Guest guest Posted March 23, 2008 Report Share Posted March 23, 2008 Today for you 34 new articles about earth's trees! (315th edition) Subscribe / send blank email to: earthtreenews- Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com To Donate: Click Paypal link in the upper left corner of: http://www.peacefromtrees.org --British Columbia: 1) Protesters claim the mining rights of their protest site --Washington: 2) Illegal wood for musical instruments --Oregon: 3) Canopy researcher shows older trees absorb more carbon, 4) USA today on AX men, 5) AX men is a DISGRACE, 6) More on canopy research, --California: 7) Paradox of 'progressive' musicians, 8) Community building through reforestation, 9) Eldorado NF to release travel management plan, 10) Special forest fire panel in Tahoe, 11) ADM refuses to stop clearcutting, --Montana: 12) 1,500 acres of private mining claims bought out for $8 million --Minnesota: 13) Development pressure hurting state's working forest --New york: 14) Huron NF travel map released --Massachusetts: 15) Invasive pulling and treeplanting at Franklin Park --Connecticut: 16) Beaver madness is normal and natural --Georgia: 17) Save huge Pecan tree named Grandma Gordon --USA: 18) John Muir: American Forests, 19) Logging produces more carbon than fires, --UK: 20) Is the lumber industry really sustainable? 21) Small wood lot investments are trendy, 22) Restoration is a handy source of Beech wood? 23) Kielder Forest Park is the largest forest in England, --Haiti: 24) History of deforestation --Costa Rica: 25) La Selva research center gets high-tech makeover --Belize: 26) Spanish Creek Rainforest reserve a great place to grow Bamboo? --Brazil: 27) 35% of logging in Para feeds charcoal ovens, 28) Private business agreements for plant medicines is a way for tribes forests to survive, --Ecuador: 29) A Waorani tribe from Yasuni National Park vs. Big oil --Pakistan: 30) Restoring 100,000 acres by planting 22 million trees --India: 31) Fishing in the middle of a forest fire, 32) Sinharaja rainforest is most important forest in Sri Lanka, 33) Forests are primarily considered social and environmental resources, 34) Every inch of Sanjay Gandhi Park will be watched, British Columbia: 1) It just so happened that a vigilant supporter happened to notice that they were available, and being a " BC FreeMiner " he clicked his way through all the Bear Mountain polygons, acquiring all of it. He then invited me to whip down to Mining Ministry Centcom to make the application to become a " Free Miner. " Having such allows one access to the extremely efficient new claiming system now put in place by Richard Neufeld and the Gordo govt. $25 and 15 mins later, I had the certificate. This grants me access to the wwwmtonline.gov.bc.ca website, where I can now claim mineral rights anywhere in BC by the mouse-click. Our supporter was then able to transfer the mineral rights directly to my account, which he did. Len Barrie, Les Bjola, Stew Young et al may own the very surface skein, ~and the " overburden " which they are so wantonly squandering, but the entire mountain itself, is now MINE. ingmarz Washington: 2) A single " billet " of music wood - a block that's about 3 inches thick, 8 inches wide and 2 feet long - can fetch from $80 to $125, depending on quality and grain pattern, said Frank Johnson, general manager of Northwest Specialty Woods in Elma, Wash. When Johnson started out as music wood (or tonewood) broker in the 1960s, a billet typically cost about $10 or so, he said. Not surprisingly, theft has become more prevalent since then, he said. " There's more people doing it because there's a lot more money in it, " Johnson said. Apart from the financial loss to public and private landowners, music wood theft causes environmental damage, said Raedel. Thieves create their own roads in order to access far-off creeks and other moist regions where maples grow, destroying vegetation and disturbing the soil, he said. Once a suitable maple tree is found, they drop the entire thing and extract as much wood as can be packed out, oftentimes with the help of all-terrain vehicles, Raedel said. Such illegal logging results in canopy loss in sensitive riparian areas where broadleaf trees reduce water temperature, he said. And for every tree that is actually harvested for music wood, countless others are subjected to test cuts and bark peeling, leaving them susceptible to disease, said Raedel. " Maple is difficult to tell if it's got a pattern, " he said. " It's not every maple tree that has that pattern. " Music wood brokers and buyers look for blocks that are free of defects and are figured like a quilt or a peanut shell, said Johnson. " It looks like a washboard - very ripply. " Aside from maple, other Northwest species that exhibit such characteristics include Western red cedar and alder, he said. The value of a musical instrument can be tremendously increased by incorporating such decorative wood, said Johnson. A decent electric guitar, for example, will usually sell for about $600, but crafted from a nicely figured maple billet, it could go for $2,500 to $5,000, he said. By and large, music wood suppliers are not harvesting illicitly, Johnson said. There are plenty of opportunities to legally acquire quality music wood. For example, suppliers can obtain permits from private forest owners and salvage music wood after land is clear-cut for conventional timber, Johnson said. Before the company buys anything, Northwest Specialty Woods requires that suppliers provide valid permits for extracting the wood. The firm also double-checks with the landowners issuing the permits, he said. Thieves tend to be dodgy when asked about their wood sources, Johnson said. " Sometimes, just in talking to people, you get a feeling you don't want to buy the wood. " http://www.capitalpress.info/main.asp?SectionID=67 & SubSectionID=782 & ArticleID=40\ 177 & TM=73505.8 Oregon: 3) I climb a long series of ladders that lead to nothing but sky. Wind hums in the struts of the metal tower around me, causing it to vibrate like a giant guitar string and carrying the scent of warm pinesap, which saturates the air of Oregon's East Cascades in late summer. As I move higher, I pass arrays of high-tech gear that swallow samples of air, then analyze the amount of carbon dioxide in each gulp. Just behind me, her long, gray-shot hair whipping in the wind, Beverly Law steps onto the tower's topmost platform, 120 feet aboveground. Law, a professor of global forest science at Oregon State University, uses towers like this one, with their whirring gizmos, to track the forest's vital signs and reveal the complex relationship between trees and atmospheric carbon. She is the director of the AmeriFlux Network, an international collaborative project founded in 1996 that tracks the exchange of CO2, water vapor, and energy in all sorts of biomes throughout the Americas, from the Alaskan tundra to the Amazon rainforest. From our windy perch atop the tower, Law and I look down on a 90-year-old stand of ponderosa pine quietly baking in the midday sun. These trees won't pack on much more girth in the next couple of decades, and in the eyes of a typical forester or timberland owner, they're more than ready for market. The conventional view is that this forest is also past its prime in its ability to sequester carbon dioxide. It turns out that forests hundreds of years old can continue to actively absorb carbon, holding great quantities in storage. Resprouting clear-cuts, on the other hand, often emit carbon for years, despite the rapid growth rate of young trees. This is because decomposer microbes in the forest soil, which release CO2 as they break down dead branches and roots, work more quickly after a stand is logged. On the dry eastern face of the Cascades, for example, where trees grow slowly, a replanted clear-cut gives off more CO2 than it absorbs for as much as 20 years. " That's a long time, " Law observes, " during which microbes respiring in the soil, rather than trees photosynthesizing aboveground, dominate the carbon balance. " Can we develop a new model of forest economics that draws on this knowledge -- a model that makes sense to foresters as well as the policy makers and conservationists who are now taking the first steps toward developing a viable market in forest carbon? http://www.onearth.org/article/the-giving-trees?page=2 4) If a tree falls in the forest and 3 million people hear it, it sounds as if Ax Men could be a hit. The real-life look at loggers attracted the second-best series-premiere audience for The History Channel, trailing only the 3.4 million who watched the first episode of last year's Ice Road Truckers. The second episode of Ax Men (Sunday, 10 ET/PT) drew 2.5 million. The new series, which follows four logging crews in the lush mountain forests of Oregon, fits the template of Truckers and Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch: an up-close view of a dangerous, outdoor industry with ties to the frontier past. Ax Men realistically depicts the hazards of logging, says Darrell Holthusen, operations manager for Gustafson Logging, one of the four crews. They range from an established company that innovates with a helicopter to a start-up with unreliable machinery. " It may even be a little bit more intense than what they showed, " he says. " Pretty much everything around you can kill you. If you make the wrong move, something is going to hit you or come down on you. " Clearing wind-flattened trees along steep slopes, a task shown on Men, is especially risky, says Holthusen, 37, who has suffered many broken bones in 20 years of logging. (No one died during Ax Men's filming.) " They don't lay down all nice and pretty. They tangle like big spaghetti, and they're under tremendous pressure. When you go in to cut, they can fly apart and explode in your face, " says the married Holthusen, whose sons (13 and 10) want to follow him into the business. Although logging pays well relative to other jobs in the region, money alone isn't enough motivation, says Holthusen, who remembers being physically sick after his first day but feeling he had to return. " It has everything: beauty, a chance to better our environment, camaraderie, " he says. " There are certain points in the day where you get a break and look over your shoulder and see what a beautiful place it is. " http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2008-03-20-ax-men_N.htm 5) What next history channel? A show about clear cutting the amazon? How about a show about elephant or rhino hunting. I used to love the history channel, but this show about clear cutting our forests is a DISGRACE. Our future generations will watch this show and curse us for what we have done. Don't tell me how it's sustainable etc etc. All it does is release carbon from the ground, reduce the amount of clean air we have and reward the few and powerful. Clearly the men working and getting hurt are not benefiting from their work. http://www.forumswatcher.com/open_forum.asp?link=http://boards.historychannel.co\ m/thread.jspa?t hreadID=700028631 & subject=History%20Channel:%20Boycott%20this%20show%20about%20t\ he%20destructio n%20... 6) Since the mid-1990s Law has monitored the movement of carbon in the ponderosa pine forests here along the Metolius River in the central Oregon Cascades, starting with a rare stand of ancient trees that contains pines as old as 250 years. She studies the forest ecosystem on every level, from the workings of a single leaf to sweeping landscape images produced by remote sensing satellites. She recently coauthored a study, published in the journal Biogeosciences, which tracks the exchange of carbon between land and air for the whole state of Oregon from 1980 to 2002. Earlier studies suggested that during the 1970s and early 1980s, publicly held Douglas fir forests in the West Cascades were being harvested so heavily that they emitted more carbon than they absorbed. After years of intense controversy over the loss of habitat for the northern spotted owl and other species that depend on old-growth trees, the federal Northwest Forest Plan curtailed most logging in the region's national forests, starting in the early 1990s. By the end of the decade the balance had tipped; on average, forests were offsetting up to 50 percent of the CO2 generated by Oregon's fossil fuel emissions each year. Eddy flux measurement is one of Law's most crucial tools, enabling her to track the exchange of CO2 and water vapor between forest and air over large swaths of landscape, and at a level of detail that's never before been possible. The automated gas analyzers mounted on the eddy flux tower we're standing on measure CO2 concentrations 20 times per second. Meanwhile a sonic anemometer, a three-pronged device that resembles a robotic claw, tracks wind speed and direction. The combination of these two data sets reveals the shifting flow of carbon in and out of a forest, day or night, winter or summer. Law notes with pride that all the technology at this research site is powered by photovoltaic panels. Other tools provide Law with additional insights into the flow of carbon through the intricate pathways of the forest. To photograph root growth, she slides a remote-controlled camera into a clear tube sunk belowground at a tree's base. Set on the forest floor are instrument-laden cylinders that hum to life every five minutes, lower themselves like miniature flying saucers, settle onto a patch of earth, and record the amount of carbon coming out of the soil. http://www.onearth.org/article/the-giving-trees?page=2 California: 7) LOS ANGELES - Sustaining the supply of natural materials isn't a new idea in the musical instrument industry, which depends on old-growth wood to achieve the best tonal quality. " The paradox is that musicians as a group tend to be pretty progressive and ecologically savvy and concerned -- until it comes down to their guitar, " C.F. Martin & Co. head of artist and public relations Dick Boak says. " They don't want to take the chance that they won't have the absolute best tone. It requires a little bit of education and it requires them to see the product. " Some of the most sought-after woods come from trees that can take hundreds of years to develop their acoustic characteristics. Through the years, instrument companies have developed everything from clarinets that can be ground up and recycled into new ones to Martin acoustic guitars and Gibson Les Pauls sourced from responsibly managed forests. But a collective effort by Martin, Gibson, Fender, Taylor, Yamaha and others to preserve their supply of old-growth wood from clear-cutting -- in which all trees within a designated area are removed -- is beginning to bear fruit. The industry heavyweights have partnered with Greenpeace on its Music Wood campaign, with an initial focus on Sitka spruce, a key material in guitar and piano soundboards. After meeting with Greenpeace and the instrument makers last summer, Sitka spruce supplier Sealaska agreed to a preliminary audit of its logging practices. A full assessment by third parties accredited by the Forest Stewardship Council is set to take place in summer 2008, and if Alaska-based Sealaska decides to implement their recommended reforms and apply for full FSC certification, it will be on the road to more selective logging and consideration of surrounding habitats before it cuts. http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN2222683220080323 8) Just off the paved road outside Parkfield lives a man who is planning and planting for the future. One tree at a time and one season after another, Jack Varian has developed a passion for sustainability. If all goes as planned, his actions today will grow for the next 400 years. Varian is planting valley oak trees, native to the Parkfield region, and has collected a team of specialists and volunteers to assist him in his pursuit of transforming his rural landscape on the more than 16,500 acres of the V6 Ranch into what he calls " a more environmentally friendly approach " to ranching. On a clear day in February, about 60 volunteers from the San Luis Obispo Native Tree Committee, Cal Poly and local 4-H Clubs plus agricultural and community groups joined Varian, UC Cooperative Extension natural resources specialist Bill Tietje and UC Cooperative Extension oak regeneration expert Doug McCreary to plant 1,000 oak trees. Growing Grounds, a nonprofit wholesale nursery operated by Transitions - Mental Health Association, employs adults with mental illness at a living wage to grow and care for the plants. Nursery coordinator Megan Hall supervised sprouting and growing the trees. " It was really wonderful to be involved with this restoration project, " said Hall. " I think it's amazing to see ranchers like Jack giving back to the land. " " The most important crop on my land is scenery, " Varian said. " As development pressures force more agriculture land to disappear, we have chosen to preserve the beauty so that others may enjoy it in the future; as our lands' beauty survives, so do we. " Varian credits his success in range management to an education in " holistic management practices " that includes intensive rotational grazing, improved water management, proper fencing and a passion for the environment. " We believe that the whole world should be thinking seriously about greater sustainability, " he said. " Our agriculture businesses and livelihoods depend on it. " http://www.lompocrecord.com/articles/2008/03/23/business/biz12.txt 9) Covering nearly 600,000 acres in the Sierra above Sacramento, the Eldorado National Forest is a weekend getaway for millions of people every year. But this national forest is much more than a playground. The Eldorado serves as the source of Sacramento's drinking water, and is home to natural habitats ranging from alpine meadows to oak woodlands. Much of this watershed is not in great shape. Over the years, it has been carved up by logging roads and hundreds of miles of unauthorized vehicle trails. Repairing these scars will take a monumental collaboration, one that must include owners of off-highway vehicles. On or before April 2, Eldorado Forest Supervisor Ramiro Villalvazo will announce a long-overdue decision that will designate appropriate routes for dirt bikes, ATVs and other off-highway vehicles, and close routes that are inappropriate. Supervisors in the Tahoe National Forest and other forests are watching this decision closely because they will soon make similar designations. To date, more than 6,000 people have commented on the proposal, and some of the meetings have been heated. Certain off-highway vehicle groups are making wild claims that the Forest Service intends to close down all OHV routes. This is bunk. No matter what happens, off-roaders will still have access to hundreds of miles of designated roads and trails. The real question is whether the Forest Service will have the courage to stop the least-responsible motorists from driving their machines across meadows, heavily eroded stream banks and other sensitive areas. http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/804303.html 10) A special panel created after last summer's Lake Tahoe wildfire warned Friday that another catastrophic blaze is imminent and recommended dozens of steps to stop it, from banning wood shingles to spending more than $100 million to improve the area's water system. Many of the more the 70 recommendations the California-Nevada Tahoe Basin Fire Commission unanimously approved are aimed at resolving the bureaucratic infighting among overlapping agencies that has hampered fire-prevention efforts for years. The panel also said federal and state disaster declarations are needed to jump-start tree-thinning and other efforts. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons established the commission after a fire destroyed 254 homes and caused $140 million in property damage last June in South Lake Tahoe. Members of the commission emphasized their alarm at the fragile nature of the basin's environment by adding the word " emergency " to their report. " Fire was the wake-up call, " said commission member John Upton, who lost his rental home in last summer's fire. The commission said thinning overgrown forests around communities should be completed within five years and within a decade throughout the entire Tahoe basin, which straddles the two states. The commission's recommendations include requiring home owners to replace wood shingles and improving firefighting capability by upgrading the Tahoe basin's water systems, a process that could cost more than $100 million over 20 years. It recommended higher taxes for property owners to help pay for fire-prevention efforts. The fire exposed long-standing rivalries between the local, state, federal and regional agencies that are charged with protecting Tahoe's environment or promoting fire protection. An Associated Press report this week exposed numerous examples of bureaucratic backbiting that delayed tree clearing throughout the basin, sometimes for years. More than 4,000 pages of internal documents from myriad agencies illustrated a regional planning and fire-prevention process that had degenerated into dysfunction. http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_8647938?nclick_check=1 11) Last Thursday, three RAN activists - Levana Saxon, Annie Sartor and I - snuck into the ECO:nomics conference, an ultra-exclusive " executive conference " held in Santa Barbara, Calif. It was a chance for the CEOs of several of the world's most powerful companies - BP, Wal-Mart, etc. - to congratulate themselves and discuss how to increase profits by greening their business. Dressed in our best corporate gear and sporting craftily designed passes, we easily gained entrance to the conference hall where the CEOs were gathered. After Ms. Woertz spoke, I raised my hand and was handed the microphone. Needless to say, the conference organizers got more than they expected when I started to speak. I asked Ms. Woertz how she could claim that ADM was fighting climate change when the company is responsible for clearing and burning the rainforest for industrial biofuels. Levana, RAN's education coordinator, approached the stage and handed Woertz more than 600 letters and drawings from children asking her to stop cutting down the rainforest. Levana and I then unfurled a poster-sized pledge, asking Woertz to pledge to halt all engagement with companies that destroy the rainforest. She refused. But it's not too late for her to sign the pledge. Send Patricia Woertz a letter telling her that it is absurd to claim that ADM is helping the climate when the company is clearing and burning the world's rainforests. Ask her to sign the pledge today. http://ga3.org/campaign/admpledge/i63nb5srh76bm8iw? -- http://newsblaze.com/story/20080321094415tsop.np/newsblaze/NEWSWIRE/NewsBlaze-Wi\ re.html Montana: 12) A conservation group said Monday it has an agreement to protect nearly 1,500 acres of private mining claims northeast of Yellowstone National Park. The plan calls for the Trust for Public Land to use $8 million in federal money to buy the claims and convey them to the U.S. Forest Service, ending the fight over the proposed New World Mine near Cooke City. " We're hoping in the next several months . . . that we will be able to work with Congress and our partners, the Forest Service, to do everything that we can to make sure our funding request is made good on, " said Alex Diekmann of the Trust for Public Land. In 1989, Crown Butte Mines, a subsidiary of Canadian mining company Noranda Inc., proposed a large gold mine near Yellowstone. Conservation groups warned it would harm the park's ecosystem, and lawsuits were threatened. In 1996, Crown Butte agreed to abandon its planned mine and create a fund to clean up past mining operations in exchange for $65 million in federal land and other assets. However, Margaret Reeb, who owned most of the claims Crown Butte planned to mine, wasn't part of the negotiations and did not want to sell, the Trust for Public Land said. She eventually agreed not to mine the land and owned it until her death in 2005. Mike and Randy Holland, her nephews, recently reached the agreement giving the Trust for Public Land the right to purchase the land and mining claims over a two-year period and to convey them to the United States for inclusion in the Gallatin and Custer national forests. " My brother and I love that land just as much as Margaret did, and we don't want to see its raw beauty tarnished, " Mike Holland said in a news release. Diekmann said the conservation group had a binding agreement to buy the mining claims over two years. " This is an example of the best kind of Montana compromise: Land owners' rights are respected, and we get to preserve some of the most beautiful hunting, fishing and hiking land on Earth, " Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said in a news release. http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-yellowstone18mar18,1,16054\ 80.story Minnesota: 13) Minnesota's forests face an urgent challenge: development pressures are increasing and hurting the state's ability to sustain its working forest. In northern Minnesota, timber and mining companies are selling thousands of acres of Minnesota's private forestlands in large chunks to financial investors. This is creating the most dramatic land ownership shift in a century. It opens the door for forest fragmentation: the very real threat that is reducing public access for hunting and recreation, accelerating degradation of lakes and streams and causing the loss of more timber jobs and wildlife habitat. Minnesota has a limited-time opportunity to protect its forest heritage. With capital bonding funding, Minnesota can be a leader in the protection of its private working forestlands. We have the track record. Through strong public-private partnerships, we have protected more than 65,000 acres of priority forests using conservation easements. Conservation easements are legally binding agreements with landowners that keep the forestland in private hands, but prevent the land from being developed. We have a plan. Our advisory team of diverse interests crafted goals, strategies, targets and guidelines for the proposed Minnesota Forests for the Future Program. Now, we need the funding to begin implementing the plan to buy or permanently gain easements on these priority private lands. We need funding to let Minnesotans keep on reaping the economic, social and ecological benefits these forests provide. http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=71219 & section=Opinion & free\ bie_check & CFID =18215151 & CFTOKEN=14516019 & jsessionid=8830a1a42f4a55c1d111 New York: 14) " Motorized vehicles have always been restricted here to open roads. The map is just a defining document that shows what is open. " The Huron National Forest map was just released this month. It is one of 28 forests around the country, so far, that have completed the motorized travel maps. The Manistee National Forest will release one in 2009. The maps are the product of a 2006 U.S. Forest Service rule that called for every federal forest in nation to produce one by 2010. The rule was approved by then forest service, chief Dale Bosworth. He spoke of unmanaged motorized recreation as one of several major threats to the country's national forests. He wanted to halt the ever-expanding web of two-tracks and trails along with associated environmental damage. " It is a widespread problem on the Huron and Manistee Forests, " said Ken Arborgast, the public affairs officer for both in Cadillac. " There are places where wetlands have been impacted by guys who go mudbogging and rehabilitated areas that people went and destroyed. We have hills with eight to 12 foot gullies cut into them. http://www.mlive.com/sports/grpress/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1206103511249820.xm\ l & coll=6 b Massachusetts: 15) A little over a year ago, the FPC came out with a draft version of its Woodlands Management Plan. The plan raised concerns that the encroachment of invasive plant species and heavy human use have hindered the growth of an understory of new trees to replace the trees originally planted in the park 125 years ago. Without action, " most of the large trees that define the park's woodlands will be gone within 30 years, " the plan states. The work the FPC and the Parks Department are doing covers 13 acres, about half of the Long Crouch section in the northwest corner of the 500-acre park. The coalition is styling it as a " demonstration project " to help the FPC and the Parks Department determine how best to undertake a broader restoration effort in the future, Poff said. The information gathered will help the coalition and the Parks Department draft a final version of the restoration plan. " What we are doing is trying to improve all the different steps, " she said. Conditions in the Long Crouch section mean that " all the different components of the management plan can be tried in a fairly contained area, " she said. Over the winter, the Parks Department completed large-tree work—mostly pruning dead limbs from the woodland's canopy, Poff said. Now that the vehicles and machinery necessary for those efforts are finished rumbling through the woods, the coalition is set to determine how to make new trees grow. " We are hoping it will be a real test, " Poff said. Among other things, the FPC hopes to determine how much soil remediation will be needed. It will use different soil maintenance strategies in different patches, for example. " Agronomists say it's hugely important. Some forestry experts think it's not that important, " she said. The coalition will also be testing out planting strategies that have proven successful in other parks. A similar coalition working in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, N.Y. has been successful in planting certain species of " whips " —very young saplings that are easy for volunteers to handle and plant. In Prospect Park there has been a 70 percent success rate with whips with no watering, Poff said. http://jamaicaplaingazette.com/node/2631 Connecticut: 16) Those who don't fully understand the phrase " busy as a beaver " probably haven't visited the Madison Land Conservation Trust's Paper Mill trail along the Hammonasset River in Madison. Most of the trees that line the banks are either toppled into the river or missing their bark up to the height of a beaver. It's easy to see why no mammal, other than man, can alter its environment the way the beaver does. During my half-mile trip along the trail this week, I counted more than two dozen trees chewed, gnawed and eaten by North America's largest rodent. While some who visit this walking trail on the Killingworth-Madison border will be shocked by the clear-cutting ways of Castor canadensis, others will be impressed by the sheer tenacity of these animals. There are some absolutely huge trees, including beech and birch and even some hardy oaks, that have been taken down simply by the constant gnawing by the sharp front teeth of the beaver. The beavers eat tree bark and cambium, the soft tissue that grows under the bark of a tree. But there are plenty of trees left standing to make this an enjoyable walk along the river's broad flood plain, especially in early spring as the wetlands begin to awaken from their winter slumber. A thin layer of ice still covers portions of the swamps, reminding visitors this is still March. The Hammonasset River has always been one of my favorite waterways in the state, and this trail showcases a portion of the 20 miles it flows from southern Durham to the Clinton Harbor just east of Hammonasset State Park. The river is named for the Eastern Woodland Native Americans that once farmed, fished and hunted in the area. Hammonasset means " where we dig holes in the ground. " The river forms the entire eastern boundary of Madison and separates Middlesex and New Haven counties. So one could pick up a rock along the bank of the river and skip it across two counties. The southern half of the river is popular with canoeists and kayakers. http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-nature0321.artmar21,0,3051526.column Georgia: 17) The fight over the fate of a northeast Atlanta tree appears to be moving from City Hall to Superior Court. For the second time, the Atlanta Tree Conservation Commission on Wednesday night denied a group's efforts to protect from development " Grandma Gordon, " a huge pecan tree on the corner of Gordon and DeKalb avenues. The group now plans to file an appeal in Fulton County Superior Court within 30 days, longtime Gordon Avenue resident Teri Stewart said. " I'm very disappointed, but I'm not surprised, " Stewart, 54, said Thursday. Atlanta attorney Adam Gaslowitz, who owns the half-acre slice of land, wants to build 10 town homes and remove several trees, including Grandma Gordon. He plans to leave a grove of smaller trees on the property. " It's not like I'm not being sensitive to the environment, " Gaslowitz said Thursday. " There are lots of properties right in that area where the developers have clear-cut the land. We haven't done that. It's a green-friendly plan. " In late 2007, the city arborist approved Gaslowitz's plans, saying they were in line with Atlanta's tree ordinance. But Stewart and others appealed. On Feb. 20, the city gave the group 30 days to raise enough money — $1 million, Stewart estimated — to buy the land where the pecan tree stands. As of Thursday, the group had raised about $3,000, Stewart said. She said the money would be used for legal fees. Gaslowitz said he's being unfairly portrayed as anti-green space, noting that he plans to donate to the city a 4.5-acre of land near Lakewood Amphitheatre. " All the other developers have gone forward with their projects [nearby]. I don't understand why this particular one has caused so much commotion, " he said. " I don't want to be made out to be a tree killer. " Stewart claims Grandma Gordon is one of the last remaining pecan trees from the Sutherland Estate, built in the early 1870s by former Georgia Gov. John B. Gordon. It appears immune to " pecan scab, " a fungus that destroys hundreds of pecan trees each year. http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2008/03/20/tree_0321.html USA: 18) The forests of America, however slighted by man, must have been a great delight to God; for they were the best he ever planted. The whole continent was a garden, and from the beginning it seemed to be favored above all the other wild parks and gardens of the globe. To prepare the ground, it was rolled and sifted in seas with infinite loving deliberation and forethought, lifted into the light, submerged and warmed over and over again, pressed and crumpled into folds and ridges, mountains and hills, subsoiled with heaving volcanic fires, ploughed and ground and sculptured into scenery and soil with glaciers and rivers,—very feature growing and changing from beauty to beauty, higher and higher. And in the fullness of time it was planted in groves, and belts, and broad, exuberant, mantling forests, with the largest, most varied, most fruitful, and most beautiful trees in the world. Bright seas made its border with wave embroidery and icebergs; gray deserts were outspread in the middle of it, mossy tundras on the north, savannas on the south, and blooming prairies and plains; while lakes and rivers shone through all the vast forests and openings, and happy birds and beasts gave delightful animation. Everywhere, everywhere over all the blessed continent, there were beauty, and melody, and kindly, wholesome, foodful abundance. http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/1897august/muir.htm 19) One interesting point is whether thinning projects--even if they were done right--pencil out both in terms of carbon reduction as well as economically, not to mention it's questionable whether they are ultimately effective as suggested--at least under severe fire conditions. There is reason to believe that none of the reasons given for thinning make economic or ecological sense. First, a lot of carbon is stored in charred trees and soil. So the idea that we should try to stop forest fires as some suggest because we are worried about adding to global carbon is questionable. I've seen some data that suggests that logging releases a lot more carbon than a fire. Secondly, there is the issue of thinning and its effectiveness. Thinning doesn't appear to stop large fires--which are really the only fires at issue. The average fire doesn't burn many acres, and is also easily controlled if that is the goal. The effectiveness of thinning in slowing or stopping fires declines rapidly, however. So you have to weight the original cost of thinning against its effectiveness life. In addition there is the issue of probability--will a fire actually burn that particular thinned area? In reality there is a very low probability that any particular thinned acreage will be touched by a fire according to some recent studies. Third, there is the question of total carbon emissions that goes with thinning--is this greater than any carbon that is released in a fire--the jury is still out on this, but as suggested below it's quite possible that thinning may be responsible for more carbon emissions than just letting the forest burn. Fourth, large fires not only account for the majority of all acreage burned annually, but they are also responsible for doing the majority of all ecological " work " that results from fires. So even if thinning worked, I would question whether we want to see big blazes reduced. wuerthner UK: 20) When Steve writes that all lumber is sustainable, I suppose that could be true, in a really well managed forest. One of the difficulties in discussing this is that humans have short memories; the fact that London had to pass a moratorium on new buildings because England was burning up all its trees for firewood (before they discovered they could burn coal) is a fact known only to those who have studied the rise and fall of energy economies. Is a lumber industry sustainable? Trees do, in fact, grow back. Ecosystems, however, take much longer to recover (if they ever do). A lumber industry following permaculture principles would be more than sustainable; it might also reap rewards in improved water quality, better camping/sightseeing, sale of under-canopy food products (such as " wild " grapes, strawberries, currants) in addition to participating in the carbon-offset market. http://homeofthefuture.blogspot.com/2008/03/old-growth-forests-and-atmospheric-c\ o2.html 21) Buying woodland is becoming an increasingly astute move for people wishing to find a haven for their cash. Britain's woodland sector is booming and the value of commercial holdings has surged by up to 40 per cent in the past year. The value of some woodland areas has doubled in four years and average prices last year were £4,250 a hectare, 80 per cent up on sales agreed during 2006, according to the latest forestry market audit by UPM Tilhill and Savills, the property consultancy. After the credit crunch in the banking world, increasing numbers are anxious to acquire their own stretch of ancient woodland or commercial forest. Demand is outstripping supply at all levels: investors range from hedge-fund millionaires to small-time entrepreneurs with £100,000 to £250,000 to spend. The buoyancy of the market has also been attributed to the growing trend for green living. The forestry report says that demand is intense throughout the UK, with the highest prices for woods within easy access to London and the South East. Average sale prices here vary between £8,000 and £12,000 a hectare. Woodland in more remote areas fetch £2,000 to £5,000 a hectare. Owning trees is fashionable. It does wonders in reducing the carbon footprint because growing trees absorb carbon dioxide. Woodland and trees are also fun and provide an amenity for family outings, barbecues, bird-watching, shooting, paintballing and mushroom picking. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3599703.ece 22) WOODLAND restoration work in Gwynedd is providing a handy source of timber to meet a growing interest in charcoal making. Coed Cadw (Woodland Trust) workers have been thinning a large beech plantation to encourage the regeneration of native trees at Coed Llettywalter, near Harlech. Felled timber is now being used by the Meirionnydd Oakwoods project to show it's possible to add value to forestry operations. It's running a two-day charcoal making course at the wood next week. " These days charcoal is used for high value products such as artists drawing materials and for cooking on barbecues - and cash returns can be good, " said Rhydian Roberts of Coed Cadw, one of the partners of the Meirionnydd Oakwoods Habitat Management Project. Day one of the course, setting up a kiln, is on March 25 with the second part on March 28, when the kiln is emptied. Everyone goes home with a bag of charcoal though it's not as easy as it looks, according to semi-retired engineer Rob Morton, of Dolgellau. " It is a very labour-intensive, time-consuming operation and the returns for all the effort seem quite small, " he said. " Charcoal making is certainly something which makes you appreciate just how hard our forefathers had to work. " http://www.dailypost.co.uk/farming-north-wales/farming-news/2008/03/20/help-wood\ lands-make-char coal-55578-20652163/ 23) KIELDER Forest Park is the largest forest in England and one of the largest planted forests in Europe. It covers an area of 60, 000 hectares (230 square miles) and is a public forest, owned by the people of Britain and managed by the Forestry Commission. The Forestry Commission manages the forest to be attractive as well as productive, useful to the community and a recreational resource for both local people and visitors, rich in wildlife both plant and animal, where the natural and cultural heritage is safely conserved. Together with the reservoir, Kielder Water and Forest Park is rapidly becoming one of the North East's " must visit " tourism destinations. Kielder Forest has become a powerhouse of timber production, producing a sustained yield of over 50 lorry loads of timber per day, representing 5% of UK timber production, independently certified as being from well managed forest under the UK Woodland Assurance Standard. The 150 million trees in Kielder Forest contain over three million tonnes of carbon, and as they grow, lock up in their stem-wood some 82,000 tonnes of carbon annually. The management of the forest, including the harvesting machines and timber lorries, results in the release of less than 2,000 tonnes of carbon. Some of the sequestered carbon is released when the trees are harvested, for example for wood-fuel, but a large proportion continues to be locked up for many years in sawn timber products and chipboard. Where timber substitutes for other high embodied energy materials such as concrete, steel or aluminium, and where wood-fuel replaces fossil fuels, there are substantially greater carbon savings. http://www.nebusiness.co.uk/business-sector-reports/business-innovation-north-ea\ st/2008/03/20/f orests-and-tackling-climate-change-kielder-forest-a-case-study-51140-20651942/ Haiti: 24) A country whose area in 1923 was 60% forest, Haiti today retains less than 2% of its original tree cover. This denuding process has triggered the unnaturally rapid desertification of a once lush tropical nation and has left many questioning how to slow the catalysts and reverse the depredation. The cycle of deforestation began soon after European's settled in Haiti, the western one-third of the Caribbean island, Hispaniola, which was ceded by the French from Spain in 1697. Haiti's economy was based strictly on the production of sugar and the extraction of timber for exportation. Both of these industries proved to be extremely profitable yet at great detriment to the integrity of the country's environment and social structure, one whose main pillars were African slave labor and absentee plantation ownership. As part of the so called " sugar island " system, thousands of acres of Haiti's most pristine land were cleared of trees to make room for vast sugarcane plantations. Of Haiti's 8.7 million people 80% live below the poverty line. More than half of the country lives in abject poverty. With no access to electricity, 75-80% of the population relies on wood-based charcoal to cook and to provide fuel for heat and light. This dependence on charcoal as a primary source of energy coupled with the country's booming population have perpetuated the consumption of trees and exacerbated Haiti's deforestation crisis. With 98% of its trees gone, the land is unable to anchor its topsoil, which it loses to erosion at a rate of 36 million tons per year. The soil erosion and the land's inability to absorb water has led to a severe drop in the land's productivity, leaving the two-thirds of Haiti's population who depend on small-scale subsistence farming to feed themselves and make a living, to vie for the few remaining arable plots. Having almost no trees to breath water vapor back into the air has also led to decreased rainfall, which is rapidly transforming Haiti into the Caribbean's only desert. When rain does come it falls unimpeded to earth and has nowhere to go but overland, resulting in conditions ideal for flooding. The rapid growth in Haiti's population has forced many to relocate to marginal areas such as floodplains and steep hillsides increasing death tolls during periods of severe weather. http://www.diplomaticourier.org/web_feature_157_Haiti_Environment.html Costa Rica: 25) For more than half a century, the La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica has provided researchers with the data needed to study everything from local amphibian and reptile populations to global warming. To meet a growing demand for La Selva's treasure trove of biological and environmental data, the main facilities are getting a $785,000 high-tech makeover that includes wireless access to measurement systems that collect and transmit data and provide a dynamic 3-D analysis of the rainforest canopy. The Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS) at the University of California, Los Angeles, plans to develop and expand its mobile sensor platforms and sensor arrays as well as the information technology and infrastructure used to store and share the collected information. The upgrade—funded by the National Science Foundation—will enable researchers to take core microclimate measurements and precise wind measurements as well as measure carbon dioxide (CO2) differences up through the rainforest's canopy. It will also be used to set up networks of video and acoustic monitoring capabilities for animal and plant studies. " We're getting cutting-edge technology that's never been used before, " says Philip Rundel, a U.C.L.A. biology professor and ecologist studying ecosystem dynamics and carbon flux at La Selva. " One of the most challenging things in a rainforest is that there's more diversity off the ground than on the ground. Access to this has always been a problem. " The project's main goal is to collect large amounts of data such as temperature, humidity, CO2 and solar radiation from sensors placed throughout a five-acre (two-hectare) study area in the La Selva rainforest. This data can then be used to analyze the spatial and temporal dynamics of environmental conditions, including baseline data for global climate change and their relevance to changes in regional land use patterns. Rundel and his team will use LabVIEW software from Austin, Tex.–based National Instruments Corporation to analyze microclimate patterns and carbon flux over a specific area of the forest. National Instruments also supplies the controllers used in the researchers' fixed and mobile measurement platforms, with the latter able to move above the forest's 98-foot- (30-meter-) high canopy like high-wire walkers along cables connecting three 148-foot- (45-meter-) tall towers. http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=rainforest-climate-change Belize: 26) Spanish Creek Rainforest reserve nestled in the tropical rainforest with sustainable agriculture has a bamboo plantation devoted to raising awareness in sustainability in our country Belize. Food security is important. Sustainable subsistence garden within the rainforest has permaculture design in mind. Sustainable agriculture is our main concern at Spanish Creek Rainforest reserve. If you are looking for a good program in Belize that involves sustainable agriculture and tropical ecology, you must visit spanish creek rainforest reserve. Farm fresh garden and culinary cooking classes are our special talent. We have the largest collection of Bamboo, tropical clumping bamboo in Central America. sustainable development of housing, bamboo houses and construction in bamboo are practiced at this farm. cooking classes are taught by our chef. We eat what we grow from the organic garden. Permaculture designs are practiced on this bamboo farm in Belize. See the rain forest and its biodiversity in Belize, now!!! Culinary eco-tourism and sustainable agriculture garden working with volunteer, volunteers help assist in food local harvest. Local sustainable food fresh from the farm helps culinary garden assist our guests and volunteers at the rainforest lodge. Camping is a sustainable way of living, local education and solar energy with bio diesel becoming important in the future of Belize. Sustainable development for organic garden located in Belize is truly one of a kind. Organic farming practices on organic farm hosting volunteers devoted to education in permaculture design and assisting in future sustainable development. Tropical eco-system biodiversity secures future wildlife protection. Tropical Ecology study program in the rain forest offers exciting opportunities in field research. Tropical rain forest ecology classes with local instructors are well thought out and thorough. http://belizebamboo.com/?p=133 Brazil: 27) About 35 percent of all logging here in the state of Para feeds charcoal ovens. That charcoal is purchased by companies that resell it for use in steel production. The two biggest importers of that charcoal are China and the United States, according to environmental officials here. After Natos's ovens collapsed in shifting heaps of smoke and ash, police tried to comfort her. It didn't work. She said her husband was away for the day in the city, her eyes welling up as she thought of his return. The ovens, she explained, cost $300 each to make. When the police searched the house, they found her husband's chain saw and confiscated it. " This is going to be a problem, " she said, wiping away a tear. " I have no idea what we are going to do. This is how we survive. " They live miles from their nearest neighbor, so they would likely have to move to find new work that is both legally sanctioned and economically viable. Or they could wait a few weeks until the police and regulators shift their focus elsewhere and rebuild the ovens. The companies that profit on their charcoal might finance the rebuilding. Just before the police and inspectors drove away, one of the environmental agents told Natos that she would be fined about $600 for each oven she tried to rebuild. He also said that they found some cages behind the house. The birds inside were her pets. " Those are illegal, too, " he said. " So we opened the cages and set them free. " About 25 sawmills operate near Tailandia, and inspectors in recent weeks have found that most -- in one way or another -- violate the law. Since Feb. 25, the inspectors have levied more than $2 million in fines here, confiscated more than 8,000 cubic meters of illegal timber and destroyed more than 800 unlicensed charcoal-producing ovens. Those destroyed ovens alone would have consumed about 23,000 young trees in one month, according to average production rates. All of that represents a minuscule fraction of the deforestation in Brazil, where most of the Amazon forest is located. After three years of declining rates of deforestation, cutting has spiked sharply nationwide. The 2,700 square miles cut in the last five months of 2007 followed the clearing of 4,300 square miles during the previous 12 months, according to government figures. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/20/AR2008032003870.\ html 28) Many indigenous tribes can help preserve the rainforest by entering into private business agreements with those who can use medicinal herbs harvested from this region. By buying these herbs, the tribes are sustained and can fend off those who would slash and burn rainforest lands in favor of development. At one time there were originally an estimated four billion acres of Amazon rainforest. As of right now, only 2.7 billion acres remain. Over half of the world's rainforests have been destroyed during the past 50 years, and we are losing rainforest lands at a rate of 75 acres every minute. This amounts to 108,000 acres of decimated rainforest each day, or over 39 million acres of rainforest destroyed each year. Of all the tribes of the Amazon, it is believed that 90 of them have disappeared completely since the year 1900. Companies that harvest medicinal herbs have formed pacts with Amazon tribes such as the Rio Pisque Federation, representing all native tribes along the isolated Pisque River, or the Provenir natives, who finally gained ownership of their lands in 2003 after over 70 years of inhabiting them. The influx of money brought by the harvesting of Amazon rainforest herbs helps the indigenous people stave off such prospectors as loggers and oil exploration. Purchasing their native herbs not only provides the world with outstanding plant materials with incredible healing powers, but also allows the people of the Amazon to retain control over the use of their land and their natural resources. http://findfreedom.wordpress.com/2008/03/21/herbs-from-the-amazon-heal-the-body-\ and-the-rainfor est/ Ecuador: 29) Manuela Omari Ima, a Waorani woman from the Ecuadorian Amazon, was born in the Yasuni National Park, a 2.5 million acre primary tropical rainforest at the intersection of the Andes, the Amazon and the Equator. That intersection is also the heart of a struggle between two plans: one for oil exploration and another that would permanently protect one of the most biologically diverse regions of the planet. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared Yasuni a biosphere reserve in 1989, after biologists found that a mere 2.5 acres of this forest contained as many tree species as in the United States and Canada combined. It is also home to jaguars, woolly and spider monkeys, and harpy eagles -- the most powerful bird of prey in the world. Some of the species in Yasuni, however, live on the brink of extinction: including more than 20 globally threatened mammal species such as the white-bellied spider monkey and the rare golden-mantled tamarin. The animals, birds and plants are not the only species whose numbers are shrinking rapidly. At the time of her birth, Omari Ima, who is now in her mid-thirties and is chair of Amwae, the Waorani women's organization, says that there were some 16,000 Waorani. " Today, there are no more than about a thousand of us left, " says Omari Ima. " It is, simply, a struggle for survival. " One of the key reasons for this, she says, was the arrival of multinational oil companies in the latter part of the 20th century, which represented her tribe's first and forced contact with industrial civilization. Soon displaced to a controlled existence in a reservation, Omari Ima's family and tribe was divided, just as the rainforest itself soon became divided by roads and oil fields. A new plan, yet to be funded, could bring a halt to this exploration, but some damage has already been done. Yasuni sprawls over two countries -- Ecuador and Peru -- both of whom see the Amazon as a potentially lucrative source of income. In August 2004, when Brazilian president Lula da Silva came on a state visit, the Ecuadorian government granted an environmental license for Petrobras, the Brazilian state-owned corporation, to drill for oil in Block 31. Also known as the Ishpingo Tambococha Tiputini (ITT) oilfields, ITT is believed to hold up to a billion barrels of oil, almost a quarter of the country's total known reserves. At today's oil prices, this could mean revenue of over $700 million a year. (The Peruvian government has just approved environmental impact studies for two areas -- known as Blocks 67 and 39, that have been acquired by U.S.-based Barrett Resources and Repsol of Spain.) http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14982 Pakistan: 30) According to Forest Department sources, the Punjab government is spending Rs 3.67 billion on mega project for forest and wildlife. The department is expanding forests over 100,000 acres of land in the province by planting 22 million trees under a six-year programme. " Being a signatory of the United Nations convention on climate change, Pakistan is working to mitigate threats of climate change and protect biodiversity from the emerging threats of anthropogenic forces, " sources added. One mature tree produces 4.6 tonnes of oxygen, absorbs 6.3 tonnes of CO2, drops 55 kilogrammes of organic matter, and retains 30,000 litres of water annually. These figures are illustrative and are based on research carried out in Germany. Moreover, one mature tree releases oxygen for 36 infants and 10 trees produce a cooling effect equal to a one-tonne air conditioner, it said. Punjab has an area of approximately 1.69 million acres, out of which about 0.17 million acres coniferous consists of forests, 0.64 million acres of scrub forests, 0.37 million acres of irrigated plantations, 0.15 million acres of riverine forests, 0.32 million acres of range land, and 47,307 kilometres of linear plantation on roadsides of canals and railways. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C03%5C21%5Cstory_21-3-2008_p\ g7_42 India: 31) Well, that's the first time I've fished in the middle of a forest fire. On the last day of our mahseer-fishing trip to India's River Cauvery, we sat under the starlight and talked about the expedition's adventures. Everyone had a different highlight: monkeys stealing the toothpaste; chasing a hooked mahseer a mile downstream; visiting a festival dedicated to Brahma; being warned to clear off by a big bull elephant; fishing 200ft above the river at the scary Mekedatu pool, where drunken Indians fall off and drown on a weekly basis. But mine was sitting with my feet in the river, blazing embers dropping all around me, watching the world burn. Saad, an Indian prince who runs the Bushbetta camp, said forest fires were common at this time of year, but that they rarely came into the valley. So for two nights, we watched pockets of flame dot the hills beyond. But one day, the fires moved into our domain. They crept closer and closer on the river's far bank, until we sat fishing just 100 yards from the flames. You could feel the heat. The blue sky turned smoky grey. Hundreds of bee-eaters, rollers, fly-catchers and other birds reaped the harvest of insects fleeing the flames. Squadrons of nightjars took over as the light started to fade. We returned to camp at dusk to be greeted with an even more spectacular sight. As far as we could see, the dry scrub was aflame on the opposite flank of the valley, lighting up trees with a golden glow. Fire sprites danced and died. It was like entering Mordor. You could imagine huge armies of orcs camped, waiting to attack, on the opposite bank. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/fishing-lines-mind-the-crocs-a\ s-fires-burn-bri ght-in-indias-forests-of-the-night-799550.html 32) The sinharaja rainforest is most important forest in Sri Lanka. It is about 9000 hectares In extent. Over 60% of the tree species are found only in Sinharaja rainforest. Many of the plants are very rare.The sinharaja rainforest is the largest rainforest reserve in Sri Lanka. In 1989 UNESCO included this forest in the world heritage list, as the National Heritage of Sri Lanka.There are many rare animals, birds, butterflies, insects, reptiles and trees. These are very valuable things for the people. Sinharaja provides a habitat for animals. And also Sinharaja has beautiful waterfalls, hills, hills, flowers and rocks. Studied have recorded 147 species of birds in sinharaja. The average height of trees in the sinharaja veries between 35 to 40 meters. Some trees are above 50 meters. The sinharaja rain forest is a valuable source of people. So we must protect this as our eyes. http://sajaniishara.wordpress.com/2008/03/22/sinharaja-rainforest/ 33) The major task before the country is to rehabilitate degraded forests, increase productivity and enhance the contribution of forests towards poverty alleviation among people living in and around forests, Minister of State for Environment and Forests S. Regupathy said on Friday. Speaking at World Forestry Day celebrations here, he said India was actively participating in different forest-related international processes. It had highlighted the gaps in the implementation of sustainable forest management in the decisions of the Bali Conference on Climate Change and on other international forums. Referring to this year's theme " Forest and Climate Change, " Mr. Regupathy said the process of economic growth and development through industrialisation and urbanisation led to emission of greenhouse gases (GHG), causing a rise in global temperature. " Carbon dioxide is the dominant GHG accounting for about half of the total global warming contribution by all GHGs together. We have to work very hard to increase land area under forest and achieve one-third area of the country under forest and tree. " On the National Forest Policy, the Minister said its aim was to provide environmental stability and ecological balance including atmospheric equilibrium, which were vital for the sustenance of all life forms — human, animal and plants. " India's forests are primarily considered social and environmental resources. The institutional framework of forest development is shifting from regulatory to participatory mode of administration and will be more people-oriented in future. " Earlier in his keynote address, R.K. Pachauri, Director-General of The Energy and Resources Institute, said forests were " our biggest treasure. Application of science can help in increasing forest cover and development of forests which are under great stress. " http://www.hindu.com/2008/03/22/stories/2008032254330900.htm 34) Every inch of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park forests will be watched. Not by predators on the prowl, but by distant satellites. The forests on Mumbai's outskirts will be the first in India to be electronically scanned for poachers and encroachers, as well as to trace the route guards take through the woods. The Mumbai experiment could be India's hope of saving its rapidly depleting forest cover and vanishing plant and animal species. And your grandchildren may still be able to see the Indian tiger — just 1,411 left at last count. Countries like the US, Canada and Australia use the system to tackle bushfires and replenish trees cut for timber. Several Mediterranean nations and African countries like Ghana also use it to protect their forests. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will install the Geographical Information System (GIS)-based software surveillance network, GeoVun, in the Borivali forests. TCS, along with Conservation Action Trust (CAT) and WTI Advanced Technology Limited, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Maharashtra. According to the agreement, which is still to be made public, GeoVun allows the users to identify best routes for patrolling, perform spatial analysis and produce reports. It integrates all maps and tables, and is a one-point warehouse of all the park data. The system will be implemented in next six months. After reviewing results, it can be applied to other forests in the country. The software will also help the forest management analyse movement of animals. Hindustan Times has a copy of the agreement, finalised on October 18, 2007, but forest officials are quiet about the project. " It will be announced formally after all details are worked out. All we can say is this system will be best forest management tool we have ever had and will operate on a digital platform to tackle problems of encroachment and poaching of wildlife, " said Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Bimal Majumdar. TCS will foot the Rs 30-lakh project cost under its Corporate Social Responsibility program. It refused to comment before a formal announcement. http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=a59f5c9a-c75d-4090-803\ 4-7ce27fb8a2f7 & & Headline=Eye+in+the+sky+for+Mumbai%e2%80%99s+jungles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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