking

water wells to hedge against catastrophic events made increasingly

likely by Weyerhaeuser and friends' destructive logging of Eugene's

watershed. Water quality has also been degraded by herbicides and

pesticides sprayed to plant and manage industrial-scale tree

plantations where native forest ecosystems once thrived. Drought and

the threat of forest fires have also increased as the temperatures of

cut-over forests are radically elevated. The public is forced to accept

these consequences as the price of keeping industry competitive,

protecting jobs and keeping profits flowing. The sad truth is the

systematic degradation of our forests incurs uncounted costs for the

many, and counted profits for the few. We seldom get the complete

picture about this, because access to the government and the media has

been usurped by the wealthy and powerful. http://www.registerguard.com/news/2007/02/28/ed.col.hermach.0228.p1.php?section=opinion

10)

Andrew Bortz died in Corvallis last week. He was the local " Solar Guy "

and he was a pioneer in non-violent forest activism. If not for Andy

and other's who stood by him...Oregon's Middle Santiam would be mud

flats by now. " Way back in the 1970s, a few nature-oriented

philosophers came up with a visionary framework for viewing the world.

They called it deep ecology, or biocentrism. The premise is pretty

simple: Humans are not the end all, be all of evolution, but merely a

strand in the web of life, with no inherent right to wreck everything

and spoil the grand evolutionary pageant for everyone else. Deep

ecology says that all living beings and life-giving systems are equal

and have an intrinsic value, beyond what value humans may ascribe. In

other words, all life and life-giving systems have inherent worth and a

right to exist for their own sake, regardless of what kind of money

people think they can make off them. " Andy believed in the " Commons "

and loved to participate in community events like the Corvallis Peace

Choir and Earth Day celebrations. He taught us all to believe and

persist even when progress seemed forever blocked. Andy was a patient

teacher. He loved to see the light go on when someone finally

understood why we needed to protect and defend the earth. Andy was also

an amazing pioneer in forest activism. Andrew Bortz was one of the

founding members of the Cathedral Forest Action Group (CFAG). They were

the first forest activist groups to plan organized tree sits in the

Middle Santiam. Due to these actions to stop massive clearcutting, we

have a few good stands of old growth left. We have water, we have some

air and we have wildlife left because of people like Andy Bortz. In the

early 1980s, the Corvallis, Oregon-based Cathedral Forest Action Group

(CFAG) began to apply nonviolent, civil-disobedience tactics to protect

the Willamette National Forest's ancient Douglas-fir stands from the

devastating clear cuttery of the Reagan Administration. http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/02/354754.shtml11)

Drafted mainly by Western Oregon conservation groups, including

Roseburg-based Umpqua Watersheds, the Western Oregon Old-Growth

Protection and Rural Investment Fund would draw $98 million annually

for counties made up of Oregon & California timber lands until the

fund is depleted. The proposal calls for transferring management of

Bureau of Land Management lands in Western Oregon to the U.S. Forest

Service and the creation of a one-time endowment for the support of

education, public safety and other county programs. Conservation groups

say the transfer will save approximately $50 million a year in federal

funding by reducing land managerial duties in BLM offices. In the

proposal they point to a 1985 Reagan administration study that found

such a transfer would save $45 million to $64 million. The proposal

goes on to say it "would be possible to achieve approximately 56

percent of the historic O & C counties' funding level of $98 million

annually, merely by the administrative savings that result (from)

transferring Western Oregon BLM lands to the Forest Service." The

endowment will be created by the cost savings from the transfer and a

one-time contribution of $300 million from the federal Land and Water

Conservation Fund. Penny Lind, executive director of Umpqua Watersheds

and one of the recommendation's six main collaborators, said the

proposal has been sent to congressional lawmakers. "I don't know what

kind of response we'll get from Congress," she said last week. http://www.oregonnews.com/article/20070228/NEWS/70228030California:

12)

Was it worth it? That's the question I put to Charles Hurwitz on

Wednesday afternoon as we talked on the phone about the court ruling

that awarded the Houston financier and Maxxam, the holding company he

controls,$72 million in sanctions against the federal government.

" That's a good question, " he said. " Really, it's many questions. "

Indeed. My own interest in the Hurwitz case started with a question. A

few years ago, I asked why the FDIC would walk away from a case it had

spent seven years preparing for and seven years litigating. The ugly

answer is revealed in some 2 million pages of court documents and

congressional testimony: It brought the case simply because it could,

because Hurwitz had something the government wanted. It walked away

when its strong-arm tactics didn't work. Or why, after getting almost

everything they wanted, do environmentalists continue to dog Hurwitz

over logging by his Pacific Lumber Co. in Northern California? The

answer, I'm convinced, is Hurwitz himself. He enrages his adversaries

with his iron-jawed refusal to accede to their demands. He wouldn't

acquiesce to the FDIC. His closest friends told him it wasn't worth it,

that fighting the government would ruin him and that it was better to

settle and get on with his life. Meanwhile, environmentalists demonized

him for cutting trees that his lumber company owned. He offered to sell

his old-growth redwoods to the government, but it didn't want to pay.

So the government tried extortion. It offered to settle the FDIC

lawsuit if Hurwitz would surrender the trees, according to documents

unearthed during congressional hearings in 2000. FDIC spokesman David

Barr disputes that. He says the agency was never interested in trees,

only recovering the $1.6 billion lost in the collapse of Maxxam's

United Savings in 1988. Which brings me back to my original question:

Was it worth it? " I'm very gratified with the outcome, " Hurwitz said

matter-of-factly. " How could I not be? " If somebody had said 15 years

later we'd be here and have spent this kind of money, I probably

wouldn't have done it. " Then he added: " I always knew we were right. " http://watchpaul.blogspot.com/2007/02/houston-chronicle-after-hurwitzs-ordeal.html

13)

A local couple has found big prints in those woods and experts are

saying it may not be a hoax. It was just after a rainstorm, a great

time for hunting deer. It was a perfect place, high up in the dense

woods of the Plumas National Forest. Chuck and Michelle Padigo had been

down the logging road lots of times, including just a few days earlier.

Past two gates, about three miles from the highway, in a recently

logged area, Michelle looked down and spotted something very strange.

What the Padigo's say they encountered was more than three dozen huge

footprints spread out over a hundred yards or more. "I swear the hair

on my arms stood up," says Michelle. The couple recorded their

discovery with photographs and returned to take more pictures. Joining

the Padigos now was Scot Woodland, a Nevada County search and rescue

team member and a certified expert tracker. Scot says he's got an open

mind but when he first saw the tracks he figured here's another hoax.

" The closer I got and looked at the prints, the more I could see the

detail and the movement in the foot. As a tracker you see how things

move the weight and all that stuff. The complexity of the footprint

made me go whoa!" he says. What really impressed Scot was the force of

the Bigfoot print which rippled the ground around it. Scot's footprint

next to it hardly moved the earth. "If it's a hoax, somebody really did

a good job, if it's not, then there's a big creature that lives among

us, " says Woodland. http://cbs13.com/seenon/local_story_057234544.html14)

SACRAMENTO — A coalition of conservation groups today took action in

defense of the Pacific fisher, a relative of the mink that depends on

old-growth forest ecosystems for its survival. The groups intervened in

a timber-industry lawsuit filed in January that seeks to remove the

Pacific fisher from the list of species that are candidates for

protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. The timber

industry doesn't want to see the fisher protected because protection

might limit the industry's access to large trees. In 2000, conservation

groups petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the

fisher under the Endangered Species Act. In April 2004, the agency

determined that the Pacific fisher is indeed critically imperiled and

warrants protection under the Endangered Species Act but that such

protection was precluded by other actions to protect species. Instead,

the Fish and Wildlife Service placed the Pacific fisher on the growing

list of species that are considered "candidates" for eventual

protection under the Act. "The fisher made it to the emergency room's

lobby, but is still waiting for a doctor while it bleeds out," said

Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity. "Timber

interests can't claim harm from protection that has yet to be enacted.

The real culprit here is excessive logging that has resulted in the

loss of forest habitat throughout the west coast." Brought by the

anti-wildlife firm Pacific Legal Foundation, Sierra Forest Products'

lawsuit claims bizarrely that the Pacific fisher is a "distinct

population segment" of a subspecies and that the Fish and Wildlife

Service lacks the authority to consider such wildlife for protection

under the Endangered Species Act no matter how imperiled it may be. The

firm has been pressing this legal theory across the west coast with

little success. For example, it represented development interests near

Seattle by arguing that the Puget Sound distinct population segment of

the orca is ineligible for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Although it lost in that case, it continues to sell other clients a

false bill of goods based on the same model. If Pacific Legal

Foundation is successful with its specious argument, it could severely

limit the federal government's ability to prevent regional extinction

of iconic species like the orca in Puget Sound or the fisher on the

West Coast. http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/press/fisher-02-28-2007.html15)

Trees 300 – 500 years old will be cut down to make room for a faster

ski lift at Heavenly Mountain Resort if the Tahoe Regional Planning

Agency (TRPA) approves a massive expansion project on Wednesday,

February 28. Hundreds of concerned Tahoe skiers, snowboarders,

residents and conservation groups are calling on TRPA to approve an

alternative plan that would save the old-growth trees while still

allowing a new, faster chair lift to be built. Hundreds of magnificent

Red fir trees, appropriately known as Abies magnifica in Latin, will be

sacrificed to move skiers more quickly up the mountain if Heavenly has

its way. Currently it takes 21-26 minutes on two slow, older chairlifts

to get to the top of the area known as the " North Bowl. " Heavenly's

proposed new lift would reduce that time to 7 minutes, by replacing the

two old chairlifts with one " high speed " chair that would cut straight

through the old growth forest known to locals as the North Bowl woods.

But there is a better alternative, according to local activists. An

angled or " kinked " lift could be built to go around the old-growth

forest, still allowing skiers to reach the top in just 13 minutes,

according to an analysis by TRPA. The new, kinked lift would still be

much faster than the current two old chairlifts. "Just 6 minutes more, "

states Michael Donahoe of the Tahoe Area Sierra Club. " The kinked lift

would still get skiers up the mountain in half the time it currently

takes, and it would save these ancient trees, " states Michael Donahoe

of the Tahoe Area Sierra Club. " Is it worth an extra six minutes to

save this old growth forest? We think so. So do all the skiers and

snowboarders we've talked to. " http://yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_51916.shtmlArizona:16)

A Desert Vista Elementary School fifth-grader and her mother are

leading a campaign to save 37 trees on the Desert Vista Elementary

School campus they say are earmarked for removal. Chelsey Potter, 10,

was the only person to speak during the Call to Public forum at the

Apache Junction Unified School District Governing Board meeting Feb.

13. The fifth-grader at Desert Vista Elementary School, 3701 E.

Broadway Ave., presented the board with more than 150 signatures she

gathered from students and parents who oppose uprooting the trees. "Our

mascot is the wild mustang," Chelsey said. "I think what makes our

campus 'wild' are the trees all over our campus. I think they represent

nature and its beauty." Chelsey's mother, Theresa, said removing the

trees would deplete the campus of its unique arboreal beauty. http://www.newszap.com/articles/2007/02/27/az/east_valley/aj04.txt17)

FLORHAM PARK - Borough officials continue negotiations for a settlement

with Lifetime Fitness after the developer of a proposed gym center off

Vreeland Road clear-cut an estimated 2,100 trees before obtaining

municipal permits. " I was livid when I saw the acres of trees cut down

with the express intent of circumventing the tree ordinance

circumventing the tree ordinance, " Councilman Scott Eveland said

Tuesday, Feb. 27, after visiting the site a week earlier. " We were in

ongoing negotiations with the developer as to how we were going to

apply the ordinance to their development, " added Eveland, who serves as

council liaison to the borough Department of Community Affairs, which

includes the engineering and construction departments. When Borough

Engineer Michael Sgaramella went to the Lifetime Fitness work site on

Monday, Feb. 20, to count an acre of trees and get a representative

sample, he said he was surprised to find " every tree gone " on about 12

acres of the 33-acre site. A meeting on the trees had been planned with

the developer's attorney the following day. Borough Director of

Community Services Carl F. Ganger Jr. said Florham Park issued a " stop

work " order for the site because neither a developer's agreement nor a

construction permit had been issued. He said the firm has complied with

the order. http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17915712 & BRD=1918 & PAG=461 & dept_id=506526 & rfi=6

Illinois:18)

MARENGO – Developers of a proposed subdivision south of Marengo are

trying to save a grove of 38 trees that state traffic engineers want

removed for a new intersection on Route 23. Informational meetings

about the development, Liberty Arbour, will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Saturday and Sunday at Harmony Real Estate, Route 20 and Harmony Road.

All Riley Township residents, especially those in the neighboring

Southridge subdivision, are invited, according to Jack Feldkamp, one of

the developers. As proposed, Liberty Arbour would have about 35 homes

on 48 acres. The property has 2,000 trees with more than 700 of them at

least 13 inches in diameter. One, a red oak, is almost 40 inches in

diameter, making it more than 100 years old. "We are preserving as many

trees as we can," Feldkamp said. He added that lots in the new

subdivision also would have deed restrictions protecting the trees. In

addition, the developer's engineers have designed an entrance to the

subdivision that would go around existing trees at Hennig Drive. The

Illinois Department of Transportation wants the developer to extend

Hennig Drive to Highway 23, requiring the trees to be removed. http://www.nwherald.com/articles/2007/03/01/news/local/doc45e69a20c0ae7360860551.txt

Indiana:19)

Purdue University will co-sponsor a workshop March 22 and 23 in Bedford

that will teach landowners whether or not the trees on their property

could generate income. The Hardwood Log, Lumber and Tree Grading

Workshop is designed for landowners and others to see the value of

lumber that can be generated from different quality levels of timber.

Experts say 87 percent of Indiana's forestland is privately owned.

Purdue University Forestry and Natural Resources Specialist Dan Cassens

say some of those trees are high quality and could generate potential

income. http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?ID=22049Ohio:20)

Supporters of the proposed U.S. Rt. 33 bypass of Nelsonville scheduled

a rally at Hocking College last night, hoping to push up the timetable

for the project, which currently won't be finished until 2016-17. But

while the project currently is delayed, environmental groups are

concerned that the logging and preliminary development work is still

going on, even though the actual construction work isn't slated to

begin for several years. The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT)

plans to build a four-lane bypass of U.S. Rt. 33 around Nelsonville.

Originally, the project was supposed to be completed in 2011-2012, but

in December ODOT officials pushed back the project until 2016-17. The

Athens Area Chamber of Commerce organized the Wednesday rally and

invited economic development leaders from Meigs, Fairfield and Hocking

counties, along with Mason County, W.Va. The rally was scheduled to

occur after this newspaper's deadline. " We think it's important for the

entire state, " Simon said on Tuesday. " It's about finishing an entire

corridor, completing that corridor. " She wants state officials to see

the strong regional support for the project, so they will move the

timetable back up. " Close to $500 million has been spent all the way

from the Ravenswood bridge all the way to Columbus to get this corridor

ready to go and we're the bottleneck, " Simon said. " The bottleneck sits

in Nelsonville. " It does not make fiscal sense to delay the project,

she added. The lack of a bypass hurts businesses in Athens County and

along the corridor, Simon argued. The bypass will also help with

tourism and with safety, Simon added. From an environmental point of

view, it makes sense to do the project all at once, Simon said. http://www.athensnews.com/issue/article.php3?story_id=2750821)

Columbia Gas Transmission Corp. had told the state last year that it

was allowed to clear trees within 300 feet of its 56 natural gas

storage wells in Mohican-Memorial State Forest in Ashland County in

north-central Ohio, raising concerns about the forest's future. In a

five-year agreement with the state announced Wednesday, the company

will cut trees within 60 feet of the wells, with grass planted in their

place. Within 60 to 120 feet of the wells, trees with trunks smaller

than 10 inches in diameter won't be cut. Trees encircling nine of wells

will be cut in the spring. Trees around the other wells within the

4,525-acre state forest and the 1,294-acre Mohican State Park would be

cleared later. " This is a reasonable and fair agreement that allows the

company to do its maintenance and at the same time, minimizes its

effect on the forest, " said Andy Ware, assistant chief of the Ohio

Division of Forestry. http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/16807889.htmAlabama:22)

About seven years ago, the Bankhead National Forest had hit bottom. The

U.S. Forest Service had shut down logging as a result of persistent and

successful legal challenges by conservationists. Activists had caught

federal employees falsifying documents, illegally allowing clear-cuts

in historic areas, and making such a mess of the land that they were

polluting the water they were charged with protecting. Everyone seemed

angry. Loggers didn't appreciate being ordered off the public forest.

Residents didn't like losing the money for local schools that timber

harvests had brought. Even the lead forest activist responsible for the

shutdown even happy. He found himself reading graffiti suggesting that

he die. Once, he hired police protection for two weeks after a

particularly graphic threat to his life and his store in Moulton.

Today, the forest is a national model. Orderly monthly meetings are run

by a committee of loggers, foresters and preservationists. They discuss

whether forest management is progressing according to the plan they

wrote a few years ago. Critics are welcome, and they can call for an

inspection of a logged spot, or they can tag along on one of the

quarterly tours with experts from the Forest Service and the local

forest preservation group, Wild South. For all that change, most people

credit the Forest Service's new district ranger, Glen Gaines, who came

to the Bankhead in 1999. Bob Keefe, who was a forester for Champion

International in the late 1990s, says Gaines made dozens of small,

smart decisions, such as keeping the committee on forest management in

place even after it finished writing its plan. That way, a vent is in

place if things threaten to again come to a boil. Gaines has won trust

with honesty, said Ray Vaughan, the environmental lawyer who filed a

cascade of legal actions against the Forest Service in the 1990s that

forced the logging shutdown. http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/117274090123890.xml & coll=2

Massachusetts:23)

Cambridge Highlands is across the street from the Fresh Pond

Reservation. Cambridge is in the process of destroying thousands of

trees at the Fresh Pond Reservation. The reason is that Cambridge wants

to put in saplings and brag about all the saplings that Cambridge has

installed. At Alewife, next to the private project on Route 2,

Cambridge plans massive environmental destruction of near-virgin

woodlands to put in a drainage tank which should be installed under a

parking lot about 500 feet to the south. Hundreds of trees are being

destroyed on the Charles River along with all wetlands and all animal

habitats. Pretty much every city project starts with the destruction of

trees, almost all the destruction not only unnecessary but also silly.

Street trees and trees in new construction are constantly destroyed,

even the largest. The city's response to objections about their

environmental destruction? The city's friends created "green" groups,

which could care less about massive government destruction of the

green, but the "green" groups love their fancy light bulbs. But they

sound so good while their friends at the city and state aggressively

destroy Cambridge's green heritage. http://www.townonline.com/cambridge/opinion/899890397950089625524)

Only a week ago I watched in horror as the first piece of logging

equipment arrived on Whitman Street and within minutes of unloading

began to move about the woods, slicing large, beautiful, healthy trees

at the base. I stood riveted to my window as more and more trees fell

and a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach came over me. I watched an

hour later as a large hole was opened in the stonewall and the stones

flung about in the forest by the large equipment. The next day, two new

pieces of equipment arrived — a large tractor that drove and grabbed

whatever the cutting machine leveled and a huge chipping machine that

would chip any tree less then about 12 inches in diameter. A week

later, I sit in my home listening to the dismantling and destruction of

the 34-acre woodlot that was gifted by Mrs. Leggett in 2004 and ponder

my sadness over this event. I wondered at my feeling of shock and at

the feeling that the fabric of my being was being taken apart along

with this woodland. I thought about the big beautiful trees and how

long they had been there, largely untouched by humans around them

because of what seemed to be one man's humanness. Mr. Leggett loved the

forest and refused offers made to him over the years by developers and

golf course owners who would have cut it down. I also thought about the

animals that lived there, not just the displacement and destruction of

their lives but about the loss of protective cover and the encroachment

of people that the wide, machine-created pathways would encourage. On

day three I encountered my neighbor out in the street. She had a

concerned look on her face. I knew her thoughts with out asking. She

offered that she felt as if the forest was crying and now I knew I was

not alone in my feelings. We were standing in front of the sign which

had been posted on the land which stated that the land was gifted to

the Stow Conservation Trust by Mrs. Leggett in 2004. I wondered what

Mr. and Mrs. Leggett who have now passed away would have thought about

all of this. http://www.townonline.com/maynard/opinion/8998892577470021627Virginia:24)

Norfolk -- iENERGY now donates 10% of the proceeds of sales of the

Woodgas Camp stove on www.woodgas-stove.com to the Human Relief

Organization's " Billion Stoves " program. Every year about a million

people die worldwide as a result of primitive wood cooking. Indeed this

is one of the worst problems for up to half of the world's population.

The primitive cooking methods such as the 3 stone fires result in a

great amount of smoke and both indoor and outdoor air pollution which

causes lung disease, glaucoma, smoke inhalation, and carbon monoxide

poisoning. Children are also frequently burned in these fires.

Typically too much wood fuel is used in these primitive fires and

stoves which contributes to deforestation. Also, increasing amounts of

labor are required to collect wood from greater and greater distances

as resources are depleted. The Woodgas Camp Stove sold online at http://www.woodgas-stove.com

is a very clean burning and high efficiency wood and biomass cooking

stove. While the current target retail channel for the stove is

developed country sports and recreation markets, the original

development of the Woodgas stove was aimed at humanitarian relief to

address the very problems noted above. The Woodgas stove is up to 10

times more efficient than the 3 stone fire and when operated properly

produces little to no smoke. So one can see how it can make a

difference in developing countries in reducing deforestation and

cleaning up the air. http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2007/2/emw507518.htmMaine:25)

Development means cutting down the trees that provide cooling shade for

brook trout waters. Road building and other construction creates runoff

that fills trout streams and ponds with silt and pollution. Native

brook trout habitats in the intensively developed East have been so

seriously degraded that populations of big fish have seriously declined

in all but one place: Maine. Maine is now home to 97 percent of the

East's remaining populations of large, native brook trout in lakes and

ponds; there are populations of much smaller trout distributed

throughout the East's rivers and streams, where they rarely grow to the

size seen in lakes and ponds. That's both an economic opportunity and

an ecological challenge for Maine. Economic opportunity because Maine

can sell itself to anglers as the best place in the U.S. where they can

fish for large, native brook trout; according to a state study issued a

decade ago, sportfishing of all types even then brought in $300 million

to the state every year. And it's an ecological challenge because

maintaining brookie populations in the face of a variety of threats is

not easy. http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/view/columns/3662354.htmlUSA:26)

Officially, Mark Rey is called the Undersecretary of Agriculture for

Natural Resources & Environment. Unofficially, he is often called

much less complimentary names, but I won't go into that here. Suffice

to say, he is considered the enemy of those trying to protect our

public lands from commercialization and privatization. Rey is President

Bush's handpicked controller of the Forest Service, and he has done and

excellent job for his boss. In his position, he sets policy for our

national forests, and is the person behind recent controversies such as

1) Proposals to sell off large chunks of national forests to fund rural

schools, 2) Repeal of Clinton Era Roadless Rule and endless litigation

to fight court reversals of the Bush administration's repeal of the

rule, 3) Tacking the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act or RAT,

the Recreation Access Tax, as a rider on a must-pass spending bill and

then making sure the FS aggressively increases current fees and

initiates new fees to limit access to national forests, especially by

those least able to afford it. 4) Secretively launching and keeping

under wraps for four years the Recreation Site Facility Master Plan

process, which will result in the closure and "demonstration" (i.e.

become fee-based) of thousands of campgrounds, picnic areas and other

recreational facilities on national forests. --- With those exceptions,

plus about twenty more detailed by Artley, Rey has been a good steward

for our national forests. Artley, a retired forest planner from Idaho's

Nez Perce National Forest, recently posted a long letter detailing many

other misdeeds by Rey. In my experience in working with government, you

don't see officials trying to "out" their agency and former bosses. If

you do, it has much deeper roots than a disputed performance review. 27)

Roadless leaders in the House of Representatives are continuing their

co-sponsor drive to reintroduce the Roadless Area Conservation Act of

2007. Their legislation would codify the 2001 Roadless Area

Conservation Rule into law. In the 109th Congress, the House roadless

legislation had over 140 co-sponsors. With your help, we can continue

to build strong support for protecting our roadless wild forests in the

110th Congress. The deadline to become an original cosponsor of the

legislation has been extended to March 9. The following Members of

Congress are asking their colleagues in the House of Representative to

join them as original co-sponsors of the Roadless Area Conservation Act

of 2007: Jay Inslee (D-WA), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY),

Christopher Shays, (R-CT), Jim Ramstad (R-MN), George Miller (D-CA) The

recent repeal of the Bush Administration Roadless rule by Federal Judge

Elizabeth LaPorte reinstated the Clinton-era Roadless Area Conservation

Rule that limits road building, logging and other development on about

50 million acres of roadless areas in our national forests. These areas

provide unmatched opportunities for camping, hiking, and other

recreational activities, valuable habitat for fish and wildlife, and

abundant supplies of clean drinking water. Judge LaPorte found that the

Bush Administration acted illegally in reversing the 2001 Roadless

Rule. While this legal victory presently affords protections for these

public lands, their future is uncertain and they continue to be at

risk. The administration continues to accept state petitions for

exemption from the Roadless Rule under the Administrative Procedures

Act (APA), thus leaving roadless areas vulnerable on a state-by-state

basis. Therefore, it is essential that the 2001 rule be codified into

law. Your Help is Needed! Call your Representative at 202-224-3121 or

email to ask them to become an original cosponsor of the Roadless Area

Conservation Act of 2007 today! http://www.americanlands.org/issues.php?subsubNo=1149252502#1170107901Canada:29)

The Manitoba government still has not honored its pledge to permanently

protect the Poplar-Nanowin Rivers traditional lands in our Heart of the

Boreal Forest BioGem. Your urgent action is needed to ensure that

Manitoba makes good on its repeated promises. Mounting proposals for

clearcut logging, roadbuilding and industrial hydropower development

loom over this irreplaceable habitat for threatened woodland caribou,

moose and millions of songbirds. Please go to http://www.savebiogems.org/boreal/takeaction

and urge Manitoba's premier to grant permanent protection to these

First Nation lands. For thousands of years, the Poplar River First

Nation has relied on the trees, plants and wildlife of this expanse of

rugged granite cliffs, dense evergreen woods and tranquil marshlands

for food, medicine and the survival of its beliefs and traditions. In

2004, the Canadian government recognized the outstanding cultural and

natural values of this wildland by including it as part of a potential

U.N. World Heritage Site. http://freepage.twoday.net/stories/3379187/Germany:29)

We are now in Göttingen visiting with Regina - a friend with whom I

worked while I was in Fort Nelson. She is a forestry student here in

Göttingen and was working for Canfor over the summer as part of a work

exchange. Regina cooked us a traditional Bavarian-style meal when we

arrived. I can't recall the name of it, but it was delicious. We spent

the day with a goverment forester today (we had to drive on the

autobahn to get there - a little nerve-racking at first, but Todd got

us there and back in one piece). We followed " Uli " around as he

explained to us how forestry works in Germany and got to help with the

grading of some beech logs. It is very different from forestry in

northern Canada, but not so different from the way things are done

around my home town. He was super nice and spoke english very well and

even cooked us a nice big lunch. Horse-logging is still used

occasionally here and we were able to watch a team of two horses

working to skid some logs from an area that was hit very hard by a

storm early in January. I'm not sure yet on the plan for tomorrow, but

I do hope it quits raining! http://pedalbrake.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!C61E499D76AC2692!262.entryTurkey:30)

Visitors coming to Turkey's central Anatolian province of Konya via

AkyokuÅŸ are welcomed by two trees trimmed into the shape of whirling

dervishes by the Konya Metropolitan Municipality. The trees are

attracting the attention of both locals and visitors, and there are

plans to replicate these "whirling trees" throughout the province of

Konya, famous for its annual whirling dervish ceremony. Designed and

shaped by Konya's Parks and Gardens Directorate, the trees are the work

of an eight-member team that is expected to roll up its sleeves and

soon decorate the rest of city. Residents have not been able to pass by

without glancing at the two works of art. A representative of the

directorate said: "Following the interest the two trees we designed

attracted, we have decided to replicate identical trees throughout our

city. The figure of the whirling dervish is quite fitting for Konya's

image, and we plan on using it to beautify our city." http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay & link=103989 & bolum=101

Congo:31)

Delegates from the Congolese government, donor community and civil

society will meet next week in Brussels to discuss the sustainable

management of the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC.

Millions of acres of the second largest rainforest in the world after

the Amazon, are being illegally logged, nongovernmental organizations

report. Greenpeace warns that more than 21 million hectares (81,080

square miles) of rainforest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are

now illegally logged, an area nearly seven times the size of Belgium.

Based on violations of a 2002 government moratorium on allocation,

extension and renewal of logging titles, local and international

environmental groups are demanding revocation of all titles granted

after the moratorium was imposed. " Logging companies promise us

wonders: work, schools, hospitals, but actually, they seem to be only

interested in their own short term profits, " said Pasteur Matthieu Yela

Bonketo, coordinator of CEDEN, a Congolese NGO in Equateur province who

will attend the Brussels conference. " What will happen when our forests

have been emptied? They will leave and we'll be the ones left with

damaged roads, schools with no roofs and hospitals without medicine, "

Bonketo said. The Congo rainforest is home to numerous communities of

Twa " pygmies " and Bantus. " Industrial logging doesn't bring benefits, "

said Bonketo. " The 'pygmies' who totally depend on our forests and the

local communities who live in them are suffering because of the

presence of the industry. " http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2007/2007-02-28-02.aspMalawi:32)

I learned with trepidation recently that the Malawi government has

decided to draft in the military to save forests. From the little

information I have gathered the army will turn some sixteen forest

reserves countrywide into military training jungles. Environment

Minister Chimunthu Banda told the news media in Lilongwe after signing

a memorandum of understanding between his ministry and the army that

the move has been taken after his ministry had tried for years and

failed to protect forest reserves. The government might be right that

deforestation is rampant. Someone even said Malawi has the highest rate

of deforestation in Southern Africa. But believe me military force will

not save Malawi's forests from further destruction. Actually, this move

might even achieve the opposite results. http://www.nyasatimes.com/news/307.htmlBrazil:33)

Reported in Science (23rd Feb), Bernice Wuethrich reveals how the

Riparian Forest Restoration Project aims to restore a million hectares

of rainforest through experiments with different restoration methods in

five pilot projects. The project will not just place emphasis on

replanting trees alone, unlike past projects it will aim to restore a

variety of plants and animals simultaneously. Their tactics include

moving squares of topsoil from intact forest to deliver soil microbes,

fauna and fungi to previously forested areas. In addition they will be

planting groundcover to attract butterflies and other insects. Bernice

Wuethrich rightly points out that just concentrating on the biological

aspects of the project is not enough. Participation and support from

locals is key to its success. Farmers, for instance, volunteer land for

replanting, while local children could well work as environmental

monitors. The São Paulo government, which is currently looking at

establishing an ecosystem services fund, has suggested that this

project might be a good model for the whole of Brazil. http://cabiblog.typepad.com/hand_picked/2007/02/rebuilding_a_br.htmlFiji:

34) of Agriculture Extension services Kiniviliame Namoumou, has

come out strongly against reports that blamed agriculture practices as

the main cause of flooding. ''The irresponsible deforestation in some

of the areas affected by the flood must also be looked at and it is

very important to delve into the logging practices used in these areas,

Mr Namoumou said. Mr Namoumou said most of the affected areas were

exposed to some sort of deforestation in the last ten years and this

has come back to have its ill impact on these villages and settlements

especially during a torrential downpour. ''When the trees were cut down

the roots which hold the soil together begins to weaken and thus lose

their hold on the soil allowing it to be easily washed away and causes

heavy siltation in the rivers,'' Mr Namoumou said. Mr Namoumou added

that Extension Officers in the Agriculture Department are duty bound to

extend to farmers the appropriate farming technologies and practices

but the onus is on the farmers to adopt them. He also said that there

is an urgent need for Land Conservation Acts to be enforced and

appropriate strategies put in place to ensure that the act is adhered

to. http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=57914Himalayas: 35)

Jack D. Ives, honorary research professor of geography and

environmental studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, argues

that the Chinese government, along with Bangladesh and India, have

political motivations for blaming mountain ethnic minorities for

deforestation in the region. His talk, is titled "Deconstructing the

Myth of Deforestation in Northwest Yunnan and the Great Himalaya." In

his role as United Nations University senior advisor on mountain

ecology and sustainable development. Ives has conducted research in

places such as Tibet, Madagascar, Tajikistan and the Andes. He is the

founding president of the International Mountain Society and has worked

as coordinator of the United Nations University's mountain ecology

program since 1978. His presentation is sponsored by the UW-Madison

Lectures Committee, the IGERT China Program, the Nelson Institute for

Environmental Studies and the Center for East Asian Studies. http://www.cals.wisc.edu/ecals/index.php/2007/02/27/expert-examines-himalayan-deforestation-in-

march-13-talk/Malaysia:36)

The Rainforest Challenge, held in Malaysia each November, is one of the

most memorable 4x4 endurance tests on the planet. Fought out intensely

over five nights and six days across nearly 500 miles of the most

rugged and unforgiving terrain, the Challenge takes competitors through

mud, drenching rain, slippery slopes, deep ruts, gullies, flooded

rivers, and landslides that are so demanding and dangerous, it takes

hours to travel a kilometer and many more to recover. The difficulty is

compounded by the humidity, sand flies, leeches, sleepless nights,

unending winching from dusk to dawn, and recovering vehicles submerged

deep in tropical mud. But the camaraderie among the competitors was

much appreciated, " I have never seen such bonding among the competitors

since I came into the Rainforest Challenge four years ago, " said Thomas

Foo (Tango), the competition manager. " This is definitely a plus for

the event. " http://www.fourwheeler.com/eventcoverage/129_0704_4x4_rainforest_challenge_malaysia/37)

Malaysian environmental and residents' groups are joining forces to buy

swathes of forest in a desperate bid to save them from developers, a

report said Tuesday. Four groups, including WWF Malaysia and a

residents' group from Petaling Jaya, a satellite town near Kuala

Lumpur, will set up a national conservation trust fund to collect money

to buy land. More than 60 other non-governmental organisations and

residents' associations have also pledged their support for the

proposal, said the New Straits Times. " We want to appeal to the public

to give any amount to protect the environment, " Victor Oorjitham, a

Petaling Jaya resident and the chairman of a committee for the fund was

quoted as saying. " When it comes to green open spaces, it is only

logical that people to such a proposal, " he said. Another

activist from Petaling Jaya, Edward Lee, said the groups had to take

action after years of protests against environmentally damaging

construction had failed to achieve anything. " By setting up the fund we

are putting our money where our mouth is. We can't see it any other

way, " said Lee, who has met with Malaysians in three states to garner

support. " We are not fighting with anyone. This fund will be a

collaborative effort, " he told the newspaper. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Malaysians_In_Buying_Bid_To_Save_Forests_999.html

New Zealand:38)

Today's disastrous deforestation data demands that Forestry Minister

Jim Anderton implement the New Zealand forestry industry's six-point

plan to get tree planting underway again, or resign, the Kyoto Forestry

Association (KFA) said today. "The Government's policies have caused

this," KFA spokesman Roger Dickie said. "The decision to confiscate

carbon credits legitimately owned by forest owners has caused a crisis

of confidence in the forestry industry, so that investment in new

planting has fallen from around $400 million a year in the 1990s to

effectively nothing today. "Mr Anderton's $20-million-a year

planting-subsidy scheme will not reverse deforestation – only restoring

industry confidence will, and that requires the Government to reverse

the confiscation. " Mr Dickie said forestry investors operated over a

25- to 30-year investment horizon and the crucial factors driving

investor confidence were stability in Government policy and certainty

that property rights would be respected over the long term. "Under Mr

Anderton, there is no policy stability and the Government's decision to

confiscate carbon credits and consider massive new taxes make any

potential investors wonder what on earth could be next.I watched

from the inside as Rey's tragic policies unfolded on a daily basis,"

Artley claims in his "Open Letter to All Americans," which has been

posted on several environmental websites. "Forest Service managers

still implement them without question. It will take Congress time to

purge the many unacceptable Bush land management agency appointments.

However, for each week that Rey controls Forest Service policy, our

public land suffers." http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU0702/S00426.htmAustralia:39)

About four years ago, our block backed on to some quite nice bush. I

would look out my bedroom window and often see kookaburras and

cockatoos sitting in the trees. At night time the trees would come

alive with the sounds of possums scurrying and screeching amongst the

branches. Even bandicoots and the odd wallaby made appearances, albeit

at ground level. Yes, the bush facilitated a fairly abundant wildlife

population while providing a pleasant backdrop which gave our house a

less suburban feel than one might otherwise experience living in

central Kingston. However, the last couple of years have seen these

pleasant natural surroundings give way to the next phase of

subdivsional development. As compensation I now have two houses along

the back fence, meaning the joy of not having to close curtains will

definitely soon be lost. It was the Kingston " forest " tragedy and not

one hemp wearing, pot smoking hippy in sight. Apologies to the many

greenies who don't fit that description. And yeah, I feel a bit cheated

that the greenies spent the past week trying to stop logging in the

Weld Valley when the "real" issue was right here in Kingston. I mean

what is old growth forest anyway? Why is it OK to kill Rob's trees!

Answer me you damn greenies! If this was a plot in the OC, Summer

Roberts and that hippy Che would definitely have staged a protest. Yet

here in Kingston not one tree was hugged, hence they died a lonely

death. Our greenies have no balls. But oh well, the reality is my bush

over the back fence was not the Tarkine, the Styx or any other

"significant" piece of forest, but it was pretty cool while it lasted. http://leftfieldleftovers.blogspot.com/2007/02/capitalist-pigs-destroy-kingstons-old.html

40)

The Conservation Council of Western Australia has welcomed a new

alliance to help stop illegal logging in the south-west, but says its

directives are not comprehensive enough. The Department of Environment

and the Forest Products Commission are sharing information and

conducting joint investigations to fight the practice more effectively.

However, the council's vice-president, Dr Beth Schultz, says the new

body also needs to extend its work to ensure logging guidelines are

being met on approved sites. Dr Schultz says it is also recommending

trees requiring special protection be branded. " Back in the mid-'90s,

until that time, all loggers were required to put a hammer brand on the

end of every log that they felled. CALM [the Department of Conservation

and Land Management] removed that requirement, they allowed logs to be

marked with chalk only and that made illegal logging much easier, " she

said. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200702/s1859019.htmWorld wide:41)

Pink coral, cedar trees, fish that end up on the dinner plate and a

cuddly, wide-eyed mammal prized in Asian medicine are among the animal

and plant species that could gain greater protection this year, a UN

agency said Wednesday. The United Nations agency regulating the trade

in endangered species, CITES, unveiled some 40 new government proposals

for changes to wildlife trade rules which will be considered at the

organisation's conference in June. The agency said many of the

proposals reflected growing international concern about the

accelerating destruction of the world's marine and forest resources

through overfishing and excessive logging. " Biological diversity faces

many threats, ranging from habitat destruction to climate change to

unrestrained commercial harvesting for trade, " said Achim Steiner,

executive director of the UN Environment Programme, which administers

CITES. The conference allows countries to amend rules aimed at defining

and protecting endangered species. Currently some 530 animal and 300

plant species benefit from complete protection under CITES, while only

restricted trade is allowed for another 4,460 animal and 28,000 plants.

Potentially the most endearing new candidate for a complete ban on

trade is the endangered Slow Loris, a small, furry, nocturnal primate

from south and southeast Asia. Cambodia, which is sponsoring full

protection under CITES Appendix I, says the Loris is threatened by a

combination of the destruction of its forest habitat, growing demand

for traditional medicine and as a pet. http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Fish_Trees_Cuddly_Mammal_Up_For_Protection_From_Human_Trade_9

99.html