Guest guest Posted January 1, 2008 Report Share Posted January 1, 2008 Today for you 32 new articles about earth's trees! (274th edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com --British Columbia: 1) Building a dump at Cornwall Hills Provincial park --Washington: 2) Weyco gets to run house forest committee, 3) Dollars for road removal, 4) We must revisit forest protection standards, 5) Low impact forestry in the Olympics? --California: 6) Restoration near San Gorgino pass --Montana: 7) A land use train wreck courtesy of Plum Creek's latest land scandal, --Colorado: 8) De-icing roads is killing trees, 9) Beetle kills are natural, --Nebraska: 10) ORV troubles from too few restriction --Michigan: 11) Thieves moving thru neighborhood cutting Walnuts trees --Illinois: 12) Project Quercus also oak stats --Indiana: 13) Hardwood Scanning Center --Massachusetts: 14) Author of mapping software known as IDRISI --Pennsylvania: 15) Public Land expansion, 16) ATV madness, --North Carolina:17) Update on Blowing Rock / Globe --South Carolina: 18) Pine straw suddenly a near million dollar a year industry --Kentucky: 19) Timber theft starting to be taken seriously --Florida: 20) Midnight forest history --USA: 21) Plum Creek never runs out of land scams, 22) ATV madness, 23) No biofuel production from National Forests, 24) Roadless battles continue, --Canada: 25) Rare forest amid Redtail nature awareness, 26) Longest stretch of uninhabited Atlantic Coastline, 27) Quebec Industry update, --UK: 28) Save the Red Squirrel, 29) New reserves designated, 30) An acorn-ring-town, --Italy: 31) Olive trees brief us on climate change --World-wide: 32) State of world's Primates British Columbia: 1) Over the last two weeks over 180 people have added their names to those who oppose the proposal of a Metro Vancouver Mega Dump on the land adjacent to Cornwall Hills Provincial Park. I would sure like to see the number of signatures climb beyond 200 before I present the petition early in the New Year. If you can think of anyone who you think might be interested in adding their voice to our concerns please invite them to visit My sense is that the battle has turned and that we have momentum on our side. We are seeing that many of the politicans are amazed to learn that the proposed Metro Vancouver dump is next to a provincial park and they immediately recongize how wrong that is. My hope is that the current politicans of Metro Vancouver recognize that the proposal to build a dump on Ashcroft Ranch that they have inherited from the politicans of the past and which has been so aggressively promoted by the MV staff is not the right decision for 2008. A lot has changed since Metro Vancouver purchased Ashcroft Ranch in 2000 with the plans to build a 100 year/500 acre mega dump. My hope is that the new realities of social conscience and environmental awareness are recongized and that Metro Vancouver finds better ways of dealing with the trash from the city than logging over 8 million truck miles a year hauling it up the Fraser Canyon to hide in the hills of the interior next to a provincial park. What else could we do? Two things come to mind. The first is that if you wish I encourage everyone to send a letter to Premier Campbell and Minister Barry Penner (Environment). If you live in one of the major urban areas that will be the big contributors to the proposed dump (Surrey, Coquitlam, New Westminister or Abbotsford) you might want to let your local Mayor and Councillors know that you would like them to find another solution other than building a Mega Dump on Ashcroft Ranch. http://www.cornwallkeepers.com Washington: 2) As the newly appointed chair of the House's Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, Representative Brian Blake (D-19, Aberdeen) will have significant control over bills dealing with the use of state-owned wetlands, forests, conservation areas, and fish and wildlife. His appointment to the committee is causing alarm among environmental advocates. The local Sierra Club's Cascade Chapter gives Blake a C on environmental policy. For the past 10 years, Blake has worked for Weyerhaeuser's logging operations. " Brian Blake, in the past, has not had environmental issues as a priority and he has been hard to convince, " Clifford Traisman, state lobbyist for Washington Conservation Voters, said diplomatically. Blake is replacing Brian Sullivan (D-21, Mukilteo) who's leaving the legislature for a spot on the Snohomish County Council. Sullivan rated an A+ from the Sierra Club. http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=469627 3) Congress recently adopted a key appropriations bill that includes $40 million to tend a growing number of abandoned or damaged roads on Forest Service land across the country. The measure was sponsored by U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., and was strongly supported by Gov. Chris Gregoire and other local leaders, so there's hope that Washington will get a good chunk of the money. Local Forest Service workers won't know how much money is coming here until later this winter or early spring, said Peter Forbes, district ranger for the forest's Darrington Ranger District. There's hope that this money will be the first of much more to come, allowing an agency with a staff that has dwindled over the last decade to bring back people to fix the roads. " We've downsized over the last few years to the point where we're pretty well booked with the work we have, " Forbes said. " If we feel pretty comfortable that the money is going to keep coming in, we'll probably look at increasing staff as we feel its appropriate. " Forest managers have been waging a losing battle to fix some roads and safely dismantle others since the 1990s, when money to maintain the roads dried up with the end of large-scale logging. http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20071231/NEWS01/899998239 4) While forestry is called a science, and while states promulgate rules about clear-cuts and cutting on slopes, judgment also comes into play. So does public opinion. That's why Weyerhaeuser and the OSU School of Forestry find themselves in the hot seat. And that's why Oregon and Washington must revisit their decisions that allowed these questionable harvests. The Seattle Times photo of the steep slope in Lewis County that was clear-cut is startling. To the non-forester, it's hard to believe that the state of Washington approved this harvest. It's also hard to believe that Weyerhaeuser thought it was a good idea. Moreover, it causes us to wonder whether Weyerhaeuser was so desperate for cash that it would clear-cut a precipitous slope. Perhaps Weyerhaeuser views its forests more as a cash box and less as environmental stewardship than it did three decades ago. Steve Rogel, who is retiring as Weyerhaeuser's CEO, executed a hostile 2002 takeover of Willamette Industries, his employer for 25 years. In that transaction, Weyerhaeuser gained some one-third of Clatsop County's land. Willamette Industries would have taken better care of our county's forests. The forest practices of this multi-national corporation, known for years as the Jolly Green Giant, merits a dose of healthy skepticism from the rest of us. http://www.dailyastorian.info/main.asp?SectionID=23 & SubSectionID=392 & ArticleID=4\ 7916 & TM=62078.26 5) This proposal represents a logical first step in a process designed to create a low impact forest industry on the Olympic Peninsula. Low impact forestry involves the use of techniques and equipment designed to maintain forest health and productivity while at the same time minimizing disturbance in the forest. It is characterized by multiple entries into the forest using equipment designed to cause the least amount of disturbance possible, during which trees are removed selectively in a way that places high value on improving the forest ecology. Low impact forestry is well suited for maintaining esthetic and environmental qualities in a diverse forest while at the same time providing good economic return. When compared with traditional forestry, economic studies in the eastern United States and Canada have suggested that low impact forestry can provide positive economic return by both increasing the amount and duration of employment and increasing economic return (stumpage value) to landowners. The Brinnon/Quilcene area of Jefferson County is ideal for a demonstration project to develop low impact forestry in the Pacific Northwest. This project has four objectives. These are: 1) To determine the viability of developing Low Impact Forestry in the Quilcene area; 2) To identify and evaluate human and other resource requirements and their availability; 3) To identify the knowledge, skills and abilities needed by workers doing Low Impact Forestry and determine the training that such workers would need; and 4) Develop an appropriate working plan for building a local Low Impact Forestry industry. http://wsuforestry.blogspot.com/2007/12/low-impact-forestry-study-proposal.html California: 6) An Inland conservation group has spent the past 15 months stripping away the remnants of a trout farm wedged in a scenic canyon in the San Gorgonio Pass. They've dismantled thousands of feet of fencing, removed 250 old tires and rust-scarred vehicles, demolished nearly 20 dilapidated structures, including four houses, and unearthed 40 disease-ridden, non-native trees. " If you came a year ago, it was a total mess. You couldn't even see upcanyon, " said Frazier Haney, 26, of the Wildlands Conservancy, a nonprofit group based in Oak Glen. Haney is the manager of what has been evolving from the Whitewater Trout Co., which raised trout and allowed fishing for more than 65 years, into the Inland region's latest outdoor haven. Known as the Whitewater Preserve, it is slated to open in mid-February for free hiking, camping and outdoor education. Initially purchased by two other Coachella Valley conservation groups, the preserve is also a vital passageway for animals traveling between the San Bernardino and San Jacinto mountains. It is also within striking distance of the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2,650-mile trail that runs from Mexico to Canada. The conservancy's five preserves, some 60,000 acres all together, connect Joshua Tree National Park, Big Morongo Preserve and mountain wilderness managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service. The idea is to make the preserve system an Inland Empire version of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreational Area, which protects the mountains looming above one of the nation's largest urban areas, said David Myers, the conservancy's executive director. " With all the Inland Empire growth happening, it's just amazing how important these lands become, " for wildlife and humans alike, Myers said. The sand-to-snow network includes the conservancy's Pioneertown Mountains Preserve in San Bernardino County and Mission Creek Preserve in Riverside County. Together, the preserves connect a kaleidoscope of landscapes from Joshua tree woodlands in the Mojave Desert to creosote scrub in the Sonoran Desert, chaparral in Whitewater, and pine forests and mountain peaks. http://www.pe.com/localnews/environment/stories/PE_News_Local_D_wildlands29.303d\ 2cb.html Montana: 7) Not far up the road from Steve Brown's house, out west of Whitefish and just around the corner from forest burnt black by the Brush Creek fire, a quarter-mile of new road is headed off into the woods. The short stretch will cross U.S. Forest Service land, using that public patch to connect Plum Creek Timber Co. with the rest of the world. Plum Creek has another route in, a winding six-mile twist of road used seasonally to haul logs, but the new neighbors weren't going to put up with that. Because Plum Creek's not going to log that land anymore. Instead, the company plans on selling it as subdivided real estate parcels. And so the Forest Service has granted a new easement to hasten access, that quick quarter-mile over public land. " Fire costs are huge, " said Timchak, the district ranger who had to review Plum Creek's easement request. " We're becoming a skeleton of an agency. But right now, when they ask for something like this, the Forest Service doesn't have the tools to deny it. Fire costs are not part of the review criteria. " And that worries taxpayers like Brown, as well as land stewards like Timchak. " Given Plum Creek's new emphasis on real estate, " she said, " we have to assume this is just the beginning of these requests. Subdivision is where it's headed. " Investors told of Plum Creek's business structure - since 1999, the company's been a Real Estate Investment Trust - and how it means they pay no corporate income taxes in the state. Planners told of the difficulties they face designing coherent growth in the face of unknown Plum Creek land development. Firefighters warned of the increased danger and cost associated with building homes in the woods. State and county leaders discussed budgets strained by infrastructure needs in neighborhoods that not so long ago were working woods. Now, those far-flung homeowners want roads and snowplows and police and bus routes to schools, but property tax revenues from the new subdivisions don't begin to cover the costs. The Forest Service may still have to grant that easement out by Steve Brown's house, but it could prove a road to nowhere. The question is, do you wait for that to happen, or do you plan for the inevitability of it? Do you wait until you're broke, or do you get serious about land-use planning now? " http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/12/30/news/local/news04.txt Colorado: 8) A Colorado State University study conducted under Bill Jacobi in the Department of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management looked at the effect of magnesium chloride on trees that grow along dusty, unpaved roads where the chemical is used as a stabilizer. Trees downhill from the roads suffered the most, the report said, because water moves the chemical down into the soil. Mick Mercer, manager for streets and solid waste in Loveland, said city workers also see some damage to trees along paved roads — especially junipers — where the use of magnesium chloride-based de-icer products is especially intense. " We obviously care about what we're putting on the road and what we're putting in the environment, " Mercer said. " It's the trade-off — trying to make the roads safe but minimize the environmental impact. " In both liquid and solid form, the magnesium chloride used by Loveland is essentially a salt, which lowers the freezing temperature of the road, with additives to make it less corrosive. Weeks like this, the city's crews cover the roads with de-icing chemicals before storms and then treat the roads throughout the storms. " Do we want safe roads? Then salt-based products are the best, " Mercer said. " Is there a consequence? Yes. " The city switched last winter to Apex, its current magnesium chloride product, because it's less corrosive to metals in cars and bridges. And using the liquid before storms allows crews to use less of both liquid and solid products after storms, with the goal of reducing environmental impacts. The report from CSU said the study looked at other possible causes for tree damage, including disease and insects, but " the strongest factor to explain the decline in health of the trees was the magnesium chloride. " http://www.timescall.com/News_Story.asp?id=5493 9) Dead trees stand next to living ones, but on almost every trunk are the small, telltale protrusions called pitch tubes that indicate beetle infestation. The trees are producing the defensive, sticky resin that, in younger, more vigorous trees, would repel the boring invaders. Kim Vogel, public information officer for the United States Forest Service in Steamboat Springs, Colo., is in the middle of the fight. But she does not consider it a fight — she says it is nature. " We were due for one of these, " Vogel said. " Our forests are old, and natural history evidence suggests that these events occur every 100 to 300 years. " Additional culprits are the warmer winters and the drought conditions recently afflicting the inner ranges of the Rockies, allowing the beetles to proliferate in numbers that can simply overwhelm the forests and render the trees defenseless. Even some of the young ones that normally have plenty of sap to repel the pests cannot survive because the soil lacks adequate moisture. On its Web site for the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests, the Forest Service states: " This epidemic cannot be stopped. " In areas with high tourism, like resorts and campgrounds, officials are spraying trees in an effort to control the infestations, but at nearly $30 a tree, it is unworkable for widespread control. Because of the massive size of the affected areas, nature will take its course. The next hazard may be fires. With enough heat and wind, fires could damage the forests' future by wiping out the seedlings on the forest floor. Vogel said officials were already bracing for fires and their impact on human communities. " We are going to clear forests areas to create 'speed bumps' for control and enact large-scale removal of trees to protect human habitation and other valuable areas, " she said. The next few years will be a time of dynamic change for the Western forests. But change may not necessarily mean tragedy. It may simply be nature running its course. And who knows, the alterations may even make the hunting better. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/29/sports/othersports/29outdoors.html?_r=1 & adxnnl\ =1 & oref=slogi n & ref=sports & adxnnlx=1198962473-ZGC/6V0kMPtfuOxuBAEhjQ Nebraska: 10) LINCOLN - Forest officials are considering restricting off-road vehicles at the state's national forests and grasslands. The proposed rules would confine off-road vehicles to designated roads and trails. There are now few restrictions. The changes could also affect hundreds of miles of roadways and trails now open to both highway and off-road vehicle traffic. Open houses to discuss the changes are planned for January in Valentine, Chadron, North Platte and Grand Island. Areas that would be affected include the Nebraska National Forest Bessey Unit near Halsey, the Samuel McKelvie National Forest near the confluence of the Snake and Niobrara rivers, and the Nebraska National Forest Pine Ridge Unit near Chadron. The Oglala National Grassland in the northwest corner of the state would also be affected. http://www.kptm.com/Global/story.asp?S=7554975 & nav=menu606_2_4 Michigan: 11) Money doesn't grow on trees, but there's some serious coin to be made on black walnut trees, and demand is exploding in Flint. That may have motivated the theft of several walnut trees in Flint. City police arrested six people Dec. 22 in connection with the thefts of trees cut down on Thayer Street. Two companies were part of an organized effort to fell trees in a few neighborhoods, said Flint police Capt. David Porter. The trees can fetch thousands of dollars on the market. Porter said there may be more arrests in the next few weeks. The city is not releasing suspects' names or the companies to which the thefts are connected until charges are issued. Police seized two semitrailers, a front-end loader and chain saws. Katie Straw, an Eastlawn Drive resident, said several men came to her door last week to try to get access to two towering black walnut trees on her neighbor's property. They have a shared driveway, and her neighbor is rarely home. " One guy offered me $20. His buddies were yelling, 'We just want the trees. We just want the trees,' " said Straw, who shooed them away three times. John Seifert, president of the international Walnut Council in West Lafayette, Ind., said the black walnut market is expanding due to accelerated demand in Asia. " It's the noble wood of the hardwoods, " Seifert said.In countries such as China, people are buying more walnut furniture, he said, and more companies there are manufacturing furniture. " We haven't seen a market like this for black walnut since the 1970s, " Seifert said. " When the profit margin is that big, it brings out some people on the margins. " Seifert said prices have increased more than 30 percent recently. Straw said that for a few weeks starting in December, she heard the sounds of chain saws reverberating through the neighborhood. " It's not a quiet crime, " she said. But she really didn't put two and two together until men saying they were from timber companies came to her house. She called the police when she saw a different crew cutting down walnut trees at a vacant house a few doors down. The men scattered before police could arrive, she said. Porter said he didn't know whether the Eastlawn/Lawndale area was targeted, but Straw's description fits the pattern.http://blog.mlive.com/flintjournal/newsnow/2007/12/thieves_target_walnut\ _trees_in.html Illinois: 12) When Susan and Gilbert Tauck moved into their Marengo-area home 35 years ago, the couple decided to do whatever they could to protect the surrounding environment. That included preserving a 40-acre oak forest and keeping it clear of invasive species that otherwise would prevent saplings from taking root. " I was very interested in saving it because I'm quite a proponent of [conservation], " Susan Tauck said. Environmental advocates here hope that she's not the only one who feels that way. Oak tree numbers have been on a steady decline over the past 150 years that, if left unchecked, conservationists fear could mean that the tree would all but disappear during the next 20 years. A coalition of local governments, private businesses, residents and conservationists has formed in an effort to reverse that trend. Dubbed " Project Quercus, " the group is trying to rally oak numbers through a combination of restoration, protection and education. Quercus is Latin for oak. " A place has character based on what makes it different from another place, " McHenry County Conservation District Natural Resources Manager Ed Collins said. " A larger part of [McHenry County's] character are these large, open oak groves. " In 1838, when the first surveys of the land that would become McHenry County were conducted, 143,000 acres of oak groves covered the area, Collins said. Today, he said, only 18,000 of those acres still exist. That's just shy of 12.6 percent of the original cover. From 1838 to 1872, oak populations plummeted by about 50 percent, from 143,000 acres to 72,000 acres, Collins said. That number further fell to 26,350 acres in 1939. By 2005, the acreage had dropped to about 18,000, Collins said, in a county that measures 390,685 acres. He presented those numbers at an early December meeting of the McHenry County Board, with the hope that board members would consider oak preservation as an element of its developing conservation-design ordinance. In addition to their historical value, the massive trees provide food, shelter and shade for native animals, said Lisa Haderlein, executive director of the Land Conservancy of McHenry County. " Whether that's birds, ... deer, rabbits, squirrels, whatever, " Haderlein said. " A lot of the wildlife that I think most people appreciate having in the area ... don't get food from a maple tree or an ash tree. " http://www.nwherald.com/articles/2007/12/28/news/local/doc4774c498252ac348867500\ ..txt Indiana: 13) U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar voted to allocate $875,000 to the Hardwood Scanning Center at Purdue University. The funding was approved as a part of the FY 2008 Omnibus Appropriations bill which passed in the Senate on December 18, 2007, and was signed into law by the president yesterday. " The Hardwood Scanning Center and Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center at Purdue University have helped Indiana and America better compete in the hardwood industry, and this continued support, will help conserve hardwood resources through increased conversion efficiency. The Hardwood Scanning Center has kept Indiana on the cutting edge of technology in hardwood lumber research, " Lugar said. The next technology needed to improve lumber-grade yield is log scanning, which would help sawyers " see " the defects inside a log and convert logs into lumber. Primarily, the Center would develop and commercialize such technology. The 180 sawmills comprising Indiana's hardwood lumber industry employ 2,000 workers and support 530 logging firms with an additional 2,000 employees. Indiana's hardwood veneer industry is the second largest in the U.S. and is comprised of 28 companies. Federal funding was also maintained for Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center (HTIRC) at Purdue University, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service established in 1998. The center improves the genetic quality of forest trees and ensures greater success in their regeneration, thereby promoting increased forest productivity, biological diversity and resource sustainability. Lugar is a member and former Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Nutrition. He has championed programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and farm Best Management Practices, which have resulted in the increased potential of trees and crops to sequester CO2 and other gases. The CRP is the largest tree-planting program in history. Millions of acres have been planted to trees since 1985 and millions more have been left as grasses and not tilled. http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?ID=27072 Massachusetts: 14) From the Charles River to the Amazon, Ron Eastman has been able to connect environmental researchers with unique data. The 57-year-old Waltham resident is the author of IDRISI, one of the world's most widely distributed software packages for studying and tracking the earth's natural resources. Whether it's predicting where a wildfire is likely to occur in California, or projecting the effects that rising sea levels will have on coastal rice-producing areas in Vietnam, the software enables researchers to study the past and plan for the future. " The uses are limitless, " explains Eastman. " It is of value to climatologists, ecologists, foresters, anybody who works with the environment. " Eastman is a professor of geography and the director of Clark Labs for Cartographic Technology and Geographic Analysis at Clark University in Worcester. He began working at the college as a visiting professor in 1981, and started his company, IDRISI, in 1987, with $3,000 in savings. The name IDRISI was chosen in honor of Abu Allah Muhammad al-Idrisi, a cartographer and geographer of major significance during the medieval period. Eastman now has a staff of 31 - 10 are full-time employees, and the rest are undergraduate and PhD students. Eastman and his co-workers develop information system software, called GIS, that captures, stores, analyzes, and manages geographical data. The software produces results that differ from standard computer-generated maps because they're composed of multiple layers that can be clicked on and off to focus on various aspects of the subject, such as elevation data, roadway information, even locations that are susceptible to fire. Information garnered can be used for emergency response, fire management, and natural-disaster planning, as well as preserving animal habitat and looking at trends in weather and crop production. The software analyzes the trends through what is called " image time series, " a fairly new method where various types of satellite images are taken daily and entered into a database. Eastman's software is updated every 18 months and currently used in more than 175 countries. http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=90852 Pennsylvania: 15) Public lands in the county expanded by about 1,600 acres after a partnership of public and private agencies purchased two parcels. The group has secured 3,500 acres for preservation across five southcentral counties. The Conservation Fund, the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy bought nine parcels adjacent to public lands from Gladfelter Wood Pulp Co. ''This means these lands are open to the public for recreation, from hiking, to hunting, to wildlife-watching,'' said Chris Novak, DCNR press secretary. The two parcels in Huntingdon County in Springfield and Todd townships now are part of Rothrock State Forest. Novak said the 1,500-acre Springfield Township parcel abuts state gamelands. The remaining 155 acres in Todd Township border an existing section of the state forest. Bedford County's Buchanan State Forest gains about 120 acres from the acquisition. DCNR, which contributed $5.5 million toward the $9 million purchase, will maintain the additional forest land. Parcels also are in Fulton, Cumberland and York counties.The purchase was negotiated by TCF, a national nonprofit land and water conservation organization, and Gladfelter, in the process of selling about 20,000 acres in southern Pennsylvania. ''The Conservation Fund and Gladfelter have had a strong relationship in Maryland, Delaware and now Pennsylvania,'' said Vanessa Vaughan, TCF media relations manager. Vaughan said TCF to date has bought about 33,000 acres from Gladfelter across the three states. ''This acquisition protects some of the most important [formerly] privately held conservation lands along the southern tier of Pennsylvania,'' said Todd McNew, TCF state representative. ''Gladfelter's cooperation and commitment to working with this partnership was key to ensuring that these lands have permanent conservation status and will be forever open to the public. " http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/503107.html?nav=742 16) Given the documented destruction that ATVs are exacting on public lands, including state game lands where they are banned, you have to wonder what the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources is thinking in moving to expand ATV trails in state forests. The scheme includes permitting ATVs to travel on 170 miles of township roads between 29 miles of new ATV trails to be built in Sproul, Bald Eagle and Susquehannock state forests. The state forests already are home to 247 miles of ATV trails. In addition, there are more than 100 miles of ATV trails in Allegheny National Forest and countless other miles on private property. While ATV proponents claim that only a small number of users violate the rules and ride where they are prohibited, the evidence of widespread damage speaks for itself. And one thing you don't do in this situation is reward bad behavior. ATV users would be well advised to clean up their act. Rather than providing more opportunities for ATV-abuse of forests, their wild inhabitants and those who search in ever-growing futility for the tranquil sounds of nature, DCNR should be bolstering the ranks of the state's forest protectors and giving them the tools, resources and legal authority to confront this menace to sustainable forests. Fines for violators need to be significantly increased from the current $50 to $1,000 or more and their machines confiscated. If the ATV violations continue in the face of such enhanced enforcement measures, then the vehicles should be completely banned from state lands as antithetical to healthy forests.DCNR also needs to reconsider permitting ATV travel on township roads. Pennsylvania already leads the nation in ATV-related deaths, and it would seem to be the height of irresponsible public policy to encourage what oftentimes are children too young to have a driver's license to travel on public highways in a vehicle that enhances the prospects that they will be killed or injured. http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/opinion/119886810\ 6317600.xml & col l=1 North Carolina: 17) Opponents have been fighting the plan, saying that it will ruin priceless views from Blowing Rock. In October, the forest service announced a decision to move ahead with the project in a way that the agency says will protect views and scale back the logging. No clear-cutting of timber would be allowed. Instead, partial harvests would be done in small sections averaging about 11 acres. A third of the trees in each of those sections would be left standing. There would be 17 of those small sections, which add up to 212 acres to be harvested out of the 11,225-acre area. Environmental groups filed an internal appeal with the forest service, appealing the local ranger's decision to Marisue Hilliard, the agency's forest supervisor for North Carolina. The environmental groups' appeal focuses primarily on old-growth forests within Globe. The Southern Environmental Law Center and Wild South, which is an environmental group known, until a recent reorganization, as the Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project, said that it has conducted field surveys that show many of the trees range from 100 years old to more than 300 years old. Joy Malone, the forest service's district ranger who made the Globe decision, has said that the harvest would not significantly affect old-growth trees. No harvests would be done in any stands of trees that, on average, are more than 100 years old, she said. The environmental groups have met twice this month with the forest service. Terry Seyden, a forest-service spokesman, said that a decision could be made in January. The appeal is being considered by a team from the regional office, which will make a recommendation to Hilliard. Chris Joyell, a spokesman for Wild South, said he feels good about the negotiations. " My impression is there was a sincere effort to find some middle ground and what is a creative solution, " Joyell said. This review would exhaust the internal appeals process for the forest service, and the next appeals step would be to federal court, if things go that far. Joyell said that both sides would like to avoid a lawsuit. The harvest is tentatively planned to start in 2009. The forest service said that the project is part of managing a healthy forest and is designed to improve habitat for wildlife and to regenerate oak trees. The forest service announced the plan in January 2005, and during a feedback period got more than 1,800 written comments, mostly from people opposed to the logging. The Globe area can be seen to the south and west of Blowing Rock. http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ/MGArticle/WSJ_BasicArti\ cle & c=MGArticl e & cid=1173354007087 South Carolina: 18) The Sand Hill State Forest in Darlington and Chesterfield counties made $734,856 in 2006 selling leasing rights to rake pine straw. Just seven years ago, those rights barely brought in $50,000. The windfall came inadvertently, after the state started replacing slash pines, which grow fast and are ideal for timber sales, with longleaf pines in part to prevent the loss of the specialized longleaf ecosystem, said Brian Davis, who coordinates the pine straw program at Sand Hills. Now the demand for longleaf pine straw to use as garden mulch makes the pine needles of the tree more valuable than the wood. For the past three years, Sand Hill State Forest has made more money selling pine straw than timber. The state sells both short- and long-term leases. The shorter leases are rotated so pine straw can stay on the ground in some areas to help wildlife, which need the straw as part of their habitat, Davis said. About 25,000 acres of the 46,000-acre Sand Hill State Forest is in the program, Davis said. The revenue made from the program pays for state forest operations, and 25 percent of all money made by state forests is given to local school districts. Pine trees usually drop needles twice a year, in early summer and late fall, and the pine straw business has just started to operate year-round, Davis said. " A few years ago, pine straw sales were very seasonal, " Davis said. " People did most of their yard work in the spring. " But a rise in professional landscapers has led to demand throughout the year. Home gardeners and landscapers like pine straw because it's easy to handle, said Mike Wilson of Jim Ken Nursery and Landscape in Gilbert. Wilson's company sells more hardwood mulch than pine straw, but he said some people like pine straw better because it is cheaper. " Things come in phases, " Wilson said. " They go in and out of vogue just like fashion. " http://www.charlotte.com/205/story/424343.html Kentucky: 19) WHITESBURG — The crime scene a once-wooded landscape marked by tire tracks and tree stumps makes the victim, Verna Potter, feel physically violated. " It's just like someone cut your heart out, " says the 77-year-old Potter, who lost an estimated $50,000 worth of generations-old oak trees, which were taken from her property and sold, without permission, while she was away. Rogue loggers have long preyed on private properties from coast to coast, taking advantage of the elderly, the absent or in Potter's case both. And they traditionally had little to fear from law enforcement officials hesitant to pursue criminal charges, instead chalking up most complaints to property disputes. But as timber values rise, so have the stakes for landowners and the attitude of law enforcement is adjusting accordingly. " The authorities who have dealt with it as a property matter are starting to look at it as more of a criminal matter, " said Joseph Phaneuf, executive director of the Northeastern Loggers' Association. The problem has resulted in the formation of the Appalachian Roundtable, a nonprofit that joins forestry experts, attorneys, law enforcement and victims to alert landowners to logging scams and pursue criminal charges against timber thieves. The group is drafting legislation to be introduced in the 2008 Kentucky General Assembly to make timber theft a felony punishable by a prison sentence. the same local prosecutors who vigilantly try other felonies are reluctant to get involved in timber cases. That's because they anticipate questions about property boundaries and few people have the money or the resources to hire a lawyer, pay thousands of dollars for a survey or hire an expert to place a value on the timber lost. Timber thieves manipulate these obstacles, experts say. They usually operate along adjoining property lines and claim to have either owner's permission to log on the property in question, according to the New York Forest Owners Association. With the overseas demand for North American hardwoods growing, it's become a more costly issue for private landowners, whose tree farms and woodlands make up 55 percent of U.S. timber production, forestry officials say. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5411466.html Florida: 20) The oldest national forest in the eastern continental U.S., it was even created in controversy a century ago, leading to an unusual nickname: the " Midnight Forest. " " The whole discussion going on for over 100 years is how much use now versus maintaining use for the future, " said Rick Lint, the Forest's district ranger. " We want people to use the Forest, but how do we, at the same time, protect it so the uses can be sustained? " The Forest covers roughly 384,000 acres - almost the entire eastern half of Marion County. It also spreads into Putnam and Lake counties. The Forest was established on Nov. 24, 1908, when President Theodore Roosevelt signed the proclamation. " He proclaimed more national forests in the system than any other president, " Lint said. But it was not done without a little trickery. Because Roosevelt created so many national forests, Congress tacked a rider onto a spending bill taking away a president's power to create national forests. Roosevelt had 10 days to sign it. " He waited to the last minute, " Lint said. Meanwhile, maps were pulled and the U.S. Forest Service began circling land to designate as national forest land. Before he signed the bill that would limit his own power, Roosevelt signed the proclamation that created the Ocala Forest, along with others. They became known as " midnight forests, " because the action was taken so quickly. " Teddy was a rebel, " Lint said. In 1891, before the Ocala Forest was established, there was discussion about the need for forest reserves for watersheds and a constant supply of lumber. People began to question why the government should own timberlands. Is it to be used or is it to be protected? That discussion continues today. The Forest is bound roughly by the Ocklawaha River on the north and west, the St. Johns River on the east, and almost the county line to the south. " It's the only subtropical forest there is, " Lint said. And it is the continental United States' most southern forest. When the Forest was established in 1908, it largely consisted of 165,000 acres of sand pine scrub, according to " Cultural Resources Overview, " by Ocala archaeologist Alan W. Dorian. " Nobody wanted it, " Lint said of the original forest. " The scrub, you couldn't farm it. You couldn't settle it. http://www.ocala.com/article/20071230/NEWS/712300346/1001/NEWS01 USA: 21)Plum Creek has about a quarter-million acres targeted for residential real estate development nationwide. Include the 975,000 acres of company lands to be sold for recreation, as well as 500,000 acres to be sold for conservation, and about 1.7 million acres are on the block. Another half-million acres of " non-strategic " timberlands are under review for possible sale, as well. In 2004, Plum Creek reported the sale of 375,000 acres for $300 million. In 2005, 232,000 acres sold for $292 million. This year, the company announced it's hoping for land sales in the neighborhood of $340 million. The third quarter showing, however, was dismal, with Plum Creek profits down 36 percent from the previous year. The reason: a national credit crunch and, not surprising, wildfire. Fires stopped logging, burned trees bound for market and, most importantly, scared off potential land and home buyers. Still, in announcing the losses, company officials predicted that many of the scotched sales would be completed by year's end. Whether that has come to pass remains unknown, and Budinick said no announcement regarding recent real estate deals would be made until fourth-quarter earnings are released Jan. 28. So far, she said, 30,000 Montana acres have sold in 2007, less than 3 percent of the company's acreage here. Much sold into conservation easements, rather than residential development. http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/12/30/news/local/news04.txt 22) From Colorado's forests to Utah's sandstone canyons and the evergreen mountains of Montana, federally owned lands are rapidly being transformed into the new playgrounds — and battlegrounds — of the American West. Outdoor enthusiasts are flocking in record numbers to lesser-known forests, deserts and mountains, where the rules of use have been lax and enforcement infrequent. The federal government has been struggling to come up with plans to accommodate the growing numbers of off-highway vehicles — mostly with proposed maps directing them toward designated trails — but all-terrain-vehicle users have started formidable lobbying campaigns when favorite trails have been left off the maps. The temptation to go off-trail, legally or not, comes from the desire for variety, federal land managers say. " The more a route is used, the less challenging it becomes, " said Mark Stiles, the San Juan forest supervisor. " You end up getting lots of little spurs off the main route. " Even a few errant riders, he said, " can do a lot of damage. " On the other side, opponents of the trails have been alarmed that the proposed networks of authorized paths would permanently eliminate large areas of Utah's unroaded wild lands from consideration as federally protected wilderness areas. Many quiet users are not rich newcomers but longtime locals who spent their lives in the forest. One of them, Tom Powers, a backcountry hunter in Montana who first hunted elk in the Bitterroot as a young man in 1969, still takes his horse into the woods, but less than before, to avoid the summertime traffic of motorcycles, pickups and all-terrain vehicles. " They've ruined what used to be a quality experience in the backcountry, where you were just up there with nature, " Mr. Powers said. Environmentalists worry about the destruction of fragile soils and erosion, when outsize Western rainfalls course through the ruts left by hill-climbing all-terrain vehicles. There are also concerns for streams, rivers and wetlands, precious resources in the arid West and magnets for those who think all-terrain-vehicle riding is best when muddy. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/us/30lands.html?_r=1 & oref=slogin 23) A last-minute change in the federal energy bill discourages the use of wood chips, tree limbs and other wood waste from national forests in the production of ethanol, according to a forest industry spokesman. The surprise provision makes no sense, says Aaron Everett, a spokesman for the Black Hills Forest Resource Association. The energy bill passed by Congress and signed by the president earlier this month requires an increase in the amount of ethanol produced from renewable biomass materials such as grasses and wood waste. The bill requires 21 billion gallons of ethanol to be produced from biomass, including cellulosic materials, by the year 2022. Corn-ethanol production is slated to double, to 15 billion gallons. All of South Dakota's congressional delegation worked hard to make sure slash piles and other wood waste from national forests would qualify for the definition of renewable biomass in the energy bill, Everett said. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., a member of the House Natural Resources Committee, made sure the definition included national forests when the bill came out of that committee, Everett said. However, the bill had been changed in the House to exclude national forests before it got to the Senate. Everett said he suspects environmental interests got the provision inserted at the last minute. " I think it fell victim to groups whose aim is to limit, in any way possible, forest management on public lands, " he said. Everett said the exclusion discourages the use of hundreds of thousands of tons of wood waste just from the Black Hills National Forest. The provision was discovered too late in the process to change by the time it arrived in the Senate, according to Brendon Plack, a legislative aide to Sen. John Thune, R-S.D. Plack said much of the language of the 1,100-page bill apparently was written behind closed doors in final negotiations. The provision doesn't outright ban using wood waste from national forests to make ethanol, Plack said. However, it ensures that ethanol made from such national forest biomass will not count toward the increased renewable fuels standard target in the energy bill, he said. That means ethanol made from national forest biomass will not qualify for government incentives, Everett said. " It represents a policy disincentive, " he said. http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2007/12/28/news/top/doc477327442c1ba519\ 197233.txt 24) Before Mr. Bush took office, a Forest Service chief proposed new rules to prohibit the agency from building or approving new road construction in roadless areas of national forests covering 5,000 or more acres, a policy that protects more than 58 million acres. The Bush administration tried weakening the rule, and in 2005 tossed it out, requiring governors to petition if they wanted to protect national forests within their states. Four states sued and last year a victory in federal court reinstated the roadless rule across America. But the agency has sparked new problems in Idaho, Colorado, Alaska and California. In Idaho, a new Forest Service draft environmental impact statement puts at risk the state's 9.3 million acres of forests, the largest intact forest system in the lower 48. A loophole opens two-thirds of the forest to road construction and increased timber harvest. In Colorado, new Forest Service rules would allow new coal mines, oil and gas drilling and ski area expansions, leaving now-pristine forests with fewer protections. In Alaska, the Forest Service plans to re-open the Tongass National Forest in Alaska's panhandle to large-scale timber logging, allowing 33 miles of road and a new log transfer facility to be built in North America's largest rain forest. In California, the Forest Service has angered Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger by not honoring agreements it made earlier and planning to build new roads in four southern California forests. National forests - including the Apalachicola, Osceola and Ocala forests on 1.2 million acres in north and central Florida - are national treasures. It's not too late for the Bush administration to stop seeking ways to exploit them and, instead, protect them http://www.palmbeachpost.com/ Canada: 25)Most people are aware of the ecological richness of Nova Scotia's forests, even if they don't spend much time in them. Nova Scotia is home to many hundreds of thousands of acres of forest that have not been logged for hundreds of years. These places are truly wild; humans rarely set foot in them. They are sanctuaries for wildlife from the mighty moose to the meek mouse, and a last bastion of nature's disappearing splendour. However, places like these are rapidly diminishing. Logging companies, some from the U.S., are chopping down our forests, killing wildlife and eradicating special places. One in particular is near Scotsburn, in Pictou County. It has hundreds of acres of old-growth forest - mostly hemlock and maple - that has never been logged or farmed. In these forests is a place called Redtail Nature Awareness, named after the redtail hawk. Its primary function is as a year-round camp for people of all ages, to provide them with a retreat from today's busy world and educate them about nature. I attend camps there all year, and it has become a very special place for me, and my favorite spot in the world. In the summer, we go for hikes in the forest, through wilderness and ravines, swimming in the creeks and rejoicing in nature's glory. Recently, the community around Redtail received word that several hundred acres were to be logged in that area. This was a great blow to people who have a special place in their hearts for Redtail. If it were to be logged, the wild integrity of the place would be lost. The worst thing is that it is owned by an American company: Wagner's. How can they have control over so much of Nova Scotia's natural heritage? The community has raised money to try to buy this land, but Wagner's has callously rejected a generous offer of $120,000 for 213 acres. If this forest is logged, dozens of people will be devastated, many animals will die from loss of habitat, and a sanctuary will be lost forever. If you want to know more about this issue, or if you want to make a donation, please contact friendsofredtail http://www.hfxnews.ca/index.cfm?sid=93562 & sc=160 26) The shore from east of St. Martins to Alma is reputedly the longest stretch of uninhabited Atlantic coastline between the tip of Florida and the St. Lawrence River. The area joined 14 other spots in Canada and more than 500 around the globe by meeting the UN's biosphere program's stringent criteria. The upper Bay of Fundy coast, anchored by Fundy National Park and stretching from St. Martins, southeast of Saint John, to the Tantramar Marsh near Sackville, and inland to Moncton, fall within the boundaries of the reserve. " Biosphere reserves are a sort of ark, " said University of New Brunswick scientist Graham Forbes, who has extensively researched the area's forest practices and wildlife. The upper bay earned this recognition - and the challenge of going beyond the lip service of sustainability - for many reasons. One key reason is the efforts of committed volunteers who first met to talk about the bay's threatened sub-species of salmon in 1998. " That was the original concern that brought people together, " said Peter Etheridge, the executive director of the Fundy biosphere group, who was involved from the start. At one point, they generated a 300-page submission to UNESCO, which culminated in the agency's decision-makers granting the status at a conference in Paris in September. This coast is known for its powerful tides, often promoted as the world's highest. The coast's steep, dramatic and windswept headlands are home to a handful of rare plants with names so whimsical - Rand's Eyebright, Livelong Saxifrage and Bird's-eye Primrose - you'd think hobbits discovered them. It boasts the oldest documented red spruce tree living on the planet, discovered in 2005. Surprisingly slender, thriving today, the tree was a seedling when a young Elizabeth I assumed the crown. Each summer, roughly three million sandpipers (most of the world's population) descend on this coast's mud flats to feed on fat- and protein-rich mud shrimp that are found nowhere else. The feast fuels the birds for their three-day, non-stop journey to South America. Along the coastal Fundy Footpath, in deep, wet, slippery ravines where moss grows on moss that's growing on moss in a half-dozen shades of green, and where the small rivers draining the ravines fan out onto pristine beaches, hikers can go days without seeing other people. http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/front/article/169153 27) The industry in Quebec operates 360 mills, supports 200,000 direct and indirect jobs, generates $13 billion in sales and contributes $1.5 billion a year in taxes, he claims. But the too-big-to-fail argument is one we've all heard before. It's the standard line from people who don't have any other case to make. Chevrette recently released a report predicting another 12,000 jobs will be lost in 2008, as a North American economic slowdown chops demand for lumber, pulp and paper. " If I look at the prospects for 2008, it's worse, " he remarked at the time. And it's hard to find fault with his diagnosis. The industry's aging mills are too small, costly and inefficient, while wood supply is more expensive than in many competing jurisdictions. But if the industry is going to restructure, it should do so on its own. Even Chevrette admits there are too many players. You can't fight the forces of supply and demand. The issue in the new year will be whether the Quebec government attempts to bail out the struggling sector. We've already heard a bizarre suggestion from PQ leader Pauline Marois. She wants Quebec to commit the one-per-cent cut in the GST, already announced by the federal government, to a one-year aid package for the industry. I doubt Marois asked many consumers whether they'd be happy to give up a tax cut to help an industry that's already uncompetitive. If you want to pour $1.1 billion a year into a black hole, her plan is hard to beat. Even with a government bailout on that scale, Quebec companies would probably still be in the red next year. http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/columnists/story.html?id=3d0eec10-6156-49e\ 3-a769-6a2d0ce3 7b3a UK: 28) Mr Maclean has already put down a Commons early day motion urging greater control of grey squirrels and intends to put down further motions criticising Natural England for permitting the release of 257 grey squirrels back into the wild by animal sanctuaries over the past 18 months. He now believes a select committee inquiry is the way to establish how parlous the position of the red squirrel actually is and to re-evaluate the best national policy options for controlling the advance of greys. Meanwhile, it is not only people concerned about the possible extinction of the red squirrel who are calling for a re-think of Government policy but private woodland owners. Richard Coke is the owner of the 250 acre Weasenham Wood, near Swaffham in Norfolk, Britain's oldest example of continuous cover forestry – a system in which only the largest and most mature trees are logged. He spends £20,000 a year on a full time member of staff who kills 250 grey squirrels a year that migrate in from un-keepered woodland all around. Otherwise, he says, there would be 2000 grey squirrels in the woods where the first grey arrived in 1973. He said: " Nobody can afford to go on doing this. In reality this is probably the only country in the world where it is almost certain that trees planted in woodlands and forests have almost no chance of becoming high quality healthy, mature trees, be they planted for amenity or commercial reasons. " It is highly debatable whether any woodlands in this country are sustainable. " He says the squirrels strip the bark off young and mature trees, which means trees die or are stunted and never grow to their full height. They are often prone to disease and fungus and of no value other than as firewood. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/12/30/easquirrel130.\ xml 29) Two wildlife sites in Conwy have been designated as Local Nature Reserves because of their " outstanding " natural features. Bodlondeb Woods in Conwy town and Upper Dingle Woods in Colwyn Bay have been designated as reserves by Conwy County Borough Council. John Lloyd Jones, chairman of the Countryside Council for Wales, said: " It is fitting that Bodlondeb Woods and Upper Dingle Woods have been designated as Local Nature Reserves. This reflects the excellent work being done by Conwy County Borough Council to manage both reserves' outstanding natural features so we can all enjoy them. " Bodlondeb Woods lies between Bodlondeb Park and the southern bank of the Conwy Estuary. Oak, birch, beech and sycamore trees make up this native broadleaved woodland, providing a rich habitat for birds such as the nuthatch and sparrow hawk, and butterflies like the speckled wood and painted lady. The woods are popular with local people and community groups. The first Conwy Scout Group has been particularly busy, planting trees and making the most of the new woodland orienteering course. Upper Dingle Woods is a small broadleaved woodland, which lies near the Nant-y-Groes stream close to Ysgol Bod Alaw in Colwyn Bay. Field roses, lords and ladies and enchanter's nightshade are among the flowers found there. http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/2007/12/28/sites-become-reserve\ s-55578-20292109 / 30) It is thought that Accrington got its name because it was once surrounded by old oak woods and the name is derived from the phrase acorn-ring-town. Now environmental charity the Prospects Foundation is looking into the possibility of creating a " ring of oaks " somewhere in the centre of Accrington. It is hoping that a large-scale green project could be created near the town centre but an exact location has yet to be found. Development manager Ellie Taylor said she hoped that the plan will catch the imagination of residents and provide a unique area of green land for the town.The cost and sources of funding have yet to be finalised but she said. She said: " It is early days for the project but it is one that we are very keen to see created. There will be a large circle of oak trees surrounding an area of green land " I think it will be a really popular idea in the area and people will feel a real ownership of the site because of the connotations of the name Accrington. http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/news/headlines/display.var.1930946.0.green_tri\ bute_to_the_or igins_of_a_town.php Italy: 31) It is a little weird to be getting briefed on the state of the world's climate by an olive tree. And yet the Olea europaea has been telling it straight since long before ancient reporters scratched dispatches onto pounded bark. Watching my gnarled old Mediterranean tree season by season, I see the bad news fast getting worse. Our future food supply is at risk, olives and most everything else besides. The routines around here go back to ancient Romans who planted our back hills with olive shoots in their baggage. Late each winter, the trees are cut back hard. In spring, buds cover the new wood. By fall, branches droop under the weight of green fruit. As they turn purplish black in December, the olives are pressed into oil to remember. It is December now, and my trees should be heavy with olives. But they're not. Like last year, rains fell at the wrong time, too hard or too soft. When it mattered, there was no rain at all. A warming trend with freak cold snaps confuses plant metabolism and emboldens killer pests. Last January, my trees budded, convinced it was spring. Then it froze. In June, the Dacus fly bore into the fruit, causing it to drop off the tree. Many olive growers are somewhere between disbelief and denial. In an old Tuscan grove, the proprietor assured me her trees were fine. A quick look suggested otherwise; most of her olives were pierced by telltale holes. The Italian government predicts the olive crop for 2007 will be about 500,000 tons, 17 percent less than last year. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/opinion/23rosenblum.html World-wide: 32) A survey, worked out by 60 experts from 21 countries, cautions that failure to respond to the mounting threats has now been worsened by climate change. On the whole, 114 of the world's 394 primate species are categorised as threatened with disappearance on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list. Illegal wildlife trade and commercial plant-meat poaching have been largely blamed for their disappearance. They encage them for live business; and farmers, loggers and land promoters destroy their habitat. One species, Miss Waldron's red colobus of Ivory Coast and Ghana, already is feared extinct, while the golden-headed langur of Vietnam and China's Hainan gibbon number only in the dozens. The Horton Plains slender loris of Sri Lanka has been sighted just four times since 1937. " You could fit all the surviving members of these 25 species in a single football stadium; that's how few of them remain on Earth today, " said Conservation International President Russell A. Mittermeier, who also chairs the IUCN/Species Survival Commission (SSC) Primate Specialist Group. " By protecting the world's remaining tropical forests, " Mittermeier says, " we can save primates and other endangered species while helping prevent climate change. " Eight of the primates on the latest list, including the Sumatran orangutan of Indonesia and the Cross River gorilla of Cameroon and Nigeria, are " four-time losers " that also appeared on the previous three lists. Six other species are on the list for the first time, including a recently discovered Indonesian tarsier that has yet to be formally named. Madagascar and Vietnam each have four primates on the new list, while Indonesia has three, followed by Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Colombia with two each, and one each from China, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Nigeria, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Peru, Venezuela and Ecuador. All 25 primates on the 2006-2008 list are found in the world's biodiversity hotspots-- 34 high priority regions identified by Conservation International that cover just 2.3 percent of the Earth's land surface but harbour well over 50 percent of all terrestrial plant and animal diversity. Eight of the hotspots are considered the highest priorities for the survival of the most endangered primates: Indo-Burma, Madagascar and the Indian Ocean Islands, Sundaland, Eastern Afromontane, Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa, Guinean Forests of West Africa, the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, and Western Ghats-Sri Lanka. http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=16762 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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