Guest guest Posted September 16, 2008 Report Share Posted September 16, 2008 --Today for you 32 new articles about earth's trees! (400th edition) --Experience Tree News as video & audio: http://forestpolicyresearch.org --To Subscribe / to the world-wide email format send a blank email to: earthtreenews- OR earthtreenews- In this edition: PNW-USA Index: --Washington: 1) Settlement in Lake Whatcom Plan keeps logging rules intact, 2) Seattle on improving urban forest protections, 3) Seattle tree canopy declined 20% in 25 years, 4) Commissioner of Public Lands election update, --Oregon: 5) Deschutes NF's logging plan shut down by judge, 6) Windfall harvests not very profitable in Astoria, 7) Removing roads in Mt. Hoood NF, 8) Gordon Creek Timber Sale, 9) Save the last of the white oaks, 10) History of Roseburg Industry PR spin, 11) world's best-known treehugger makes an appearance, --California: 12) Lawsuit opposes boosting Sierra Nevada logging, 13) Logger named Crook talks about how eco-aware logging rules are, 14) Logging and Bulldozing Soquel creek, 15) East Bay Regional Park District plans to destroy forest to " restore " it, 16) Direct Action activists look elsewhere now that Maxxam/PL is gone, 17) Busted for illegally felling as many as 33 ancient pines on Tahoe NF, 18) UCSC treesit continues, 19) UC has a systemic problem with unacceptable eco-destruction --Idaho: 20) 3 main reasons we are logging --Colorado: 20) More flexible rules for " protecting " roadless areas? 21) Now they want " long-term temporary roads " for roadless areas, 22) Write a letter for the roadless, --Missouri: 23) Make 50,000 acres of Mark Twain NF into wilderness --Minnesota: 24) Destroyed habitats Inspire crackdown on ATV riders --New Hampshire: 25) More on Court hearing White Mountain NF logging challenge --West Virginia: 26) Save Coal River by stopping big coal --New York: 27) Ancient trees on state-owned land will no longer be logged --USA: 28) Campbell Group teams up with Plum creek to buy timberlands, 29) Economics of Forest Disturbances: Wildfires, Storms, and Invasive Species, 30) Lawsuit over how hundreds of million in tariffs on Canadian softwood were given away like GOP campaign funds, 31) Largest fossilized forests in the world, Articles: Washington: 1) Bellingham officials say a settlement leaving intact restrictive logging rules would avoid expensive legal fights next year and help protect Lake Whatcom. But county leaders have doubts about some of the settlement language, and they may not sign it. The settlement, which has already been approved by Bellingham and Skagit County leaders, could end the legal challenge to the Lake Whatcom Landscape Plan, a set of rules that restricts logging on sensitive state-managed watershed lands. City officials and local environmentalists say the rules help protect the lake, the drinking water source for more than 90,000 Bellingham-area residents. Officials forged the settlement over the summer, but now, at the eleventh hour, Bellingham officials and environmental group Conservation Northwest are sparring over it. Conservation Northwest says the settlement includes a clause binding Whatcom County and Bellingham to lobby the Legislature to further tie school funding to timber cutting, which hurts conservation efforts and some schools. " The settlement requires the city and county to advocate for awful public policy that would reduce equity among school districts and increase the linkage between school budgets and clear-cutting of state lands, " group Executive Director Mitch Friedman wrote in an e-mail. Some County Council members have similar concerns, but the council declined to vote on the settlement Tuesday, Sept. 9. If the County Council doesn't sign it, the case will go to trial next year. The legal costs could reach more than $1 million, and the risk of having the court strike down the rules is high, according to a letter to the County Council from Bellingham Mayor Dan Pike and City Council President Barbara Ryan. http://www.bellinghamherald.com/102/story/543903.html 2) Rather than protecting trees during development, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels says, city code in some cases encouraged their destruction before the building even began. Nickels on Monday proposed closing a legal " loophole " with temporary rules that would prevent builders from clearing trees before filing for a building permit. Under the current code, the city can only designate trees for protection after a developer has applied for a permit. Some builders have chosen to cut down trees before filing a permit. Nickels' proposal comes two weeks after a judge stopped Seattle Public Schools from cutting down 63 trees at Ingraham High School. The school district had applied for a permit, then withdrew the application, saying that without filing a permit, city code allowed the district to eliminate the trees. The issue wound up in court, and now the Ingraham tree-cutting is on hold until the school district applies for another permit. It's not certain whether Nickels' proposal would save the trees at Ingraham. " It is possible for projects for Ingraham High School to be subject to the old regulations, " said Bryan Stevens, spokesman for the city's Department of Planning and Development. " It's really a matter of timing of the submittal " of the permit application. David Tucker, spokesman for Seattle schools, said the district intends to resubmit for permits but does not know when. " When and if the City Council adopts the regulation, the district will certainly comply with it, " he said. The school district wants to remove the trees to build an addition as part of a $20 million project. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008167695_treesaving09m.html 3) If you don't know what you have in your inventory, it is impossible to manage it correctly. This is basic logic for anyone who wants to successfully manage something of value. The fact that Seattle's tree canopy has declined from 40 percent in 1972 to just 18 percent today perhaps isn't surprising in light of the fact our city has no inventory of its trees. Both the Urban Forest Management Plan and the Comprehensive Plan recognize the need for an inventory and that preserving our existing canopy is an important part of Seattle's goal to restore canopy cover to 30 percent. The threats to preservation of trees exist in all areas of the city. In the last month, large numbers of mature conifers were felled from property adjacent to Judkin's Park Pea Patch (24th Avenue South) and from Sealth High School in southwest Seattle. The media report citizen actions to save Waldo Woods in the Maple Leaf neighborhood of northeast Seattle and Ingraham Forest on the high school campus in north Seattle. Those are just the situations we hear about. Without a tree inventory, we cannot know what we're losing and how fast. To manage our trees, we must first have an inventory so we can calculate the value of our canopy from environmental and financial perspectives. By now, Seattleites should all be familiar with the environmental benefits of our green infrastructure. Trees convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, purify and reduce runoff, enhance air quality, lower heating and cooling costs, filter/reduce dust, and decrease noise pollution. The environmental benefits derived from a healthy tree canopy increase exponentially as the tree canopy matures. The financial benefits are perhaps less obvious. A single 24-inch diameter Douglas fir in good condition has an economic value of more than $10,000. American Forests, a conservation organization founded in 1875, believes accounting rules passed in 2004 may allow cities to tally the economic value of their natural infrastructure to benefit their bond ratings. Saving and planting trees may make the city eligible for carbon credits, perhaps allowing Seattle access to significant income from the multibillion-dollar carbon trading market. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/378443_treeinventory10.html 4) I saw mustachioed-Eastern-Washington rancher Peter Goldmark, the Democratic candidate for Commissioner of Public Lands, speak at a Sierra Club event in downtown Seattle on Wednesday night. The Sierra Club has endorsed Goldmark. It was the same day word got out that $16.8-billion-timber-giant We yerhaeuser had dropped $100,000 into the Committee for Balanced Stewardship, the forest products industry PAC that's supporting Goldmark's opponent, Republican incumbent Doug Sutherland. And man, was Goldmark fired up about that. " We will not allow the industry to buy another election, " he boomed, " I pledge not to take any money from the industry I regulate. " He made the case, citing a report by the Seattle Times , that Sutherland's lackadaisical oversight of Weyerhaeuser land had led to the devastating landslides in Lewis County in December 2007. " There is an obvious connection between campaign donations and lax regulations, " he told the crowd of environmental activists who were packed into the 1st Avenue loft. Goldmark's campaign manager, Heather Melton, scoffs at that, saying: " The storm made a bad situation worse. Rather than relying on Weyerhaeuser, the Department of Natural Resources should have had a state geologist come out and review that site before allowing a clear cut on a steep slope to identify if there was unstable soil. " Goldmark's strong showing in the August primary has turned this low-profile race into one of the sharpest showdowns this season: Doing better than any other challenger on this year's ballot, Goldmark got 49 to Sutherland's 51. On Wednesday night, he told his Sierra Club supporters that his campaign to unseat Sutherland was about " the public interest vs. the special interests " and that it was time to stop " doing political favors in exchange for campaign donations. " His argument about political quid pro quos rang true. When I covered the legislature in 2007 and 2008, I watched a series of bills to prevent Glacier Northwest from expanding its strip mining work on Maury Island get gutted by Sutherland. Glacier Northwest, which gave $50,000 to the timber industry PAC the same day as Weyerhaeuser (September 8), also made a couple of handsome donations to Sutherland last year, totaling $2,800, according to the Public Disclosure Commission.http://www.horsesass.org/?p=6854 Oregon: 5) A federal judge has blocked a project designed to reduce the risk of wildfire while turning out mature timber from an old growth forest reserve on the Deschutes National Forest, saying it causes too much harm to spotted owl habitat. U.S. District Judge Michael J. Hogan ruled from Eugene last week that the U.S. Forest Service was arbitrary and capricious in its decision to log mature timber in an old growth reserve, knowing it would lead to degradation of hundreds of acres of nesting and foraging habitat for the northern spotted owl. The judge sent the Five Buttes project back to the Forest Service to try again, noting that the Northwest Forest Plan lays out narrow parameters for logging in old growth forest reserves, and generally requires that projects focus on younger trees and not harm habitat for spotted owls, a threatened species. The Forest Service must also consider more scientific evidence on the issue, including views opposed to its own, and factor in the accumulated environmental harm caused by past logging projects. Asante Riverwind of the Oregon chapter of the Sierra Club said the ruling knocked over the myth that you have to log old growth forests to save them from wildfire. " To allow some of the last viable habitat for spotted owls to be logged and made no longer usable by them when they are in crisis makes no common sense nor scientific sense, " he said from Bend. Riverwind said some 200-year-old trees were already logged before the injunction was issued. Deschutes National Forest Supervisor John Allen said in a statement that the ruling was a disappointment, and the project will be amended to comply with the ruling. http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/news-26/1221526148105380.xml\ & storylist=orlocal 6) Clinking, clattering, scraping and beeping, yarders dragged trees up a ravine along Saddle Mountain Road. Diesel engines groaned as trucks rattled past throwing up a cloud of dust from the dry dirt road, choking about 50 onlookers as they stopped for a look at a Weyerhaeuser Co. logging site Thursday. This year's forestry tour, presented by the Clatsop Forestry and Wood Products Economic Development Committee, focused on the aftermath of the Dec. 2-3 storms that knocked down thousands of acres of timber. The striking aspect of the tour was the contrast in challenges that large and small forest owners faced. Oregon State University Extension Forester Glenn Ahrens said that immediately after the storm, foresters were worried about all kinds of issues. How do you stay safe? Can we sell anything in the worst market in years? What was going to happen? Mark Gustafson, an Astoria logger, told listeners that the industry wondered what the storms' long-term effects on the forests would be. " It was a guessing game for all of us, " he said. To give the tour a good reference showing what the forest looked like following the storms, the tour stopped at Lewis and Clark National Historical Park at Fort Clatsop to see the blow-down along the Fort to Sea Trail first. Mark Morgans, a planning forester with Weyerhaeuser on the North Coast, said following the storms the company has hired a lot of temporary help to try to get back into a " steady state. " He said the company had eight contractors working in that area Wednesday. " The first week of December was not a good time to be the largest landowner in the county, with 165,000 acres, " he said. The housing market is down, as is the pulp market. " Usually 10 percent of the company's volume goes to the pulp market, " Morgans said. But the trees were damaged when they blew down. " In this case one-third was going into that market. " The company tries to cut trees into 8-foot increments because that's how the lumber is marketed, but the logs are broken off at odd lengths. And Weyerhaeuser is trying to recover as much value as it can. Adding to the complexity of the Weyerhaeuser forestry recovery plan is that the equivalent of three years' tree harvests blew down during the storm. http://www.dailyastorian.info/main.asp?SectionID=2 & SubSectionID=398 & ArticleID=54\ 304 & TM=69403.95 7) For years Bark has been saying that removing roads must be a priority in Mt. Hood National Forest. It protects our drinking water and focuses funding on maintenance for roads needed for recreational access. Well, our tenacity is finally paying off. Take a look at last week's Oregonian article about the recent removal of roads on Mt. Hood thanks to the Legacy Roads Act passed by Congress earlier this year. Want to learn more about how roads influence recreation in the forest? Join us at the upcoming Mt. Hood Solutions Summit, details are below. Sincerely, Alex P. Brown, Executive Director http://bark-out.org/content/article.php?section=news & id=509 8) This year we will be heading to the Gordon Creek Timber Sale near Corbett. This hike is a great way to find out more about the proposed timber sale while enjoying the wonders of the Mt. Hood ecosystems. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is proposing to log 1,805 acres of forest in the Gordon Creek watershed. These remaining public forests provide important habitat for threatened wildlife, as well as drinking water for the residents of Corbett. The community of Corbett's drinking water intake is actually in a proposed logging section. In the past few years, the water purifying facility has already suffered from issues of sedimentation from logging on private lands in the area. In addition, the logging threatens trails throughout the area that are used by local schools to teach students about the forest. Come see how you can help Bark stop this destructive proposal! http://www.bark-out.org/ 9) The magnificent white oak trees in the Willamette Valley that stand alone in farmers' fields may provide critical resources for birds living in and around agricultural fields. Craig DeMars, an Oregon State University graduate student in fisheries and wildlife, discovered in his research this spring that isolated, " legacy " white oak trees, hundreds of years old, have the potential to contribute to conservation of a wide range of bird species in the valley. DeMars compared bird use of the long-lived white oaks in crop and pasture lands to their use in reserve areas, and discovered usage to be similar. He found that 47 species of birds use the isolated white oaks to perch, feed, sing and nest, both on and off reserves. " The most important factors for predicting avian use are tree size and forest density in the surrounding landscape, " DeMars said. In DeMars' study, bird use of these individual trees increased with increasing tree size and decreasing tree density in the surrounding landscape. " A large, isolated oak tree acts as a 'habitat magnet,' concentrating tree-dependent bird species around this focal habitat structure on the landscape, " DeMars said. " In otherwise treeless landscapes, the gigantic white oaks may act as keystone structures, " DeMars said. " Their influence on wildlife may be disproportionately large, relative to their actual physical footprint on the landscape. " Oak savanna areas are defined by trees spaced at least 100 feet apart, with grasses growing below them, and less than a 30 percent canopy cover, DeMars said. His research focuses on oak savannas because they are " one of the most imperiled systems in the state, " he said. Parts of the Willamette Valley oak savanna have been preserved at the Finley National Wildlife Preserve and the Mount Pisgah Arboretum. The Willamette Valley's white oak savanna habitat is only about one percent of what it was 200 years ago, said DeMars, who bases the number on old photos and journals. " For birds associated with oak savanna habitats, a single isolated tree in an agricultural field may be a critical resource for nesting, safe refuge, and foraging as well as providing a high perch for singing, " he said. " Native Americans who lived in the valley before settlers arrived maintained oak savannas by seasonal burning of the understory grasses, which prevented encroachment of conifer trees into savanna habitats, " DeMars said. That allowed the large oaks, which cannot tolerate shade, to survive. Today, farmers contribute to the trees' longevity by not plowing and planting underneath them. DeMars plans to turn his research into educational materials that will help farmers conserve and replace the oaks. http://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/story.php?S_No=580 & storyType=news 10) We weren't surprised to read the views expressed by Leslie Lehmann, the retiring executive director of the Oregon Forest Resources Institute, which cast the Oregon forest products industry in a green light ( " Not so distant hopes for our forestlands, " Aug. 27). That's been the sole purpose of OFRI since its founding 16 years ago. But because OFRI is funded by tax revenues, a close examination of its origins and function is warranted. In the early '90s, the timber industry was reeling from a public backlash against clear-cut and old-growth logging and saw the need to " educate " the public. A forthright approach would dictate that the industry form its own trade organization to shape public opinion. But this direct approach posed two crucial problems. First, the industry would need to voluntarily pay dues to support the public relations effort. But the big players knew that many operators would not fall in line. Second, a private entity would be seen for what it was -- a propaganda arm -- and the industry already had a couple of these. So how could the industry disguise the new entity as serving the public interest while still maintaining control? A plan was hatched. The entity would be funded by taxes on timber operations, but instead of the tax money going into the general fund, operators paid their " dues " to support PR for their industry directly. The other key was how to ensure that the new group would be tightly controlled. Simple: By statute, nine of the 11 voting members on the board of directors of the group must represent lumber producers and the other two must be financially dependent on timber. The board also has two nonvoting members, including one particularly impotent representative of the public who, by statute, may not be affiliated with any organization " known to support or promote environmental or conservation issues. " The outcome was predictable. OFRI has spent millions telling the public that Oregon has the most advanced forest practice laws in the nation. But the truth is that we lag far behind California and Washington when it comes to safeguarding the public from the negative impacts of industrial forest practices. Operators face minimal restraints on the aerial spraying of toxic chemicals or on the protection of streamside buffers. The public has little say about harvest practices, even families who live right next door. http://www.oregonlive.com/commentary/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1220918\ 12225550.xml & coll=7 11) Julia Butterfly Hill knows a thing or two about going out on a limb. Perhaps the world's best-known " treehugger, " the 34-year-old Hill spent a world-record 738 days living in a 180-foot ancient redwood affectionately known as " Luna " in Northern California's Humboldt County between Dec. 10, 1997, and Dec. 18, 1999. It was her nonviolent way of getting across her point: that lumber companies have no right cutting down 1,000-year-old redwoods. Hill is a keynote speaker today at the inaugural Nonviolence as a Way of Life Conference at the University of Oregon that began Thursday and ends Sunday. She will be joined by the Rev. C.T. Vivian, 50 years her senior, at 12:30 p.m. at the Erb Memorial Union in a talk titled " From Civil Rights to Forest Defense: Nonviolent Social Change Across Generations. " It might seem an unusual pairing, but it comes at Hill's request. Talking alone is difficult, Hill said. Not that she hasn't done it many times, but then it just becomes " the Julia Butterfly Hill show, " she said by phone from her Oregon home Friday. That's not the message she wants to give, so she asked conference organizers to pair her with someone in a conversation-style format. People talk about " movements " in the plural sense, but " it's actually one movement, " she said of all activism. " What we're really talking about is one world that works for all. " Hill moved to Oregon in April after living in the San Francisco Bay area for seven years, but asked that her new hometown not be disclosed for privacy reasons. She moved partly because of the constant attention she receives for her beliefs — ones that not everyone agrees with. Needless to say, the tree-sitting venture she volunteered for almost 11 years ago received plenty of attention and became an international story. She wrote a best-selling book about it, " The Legacy of Luna, " which is being turned into a feature film, " Luna, " slated for release next year and starring Oscar-winning actress Rachel Weisz. http://www.registerguard.com/web/news/story.csp?cid=130058 & sid=105 & fid=35 California: 12) Environmentalists on Tuesday sued the Bush administration over what they contend are efforts to boost Sierra Nevada logging by undercutting a key early warning system that guards bellwether species. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco contends that a policy shift by the U.S. Forest Service last December abandons its stewardship responsibilities by slashing the list of 60 or so " indicator species " to only 13. Among those hit are the Sierra bighorn sheep, the endangered California condor and the northern goshawk, a raptor species. Eleven threatened or endangered species were removed from the list, including the Central Valley spring run chinook salmon and the Lahontan cutthroat trout. " It's another example of favoring timber sales and receipts over the protection of wildlife, " said Pat Gallagher, environmental law director at the Sierra Club, one of four conservation organizations that joined in the lawsuit. The Forest Service has maintained that the oversight changes were justified because the process of monitoring such species over the last quarter of a century had in many cases proved unworkable. John Heil, a spokesman for the Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Region, said populations of many of the indicator species, such as red fox, wolverine and willow flycatcher, were too sparse to use as measures of forest health. " There's just not sufficient numbers to collect meaningful information, " Heil said.But environmentalists say the Forest Service is shutting its eyes to its responsibility to ensure healthy and well-distributed populations of plants and animals up and down the 400-mile range shadowing California's eastern edge. Erin Tobin, an associate attorney with Earthjustice, the nonprofit environmental law firm that filed the suit, said the change is " part of a trend " toward minimizing roadblocks to logging or other commercial activities in the forest. The policy shift also allows logging to begin before determining what effect it will have on imperiled creatures.Earthjustice filed the lawsuit on behalf of Sierra Forest Legacy, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife. Ten forests encompassing nearly 10 million acres of timberland were hit by the rule change: Eldorado, Inyo, Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Sequoia, Sierra, Stanislaus and the Tahoe National Forests, as well as the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. http://www.southlandwx.com/2008/09/california-environmentalists-sue-us.html 13) Steve Crook has been logging the area forest for 34 years. In that time, he's seen the forest go from being heavily logged to being enforced by arguably the strictest logging regulations in the world. He's seen other loggers go out of business. He's seen sawmills shutdown all over the state. He's seen logging evolve from having to camp out in the forest for days at a time using manpower to fell, strip and cut the trees, into a highly mechanized process using equipment that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. He's seen the logging business' future become uncertain in California. " Thirty years ago, no one could have told me there could be an end to this, " Crook said, from a logging site outside of Twain Harte. Crook's face was black from sweat and grime. He had risen at 3 a.m. to get an early start because the site has been getting shutdown about 1 p.m. by the U.S. Forest Service because of high-fire danger. Despite the uncertain future, both of Crook's sons have followed their father's footsteps into the woods. " I've been in the forest since I was 12, " said Russ Crook, Steve Crook's son. " Once it's in your blood, it's always in your blood. " " It's one hell of an office, " he added, gesturing to the surrounding forest. Declining production, increasing consumption Steve Crook worries that he's steered his boys down a path with a bleak future. http://www.uniondemocrat.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=27557 14) The CHY Company/Olive Springs Quarry has submitted a new 235 acre THP to CAL FIRE. It comes up for first review on September 11. The plan is in the Soquel Creek watershed and includes two temporary Fords of Soquel Creek. This crossing is to be removed prior to October 15 or used for allowable winter operations. The RPF is new to this area and lives in Grass Valley. Neighbors have already been complaining to CAL FIRE after having suffered the logging aggravation from Redwood Empire's 398 acre THP currently being operated on in the watershed. Wonder if the steelhead and yellow-legged frogs would complain if they could. ftp://thp.fire.ca.gov/THPLibrary/North_Coast_Region/THPs2008/1-08-131SCR/ 15) This summer, the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) announced their plans to thin out trees in Redwood Regional Park, along the East Ridge Trail. They began their work briefly in July, and cut down trees near the northern entrance. Then the Park District's efforts were put on hold, as protests were waged by citizen groups. What impressed me was the maturity of the protest - whether you agree with it or not. Despite years of environmental study, there were key questions raised about the sheer quantity of trees to be culled for fire safety or other reasons. At the time, I only thought about the inconvenience of one of the most popular biking and hiking trails being closed on weekdays. Apparently many healthy trees were slated for removal, within a 150 foot distance from the trail. The Hills Conservation Network claimed this was overkill because " fire-safe environments and preservation of natural landscapes are not mutually exclusive. " They produced this video showing the East Ridge Trail and raising questions along the way. According to Assistant Fire Chief John Swanson, who works for the Park District, " We are not taking any more trees than are necessary to accomplishing those [fire safety] objectives. " Montclair's Rose Nied thought that some trees should be saved from the chopping block, and partially succeeded by walking the trail with Swanson. The Park District also hosted open meetings, and received comments from hundreds of people afterwards. Their work was placed on hold while additional assessments were made by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The tree removals are scheduled to re-start soon, unless some additional litigation emerges. Still this was the right way to protest. There's no need to camp out in the forest for two years, like the folks who were finally removed from the remaining Berkeley campus tree this week. http://montclairoak.com/2008/09/11/redwood-park-trees-may-be-chopped/ 16) We face a new situation in that other companies, who's logging practices were hidden in the shadow of PL's logging for years, are now receiving attention from direct action activists. Regardless of the gap toothed environmental laws of this state, Salmon and Spotted Owls continue to slip towards extinction, clearcutting of forests is rampant. Action must be taken. I think the difference in the camp had to do with the fact that past camps were able to easily slip into the framework of the Earth First! campaign that had been ongoing for years and predated all of our involvement. The campaign to save the ancient forests being liquidated by Maxxam/PL was heated and intense. Though we are still in a state of emergency regarding the extinction of species and mass human suffering related to environmental degradation, we have stemmed the flow in one area (PL) and need to use our triage skills to assess our next move. We face a new, yet familiar, set of challenges and introspection and situational analysis played a big part in the camp. If the past 20 years have taught us anything as a bio-centric culture, it's how to wage a non-violent direct action campaign in defense of the Earths life supporting eco-systems. That knowledge has grown and evolved and I'm hopeful that as we move forward as a movement it will be applied effectively and strategically. Much that we fought for was logged, however individual ancient trees, and whole forests of them, remain standing thanks to the hard work of this community and those who came from around the world to join in the defense of these globally recognized ancient forests. We have accomplished things no one thought possible, but sadly, forests are still being exploited at the hands of the few and at the expense of the many. We will continue to stand up for the Earth as long as the web of life that we all rely on for survival is under assault. http://saveancientforests.blogspot.com/2008/09/ef-action-camp.html 17) A 20-year-old man pleaded guilty Tuesday to felling century-old trees that stood on the shoreline of Davies Creek and Stampede Reservoir near Truckee. John W. Clifton of Truckee and Sierraville pleaded to one count of depredation of government property before U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott. Following an investigation by Tahoe National Forest officials, Clifton was accused of illegally felling at least three and possibly up to 33 pines averaging 100 to 125 years old and 100 feet tall. In a plea agreement, Clifton agreed to pay $70,000 restitution for the loss of all 33 trees and for site rehabilitation in exchange for a sentence of five years probation and 500 hours of community service, according to the release. Clifton is scheduled to be sentenced by Mendez on Dec. 2. If the proposed sentence is not accepted, he will have an opportunity to withdraw his guilty plea and proceed to trial, Scott said in the release. The maximum penalty for the crime is 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, he said. http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/crime/archives/015294.html 18) After 10 months of occupying in 100-foot high redwood trees, Tree Sitters at UCSC's Science Hill are ready for students to return for school. In the past, UCSC has cut down trees while students are away, so the beginning of fall quarter on September 20th may mean that the UCSC Tree Sit last until its anniversary on November 7th. After watching the destruction of the Memorial Oak Grove at Berkeley last weekend, the Tree Sitters at UCSC are on guard for this last week of summer. " It was hard to see those oaks get cut, " said Tree Sitter Raven, " especially knowing that it could happen here. " The UCSC Tree Sitters say that their presence is more important than ever since the Santa Cruz City Council settled their lawsuit with the University. The settlement gives the City Council's blessing for UCSC to begin the first phase of their construction plan that will eventually destroy 120 acres of forest and add at least 4,500 new students to the area. The first building slated for construction is the Biomedical Sciences Facility and the Tree Sitters are occupying the place where it is to be built. UCSC Tree Sitters have taken a stand against construction before it begins. Precious watershed regions, unique manzanita groves and hundred-year old redwood forests will be destroyed by the University's unfettered construction. The homes of such rare native animals as the burrowing owl and the endangered red-legged frog will be devastated. The University's plan sacrifices the unique ecosystems, as well as the highly esteemed liberal arts education that attracts many people to Santa Cruz. Following the trend of privatizing public universities, current students are paying more for education and receiving less. Three clusters of redwoods have been inhabited since November 7, 2007, when over 500 students, alumni, and community members rallied in opposition to the University's plans. Other tree sits have been added, using the same technique of carefully securing pre-built platforms to several redwoods without harming the trees. Tree sitters have continued their vigil through police attacks, winter storms, ninety-mile an hour winds and the long days of summer. http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/09/10/18534868.php 19) UC has a systemic problem: It receives all the legal benefits of a public institution while lacking any democratic process that involves the community in land use decisions. We asked for UC to create a " Community Land Use and Capital Projects Committee " —which would be systematically involved in land use, land management, and development planning decisions, both at the brainstorm phase of projects and on an ongoing basis. The committee would be comprised of students, community members, neighborhood association representatives, Native Americans, environmentalists, and city government representatives. This would be a positive development for all parties. Community members would have substantial and serious input into decisions that affect their environment; and UC would ensure a more co-operative spirit and avoid the drawbacks of lawsuits and protests. We further asked for UC to set aside a non-trivial sum from future football revenues to be utilized to benefit land conservation as well as the Intertribal Friendship House, which serves Native American communities. Finally, we wanted UC to return the remains of the " Grandmother Oak " —a tree who was older than the university—so that Native Americans will be able to make drums or other religious artifacts. In the interests of safety and ending the protest on a positive note, the tree-sitters spoke directly with UC officials, and reached an agreement that Vice Chancellor Nathan Brostrom would make the following public statement: " The university will create new ways to involve the community in land use decisions going forward. " But what will that involvement be? Will it be a token form of rubber-stamp representation, while the university pursues business as usual, or will it be a genuine effort to involve the community in decisions? It is up to all the citizens of Berkeley to make sure the university does the right thing. We still believe the university should use its financial resources to mitigate the destruction of the grove, and return the Grandmother Oak stump to the native community. Finally, Native American leader and community organizer Morning Star Gali requested that she and others be able to enter the remains of the grove and place tobacco offerings at the stump of the Grandmother Oak. UC Police Chief Victoria Harrison agreed on Saturday to this request, but she made it conditional on the tree-sitters coming down first. Our response at the time was simple: It's completely inappropriate to link the two issues, which are unrelated. http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2008-09-11/article/31089?headline=What-\ the-Tree-Sitters-Wanted-And-Still-Want Idaho: 20) This last week I have learned the basics of logging. There are 3 main reasons we are logging: 1.) The health of our forest. 2.) How the forest will look after logging (before logging we couldn't see through much of it due to the density of the trees). 3.) We will make some money from the sale of the timber. - Most of the trees that will be cut are Lodge Pole Pine. Basically they are the tree weed of our forest. They are everywhere; leaning sideways under other trees, crunched under canopies of cedars, pushing out White Pines, Ponderosa Pines, Aspen, Hemlocks and my much loved Tamaracks/Larch. By thinning our forest of these trees and some others, we will be building a buffer should a fire happen in our valley. Lodge Poles act as kindling and allow fire to climb up the larger trees. Along with taking trees out, Luke, our logging forester will be limbing the trees that are left creating a cleaner trunk free of more kindling, and a forest floor that is mainly slow burning shrubs and ferns. Because of the downward turn in construction everywhere (new construction and additions to existing buildings) many of the saw mills in Idaho have shut down or been sold. Surprisingly that creates a low inventory of pulp. Lodge Pole Pine is perfect for pulp. It doesn't pay much per ton, but as long as it is useful and not just burned then cut 'em down. I have said NO to taking Tamaracks and Hemlocks. We will need to thin some of our Cedar groves and we have a lot of them. We have some really old growth Cedars....and I mean really old. They are magnificent trees and the decision we have to make is: take the some of the old growth to allow the smaller Cedars to grow or take the newer growth. I'll worry about that when the time comes. Cedar is merchantable timber meaning it is construction grade wood. It pays more but sorry, I'd rather keep the trees. http://rosemarys-attic.blogspot.com/2008/09/primer-in.html Colorado: 21) EAGLE COUNTY — Colorado foresters are proposing less restrictive, more flexible rules for protecting roadless areas of the forest, but environmental groups are worried that big loopholes could open large expanses of untouched backcountry to new roads and logging. Roadless areas are the more natural looking areas of the forest — this is where you find pristine forests, great views, wildlife and clean air, soil and water. The proposed Colorado Roadless Rule would replace the more restrictive federal rules implemented in 2001 that protect roadless areas throughout the country. The U.S. Forest Service says the new Colorado rules will prohibit building roads and cutting trees in more than 4 million acres of forest and about 636,000 acres in the White River National Forest — but allow several exceptions. Under the new rules, temporary roads would be allowed if the Forest Service needs to cut down trees to lower wildfire risks. Roads could also be built for livestock grazing, to develop utilities and waterways, and for the development of oil and gas leases issued before 2001. These exceptions aren't allowed under federal rules, but the Forest Service needs the flexibility to build temporary roads when needed, especially when it needs to protect residential areas from wildfires, said Wendy Haskins, a planner with the White River National Forest. " It still protects the characteristics and values of the roadless areas, while allowing us to manage the forest if needed, " Haskins said. " If we do build a road, it's for a good, particular reason. " The federal rules implemented in 2001 are the same in a place like Florida as they are in Colorado — and the states have vastly different problems to deal with and must be able to act in a responsible way, Haskins said. http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20080914/NEWS/809129915/1078 & ParentProfile=1062 22) Colorado's forested areas could contain " long-term temporary roads " under a proposed rule for roadless areas being studied by the U.S. Forest Service. The rule and its parts were introduced to the public Tuesday at Two Rivers Convention Center. Long-term temporary roads are roads that would be used for oil and gas drilling or coal mining and are intended for reclamation once they outlive their value to the industry, said Pam Skeels of the Forest Service. " They could be in place for 10 to 30 years, " as opposed to the temporary roads the Forest Service generally deals with. Those roads tend to have two- or three-year life spans, she said. Environmental interests, though, don't like long-term temporary roads. " There are highways in Colorado that don't last 30 years, " said Jason Sorter of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. Such roads also leave out an important industry, said Eric Sorenson of the Delta Timber Co. Many of the roads now used by anglers and hunters were begun by logging and similar industries, and they're key to keeping forests available for multiple uses, Sorenson said. " Otherwise, they're limited-use, " he said. The Forest Service is holding open-house meetings around the state as it considers how to manage the 4.1 million acres of roadless lands in the state's forests. Public hearings aren't on the schedule, though, and Pete Kolbenschlag of the Colorado Environmental Coalition said that is unfortunate. " It gives people the opportunity to make their case, and it would require the Forest Service to listen, " he said. A similar process in Idaho included open houses and hearings, " and Colorado has three times the population of Idaho, " he said. http://www.gjsentinel.com/hp/content/news/stories/2008/09/09/091008_3a_Roadless_\ meeting.html 23) Colorado's 4.4 million acres of roadless areas include remote areas with rugged terrain that provide the highest quality habitat for wildlife species such as lynx, wolverine, bear, and goshawk that need large areas with minimal human disturbance. Roadless areas also protect sources of much of Colorado's clean drinking water, provide excellent areas for scientific research and education on natural ecosystems, and offer numerous opportunities for low-impact recreation. The draft Colorado rule would replace the 2001 Roadless Rule's narrowly-tailored exceptions with very broad authorizations for road construction and logging in roadless areas, as well as: 1) Open some roadless areas to be leased for ski area expansion and coal mining; 2) Allow oil and gas drilling companies to build roads, pipelines, and other industrial projects in roadless areas; #) Allow new roads to be built for ranchers to access their grazing livestock; and $) Loosen restrictions on logging in roadless areas. The draft rule would also completely remove over 200,000 acres from the roadless inventory, including lands wanted by ski areas for future ski area expansions. In early 2001, the Forest Service issued the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, under which logging and road construction were prohibited on over 60 million acres of national forest roadless areas. This Rule enjoys strong support nationwide, but the Bush administration repealed the Rule and replaced it with a proposal under which each state Governor could ask the Forest Service to manage that state's roadless areas in the manner that Governor desired. In an effort to circumvent the 2001 Roadless Rule, the Administration is allowing states to petition for an exemption from the Roadless Rule under the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1158/t/139/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=25913 Missouri: 24) There's wild, and then there's federally protected wilderness. The latter is more permanent, according to a coalition of Missouri conservation groups that wants Congress to set aside 50,000 acres within the 1.5 million acre Mark Twain National Forest as wilderness. They met Saturday in Salem, Mo., to discuss lobbying plans for the proposal. But they face opposition from U.S. Forest Service officials who say the designation restricts forest management and from a key member of Congress who says the state has enough wilderness areas. At issue are seven federally-owned forest tracts, one in the Columbia area and the rest scattered across the southern Missouri Ozarks, that are considered unique and relatively undisturbed. Such pristine areas are rare and exist only in the Ozarks region because farming and development have altered the landscape elsewhere. The strictest protection for natural landscapes occur when Congress designates federal land as wilderness, mandating that no alterations, logging or use of motorized vehicles be allowed except in special circumstances. " These are small but nice areas, " said McManus of Kansas City, a proponent and member of the Thomas Hart Benton Group of the Sierra Club. McManus has hiked and backpacked in one proposed area, and she has camped in several of the eight other areas that are part of the 70,000 acres already designated as wilderness. " It's nice to know that these places exist for their own sake, and for all the natural diversity, " McManus said. " But I also think people like to hike through areas that are not cut through with roads and ATV trails. " The areas in question were identified as scenic, wild and ecologically sensitive in the 1970s. At the time, the initial wilderness tracts in Missouri were approved by Congress. But the seven in question were not added to the system. http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Loggers%3A+Legal+battles+cut+us\ +out & articleId=5606ac1f-63d8-439b-ac41-efea090b180c Minnesota: 25) Across Minnesota, as ATV ridership soars, the wildly popular pastime is exacting a lasting, costly toll on the state's forests and wild lands. Fragile wetlands are being churned into mud. Wildlife habitats are being torn up. Lake and river beds are being rutted. Hillsides are being eroded. Five years ago, Minnesota enacted laws to keep all-terrain vehicles on trails. But officers like Miller keep catching riders doing the opposite. To the dismay of lawful riders, renegades on four-wheelers are being caught damaging forests and trespassing on nature areas and private lands across the state, a Star Tribune analysis of five years of Department of Natural Resources enforcement records shows. Some are ignoring signs or driving around barriers put up to stop them. Others are brazenly posting videos of destructive riding on YouTube. With stepped-up enforcement, nearly 1,600 riders have been issued tickets or written warnings for off-trail lawbreaking, but that's only a fraction of the violators, most of whom are never caught. http://www.startribune.com/local/28308249.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ck\ UiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUnciatkEP7DhUsX New Hampshire: 26) As soon as this week, the U.S. Forest Service expects to hear whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First District in Boston will issue a temporary restraining order to halt logging in the forest, as requested by The Sierra Club, Wilderness Society and The Center for Biological Diversity (formerly Forest Watch). The legal action has had a chilling effect on timber sales, forest officials said. Federal budget cuts and redirection of funds to fight wildfires in the West are also sapping the industry. White Mountain National Forest Supervisor Tom Wagner said his employees must analyze each proposed timber sale to determine impacts on water, wildlife and aesthetics. He said he expects funding to allow for only 15 instead of the projected 24 million measured board feet of lumber to be cut in 2009. The three conservation groups argued in U.S. District Court that the 2005 forest plan -- a master plan of sorts done every 15 years -- was not reviewed adequately and logging and road building needed for these sales would spoil the environment. " This case will set national precedent as to whether roadless areas will continue to be protected, " said Catherine Corkery, chapter director of the New Hampshire Sierra Club . Roger Garland Jr. owns a logging business in North Conway and has been logging in the White Mountains since 1975. He said he has crews poised to begin work in the White Mountain National Forest near Jackson. He said he has spent thousands preparing roads and streams to safely bring 15,000 tons of low-grade wood to market. Most would be used for pulp to make paper and biomass to fuel wood-to-energy plants. But he is going slowly, aware a court decision could halt everything. " People want a renewable fuel supply, but they don't want it coming off this forest, " Garland said. http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Loggers%3A+Legal+battles+cut+us\ +out & articleId=5606ac1f-63d8-439b-ac41-efea090b180c West Virginia: 27) The residents of the Coal River Valley in West Virginia urgently need your help. While we thought we had months to stop the proposed Mountaintop Removal coal mining operation for Coal River Mountain, the coal company – Massey Energy – circumvented the law and altered their permits, and are set to begin blasting the mountain for coal TOMORROW (TODAY), September 10th. If they are allowed to proceed, the blasting will eliminate some of the potential for the production of clean wind energy and creation of good, green jobs on Coal River Mountain, and it will be harder for local residents to stop the continuation of the mining once it has started. So, we need your help. Could you call Governor Manchin, today, and ask him to issue a " stay of execution " for Coal River Mountain? He already knows that there is a real alternative to Mountaintop Removal here, and he knows it is the better option, now he needs to hear it from you! He needs to know that the state and the nation are watching him, and that you know that the decision is HIS to make. The Coal River Mountain Wind Project is such a great alternative that it was awarded Co-Op America's " Building Economic Alternatives " Award, and is also being highlighted for the national Green Jobs Now! Day of Action on September 27th. But without your help, all of this will be lost for short-term, destructive coal mining. Please pass this around to your friends, family, colleagues and email lists. The louder the voice, the better the chance of stopping the blasting. YOU can help by: Watching the Online video at http://www.coalriverwind.org/ shows what is at stake. This home page and the rest of the website will also give you more information about the campaign, and presents a comparison between the benefits of Wind Power versus Mountaintop Removal coal mining. Sign the Petition! http://www.coalriverwind.org/?page_id=28 New York: 28) ALBANY -- Ancient trees on state-owned land no longer will fall to the logger's saw. A new law signed last week by Gov. David Paterson will protect " old-growth " forest on about 900,000 acres of state land outside of current " forever wild " State Forest Preserve protection. Before leasing any land for logging, state officials now must make sure no old growth -- roughly defined as trees at least 180 years old -- is cut down. However, the law does nothing to protect trees on private property. " This law is a great first step, " said Fred Breglia, horticulture and operations director at the Landis Arboretum in Esperance and co-founder of the New York Old Growth Forest Association. While Breglia had pushed to include private property under the law, " we ran into some obstacles from the logging industry, " he said. Still, the new law is the nation's second-strictest, after California's, Breglia said. The state has about 400,000 acres of old-growth forest, mostly in the Adirondacks. Breglia could not immediately say how land is affected by the law, named after the late Buffalo-area naturalist Bruce Kershner. Only about 2.2 percent of the state's remaining forests are old-growth, according to " Ancient Forests of the Northeast, " a 2004 Sierra Club guide co-written by Kershner, who died of cancer in February at age 56. Private individuals own about a third of old-growth forest stands, the guide estimates. Not-for-profit nature preserves own 25 percent, the state owns 20 percent, and local parks have 20 percent. About 300,000 acres of old growth are in 50 stands in the Adirondacks, while another 70,000 acres in 20 stands are in the Catskills. Another 5,000 acres are scattered in 110 stands around the rest of the state. There are about 200 acres of old-growth forest across Albany, Schenectady and Saratoga counties. http://timesunion.com/ASPStories/Story.asp?StoryID=720264 & LinkFrom=RSS USA: 29) The real estate market is slumping. The forest-products industry is in a tailspin. But the Campbell Group of Portland thinks it's a dandy time to buy vast tracts of timber across the South. In late August, the timberland investment outfit formed a joint venture with Seattle-based Plum Creek Timber Co. involving 454,000 acres of timberland in the southern United States. Plum Creek will contribute the timber: in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The Campbell Group investment fund will throw in $783 million, much of which will go to Plum Creek in the form of a loan, most of which will be used to retire debt. Duncan Campbell, 64, the Campbell Group's founder and chairman emeritus, spent time this week answering a few question about timber investing trends. Questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity. Q: What's the difference between investing in the South, as you have in this deal, and the Northwest? Does this deal provide any insight about trends in the Northwest? A: We acquire property throughout the country. Until recently, the Southeast was viewed as lower risk by a number of investors because trees there were used primarily for pulp and paper. The perception was that there was more volatility in the Northwest because the saw logs were being used for high-end lumber and plywood and export markets. That's changed in the last five years. More owners in the Southeast are allowing their timber to grow longer, into larger saw logs. Q: The forest-products industry has been hammered by housing and general economic slumps. Are timber investors feeling that pain? A: The core forest-product industry is a markedly different place, particularly with everything that has happened with the general economy and the lumber and plywood markets. The timber industry is relatively distinct. It isn't subject to the same fluctuation. The industry remains strong. Timber is an inflation hedge. It's been countercyclical to stocks and bonds. That's one of the main reasons that so many institutional investors got into this. Q: Timberland ownership has shifted a lot in the last decade. Why? A: Ownership of timber has almost totally shifted from the forest-products industry to institutional investors, primarily in the last 10 to 15 years. Historically, if you looked at the Fortune 500, all the forest-product companies had the lowest return on assets, because a tremendous amount of their assets were tied up in timber, which was never valued by the marketplace. Timber investment companies had a much longer investment horizon and were willing to accept a lower rate of return than the production side. The monetization of that value has been the major change in the last 25 years, particularly in the last decade. http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2008/09/in_rough_times_for_forest_p\ rod.html 30) U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) today announced the publication of The Economics of Forest Disturbances: Wildfires, Storms, and Invasive Species. Edited by three SRS scientists, the book offers a synthesis of new approaches to understanding the economics of large-scale forest disturbances. The Economics of Forest Disturbances is the first book of its kind to present a comprehensive framework for analyzing the economic effects of large-scale catastrophic events such as wildfires, hurricanes, and invasions of non-native pests. With contributions from leading government and university scientists, the editors show how existing and new scientific techniques can be applied to identify the causes and consequences of forest disturbances. The editors emphasize that economic behavior matters, both in the production and mitigation of forest disturbances. Each chapter clarifies this general theme and shows how physical factors, such as climate, interact with economic factors, such as technology or management incentives, to produce economic damages. The book, which includes several case studies, resulted from the editors' belief that standard methods for evaluating economic impacts are often inadequate for addressing issues affecting forests and provide limited guidance for improved decision-making. The book's 19 chapters seek to describe the state-of-the-art in understanding the economic dimensions of forest disturbances. The Economics of Forest Disturbances consists of four sections, which reflect the editors' view that: (1) economic analyses of forest disturbances go hand-in-hand with ecological understanding; (2) forest disturbances are random variables that are amenable to new statistical analysis; (3) consistent accounts of timber and non-timber economic impacts (such as disturbance effects on recreation or residential property values) are pre-requisite to planning and decision-making; and (4) economic models can be used to improve decisions and set priorities. The 422-page text is academically focused and written for forest economists, policy makers and analysts, land managers, graduate students, and others in the forestry arena. http://www.allarticledirectory.info/visiting-the-ultimage-german-forest/ 31) The environmental groups Conservation Northwest and the Center for Biological Diversity are filing their suit in U.S. District Court in Seattle and in the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York. It names the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and other federal agencies as defendants. The story begins in 2001 when U.S. timber interests began petitioning the Bush administration to put tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber -- including fir, cedar, pine and other conifers -- claiming that the Canadians were getting government subsidies that gave them an unfair advantage in the marketplace. The administration slapped tariffs on the wood in 2002, setting off a series of legal battles between the governments. Over the years, multiple international trade groups issued decisions finding the tariffs either too high or illegal. To settle the drawn-out, costly debate, the two nations agree in September 2006 that the U.S. would return the more than $5 billion in duties it had collected on the wood, and Canada agreed to limit its softwood exports. They also decided that Canada would then wire back across the border $1 billion of that money to be meted out by the U.S. Trade Representative, which was advised by the White House's Council on Environmental Quality. Before the agreement was finalized, the U.S. Court of International Trade outlawed transactions in which the administration gives money to an industry in the settlement of a trade dispute involving that industry. Officials with the U.S. Trade Representative's Office maintain that the agreement was legal at the time it was made. The agreement specified that $450 million of the $1 billion go to " meritorious initiatives " that promote sustainable forestry, education, support for timber-dependent communities, and low-income housing and disaster relief. The money was distributed among three groups: 1) The U.S. Endowment for Forestry & Communities received $200 million. The organization was formed just before the deal was finalized, and the board of directors is heavily weighted with people who currently or formerly worked in timber and related industries. 2) The American Forest Foundation received $150 million. This nonprofit is geared toward helping family-owned timber companies, environmental education and preventing the conversion of timberlands to development. 3) Habitat for Humanity received $100 million. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/378290_lumber09.html 32) A series of fossilised forests the size of small cities have provided prehistoric evidence of how tropical rainforests are destroyed by global warming. The fossil remains represent the first rainforests grown on the planet and their demise more than 300 million years ago " points to the future " of the modern-day Amazon. Six petrified forests, dating from 303.9 million to 309 million years ago, have been discovered in coalmines in the United States. Because they straddle a period of intense global warming researchers have been able to see the effects of climate change on an ancient landscape. One forest that stretched 10,000 hectares (100 sq km) is the largest fossil forest yet found, dwarfing a 1,000ha forest that was announced last year as the biggest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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