Guest guest Posted October 3, 2007 Report Share Posted October 3, 2007 Today for you 31 new articles about earth's trees! (238th edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com . --British Columbia: 1) conservation amid rampant decline, 2) Transforming the economy is critical, 3) Life after logging, 4) Selling off the stolen Comox valley, --Pacific Northwest: 5) New Owl plan is both an insult and a failure, 6) Deadwood, --Washington: 7) Creek logging made to seem eco-friendly, 8) Urban sprawl, 9) Creek logging cont. 10) Deadwood essential ingredient in all healthy forests --Oregon: 11) Support NFC: send 'em money and also write a letter for the owls --California: 12) Maxxam proposes bankruptcy swindle, 13) Silicon forest defenders, --Montana: 14) Wilderness Society creates agreement where they aren't even a litigant --Colorado: 15) Money for watershed groups --Wisconsin: 16) Logging and burning Bayfield Peninisula --Texas: 17) Save the sanctuaries at High island --Pennsylvania: 18) Save the roadless --Florida: 19) Save the last of the Cypress, 20) 172 acres saved from housing --USA: 21) Rainforest defenders from around the world tour US --Canada: 22) Spruce Bark Beetle, 23) FSC has failed us, 24) Stop forest spraying, --Brazil: 25) development plan will destroy the amazon, 26) Coca-Cola water program, --Ecuador: 27) Ban drilling in Yasuni National Park --Chile: 28) Imprisonment and genocide of indigenous who defend their land --Peru: 29) Little-known isolated Indian tribe found --Australia: 30) Taxpayers subsidising Japanese woodchip mill, 31) Government wants to ban protests, British Columbia: 1) Specifically, we contend 1) that there is a fundamental conflict between economic growth - the root cause of these declines - and biodiversity conservation and 2) this root cause is not being addressed by most conservation organizations. Two high-profile conservation projects that we have worked on - the Strait of Georgia Black Brant Monitoring and Conservation Project and the Wildlife Tree Stewardship Project (WiTS) on Vancouver Island - serve to illustrate successful conservation efforts by conventional standards. The Wildlife Tree Stewardship Project (WiTS), for which Terri is the program biologist on Vancouver Island, evolved from extensive efforts in the 1980s by the BC Ministry of Environment on Vancouver Island to assemble a master database on bald eagle nest tree locations from all sources. CWS researchers determined that eagles in the Strait of Georgia produce more young than other areas and that this surplus is likely an important source of recruits to the regional population. Detailed bald eagle nest tree inventories along southeast Vancouver Island are now in their 20th year. Since inception, many more government and non-government partners and naturalists (now over 200 volunteers, with their labour valued at $70,000 in 2006), have joined the ranks. A website was launched (www.wildlifetree.org) as well as an online wildlife tree atlas. Much like the brant project, this project has been considered a success. So, while the bald eagle nest tree and brant projects themselves have been considered successes, what about the objects of their efforts? Indeed, the Pacific Flyway brant population is in decline. And what of the bald eagle nest trees? Along southeast Vancouver Island, the most detailed information exists in the area from just north of Campbell River to the south boundary of the Regional District of Nanaimo (South Wellington). In this area, at least 25 percent of the known breeding territories have lost one or more nest trees over the project's history and land use activities associated with development and industry have played a key role in 63 percent of these losses. Almost half of the territories (42 percent) have recently or are currently under development pressure in the core area around nest trees or will face extensive land development in the very near future. 2) " Transforming the economy is critical. It's the key to large-scale conservation. We can't ask First Nations to starve. For this project to be durable, First Nations communities have to be healthy with jobs and an economy, " Smith says. The clever and sophisticated " markets campaign, " which recruited the support of foreign companies in the battle to save the Great Bear Rainforest from industrial-scale development, forced forest companies and government to the table. However, environmentalists quickly realized that if they wanted to simultaneously conserve habitat and promote small-footprint economic development, they had to come to the table with money, an effort that they knew would quickly overwhelm their conventional fundraising capacity. In 2002 B.C. enviros turned to the U.S.-based Nature Conservancy for fundraising help. Erica Bailey, director of resources for the Nature Conservancy's Great Bear Rainforest project, says B.C.'s Central and North Coast presented an opportunity the organization couldn't pass on: to do broad-level conservation on a chunk of terrain with world-class biodiversity and cultural values, for which there is nothing even remotely comparable south of the 49th parallel. " We realized that most of the biodiversity in the world happens outside of the U.S., so we had to step it up a notch. It was a case of how can we not take this on? " Bailey explains of the Nature Conservancy's decision to accept the fundraising challenge. " I've done conservation work in 12 countries, and I've never seen anything like the Great Bear Rainforest. " It would turn out to be an astonishingly successful campaign. In just four years, the Nature Conservancy rallied private foundations and philanthropists in the U.S. and Canada to the tune of $60 million for the Coast Opportunities Fund, by far the largest international conservation project in both monetary value and geographic scale that the Nature Conservancy has ever been involved with. Bailey says it was a relatively easy sell. http://www.bcbusinessmagazine.com/ 3) " Working long hours and too many days in a row took a toll, " said Simpson. The machines were double-shifted and so there was not time to maintain them and they became hard to operate and dangerous, he said. " Six- and 10-day shifts were the norm, so family life went out the window and many relationships ended. Men were killed and maimed on the job. Too many of them. " When the next layoffs came, Simpson was offered a buyout and he took it. For Bob Simpson, taking a buyout from TimberWest 2.5 years ago and using the money to purchase a small backhoe turned out to be the best decision he could make at the time. He said that since he started his own business as a backhoe operator he's had a steady stream of business across the Cowichan Valley. One week he might be in Cowichan Bay, the next in Lake Cowichan. Last week he was digging a trench for a homeowner who is replacing his waterline. " It made more sense for me to use the money I got from the buyout to purchase the backhoe, rather than get a loan, " said Simpson. " It was one of the best decisions I ever made. " He moved to Lake Cowichan to play hockey and work at the WFI mill in Honeymoon Bay. From there he worked for Pacific Logging in Mesachie Lake and then had his longest stint with BCFP in Caycuse. He worked on tugboats, did dryland sort duty and was a night watchman. Things started to change in the forest industry, though, and Simpson became frustrated as his pride in his job began to wane. He said he has seen even more changes since he left the industry. " Two and a half years later I can still see many changes and more coming. Finally, all our old growth and second growth will be all gone — and then maybe the companies — but probably not, as they are now into the real estate business. " When Simpson isn't out digging a hole somewhere, he can often be found at the local curling rink skipping a team in the men's league or one of several bonspiels. He said he's much happier these days and he isn't looking back, except to make sure he can safely back up his backhoe. " For me, the nightmare is over, I am out of it. " said Simpson. http://www.cowichannewsleader.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=9 & cat=23 & id=107417\ 4 & more=0 4) A 5,260-hectare-acre slice of Vancouver Island paradise -- including two lakes and a mountain, just below a glacier -- is for sale for just a few million dollars. Forestry company TimberWest has listed the large chunk of land in the Comox Valley on an online real estate auction site. The property has a minimum bid of $2.86 million, while TimberWest suggests that it could be worth as much as $25 million. It is being sold in line with the company's policy to dispose of land that could have better uses than as a forestry resource. " This is an area that, because of its location and elevation and that sort of thing, it's really not, for the large part, prime forest land, " said TimberWest spokesman Steve Lorimer. The description on the real estate site notes that " this unique parcel is ... on a mountain with a beautiful, sparkling, private lake near the top of its towering peak accessible by seaplane or helicopter. " " It really has some fairly spectacular areas in terms of high elevation and the lakes, " said Lorimer. " That has the potential to lend itself as a resort type of a thing, but I can't do anything in terms of speculation as to what a purchaser may choose to do with a parcel like that. " The land is zoned by the regional district as Water Supply and Resource Area, which allows for forestry, explosive sales and residential use -- although the minimum lot size in the zone is just under 400 hectares. Regional district staff said that rezoning would almost certainly be required if a new owner wanted to build a commercial resort on the property. Located beside Strathcona Park, the land includes a spectacular waterfall as well as the start of the Comox Glacier Trail -- used by the Comox District Mountaineering Club and others to access the glacier. " Environment Minister Barry Penner should buy the land and put it into Strathcona Park, " said Ken Rodonets, a member of the mountaineering club. While the Ministry of Environment does acquire land every year, the budget for this fiscal year is $3.1 million, most of which has already been spoken for. Even if the entire 2007/08 budget was allocated to this land purchase, it might not be enough to win the auction. " Every region makes those recommendations on a yearly basis and they're set out in priority, " said ministry spokeswoman Kate Thompson. http://article.wn.com/view/2007/09/28/Two_lakes_and_a_mountain_yours_for_286_mil\ lion/ Pacific Northwest: 5) A group of independent scientists has concluded that a proposed recovery plan for the northern spotted owl was " deeply flawed. " The conclusion fueled allegations that the proposal was manipulated by political appointees in Washington who were determined to boost logging in Northwest forests. The peer review by outside scientists, requested and paid for by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, found that the recovery plan disregarded 20 years of research about the owl, which lives in the region's remaining stands of old-growth timber, and would result in reduced efforts to protect the bird and its habitat. The review has attracted attention on Capitol Hill. Democratic lawmakers will ask Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to appoint a committee to write a new recovery plan. " We are especially concerned the peer review has produced unanimous findings that the draft recovery plan is not based on the best available science and will not ensure recovery of the species, " the letter says. The letter suggests that the recovery plan may have been " tampered with by high-ranking officials within the administration, " including Julie MacDonald, a former deputy assistant interior secretary. MacDonald resigned in May amid allegations that she had interfered with and overruled scientists working on recovery plans for various endangered species. MacDonald was a member of the Washington Oversight Committee, which apparently instructed the spotted owl recovery team to add an option to its draft that would allow more logging in the Northwest's forests, the congressional letter said. A related report from the administration called for reducing by almost one-fourth the habitat considered critical to the owl's survival. Other members of the Washington Oversight Committee included Mark Rey, a former timber industry lobbyist who, as undersecretary at the Agriculture Department, oversees the U.S. Forest Service, and Deputy Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett. " The politics trumped the science, and independent scientists have now blown the whistle, " said Rep. Jay Inslee, a Washington Democrat, who circulated the letter. " White House fingerprints are all over this (recovery plan). This administration will distort science to get more gas out of the Rockies, more oil out of the Bering Sea and more timber out of the forests of the Northwest. " http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation/story/296755.html 6) When it comes to counting, evaluating, and explaining the distribution of dead wood in our forests, it is, to put it mildly, incredibly complicated, as two Pacific Northwest (PNW) Research Station scientists acknowledge in upcoming papers. " For over 25 years, there has been a move for the regional inventory programs to measure all vegetation, not just timber resources, so there was already an effort underway to inventory standing and down dead wood, " Janet Ohmann explains. " However, our analysis was a first, " Karen Waddell continues. " We had access to valuable information that had been collected in Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management inventories for years, but had not yet been compiled into a 'dead wood database.' People were extrapolating from very small studies, in order to understand what the dead wood component of Oregon and Washington forests is. " " Initially, dead wood data were collected to address wildlife habitat issues, " Ohmann adds, " but more recently dead wood is considered relevant to issues of forest health, site productivity, fuels, and carbon stores as well. We took the opportunity to analyze extensive inventory data to look at these issues on a regional basis. " The study is based on over 16,000 field plots distributed across nine wildlife habitats. This segment of the study highlights the importance of legacies in the dead wood world: without a source of snags and down wood, a forest will be starved of a key source of nourishment, in many senses. This is especially a concern for larger dead wood, which will not be re-created under current rotation ages. What may be a surprise to many was the large quantity of dead wood still surviving on industrial land, Ohmann says. " This is largely due to the huge legacy from the original old-growth forests, and also from the much lower utilization standards in the early days of logging. There are numerous large, decayed stumps still showing springboard notches high above the ground. " --USFS Pacific Northwest Research Station, Sally Duncan Washington: 7) Sixty years later, his sinewy hands and weathered skin betray a lifetime spent in the woods - as a smokejumper, logger and finally, owner of his family's tree farm, which covers 1,150 acres in southwest Washington. A maze of environmental regulations governs which of the towering Douglas firs he can cut. His mail brings weekly overtures from developers willing to pay cash. It's easy to see why someone less committed to the trees might be tempted - and why the conversion of private timberland to sprawling cul-de-sacs is one of the greatest threats facing the Northwest's salmon and other protected species. It's a problem that Stinson, his son Steve, and a few other local foresters decided to do something about. They immersed themselves in the impossibly complex minutia of forestry policy - How close to a stream should you be able to log? How much shade is needed to keep the stream cool enough for fish? - and a decade later, they have a plan. Nearly 400 pages long, it's designed to let small-time timberland owners in Lewis County cut more of their trees while still protecting critters and, hopefully, keeping their land forested for generations. It's the first time in the history of the Endangered Species Act that a group of private landowners has undertaken such an effort, federal officials say. The county has signed on, submitting the document this month for review by the federal agencies charged with enforcing the act. But the approach is contentious, as some environmentalists worry that it could set a template for easing logging restrictions across the state. " You watch all this land being developed around you, and you know you could go out and make a fortune in a heartbeat, " Stinson, 74, said recently as he surveyed a stand of pencil-straight firs. " Most small family landowners don't want to do that. " Family-owned forestland covers an estimated 5,000 square miles, or 8 percent of Washington. That's a far cry from the massive swaths covered by state, federal and timber company land. But many of the family-owned forests are at low elevations between residential areas and larger tracts of forest, making them the front lines in the fight against sprawl - and tens of thousands of acres are believed to be converted to development each year. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_WST_Family_Forests.html 8) More than two years ago we learned of a development boom that threatened to convert tens of thousands of acres of private forest land south of Mount St. Helens into sprawling second home developments. The area had no zoning and no water, electricity, or sewer services. We've worked hard over the last couple years to convince Skamania County to establish a moratorium on new development and to prepare a zoning plan for the area that would limit development. Last month, Skamania County adopted a plan and interim zoning for the area that would limit development to approximately 900 homes (as opposed to over 10,000 homes under no zoning). We are still developing our strategy in response to this new plan and zoning. In the meantime, however, Skamania County Commissioners are to hold a public hearing (details below) on whether to lift the existing Swift area development moratorium and allow development to proceed. We need your help in convincing the Commissioners that lifting the development moratorium is premature until: 1) the county's critical areas ordinance (protecting fish & wildlife habitat among other things) is updated, 2) a clearing and grading ordinance is adopted, and 3) stormwater management regulations are adopted. In particular, point out that the previous resolution extending the existing development moratorium stated that the moratorium would be in place until the critical areas update process has been completed. These related measures are needed to ensure adequate protection of ecological resources under the adopted Swift sub-area plan. Please attend and testify at the public hearing. If you are unable to attend, please submit written comments by noon on Thursday, Oct. 11th to: Commissioners http://www.gptaskforce.org 9) Tens of thousands of acres of family-owned timberland in Washington are sold to developers each year. A group of Lewis County foresters believe that allowing the landowners to cut more of their trees, especially near streams, will help keep the land in forestry. As many as 2,400 forestland owners in Lewis County who have between 5 acres and 4,500 acres could enroll if a plan developed by the Family Forest Foundation is approved. The Family Forest Foundation says it has developed new modeling to examine how harvesting trees closer to streams might affect fish habitat, and that results show the narrower buffers are justified. Some scientists have rejected the modeling, saying its results were biased and that the no-cut buffers proposed are inadequate. U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the National Marine Fisheries Service are reviewing the plan to see if it should be put out for public comment. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_WST_Family_Forests_Summary_Box.html 10) In an old-growth forest you are surrounded by death and dying. More than likely, you're tripping over it, you're marveling at the weird growths on trees, you're listening to the hammering of woodpeckers, without knowing how much death you're actually witnessing. In its undisturbed state, a forest offers standing dead trees, live trees decaying because of various fungal infections or insect attack, and a cornucopia of logs. " The truth is, the system depends on it, depends on the death of trees, " says Torol Torgersen. " The more we learn, the better we understand that the connections in the life and death cycle from trees to logs are not only wonderfully complex but also quite confounding. What is clear is that the forest absolutely requires death to survive. " Torgersen is an entomologist who worked with wildlife biologist Evelyn Bull and plant pathologist Catherine Parks, all from the Pacific Northwest Research Station's Forestry and Range Sciences Laboratory in La Grande, Oregon, to produce a report—now much in demand—on the elements of death and their role in east-side forests. The report is titled " Trees and Logs Important to Wildlife in the Interior Columbia River Basin. " It effectively upgrades a 20-year-old publication on wildlife habitat in managed east-side forests, on which many current Forest Service standards and guidelines are based. The challenge their research results have posed to managers is simple: " As complex as the management challenge already is, and as much as we already know about snags and logs, we need to keep adjusting our understanding of the dead tree components, " says Parks. " If we manage only for the living component in a forest, we're making it too simple, and the system won't function properly—in other words, it won't be sustainable in the long term. " In particular, the management of death in the forest must stretch beyond the current notion of managing for quantity, she explains—just meeting the quotas for snags and logs won't ensure sustainability. We need to differentiate among types of dead components for the latter to serve wildlife and other forest functions. --USFS Pacific Northwest Research Station, Sally Duncan Oregon: 11) Please take a few moments to email your comments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at NSOplan, demanding nothing less than Forever Wild on public lands. The comment period has been extended for the second time to October 5. The " Draft Recovery Plan for the Northern Spotted Owl " does little to ensure the recovery of the spotted owl, whose populations are still in decline 13 years after the Northwest Forest Plan was adopted to prevent their extinction. Habitat loss from logging native forests was, and remains, the main threat to the northern spotted owl. Instead of increasing and strengthening protections for native forests and spotted owl habitat, elements of the Recovery Plan actually seek to reduce the inadequate protections currently in place. I urge the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to do its job of ensuring the survival of the spotted owl by rewriting the current Recovery Plan to recommend the protection of every acre of native forest remaining on public lands. Anything less will guarantee the extinction of the northern spotted owl--and the further destruction of our forests and watersheds--to which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be held accountable. Native Forest Council remains one of the ever-fewer organizations refusing to compromise away our birthright of wild lands and waters, but we can't do it without your help. For as little as $35, you can join us in our simple and principled stand to keep our national forests and public lands Forever Wild and Free. Just go to http://www.forestcouncil.org/join/. Thank you so much for helping us defend America's forests! As a member, you'll receive the Forest Voice, our quarterly publication that exposes the truth about our nation's threatened public lands and how you can do something that matters. California: 12) Environmentalist Mark Lovelace, president of the Humboldt Watershed Council, said the trees aren't worth anywhere near as much as the company says. " It's pie in the sky, utterly preposterous, " Lovelace said. Pacific Lumber's Michael Claes said there are three main elements to the plan, which puts the value of its holdings at about $1.4 billion. The deal would include: 1) Selling 6,600 acres of ancient redwood groves for $300 million, presumably to some governmental or habitat conservation interest willing to preserve them as parks; 2) Selling 22,000 acres adjacent to these old-growth parcels as 160-acre timber ranches to raise another $300 million; and 3) Valuing the company's remaining 181,000 acres of timber lands at $800 million. Lovelace, the environmental critic, said it was hard to believe any conservation group would pay $300 million to preserve that first 6,600 acres, because those acres are covered by restrictions that effectively prohibit logging for another 40 years. The second part of the Pacific Lumber plan, which calls for creating about 138 tree farms, is tough to immediately evaluate, said Charlie Tripodi, a Humboldt County Realtor. He said the land that Pacific Lumber has proposed to sell includes some of its best holdings. But will the company be able to sell these 160-acre tree farms for what works out to an average of $2.2 million apiece? " It's valuable land, but whether they can get those prices remains to be seen, " Tripodi said. The attorney representing the bondholders, whose legal claim to the company's lands gives them considerable clout in the bankruptcy proceedings, could not be reached Monday. But Jim Rinehart, whose firm, R & A Investment Forestry in the Presidio, advised a group of Pacific Lumber bondholders about the value of the property secured by their notes, said the estimate he offered about two years ago put the worth of all the company's trees at less than $700 million. Michael Neville, a deputy attorney general who had initially tried but failed to have the bankruptcy case heard in California, said the state is not directly involved in the judge's decision as to whether Pacific Lumber or its bondholders ultimately get to write the bankruptcy reorganization plan. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/10/02/MN41SI0CB.DTL 13) While other logging battles feature environmentalists sitting in trees, this one featured Silicon Valley computer programmers sitting at their monitors, studying every acre of the plan. The tech-savvy opponents used Google Earth and other tools to rally support, even drawing former Vice President Al Gore to their cause last year. And so the plan by the San Jose Water Co. to log 1,000 acres along Highway 17 has capsized, overcome by neighbors armed with high-tech cameras, mapping software and other Silicon Valley tools. The plan, which over the past two years became the most contentious logging battle in Santa Clara County history, failed to win the approval of officials from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Details were not available Friday evening because the agency had not yet released its official action letter. But neighbors opposing the plan said Rich Sampson, a top official in the forestry agency's Felton office, confirmed to them Friday over the phone that his agency turned down the project. Assemblyman Ira Ruskin, D-Los Altos, released a letter saying the plan " has been denied " and noting his " desire to see the area preserved as open space. " The investor-owned water company, which provides drinking water to 1 million people, said it wants to log to reduce fire risk on 1,002 acres of watershed lands it owns between Lexington Reservoir and Summit Road. The area has not been logged in a century. Opponents argued that the logging actually would increase fire risk because the water company and its contractor, Big Creek Lumber of Davenport, planned to remove too many large trees. Last year, Adelman flew Google engineer Rebecca Moore, a Summit Road-area resident who opposed the plan, above the San Jose Water property. They took more than 700 photos, which she then merged with Google Earth software. Adelia Barber, a doctoral student in ecology at the University of California-Santa Cruz, then analyzed each photo, circling areas of redwoods and Douglas fir trees so the software could measure the exact area of each. At a minimum, the company has 2,754 acres of commercial timber, she concluded, but it could have as many as 3,428 acres if surrounding areas where small saplings could grow are included. State forestry officials agreed with Barber. But Tang noted the water company could sell some of its lands to get the forested total under 2,500 acres, making it eligible again for the ongoing permit. http://origin.mercurynews.com/healthandscience/ci_7036606 Montana: 14) The Missoulian has an article today boasting about the courageous folks at The Wilderness Society who have put aside their lawsuits and done the " very difficult work " of sitting at a table and outlining logging plans for a local national forest. They have established " principles " to guide their logging project and are now moving toward implementing it. The article says this will be a way to break through the paralysis and get something done and plus everyone gets to learn a little something about each other. The group will start planning logging projects on the Lolo and Bitterroot National Forests in Western Montana. Other than the local lumber mills and The Wilderness Society, the article did not identify what organizations were involved in this collaboration, but I found it telling that no organization that has actually been involved in any litigation in Montana was quoted or identified as being a part of the group. And when you look at the principles they have come up with ( " improve terrestrial habitat, " " enhance ecological processes, " and, um, " establish . . . a road system " ) there is nothing in there that is not already codified in some manner in our nation's laws or in the forest plans. (I can hear those ignoramuses guffawing at that statement already--but it's only because they haven't actually read or spent any time defending the Forest Plans or the laws and regulations that guided them.) The problem is not a lack of principles or law, it is a lack of enforcement of principles and law. And for enforcement of principles, well, that is something one would most assuredly not turn to The Wilderness Society to see. (Their principles are derived from and printed on the checkbooks of their contributors.) If the Forest Service wants to avoid litigation, it is going to need to talk to the people who actually sue it, not the green-cover groups like The Wilderness Society, and the Missoulian should be able to see this (or certainly Michael Moore should, a long-time reporter there with a clearer eye and, hopefully, cleaner conscience than that embarrassing paper's other environmental reporters, Perry Backus and Sherry Devlin). Colorado: 15) Congratulations to Trees, Water & People for winning a $762,340 Environmental Protection Agency grant to dole out to local watershed groups like the Colorado Watershed Assembly and to the basin roundtables. The EPA grant is the largest of six national grants awarded by the EPA's Targeted Watershed Capacity Building Program. Located in Fort Collins, TWP has worked with small groups internationally to help conserve and manage natural resources since 1998. " There are roundtables around the state that are dealing with water issues, " said Jim Webster, director of Watershed Protection at TWP. " They are an important mechanism to the state. " Webster said watershed organizations are usually grassroots organizations of local community members helping to clean and conserve water bodies that have few financial resources. " We're really assistance to the service arm, " Webster said. The grant also will help TWP provide education on water quality issues and water monitoring techniques. Colorado Watershed Assembly, a coalition of more than 55 watershed groups in Colorado, will also work in collaboration with TWP. Because the EPA is mostly concerned with water quality, the grant will be applied to helping grassroots organizations clean up rivers and other bodies of water, Webster said. While Webster knows the grant will go toward helping groups in Montana, Utah, South Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado, which collectively are known as the Headwaters Region, TWP has not selected the particular watershed organizations. http://radio.weblogs.com/0101170/2007/09/29.html#a9186 Wisconsin: 16) The U-S Forest Service plans to harvest about 55 acres of forest near Mount Valhalla on the Bayfield Peninsula. Officials want to shift the area of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest from predominantly oak to a mix of oak and white pine -- which was one of the first species to go during the heyday of logging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Earlier this summer the Forest Service conducted a prescribed burn in the area, which is about seven miles west of Washburn. The burn followed a timber harvest about a year ago, and was meant to reduce the limbs and other brush left behind and provide more open ground for pine plantings. http://www.wsaw.com/home/headlines/10128811.html Texas: 17) This is a plea for you to help the Houston Audubon Society restore the bird sanctuaries at High Island. The sudden, unexpected fury of Hurricane Humberto devastated the sanctuaries on Sept. 13. Great tree canopies in the woods were laid waste. " Many more trees went down than during Hurricane Rita, due to wet soil, " sanctuary manager Winnie Burkett said. " We had 6 to 8 inches of rain during Hurricane Humberto. We also had lots of branches break off and many trees defoliated. " I love the woodland sanctuaries at High Island. I learned about warblers and songbird migration in those woods long before Houston Audubon owned a single acre. Landowners allowed me and others to walk in the woods back then. Also, I'm proud to have been a president of Houston Audubon's board in the 1980s as it continued work begun by former board presidents such as Ted Lee Eubanks Jr. and Fred Collins to purchase High Island woodlots. We had no money to purchase the land, but we went forward because we had faith that our fellow citizens and business leaders would help out. And they did. Houston Audubon conserved the woods for the birds, but also made it possible for people to enjoy birds by building nature trails, many accessible to people with disabilities. Accordingly, people crowd into High Island sanctuaries by the hundreds every weekend during spring migration. They come from around the country and all over the world — Canada, Europe and Japan — to see the phenomenon of songbird migration. But the songbirds come to the woodlots for survival. " The sanctuaries are vital to the survival of native and migratory birds, " said Gina Donovan, executive director of Houston Audubon. " Millions of migratory birds are dependent upon the natural areas for rest stops during migration. " http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/homegarden/5173491.html Pennsylvania: 18) Did you ever see a picture of a vast expanse of valleys and mountains from a western state and marvel at its beauty? At first glance, such pictures are the definition of pristine, untouched wilderness. Oftentimes, if you look a little closer, you can see scars of the man-made variety within the picture. The scars appear as a squiggly line or two bisecting the swaths of green, forested hillsides. Roads. An obvious indicator that the landscape you admired is not as pristine and untouched as you thought. Closer to home, the same detriment can be seen throughout the commonwealth. Glance at any of the mountain ranges defining our area and you are likely to see one of the two interstates or the turnpike conquering what little wilderness we have left. Even the remote forests of State Game Lands 57 -- all 44,000 acres of it -- are riddled with old logging roads. Sure, they provide additional access for hunters and serve as great paths for bikers and hikers. Still, the roads are a reminder that someone has been there before you, and they were able to conquer this wild place with the ease of four tires and a tank full of gasoline. There still are places in Pennsylvania and the country where the tentacles of roads haven't overcome the wilderness. Many of them are National Forests, such as the Allegheny. According to a report released on Thursday by PennEnvironment, the benefit of pristine, intact forestland is more than an aesthetic issue. The report states that last year 4.2 million residents participated in fishing, hunting and wildlife watching, generating $4 billion for the state's economy. Unbroken forests also provide critical habitat for wildlife, including four endangered species that rely heavily on roadless areas. " Pristine forests boost local economies, provide unique outdoor opportunities, preserve wildlife, and protect watersheds, but a major portion of our national forestland is defenseless against drilling, logging, and mining, " said PennEnvironment Forests Associate Zachary Pitts. That's why it's important that our elected officials on the federal level support the Roadless Area Conservation Act (H.R. 2516), which would protect 25,000 acres of roadless forests in Pennsylvania and 58.5 million acres of untouched forests nationally. http://www.timesleader.com/sports/20070930_30Venesky.html Florida: 19) Every day, the mulch industry grinds up cypress trees, leaving stumps in place of giants that can take decades to grow back to harvesting size. It's a practice that environmental advocates say is harmful and unnecessary, and they have been calling for its end. " We're destroying an ecosystem in Florida so our flower bed can look nice, " said William Broussard, founder of the Osceola County conservation area Forever Florida. In the late 1700s, during his travels around the St. Johns River, naturalist William Bartram described the trees as " majestic. " His journal entries have references to their stature and to birds' nests resting on their umbrella-like frames. " What adds to the magnificence of their appearance, " he wrote, " is the streamers of long moss that hang from the lofty limbs and float in the winds. " By the late 19th century, an expanding U.S. railroad system had ramped up demand for cypress -- known as a strong, long-lasting wood -- and depleted most of Florida's cypress trees. " They ran out of the very best trees, " Broussard said. Florida's old-growth cypress -- which over hundreds of years had acquired resistance to water, rot and bugs -- was mostly gone by the 1950s. What stayed was cypress' reputation as a sort of wonder wood -- a reputation that today churns demand for its use as mulch and could endanger a new generation of trees. " One of the things that a lot of people like about cypress mulch is that it's considered resistant to termites. This is kind of a perception from many, many years ago, " said Chris Dewey, a Florida Yards & Neighborhoods program coordinator. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/health/orl-cypress0107oct01,0,4769438.story 20) Leon County will soon own half of 172 acres that are home to some endangered wildlife and closely tied to Tallahassee's water supply. Leon County commissioners voted unanimously Sept. 11 to finalize the purchase of the Fred George Basin Greenway, located at Capital Circle Northwest and Fred George Road. The property was slated for development, but will now be preserved and turned into a park, thanks to the hard work of residents and environmentalists. " It's one of the crown jewels of Leon County's passive recreation initiatives, " County Commissioner Cliff Thaell said. The county is buying the land from R. P. Properties LLC for $1.4 million, using money from Blueprint 2000, an environmental agency that serves the city and the county, as well as some money left over from other county projects. When the deal is closed in about three months, the county can move forward in turning its share into a park with hiking, biking and riding trails and fishing at the pristine Fred George Basin Pond. The property is home to endangered species such as gopher tortoises and wood storks. Additionally, rainwater that collects in the area drains into a sinkhole that flows to three of the city's water wells. Commissioners would like to purchase the additional property within the year. Misty Penton, a neighboring resident, helped start the preservation process about a year and a half ago when she filed legal challenges to block rezoning and to keep the property from being developed. She helped create the Save Fred George Basin Coalition, a group of individuals and organizations who worked with developers, property owners, conservation groups and government officials to preserve the property. " It's been a remarkable experience, " Penton said. " This community has unbelievable resources. People came out of the woodwork to help. " Tom Asbury, one of the partners in R. P. Properties, said initially, preservation was the farthest thing from his mind. " We bought the land to develop it. We thought it was a great piece of property for a residential neighborhood, " he said. " But when Misty came to us and started talking about all the unique features on the land and then the county started showing an interest in developing it, then we said, 'If that's what you want to do, we will try to make it happen.' " http://bulletins.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=bulletin.read & messageID=452335\ 4590 & MyToken=e e524f49-61d2-475f-a961-cbc07bc8ff61 USA: 21) Rainforest defenders from Indonesia, Peru and Papua New Guinea kick off a tour of the U.S. Monday in San Francisco focusing on illegal logging and the United States' role in driving it. The internationally-acclaimed, prize-winning activists are speaking out about the impact of illegal logging and associated trade on their communities, forests and global warming. Worldwide, illegal logging crimes drive human rights abuses, environmental harm and billions of dollars in annual economic losses to governments in developing countries. Illegal logging's effects have been blamed for deadly mudslides, loss of community water sources and destruction of critical endangered species habitat. It drives and accelerates deforestation, which already accounts for almost one-fifth of the world's global warming emissions. The trade in illegally harvested timber, estimated to soon reach 10% of the global wood trade, is fueled by ever-growing demand from developed countries, few of which have any laws and regulations that can put a stop to this illegal trade. " Timber companies and illegal loggers are increasingly threatening our territories, culture and lives, " said Julio Cusurichi, a Goldman Environmental Prize winner from Peru. " It is ruinous for isolated indigenous people when illegal loggers enter their territories, bringing with them sickness, violence and death threats. Working with our national organization, AIDESEP, I will not rest in seeking justice for these people. " In the Peruvian mahogany industry alone, an estimated 33,000 people work under forced labor conditions to cut trees that will later sell for thousands of dollars apiece. The illegal timber trade also has proven ties to drug smuggling, money laundering and organized crime networks. Profits from this trade are used to finance criminal regimes and regional conflict around the world. " The illegal timber industry is a corrupting force in politics, " said Anne Kajir, an indigenous lawyer and Goldman Environmental Prize winner from Papua New Guinea. " Illegal logging hurts local communities, the economy and the environment. Yet government complacency allows it to continue. " The tour will be making stops in Portland, OR and New York City, NY before ending in Washington D.C. where the activists will urge Congress to pass the Combat Illegal Logging Act (S.1930) and the Legal Timber Protection Act (H.R. 1497), legislation amending the U.S. LACEY Act to curb the U.S.'s role in driving the illegal timber trade. http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_66648.shtml Canada: 22) Back in the '40s and '50s, everyone had a " back 40 " where they grew hay and pastured their cattle. But as years went by people stopped using these pastures, and they started to fill in with trees. Most of those trees were white spruce, and many of them are affected today by the Eastern Spruce Bark Beetle. " It's everywhere, " said Jeff Ogden, a field entomologist for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). " For years it was no problem, because the trees were young and healthy. " Mature white spruce trees, aged between 35 and 60 years, are the most common target for the beetle, according to Ogden, who said it was a big problem 10 years ago in the North Mountain area between Wolfville and Digby. In areas such as Cumberland County, he said a lot of people used their back 40 a little longer, so the trees growing there are still young enough that they are not as prone to the beetle infestation. But they are starting to reach that vulnerable age now. Hurricane Juan exacerbated the problem in 2003, according to DNR information officer Don Cameron. " It knocked down a lot of mature spruce trees and therefore provided a great food source for them, " he said. " Now those trees are gone and they are out in search of other food. " The impact on the forestry industry is that many private and industrial landowners are being forced to cut woodland long before they had planned to, or perhaps hadn't planned to cut at all. The spruce beetle will wipe out a healthy tree in a matter of months, according to Cameron, who said there is no spray or easy cure for the problem. The only cure is to cut and remove the trees. " You have to look around the tree because once it's dead, that means the beetles have already left, " said Ogden. " They won't go too far but will fly to adjacent trees, so look for symptoms like sap nodules or resin, even if the tree is still green and healthy. That's when you should remove it, because the beetle is still in there. " http://www.amherstdaily.com/index.cfm?sid=66719 & sc=58 23) The Forest Stewardship Council was a great idea and carried a lot of hope to anyone who read through the ten principles concerning the integrity of the forest ecosystems, the rights of rural and native peoples, biodiversity and so on. However, since most ecological practitioners work on a small, local and low-impact scale, it is costly and difficult to be inspected and certified by an international body. On the other hand, the FSC had to certify someone if it wanted to survive at the scale at which it operates. Group certifications were a way to get around this problem and maintain the necessary credibility of both, the agency and the forest stewards. It saddens me to see that this was not enough. The FSC has started to award it's certification to industrial operations. Tembec, Kruger, Domtar and the like are all claiming to be ecological and are using the FSC for their PR and advertising. For the individual buyer, these claims are costly and difficult to verify since it entails research and on site expeditions to see if the forestry practices are really acceptable. So all I can share is our experience in our area. In the fall of 2005, an FSC evaluation team organised a public meeting at the Francis Hotel in New Richmond, Quebec, in Gaspésie, just across the Chaleurs Bay from New Brunswick. The purpose was to inform and consult the public about a possible certification of TemRex (a consortium of Tembec and Rexfor) for the whole of their work and practices in the Gaspé peninsula. The evaluation team could not even get through the principles before the gathered public told them that : " TemRex doesn't do any of that! " For some time I had been gathering pictures of the disaster area that our public forest has become. The interior of the Gaspé peninsula is degraded, eroded, emptied and impoverished. The pulp and lumber mills have closed BECAUSE THERE IS NO WOOD LEFT!! All TemRex does is clearcut with heavy machinery followed by monoculture plantations. This is being certified by the FSC. During a phone call, Alexandre Boursier, the head of the assessment team told me that CLEARCUTTING IS AN ACCEPTED PRACTICE BY THE FSC. So come on all you good foresters out there. Let's have the courage to admit that another great idea has not worked out as we had hoped. We can start by drawing the line between those who clearcut and those who don't. The FSC has let us down, it has chosen it's source of bread and butter. May it live with the consequences. ecoforesterie 24) Where I live in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, and in other areas of the province, there has been an upsurge in opposition to the use of forestry biocides in 2007 by rural people who live in areas targeted for forest spraying. New voices have come forward to take up the fight, usually out of personal necessity, in order to try and stop herbicides being dumped on woodlands in the vicinity of where they live. But public opposition to forest spraying goes back in this province to the late 1970s. We are talking about 25-30 years of rural opposition, and the experience which goes along with this, plus opposition to the spraying of Christmas trees, blueberry fields, power lines, and roadside spraying. After moving to Nova Scotia from the West Coast in 1979 with my family, I became involved in organizing around uranium mining/exploration and forest issues, although then living in Halifax and later Truro. Our own family's direct personal involvement in forest spraying dates back to 1984 when we moved to our rural place in Saltsprings, Pictou County, and then found out, completely out of the blue, that there was an imminent forest spraying planned right alongside of us by the Scott pulp and paper company. With the help of our new neighbours, and after much scrambling, we were able to stop this spraying. Some twenty years later, on August 15th 2005, a helicopter with spraying booms suddenly appeared fairly close to our residence and started spraying herbicides - forest poisons - into the environment. Nobody had told us about the spray site, which is on land to one side of us, under so-called forest management with Neenah Paper, formerly Kimberly Clark and before that Scott Paper. So the forest spraying issue is a persistent one for many of us and not only of theoretical interest. The article " Opposing Forest Spraying " is somewhat dated, but while the names of two of the three multi-national pulp and paper companies in the province may have changed (and Irving, based in New Brunswick, has now entered the province as the new kid on the block, having acquired large forest holdings in Nova Scotia which it clearcuts and sprays), the picture of industrial forestry remains, generally accurate for today. http://home.ca.inter.net/~greenweb/Opposing_Forest_Spraying.html Brazil: 25) The Amazonian wilderness is at risk of unprecedented damage from an ambitious plan to improve transport, communications and power generation in the region, conservationists warned yesterday. Development plans have been drawn up to boost trade links between 10 economic hubs on the continent, but threaten to bring " a perfect storm of environmental destruction " to the world's oldest rainforest, according to a report from Conservation International. Projects to upgrade road and river transport, combined with work to create dams and lay down extensive power and communications cabling, will open up previously inaccessible parts of the rainforest, raising the risk of widespread deforestation that could see the loss of the entire Amazon jungle within 40 years, the environmental group said. Tim Killeen, a scientist with Conservation International, examined the projects funded under the multinational government-backed Initiative for the Integration of the Regional Infrastructure of South America (IIRSA). He found that the environmental impact of individual projects had often been well assessed, but there had been a failure to look at their collective impact on the region. Part of the planned improvements will see motorway-style roads built from the Andes, across the Amazon to the Cerrado tropical savannah, linking the Pacific to the Atlantic. " Failure to foresee the full impact of IIRSA investments, particularly in the context of climate change and global markets, will bring about a combination of forces that could lead to a perfect storm of environmental destruction, " Dr Killeen said. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/oct/02/conservation 26) The Brazilian Rainforest Water Program represents one of the Coca-Cola Brazil System activities geared toward the environment and we hope that it can make a difference in the recovery of watersheds and also benefit the surrounding communities. The program promotes the recovery of watersheds by replanting riparian forests. Such actions fall In line with the objectives of The Coca-Cola Company, which announced a partnership with WWF on World Environment Day to recover the world's seven main watersheds and become Neutral in terms of water use. The company also used the occasion to establish goals for water use, summarized by " The Three Rs " Reduce, Recycle and Replenish. From 2008, The Coca-Cola Company will establish global goals on the ?Reduce? platform to become the most efficient global company of water use in its sector. For " Recycling, " the goal until 2010 is to return all of the water used in the plant processes to levels that support aquatic life and agriculture. " Replenish " means that the company will support projects associated with protecting water sources and community access to the natural good, rainwater collection, reforestation and efficient agricultural use. In May, the Institute began to plant trees in Brazil as part of the third platform, Replenish. It also sequesters carbon by planting trees and collaborates for a more pleasant climate by increasing native vegetation. The program was designed following the rules of the Kyoto Protocol, which includes the recovery of devastated forest areas. Therefore, the program emerged already with an additional possibility for resources to ensure its sustainability. That is why the program's implementation was preceded by phases of study, RESEARCH and planning, including physical and chemical s of the river waters. To design and plan the program, the coordinators first identified the region's needs and the availability of the material and technical resources required for its implementation. http://www.ad-hoc-news.de/Aktie/12718105/News/13444150/RESEARCH.html Ecuador: 27) Ecuador President Rafael Correa's proposal to ban drilling in the ITT block of Yasuni National Park was announced today at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting. Correa's landmark decision simultaneously addresses two causes of global climate change – tropical deforestation and oil consumption. The President is attempting to build support for the Yasuni-ITT proposal, named after Yasuni National Park, thought to be the Amazon basin's most biodiverse area. Under the proposal, Ecuador would forego drilling an estimated 920 million barrels of crude oil contained in the Ishpingo Tambococha Tiputini (ITT) fields located directly under Yasuni. The plan would entail Ecuador forgoing an estimated $4.6 billion in oil revenues and prevent significant carbon dioxide emissions as a result of avoided oil extraction activities in the lush Amazon rainforest. Ecuador's proposal is one of the most significant proposed commitments from a developing nation aimed at combating global climate change. The Ecuadorian government has invited the international community to help develop innovative financing options in support of the Yasuni-ITT proposal, to help this developing country make up for the foregone oil revenues. Speaking earlier in the week at a UN meeting on climate change, President Correa stated: " For the first time, an oil-producing country, Ecuador, where a third of the state's income depends on the exploitation of this resource, is renouncing this income for the wellbeing of all humanity and invites the world to join this effort through a fair compensation package, so that together we can sow the seeds of a more humane and just civilization. " In addition to being home to some of the last indigenous peoples living traditional, isolated lifestyles anywhere in the Amazon basin, Yasuni also boasts stunning and irreplaceable biodiversity, including 4,000 plant species, 173 species of mammals and 610 bird species. The Yasuni-ITT proposal is supported by an growing alliance of environmental groups and foundations, including Amazon Watch, Earth Economics, Save America's Forests, the Pachamama Alliance, CS Mott Foundation, the Wallace Global Fund, and the World Resources Institute. http://us.oneworld.net/external/?url=http%3A%2F%2Famazonwatch.org%2Fview_news.ph\ p%3Fid%3D1461 Chile: 28) There is now grave concern for the welfare of Chief Juana Calfunao and her sister Luisa Calfunao, who have been on hunger strike since 7 August. They were imprisoned in Temuco in November 2006 after being involved in protests to defend their community land against local landowners. After suffering a long history of harassment against their entire family, including this most recent detention, they resorted to a hunger strike in order to protest their innocence and highlight the use of repressive measures against the Mapuche. As well as the urgent concern for Chief Calfunao and her sister, there are ongoing worries about the safety and wellbeing of a number of other Mapuche prisoners. On 1st September Ernesto Lincopan was hospitalised following an attack by a fellow inmate in Temuco prison, who stabbed him in the shoulder. This is one recent example of the kind of intimidation Mapuche prisoners are left exposed to, as they have no status as political prisoners and are therefore detained alongside violent criminals. Other Mapuche campaigners, including Chief Calfunao's husband, Antonio Cadin, suffer from chronic health problems but have not received adequate care and treatment whilst in detention. Their communities have now asked for the assistance of an independent doctor from the International Red Cross. Chief Calfunao, her sister and husband and a number of other Mapuche political prisoners are due to appear in front of an open tribunal in Temuco on 22 October. They have been told to expect sentences of between 10 to 17 years and have requested the presence of independent observers from international human rights organizations at the hearing. Mapuche International Link appeals once again to the international community to express their solidarity with the Mapuche. Please address your concerns to the following authorities. http://www.mapuche-nation.org Peru: 29) A little-known isolated Indian tribe has been sighted deep in Peru's Amazon jungle. Ecologists photographed the group at the Alto Purus national park near the Brazilian border as they were looking for illegal loggers. Flying over the jungle, the forest ecologists saw about 21 Indians, mostly children, women and young people, living in palm-leaf huts on the banks of the Las Piedras river. Some were carrying bows and arrows. The indigenous group is thought to be part of the ancient Mascho Piro tribe. The sighting could intensify debate about the presence of as foreign oil companies, who have been invited by the government to look for oil in the rainforest. Many indigenous people have shunned contact with the rest of society to live on the Amazon rainforest land which has been set aside for petroleum prospecting. Environmental and Indian rights groups firmly oppose the exploration in the remote jungle area about 900 kilometres east of the capital, Lima. http://story.malaysiasun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/b8de8e630faf3631/id/286378/cs/1/ Australia: 30) NSW taxpayers are subsidising a Japanese woodchip mill on the South Coast to the tune of $3.5 million a year because the State Government is selling native timber to the mill too cheaply, industry experts say. At a time when there are fears native forest logging is fuelling climate change, the Government is selling native timber from South Coast forests for between $6.90 and $16 a tonne to an Eden woodchip mill owned by Japan's South East Fibre Exports. The Government says the operations " pay their own way " but environmentalists and forestry analysts believe it is under pressure from unions and Forests NSW to maintain industry jobs. " It is actually costing the Government money to run this operation … but the CFMEU gives a lot of money to the Labor Party, " said an anti-logging campaigner, Harriet Swift. " The bureaucracy of Forests NSW is very good at looking after itself, too. " The native timber prices for the 2003-04 year were so low they did not cover Forests NSW's own costs, leading to windfall profits for the mill, said a forestry analyst, Terry Digwood. The figures were revealed following a freedom of information application to Forests NSW. The Government made a loss of $3.5 million in 2005-06 supplying native pulp logs to the mill, analysis done by Mr Digwood showed. " The Eden chipmill has made windfall profits for 35 years as a result of paying low royalty rates for its pulplogs. All of these profits are foreign-owned and are a negative item in the current account in the balance of payments, " said Mr Digwood. The mill also buys cheap native timber from Victoria. Mr Digwood estimated the combined NSW and Victorian subsidies were worth about $9 million a year. " Forests NSW is a very strong supporter of the chipmill on economic grounds, " said Mr Digwood. http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/cheap-timber-costs-taxpayers-35m-a-year/2\ 007/09/30/1191 090943381.html 31) The Tasmanian Government will be asked to look at ways to help prevent forest protests and enable police to sue people taking part in unlawful anti-logging protests. The Tasmanian Police Force wanted to sue a visual artist who staged the 'Weld Angel' protest in May, but has received legal advice the plan would fail. Commissioner Richard McCreadie now wants the State Government to pass new laws enabling police to recover the costs incurred in future protests. " The bar has been raised on a number of occasions, to have the conflict to attract the media, now I can't keep letting that go, " he said. Ken Jeffreys from Forestry Tasmania has praised the idea, saying the organisation is plagued by unsafe and illegal demonstrations. " They're putting our staff at risk and, more importantly, they are putting themselves at risk, " Mr Jeffreys said. But the Tasmanian Greens say the proposed changes would be an attack on democracy. Greens Deputy Leader, Nick McKim, is concerned about any changes to the laws. " Any move to target forest protesters would be a highly political move and something that I would think would be an attack on fundamentals of our democracy like free speech and political expression, " Greens deputy leader Nick McKim said. " [it may] also be a concern to groups like the union movement, who also sometimes do take action on the ground which requires a police presence. " The Tasmanian Government is yet to comment on the plan. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/29/2046870.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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