Guest guest Posted October 10, 2008 Report Share Posted October 10, 2008 411 - Western North American Tree News --Today for you 27 news articles about earth's trees! (411th edition) --Audio and Video version of Earth's Tree News: http://forestpolicyresearch.org --To Subscribe / to the world-wide email format send a blank email to: earthtreenews- OR earthtreenews- In this issue: British Columbia - Pacific Northwest - Western US Index: --Alaska: 1) RIP Glen Ith: Whistleblower who was reassigned, investigated, suspended, and finally terminated --British Columbia: 2) Slocan Valley turned out in droves to oppose logging, 3) Save Cathedral grove, 4) Gov corruption related to Brookfield Asset Management, 5) Minister Bell wants to create more woodlot opportunities for individuals? 6) Industry now has $1.2 billion loss in first six months of this year, 7) Morice Forest Salvage Society, --Pacific Crest: 8) Pacific Crest Trail Association speaks about the decline of land acquisitions --Washington: 9) Attacking the underpinnings of NW forest plan with obscure seemingly unrelated bureaucratic and legal hooks --Oregon: 10) Save the Marbled Murrelet, 11) R-S NF's current proposal encourages Off-Road Vehicles, 12) Selling unsellable timber sales, 13) Sample letter to Governor regarding the WOPR, 14) 9 essential elements of a forest according to Orville, 15) More oaks " rescued " from fir plantations, 16) 35% increase in the harvest levels on the Tillamook and Clatsop State Forests? --California: 16) Big Creek Lumber finally stopped from trashing San Jose water supply, 17) Big Chico Creek Linkage Project, 18) Pacific Forest Trust, 19) Pollution effects on Sierra Nevada and San Bernardino mountain, 20) Salmon extinction overview, 21) Bud McCrary: Pathology of a logger who will always believe the opposite of common sense in order to make a buck, --Idaho: 22) Mission Brush project's journey through the court system --Montana: 23) A New Business Plan: Moving Forest Businesses to Long Term Environmental and Economic Sustainability, 24) Forest pulp is the only wood market not yet dead, 25) Statistics indicate downturn in market, 26) Helena NF Logging plans are now created using " rapid assessment. " 27) Montana Wood Products Industry Initiative never original in what they want, Articles: Alaska: 1) Glen Ith died in his sleep in March two weeks after being fired. He was 48. Ith sued the Forest Service in federal court in 2006 for illegally building roads in the Tongass National Forest. He discovered that the agency was building bridges and repairing logging roads for timber sales that had not been approved. He accused the Forest Service of trying to promote logging by avoiding the required study and public process. Andy Stahl, executive director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics in Eugene, Oregon, said Ith is the " only Forest Service employee in history to sue his employer and win an environmental case. " " For his efforts, Glen was reassigned, investigated, suspended, and had his job terminated, " he said. The Forest Service denied Marketa Ith the documents on the basis of attorney-client and deliberative process privileges, which are exempt under public records law. However, she maintains that those privileges don't apply to documents created in the course of government misconduct. Glen Ith's lawsuit resulted in a judge ordering the government to stop work on two logging roads in the Tongass because the agency had not done the proper studies on how the construction would affect the environment. A lawyer for the Forest Service argued that the road work was routine maintenance that didn't require an environmental study. The roads went through stands of old-growth timber. http://newsminer.com/news/2008/oct/04/widow-man-who-sued-forest-service-seeking-\ access-r/ British Columbia: 2) The citizens of the Slocan Valley turned out in droves at last night's, October 7, BC Timber Sales open house at Slocan Park Hall. They wanted to understand the reason why Porcupine Barabanow has been given the green light to extract 550 logging trucks full of timber out of four sizeable cutblocks in their watersheds. " BC Timber sales have come in and are walking all over us. If they get away with creating these large, highly visible clearcuts in our back yard, it will make it so much easier for them to decimate watersheds all over the Kootenays, as well as in the rest of BC! " said local resident, Evelyn Kirkaldy. " And their plan in fact is to do just that! " These plans came as a surprise to almost all residents, some receiving notices as late as last week. Over the next two years there will be logging trucks thundering down residential roads and school bus routes. BC Timber Sales completed the transaction even before any geotechnical or hydrological reports were made on blocks 1 and 2 and before surface water licensees were formally contacted. Mapping of all surface water sources still has not been completed. According to MOF guidelines, logging plans do not have to take into consideration private or community wells. Folks with wells will lose water and there is no provision for compensation. On all four cutblocks, the mass wasting hazard is designated by MOF as high, which means there is a high risk for slides. The largest cutblock #1 has grades from 45% to 60% and higher. Jacob Creek already has a physical washout that's eroding onto Cunningham Road. - Block 1 is 49.4HA total with 37.6HA to be logged - Block 2 is 9.3 HA total with 5.9HA to be logged - Block 3 is 21.2HA total with 17.9 HA to be logged - Block 4 is 10.8HA total with 7.8 HA to be logged - A percentage of each cut block will be designated as wildlife areas, but they have little or no timber value. Former 200 meter buffer zones around creeks, have been reduced to 20 meters. On top of that, fellerbunchers will be allowed to go into the riparian zone, within 5 meters of the stream and take the large merchantable timber. leaving little or no underbrush. " The buffer zones are a joke, " said Kirkaldy " These blocks will be large clearcuts, right up to the streams. " Approximately 250+ people showed up at last night's meeting and most left feeling helpless and infuriated. MOF has the power to retract the tenure, but denies it. A group of local citizens have been organizing and we will do whatever it takes to stop this irresponsible example of unsustainable watershed logging in the heart of our community. - Evelyn Kirkaldy - eekbears 3) Early Monday morning, Vancouver Islanders placed a symbolic roadblock across an active logging road in Cathedral Grove next to MacMillan Provincial Park. Volunteers with Friends of the Grove (FROG) are warning Island Timberlands contractors that others in the forest are prepared to interfere with logging operations by playing " cat and mouse " with the loggers. Volunteer Seamus McCormack said the tree-cutting crew left the area at around 9 am on Monday. " [The contractors] said they were just coming to get their truck so we let them in. When they drove back out, they said the company told them they are not going to log this block right now. " McCormack said it was not clear whether the company was pulling out because of protests that began Sunday, or because a forecast calling for strong winds. " Cat and mouse " is a civil disobedience tactic that involves slipping into an area being logged, announcing one's presence, and disappearing again. Fallers are required for safety reasons to stop work if unauthorized people are in the area. Meanwhile, the Western Canada Wilderness Committee (WCWC) announced a rally at the Nanoose headquarters of Island Timberlands at 1420 Island Highway starting at 11 am today. FROG and WCWC are demanding more protection for the ancient cedars and firs at Cathedral Grove, and they denounced Island Timberlands' plan to cut down the forest alongside the Cameron River and MacMillan Provincial Park. MacMillan Park includes part of Cathedral Grove, some of the largest trees remaining on Vancouver Island. The grove provides habitat for Roosevelt elk and other rare species, but logging leaves the giants vulnerable to blow-down and erosion. In 2006, a two-year-long treesit defeated a provincial plan to build roads, parking lots, and trails through Cathedral Grove. A BC Supreme Court justice declined to issue a court order to remove protestors camped out in the treetops, and the province eventually scrapped the parking lot plan. The Nature Trust of BC is negotiating with Island Timberlands to acquire another part of the ancient forest grove adjacent to the park. http://www.cathedralgrovecanyon.com - http://www.cathedralgrove.se 4) " The government is supposed to look out for the public interest, meanwhile a company the BC government has invested in heavily has established an off-shore company in Bermuda to minimize Canadian taxes, " said MLA Fraser. In fact the BC government is the largest single investor in Island Timberlands, since bcIMC bought 25% of all shares for Island Timberlands in 2005, when the logging company was first established by Brookfield Asset Management Inc. However, Brookfield is listed under the heading of Real Estate on the bcIMC website not as Forestry. The investment is being made through a numbered company based in Manitoba. In 2005 Island Timberlands was created with private land holdings that had previously been publicly owned as part of Tree Farm License #44. Despite the fact that Madam Justice Lynn Smith of the BC Supreme Court in Hupacasath First Nation v. British Columbia (Minister of Forests) found that the Province had a duty to meaningfully consult the Hupacasath about their claimed rights and concerns in regard to 70,000 hectares of private timberlands within their ancestral territory before deciding whether, at the request of then-owner Weyerhaeuser, to remove those lands from Tree Forest License 44 (TFL 44) The old growth forest that is about to be logged by Island Timberlands is separated from the main trailed park by several meandering canals of the Cameron River. Due to the steep slopes to the south, this leaves little room for the 300-meter buffer the logging company claims they will be leaving between their clear-cut and the park boundary. A wind-assessment conducted for BC Parks states; " …the sheltering effects of the stands to the south and west should be maintained. This could be accomplished by acquisition of adjacent lands as noted in the park Master Plan. " This same forest has been considered for purchase by The Nature Trust of British Columbia. In the past week there has been a public outcry that reflects the local, national, and international passion for the Old Growth forest of Cathedral Grove. The locally elected representative for this riding has tried to raise public concerns. MLA Fraser explained; " I couldn't question the government directly because they have cancelled the fall session of the legislature. So, I went into the offices for the Minister of Environment and the Minister of Transportation but they weren't there. " http://islandlens.blogspot.com/2008/10/chainsaws-roar-in-cathedral-grove.html 5) B.C. Forests and Range Minister Pat Bell says the government will expand the number of woodlots to create more opportunities for individuals, First Nations and small businesses. Bell says the province will offer up to 75 new woodlot licences over the next three years. That would result in a total of about 900 woodlots operating in the province by 2011. Bids have been received on three advertised tenures near Campbell River, Fort St. James and Dawson Creek. In 2005, woodlot licensees generated an estimated $183 million in economic activity in B.C. and harvested just over three million cubic metres of timber, the minister says. The woodlot licences combine private land with up to 800 hectares of Crown land on the Coast and 1,200 hectares of Crown land in the Interior. They are managed by individuals, groups, First Nations or public institutions. The government says there are currently 828 active woodlots that include about 546,000 hectares in British Columbia. Each woodlot generates jobs in planning, harvesting, road construction and maintenance, reforestation, silviculture and small-scale timber processing. http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jNRD05DeNtX5-62DGPBsKcX3Z_xQ 6) Lumber price are crashing, forestry companies are bleeding red ink, and there's no end in sight. That's the gloomy prognosis that emerged Thursday for British Columbia's beleaguered lumber producers -- and a depressed United States housing market gets the blame. PricewaterhouseCoopers reported that the Canadian forest industry lost a total of $1.2 billion in the first six months of the year, including $700 million by eastern companies and $500 million in the West -- mainly B.C. For the West, that was substantially more money lost than in the first six months of 2007, when lumber producers took a collective $73-million hit. " The Canadian forest industry is awash in a sea of red ink, " says PWC's global forest and paper industry net earnings summary for the six months ending June 30, 2008. The U.S. housing market annually consumes 80 per cent of the output of B.C.'s interior lumber industry, and producers are accustomed to cyclical market swings. But Craig Campbell, report co-author and a leader in PWC's global forest, paper and packaging industry practice, said the present situation is something entirely different. Annual housing starts in the U.S. are down 50 per cent compared to a peak two million a couple of years ago. " " Usually we bounce off the bottom relatively quickly. Down cycles last six to 12 months. This time, and I've been saying this for a year, there is no end in sight, " Campbell said in an interview. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=196992df-27fe-4ba\ 4-8851-89b8e60826f7 7) Members of the Morice Forest Salvage Society are banking on gaining contracts to log roadways and powerline cuts. To be a member of the society, a company cannot log more than 15,000 metres per year individually. Smaller companies are the hardest hit by stumpage fees because they do not have the volume to cover operating costs. These contracts would allow loggers to clear-cut areas in the right of ways without hefty stumpage fees or silviculture levies. Cutting along power lines can be tricky and potentially costly if any of the trees happen to fell a power line. " It's good if it goes well, but if you happen to knock a transmitter out, you could be looking at paying the cost of the man hours and be in the hole, " Steven Wright, society president said. Logging along roads could offer less danger, but would be done on a case-by-case basis. " You wouldn't be able to go to hick roads where no one travels and clear cut, " Wright said. " But it could be the best option if you take less than one hectare. " The Burns Lake District Manager with the Ministry of Forestry is still ironing out the details. In the meantime the new, Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the ministry, offers a best case price of $15.05 per metre of pine with, around $9 stumpage and $6 silviculture levy. The prices for wood vary on type and quality, with some of the grey wood working out to be the best deal because of lower stumpage. http://www.bclocalnews.com/bc_north/houston-today/news/29974799.html Pacific Crest: 8) " Money for land acquisition has all but dried up, " said Liz Bergeron, executive director of the Pacific Crest Trail Association. " The (Pacific Crest Trail) has received only $10.5 million in federal funds for buying land. " That wasn't always the case, she said. The Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail's older cousin back east, has received about $190 million in federal funds. The Pacific Crest Trail was officially " completed " 15 years ago with a ceremony in the Angeles National Forest in Southern California. But today, 250 miles of the trail corridor are still held by private landowners and many properties are in danger of logging, development and mining. It's time that the government find the money to buy this land and preserve the trail. Even while government land purchases have all but ended, the U.S. Forest Service has increased maintenance funding for the Pacific Crest Trail. The Forest Service funding for the Pacific Crest Trail Association has grown from $87,000 in 2004 to $668,000 this year. Bergeron said the agency realized that instead of maintaining the trail itself, as it used to, it could stretch trail dollars by giving them to the nonprofit. That money helps pay a staff of 13 who advocate for the trail and coordinate the volunteers who in turn gave almost 60,000 hours to trail maintenance projects last year. But even that funding is tenuous, Bergeron said. That's because the Forest Service has primary responsibility for fighting fires on much of the land the trail runs through. In a typical year, the agency spends about half its annual budget fighting fires. " Every time there's a huge fire season, like we've had every year over the last several years, funding for (other) programs is affected, " Bergeron said. " Congress needs to take firefighting out of the regular budget. " Bergeron's group is left to buy land by soliciting public donations. There's a mile of trail in southern Oregon that needs protecting right now. The 153-acre Keene Creek property will go on the market in February unless the Pacific Crest Trail Association can come up with $300,000 to buy a conservation easement from the sympathetic landowner. http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2008/10/at_risk_the_pacific_crest_tr\ ai.html Washington: 9) As a forest ecologist, I cut my intellectual teeth in the 1990s documenting the importance of old-growth forests from Oregon's Cascade Mountains to Alaska's rainforest. In the Hoh River Rainforest on the Olympic Peninsula, I carefully observed how the spotted owl not only relied on the cathedral forests for its survival, but was a bellwether of a rich web of life that included everything from the Pacific yew, whose bark contains cancer-healing properties, to majestic salmon that spawn in cool waters shaded by those giants. Today, those ancient forests and the owls they harbor are once again at the center of a political conflict. Their fate hangs on whether the Bush administration is successful in completing its eight-year mission to dismantle Northwest forest protections before it checks out. The spotted owl was listed as a threatened species in 1990 because all but about 20 percent of the older forests that once covered up much of the region had been logged. Recognizing the forests were more than the sum of their parts, Bill Clinton's administration enacted sweeping changes under the Northwest Forest Plan in 1994. Thanks to the spotted owl and the Northwest Forest Plan, millions of acres of our last remaining old-growth forests were protected for future generations. We now understand the irreplaceable role those forests play in safeguarding clean water, controlling floods and landslides and providing sanctuaries for rare plants and animals. Scientific exploration into the wonders of old-growth forests fostered awareness of how the interconnected members of a forest community each play a vital role in a complex web of life. Protecting forests the owl needs to live also has provided many of the special places we go to hike, camp, fish and find refuge from the stress of our everyday lives. From the beginning, the Bush administration has sought to dismantle the Northwest Forest Plan. Yet the administration understood that a direct attack on the plan -- the basis for current forest protections -- would spark broad opposition. Instead, it attacked the underpinnings of the plan by using obscure and seemingly unrelated bureaucratic and legal hooks carefully orchestrated with some members of the timber industry. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/380767_bushforestpolicy28.html Oregon: 10) We are right in the heart of football season, so I think the pigskin reference is apt. Besides, the one consistent descriptor you will hear about the threatened bird in question, the marbled murrelet, is that it is shaped like a tiny football. Anyways, back to the issue at hand. A few months back, the American Forest Resources Council (AFRC) filed a petition with the US Fish and Wildlife Service asking the feds to remove the murrelet from the Endangered Species List. The folks in the timber industry have long wanted to strip away protections for the tiny seabird that nests in old-growth forests (I bet you can guess why they want to remove protections for old growth). AFRC thought that a 2004 finding by USFWS stating that murrelet's didn't need protection in the Northwest would help them to remove protections for the bird altogether. Nevermind the fact that that 2004 decision was all doctored up by the political meddlings of the now infamous Julie MacDonald. So, when the timber industry's suit to have the murrelet's status revoked reaches its conclusion, they might end up with a little pie in their face. Michael Milstein's article in the Oregonian puts it well " ...The Fish and Wildlife Service said this week that it will consider the industry's arguments but said the analysis supporting the 2004 finding was flawed. That means the agency could decide the birds in the Northwest deserve protection after all. The agency could go further and find that the species also needs protection in Alaska, where numbers have declined 70 percent in the past 25 years... ...The timber industry could face an unwelcome surprise, however, because the agency will review the murrelet's status across its entire range, including Alaska. Murrelet populations in Alaska do not fall under the Endangered Species Act, but they are declining sharply. The agency could conclude that federal protection also should include those birds. The reviews are expected to take about a year. " Hence, the intercepted pass. AFRC may have thought they were going on the offensive with this one, but USFWS just grabbed the ball and started off towards the opposite end zone. http://www.oregonwild.org/about/blog/intercepting-a-football-shaped-seabird 11) The forests and watersheds of the Rogue/Siskiyou National Forest are famous for their world-class wild rivers, astounding biodiversity and scenic splendor. Threatened Coho salmon still spawn in the creeks, extremely rare Port-Orford cedar trees grace the stream-banks, and peaceful trails still lead into untrammeled wildlands. All of these forest values are being placed at-risk from the Forest Service's current proposal to encourage Off-Road Vehicle (ORV) use in some of the most fragile landscapes of the Forest. Motorized recreation is a valued and legitimate part of the National Forest experience. The Rogue/Siskiyou has thousands of miles of roads that can be responsibly explored by car, ORV or motorcycle while also respecting the irreplaceable forest values that belong to all Americans. Unfortunately, some in the ORV community believe that there should be no limits at all on their preferred form of recreation, despite the fact that nationally about 2.5% of annual visits to National Forests have ORV use as their primary activity, yet motorized recreation can devastate public resources. So over the years meadows have been trashed, creeks have been sullied, and hiking trails have been destroyed by irresponsible ORV users. Under the Forest Service's initial proposal, ORV use would be encouraged in fragile places such as roadless areas, designated botanical areas, near Port Orford cedar populations (that could be wiped-out by the motorized spread of a fatal root-disease), and along hiking trails in the backcountry, including popular trails around the Kalmiopsis wildlands and in the Upper Applegate Valley. These are simply not the appropriate places for motorized recreation on our public lands. action: Please take a moment to write a quick note to the Forest Service asking them to protect the irreplaceable forest values that you hold dear for future generations. The deadline for comments is October 14, 2008. Click here for a sample letter and addresses. http://kswild.org/GetInvolved/ActionAlerts/stand-up-for-the-wildlands-and-waters\ heds-of-the-rogue-siskiyou 12) JOHN DAY - The Forest Service is taking another run at two salvage timber sales that failed to draw a single bidder last month amid continuing turmoil in the timber markets. The sales went to bid as a result of the unprecedented salvage sale agreement forged last May between timber and environmental interests on the Malheur National Forest. Rusty Inglis, sale administrator for the Malheur National Forest, said the two sales have been reappraised and are being advertised again in this week's Blue Mountain Eagle. " The market's been so crazy, so poor, we can't keep up with what the timber's really worth, " he said. Dubbed the Egg and Fried Sales, they are among four sales drawn up in the Egley Fire area that burned in the southern reaches of the Malheur in 2007. Malheur Lumber Company was the sole bidder for a third sale that went to bid at the same time in September. The Lew Sale - estimated at 7.05 million board feet of ponderosa pine and other timber species - went for the Forest Service's minimum rate of $64.75 per 1,000 board feet. The fourth sale - the 4.67 million-board-foot Yolk Sale - is being advertised this week for the first time. Bids are due Oct. 15, Inglis said. All of the sales are along Forest Service Roads 41, 43 and 47 and their tributaries. Inglis said the lack of bidding on the first try came as a surprise. He said several industry representatives had toured the sites earlier and seemed interested, but " then nobody bid. " He's hoping a readjusted rate will revive the interest. Mike Billman, operations forester for Malheur Lumber, said the company decided to bid only on the Lew Sale because the rates were too high on the others " given today's conditions. " http://www.myeaglenews.com/main.asp?SectionID=1 & SubSectionID=12 & ArticleID=18320 & \ TM=3836.59 13) Gov. Kulongoski, Quoting your press release of 08.21.2008, " The Governor believes forests can be sustainably managed for today, and for future generations, while also protecting old growth, endangered species and water quality. " You have the opportunity to act on that vision now. I understand that the BLM has delivered their FEIS of the WOPR to your office and you are in the 60 day review period. Now is the time to take a powerful stand for our priceless public lands and oppose this dishonest, destructive, and deadly plan. As you know, the public lands administered by the BLM in western Oregon contain some of the last low elevation old growth stands in the northwest. The BLM and the logging industry want the American taxpayers to subsidize the removal of these irreplaceable forests. These stands contain the genetic " bank " of the historical forests that we have proven so efficient at destroying. But this is just one reason to save them. Our forests are worth exponentially more standing, providing trillions of dollars worth of environmental services. They provide us with clean air and water. They produce rich top soils and support the biodiversity so desperately needed for a healthy climate and planet. The logging industry's " Business as usual " approach is collapsing under its own weight. The most recent studies say 50% of mammal species on Earth are declining and fully 25% face near-term extinction if we do not change our ways. Over 700 species of fish in the U.S. alone are in trouble. Many of them reside in the streams that would be trashed by management under BLM's WOPR. In this moment, you, more than any other individual, hold the future of these precious forests in your hands. Now is the time to turn your vision to the future and act in the best interest of our descendants. It is time to leave " political reality " and " global markets " behind and do what is right. Our planet is reeling from unconstrained growth and resource extraction. You have a unique and powerful part in the future of these priceless public assets. We must stop the bleeding. We cannot allow the privatization of these assets to a few timber barons. Please stop this travesty. We must do all we can to plant the seeds of a sustainable future for our children. Please act in the best interest of the citizens who elected you. Any other course of action is indefensible. bill 14) For more than 20 years, Selma residents Orville Camp and his wife, Mary, have been refining their understanding of sustainable forestry practices. He studied and worked on his 160-acre forest, compared it with other areas that were logged, and used various management practices throughout North America. He attended conferences in Canada and the United States; read books on the subject; and set out to create a model of whole-forest management. On his property, Camp Forest, Coho salmon spawn, and juveniles live in his ponds and streams until ready to swim to the Pacific Ocean. Camp teaches a type of forestry he calls Ecostry, a term he has trademarked, based on the idea that a healthy forest needs many other species in order to be a real forest. In 1984, he authored a book, The Forest Farmer's Handbook. During the past 25 years, forest managers have learned that tree plantations of one or two tree species are not the way to make a healthy or productive forest. Pine tree plantations can be wiped out by disease or insects. To be a true forest, there must be a variety of herbs, shrubs, trees, water, rich soil, wildlife, and no " management " by humans, according to Camp. He advises that natural selection is the key to letting a forest manage itself, at no cost to humans. Following natural selection, the whole forest relies on a tall canopy to maintain the soil and water temperature in it for the plants, fish, birds and other creatures in it. Each plant and animal relies on the entire system to thrive. Camp believes that by thinning only dead or dying trees or trees that will die in a year, humans can extract timber without harming the health of the forest ecosystem. He describes the ecosystem as intricate and that each species relies on all the parts of the forest for survival and reproduction. " The nine essential elements of a forest are climate, soil, water, air, food, shelter, habitat, reproduction, and biotic recycling, " explains Camp. " Each layer from the soil up to the canopy supports a peculiar array of species and environment. " Camp realized that the old skid roads were all wrong on his property, so he built his own roads and abandoned the old logging roads to Nature. This method avoids going off the road, destroying the forest floor and undergrowth. Riding along these roads, one marvels at the wide variety of abundant plant life, fungi, and wildlife in the cool, peaceful forest. http://www.illinois-valley-news.com/archive/2008/10/08/ecostry.html 15) " It's almost like an archaeological excavation, unearthing these trees after so many years of fire suppression, " said Darin Stringer of Integrated Resource Management, part of the team working on the 60-acre demonstration project in the Lane County park. While some visitors who regularly hike the trail are concerned about the loss of shade, the project's stewards say the firs represent a threat to one of the state's most endangered ecosystems. The demonstration — part restoration, part education — is designed to help people see what the Willamette Valley looked like before farming and cities and towns took over here. Prairie and oak savannah once covered about 1.3 million acres in the Willamette Valley, said Jason Blazar, stewardship coordinator for the Friends of Buford Park & Mount Pisgah. The nonprofit group, whose goal is to protect and enhance the park's unique habitat, organized the effort. The state Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Bonneville Power Administration and the Forest Restoration Partnership helped pay for it. Prairie and oak savannah are home to a wide range of species, some rare enough to be under consideration for federal listing as threatened or endangered, such as the Western gray squirrel, the Western bluebird, the wayside aster, a bat called the long-eared myotis, the Taylor's checkerspot butterfly and Oregon's state bird — the Western meadowlark. The grasses and wildflowers once common across the prairie and savannah have succumbed to invasive species such as blackberries, Scotch broom and false brome, Blazar said. That sweeping open landscape wasn't the work of Mother Nature alone. For generations, American Indians managed it, keeping fir trees at bay by regularly setting fire to the prairie, an effort that renewed the grasses and wildflowers and burned out unwanted tree seedlings, yet rarely climbed into the crowns of oak, whose expansive canopies provided food and habitat for a range of insects, birds and other animals. http://www.forestrycenter.org/headlines.cfm?refID=104173 16) The Oregon Board of Forestry is considering a 35% increase in the harvest levels on the Tillamook and Clatsop State Forests. The Board will consider the proposal at its November 6th meeting in Salem, as well as considering reducing its goals for creating scarce older forests. The Wild Salmon Center is calling for citizens to speak up on behalf of fish, wildlife, water quality and recreational uses of the forests. For more information or to help out, contact Bob Van Dyk at bvandyk. Or review the Board of Forestry agenda. info California: 16) San Jose Water Co.'s plan to log more than 1,000 acres of redwood and Douglas fir trees near Highway 17 came to an abrupt end Wednesday when the state forestry board voted unanimously to side with mountain residents who had fiercely fought the proposal. In a surprise announcement shortly after the nine-member Board of Forestry and Fire Protection made its decision, a representative of San Jose Water indicated that the company would not appeal the decision in court. So the most contentious logging dispute in Santa Clara County in decades is suddenly over. " I believe this is it,'' said John Tang, spokesman for the water company. " We're very disappointed.'' Tang left open the possibility that the company might return in the future with a smaller timber harvest proposal, but he stressed that nothing has been decided. Residents of Chemeketa Park and other nearby forested communities, who have battled the logging plan since 2005, reacted with joy and said they were shocked the water company was backing down. " We're ecstatically happy,'' said Kevin Flynn, a Cisco Systems manager who lives in Chemeketa Park. " It really surprises me that the company won't appeal, because they've been such a tenacious opponent. But I guess they realize they've been licked.'' Opponents had vowed to sue if the forestry board approved the plan, arguing that the logging would generate noise, trigger landslides and increase fire danger. Jose Water had said it wanted to log the 1,002 acres to reduce the danger of fire. Fire danger, however, was not the central point of contention before the forestry board Wednesday. At issue was how much timberland is actually owned by the investor-owned company, which provides drinking water to about a million people in San Jose, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Cupertino and Campbell. After a 31/2-hour hearing at which about two dozen people spoke, the forestry board agreed with the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (also called Cal Fire) that the board owns more than 2,500 acres of timberland. So, it ruled, the company does not qualify for the open-ended logging permit it was seeking. Without an open-ended permit, the company has to come back for approval each time it wants to log a portion of the property — a process that is more expensive and time-consuming. Cal Fire and the forestry board say the company owns 2,825 acres of timberland, while the company says only 1,971 acres of that actually bears commercially harvestable trees. The forestry department's chief counsel has argued that " timberland'' is defined in the state Forest Practices Act as any land " available for, and capable of growing, a crop of trees of any commercial species used to produce lumber and other forest products, including Christmas trees.'' That, the department's chief counsel wrote in legal briefs, means " timberland' includes not only areas with big trees but also land with small sprouts, stumps and even soils capable of growing trees. San Jose Water and Big Creek Lumber, the Santa Cruz County contractor working with the water company, characterized that definition as unfairly broad. http://www.mercurynews.com 17) NCRLT is currently working on two very exciting projects. In April 2008, we were awarded $15,000 by the Sierra Nevada Conservancy for appraisal services in support of the Big Chico Creek Linkage Project. By securing appraisal services for three key properties, linking 3,616-ac Bidwell Park and the 4,144-ac Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve (BCCER) to a protected 1,058-ac private estate upstream might be made possible. If realized, this would allow for the permanent protection of approximately 9,474 contiguous acres and 16 river miles of riverine/riparian habitat within the Big Chico Creek Watershed. Another project, the Red Bank Project, represents an opportunity to purchase two conservation easements on two immediately adjacent ranch properties west of Red Bluff in Tehama County that would protect over 7,000 acres of working rangeland and farmland, including approximately 4,275 contiguous acres of blue oak woodland. http://rare-earth-news.blogspot.com/2008/10/update-on-negotiations-to-link-butte\ ..html 18) Laurie Wayburn recently won two major awards for her leadership in forest conservation: one from the James Irvine Foundation and the other from the Land Trust Alliance. She has been conserving forests in California since she and Constance Best founded the Pacific Forest Trust in 1993, long before anyone talked about the pivotal role of forests in stabilizing our global climate. Mary Ambrose interviewed her on NAM's radio program New America Now. This is a transcription of that interview. NAM: What percentage of forests are owned privately? In the U.S. almost two thirds of our forests are privately owned. If we want our forests to provide us with water (75-85 percent of of our water comes out of forests), to be habitats for fish and wildlife, as places of recreation, we need to focus on private forest lands just as much as public forest lands. Because private forest landowners earn their livings from their forest, we need to work with the market, providing economic return [is] a key tool in preserving those forests. NAM: Describe the model you created? What the public wants from forests is clean water, clean air, beautiful spaces, places to walk and take their children and grandchildren. But what we pay forest land owners for is turning their land into shopping malls, and cutting their forests as fast as they can so we pay them for what they have cut as quickly as possible. What we've been paying them for and what we really value have been completely at odds. Our focus in founding the Pacific Forest Trust was to find ways to build financial markets for conserving and restoring forests. Conservation easement [is] a legal tool that allows a land owner to dedicate their land as forest land, giving up the rights to developing it and also limiting how it is managed. Conservation easement is like buying a deed of property, [but] when you buy property normally you buy positive rights on it; to build a house, cut the timber, graze cattle. When you buy a conservation easement, you buy the right to prohibit subdivision, prohibit or limit development. http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=014c66edb18888\ 6e6ca2db24e2694f53 19) Scientists have found lichens can give insight into nitrogen air pollution effects on Sierra Nevada and San Bernardino mountain ecosystems, and protecting them provides safeguards for less sensitive species. Their findings are presented this month in the international journal Environmental Pollution and are significant because nitrogen from air pollution causes detrimental chemical and biological effects to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Other harmful effects include elevated nitrate concentrations in streams and groundwater, and weakened California forests more susceptible to bark beetle infestations and fires. The U.S. Forest Service funded the study, which included the agency's own researchers working with scientists at the University of Arizona and Spain's National Research Center for Energy, Environment and Technology. According to the scientists, nitrogen pollution that has virtually eliminated lichen species in the Los Angeles Basin and San Bernardino Mountains is now exceeding critical loads over much of the Western Sierra Nevada as far north as Lake Tahoe. Other areas in corridors of polluted air such as the Central Valley are also exceeding nitrogen critical loads. " Publicity surrounds the carbon cycle and its effects on the environment, but humans have altered the global nitrogen cycle to a greater degree, " said Mark Fenn, a Forest Service plant pathologist and one of the study's authors. " There are now significant changes in lichen indicator groups because nitrogen critical loads are being exceeded over much of California. " Scientists involved in the research studied 24 mixed-conifer forest sites exposed to a wide range of atmospheric nitrogen deposition and monitored adverse changes in lichens, among the most sensitive biological indicators of nitrogen effects. The result is a useful tool for determining critical loads and preventing broader impacts to forests. Protecting lichens also has inherent value because of their complex hydrological, nutrient cycling, wildlife forage and nesting material roles. " Quantifying nitrogen critical loads helps land managers determine the point at which unacceptable impacts occur to sensitive ecosystems, " Fenn said. " This helps bring air quality management that is more firmly rooted in ecosystem protection. " The United Nations' International Cooperative Program on Effects of Air Pollution on Natural Vegetation and Crops has led the largest effort to quantify nitrogen critical loads. Similar coordinated efforts do not exist in the United States. But, U.S. research in critical loads is increasing. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-10/ufsp-lfa100608.php 20) Logging has long been associated with plummeting salmon populations along the West Coast. Clear-cutting and other destructive practices have silted up waterways and stripped away the canopy that keeps streams cool, disrupting the food chain and depriving salmon of the deep, clear pools where they lay their eggs. In July, responding to the plummeting numbers, the Sierra Club, the Humboldt-based Environmental Protection Information Center and the fishermen's group California Trout sued the state Board of Forestry, demanding it tighten its rules on logging in watersheds where coho are found. The board refused, saying its own process of scientific review was under way and that it would wait until those results were in before changing any regulations. The review is due any day, and it's not clear what effect it will have. Meanwhile, the finger-pointing continues as the coho salmon hurtles toward the same fate as the California grizzly. " Regarding coho salmon south of San Francisco, " says NMFS biologist Charlotte Ambrose, " the populations are in critical danger of becoming extinct. " Bruce MacFarlane has been studying salmon for 25 years, and he still sounds amazed when he talks about their evolutionary adaptations. " It's a brilliant survival strategy, " he says. " They spend most of their lives in the ocean--it's a nutrient-rich environment. There's loads of food. But it's also a predator-rich environment. So where do they go to lay their eggs? To these inland streams, where there aren't as many predators. But there isn't as much food, either, so at some point they have to return to the ocean. Scientists point to a variety of factors in the destruction of coho habitat. The main one, in Jonathan Ambrose's view, is urbanization. As an example, he offers up the San Lorenzo River, which had coho until 1982 (and had a few again in 2005). " The San Lorenzo comes up as probably the watershed in the overall worst condition, " he says. " And why is that? Because you have an incredibly high density of roads. Lots are not properly maintained. Dirt bleeds into the creek. All kinds of people are living on the river because, what a beautiful place. " But what happens is, this fish needs to have complex instream habitat, and in Santa Cruz County that's primarily formed by trees falling into the creek, creating deep pools. But in Santa Cruz, the county funds the removal of large woody debris in the stream--and no other county does this--and if you don't have large woody debris in the water, you won't have fish. " Then there's the erosion and other problems associated with logging. Much of the coho salmon's habitat lies in timberlands, and the NMFS has come out and charged that the California Board of Forestry's policies have contributed to coho decline--which is why the Sierra Club and other litigants sued the Board of Forestry this past summer. And who prevails when the federal government tells a state agency to clean up its act? No telling. Several years ago the NMFS sued the Board of Forestry, saying its rules contribute to the " take " of salmon. The state fought it in court and it was thrown out on a technicality. " Essentially, the board said, 'Kiss off,' " says Mason. http://www.metrosantacruz.com/metro-santa-cruz/10.01.08/cover-0840.html 21) Bud McCrary could be a posterboy for the benefits of fresh air and teetotalling. At 81 he's mentally sharp and confoundingly light on his feet. The only concession he makes to advanced age is to seize a walking stick from the back of his truck before he goes stumping off into the undergrowth to make a point. And McCrary, co-owner with his brother Lud of Big Creek Lumber, has many points to make. " When people [from logging companies] up north look at our trees, they say, 'Wow, those are good-size trees.' " Another point McCrary likes to make is that the logging regulations are getting too restrictive. " We've managed to make it work up to this point, but the rules are getting so tight it's getting almost impossible to operate. " " Down here in the bottom there's plenty of water and good nutrient-rich soil, " McCrary says. Then he points at a nearby slope, fairly steep, populated by spindly trees. " They were always smaller, " he says. " There are good minerals in the mudstone, but the trees don't get as much out of it, and they don't have as much water. " The upshot: the best trees are near the water, and the rules make harvesting them very hard. McCrary harps on one last point. Citing newspaper articles announcing the opening of the Brookdale hatchery in 1907 and the import of coho eggs, he claims that coho aren't even native to the area south of San Francisco. The Central Coast Foresters Association is suing NMFS over the listing of the coho salmon based on this research. It's an argument to which Jonathan Ambrose gives short shrift. " The archaeological record is definitive: there were coho here, " he says. " The logging sector and their advocates will say over and over, 'It can't be one size fits all, it needs to be more flexible.' But that creates a lot of uncertainty about what's expected--especially when it takes three months to get an appointment with Fish and Game. " http://www.metrosantacruz.com/metro-santa-cruz/10.01.08/cover-0840.html Idaho: 22) The Mission Brush project is located on the Idaho Panhandle which is part of Region One of the Forest Service, as is Montana. The final record of decision on the project was issued in April 2006 and encompassed an area of 31,000 acres, including silvicultural treatments on about 4,000 acres and fuels treatments on another 4,000 acres. The purpose and need of the project was not unlike most Forest Service projects. The vegetation need would move the landscape toward desired future condition by providing for tree species and stock levels that resist insects, disease, and stand replacing wildfires. The wildlife component would promote long-term stability of wildlife habitat and biodiversity by moving toward an ecosystem with vegetation composed of a more diverse forest. The original record of decision had been appealed and additional analysis was done in an attempt to move the project forward. More public comment was sought and the April 2006 decision was the result of that additional input. In October 2006 two entities filed a lawsuit and moved for a preliminary injunction to stop the work on the ground. The intervenors on behalf of the Forest Service in the lawsuit were an Idaho county, two Idaho cities, and two logging companies. The Idaho judge in the case denied a preliminary injunction to stop the work by rejecting several of the plaintiffs' arguments, including the one that claimed logging always causes irreparable environmental harm. In the first round of circuit appeals, the Idaho judge was overturned and the project was halted. The ensuing dueling arguments among the three-judge panel got the attention of the full Ninth Circuit and the media. When an en banc re-hearing before a panel of 11 judges was requested, the request was granted. This made Mission Brush the first public lands case receiving such treatment. The full panel arguments were heard in March 2008 and the unanimous 11-judge decision issued in July. So, what exactly does this ruling mean for forest management? Two previous cases were crucial in the decision on Mission Brush. Key components used by the litigants were from Ecology Center vs. Austin which was overturned by the full panel, and Lands Council vs. Powell, which was limited and highlighted by the full panel of judges in the Mission Brush decision. Basically, the judges said courts should not act as panels of scientists but rather should review agency decisions. The court recognized the Forest Service must balance competing demands, and wildlife viability is not the only consideration. Further, the court ruled that it is improper to presume irreparable harm in environmental cases and that economic losses must be considered in evaluating requests for injunctions that will halt work already under way. Finally, the court recognized that management decisions call for the exercise of judgment and agencies must be given deference in those decisions. http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081007/DC5/8100703\ 46 Montana: 23) Led by the Missoula Area Economic Development Corporation, this initiative is based entirely - and, up to this point, only - on a " wish list " that was put together by the timber industry. The basic premise of MAEDC's initiative, which in August was given to state officials, legislators and the Montana Congressional delegation, can be summed up simply: Log Baby Log. The initiative calls for " immediate action " to increase national forest logging by 330%, double state land logging and a bizarre plan for the state to seize control of a million acres of national forests, purportedly for even more logging. But wait. There's more. Montana taxpayers are being asked to foot the bill for timber industry exemptions from fuel taxes, discounts for vehicle registration and a taxpayer-supported program to pave log yards. One state legislator has even drafted legislation giving the entire timber industry a two-year tax holiday. Sorry, but does Plum Creek really need tax breaks paid for by hard-working Montanans? If we are going to " bail out " the timber industry, shouldn't Montanans at least demand that any taxpayer dollars go towards efforts that truly put the industry on a path towards economic and ecological sustainability? For those interested in a more detailed discussion of what this path might look like, the Montana Community Development Corporation's well-researched and well-reasoned " A New Business Plan: Moving Forest Businesses to Long Term Environmental and Economic Sustainability " should be required reading. The WildWest Institute supports sustainable economic development in Montana and has been actively promoting some of our solutions. For example, let's work together to ensure that every home and business built in Montana is made out of Montana wood products. After all, this would help solve some market issues, while also reducing costs - and greenhouse gases - from shipping products around the country. Or how about collecting construction waste, which is currently dumped in our landfills, for use in high-efficiency biomass boilers? Or developing businesses that would use sustainably harvested blue-stain pine for locally made cabinets, furniture and wainscoting? I'm confident that if we work together we'll find sustainable solutions that benefit our state's economy, workers and environment. Unfortunately, MAEDC's timber industry " wish list " for greatly expanded logging of public lands and unprecedented tax breaks and subsidies represents the same type of short-sighted, unsustainable development and over-consumption that got our country into this current economic crisis to begin with, and it should be rejected accordingly. http://redstaterebels.org/2008/10/log-baby-log/ 24) On a recent morning at the bottom of Jewel Basin Road, a five-man crew employed by Stoken Logging of Eureka, thins stands of Grand firs, Hemlock, Spruce and a handful of White Pines. It's a sunny, early autumn day, and the work goes quickly, but many of the felled trees reveal a dark brown core in their trunks, the result of a fungus infection. As the feller buncher moves through a stand, many of the trees simply tip over once the machine's teeth grab it. Sawing through the trunk isn't necessary. For this job, however, the lack of much good timber doesn't matter; most of this wood will be loaded onto a truck and taken south to the Smurfit-Stone pulp mill in Frenchtown to be made into cardboard. The market for pulp, along with post and pole products is, according to Olson and others interviewed, responsible for sustaining much of Montana's forest products industry. In other words, a market persists for materials unrelated to residential or commercial construction.In an industry that has always operated in boom-and-bust cycles, the current job losses can be chalked up to the same old causes: depressed lumber prices that no longer cover the cost of production, a construction slowdown and increased international competition. But then there are the factors that may not subside in the foreseeable future, like increased fuel prices, a national economic crisis with the potential to dramatically alter the number of people able to purchase a new home and a decline in timber harvests on federal land that has continued throughout the tenure of a conservative presidential administration. While Montana's timber workers have weathered downturns before, with every mill that doesn't just suspend workers but closes, it grows more difficult for the industry as a whole to bounce back when lumber markets, housing markets, and the national economy eventually do rebound. " I don't think there's any question we've got enormous challenges, " Keith Olson, executive director of the Montana Logging Association, said. " I'm hearing it's the poorest market that people working today have ever seen. " Despite these setbacks, loggers and sawmill operators are nothing if not resilient, noting that demand for wood products continues to increase and the timber industry is likely to remain a fixture of Western Montana's economy. But analysts and industry workers disagree on what – when it emerges on the other side of the current downturn – the breadth and size of the state's forest products industry will be. http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/articles/article/as_markets_decline_timber_industr\ y_hangs_on/5915/ 25) Locally, we've witnessed the timber industry hit particularly hard by the economic crisis with recent announcements of closures, curtailments and lay-offs. As tough as this news has been, it's not entirely unexpected since the industry is inextricably tied to the housing and credit sectors of our economy. After all, we're experiencing the worst housing slump since the Great Depression and the steepest decline in lumber consumption ever. For example, when Plum Creek laid off nearly fifty workers in the Flathead, their vice president told the Missoulian, " Market prices are depressed and don't currently cover the costs of production. " Last week, as Tricon Timber in Mineral County laid off forty-five, the Missoulian article opened with, " No one's buying what Tricon Timber of St. Regis has to sell. " Equally as blunt, was Tricon's president as he told the Clark Fork Chronicle, " We are getting to the point where we're not getting any offers [for our products]. " Compounding the problem, the industry is currently getting only 42% for their dimensional lumber compared with prices four short years ago, while diesel fuel costs have risen 250% during a similar time period. Understandably, people are concerned and there is a natural inclination to " do something. " The past few years have seen an increase in collaborative efforts that have brought together diverse interests, including the WildWest Institute, to find common ground on bona-fide restoration and fuel reduction projects. While much work remains to be accomplished, to date agreements have been reached on a set of statewide Restoration Principles (www.montanarestoration.org) and collaborative projects are under way across the state. Unfortunately, outside of these successful and emerging collaborative efforts, there is an aggressive effort behind the scenes to " bail out " the timber industry with an ill-conceived initiative divorced from economic reality and any concept of sustainability. Led by the Missoula Area Economic Development Corporation, this initiative is based entirely - and, up to this point, only - on a " wish list " that was put together by the timber industry. The basic premise of MAEDC's initiative, which in August was given to state officials, legislators and the Montana Congressional delegation, can be summed up simply: Log Baby Log. The initiative calls for " immediate action " to increase national forest logging by 330%, double state land logging and a bizarre plan for the state to seize control of a million acres of national forests, purportedly for even more logging. But wait. There's more. Montana taxpayers are being asked to foot the bill for timber industry exemptions from fuel taxes, discounts for vehicle registration and a taxpayer-supported program to pave log yards. One state legislator has even drafted legislation giving the entire timber industry a two-year tax holiday. Sorry, but does Plum Creek really need tax breaks paid for by hard-working Montanans? http://www.leftinthewest.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2270 26) Last week, a team of Helena National Forest employees did what's known as a " rapid assessment " and put together a list of high-priority areas to deal with pine beetle infestations. Most of the options involve removing trees — including those that are dead, dying and even those still alive — to try to slow down the infestation marching its way through the Rocky Mountains. The team put together a list of eight high priority areas. Those include: 1) The South Hills of Helena, which has moderate infestation levels that are building rapidly. The dense forest poses a risk to the city from wildfires. They want to try to start thinning out the stands by 2010; salvage logging may be viable until 2013. This landscape was ranked as the number one priority. 2) Telegraph Creek in the Little Blackfoot drainage west of Helena, which has moderate to high infestation levels. The plan is to remove infested stands and thin non-infested stands on 100-plus acre units before the 2010 beetle flight. 3) Dalton Mountain, west of the Continental Divide near Helmville, where they're looking at doing sanitation and salvage logging in 2010. 4) Warm Springs in the North Elkhorns near Strawberry Butte. Large numbers of pine beetles are in the trees here, and the focus may be on sanitation and salvage logging in 2010. 5) Cabin Gulch east of Townsend, which borders the Mount Baldy roadless area. The project area has been analyzed, with a draft environmental impact statement due this fall. The majority of the lodgepole here has been killed. This might be done in 2010. 6) York and Nelson, northeast of Helena. The beetles are just beginning to impact the area, and this area is considered a good candidate for thinning projects while keeping an eye on providing adequate elk cover. This is slated for 2011. 7) East Stemple Pass south of Lincoln. It's in the early stages of pine beetle infestation, but the Douglas fir is experiencing significant western spruce budworm defoliation. They'd like to get to it before the beetles fly in 2010, but add that timber probably is salvageable until 2013. 8) The Stonewall/Dry Creek areas north of Lincoln. Foresters want to thin both infested and non-infested stands before the beetles fly in 2011. http://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/10/06/top/55lo_081006_beetleside.txt 27) The Montana Wood Products Industry Initiative proposals range from small fixes to sweeping changes. For example, increasing the weight limit on log trucks from 27 tons to 29 tons would save a million gallons of diesel fuel a year, King said. And allowing log truckers the same fuel discounts as agricultural truckers would further lower costs. The big goal would be getting the U.S. Forest Service to turn over management of 10 percent of its national forest lands to Montana state control. A change of that magnitude would require federal OKs at many levels. And it's already drawn opposition from groups outside the industry. " That's just not going to work, " predicted Wilderness Society spokesman Bob Ekey. " But in the last year, I've seen more conservationists and timber industry people sitting down and trying to figure out how to do work together - trying to identify successful projects that include a commercial component. Much of that effort is shepherded by the Montana Forest Restoration Working Group. The assembly of conservationists, loggers, forest users and government officials came together last year to outline a " zone of agreement " for timber work that met multiple needs and desires. The group's 13-point plan describes how restoration logging projects can be profitable, environmentally sensitive and beneficial to surrounding communities, all while avoiding lawsuits. Gordy Sanders of Pyramid Mountain Lumber Co. in Seeley Lake is co-chairman of the working group with Ekey. He said it is preparing to announce several advances at its annual meeting later this month, including new regional groups in the Helena and Lincoln areas. " One thing we should have learned by now is we can't do this by ourselves, " Sanders said. " We need other interests to see where the common ground is. There are benefits to having family-owned mills scattered around the landscape of rural Montana. " Unlike Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, Sanders said Montana still has a fully integrated logging industry. There are people to cut the trees and get them to market, mills to saw lumber and turn chips into board or paper, and other facilities that turn the sawdust and slash into fuel. When any of those links break, the whole industry starts to topple. http://missoulian.com/articles/2008/10/05/news/local/news03.txt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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