Guest guest Posted January 6, 2008 Report Share Posted January 6, 2008 Today for you 35 new articles about earth's trees! (277th edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com --Alaska: 1) Spruce planting boastings --British Columbia: 2) Save Pinecone Burke Provincial Park, 3) Tree village continues on, 4) Insight into who scams BC the most, 5) More insight, 6) Reflecting on Insight, --Washington: 7) More reflections on " the picture " --Oregon: 8) Confusing the issue of loggers who kill people with landslides --California: 9) Treesitter wins in Court, 10) Glendale housing plans stopped, --Montana: 11) Difference between thinning and thinning --Wisconsin: 12) Tree vs. Ruffed Grouse --Minnesota: 13) Bur oak wins when it comes to best tree to plant --Maine: 14) Three watersheds mentioned in new USFS housing report --Canada: 15) Wolves dress up as a sheep and sell us Boreal conservation, 16) Cont. --UK: 17) Motorway Service Area teams up with national forest --France: 18) Paris once a tropical jungle, 19) You need a permit to cut a forest? --Spain: 20) Dehesa suffers from the aging of trees without young oaks --Greece: 21) Head of reforestation fired to make real estate development easier --Congo: 22) Africa loses 4 million hectares of old growth per year --Zimbabwe: 23) Old trees need to replaced so no one else gets killed --Costa Rica: 24) Three unknown salamanders discovered in cloud forest --Madagascar: 25) The fine for burning down this Eden is 11 cents --India: 26) Court ends mining challenges, 27) Project Sandalwood, --Nepal: 28) Forests given to consumer groups for participatory conservation, --Philippines: 29) Corrupt Government personnel behind massive deforestation --Malaysia: 30) World Bank says Malaysia is the best at forest management --Indonesia: 31) Big landslides every year for 10 years now, 32) Post Bali reality, --Australia: 33) Blockade in S. Tasmania, 34) End Native forest wood chipping, --World-wide: 35) Hello, this is your planet talking Alaska: 1) Some 50,000 Sitka spruce seedlings planted throughout November at Cape Chiniak are taking root. Peter Olsen of Quayanna Development Corp., contracted for the reforestation project by land owner Leisnoi Native Corp., said the young trees are " plug plus one " seedlings that got a head start in a nursery. Private Land and Resource Consulting (PLaRC) is the forestry and resource consulting part of QDC. A crew from Washington state planted 45,000 seedlings on 200 acres in a week. A local crew planted an additional 5,000 young trees. Olsen said that within the next four to five years some 600,000 seedlings will be planted on roughly 2,400 acres. Leisnoi cut its forests in Chiniak beginning in the early 1990s. Typically two-thirds of a forested area comes back naturally, but the Chiniak land is an anomaly for a number of reasons, Olsen said. Critters such as field mice, voles and snowshoe hares feed on new trees. Because of poor seed years, there was little recruitment to replace cut trees. " These factors collided at the same time, " Olsen said. This winter, Olsen was asked by Claire Doig, a consultant forester with Leisnoi, to help the reforestation, mandated by the corporation's Stewardship Plan and the Alaska Forest Practices Act. Finding a nursery with enough trees on hand posed a challenge. " I couldn't just go to Wal-Mart and ask for 50,000 plants, " Olsen said. http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com/?pid=19 & id=5650 British Columbia: 2) A private company is asking the Ministry of Environment to remove part of Pinecone Burke Provincial Park to allow a transmission line to connect with its proposed run-of-the-river power project in the upper Pitt River Valley. Run of River Power Inc. says its subsidiary, Northwest Cascade Power Ltd., has submitted a park boundary adjustment proposal to allow for a 230-kilovolt transmission line measuring 4.6 km long by 30 metres wide through the 38,000-hectare wilderness park. Run of River Power president Jako Krushnisky asserted in an interview Thursday that the project won't be feasible without going through the park, and believes the impact of the transmission line to be minimal - a statement immediately refuted by conservation groups. " This is in the best interests of developers, not the park, " responded Gwen Barlee, policy director with the Western Canada Wilderness Committee. " The reason the transmission line is (proposed to be) going through the park is because it's convenient for the developer and it's cheap. " Krushnisky said the company has identified 473 hectares of Crown land suitable as grizzly bear and mountain goat habitat in the upper Pitt River that could be added to the park to make up for the transmission line. The company says a total of 42 km of transmission line is needed to connect its proposed upper Pitt power project, currently under environmental review, with BC Hydro's Cheekye substation near Squamish. The Liberal government approved the Provincial Park Boundary Adjustment Policy, Process and Guidelines in July 2004, which allowed for amendments " on a case by case basis where there are compelling provincial economic, environmental and societal benefits that exceed preserving the integrity of the existing park boundary and values. " If the Pinecone Burke proposal is allowed, it would represent two firsts under the 2004 policy: the first transmission line okayed in a park in B.C. and the first park allowance for industry in the Lower Mainland. Earlier this year, B.C. allowed the deletion of 478 hectares for pipeline expansion through Mount Robson provincial park. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=cc7e74a9-1c08-4d9d-93c7-92\ caa6d6c4a1 & k=909 43 3) The giant cloverleaf interchange project proponents -namely the City of Langford, Ministry of Transportation, Bear Mountain developers and Golder Associates- have been steadily crossing priorities off their lists in advance of the destruction, and are chomping at the bit to go. In a state of apparently premature excitement last November, the proponents jointly announced that the forest would be bulldozed come mid-December. That date has now come and gone, and the developers final obstacle, -a tough and determined crew of skilled tree climbers and their hundreds of supporters- defiantly continues to stand in the way. Cooking and heating fires burn 24/7. Non-violent civil-disobedience workshops are conducted. Large demonstrations have been held. Banners have been hung, trenches are being dug, more platforms are being erected, canopy-height traverse lines are being extended, the occupation of the forest continues, and all the while the RCMP stand by. Having built out Phase 1 of its monster-house, condo and golf-course project as far as it can using existing access infrastructure, the Bear Mountain developers desperately need this interchange to carry on with Phase 2, which will double is current size. At a September public consultation meeting, Bear Mountain #2 Les Bjola, promised that the developers would cover the entire cost of the interchange. Two months later, in a ridiculous display of fiscal irresponsibilty, Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon tossed $5,000,000 of provincial money into the Bear Mountain Interchange pot. But now it appears that the Bear Mountain developers will not be putting up any of their money. We have learned recently that it's actually Langford citizens who are slated to pay $25 million for the Bear Mountain Interchange, essentially assuming all the risk, and covering the debt of the Bear Mountain developers over the next 15 years. Mayor Young and Langford council held a secretive meeting two days after Christmas –no press of public were notified- where they hatched, and passed through 3 readings in a single meeting, their scheme: to borrow $25 million to pay for the mega-project. The Bear Mountain developers, apparently, will pay out their " contribution " in installments through 2018. http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/goldstreamgazette/news/1294807\ 6.html 4) Brookfield Asset Management, which owns 50 per cent of one of Vancouver Island's largest forest companies, Island Timberlands, is spinning off its timber and power assets into a Bermuda-based partnership to create an offshore investment vehicle. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners will initially own five electricity and timber operations in North America, Brazil and Chile. It is to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange Jan. 31. Island Timberlands owns 258,000 hectares of land on Vancouver Island, the largest chunks being in the regions of Courtenay, Port Alberni, Nanaimo and Duncan. There are 58 million cubic metres of timber on the properties, mostly high-value Douglas fir, cedar and hemlock. Island Timberlands harvests 1.8 million cubic metres a year, which is mostly exported to markets in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and Asia. Being based in Bermuda, the new company will have an international board of directors and is expected to be exempt from certain Canadian taxes and the enforcement of Canadian civil judgments. In its prospectus, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners lays out the purpose of the spinoff as a strategy to create a global pure-play public issuer " that should be well positioned to pursue an infrastructure and acquisition growth strategy. " It defines infrastructure as " long-life, physical assets that are the backbone for the provision of essential products or services for the global economy. " The partnership will be the primary vehicle for future large-scale infrastructure acquisitions by Brookfield, which has $90 billion in assets worldwide. Island Timberlands is one of its more profitable assets, the prospectus reveals. Income statements show that despite the generally depressed forest economy in B.C., Island Timberlands posted net income of $32.1 million on log sales of $184 million for the nine months ending Sept. 30, 2007. By comparison, Western Forest Products, a company under common control of Brookfield that operates sawmills and logs Crown land in the same region, lost $12.9 million over the same nine-month period. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=08c58048-2ed1-401\ c-8328-1cfc9da20 219 5) This prospectus sheds light on Brookfield's strategy for Island Timberlands: 1) The U.S. Pacific Northwest has made significant investments in modernized sawmills, resulting in a three billion board-foot, or 29-per-cent increase, in regional sawmilling capacity over the last five years. " This increase in capacity, combined with conservation-related reductions in harvest levels, has made the U.S. Pacific Northwest an attractive timber market. " Because of their high fixed costs, the U.S. sawmills continue to operate in depressed markets, such as the one the industry is now experiencing. 2) Looming timber shortages: Brookfield foresees a global scarcity in timber supplies, the result of the mountain pine beetle's drastic effect on future timber production in B.C. and Alberta, Russian log export restrictions, the continued withdrawal of timberlands for conservation or real estate development, and competition for wood fibre from bio-fuel producers. 3) Real Estate: Island Timberlands has 14,000 hectares of Vancouver Island identified as " higher and better-use " properties that could be developed or sold for conservation purposes. It values those lands at $104 million. In the nine months ending Sept. 30, 2007, it sold $14 million of those properties for a net gain of $7 million. Two other forest companies, TimberWest Forest, and Western Forest Products, have attracted broad public concern on the Island for selling off parcels of their own timberlands. http://bctrialofbasi-virk.blogspot.com/2008/01/profitable-island-timberlands-to-\ become.html 6) Anyone who has paid attention knows that things are wrong, horribly wrong, with what was once the dominant industry on Vancouver Island and coastal B.C. Forest companies are shutting down mills. Log exports are at or near record levels. Wood waste is so rampant that two or more large sawmills could run flat out on just the usable logs left to rot or burn at coastal logging sites. Meanwhile, little if any of the almost $1 billion turned back to B.C. forest companies following the softwood lumber dispute has been invested in new or upgraded mills in the province. And don't expect any future financial windfall -- like the tens of millions of dollars soon to be pocketed by Western Forest Products after it sells some of the most productive forest land in the province to real-estate developers -- to be spent here either. {Snip} … Logging of remnant old-growth forests on steep, unstable slopes like those at Nootka Island continues apace. And in the mess left behind, fully a 10th of the usable wood is left to rot near where the ancient cedar, hemlock and fir were felled. Meanwhile, the company responsible for the carnage is closing mills, not opening them. The crux of the problem is this: Our atrophying coastal forest industry is dominated by a handful of companies that have made virtually no investments in new and refurbished mills and show no inclination to do so. Meanwhile, government watches from the sidelines as if it is powerless to do anything about it, when in fact it has enormous powers as landlord of our public forestlands. http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/comment/story.html?id=d414497b-\ 586b-485a-a662-a 907e9341f1a Washington: 7) The photo appeared in this NY Times article yesterday, Anger and Blame After Deadly Flood in Northwest, but originated in the Seattle Times in December. The Seattle article talks about how this ravaging came about, brought to you by the paper company, Weyerhaeuser. Oops, said Weyerhaeuser, we didn't mean for people to actually see this — bad for the public image. This is at the heart of what is wrong with us. Doesn't matter what anyone says about the reason for the mudslides. The photo says it all. Look closely beyond the mountain at the forefront and see how much clear-cutting is being done in this area. Every time I travel to Washington State (I have family out there), I see the evidence of this. The state government has let timber and paper companies do profound damage to the natural wonders of Washington's mountains and forests, and so every storm will have greater impact, result in more destruction, because we continue to mess with the Earth's own protective ecosystems. Can we stop ourselves from consuming products made from this destruction? Can we finally arrive at a time when freedom does not mean freedom to ravage the Earth but to create the laws and economies that will preserve its rich, biodiversity? Do we remember what beauty itself means to the human spirit, beyond the fact of the importance of these systems for our very existence? http://www.ecologicalhope.org/uncategorized/in-2008-will-we-stop-destroying-the-\ planet/ Oregon: 8) A careful review of many studies shows that logging does play a role, but it is small compared to the naturally unstable features of this region. For instance, in an average square mile of Coast Range forests, scientists can identify about 259 " headwalls, " or areas of deposited sediments that are the result of a past landslide and other sediments that fill in behind it. Landslides will occur again in these same places, usually as a result of major storms such as the one that occurred this month and in 1996. The problem, experts say, began millions of years ago when what is now the Coast Range was the ocean floor – mostly sandstone with inter-bedded siltstone and mudstone. If you fast-forward millions of years, those ocean floor sediments have been uplifted by geologic forces to form steep Coast Range mountains that are typified by soils of varying depth, sometimes as shallow as only a few feet deep. Water soaks through the soils, hits a less permeable layer and runs along it until it surfaces, forming natural seeps where water accumulates. Then – given the steepness of the land – the heavy, saturated soil slides. " Erosion has always happened in the Coast Range, and landslides are the primary cause of it, " Skaugset said. " Most of the time, it has nothing to do with land management. " Sometimes, however, there is a connection, he said. Poor road construction or drainage techniques – much more of a problem in the past than with modern engineering standards – can help lead to landslides. And some good studies on the relationship between landslides and clearcut logging were done following the major storms of 1996. http://www.bendweekly.com/Statewide-News/11898.html California: 9) The vote was 11 to 1 in favor of conviction of Eric Eisenberg, who is better known as Ayr to tree-sitters, campus police and media readers and watchers, when jurors announced they were deadlocked just before 5 p.m. Whether or not he faces a second trial on the misdemeanor criminal charge—something that will be the subject of a Jan 23 hearing—he still faces trial in a civil courtroom for the same offense. A hearing to assign a judge to the civil case is scheduled two days later, also in Oakland. The criminal charge carries a six-month jail term, while the civil offense carries a five-day term. " It doesn't really seem fair they can try you for the same offense in two different courts, " Ayr said. He was arrested Nov. 19 after clipping a bag of oranges on a line tree-sitters were using to receive supplies from supporters on the ground and charged with violating a court order banning aid to the protesters who have been camped out for more than a year in the branches along the stadium's western wall. The protesters are fighting plans to level a grove of Coastal Live Oaks and other trees to make way for the Student Athlete High Performance Center, a $125 million high-tech gym and office complex. The university won a court order in October that declared the tree-sit illegal and bars support of the airborne protesters. While he has been representing himself in the criminal case, Ayr said attorney Dennis Cunning-ham is handling his civil prosecution. Karen Pickett of the Bay Area Headwaters Forest Coalition, a supporter of the stadium-site protest, attended the two half-day court sessions Dec. 28 and Wednesday. " He acted as his own counsel, and when he testified on his own behalf, he questioned himself. It was a little bit comical, but very effective, " she said. " Thank heavens one woman decided it shouldn't be illegal to give food to someone, " she said, referring to the jury's lone holdout. Pickett said the protester had been arrested after a private security guard at the grove told him he could attach the oranges to the support line. Ayr said he had been scrupulous in following the letter of the law, because he didn't want to jeopardize his role in supporting the protesters. http://www.berkeleydaily.org/text/article.cfm?issue=01-04-08 & storyID=28855 10) Two developers who battled the city of Glendale for more than a decade over hillside development in the Verdugo Mountains have donated 175 acres of land worth millions of dollars to the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, officials announced this week. Developers John Gregg and Sal Gangi, whose plans to put more than 500 homes on the slopes of the Verdugos sparked lawsuits and public outcry, ceded the last of their major hillside properties last month. " It was the right thing to do, " Gangi said. " We analyzed it, and it's kind of a family decision. . . . We haven't bought any hillside property in many years, and I don't think we're ready to do that anymore. " The land includes three separate parcels in the Verdugo Mountains and San Rafael Hills in Glendale. One of the parcels, about 38 acres off Glenoaks Boulevard near Chevy Chase Canyon, had been slated at one time for the development of about 100 homes, according to Laurie Collins, chief staff counsel for the conservation authority. The other two parcels include 117 acres in the Verdugo Mountains near the city's Brand Park and about 20 acres near the Beaudry Motorway, which is a popular hiking and mountain biking area. " We hold them on behalf of the public, " Collins said. " Now they can be used for public trails and open space and wildlife preservation. " After a more than 10-year battle between the developers and environmental groups, which involved several lawsuits, the developers agreed to sell the land as part of the settlement of a lawsuit against the city of Glendale. The city and conservancy paired up to buy the land for $25 million. The recent donation has been welcomed by many environmentalists. This is " kind of the last mountain wilderness in the area we live in, " said Richard Toyon, president of the Volunteers Organized in Conserving the Environment, a local environmental group. " It seems like every piece of open space we've been able to preserve has been either purchased or fought for, so to be gifted these pieces of property is really something. " http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-me-land5jan05,1,4998344.story\ ?coll=la-news-en vironment & ctrack=1 & cset=true Montana: 11) Mount Helena - The BDP and the Blackfoot plans both call for commercial thinning as remedial actions, but I believe you must consider the long term impacts associated with logging and unexpected consequences such as weed invasion that is far more serious than if the forests burn--which they have been doing for thousands of years. Recognizing that there are many definitions of exactly what is meant by " thinning " and the degree of manipulation, (hand cutting small diameter trees and pre-scribed burning is different from logging big diameter trees with roads and heavy equipment)I believe environmentalists need to reassess support for most commercial logging operations that are done in the name of " forest health. " Here's an excerpt (below) from an email to another person about a proposal to thin the forest near Helena. Note the previous thinning operations has resulted in the kinds of impacts that I suggested to you both namely--a tremendous increase FLASHY FUELS, reduction in shade and greater penetration of wind and drying of fuels--all of which has actually increased fire risk. Plus the creation of a weedy mess. I won't say that it will happen everywhere, but it is a real risk that should be given far more thoughtful review than it appears to be getting. There has been too much " buy in " to the idea that our forests are " unhealthy " when in fact they may be readjusting through burning and insect invasions to new climatic conditions. These events that we consider signs of forest " unhealth " may be a positive sign that our forests are indeed healthy and moving in a proper realignment--without the need for any intrusive human manipulation such as logging. wuerthner Wisconsin: 12) It may seem too simple, but the best way to have more ruffed grouse in southwestern Wisconsin is to cut trees to generate thicker habitat. " What is causing the decline in ruffed grouse populations, is that young forests are disappearing, " said Scott Walter, professor of biology at UW-Richland, in his final report on his five-year research project of ruffed grouse populations in southwestern Wisconsin. The problem with declining ruffed grouse populations is not restricted to just southwest Wisconsin. It is a decline over much of northeast Iowa, southwest Minnesota and the eastern states, Walter says. Typically there are three factors most observers attribute to the decline in grouse populations. " The first is competition with turkeys, and I think that is just correlational, " Walter said. " Folks observe the increase in turkey numbers coincident with the decline in grouse and they draw a cause/effect relationship, but there is nothing in the literature or in our field work that suggests that turkeys and grouse compete in any meaningful way. " Second is predation, and Walter said that there are more avian and mammalian predators today but he believes people have an inflated view of the increase. Walter thinks the increases have only been moderate, and in the case of coyotes, which have increased, they are notorious for displacing fox populations which generally benefits ground-nesting birds. Coyotes primarily eat small mammals and are not as efficient of a predator on birds. The third factor is habitat maturation. " When we had small farms, from the mid-1800s to early-1900s, woodland pasturing was very common and this opened up the forest hillsides, " Walter said. " But, when the farms went belly-up, and cows were taken out of the woods, there was a flush of grouse cover from the 1940s through 1960s. There were lots of inter-connected patches, a diversity of young forest habitat which is prime for grouse and thus lots of grouse. " " But, in the absence of continued disturbance and intensive timber harvest during the late 1900s, the early successional forest has simply matured. Forest maturation has taken that young forest cover that benefited grouse and is now in pole log-size and saw log-size timber stands, " he said. http://www.madison.com/tct/sports/265221 Minnesota: 13) Recently I asked some of my tree friends to answer this question: " Assume you have moved into a new home and yard with adequate space and sunlight, good drainage and okay soil. What one large tree and one small tree would you plant in your new yard, and why? " The unanimous large-tree choice was bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa). " If I could have only one large tree and wanted to leave a lasting impression and a legacy worth remembering, I would pick bur oak, " said Mark Stennes of S & S Tree Service. " I think you could make a compelling case for the proposition that bur oak is perhaps the most valuable shade tree in Minnesota if only because of the number of dwellings and domiciles that it provides shade and shelter for by virtue its ability to beat up on everything else that may have also wanted to be there. For a tree with so much character that it is able to both prosper and shelter us, in spite of us, and not because of us, bur oak gets my endorsement. " " I would pick bur oak, " said Deb Brown, retired U of M horticulturist. " This tree is rather slow-growing, and you can only buy small ones, as they have deep tap roots and are not easily transplanted. You can also start them from acorns. " I would plant it for the future, for people who would enjoy it years after I have left the house. I like the bur oak for its wonderful, irregular form. They're majestic in leaf, and very sculptural and muscular when the leaves have fallen. " Patrick Weicherding, U of M horticulturist, also voted for bur oak. " Living up here on the Anoka sand plain, I can appreciate how well it adapts to harsh environments. It's a survivor like me! " (Note: Patrick is battling pancreatic cancer.) http://www.shakopeenews.com/node/4540 Maine: 14) In a 2005 report titled 'Forests on the Edge,' the U.S. Forest Service said three river systems in Maine were among 15 watersheds in the country that would see the greatest increases in housing density through 2030. Now, a case study of five southern and central Maine watersheds offers more evidence that forestland south of Interstate 95 will face escalating development pressure in the next 25 years. 'Recent trends and projections indicate that residential development in south-central and southwest Maine will continue to increase in the coming decades,' wrote Eric M. White, a research economist for the U.S. Forest Service and author of the case study. Why should anyone care? Forests provide clean water, homes for wildlife and valuable resources for the state's economy. Development pressure threatens the rural character of the state and reduces the opportunities for outdoor recreation. Timber production is also likely to be affected, with consequences far beyond the local sawmill. Housing development often results in smaller lot sizes, which can make timber harvesting more difficult and costly. At the same time, rising property values and higher taxes provide greater incentives to develop. 'If residential development continues to expand in the case-study watersheds, these market factors will make the retention of land in forest use increasingly difficult,' wrote White. The overwhelming majority of forestland in southern Maine is held by small landowners, not by forest-products companies. Although it is not discussed in White's report, the average age of those owners is increasing. About 40 percent are older than 65, according to Tom Doak, executive director of the Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine. Two-thirds are older than 55. That means two-thirds of the small forested parcels in southern and central Maine are virtually certain to change hands in the next two or three decades. http://boothbayregister.maine.com/2008-01-03/forests_on_the_edge.html Canada: 15) Global petroleum giant Pew Sunoco Suncor has formed a strategic alliance for boreal development with engo's WWF, ForestEthics and CPAWS which is fronted by a tiny handful of beggared First Nations and which is greased with the political support of forest giants Alpac, Tembec and Domtar. Pew is a foundation and policy think tank that has leveraged US agencies and security interests to support a mostly public-relations conservation initiative as a backdrop for the largest and fastest privatization of public resources and implicit destruction of environment that will ever occur on the planet. It's going to happen right here in Canada and with strong public support courtesy the corporate mainstream media. The governments of Canada will have no choice, it will go ahead because the people will have spoken. The cart of enviro greenwash is well before the horse of development --at least until the project has more momentum and media generated enthusiasm. The boreal is going to be skinned and Canadians will beg for a part in the feeding frenzy. Across the boreal region we are going to see thousands of ANWR's authorized for exploration and exploitation. The fake enviros and bay street carbon credit shills trotting out this nonsense are brokering an " ethical " and " environmentally " equitable " deal " involving allocating an equal of area of public landbase to be protected as parks. What a deal eh? -- thousands of kilometers of boreal polygons are to be shaded green on the map in exchange for an environmental holocaust of boreal geotechnical exploration, access roads, drilling, pipelines and forest liquidation It's an enormous scam but it will work because all it needs is the kneejerk support of educated urban Canadians thinking that massively accelerated development of resources; millions of kilometers of new roads; and the liquidation of forests that are going to die, rot and burn anyway is a perfectly appropriate way to replace Middle East oil and maintain the american empire and way of life for another 100 years. Stumps 16) The boreal forest occupies nearly half of Canada's land mass, yet it's more significant to national myth and memory - as home to the coureurs de bois and the hewers of wood - than it is to any discussion of a shared future. But the blanket of woodlands that runs all the way from Yukon to the coast of Labrador may play a huge role in the battle to protect the planet from climate change. As one of the last great intact forests on Earth, along with the Russian taiga and the Amazon rain forest, the boreal is considered one of the world's largest carbon storage systems. The trees and soil of Canada's northern forest form a critical shield against global warming, storing a volume of carbon equal to 27 times the world's annual greenhouse-gas emissions. That's why organizations such as the U.S.-based Pew Trust have invested more than $40-million in the last seven years to lobby for greater protection of Canada's forests. Their efforts contributed to a major announcement by the federal government last month that removes more than 4 million hectares of land from development in the Northwest Territories. Land around the East Arm of Great Slave Lake is designated to become a national park, and the area of the Ramparts River and Wetlands will become a national wildlife area. More than 60,000 square kilometres of land claimed by the Akaitcho Dene First Nations also will be set aside to prevent mining and mineral exploration over the next five years. So far more than 40 million hectares have been put aside, and the group hopes to add another 4 to 8 million hectares in the next few years. But there are still many threats to the boreal forest. One of the side effects of a warming climate has been the migration of the mountain pine beetle from British Columbia into northern Alberta. " If we can no longer count on the cold winters the boreal has always had then not just the pine beetle but other pests can move into the boreal and cause problems, " Mr. Innes said. In Ontario, logging and mining expansion has pushed the woodland caribou into a shrinking range of forests and made them more vulnerable to predators. In Alberta, the massive development of the tar sands will have a major impact on the boreal forest, as trees are cut, roads are expanded and pools of contaminated water fragment the landscape, Mr. Innes said. In Manitoba, a fierce debate is raging over whether to run a power line through the pristine boreal forest on the east side of Lake Winnipeg. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080104.BOREAL04/TPStory/Envir\ onment UK: 17) The UK's largest provider of Motorway Service Areas, has teamed up with The National Forest to make Donington Park Service Area a 'Gateway' to this forest in the making. Donington Park Service Area lies just north of The National Forest boundary and is a perfect place from which to set off and explore the Forest. From the wildlife picnic area at the rear of the amenity building you can see the mature woodlands of the ancient Charnwood Forest, which forms the Eastern border of The National Forest. Drivers travelling south from the service area on the M1 and A42 pass signs as they enter The National Forest and can see fields full of young woodland. As the trees grow and mature and new woodland is planted, this view will change. So, to help raise awareness of one of Britain's boldest environmental projects and to encourage visitors to the service area to explore this forest in the making, MOTO and the National Forest Company have worked together to add a range of information facilities across the rest stop. These include beautiful wooden seating and a shelter around the attractive pond area at the rear of the building, a leaflet display unit and signage. Chris Rogers, Marketing Director from Moto said: " We are very pleased to be working alongside the National Forest Company to nurture the environmental space around our Donington Park service area. We hope that the new range of facilities will give our customers a unique opportunity to learn about The National Forest and experience the changing landscape as the new woodland areas mature " . http://www.easier.com/view/Travel/Attractions_and_Events/article-154512.html France: 18) Where the Champs Elysee, the Eiffel Tower and sprawling vineyards now stand, there might once have been an Amazon-like jungle. A new analysis of amber fossils collected in France suggests that the country was once covered by a dense tropical rainforest. The 55-milllion-year-old pieces of amber (fossilized tree sap) were found near the Oise River in northern France. The trees that once oozed them are long gone. Amber from different sites tends to have different chemical compositions. The new study, detailed in the Jan. 4 issue of The Journal of Organic Chemistry, reports the discovery of a new organic compound in amber called " quesnoin, " whose precursor exists only in sap produced by a tree currently growing only in Brazil's Amazon rainforest. The researchers say the amber likely dripped from a similar tree that once covered France millions of years before the continents drifted into their current positions. " The region corresponding to modern France could have been found in a geographically critical marshy zone belonging to Africa and a tropical zone 55 million years ago extending through North Africa to the Amazon, " the authors wrote. http://www.livescience.com/history/080104-france-jungle.html 19) This example concerns me asking for permission to cut trees in our wood to remove unhealthy trees, replant with more suitable species and set up a coppicing cycle according to the permaculture woodland management plan that I've drawn up. Our French neighbours raised their French eyebrows that we were actually asking for permission (a legal requirement) as it makes things so complicated, much better, in their opinion, just to get on with it and leave the local administration in blissful ignorance. When I went to the local mairie (different from the village where we live) to ask what to do, I caused the system to grind to a complete halt because, apparently it was the first he'd ever dealt with (note advice from French neighbours). He spent some time searching the French government website for instructions, giving me various photocopies and advice. I thus wrote a detailed letter to the maire and received, some weeks later, permission to cut a forest ride and for the first thinning of a plantation of pines. For the permission to cut the two coupes I'd requested, I needed to return to the mairie and fill out the form in quadruplicate. No sooner had I returned home than a phonecall summoned me back to the mairie. The forms had changed in October, added to which, the secretary had phoned up for guidance and received conflicting advice. His sensible solution was to fill in both alternatives (in quadruplicate) so that at least one would be correct and had already filled in the second form for me, just requiring a signature, definitely no " jobsworth " but rather someone seemingly on my side fighting the confusions of the state behemoth. http://permacultureinbrittany.blogspot.com/2008/01/france-our-home-of-choice-has\ -really.html Spain: 20) Oak woodland dehesa suffers from the aging of trees without a natural regeneration of young oaks coming in to replace them. Recent European Union (EU) policy reforms for rural development focus on supporting multifunctional agriculture that complies with the EU's environmental goals, such as mitigating biodiversity losses and climate change. Such reforms could result in government support for natural woodland regeneration practices in European agroforestry systems, which are recognized for providing valuable environmental services. Managing dehesa cork oak and holm oak woodlands to stimulate the growth of new oaks could be an efficient option for maintaining, and even increasing, the dehesa's current carbon stock and biodiversity. Here we develop and apply a new agroforestry accounting system based on the concept of Hicksian income to a dehesa in the Monfragüe area of western Spain, using primary microeconomic data from a large case study. Private total income and profitability rates are measured for individual goods and services, and for the entire dehesa in a steady state. Our application extends the EU system of accounts for agriculture and forestry by including private amenity consumption by landowners and the gain or loss in human-made and natural capital. We compare an actual typical unsustainable woodland management scenario with an ideal sustainable management scenario in which there is a continuous regeneration and recruitment of holm and cork oaks as predicted by silvicultural models. The results show that, given current land use policy incentives, allowing a slow depletion of oak trees is more profitable for a dehesa private landowner than maintaining the dehesa's trees. As a result many dehesa environmental services are gradually lost. This market failure requires new land use policies that induce private land owners to invest in the renewal of aging oak woodlands. To evaluate the impacts of this new policy, we show how private landowner income is affected when changes are made to achieve sustainable management of dehesa oaks. More research is needed in order to understand how the dehesa's landowner market income and private amenities trade-off can affect the owner's land use preferences and decisions. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL & _udi=B6VB0-4RGVWHN-1 & _user=1\ 0 & _rdoc=1 & _fmt= & _orig=search & _sort=d & view=c & _acct=C000050221 & _version=1 & _urlVersion=0 & _userid=1\ 0 & md5=a1688507b 31aec86c1b19315b6a52555 Greece: 21) A shake-up in Attica's forestry service that will lead to several experienced officials being moved on following damaging wildfires last summer was announced yesterday. The chief of the Mount Parnitha service, Giorgos Amorgianiotis, the head of Attica's reforestation department, Apostolos Androu, and the head of the Mount Pendeli forest service, Alexandros Rigas, have all been transferred from their positions. Fires ravaged Parnitha and Pendeli last summer. The transfer of the officials came as a surprise as Amorgianiotis had spent 25 years at Parnitha and with Androu had been responsible for the replanting of the mountain, which according to experts has proceeded well since last summer. Amorgianiotis will be replaced by Yiannis Ziaziris, who only moved to Parnitha last year from the forest service in Atalandi, north of Athens. Rigas lasted only eight months in his position and will be replaced by Christos Gatsis, who will move to Pendeli from Aegaleo in western Athens. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100010_03/01/2008_91720 Congo: 22) From the air the forests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) stretch as far as the eye can see, broken only by distant, shining ribbons of rivers and streams. Dense, deep, seemingly impenetrable, the forests of the Central African region extend over 200 mn hectares, inspiring awe and sometimes dread among residents and visitors, and providing refuge for everything from rare and endangered plants and animals to ferocious militias accused of brutal crimes against humanity. It is difficult to imagine that such vast ancient woodlands are at risk of extinction. But they are disappearing at an alarming rate. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), indigenous (also known as " old-growth " ) forests in Africa are being cut down at a rate of more than 4 mn hectares per year - twice the world's deforestation average. According to the FAO, losses totalled more than 10 per cent of the continent's total forest cover between 1980 and 1995 alone. Saving Africa's forests from the chainsaw and axe of encroaching humanity is essential to the health and productivity of much of the continent's economy, experts point out. They cite the forests' roles as watersheds, defences against soil erosion and regulators of local weather conditions. http://allafrica.com/stories/200801040775.html Zimbabwe: 23) Environment and Tourism Minister Francis Nhema said that many old trees were likely to fall due to incessant rain that was loosening the ground. " The councils should replace most trees as they are old, " he said. An old tree killed two women in Harare recently when it fell on their car along Borrowdale Road. The trees that were falling from loose soil and due to old age maimed and killed people and damaged property in the capital. Cde Nhema said urban areas could remain without trees unless local authorities took measures to replace old ones. He said new trees enhanced the beauty of the urban environments and reduced air pollution. Most jacaranda trees lining streets in urban centres were planted more than 50 years ago. Cde Nhema said farmers should take advantage of the rain to plant fast growing eucalyptus trees to use as firewood and for curing tobacco. " Tobacco farmers will be curing their crop in the next three months. " They should plant more trees to replace the ones that they are going to cut down. " He said farmers should also plant indigenous trees to use for medicinal purposes. http://allafrica.com/stories/200801040265.html Costa Rica: 24) Three previously unknown salamanders have been discovered in remote cloud forests in Central America, scientists announced yesterday. The newly revealed amphibians, including a dwarf salamander just the width of a fingernail and a creature with lurid markings resembling a poison frog's, were found in La Amistad International Park on the Costa Rica-Panama border. The discoveries were made last year during expeditions led by Alex Monro of the Natural History Museum in London. La Amistad is Central America's biggest rain forest reserve, but much it remains completely unstudied, Monro said. The new species, which increase the number of salamanders known in Costa Rica to 45, probably don't exist anywhere else in world, the biologist added. " These particular species will have very small ranges, " he said. " This area hadn't been explored, so they just weren't known before. " The amphibians, which have not yet been named, include a dwarf salamander just 1.2 inches (3 centimeters) long. From the genus Nototriton, the tiny creature lives in mosses and leaf litter. The other newfound species belong to Bolitoglossa, a genus that hunts small insects at night. One species is deep brown in color with a pale cream underside. The other, measuring three inches (eight centimeters) in length, has a bright red back and yellow blotches down each side. Its conspicuous coloration resembles the warning markings of poison arrow frogs, Monro noted. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080104-new-salamanders.html Madagascar: 25) When Madagascar drifted away from Africa some 165 million years ago, wildlife on the island spun off on its own unique evolutionary path, producing the world's only lemurs, as well as dozens of amphibian and bird species found nowhere else on earth. That unique wildlife, which was only discovered by humans 2,000 years ago, has prompted many to refer to the island as an Eden-like remnant of the natural world as it was before human contact. And yet, the fine for burning down forest in this Eden is a mere 11 cents, according to the German Press Agency. Farmers routinely start fires, and these fires consume nearly 2,000 square miles every year – nearly 1% of the land area of the island. Since 1953, the world's largest island has lost about half its tropical forests, leading to the extinction of several unique species; at least one study has predicted that half the island's plant and animal species face extinction due to deforestation. Deforestation not only consumes wildlife habitat, but also contributes to global warming. The World Bank is paying for a plan to slow deforestation, and Madagascar's environmental minister has said it's time to get tough on illegal burning, and time for individuals to start planting new trees. We would agree, except on one point: It's past time. http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/madagascar-deforestation-\ 47010301 India: 26) The Supreme Court on Friday vacated the stay and permitted 16 out of the 18 mining companies to carry out extraction of iron ore from forests in Goa. A Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan passed the order after perusing the report of apex-court appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC). The report said there were procedural lapses in the allotment of forest land and the companies could be allowed to carry out mining activities on payment of Net Present Value (NPV) of diverted forest land and compensatory afforestation price (CAP). Counsel appearing for the mine owners apprised the Bench, also comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat and S H Kapadia, that the two conditions have been fulfilled. Based on the CEC report, the Bench said stay on two firms - A V S Velinkar and C S Naik - would continue. The apex court on December 7, 2007 had restrained these companies from carrying out mining after it was pointed out that the Ministry of Environment and Forests had granted temporary work permits between September 1, 2007 and November 30, 2007 without approval of CEC and court's permission. The parties which were restrained from mining for ore included V N Salgaocar & Bros Pvt Ltd, Halder Kassim Khan, V S Dempo & Co, Rajesh Timblo, Badrudin Mavani, Sova, M S Talaulicar & Bros, Hiru Bambo Gauns, Sociedade Timblo Irmaog, Emco Goa Ltd, GN agarwal and A V S Velinkar. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Indl_Goods__Svs/Metals\ __Mining/SC_per mits_16_mining_companies_to_operate_in_Goa/articleshow/2675565.cms 27) Bangalore: Project Sandalwood, a plan to safeguard the State's most iconic tree, will be launched where saplings will be planted in protected areas and later in a few villages where the residents will take care of the trees for a price. Announcing this at the inauguration of the Karnataka State Handicrafts Development Corporation (KSHDC) exhibition in Jayanagar here on Wednesday, Additional Chief Secretary Neeraja Rajkumar said the plan was taking shape in view of the depleting supply of sandalwood. The aroma of sandalwood and the dark elegance of rosewood will soon pervade Mumbai when KSHDC opens its outlet, Cauvery, in that metropolis. The corporation is looking at Pondicherry, Tirupati and Puttaparthi also to set up its Cauvery emporiums. At present, there are 12 Cauvery outlets. KSHDC, which has been posting a profit for the last three years, had a sales turnover of Rs. 36.81 crore during 2006-07, netting a profit of Rs. 3.2 crore. Ms. Rajkumar said sandalwood artisans, experts in carving deities, could also incorporate modernity in their work in view of the changing market needs. Either way, the artefacts command a premium considering they are handmade. http://www.hindu.com/2008/01/04/stories/2008010451380300.htm Nepal: 28) Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation Matrika Prasad Yadav expressed his commitment Friday to hand over the community forests of Terai and inner Terai to the consumer groups for their participatory conservation as soon as possible. As the Ministry was without minister since Yadav resigned about four months ago more than 6,000 community forest user groups were waiting for finalising the hand over process. They said that the concerned District Forrest Offices rejected to accept any plans. I am serious about this problem and handing over will start within next week after completing official process, " after receiving a memorandum from the representatives of the Federation of Community Forest Users Nepal (FECOFUN) Minister Yadav said. The Minister has taken it positively and we have to wait until next week. " The then Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation, Matrika Prasad Yadav had directed the district level forest officials not to accept new application for registration of community forest user groups and also stop endorsing the work plan they put forward, Pandey said. Following the protest regarding the Minister's directives, the Ministry had agreed to hand over the forests on June 11, 2007, " Pandey added, Despite the Ministry's assurance, the consumers are still deprived of looking after the forests in their locality and carry out the necessary conservation works. " The assurance of the erstwhile Minister has not been translated into practice as the Minister himself quit from the post. The ministerial portfolio has remained vacant for the last four months. http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/content.php?nid=33669 Philippines: 29) Environment Secretary Lito Atienza admitted on Thursday that corrupt environment personnel were behind the massive deforestation in the country, a practice that should be stopped to slow down climate change. " The reasons for the degradation of forests are corruption and our own shortcomings, " Atienza said in his New Year message to officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. " We need effective good governance, " he added. " Let's have a department that is corruption-free and transparent. " The country's forest cover has been whittled down to less than 10 million hectares from 21 million hectares in 1900 due to massive logging. Experts agreed that climate change could be slowed down by reducing carbon emissions and producing oxygen. The second can be accomplished by forests and trees. After his speech, Atienza admitted to reporters that permits had been issued to logging concessionaires for a fee so they could log timber even in forest areas not allowed by law. " I can't say that we're 100-percent bribery-proof, but we'll be sensitive on corruption, bribery and illegal attaining of special privileges from the DENR as we'd like to protect every inch of our motherland, " he said. The DENR chief indicated he would crack the whip on officers found accepting bribes in exchange for logging permits. " We will definitely not allow anyone to get any special privilege from the DENR. We will make sure that our existing forest cover is not only protected, but even improved, " he said. " If we can make our agency corruption-free and the dealings transparent, then we will succeed [in mitigating climate change]. " Atienza also exhorted companies to start dealing with the DENR with transparency from now on. " They will realize that the DENR, when they deal with us, they'll be dealing with us in the most transparent manner, " he said. " They will have to follow the law. They can't try to pull a fast one. " In his New Year's message, Atienza directed his undersecretaries and assistant secretaries, and the regional directors to step up efforts in protecting the forests, mineral and marine resources, and slow down climate change. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view_article.php?article_id=110\ 193 Malaysia: 30) Malaysia continues to be recognised by the World Bank and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as the country practising the best forest and environment management, said Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid. He said the recognition was based on census done by the two bodies which found only one per cent illegal logging was happening in Malaysia's forests. " Apart from this, our forests are also denoted as carbon sinks, meaning they absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. As such, Malaysia continues to remain at the top in terms of forest management compared to other countries, " he told reporters after the opening of the Penang National Park in Teluk Bahang here Saturday. The park was opened by Penang Yang di-Pertua Tun Abdul Rahman Abbas. Also present were Toh Puan Majimor Shariff and Penang Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon. The 1,182ha park can be accessed by land or sea and is situated quite close to the Penang International Airport in Bayan Lepas. http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/state_news/news.php?id=306117 & cat=nt Indonesia: 31) Indonesia hasn't seen a flood and landslide-free year in the past decade. The flash flood which claimed about 200 lives in the Bukit Lawang resort in North Sumatra in November 2003 is perhaps the most severe recent disaster associated with heavy rainfall. That floods and landslides recur every year suggests the nation isn't learning from the past, or isn't acting fast enough to stop disasters. The disasters are undoubtedly a result of negligent environmental stewardship, but there is a long-standing debate over whether deforestation is the culprit. The controversy prompted Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Kaban to clarify that the Karanganyar landslides had nothing to do with deforestation. Statistics however reveal that floods and landslides have spread as deforestation and conversion of forestland to other uses intensifies. Jakarta, for example, is prone to floods as 40 percent of it lies below the level of the sea to the north; but the denuding of forests to the south has exacerbated flooding. Authorities have said the landslides in Karanganyar were made possible when trees were cleared to plant cash crops. Hillsides were turned into vegetable belts, unable to withstand relentless heavy rains and prone to landslides. Environmental experts raised an alert recently when they found that nature conservation areas at the foot of Mt. Lawu were being used for farming. in 2003 the government initiated a national land and forest rehabilitation plan (Gerhan), which includes reforestation of bare, high-risk lands. Trillions of rupiah have been spent so far, but corruption may have undermined the program. Leading group Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), while supporting the worthy objectives of the program, has found that much of the money allocated for environmental rehabilitation has been stalled for unacceptable reasons. Investigation into alleged corruption in state funding for the Gerhan scheme should not hinder reforestation efforts. More resolute action is needed as the deforestation rate in the country is three times that of the rehabilitation rate under the scheme. http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20080105.E01 & irec=0 32) The Indonesian provinces are not prepared to wait for an international agreement on forestry, they want to start selling forestry credits on the voluntary markets now. The governors of West Papua province and Aceh signed an agreement with the governor of the Amazon region in Brazil at the UN post-Kyoto talks in Bali. They agreed to work together to preserve their rainforests and to help establish international funding to avoid deforestation. A representative from Greenpeace pointed out at the signing that forested states were some of the most vulnerable to climate change: " The Amazon has seen droughts three years running, " he said. " Even the soya baron Blairo Maggi [a previous pioneer of deforestation for agriculture], who governs Matto Grosso state, has changed his tune. " The Forestry Eight, eight nations with 80 per cent of the world's forest cover, successfully campaigned for the inclusion of forest preservation at the Bali conference last month. National deforestation plans are still not watertight, however. There have been concerns that although Brazil's deforestation rates have decreased year-on-year, the illegal loggers have moved to targeting Peruvian forests instead. " We will have to build incentives into the scheme to encourage all forested nations to join and keep the loggers out, " says Conrad. Meanwhile, Indonesia's West Papua and Aceh have taken matters into their own hands, with governors promising to halt deforestation, only harvesting a few trees in a sustainable, and more profitable way. Governor of West Papua, Barnebus Suebu, complained that previous logging activities in West Papua province had generated only 10 dollars per log for the local people, while traders sold the logs on for thousands of dollars.http://www.climatechangecorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=5084 Australia: 33) Conservation activists today blockaded 1000 hectares of wilderness in southern Tasmania to protect it from future logging.A dozen people have blocked a major access road into the Weld Valley to stop a bridge being built over the Weld River that would facilitate logging of ancient forests, Huon Valley Environment Centre spokeswoman Jenny Weber told AAP. Two people were perched in trees with cables connecting them to a structure blocking the road below, where a further 10 activists had gathered. The tripod-like structure cannot be cleared without removing the activists from the trees. Ms Weber said Forestry Tasmania had indicated it planned to start building the bridge before Christmas, but work was yet to start. " However, they did say it was their priority to build this bridge this summer,'' she said. Ms Weber said the bridge would allow access to parts of the North Weld wilderness never accessed before. " Ancient forests in the North Weld, some of the most high-quality wilderness forests in Tasmania, have had few people ever walk through them and now they may be lost to the chainsaws and bulldozers,'' she said. Logging in the North Weld wilderness could heavily impact the untouched area, which is next to the Snowy Range World Heritage area, Ms Weber said. But Forestry Tasmania said most of the Weld area was protected. " The vast majority of the Weld is protected and the boundaries of the World Heritage Area contain buffers to ensure these conservation values are fully protected,'' a Forestry Tasmania statement said. A Forestry Tasmania spokesman confirmed a bridge was proposed and an area earmarked for harvesting. The statement said the area the activists were concerned with included trees of various ages that would be logged for special timbers to be used for crafts and design - an important industry for many Tasmanians. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23010558-29277,00.html 34) LOCAL conservationists are asking the new federal Government to stop native forest woodchipping as a way to avert climate change. In a submission to the Garnaut Review, the Chipstop group has argued that forests are worth more as carbon sinks than they are as woodchips. Spokesperson Harriett Swift says that now that Australia has ratified the Kyoto Protocol, there is potential for native forests to be protected as carbon offsets, as permitted under Article 3.4. " Australia subsidises the protection of native forests in South East Asia while continuing to destroy its own forests, " she said. " In international forums such as the recent Bali conference, Australia will have far greater credibility if it protects its own native forests, " she says. " In SE NSW, the vast majority of trees logged end up as woodchips. " In the Eden region, for example, approximately 95 per cent of timber felled is woodchipped. " As paper products, these have a life of two to three years. " Even manufactured wood products are mostly low value, short lived items such as pallets, which usually end up as landfill or are chipped as mulch within a very few years, " Ms Swift said. " Forest destruction has been estimated to release hundreds of tonnes of CO2 equivalent into the atmosphere for every hectare logged, depending on the forest type. " In addition, trucks delivering loads to the mill travel 14.5 million kilometres per year, generating a further 2 million tonnes of CO2 per year. " To make matters worse, in both NSW and Victoria, the native forest woodchipping industry is subsidised. " NSW revenue from pulpwood royalties is about $3.5 million less than the cost to Forests NSW of running its woodchipping operations. " Other costs to the community from woodchipping include the loss of water quality and quantity, degradation of topsoils, damage to roads and other infrastructure, " Ms Swift said. http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=91013 35) Hello, this is your planet talking. i know you don't pay much attention to me, but i think it's time you listen up. i'm not just a backdrop for your concerns, a stage to play your dramas on. or your comedies. see, i think you're funny, a lot of the time. i'll almost miss you when you go; but not really, no, not the way you've been behaving. you think you're kings--well, so did T Rex and the rest of the dinosaurs; so did the trilobites. one king steps up, gets powerful, runs things for a while--or thinks he does, anyway. meanwhile my machinery keeps cranking along as i keep dancing around the sun and we both keep whirling around the galaxy. your problem is, you don't think long enough--you should try it sometime, it'll give you a healthier perspective. bye now, i've wasted enough time talking to you--i probably could've saved my breath; you won't listen, anyway. --Dennis Fritzinger warriorpoets Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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