340 - Earth's Tree News

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Today for you 35 new articles about earth's trees! (340th USA edition)

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Weblog: http://olyecology.livejournal.com

 

--Washington: 1) Unthinned forests and blowdown not a fire hazard, 2)

Destroying every creek habitat they build on, 3) 2,200 acre Olympic

logging plan blocked, 4) What happens when you cut nearly every tree

down, 5) Latest in Weyco's empire, 6) Save Blanchard Mtn., 7) 1,000

acres saved near Alrlington, 8) Her name was Karen Fant,

--Oregon: 9) Citizens get changes to LSR logging plan, 10) Latest in

wilderness protections, 11) What's wrong with AX men, 12) Appeal

settlement in Malheur NF,

--California: 13) Sierra Nevada Alliance conference, 14) Santa Cruz

Blue Gum Killer punished, 15) Oak woodlands in El Dorado County, 16)

Photographing activists who protest logging, 17) Tejon ranch

destruction, 18) Why is Tejon ranch a scam, 19) Shame on enviros for

selling out Tejon ranch, 20) " open space " doesn't mean preservation,

--Idaho: 22) A million acres of Payette NF " incinerated " since 1993

--Montana: 23) Montanans for Multiple Use, 24) Big Sky Greenwash,

--Colorado: 25) Oil and gas leases withdrawn

--Arizona: 26) McCain's Land exchange

--Missouri: 27) Save Smith Creek, 28) 8 acre of old forest to make way

for senior center,

--Ohio: 29) 400 acres of forest protected in Muskingum County

--Virginia: 30) 5,000 acres protected as Channels State Forest

--Pennsylvania: 31) Stop oil and gas wells in the Allegheny

--Florida: 32) ¾ of million state dollars supports burgeoning wood

pellet empire,

--USA: 33) Green lining to real-estate cloud, 34) Suit filed against

NF planning rules, 35) Conservation easements fail the smell test,

 

Washington:

 

1) Ranger Lance Koch said that a fire assessment has determined there

is only a " low risk " of fire and insect infestation in the wake of the

massive quantity of blowdown from the savage December storm. They

looked at historic patterns, noting there's been 16 fires in the Lake

Quinault area since 1970, and all but one was less than one-tenth of

an acre in size. Forestwide, there's only been 65 fires since 1930.

Historically, weather in the Quinault area has only allowed one to

four days where the potential exists for wildfire to spread if

ignited. " What's to our benefit here is that this is a wet area and

is, in fact, the wettest area in the continental 48 with 140 inches of

rain a year, " Koch said. About the only danger of fire is if a human

caused it, Koch said, adding that lightning strikes in the area are

rare. And, as a result, Koch said there are no plans to allow any more

salvage operations or logging in the national forest than there would

have been before the storm toppled nearly 500 acres worth of forest.

That figure includes 120 acres in the Lake Quinault area alone, Koch

said. The National Forest Service had allocated a 19 million board

feet limit for the forest before the storm and the ranger said that

figure has not changed as a result of what some in the forest industry

say could be as much as 50 million board feet of timber lying on the

ground. The quota of timber mainly is comprised of thinning parts of

the forest, but Koch said a few million board feet will be in the form

of salvage sales, including 15 acres of solid blowdown in the Cook

Creek area of Quinault. He said in order to get an increase in the

quota, it requires legislative effort. Koch said he can't make the

request himself. Koch and Olympic National Forest spokesman Brandan

Schulze said they were unaware of anyone in Congress making that

request. George Behan, a spokesman for Congressman Norm Dicks, said he

didn't think Dicks had made that request and thought even if the

congressman did, it might be too late to do anything about it.

http://www.thedailyworld.com/articles/2008/05/10/local_news/02news.txt

 

 

2) It happens one creek at a time as bulldozers and pavement disrupt

the natural flow of water through the ecosystem, destroying habitat

and sending billions of gallons of polluted runoff into the Sound. The

loggers arrived in July, toppling 35 acres of Douglas firs and cedars.

The bulldozers and excavators followed, scraping away the topsoil and

leveling the land to golf-course smoothness. At McCormick Woods the

next victim is Anderson Creek, once one of the most unspoiled streams

flowing to Sinclair Inlet. Today, there are plans to build hundreds of

homes around it. " Bye-bye, Anderson Creek, " said Ed O'Brien, a

stormwater engineer for the state Department of Ecology. By this

summer, the first of 166 homeowners will move here, to a place called

McCormick Woods, west of Port Orchard in Kitsap County and a mile

upstream from Puget Sound. It's an unremarkable transformation that

happens every day. And it's one of the biggest threats to Puget Sound.

Bigger, more affordable homes are one reason why people are drawn to

places that were recently forest land, such as McCormick Woods. The

way we grow is undermining our promises to protect and restore Puget

Sound, and could hobble a new rescue plan on which we may be asked to

commit as much as $18 billion on top of the $9 billion we already

expect to spend by 2020. Even as we continue to push to protect Puget

Sound, the entire effort is up against the fact that we also need to

make room for as many as 4 million more people who could move here

this century. And as we do, we are gradually eating away at the

Sound's finely tuned water-cleaning system by leveling as much as

10,000 acres of forest every year. -- 1) Efforts to regulate

stormwater are politically toxic, and state officials have balked at

tougher, more costly controls. 2) The developments we allow lag behind

the latest stormwater designs, because many county and city goverments

are still using 16-year-old rules. 3) Even the newest engineering

standards, some of the strictest in the country and ones that could

add thousands of dollars to the cost of a home, aren't enough to stop

the damage. 4) Perversely, developers who try promising new approaches

to addressing stormwater face red tape that creates costly delays or

hurts effectiveness.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004405985_growth_stormwater20m0\

..html

3) A federal judge has blocked a plan to log 2,200 acres in Olympic

National Forest. U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton says the

National Forest Service approved the Bear Creek Saddle logging

operation under changes the Bush administration made to the Northwest

Forest Plan in 2004. Those changes, which weakened environmental

protections, have been struck down as illegal. Leighton sent the

matter back to the Forest Service to conduct a new environmental

assessment of the logging's impact.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_wa_olympics_logging.html

 

4) " All of our public institutions that were supported by this

economic activity began to crumble, " said John Calhoun, director of

the Olympic National Resources Center, an entity created by the

Washington State legislature that brings together industry,

environmental, government and native groups to forge sustainable

forest and marine policies. " It was devastating not only economically,

but it was devastating philosophically, " Calhoun said, " and it was a

depression in people's attitude, about the world being turned upside

down for reasons they couldn't understand or agree with. " " Logging had

a certain appeal, a romance if you will, " said Ted Spoelstra, 89, who

began working in the industry in the 1940s. " It was a sad day, there's

no question about that, and it still is, " he recalled about the ruling

in 1990. " There was a lot of environmental pressure coming from the

Department of Natural Resource people and they started that spotted

owl stuff. They thought that old growth was sacred. " Allowable

harvests in the Olympic National Forest dwindled and the unemployment

rate in Forks shot up to just under 20 percent in 1991. Now just 4.5

percent of the jobs in Clallam County, which houses Forks, are related

to forest products, according to the Washington Forest Protection

Association. " Logging had a certain appeal, a romance if you will, "

said Ted Spoelstra, 89, who began working in the industry in the

1940s. " It was a sad day, there's no question about that, and it still

is, " he recalled about the ruling in 1990. " There was a lot of

environmental pressure coming from the Department of Natural Resource

people and they started that spotted owl stuff. They thought that old

growth was sacred. " Allowable harvests in the Olympic National Forest

dwindled and the unemployment rate in Forks shot up to just under 20

percent in 1991. Now just 4.5 percent of the jobs in Clallam County,

which houses Forks, are related to forest products, according to the

Washington Forest Protection Association.

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1542183/

 

5) Weyerhaeuser Corp.'s $6 billion divestiture of its container board,

packaging and recycling business to International Paper Co. received

Department of Justice clearance on Monday. The deal is part of a

radical reshaping of the forest product giant spawned by unprecedented

declines in the housing market and driven by president Daniel S.

Fulton, a 32-year veteran of Weyerhaeuser who took over in January.

Like many companies whose fortunes are tied to the housing market,

Weyerhaeuser has seen demand evaporate for many of its wood products.

On May 2, the company reported that first-quarter sales dropped to

$3.4 billion from $4.5 billion a year earlier. It was the

fifth-consecutive quarterly drop in revenue. As a result, Fulton and

his deal team, including vice president of acquisitions and

divestments Theodore W. Cozine, have been in nearly nonstop deal mode.

As Fulton told shareholders in April, the plan is to get 108-year-old

Weyerhaeuser refocused on what it knows best, trees. " In the future,

we'll operate on a world-class scale and profitability in Timberlands.

We will have other businesses, but we will only manufacture products

where we have the technology, a unique skill or opportunity, and the

ability to do so in a capital-efficient manner. This is how we are

positioning Weyerhaeuser to grow in areas that present the greatest

opportunities for value creation. "

The $6 billion divestiture to International Paper is by far the

company's biggest strategic move, but since January 2007, Weyerhaeuser

has: 1) Sold dozens of building materials distribution centers in

Canada and the U.S. 2) Combined its fine paper business with similar

assets of Domtar Inc. to form Domtar Corp., 3) Restructured its

international joint venture holding, 4) Announced a strategic review

of its commercial construction sales business, 5) Shuttered at least a

dozen mills, and 6) sold or reduced production at a handful of others.

http://www.thedeal.com/corporatedealmaker/2008/05/coverage_of_the_housing_crisis\

..php

 

6) Blanchard Mountain towers more than 2,200 feet above Samish Bay --

along with adjacent Chuckanut Mountain it's the only place where the

Cascade Range touches the briny tidelands. Here on the dome of stone

generations of hikers have paused to sit and snack on sandwiches or

crackers and cheese while taking in with wide eyes panoramic views of

Samish, Guemes, Lummi, Cypress, Orcas and the other San Juan Islands.

On the clearest days, you can gaze from the Oyster Dome to the Olympic

Mountains and even Mount Rainier. Trails climb Blanchard Mountain from

Chuckanut Drive at its bottom and circle its slopes from trailheads on

the south, to Lily and Lizard lakes, Raptor Ridge, North Butte and

other points. Sandwiched between the fast-growing cities of Bellingham

and Mount Vernon, hardly more than an hour's drive from Seattle and

snow-free virtually year-round, Blanchard Mountain is heavily hiked,

ridden by mountain bikers and equestrians, and serves as a premier

launch site for hang gliders and parasailors. So if you want to see

Blanchard Mountain as it is, you might want to do it soon. " It's an

outrage, " says Frank Eventoff, a resident of Bow just south of there.

" Here we have this gem, this treasure that we live around. In 50 years

it will all be old-growth. It will be priceless. It's used by so many

for recreation. I'd like to see it protected for conservation and

recreation, and managed responsibly. " The Washington Department of

Natural Resources, which is required to generate revenue from its

lands for the state school trust, insists that it will be managed

responsibly. In 2003 the DNR convened a panel of diverse interests to

develop a strategic plan for the 4,827 acres it controls there. Some

1,600 acres would become a " core area " managed primarily for mature

forests, recreation and habitat, where timber harvest would be allowed

only to enhance the quality of same. " There's no question (Blanchard

Mountain) is very important to the local recreational community, " says

Bill Wallace, the DNR's Northwest Region manager. " Part of what the

Blanchard Strategies Group did was put in the core the areas most

favored by the recreational community, in terms of the viewscape and

the hiking experience. " However, many area residents, hikers and

conservationists consider the size of the core area and the overall

plan's protection of recreation and habitat inadequate. Two groups

have filed suit against the DNR in King County Superior Court. They

are the Chuckanut Conservancy, a group dedicated to protecting the two

mountains, and the North Cascades Conservation Council, the

51-year-old group that was instrumental in the creation of North

Cascades National Park.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/361963_blanchard08.html

7) Almost 1,000 acres of forest land east of Arlington will be

preserved from development under a purchase agreement approved Tuesday

by the state Board of Natural Resources. The $4.15 million acquisition

of a working tree farm is the largest in a program created by the 2007

Legislature to buy up to $70 million of forest land facing conversion

to housing or other nonforest uses. The 985-acre property was also

given high priority because it is adjacent to existing state trust

land. Conservationists praised the purchase and said the state fund

created to preserve at-risk forests is doing what it was intended to

do. " The biggest threat to forest lands is its conversion to other

uses, even in places once considered as remote as this, " said Gene

Duvernoy, president of the Cascade Land Conservancy. Since the

Legislature approved spending the money last year, the Department of

Natural Resources has focused on purchasing threatened forestland from

willing sellers. The state targets land that, if lost to development,

would threaten the viability of surrounding working

forests. " Washington is losing its working forests to housing

developments and other uses at an alarming rate, " said Doug

Sutherland, commissioner of public lands, in announcing the purchase

agreement. Once the purchase is finalized, the land will become part

of the state's school-trust lands. The proceeds from timber sales on

the land go toward school construction.The property, currently

operated as the Bear Creek Tree Farm, is about five miles east of

Arlington and 10 miles east of Interstate 5. It lies just east of Jim

Creek and an area known as Arlington Heights that is quickly becoming

a commuter suburb of Everett and even Seattle. Hardy Davidson, an

Arlington Realtor who represented the owners in the purchase

negotiations, said there are few small, private timber operations left

in the area. " A lot of things could have happened to this land to move

it toward development if the owners weren't conscientious about

keeping it green, " Davidson said. The owners, Lee Taylor and his

sisters Mary Ellen Hogle and Nancy Taylor Mason, were caught by

surprise by the state's announcement of the sale, which has not yet

been finalized. Taylor said the land has been on the market for about

five years. The family did not want to sell to a developer, but until

the state approved the fund to preserve threatened forests it hadn't

been able to buy the property. The sale price was determined by an

independent appraisal.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004399976_bearcreek08m.html

8) Her name was Karen Fant. Cofounder of the Washington Wilderness

Coalition in 1979, Fant was the embodiment of a conservation community

mantra: endless pressure, endlessly applied. Not one to settle for

waiting, she made great things happen as the most skilled and

dedicated grassroots organizer I've ever met. A leader when the 1984

Washington Wilderness Act passed, Fant's intelligence and good humor

shined out as brightly as her unforgettable smile more than two

decades later. When asked to help, Fant always answered the call. In

summer 2001, Fant and I drove to Index to help piece together the

route and itinerary for the upcoming initial community visit of Sen.

Patty Murray and Rep. Rick Larsen to launch the Wild Sky dialogue. We

found the perfect Cascade summer day -- warm but tempered by cool

breezes swaying the trees, sunlight scattering across the river's

surface like a thousand tiny brilliant lighthouses. How could Murray

and Larsen not love this country? They couldn't. That's the magic

behind Wild Sky Wilderness. Citizen activists such as Fant offered

elected officials, opinion leaders and neighbors a chance to know and

fall in love with Wild Sky. President Kennedy would have admired Fant

and her disciples. She died far too soon in 2006. Perhaps they've met

by now and are looking down -- smiling -- and admiring their shared

vision of good people doing good work.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/362768_wildsky13.html

Oregon:

 

 

9) Thanks to folks like you and the eagle eye of KS Wild, the Klamath

National Forest has amended their original proposal and developed a

project that will have restorative benefits to forests on the

southside of Mt. Ashland. The southside Mt. Ashland Late-Successional

Reserve project was first proposed in 2005. While much of the project

was thinning dense second-growth fir stands that were the result of

previous logging and fire suppression, it also included nine (9) miles

of new road construction along Beaver Creek. A tributary of the ailing

Klamath River, Beaver Creek already has far too many logging roads

that fragment wildlife habitat while bleeding sediment into the creeks

and streams. In response to this proposal, KS Wild and many of our

supporters wrote the Klamath National Forest to applaud the proposed

understory thinning of trees in fire-suppressed forests as a good

first step towards restoring old-growth conditions on these logged

over lands. However, we also heavily discouraged any new road

construction. Over the next year, KS Wild staff spent many hours in

the field with the Forest Service and we are pleased to see that the

public process contributed to a better proposal. The amended project

was released last month and will thin nearly 4,000 acres of dense

forests. The new temporary road construction was reduced from 9 miles

to 1.7 miles (less than a 1/3 of their draft proposal), while they

close 9.3 miles of road and decommission an additional 9 miles of

existing road. The project also proposes to reintroduce fire to 3,747

acres in the planning area (more than a two-fold increase from their

original proposal), which is an extremely valuable effort in restoring

these forests to a more natural condition. Thanks to those of you who

submitted comments on this project. Your voice made a difference! We

are pleased with the process and look forward to future collaborative

efforts that result in restorative activities on public lands in the

Klamath-Siskiyou. http://www.kswild.org

 

10) Momentum continues to gather in Congress for Wilderness

protections for several Oregon areas. This time, it's a hearing for

Soda Mountain. Just a quick note on Wilderness happenings in Congress

today. Sometime today, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural

Resources will likely unanimously pass a bill that contains

protections for 23,000-acres in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument

known as Soda Mountain. That means this ecological wonder will join

Copper Salmon and the Lewis and Clark Mount Hood Wilderness bill as

Wilderness areas ready to pass the Senate floor. You might know by now

that they have to make it past the infamous Dr. No, but there is a

light on the other side of the tunnel since Senate leaders finally

figured out a way to move legislation around Senator Coburn (they just

did it last month to get Washington's Wild Sky Wilderness through).

So, if everything comes together, all of your hard work advocating for

new Wilderness across the state could be coming to fruition soon. As

always, we'll keep you updated. http://www.oregonwild.org/about/blog

 

11) I was watching a little television before bed last night and ran

across a new series called Ax Men on the History Channel. It follows

four logging crews through a season in the remote forests of northwest

Oregon as they work in one of the most dangerous occupations in the

world. As I watched, the little hippie inside of me silently shed a

patchouli-scented tear as each tree was felled, then hauled up the

mountain at breakneck speed (literally). The one-armed, prosthetically

enhanced logger had defeated tree-after-old-growth-tree, and another

house would soon begin construction. After getting out of my morning

shower the visions of falling timber stick stuck to the back of my

head, so I decided to see what the show was doing in terms of

sustainable practices. At the end of a long day, it sure looked like

the Ax Men were simply clear-cutting the side of the mountain at

random, but what did I know? I'm a mid-Western bike commuter with

clean fingernails. He had, well, only five fingernails. I googled and

blogsearched, and while numerous interviews and reviews hint that the

show is doing what it can to promote environmental stewardship, they

don't, however, say how/why/who/when/what they're doing. There isn't

any promotion of replanting, any exhibition of responsible forestry,

or any environmental stewardship whatsoever. Actually, the majority of

the interviews seem to reiterate this comment made by one of the

loggers, " The media has beat us up pretty badly, and I don't think a

lot of people are really educated on how the woods are regulated. " We

are doing something because we know environmental degradation is bad.

But what? What exactly are you doing? Who's watching you do it? Who

recommended you to do it? Who's following up on how you did it or what

affect it had on the environment?

http://insourceoutsource.blogspot.com/2008/05/back-in-minute-i-need-to-greenwash\

..html

 

 

12) The Sierra Club and its environmental partners reached a

settlement with the Malhuer National Forest over the Thorn post-fire

timber sale proposal. After a seven hour appeal resolution meeting in

John Day on May 8th, a few more hours of meetings and calls before and

after this meeting, and a full day of non-stop phone conferencing and

meetings on May 9th - with our attorneys and representatives staying

consistent and strong, we have an agreement that drops all of the

Thorn unroaded, wilderness quality unroaded area from logging

entirely. Agreement details will be forthcoming for all to review.

There is a Wednesday May 14th meeting in John Day with all parties to

finalize the agreement, followed by review by all of our respective

boards and agency officials. Thanks for all your help and support!

Thorn Post-fire timber sale: Located near Dayville spanning 7,456

acres from north facing Aldrich Ridge roadless area to Fields Creek.

On March 7, 2008 the agency signed a decision for logging 21.9 million

board feet from 2,529 acres of forest and another 870 acres of

roadsides, including logging within the wilderness quality " unlogged "

Aldrich roadless area. Fire burned through the area's forests in

August 2006. This project is in appeal period, with appeals due April

26. The Sierra Club has approved appeal and litigation to stop this

ecologically harmful timber sale, with a team of volunteers, allies,

and attorneys involved in this ongoing effort (see the Positions and

Resources page for the appeal document). If negotiations are unable to

resolve conservation issues, a lawsuit will be filed to stop this sale

later in April or early May.

http://oregon.sierraclub.org/groups/juniper/index.asp -

ecoglobalization

 

California:

 

13) Clearcutting the Climate or Carbon Sequestration - What's our

Future? " * Come find out how timber harvesting activities in the Sierra

are affecting climate change. Learn whether the reassurances of the

timber companies " hold water. " Discover the best strategies for our

forests in a climate-altered Sierra. (Comment from TH: I didn't see

anything in the Sierra Nevada Alliance conference that suggests how

their wonderful ideas could be widely implemented. Lots of

intellectualizing, but not much practical proposals for making them

happen. More preaching to the choir, although at least it looks free

of greenwashing. The Aspo folks aren't grassroots, but they do have

some elite players involved. Some " intel " types, too.)

http://www.sierranevadaalliance.org/conference/profile.shtml?index=1047408021_12\

424

 

 

14) The issue: 1) we and our neighbors live near a grove of blue gum

eucalyptus, AKA " gasoline trees " ; 2) summer is approaching and so,

too, is the risk of urban wildfire; 3) after 20 years of debate,

issues are still unresolved… So there was the headline, " The killer of

killer trees is out on a limb in Santa Cruz... with a lead, " Robert

Sward, 68, of Santa Cruz, doesn't look, sound or act like a tree

murderer. " The paper, The Sacramento Bee, after a few kind words about

my poetry ( " his verse, more lovely than any weed tree... " ) went on,

" One might suppose Robert would obey the city ordinance that protects

'heritage trees.' Instead, he flings it down and dances upon it. " Yes,

much as I love the city, I've been at war with the Santa Cruz city

fathers, the majority of whom defend all trees no matter where they

came from or what idiot planted them in the wrong hemisphere because

only God can make a tree. " These so-called progressives speak in a way

that would delight Lewis Carroll, " I am quoted as saying. " A local

version of the Duchess recently told me, 'Diseased or not, two blue

gum eucs constitute a grove... and the tree you removed was a member

of a grove.' All that was missing from our exchange was a queen to

declare, 'Off with his head!' " The blue gum eucalyptus—or 'gasoline

tree,' as firefighters call it—is an invasive exotic from Australia

that evolved with fire. Fire doesn't kill blue gums. Instead, it

clears out the competition and opens their seed pods. Soon after

murdering a tree, I stood before Santa Cruz City Council, our lawyer

present, facing a $9000.fine. For what? Removing one euc and lopping

off a few branches from another. The grove in question, the four or

five shallow-rooted, fire-prone monsters endangering our home, is

situated on our property, property on which we pay taxes. Our

property, our trees, our taxes. It all started in 1991 with the

Oakland Hills/Berkeley fire which killed 20 people and caused more

than $5 billion damage. Fire officials determined the blue gum euc was

a key cause of that tragedy and also the fire storm that later struck

Australia.

http://drswardscureformelancholia.blogspot.com/2008/05/killer-of-killer-trees.ht\

ml

 

15) A plan to protect oak woodlands in El Dorado County while allowing

property owners to remove trees to develop their land has been

approved by the Board of Supervisors. The oak woodland management

plan, the subject of numerous workshops and hearings over the past two

years, allows landowners to take advantage of a fee option available

under the 2004 general plan, the county's blueprint for growth. Until

now, property owners had the choice of compensating for tree removal

by planting trees elsewhere on the property or at another site. With

the oak woodland management plan in place, they have the alternative

of paying a fee toward the purchase of conservation easements to

preserve oak woodlands elsewhere in the county. The management plan

identifies priority conservation areas where easements might be

purchased from willing landowners. It also establishes a

$4,700-per-acre fee to cover the costs of acquiring, monitoring and

maintaining the conservation easements. The board voted 4-1 on Tuesday

to approve the plan, noting that it will be incorporated in a more

comprehensive integrated natural resources management plan yet to be

developed. Supervisor Ron Briggs dissented. " I think the plan is a

good plan, " he said, " but my fear is that we're taking it out of

sequence with the (integrated natural resources management plan). "

Planner Peter Maurer said the oak woodland plan addresses one aspect

of natural resources that could be affected by development in the

county. Developers also have to compensate for projects' effects on

other resources such as rare plants and red-legged frog habitat, he

said.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1376941/plan_approved_to_protect_el_dorado_\

county_oak_woodlands/

 

16) A good idea for a photojournalism project must have relevance,

immediacy, cause controversy, touch a topic outside of the mainstream

media and should affect the emotions of the viewer. Pair that with

beautiful photography, images that drive the narrative with beautiful

aesthetics, and the result is work that causes a broad reaction, work

with significance and impact. I am describing " Forest Defenders " by

Christopher LaMarca, a great project that exemplifies all these

qualities and has served to launch further Christopher's career, with

numerous awards and publications. In this project, Christopher LaMarca

has been photographing environmental activists who protest logging in

the once protected areas of pristine national forests. These days I am

particularly sensitive to logging and the destruction of trees. Few

weeks ago I went to " my " canyon for a run in the afternoon to find it

fenced, access totally restricted, the trees destroyed and cut in

pieces, and all the signs of new multi-million dollar houses coming

in. It happened in few days, just few days to destroy it. Anger is not

enough to describe what I felt. A sense of loss that I will not

forget. Remember the " qualities " when you search for ideas of your

next project: relevance, immediacy, controversy, unconventional,

emotional. This will be a good start for the project. I have been

photographing these activists and loggers since the summer of 2003. My

connection to this project revolves around the passion and endless

work that consumes these people who live in the back-country for

months at a time; and who are willing to sacrifice their comforts' to

stand up for their beliefs. Although these activists are often seen as

radicals or eco-terrorists, little has been documented about their

activities outside of these stereotypes. These stunning landscapes

will continue to be decimated due to political pressure and lack of

education, these are some of last truly wild places left in America.-

Christopher LaMarca http://exposurecompensation.com/

 

17) Almost 90 percent of one of Southern California's best-known

ranches — long the property of one of the state's best-known newspaper

families — will be kept permanently free of development under the

terms of a deal announced on Thursday between the ranch corporation

and five major conservation organizations. " This is the Holy Grail of

conservation in California, " said Joel Reynolds of the Natural

Resources Defense Council. Bill Corcoran, the senior regional

representative of the Sierra Club, added that the property, known as

the Tejon Ranch, which reaches from the firs of the southern Sierra

Nevada across the dry Tehachapi Mountains and west to the coastal

range, " is the keystone for protecting Southern California's natural

legacy. " In return for the commitment to allow easements on roughly

240,000 acres, the groups, including the Sierra Club, Audubon

California and the Natural Resources Defense Council, will give up

their opposition to industrial, resort and residential development on

another 30,000 acres near Interstate 5. The agreement brings to an end

a standoff between Tejon Ranch, a publicly traded company formed after

the Chandler family heirs, onetime owners of The Los Angeles Times,

sold the land more than a decade ago, and conservation groups that

wanted to prevent the ranchland, with its varied ecosystems, from

becoming part of the sprawl of greater Los Angeles. " What this

agreement does today is it clears the way for us to go ahead " and seek

permits for development from local and state environmental and

land-use authorities, said Bob Stine, the executive director of the

ranch, 60 miles north of Los Angeles. " That process can now go ahead

without the environmental groups opposing it. " The lands to be put

under conservation easement would be governed by a new nonprofit

entity, the Tejon Ranch Conservancy. This group would ensure the

permanent protection of about 178,000 acres " through a combination of

dedicated conservation easements and designated project open spaces, "

according to a statement released by the ranch and the groups on

Thursday. In addition, about 10,000 acres would be set aside for 37

miles of the Pacific Coast Trail, which runs from Mexico to Canada and

would be rerouted to the ranch's land. The conservation groups would

have the right to buy — almost certainly with the aid of a

state-sponsored bond issue — another 62,000 acres within three years.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/us/09tejon.html?_r=1 & oref=slogin

 

 

18) There are so many inconsistencies on how much land is proposed to

be preserved..their feel good video on the home page says 100,000

acres..the press release 240,000 acres, LA Times says 270,000. This is

all such BS, but such a media hype and propaganda without any

environmental docs, scientific studies made available for the public

to review...and how much money to subsidize the development projects?

No ITP application, No draft HCP, No state EIR and FWS is only now

taking comments on a draft EIS for what?What project is there on

paper? Why isn't the rest of the

environmental community outraged? -- Leeona Klippstein leeona

 

 

19) Shame on NRDC, Planning & Conservation League, Audubon and

Endangered Habitats League. There is no peer reviewed science to

support the loss of at least 92,000-habitat acres and no guarantees of

having 178,000-acres conserved. All the organizations know that there

are no available funds to pay off the Tejon Ranch developers. When a

species is endangered it needs more habitat in order to recover, not

less. Shame on you all! The fact that these environmental groups and

state agencies have been " negotiating " outside of the law, with Tejon

Ranch corporation, is completely unethical. Until the Tejon Ranch

corporation submits all documents required under environmental laws,

including adequate scientific information in a public forum, these

environmental groups, state agencies and the Governor should not be

making predecisional approvals. The groups say that they have two

years of science, but that scientific information has not been

scientifically peer reviewed or made available to the public. Tejon

Ranch corporation and this handful of environmental groups, a

minority, claim that 178,000 habitat acres will be conserved for

future generations. If you step back and examine this " agreement " as

reported by the media, it quickly and clearly becomes development

propaganda. Do the math and the 90% conserved is not accurate. The

Tejon lands are 270,000 acres and if 178,000 were acquired for

conservation it still would not be 90%. Then from the 178,000 acres

subtract 62,000. (116-acres), because the PUBLIC would have to

actually purchase this amount and therefore subsidize the development

of the 92,000-acres by the Tejon Ranch Corp. Then subtract again,

49,000-acres to be used as a State Park if the public gives additional

money to the corporation. If the public and State and Federal

Government come up with all the money -- an unknown amount -- then the

endangered Condor and dozens of others will possibly get a preserve of

128,000-acres and 49,000-acre State Park, totaling 177,000. It looks

like the Tejon Ranch corporation know how to work the media with a

bunch of spin doctoring. Not a word on how much public money they

intend to get to subsidize the destruction of at least 92,000-acres of

habitat and killing of rare and endangered species. Leeona Klippstein,

Executive Director

Spirit of the Sage Council www.sagecouncil.com leeona

 

 

21) STAMPING land as " open space " doesn't mean it will stay untouched.

In fact, even labeling land as a preserve, a park or as part of the

federal national forest won't prevent strip mining, oil drilling,

timber harvesting, the erecting of electrical towers or high-rise

condos. That's because development pressures have spilled over from

private to public lands, leaving public lands more vulnerable to

environmental degradation than ever before. Today, a road is proposed

through Chino Hills State Park. Oil drilling is being considered on

preserved land within the Whittier/Puente Hills. Massive housing

tracts are proposed for a Significant Ecological Area in Rowland

Heights. That's why it makes sense to take some of our most precious

park and open space - the Arroyo Seco, Eaton Canyon, the Bailey Canyon

Wilderness Park above Sierra Madre, Deukmejian Wilderness Park near La

Crescenta and Hahamongna Park near JPL - and give them National Park

status. Rep. Adam Schiff's bill which is part of the Consolidated

Natural Resources Act, won't make that a certainty. Even though it was

signed by President Bush last week. However, it begins the process for

these West San Gabriel Valley parks and preserves, along with 492,000

acres of foothills and other. parklands rimming the Santa Susanna,

Verdugo and San Gabriel Mountains and San Rafael Hills, to become part

of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. The latter was

designated as a federal park by Congress 30 years ago and has acted as

a bulwark against hillside development, while allowing for flatland

development and commercial growth elsewhere in the region. It has also

provided San Fernando Valley and Westside residents with a plethora of

stunning views and glorious hillside hiking trails. Here in the San

Gabriel Valley, our precious open space is scattered. Some is

overused. Others have been neglected, tossed aside like discarded

trash. Some open-space preserves are disconnected from the populace by

poor roads, poor signage, multi-jurisdictional confusion or just poor

resource planning. While some 655,387 acres have been set aside as our

most notable land preservation - the Angeles National Forest - that's

still not a park. http://www2.sgvtribune.com/opinions/ci_9219740

 

Idaho:

 

22) Since 1993 over a million acres of the Payette National Forest

have been incinerated. In 1994 300,573 acres burned. In 2000 343,347

acres burned. In 2006 over 70,000 acres burned. And in 2007 a whopping

470,529 acres of the Payette NF went up in smoke. That's 1.27 million

acres in 4 of 14 years (I don't have data for the other intervening

years). The Payette NF is 2.3 million acres in size, so using the data

available, 55 percent has burned in the last 14 fire seasons. I have

been told but cannot confirm (because I don't have all the data) that

the actual burn percentage is 70 percent .The nearly half million

acres of the Payette that burned in 2007 was more or less deliberate

on the part of the US Forest Service. They planned it, and then

carried it out.Following the 2006 fire season (70,000 acres) USA Today

ran the following article [here]: Forest fire strategy: Just let it

go, USA Today, November 2006 In the worst year for wildfires in nearly

half a century, it may seem odd to celebrate how well some of them

burned. But the Payette National Forest in central Idaho is doing just

that. " It was a real long season, but we got some nice fire effects, "

says Sam Hescock, a fire management officer on the 2.3-million-acre

forest where more than 150 fires this summer and fall burned about

70,000 acres. " We're pretty happy with what we got. "

http://westinstenv.org/sosf/2008/05/09/the-incineration-of-the-payette/

Montana:

 

23) There's no mincing words for Fred Hodgeboom. He believes in active

forest management, and he says the U.S. Forest Service doesn't do

enough of it. The president of Montanans for Multiple Use has put his

words into action, spearheading a lawsuit against the Flathead

National Forest that recently was denied by a federal judge in

Washington, D.C. Hodgeboom hasn't given up; the court's ruling is

being appealed. " We gave it a try and we're still trying, " said

Hodgeboom, a former planner with the Flathead National Forest who

firmly believes that the forest has run afoul of federal planning

rules and the public's trust.

http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2008/05/12/news/news01.txt

 

24) For a group billing themselves as " environmentalists with common

sense " the Big Sky Coalition sure has a funny way of being green. In

April, the BS Coalition's executive director - a former Forest Service

Supervisor - gave testimony before the House Resources Committee in

Washington, D.C. calling for " large, landscape scale " logging of our

national forests to be accomplished by suspending the National

Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the congressionally-mandated

public appeals process. For those who don't know, NEPA is our nation's

bedrock environmental law that basically requires the federal

government to analyze the potential environmental impacts of their

proposed actions. A few weeks later, according to the Missoula

Independent , " State Sen. Rick Laible (R-Darby) used his position as

chair of the state's Fire Suppression Interim Committee to pimp his

personal agenda. " You see, Senator Laible just happens to be a board

member of the Big Sky Coalition, something he apparently didn't plan

on disclosing to the public, despite the fact that Senator Laible's

hand-picked agenda included two speakers from his very own Big Sky

Coalition. Now, the Ravalli Republic has a story detailing that,

" Ravalli County is alleging that one of the founders of the Big Sky

Coalition built his house in the floodway of the West Fork of the

Bitterroot River. County officials believe that Tom Robak's house sits

in the actual floodway, not just the floodplain, and that

'significant' amounts of fill have been placed. " Maybe this latest

revelation helps explain why the Big Sky Coalition was spending

thousands of dollars last fall running large newspaper ads against

Ravalli County's proposed streamside setback ordinance. Regardless, it

seems as if Kermit the Frog had it right...it's not easy being green.

http://www.newwest.net/citjo/article/big_sky_coalition_founder_built_home_in_flo\

odway/C33/L33/

 

 

Colorado:

 

25) Federal officials are withdrawing most of the proposed oil and gas

leases up for sale in a May 8th auction. The U.S. Bureau of Land

Management said Friday that it will defer offering leases on 144,000

acres out of the original 175,430 acres. The parcels withdrawn are in

the Rio National Grande Forest in southern Colorado. BLM officials say

the parcels could be auctioned later. They'll go over the analysis of

the sites with the Forest Service. The decision comes on the heels of

a request by Rep. John Salazar and his brother, Sen. Ken Salazar, to

defer consideration of the leases. Rio Grande and Saguache

(suh-WAHCH') counties and the towns of Del Norte and Crestone had

raised concerns about the areas eyed for energy development.

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/blm-withdraws-proposed-energy-leases-in/n2008050218\

4409990031

 

Arizona:

 

26) A land deal near, but not so dear, to our hearts came up on the

front page of the Washington Post today in connection with candidate

John McCain. From 1999 to 2005, Western Lands worked with

environmental groups and citizen activists in Arizona to challenge a

land trade between Yavapai Ranch and the Prescott National Forest. The

swap proposal energized hundreds of residents in the Verde Valley,

where national forest land would be converted into commercial and

retail development near the towns of Camp Verde and Clarkdale.

Citizens mounted a strong and intelligent campaign against the deal.

McCain called " town hall " meetings to mollify them, but even after

hundreds showed up, asking him to drop the trade, McCain barrelled on

through. A generous contributor to McCain's campaign stands to benefit

by the trade. Read the Washington Post article by Matthew Mosk here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/08/AR2008050803494.\

html?hpid=topnews

- http://westernlands.org

Missouri:

 

 

27) The Cedar Creek District of the Mark Twain National Forest is

much-used and much-beloved. And no portion of the Cedar Creek District

is more special or better loved than the beautiful and still

surprisingly remote Smith Creek proposed Wilderness Area above and

below the old Rutherford Bridge connecting Boone and Callaway

Counties. For more than 25 years, conservationists have worked with

the Forest Service to respect and protect the authentic wilderness

character of Smith Creek's streams, bluffs, pinnacles, forests,

wildlife, and solitude. In 2007, Smith Creek was included in a

statewide proposal along with six other Missouri areas for designation

as a federal Wilderness Area. But now Smith Creek is threatened as

part of the proposed Southwest Project. Through this project, the

Forest Service plans extensive management and development within the

proposed Smith Creek Wilderness. Because of their significant impacts,

such activities would effectively and permanently preclude future

Wilderness designation of the recently acquired Epple Tract, a

critical part of the proposed Smith Creek Wilderness with frontage on

Cedar Creek. Activities proposed in the Epple Tract of Smith Creek

include: 1) Even-aged logging (Shelterwood/Seed Tree) 2) Uneven-aged

logging, clearing groups up to two acres, 3) Road development, 4)

Construction of two parking areas and a boat access, 5) Cattle

grazing, fence construction, and fertilizer applications, 6)

Prescribed fire. -- While some management may be of benefit to the

overall landscape, much of the Southwest Project, including Smith

Creek, emphasizes even-aged management, such as clearcut and

shelterwood (two-stage clearcut) logging. Even-aged logging does not

mimic natural processes in this area, and serves only the interests of

subsidized resource extraction from our public lands. The economy in

Boone and Callaway Counties, unlike much of the Ozarks, does not rely

on timber, making it even more inappropriate to promote this type of

management here. Please fill out all blanks in the form and then press

the " send comments " button at the bottom.

https://www.heartwood.org/action.html?id=148

 

28) Standing before the Columbia Planning and Zoning Commission last

night, northeast Columbia resident R.L. Garnett didn't have the words

to express her opposition to a proposal to replace 8 acres of climax

forest with a 275,300-square-foot senior living facility near her

home. Instead, she let the forest speak for itself in a six-minute

slideshow of pictures detailing the trees, flowers and leafy hills on

the property now. The slideshow was set to Samuel Barber's " Adagio for

Strings. " " Please consider this my statement on behalf of the trees

that will be destroyed, " Garnett said. Concerns from nature-loving

neighbors aside, commissioners voted 6-0 to recommend that the

Columbia City Council approve the project. " I understand your

concerns, " Chairman Jeff Barrow told the few residents who attended

the meeting to get more information about the project. " If I lived

with that forest, I would be really sad to see it go, too. "

Oklahoma-based developer SOCH LC asked to rezone about 11 acres off

Berrywood Drive, between Columbia Regional Hospital and the Woodridge

neighborhood, from single-family residential to planned office. The

project, Silver Oak Senior Living, will include a 100-unit independent

living facility, a 75-unit assisted living facility and two medical

office buildings. Allen Hahn, chairman of the Woodridge Neighborhood

Association, said he reluctantly supports the project but appreciates

the developer working with the neighbors since July to try to answer

their concerns. " We're disappointed at seeing the forest occupied by

anything but climax trees, but we don't own it, " Hahn said. " The

feeling of the board and the neighborhood was this is probably the

best thing we could expect. " A " climax forest " is defined by the city

as a woodland area of more than 25,000 square feet that primarily

consists of hardwood trees such as oak, hickory, sugar maple and

sycamore. http://www.columbiatribune.com/2008/May/20080509News008.asp

Ohio:

 

29) ZANESVILLE - More than 400 acres of forest in Muskingum County is

now permanently protected by the federal Forest Legacy Program. The

436-acre, privately-owned forest is the first Ohio forest to be

permanently protected by the program. The forest is owned by Superior

Hardwoods of Ohio, Inc. The Wellston-based company manufactures and

exports hardwood lumber and logs, buys standing timber, saw logs and

veneer logs. Emmett Conway Jr., president of the company, said the

land was acquired by Superior Hardwoods in 1988. " I think the program

is excellent, " he said. " That was the purpose of purchasing the land,

to preserve it. " The forest is located on Boy Scout Road, on the north

end of the Tri-Valley Wildlife area along the Muskingum River. A

one-time payment is made to the land owner in exchange for voluntarily

agreeing to permanently maintain the forest as a managed forest. The

program is funded through the United States Department of Agriculture

Forest Service and coordinated in Ohio by the ODNR Division of

Forestry. Permanently protecting the land consists of prohibiting it

from being developed, guaranteeing public access to it and

preservation, according to David Lytle, chief of the Division of

Forestry for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. " This has

provided us with a lot of experience and the opportunity to raise the

profile for the program. We know it works and we look forward to

working with other land owners, " he said. Gene Wells, a real estate

administrator with ODNR, said it took two years to complete the

program because there's so much federal paperwork. " The conservation

easement is a layer of the ownership of the land we're purchasing to

help maintain the property as a whole, so it's not broken up and sold

in parts, " he said. The total value of the easement is $349,000, of

which the U.S. Forest Service paid $261,750 and the remaining $87,250

was donated by the landowner.

http://zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080509/NEWS01/80\

5090343/1002

 

Virginia:

30) Virginia is protecting nearly 5,000 acres of rugged woodland from

development in far southwest Virginia. The state has dedicated 4,836

acres known as Brumley Mountain in Washington and Russell counties as

Channels State Forest. Part of the Clinch Mountain Range, the forest

contains the 400 million-year-old Great Channels, a narrow sandstone

passageway through which hikers walk. " To truly appreciate the

tremendous conservation success Virginia has achieved with the

protection of Brumley Mountain, you need to stand among the ancient,

weathered sandstone boulders and take in the long mountain views, "

said Brad Kreps, director of The Nature Conservancy's Clinch Valley

Program. The Virginia Department of Forestry purchased the land from

The Nature Conservancy for nearly $3.8 million. It consists mostly of

hardwood forests and several steep slopes. The addition of the land to

the 18 other state forests will ensure that future Virginians can

enjoy the natural scenery, said Joe Maroon, director of the state

Department of Conservation and Recreation. Channels, the only state

forest in the region, is already open for those with state forest

hunting permits. Trails will be developed to better accommodate hiking

and horseback riding, said John Campbell, spokesman for the Department

of Forestry. He said 720 acres, including the Great Channels, have

been designated the first Virginia Natural Area Preserve in the state

forest system. The designation will help the state protect plant

species such as the Carolina saxifrage, as well as the examples of

Southern Appalachian northern hardwood forests and high-elevation cove

forests, Campbell said. http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25 & sid=1401759

 

Pennsylvania:

31) The Forest Service is proposing to lease 101 acres of

federally-owned mineral rights to Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE)

for drilling at least six oil and gas wells in the Salmon Creek area

of the Allegheny National Forest. The Forest Service dubbed Salmon

Creek as one of the " most threatened landscapes " in the Allegheny just

a couple years ago due to the high amount of oil and gas drilling that

has already occurred in this area. Now, the Forest Service wants to

increase those impacts by leasing the federal minerals it owns. The

Forest Service originally proposed this lease last year but cancelled

the project after the Allegheny Defense Project pointed out that the

agency violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by

relying on outdated environmental analyses to approve the lease.

Unfortunately, instead of scrapping the lease altogether, the Forest

Service found a loophole called the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The

Forest Service is now proposing to categorically exclude the leasing

of these federal minerals pursuant to the Energy Policy Act. This

means there will be no analysis of the environmental impacts of the

drilling and no opportunity for public comment pursuant to NEPA. The

Forest Service is bending over backwards to lease these minerals to

PGE. Please contact the Forest Service and tell them to cancel this

ill-conceived proposal once and for all. For more information:

http://www.alleghenydefense.org

 

 

Florida:

 

32) Governor Charlie Crist and Tom Pelham, Secretary of the Department

of Community Affairs (DCA) granted $750,000 of state funds to benefit

a foreign company who will manufacture wood pellets for the European

power industry. Green Circle Bio Energy Inc., owned by the Swedish

company JCE Group, will get water and sewer connections to their new

industrial complex, thanks to Florida taxpayers. JCE Group, a wealthy

Swedish offshore oil rig and shipping company, will set up an

industrial wood pellet operation in Jackson County. The new facility

is scheduled to go on stream at the end of 2007. Their planned

production output is 550,000 tons of wood pellets a year for export.

JCE Group will ship these vast quantities of wood pellets to several

European power plants from the port at Panama City. Wood pellets are

becoming an energy commodity traded worldwide. North Florida woodland

is a prime target. The Swedish company will have access to Florida's

16 million acres of forest land. DCA and the governor approved the

money for Jackson County to benefit JCE through a Small Cities

Community Development Block Grant. JCE Group, headquartered in

Gothenburg, Sweden, was founded in 1971 by J. Christer Ericsson, who

is active in the shipping and offshore oil rig business. The JCE Group

wood pellet plant will be the largest in the world. The company will

use Swiss and Canadian high performance pelletizing equipment. Trees

will be logged out of forests, cut, crushed in hammermills,

pulverized, dried and made into combustible pellets. Florida

Department of Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson hosted the

Swedish company at the recent Florida Farm to Fuel Summit. Bronson

would like to see Florida as the biggest producer and exporter of

biomass in the U.S. Jimmy Cheek, senior vice president of Agriculture

and Natural Resources Dept. at UF and IFAS` administrative head, said

shipping pellets to Europe is great for Florida and the world, on a

recent visit to Jackson County. http://alachuapost.com/

 

USA:

 

33) There's a green lining to the real-estate cloud: Developers are

dropping plans to build on some choice pieces of land and instead are

selling it for such uses as public parks and nature preserves. One of

the big beneficiaries is Trust for Public Land, a San Francisco

nonprofit group that specializes in buying land for conservation. The

Trust often struggled during property-boom years to find sellers among

land owners near urban centers. Now, U.S. property owners from

Massachusetts to Hawaii are flocking to it. The Trust's financial

muscle to make acquisitions is growing. Its planned budget for this

year is $102 million, up from $90 million last year. With the

real-estate slump, " We're trying to make lemonade out of lemons, " says

Will Rogers, president of the Trust. In addition to the Trust, the

Nature Conservancy, Arlington, Va., is among the national groups

working on similar deals. Their purchases tend to be larger --

involving thousands of acres. " Two to three years ago, local farmers

and ranchers were eager to sell off their land and cash out, " says the

Nature Conservancy's Cristina Mestre. " Now, we're being approached en

masse " to buy development rights. In rural Minnesota, thousands of

former Camp Fire girls rallied to stop a 71-acre camp from being

turned over for development. The property had operated as a Camp Fire

camp for 77 years until being closed two years ago. But last August

the developer failed to secure $5 million in financing, say officials

of Camp Fire USA's Minnesota Council. They have since begun

negotiations to sell the property for $3.8 million to the Trust, which

proposes to convert it into a regional park, says Andrea Platt Dwyer,

chief executive officer of the Minnesota Council. She expects a deal

to close by December.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121028811193679127.html

 

34) A coalition of conservation groups represented by Earthjustice

sued in federal court today to overturn the Bush administration's

latest attempt to weaken rules governing management of America's 155

national forests and grasslands. The new rules, issued April 21,

repeal key protections for national forests. The Bush administration

rule being challenged mirrors one issued in 2005 which was thrown out

by a federal court. Like the 2005 rule, the current one eliminates

mandatory protections in place since the Reagan administration that

require the national forests to be managed to guarantee viable

wildlife populations, to preserve clean, healthy streams and lakes,

and to protect diverse natural forests. The Bush rule also sharply

reduces public participation in decisions about the management of our

public forests. Prior forms of the rule from 1982 and 2000 contained

enforceable standards for forest plans that protected wildlife, water,

and the forests. The earlier rules also provided opportunities for

public involvement and required analysis of environmental impacts of

forest plans on the national forests, impacts that result from plan

decisions regarding logging levels and other extractive uses of forest

resources. Earthjustice attorney Trent Orr said, " This is the Bush

administration's parting gift to the timber industry. These

regulations remove vital checks and balances on logging while

minimizing the role of science and the public's say in maintaining

wildlife and other natural resources. We've returned to court to

insure that the Forest Service protect these invaluable resources and

allows full public review of and participation in its decisions about

how our national forests will be managed. "

http://media-newswire.com/release_1066062.html

 

35) In short, what's there not to like about conservation easements?

Many things, it turns out. Land trusts and public agencies are often

quick to trumpet the additional acres they add to their portfolios

each year, but are less concerned with the quality of the lands they

protect (not all open space is equally valuable) or the quality of the

easements that are sold as a public benefit. For instance, there are

opportunity costs that come with easements since there is usually only

a limited pot of money. What parcels didn't get bought by outright fee

acquisition because funds were expended on an easement instead?

Because conservation easements are nearly always celebrated as a

public good, there is little scrutiny of the specific terms of

easements, nor a public review of the costs/benefits of any particular

land conservation easement. The lack of public transparency in

easement creation and maintenance is a potential long term problem

associated with them. Though the public has a financial stake in all

conservation easements, it often has no one with direct responsibility

to watch-dog for the public interest. Why should the public care? For

one, it's our money that is subsidizing easements. With few

exceptions, nearly all conservation easements come with significant

government funded subsidies. These include, but are not limited to, a

tax deduction for the individual(s) land owner, as well as reduced

real estate property taxes for the landowner and estate. These losses

in tax revenue are all made up by other citizens who must pay higher

taxes to maintain services. Increasingly with the larger conservation

easements such as those involving big timber companies like Plum Creek

and other large land owners, federal or state funds are being used to

directly fund the easements. Yet because these funds are often

funneled through second parties like land trusts, there is little

public review of the agreements and/or cost benefit analysis. There is

a further problem associated with conservation easements. In order to

qualify for IRS tax deductions, a property must possess " significant

conservation value. " Because groups often gain funding based at least

partially on how successful they are in obtaining new easements, there

is a tendency to go for acres whether or not the lands in question

serve any or little real conservation value. Despite all the

criticisms I've leveled about conservation easements, I still believe

they are a useful tool for preserving and conserving ecological

values.

http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/conservation_easements_the_need_for_closer_\

scrutiny/C38/L38/