Guest guest Posted January 30, 2008 Report Share Posted January 30, 2008 Today for you 35 new articles about earth's trees! (287th edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com --Alaska: 1) Last day's in office give-away begins --British Columbia: 2) Truth in Voice of place, 3) Stubbs Island saved, --Washington: 4) Bio-fun money --Oregon: 5) We call it the breathing of the biosphere, 6) Dishonest over-cutting, --California: 7) Tahoe's Blackwood Canyon, 8) NC's plan to take Pacific Lumber land, --Montana: 9) How much could a conservationists conserve if a conservationist could conserve? --Colorado: 10) New Castle fire plan, 11) Tree-ring water tables, 12) DC money to clean up forests, 13) Udall opposes cleaning up forests --Minnesota: 14) After a brief round of speeches they cut 'em down --New Jersey: 15) " Neighbors For Saving The Woodland From Development " --Texas: 16) Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge plants trees --Arkansas 17) Biofuel feuding begins --Georgia: 18) Along the South Fork of Peachtree Creek --USA: 19) Getting rid of the federal wood fuel limits, 20) conservation and climate, --Canada: 21) Losing the scout camp to a forest center, 22) An industry view --UK: 23) Eco-activist leader steps down, 24) Invasive minature deer, 25) Forest Schools, 26) More Heathland means more logging, --Scotland: 27) Storm of protest in an Edinburgh suburb --EU: 28) Strange emissions comparisons with Brazil, --Sweden: 29) 50,000 forest owners representing 35,000 forest properties --Finland: 30) Shutter the mills, export the logs --Czechoslovakia: 31) Prague forests heavily used --Armenia: 32) Cooper Mine will destroy much more than 1,570 hectares --Spain: 33) A formal complaint to the FSC --Israel: 34) Twenty centuries-old oak trees cut down --Tanzania: 35) 77,043 hectares feared to have been destroyed --Kenya: 36) Tree connections between elephants and lizards --Central America: 37) Maya: visual placeholders for events in our past Alaska: 1) Robert Vandermark, manager of the Pew Environment Group's Heritage Forests Campaign, today issued the following statement in response to the release of the Bush administration's Land Management Plan for the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. " In its final months, the Bush administration is attempting to give logging and mining industries the keys to the Tongass National Forest - the world's largest intact temperate rainforest. " Wild areas like the Tongass contain watersheds that provide clean drinking water, wildlife habitat and outstanding outdoor recreation opportunities that should be kept safe for generations to come. " Today's decision in Alaska, coupled with recent attempts to open pristine backcountry in Idaho and Colorado to industrial development, underscore the need for reliable, nationally consistent protections for all of America's last roadless areas. Because once they are gone, they are gone forever. " http://www.ourforests.org/ The Bush administration on Friday released a revised management plan for the southeast Alaska forest, the largest in the country at nearly 17 million acres. The plan would leave about 3.4 million acres open to logging and other development, including about 2.4 million acres that are now remote and roadless. About 663,000 acres are in areas considered most valuable for timber production. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/348912_tongass26.html British Columbia: 2) We live in Clayoquot Sound, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve on the west coast of Vancouver Island where almost 1000 people were arrested to prevent to destruction of coastal old growth forests...for many reasons: the instable coastal mountains, the wild salmon and wildlife associated with it and other obvious connections. Both my husband and I went to prison to express our concern over this, where I spent time in maximum security where we were sent to " teach us a lesson " ...(I chose to go to jail rather than pay a fine in spite of our four children). I am 62 years old and a grandmother of 3 and have lived here for almost 40 years now and have sadly watched the ongoing destruction of the coastal rainforest in this area and Canada's west coast along with much that it supports. The old growth forest that is presently being logged here (in 6 major river valleys) is Forest Certified by FSC and the logging companies (the very ones we fought against to protect this area) are now high-grading the old growth cedar trees (which contain much of the history of the First Nations people) with giant helicopters, new logging roads, log booms and blasting. It is a sad day for all of humanity when this is taking place in what is supposed to be one of the last remaining adequate stands of old growth forest left on Vancouver Island and Canada's west coast, and a United Nations Biosphere reserve, supposedly some of the best examples of what we as humans can accomplish. We have pictures of the slides being created by the logging. The rest of Vancouver Island which has been logged is a biological wasteland supporting very little. What can we do??? sincerely, Susanne Hare Do you have Simon Counsell's email as I feel it would be important to express our views and concern to him? Perhaps you could pass this on to him? Thank you for your good work, For All Our Relations, Susanne Hare. councilfire 3) The old growth forest on Clayoquot Island (also known as Stubbs Island) will now be protected forever, since The Land Conservancy has registered a conservation covenant on the property. The conservation covenant covers 70 percent of the Island, and is the first step toward future measures that will see the entire Island protected. Valued at over $4 million dollars, Clayoquot Island is the largest single gift ever received by TLC. The donor, Susan Bloom, made the gift under the federal Ecological Gifts Program. It is her intention to see the Island's significant natural and heritage values protected for all time. " We have been collaborating with Ms. Bloom since 2005 to protect the Island from the possibility of future development, " says TLC's Executive Director, Bill Turner. " We are committed to protecting the Island in years to come, and it is wonderful to know that now the beauty of this special place will remain forever. " Clayoquot Island is located near Tofino, at the entrance to Clayoquot Sound. Long used by the local First Nations, it was also the original site of European settlement in the area and a once thriving Japanese-Canadian community. The Island contains a mature old growth Coastal Hemlock forest, second growth forest, beaches, sand dunes, forest boardwalks and extensive gardens. Clayoquot Island has become a wildlife refuge to many species of animals. Seasonal changes to the tides make it possible for larger animals to swim across the strait from the mainland. Bears, cougars and wolves are occasional visitors. An assortment of birds thrives on the Island, including Brant Geese during the spring migration on their only pit stop along their 6,000 mile journey to the North Pole. Since the 1990s, the Island has been open to visitors on a limited basis, usually on the May long weekend of each year. A conservation covenant is one of the primary options for landowners who want to preserve natural or cultural places in BC. A covenant is a voluntary, legal agreement between a landowner and a conservation organization, such as TLC, in which the landowner promises to protect the land in specific ways. The promises the landowner makes will be attached on title to the land forever, regardless of who owns the land. In return, the conservation organization agrees to monitor the covenant and ensure that the objectives of the agreement are being maintained. HSkydt Washington: 4) Most of Washington state's biofuels come from plants grown elsewhere. But a newly launched $3 million program will team doctoral students, UW faculty and local Native American tribes to transform local forestry and agricultural waste into plant-based fuels. " We want to create a new generation of PhD graduates in sustainable energy, and develop local sources of renewable fuels, " said Dan Schwartz, professor of chemical engineering and leader of an interdisciplinary group that has received the multimillion-dollar award for graduate education from the National Science Foundation. " These students will learn to consider not only economic benefit, but the environmental and social implications of their designs. " The IGERT award, for Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training, funds six interdisciplinary doctoral students each year for five years. Program partners include the UW College of Engineering, the College of Forest Resources and the American Indian Studies Program. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=39301 Oregon: 5) In the ponderosa pine forest near Black Butte, a skinny scaffolding tower rises above the trees. From the top of the 100-foot-tall tower, the panoramic views of the butte and Three Sisters in the distance are some of the best in the area. But the instruments attached along the span of the tower are providing scientists with information about an unseen side of nature. The equipment measures how much carbon dioxide is passing back and forth between the atmosphere and the trees, shrubs, soils and dead vegetation in the forest. It's one station in a nationwide network that, when the data is compiled, helps scientists investigate how much carbon dioxide forests across the continent remove from the atmosphere every year. And in this era of concern about global warming, it's information that interests researchers and forest managers alike. For instance, the information from stations in Oregon has shown that forests take in the equivalent of between 30 percent and 50 percent of carbon released statewide annually in fossil fuel emissions. And through measuring this carbon exchange in the Metolius Basin and other types of forests, Bev Law and others hope to understand more about their role. " We call it the breathing of the biosphere, " said Law, a professor at Oregon State University and the science chairwoman for AmeriFlux, the network of more than 100 such carbon measuring sites across the U.S. and other countries. The Metolius Basin was the site of one of the first stations in the AmeriFlux program, which started in 1996. Law, who had previously done work across Oregon, chose the site because of its ponderosa pines. " We were intrigued by ponderosa pine because it's very widely distributed globally, so it's an important species, " she said. And by placing these towers and instruments near the Metolius, Law and her colleagues have been able to determine differences between young and old forests, between wet and dry years, and also contribute to regional studies of the movements of carbon dioxide. Trees absorb carbon through photosynthesis, Law said, but they also release it through respiration. And then there's the rest of the organic matter in the forest, like soil, roots and vegetative litter that's being chewed up by microbes, which people sometimes forget about when they think of carbon cycles in forests, she said. " There's a lot of focus on the trees, but they're not thinking about the other stuff that's in there, " Law said. And all this other stuff releases a large amount of carbon dioxide. The researchers found, for instance, that at the Metolius site about 70 percent of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere was from the soil. " It's just the cost of doing business " for the forest, she said. http://www.eastoregonian.info/main.asp?SectionID=13 & SubSectionID=48 & ArticleID=72\ 421 & TM=69140.16 6) Despite endless clear-cuts, destruction, massive subsidies, and the Third-world-colony behavior involved in exporting our raw materials and jobs, the only solution we hear is more logging, with or without the Bureau of Land Management's Western Oregon Plan Revision. Is anyone as saddened and tired of this as I am? I was born in Lane County 49 years ago, and I cannot remember a time when subsidized and dishonest over-cutting has not been an issue. Even when my father was born in 1916, trashing and liquidating lands was a point of contention. That was the year that the Oregon & California Railroad lands were turned back to public ownership because of corporate treachery and fraud. Teddy Roosevelt recognized these atrocities even earlier. The O & C act in 1937 that tied logging of these lands to the counties' general funds, while perhaps well intentioned, did not foresee the divisive and destructive path ahead. Today, the timber industry has the technical capability to log any tree, anywhere, anytime. That was not the case in 1937. We have two distinct goals mixed up in this conversation. First, we are committed to providing the community services that make our lives work. Second, we are committed to caring for our public forests, the lungs of the planet, in a prudent and sustainable way. Our production must be restricted to spending the interest rather than liquidating our capital. The Government Accountability Office has said that almost all federal logging sales lose money. The office calculates that the Forest Service lost in excess of $2 billion in cash flow alone, not counting the full replacement cost of goods sold, on timber sales between 1992 and 1997. Citizens and taxpayers lost $2 billion over and above the money that logging interests paid to the agency for your trees. http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=5590\ 3 & sid=5 & fid=1 California: 7) A rugged canyon that funnels up to the skyscraping crags of Barker Pass and Twin Peaks has become one of Lake Tahoe's biggest water clarity problems. But an enormous federal restoration effort seeks to repair the troubled watershed of Blackwood Canyon. Blackwood Creek, the lifeblood to the 11.2-square-mile watershed three miles south of Tahoe City, deposits the most sediment, for a creek of its size, in the Lake Tahoe Basin. The sediment can contain unwanted nitrogen and phosphorus, according to the Truckee River Watershed Council's Lisa Wallace. " These nutrients feed lake algae, and diminish lake clarity, " said Rex Norman, spokesman for the Tahoe arm of the U.S. Forest Service, in a press release. Blackwood Creek generates approximately 30 percent of all streambank erosion in the Lake Tahoe Basin, according to documents provided by the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. The other largest offender is the Upper Truckee watershed in South Lake Tahoe. The creek has lost its ability as a filter, Norman said, in part because of past unmanaged recreational use. Today's snowmobilers and offroaders, if they follow Forest Service rules, do not impact the stream, he said. It's the past's unmanaged gravel mining, logging and grazing, he said, that have damaged the stream's natural filtering effect. The stream channel was even changed to suit some past users, according to Norman. The creek is responsible for depositing 844 tons of sediment per year into Tahoe, 200 tons being directly related to eroded stream banks, according to Forest Service documents. http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/SS/20080128/NEWS/811751708 8) The press release from the Nature Conservancy posted on their site January 28th, 2008 states that they, along with their financial partners, wish to place the disputed 197,000 acres under a " conservation easement " . They also plan to sustain local jobs, economy and the forests through an " environmentally sustainable way " . However, the definition of sustainable is constantly changing and evolving. Even Mendocino Redwood Company touts that they promote sustainable forestry by certification through the Forest Stewardship Council. But there's a catch. The MRC can say they simply PLAN to be sustainable within the next five years, and bam, they get the green seal of approval. With the recent news regarding carbon trading and tax breaks, good intentions get these greedy corporations undeserved bonuses. No where in The Nature Conservancy's posted internet plan do they state details about what sustainable forestry is. Nor do they state what they plan to do with current Old Growth THP's, you know, THE FORESTS WE ARE PROTECTING. I hope that the Nature Conservancy is honest about their intentions, and that this is not just " greenwash " . I hope that they put an end to herbicide use, clearcuts and steep slope logging. Otherwise, I feel that the activists needed to protect the Old Growth now will still have their hands full, along with opposing Green Diamond and the notorious Sierra Pacific Industries. Both of their websites claim that they are " green " . Both companys use herbicide, as well as destroy the land through clearcutting. How is this " green " or " sustainable " ? http://humboldtforestdefense.blogspot.com/2008/01/greatbut-what-about-clearcutti\ ng.html Montana: 9) It's often difficult for people to envision the scale of things. For instance, the Beaverhead Deerlodge Partnership calls for logging up to 7000 acres annually, and 70,000 acres over ten years. How much land is that really? Well most people can envision a football field. A football field with end zones is about 1.32 acres. So the BDP calls for logging roughly 9240 football fields a year, and 92,400 footfield fields over ten years. Put into that perspective, this is not an insignificant amount of logging! Any one who thinks that is just " little bit " of logging needs to seriously reconsider. wuerthner Colorado: 10) Fire prevention work near Canyon Creek, west of Glenwood Springs, may ease residents' minds after a wildfire threatened their homes last summer. According to the Bureau of Land Management, thinning trees and brush northeast of the Canyon Creek area could help prevent homes from catching fire should they be threatened again. The New Castle Fire prompted the evacuation of about 90 residences over four days last June, including those in Canyon Creek Estates. It burned 1,240 acres and threatened some 200 homes in all. " With the fire [last] summer out there, it just called attention to Canyon Creek, " said David Boyd, a BLM public information officer. In the fall, the BLM trimmed and thinned brush and trees on 11 acres of public land northeast of Canyon Creek, Boyd said. The Canyon Creek Estates subdivision is in the hills above Interstate 70 and the actual creek valley, just west of Glenwood Springs and east of New Castle. More homes are located in the valley, to the north of the interstate. Boyd said the New Castle Fire could have approached Canyon Creek dwellings from the northeast. " The New Castle Fire was west of Canyon Creek, " he said. " But had it kept burning around, if you had some wind shifts, it definitely could have come around and burned toward the community. " About 25 piles of trimmed slash closest to the homes will be burned in February when conditions are right. Another 75 or more piles will be burned the following winter. By then, they'll have dried out and will burn better. Boyd said trees weren't cut down. Instead, branches close to the ground were trimmed. That way, fire is less likely to burn up into the tree canopy. The thinning can slow down the spread of fire and buy firefighters more time to get in there and stop it, he explained. " We look for opportunities where we can do this on federal lands that are right up against developments, " Boyd said. The BLM is doing similar work near the Prince Creek area outside of Carbondale, Boyd said. http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20080125/NEWS/378324478 11) When provided with continuous nourishment, trees, like people, grow complacent. Tree-ring scientists use the word to describe trees like those on the floor of the Colorado River Valley, whose roots tap into thick reservoirs of moist soil. Complacent trees aren't much use for learning about climate history, because they pack on wide new rings of wood even in dry years. To find trees that feel the same climatic pulses as the river, trees whose rings widen and narrow from year to year with the river itself, scientists have to climb up the steep, rocky slopes above the valley and look for gnarled, ugly trees, the kind that loggers ignore. For some reason such " sensitive " trees seem to live longer than the complacent ones. " Maybe you can get too much of a good thing, " says Dave Meko. Meko, a scientist at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona, has been studying the climate history of the western United States for decades. Tree-ring fieldwork is hardly expensive—you need a device called an increment borer to drill into the trees, you need plastic straws (available in a pinch from McDonald's) to store the pencil-thin cores you've extracted from bark to pith, and you need gas, food, and lodging. But during the relatively wet 1980s and early '90s, Meko found it difficult to raise even the modest funds needed for his work. " You don't generate interest to study drought unless you're in a drought, " he says. " You really need a catastrophe to get people's attention, " adds colleague Connie Woodhouse. Then, in 2002, the third dry year in a row and the driest on record in many parts of the Southwest, the flow in the Colorado fell to a quarter of its long-term average. That got people's attention. The Colorado supplies 30 million people in seven states and Mexico with water. Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, Los Angeles, and San Diego all depend on it, and starting this year so will Albuquerque. It irrigates four million acres of farmland, much of which would otherwise be desert, but which now produces billions of dollars' worth of crops. Today the operation of the pharaonic infrastructure that taps the Colorado—the dams and reservoirs and pipelines and aqueducts—is based entirely on data from those gauges. In 2002 water managers all along the river began to wonder whether that century of data gave them a full appreciation of the river's eccentricities. With the lawns dying in Denver, a water manager there asked Woodhouse: How often has it been this dry? http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2008-02/drying-west/kunzig-text.html 12) It should be a given that as many dead trees as possible must be cleared to reduce the threat of catastrophic forest fires and protect the mountain water supply - especially near inhabited areas. The $12 million in federal funding announced by U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard earlier this month, and the $5 million in state aid proposed by Colorado Sen. Dan Gibbs, D-Silverthorne, and Rep. Christine Scanlan, D-Dillon, last week are intended to help achieve those goals. The equally pressing question, though, is what to do with the timber once it's hauled out of a dying forest. Even if there is a practical way to dispose of so many dead trees, which is questionable, it would only compound the loss if the answer is to waste a still-usable natural resource. Better to convert those lost trees to fence posts, two-by-fours, utility poles and fuel for heat and power. All of that is possible, and examples of such attempts exist already at Ranch Creek Limited, Confluence Energy and Mountain Parks Electric in Grand County, where the beetles hit first and, so far, hardest. But these productive solutions are possible on a large scale only if federal and state lawmakers act quickly to provide the economic assistance and regulatory relief needed to develop viable commercial applications of significant scope. As unpopular as it may be with some groups, relaxing certain zoning and environmental restrictions is as critical as finding funds for new machinery or other start-up costs. Removing barriers to quick production is essential because of the natural timetable at work in Colorado's forests. Experts say the dead trees will be commercially usable for only about three years after the beetles kill them. By the fourth year, they will be too dry to even make good home firewood, much less any acceptable consumer product. They'll begin to topple, littering the forest floor with perfect fuel for an immense wildfire. http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jan/26/when-forests-die-then-what/ 13) Mark Udall is opposed to cleaning up the forests. It would require building forest roads. Heaven forbid! Today, the Rocky Mountain News made a proposal to remove dead timber that will never be allowed to happen, and it admits as much: But these productive solutions are possible on a large scale only if federal and state lawmakers act quickly to provide the economic assistance and regulatory relief needed to develop viable commercial applications of significant scope. As unpopular as it may be with some groups, [ and politicians like Mark Udall, John Salazar, Bill Ritter, and Ken Salazar ] relaxing certain zoning and environmental restrictions is as critical as finding funds for new machinery or other start-up costs. Removing barriers to quick production is essential because of the natural timetable at work in Colorado's forests. The Rocky didn't go far enough. Forest access roads must be built and maintained. Clear cuts must be established as fire breaks. Environmentalist terrorists like Mark Udall and his Sierra Club must be put on notice that their foot dragging won't be tolerated. Does anyone have the courage to do that? Not likely, unless it is the voters. http://schaffervudall.blogspot.com/2008/01/cleaning-up-forests.html Minnesota: 14) The first work toward the house began Saturday as trees were cut on a tree farm owned by Sen. Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook. After a brief round of speeches Saturday morning, a John Deere feller-buncher revved to life in a 40-year-old mixed aspen forest off County Road 115. In about 15 minutes, it cleared three-quarters of an acre, the trees from which should provide enough oriented strand board for Ritz's 1,100-square-foot future home. Bakk's land is enrolled in the American Tree Farm Program, which certifies private landowners. The wood was harvested by Cliff Shermer, who participates in the Minnesota Logger Education Program. Both programs are part of the Minnesota Sustainable Forestry Initiative. The initiative is one of a handful of groups that certify wood products, a process meant to assure consumers that landowners, loggers and companies have followed principles that maintain and improve the forest habitat, which includes soil, water, animal life, plants and trees. The land that was cleared on Saturday, for instance, was marked for harvest because the trees had matured and needed to be cleared away. Bakk said it will be replanted in the spring with white spruce saplings, which will do better in the soil than aspen. http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/articles/index.cfm?id=59048 New Jersey: 15) " Neighbors For Saving The Woodland From Development " , residents of Berkeley Heights who believe they will be adversely impacted by a new proposed development in Berkeley Heights called Tuscany Hills, recently expressed their opposition to the development. The residents allege that Tuscany Hills will cause several issues that need to be addressed: 1) the plans call for upwards of 150 trees to be removed from the area; 2) a large number of variances are being requested for the development; 3) an 18-foot retaining wall is planned that may obstruct the natural views of other property owners; 4) a serious traffic hazard may result from the development; and 5) the new development may cause flooding of area homes. According to the group, the Berkeley Heights Planning Board may hold a public hearing to consider the proposal tonight, Monday, January 28, 2008. According to the Berkeley Heights website, such a meeting is indeed scheduled for this evening. However, the Calendar on the Berkeley Heights website does not mention any such meeting. http://thealternativepress.blogspot.com/2008/01/berkeley-heights-neighbors-for-s\ aving.html Texas: 16) LIBERTY — A partnership of corporate and nonprofit groups working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today the planting of some 50,000 tree seedlings to reforest pastureland that's now part of a national wildlife refuge. It's hoped the trees, planted on a 158-acre grassy tract of the Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge, will help rebuild animal habitat, combat global climate change and enhance public recreation areas. " I couldn't get this done, " said Stuart Marcus, director of the 23,000-acre refuge about an hour's drive east of Houston. " We don't have the money. We don't have the resources. " The $250,000 for the trees and plantings were financed by customer and corporate donations from Round Rock-based computer make Dell Inc.; online travel agency Travelocity, based in Southlake outside Dallas; entertainment giant NBC Universal; and The Conservation Fund, a nonprofit environmental group. The land was planted by Environmental Synergy Inc., a reforestation firm based in Atlanta. " This is definitely helping us out big time, " Marcus said. The trees, a dozen species of hardwoods native to the area, are planted 300 per acre in rows about 12 feet apart. The tract being reforested was acquired by the Fish and Wildlife Service in the past year or so after serving as ranch grazing land. Officials said it probably was cleared of trees 40 or 50 years ago. " Climate change has absolutely become one of the most pressing environmental challenges, at least in the United States, " said Jena Thompson, director of The Conservation Fund's Go Zero Fund. " Habitat loss has become the other pressing environmental challenge. " When people think about deforestation, they think about the Amazon and Brazil. You don't think about right here in the United States, " she said. Thompson said some 20 million acres of native forestland had been lost in the last century. " So now we're 150-some acres closer today, " she said. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5495326.html Arkansas: 17) Local tree farmer and forestry leader Ron Bell is mad — so mad that he's leading a charge to try to change legislation that he says is detrimental to forest landowners across the U.S. " For the individual forest landowners of the state of Arkansas, this is the equivalent of a legislative drive-by shooting, " Bell said. " The forest landowners of north Arkansas did nothing to deserve being discriminated like this. " At issue is language in energy legislation approved by Congress and signed into law by President Bush in December. Bell says certain definitions in the law, including the definition of renewable biomass, is likely to cost Arkansas landowners millions of dollars in forest product sales within three or four years. It's the difference between being able to sell forest byproducts — the parts of trees left after logging as well as products from thinning the forest as a management practice — for $4 or $5 a ton or selling it to a biorefinery for $12 to $15 a ton. With each acre producing 10 to 12 tons on a good harvest and 2.4 million acres of forest land in Arkansas, " You can see that adds up pretty quickly, " Bell said. Add in other states, and the nationwide economic impact is staggering, he said. To boil the problem down into its simplest terms, Bell said, the law as written defines renewable biomass from forests as coming only from trees that have been planted or from forests that are actively managed. " Definitions are extremely important here, " he said. " 'Actively managed' generally means trees that have been planted in rows, probably mechanically planted, and commonly in our area we're talking about pine trees as opposed to a native, planted by squirrels hardwood mixed with pine forest. " http://www.guardonline.com/?q=node/43558 Georgia: 18) The Three Forks Alliance is seeking donations to defray the legal costs of seeking an injunction against PATH to stop work on the half mile graded human expressway along the South Fork of Peachtree Creek from Medlock Park to the middle of Mason Mill Park. In addition to requiring the destruction of MANY old growth trees and the possible disruption of the habitat of a wide variety of animal and plant life, the trail also requires encroachment upon existing ball fields in Medlock Park (see this 3FA page and the image at the bottom of the continuation). Reportedly, the DeKalb Commissioners approved this project based on a survey of only those living along Clairmont, even though the trail is surrounded by several other neighborhoods. Donate what you can THIS WEEK to stop (or at least modify) this bad idea and save one of the few remaining old stands of woods in Metro Decatur. Checks can be sent to: Three Forks Heritage Alliance; P.O. Box 15445, Decatur, GA 30333-9998. See letter in continuation An open meeting of the Medlock Floodplain Coalition will be held at 7PM Monday, 1/28, and the N. Decatur Presbyterian Church, 611 Medlock Church. Try finding EVEN A MENTION about this project at the PATH site. Why is it being so secretive about it? Is it trying to slip it in, knowing there would be opposition if it were widely published? An injunction / stop work order beats chaining ourselves to trees or bulldozers, so let's see if we can raise enough money to do it this way. http://airbornecombatengineer.typepad.com/in_decatur/2008/01/donate-now-to-s.htm\ l USA: 19) Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., on Friday introduced a bill that would change language in the 2007 energy bill to allow wood waste from national forests to count toward the Renewable Fuels Standard in the energy bill. In a last-minute change, the final version of the energy bill enacted in December contained a definition of " renewable biomass " that excludes any material removed from national forests. The definition means cellulosic ethanol derived from wood chips and other wood waste from national forests does not count toward the renewable-fuels standard. The result is that fuel blenders and refiners have no incentive or requirement to buy biofuel made in the Black Hills area under the new fuels standard, according to a news release from Thune's office. Thune, Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., and Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., all expressed dismay about the last-minute change to the energy bill. Herseth Sandlin said Monday at a meeting about the issue that the energy bill's biomass definition would hurt local efforts to turn wood waste into ethanol. http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2008/01/26/news/local/doc479abfd7d5da27\ 95612517.txt 20) " It's turning conservation on its head, " said Bill Stanley, who directs the global climate change initiative at the Nature Conservancy. He said the organization has a goal to protect 10 percent of major habitat types — like grasslands, forests and freshwater systems — by 2015. " We are not sure exactly how to treat this yet, " Mr. Stanley said. " Areas that we preserved as grasslands are going to become forests. Does this mean we are going to have to have more than enough forest and less grassland than we had before? Or does it mean we should fight it — try to keep the forest from coming into those grasslands? Or should we try to find new areas that are least likely to change, that seem to be the least susceptible to change, and prioritize those areas? " As Dr. Hamilton put it, " Our whole strategy is going to have to shift. " No one is suggesting that land conservation done so far has been a wasted effort. Many argue that preserved areas will contribute immensely to ecosystem resilience as the climate changes. For example, environmentally intact salmon streams will undoubtedly be useful if new species move into them. And even if much of the Everglades is lost to a rise in sea level, preserving the rest will be crucial for maintaining fresh water supplies in South Florida, said Dan Kimball, superintendent of Everglades National Park. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/29/science/earth/29habi.html?_r=1 & oref=slogin Canada: 21) Don't take away the Scout Camp in Northumberland Forest. Don't ban motorized vehicles from the Beagle Club Road trail area. Protect the ecosystem of the forest. Provide safety for hikers and skiers. Consider any hunting restrictions from Alderville First Nation's perspective. And check out the mess being left behind on trails by current logging operations. These were among various groups' messages for Northumberland County officials and forest advisory committee members Thursday, January 24, after they heard a series of consultants' recommendations, primarily about future trail use in the 5,300-acre, county-owned forest. A strong contingent of the Scouting movement objected to a recommendation to change the Scout Camp on the east side of Highway 45, north of Baltimore, into a forest centre. Members were out in full force and very vocal at the public meeting held at the Alderville Community Centre. " The county hasn't renewed the lease for Scouting in that location, " area Scouting Commissioner Mary Anne Rowlands said. Attempts to get the parties together in the past few weeks have been unsuccessful but the camp has been there for 60 years, she said. Together, the Scout Camp and Scouting program have educated young people about the beauty and care of the outdoors, Ms. Rowlands said. " We're looking for another long-term lease from the county. " Respecting and valuing the forest's ecosystem can be done by " walking lightly in the forest, " Richard Tyssen said during his presentation. Some people are looking at the forest as a " low-budget amusement park " or a store from which " nature is used, consumed and controlled for our benefit, " he said. A Cobourg man said he has spent 30 years in the forest and in the past five, the trails are being destroyed. He wondered how motorized vehicles can be compatible with a delicate ecosystem. " I agonized over that as well, " Dr. Marsh replied. But the forest has a tradition of human use, he said. The recommendations of Dr. Marsh and Al MacPherson, also of Trent University, are to provide areas that can tolerate motorized use and to protect natural significant areas. Basing this on scientific data is an important element, Dr. Marsh said. http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=877479 22) Brings to mind what Han Solo says when he rescues Luke Skywalker after the latter's ordeal in the ice cave, using Luke's lightsaber to slice open the dead lizard-like tauntaun: " And I thought they smelled bad on the outside. " This is the good news? This is the best it gets in what used to be this country's dominant industry, the one that once built family dynasties, endowed universities and museums, put Canada on the international business map and maintained many a blue-haired dowager on the reliability of those quarterly dividends alone? But then, on the other hand, the general stink emanating from the paper and forest sector at this particular point in time raises more questions: If this is indeed as good as it gets these days, might it be time to buy? Or, to dip into the lexicon of what's left of the beleaguered forest products investment community: with the slowdown in U.S. housing, oversupplied newsprint markets, cumbersome energy and transportation costs, the high Canadian dollar, increasingly feisty paper customers with electronic options galore, the ongoing credit crunch and various other economic factors coming down on the paper and forest industry like one of those Acme anvils on Wile E. Coyote, is there any upside for investors? Forest products analysts, the investment equivalent of the Maytag repairman, are not what one might call the most cheerful lot. Their woods are not so much lovely as just dark and deep. " The evisceration of the Canadian forest products industry will continue, " says Kevin Mason, forest products analyst with Vancouver-based Equity Research Associates, which specializes in the paper and forest industry. http://www.canadianbusiness.com/markets/commodities/article.jsp?content=20080123\ _198706_198706 UK: 23) I studied psychology and zoology at Bristol University and got my first big environmental job at the International Council for Bird Preservation. One experience shaped my thinking more than any other. In 1990, I went to north-east Brazil, where my Brazilian colleagues and I discovered the last wild Spix's Macaw. Here was a bird doomed to extinction, its forest home destroyed by grazing goats, logging and soya farming. This was my epiphany. It became clear that protecting birds was part of a bigger picture: the world economy was impinging on this defenceless creature. If I was to make a difference, I had to tackle the underlying causes of its plight. Just before I left for Brazil I had applied to work on Friends Of The Earth's rainforest campaign. Despite my lack of lobbying experience, I got the £10,000-a-year job. Friends Of The Earth was founded in Britain in 1971, inspired by the American environmental movement. My new office was exciting if a little anarchic, and a culture shock. We had an annual budget of £4million, 85 staff and a mission to change the system, reform capitalism and switch to a pure green lifestyle. Nothing too ambitious, then. Eighteen years ago, the green movement was on the very fringes of mainstream politics. Although several decades old, environmentalism was still dismissed by many as all brown rice and tree-hugging. So, after 18 years with Friends Of The Earth, I am passing on the baton. I remain committed to the green cause, but it's time for a change. After a couple of decades, you find yourself making the same arguments too many times. It has been my pleasure and pain to lobby the last seven Environment Secretaries. There is some justice in the world, it seems. Matthew Banks, the Tory who destroyed the Wildlife Bill in 1996, lost his seat the following year, thanks perhaps in small part to our campaigning in his Southport constituency. A version of the Bill became law in 2000. The Spix's Macaw also survived. Birds were discovered in private zoos and a breeding programme set up to preserve the species. I hope that one day soon captive birds will be released into restored forests. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_artic\ le_id=510612 & i n_page_id=1773 24) Miniature deer introduced from China are spreading across Britain, threatening woodland plants and wildlife, writes Richard Gray Muntjac numbers have increased by 20 per cent in the past two years, to 150,000 animals. The deer, which stand 18 inches at the shoulder and escaped into the wild in Bedfordshire 100 years ago, now breed as far north as Tyne and Wear and as far south as Devon and Cornwall. Wildlife experts warn that the mammals have a ferocious appetite and can strip trees of bark and leaves, destroying the nesting sites of popular birds and affecting song birds such as the nightingale which rely upon the undergrowth for food. Endangered small mammals such as the dormouse also live in the thick undergrowth. In addition, the deer have been blamed for devouring native flowers such as bluebells which provide a vital source of nectar for insects. Emma Goldberg, forestry and woodland specialist at Natural England, said: " We are quite concerned about the biodiversity impacts that muntjac can have on woodlands. " When you have them in the same area as fallow deer, the fallow reach foliage up to 4ft while the muntjac clear everything off the ground. It knocks out the habitat of ground nesting birds, the nectar source for a lot of insects and the shrub layer for dormice. " The muntjac escaped into the English countryside from Woburn Park in Bedfordshire in the early 20th century. It is now the third most common breed of deer in Britain, behind the native roe deer and the fallow deer, which were introduced by the Normans when they invaded Britain in the 11th century. Britain's only other native deer, the red deer, now number 15,000.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/01/27/eacount\ ry227.xml 25) Forest schools were introduced to the UK after a team of students from Bridgwater College in Somerset travelled to Denmark to watch woodland-based sessions in practice. Studies from across the world have provided statistical evidence to prove that children are more physically active and motivated in outdoor environments. According to American research, children who play in natural environments undertake more creative, diverse and imaginative play than those who don't, enhancing their overall mental development. What Forest Schools attempt to do is reconnect children, many in urban areas, with the green woodland spaces close to their doorsteps or classrooms. Already, teachers who have bought into the idea have reported positive results, ranging from higher levels of physical activity to calmer behaviour in lessons. The scheme has been rolled out further and there are now areas where older children, some with learning or behavioural issues, are also exposed to Forest School teaching. The idea is very simple. A selected group attends a Forest School once every week or fortnight within school time. Qualified leaders run the sessions with support from teachers and assistants, and activities can be linked to the academic curriculum. The type of teaching allows the children to explore their natural space but they learn quickly through hands-on experience rather than passively absorbing facts in a classroom. The participants are often urban children who may not have had regular access to green space. Tasks include tool-making, den-building, making fires and physical games using natural structures such as trees and boulders. The idea is to build confidence, independence and togetherness by setting up small, achievable problem-solving tasks. The end result has been an increase in confidence and physical stamina among the children and an unpicking of the accepted wisdom that green spaces, particularly in cities, are dangerous places in which to play. http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/features/display.var.2000577.0.Putting_child\ ren_back_in_tou ch_with_their_wild_side.php 26) " Some people think that the Forestry Commission is just about managing woods but as the nation's biggest landowner we are the custodians of many habitats, and lowland heath is among the most precious. " Nearly 6,000 conifers have been felled on the moors near Helmsley as part of a drive to reinstate one of the countryside's most threatened habitats. Changing patterns of land use have led to the loss of about 80 per cent of England's lowland heath over the past 20 years, it has been estimated. In the mid-19th century, North Yorkshire boasted 87,000 acres of such heathland. Now, trees have been cut down on Wass Moor, next to the A170 west of Helmsley, in an attempt to reverse the trend. The rare nightjar, as well as insetcs and plants, are expected to thrive as a result of the work. Brian Walker, a wildlife officer with the Forestry Commission, said: " Rather than create a large swathe of open ground, we have opted to thin twelve acres of the woodland, leaving large spaces between the trees. The resulting sunlight reaching the floor will germinate long-dormant heather seed in the soil, sparking the area to life for heath-loving flora and fauna. http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/yorknews/display.var.1998849.0.trees_going_under\ _axe.php Scotland: 27) A proposed housing development set to be built in secluded woodland has provoked a storm of protest in an Edinburgh suburb. The city council has received 125 letters of objection against plans to demolish five 1970s bungalows in Barnton and replace them with 15 new homes. The site, which is surrounded by protected trees, lies within the Barnton Park estate off Queensferry Road. Council officials have recommended that the development is given the go-ahead. Tony Barnett, chairman of the Barnton Policy Park Association, said the development would be a massive blot on the landscape. He said: " It's enormous, and inappropriate for the area. They are going to be three-storey houses up against bungalows. " The development is going to be overcrowded and antisocial. " Just building the thing is going to be a nightmare and it will add to the amount of traffic in the area. " Mr Barnett, who helps maintain the woodland on a voluntary basis, said that more than 200 local people had attended a public meeting to discuss the proposals in October. He said: " It's been a hard-fought battle and the people have made their feelings felt. " There are a couple of hundred folk out there who don't want this. " Developers Rutherford Finance wants to demolish five of the eight bungalows on the cul-de-sac and replace them with 15 new homes and gardens. The site has mature woodland on two sides but the trees are protected by a preservation order. http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Housing-plan-brings-flood-of.3714750.jp EU: 28) EUROPEAN Union cuts in greenhouse gas emissions could be entirely wiped out by increased destruction of the Amazon rainforest, according to Birkenhead MP Frank Field, co-founder of environmental charity Cool Earth. EU Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, announced this week new targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020. But these targets take no account of the fact that deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon have surged over the last few months. Deforestation already accounts for one fifth of yearly global emissions and recent studies by the National Institute of Space Research show that the monthly rate of deforestation in the Amazon saw an unprecedented increase, from 94 sq miles in August to 366 sq miles in December. Scientists have warned that the 20 per cent cut is insufficient and in the face of these new findings could be entirely offset by rising emissions from deforestation - every acre burnt emits around 260 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. But EU policy tools do not even include avoided deforestation. http://www.thisiswirral.co.uk/display.var.2002601.0.mps_campaign_for_amazon_rain\ forest.php Sweden: 29) With a membership of more than 50,000 forest owners representing 35,000 forest properties in southern Sweden, Södra has operations in forestry services, wood products, pulp and energy. The association produces sawn and planed timber goods, interior products, paper pulp and biofuel. In recent years Södra has also become such a large producer of electricity that the Group now produces more electricity than it uses. Eight forklifts with capacities from 15 tonnes will be used for pulp handling at Södra Cell's pulp mills in Mörrum, Mönsterås and Värö, Sweden. Södra Timber's ten production facilities in the country's southern region will employ 24 units including forklifts for lumber handling with capacities ranging from 10 to 25 tonnes and logstacker machines purpose-built for wood handling with load ratings of up to 30 tonnes. As one of Europe's leading manufacturers of sawn and planed timber products, Södra Timber produced 1.7 million sq m of wood products in 2004. http://www.mgn.com/news/newsreleasedetails.cfm?id=6524 & type= Finland: 30) According to Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, the people of Kemijärvi have to accept the closure of the local Stora Enso pulp mill as a fact. " As for timber, forest management and harvesting, and transport, I am not so worried because Stora Enso has pledged to source the same amount of timer from here as in the past. And, there are other timber purchasers. In other words, I am rather confident that for Finland to manage its timber requirements in general, forests in Lapland will have to be harvested, not less, but rather more than in recent years. This is of course a crucial matter for employment and for this economic area, " said Vanhanen. Vanhanen's arrival on Sunday was met by a group of around 200 protestors, dressed in black. Leaders of a local movement demanded action from the Prime Minister to keep the pulp mill in operation. There have be doubts expressed about plans for a new laminated wood plant in Kemijärvi because suitable grades of wood are not locally available and there is already overproduction in the sector. http://www.yle.fi/news/left/id81022.html Czechoslovakia: 31) More people go to Prague forests. They want to relax from the noise of the metropolis, but there has never been so many of them. The recent study of Prague City hall brought quite surprising numbers. Especially those, where Prague forests are compared to touristically attractive Sumava in the South of the Czech Republic. On one hectare of Prague forest 5200 visitors take turns. At turistically attractive Sumava, it is only tens of people. The most favorite Prague forest is Hvezda park at Prague 6, visited by the same numbers the as the botanical garden in Troja – seven thousand four hundred on one hectare per year. Prague so started planting of new forests, in supplying of the demand. 100 hectare forest is being planted at Brezineves, another will be planted in Dubec. http://www.abcprague.com/2008/01/29/overcrowded-prague-forests Armenia: 32) In Northern Armenia, a company has been given the go-ahead to establish a copper mine in Teghut Forest sparking off a struggle between industry and environmentalists. Teghut Forest spans approximately 29,000 square kilometers—the size of the English channel—and supports a large number of Armenia's native species, including the Syrian Brown Bear and the Short-toed Eagle. The mine will be operated by Armenian Copper Program (ACP). ACP is apart of the Valex group, located in Liechtenstein and co-owned by Russian citizen, Valeri Medzhloumyan. The project will be the largest mine in Armenia, and is estimated to make a hundred million annually for as long as the mining lasts (most likely, less than twenty-five years). Environmentalists believe that the mine will cause large and lasting damage to the region, while government and industry state that the mine's environmental impact will be small while giving the region an economic boost. The first environmental impact from the copper mine will be deforestation. The government has given ACP 1,570 hectares for the project and the company has stated that it will be necessary to clear cut 357 hectares for the mine. It will be an open pit mine, meaning that in place of these 357 hectares will eventually be a massive gaping hole. Gagik Arzumanyan, the executive director of ACP, said in an interview with Mongabay, " I personally do regret that this shall happen. I very much wish there would have been a way to avoid forest removal. Unfortunately, there is none. " At 357 hectares the deforestation would be the largest officially permitted by the Armenian government, yet environmentalists believe the actual number of hectares required for the mine will be far more. http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0129-hance_armenia.html Spain: 33) The Galician environmental group Asociacion Pola Defensa da Ria (APDR) has submitted a formal complaint to the FSC about the certification of plantation company NORFOR and the assessment of it's certifier, SGS that was undertaken by FSC's Accreditation Services International. In their complaint, APDR argues that the FSC-ASI report on SGS's certification of NORFOR is not only of very low quality, but it also fails to address the majority of the criticisms of NORFOR presented by a number of NGOs. Although the FSC-ASI report on the certification recognises a serious lack of compliance with FSC's principles and criteria, it does not analyse more controversial points such as relations with local communities and benefits from the forests. The omissions identified by APDR once again highlight FSC's inability to control the certificates that it's accredited certifiers are issuing - but they are perhaps not surprising. NORFOR's FSC certificate was awarded in 2004 by SGS. It has been heavily criticized by local groups for being socially, environmentally and economically unsustainable, therefore blatantly failing to comply with FSC's principles and criteria. In 2006, the Galician environmental movement decided to withdraw its support for the FSC. This was due to the FSC's failure to suspend the NORFOR certificate, therefore undermining the credibility of the certification scheme as a whole. After several informal complaints, presented by APDR, Greenpeace and WWF/Adena, FSC's Accreditation Services International (FSC-ASI) finally undertook an inspection of SGS's certification of NORFOR in May 2007. Even though the FSC-ASI report recognised that NORFOR did not comply with FSC's principles and criteria, the Eucalyptus plantations managed by the company continues to be FSC certified. Local expert group APDR was excluded from participation in SGS's November 2007 audit of NORFOR, and recent field visits from APDR representatives suggest that there has been no change in the way NORFOR carries out its forest management activities. http://www.fsc-watch.org/archives/2008/01/12/Galicia__Spain__form Israel: 34) Twenty centuries-old oak trees were cut down over the weekend in the Izrael valley in the Galilee. The tree stumps were discovered by Jewish National Fund forest rangers Sunday. " The trees were ancient and beautiful, " the JNF said. Officials believe that the trees were chopped down for fire wood. A complaint was filed with the police. There have been many trees cut down this winter, including many rare and special trees, especially around the Miron Mountain forest preserve. Last week, ironically on Tu Bishvat, one of the biggest oak trees in the Mount Miron area was chopped down. The JNF has tried to counter the deforestation by passing out firewood to the poor who can't afford heating due to rising energy costs. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/948527.html Tanzania: 35) An estimated 77,043 hectares of forest in several areas of Morogoro Region are feared to have been destroyed between July 10 and August 2 last year, the chairperson of the Morogoro District Council Committee for Social Services, Economy, Environment and Construction, Chanda Kangeta, said at a meeting in Morogoro over the week-end. Kangeta added that another 123,000 hectares of general land was also damaged in the same period. She named the areas destroyed as Chamanyani forests at Mvuha ward,Kitulangh`alo (Maseyu ward), Ngerengere, Mkulazi, Mlilingwa, Kiwege, Muhungamkola and Kiroka. The chairperson said bush fires in the district were rampant threatening vegetation and water sources. She said that measures were in place to make sure that bush fires no longer become a threat in the district. http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/observer/2008/01/27/107164.html Kenya: 36) An examination of the connections between elephants and lizards appears in the journal Ecology, where a researcher reports that the elephants' eating habits have a strong influence on the lizards' habitat choices. The results demonstrate an important and little understood aspect of ecosystem engineering, and may help land managers working on wildlife refuges in Africa. Working at the Mpala Research Center in Kenya between 2004 and 2007, the author of the report, Robert M. Pringle of Stanford University, found that Kenya dwarf geckos (Lygodactylus keniensis) showed a strong preference for trees which had been damaged by browsing elephants (Loxodontia africana). In fact, the local lizard population increased proportionally with the number of damaged trees. By contrast, lizards were virtually absent from undamaged trees in the same study area. Further investigations revealed that the preference was due to hiding places which were incidentally created by the elephants' activities. Pringle's results are important from a theoretical as well as management standpoint. Ecosystem engineering -- the idea that activities of one kind of animal can create habitat for other animals -- is a relatively new concept, having emerged only about 15 years ago. When examining such engineers, ecologists would like to predict whether their activities will have a positive or negative impact on the abundance of other species in the same ecosystem. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080128154611.htm Central America: 37) The location was different, but the work sometimes was similar, photographing what Martin called " visual placeholders for events in our past. " " I didn't realize, but I guess I had a connection to it, " Martin said. Likewise, part of his goal in photographing the Maya is to document a culture that existed long before European and U.S. influence. These indigenous people have unique ways of seeing the world, such as their close relationship with the environment around them, he said. These viewpoints can inform us, but they are fading as the rainforest disappears and the Maya are further cut off from their past, Martin said. " It's about enriching our lives, how there are multiple viewpoints, " he said. " Change that throws out the past completely is going to leave a future without a foundation. " Martin, who has lived in the MetroWest area since the early '80s and has had a studio in Natick about three or four years, visited the Yucatan peninsula on his first trip, focusing mainly on photographing ruins. " Look Close, See Far " includes images of everything from massive pyramids to close-up details of religious stone carvings. " It was really exhilarating, " he said of that first trip. " Just the idea of looking at things that were non-Western was really fascinating. " Some early voyages were a learning experience, including one with a questionably qualified guide. " Halfway through a hike, he turned to me and said, 'You think we're going the right way? " ' Martin said.In other places, Martin traveled through areas where he was not allowed to photograph and where rebel groups fought in the forest. But Martin " just got caught up. Something just kept calling me back to that area. " On return trips, he began photographing more people, visiting the small rural villages where many descendants of the Maya live. " To get to know them, you have to kind of keep going over and over the areas, going back and meeting people and talking to them, " he said. http://www.dailynewstranscript.com/books/x2144948520 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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