Guest guest Posted October 23, 2008 Report Share Posted October 23, 2008 --Today for you 29 news articles about earth's trees! (418th edition) --Deane's Daily Treeinspiration can be texted to your phone via: http://twitter.com/ForestPolicy --To Subscribe / to email format send blank email to: earthtreenews- OR earthtreenews- In this issue: Western North American Tree News Index: --Alaska: 1) FS to sell a thousand acres of timber off of island near Wrangell --British Columbia: 2) Water protection must come first, 3) Gov. to allow more woodlots, 4) Greenwash kit from Forestry Innovation Investment Ltd, 5) Luxury Mushroom hunting, 6) Forest Investment Account Forest Science Program, 7) Why are bird populations plummeting, 8) 4,000 hectares of land removed from tree farm license requirements, 9) Large logging companies decides to stop cutting wood and start growing food, 10) Save Moorecroft Camp in the Nanoose Bay area, --Washington: 11) State lands election complaint filed by candidate Goldmark (D), 12) Huckleberry restoration in Gifford Pinchot, 13) Riecharts bill for wilderness, 14) Maury Island gravel mine sways towards scandal, 15) After years of legal challenges Weyco start to ship logs out of Olympia's port, --Oregon: 16) Measuring wildfires impacts on forest soil layers, 17) Too much money for fires, not enough to keep local mills running, --California: 18) Ecologically valuable properties for sale at record low prices, 19) Plans to protect 140,000 acres of land owned by Pacific Gas and Electric Co., 20) Stop Coho extinction in Santa Cruz mtns. by stopping loggers and developers, 21) Aqua Hedionda creek and its Coast Live Oaks, 22) Evergreen pulp mill shut-down to reverberate through local economy, 23) Angel Island fire, --Idaho: 24) FS trying to salvage proposal to log 950 acres of trees, 25) Enviros send court ordered check for fees incurred in Mission Brush logging project challenge, 26) Value of land kept in forestry versus converted to development, --Montana: 27) Restoration Forestry --Wyoming: 28) Latest insights in wildfire ecology --Utah: 29) Book: America the Beautiful: The National Forests of Utah Articles: Alaska: 1) JUNEAU - The Forest Service is moving ahead with plans to sell about a thousand acres of timber on an island near Wrangell. A new sale will be combined with a previous offering that attracted no bids. Officials say pairing the sales will make logging more economic. But environmental groups say it requires too large of a federal subsidy. more... Hear an earlier report on the sale, before appeals were filed and rejected. http://kfsk.org/modules/local_news/index.php?op=sideBlock & syndicated=true & ID=407 British Columbia: 2) I particularly enjoy hiking at this time of year because of the profusion of life that comes out of death. Decaying wood and the thick layers of humus that have accumulated over the years, forming a rich forest floor, dotted with a diversity of mushrooms. I have only seen such an abundance of mushrooms in old growth forests where centuries of vegetable matter decaying into soil provides a lush environment for fungi. They are an indication of a healthy and vibrant forest ecosystem. Water is purified through soil, which is stabilized by tree root systems, that live in a semiotic relationship with fungi. Labour Day Lake is the main water source for the Cameron River, which flows into Cameron Lake at Cathedral Grove and then into the Little Qualicum River. This water becomes the drinking water source for Whiskey Creek and the Town of Qualicum Beach. Human Resources Development Canada invested in the recreation site around Labour Day Lake by hiring out-of-work forestry workers to build trails around this sub-alpine lake. Island Timberlands owns the land around Labour Day Lake and has plans to log this old growth forest in the near future. In 2005 a Federal court ruling stated that the BC Liberal government must have meaningful negotiations with Hupacasath First Nation before Island Timberlands could privatize 70,300 hectares of forestland in TFL 44. The deal went through anyway and now the land is being logged with no regards for the public or the environment. Public drinking water is being threatened from many different angles including: logging, mining, residential developments, insecticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, sewage, ditching of roadways, farming, golf courses, and wetland diversions. At some point the interest of water protection must come first. Private land owners cannot be allowed to destroy the watersheds that provide the public with drinking water. Every level of government, municipal, provincial, and federal must work together in order to establish laws that are able to supercede the rights of private landowners, when it comes to protecting the safety and quality of drinking water. Today water does not have any real protection under the law, because our society is based around private ownership of land. Vancouver is a rock in the ocean, which dries out completely during the long draughts of summer and fall. Some years are exceptionally dry while others include sporadic rains that dampen the moods of many locals, but do little for the water table. Aside from human consumption, fresh water is essential for salmon, fresh water fish, tourism, forests, plants, and animal life. Water is the essence of life! Where's the protection? Island Lens #111 – October 24, 2008 3) Licensed woodlot managers from all over British Columbia who gathered early October to discuss their futures during tumultuous times in the forest industry reacted positively to the news that the provincial government has decided to allow more woodlots. On Oct. 4, one hundred people associated with the province's 828 active woodlot licenses were gathered at an annual general meeting at the South Thompson Inn in Kamloops to hear Minister of Forests Pat Bell's announcement. Bell described how the forest industry will need to look at ways to more intensively manage the forest resource and how woodlots are perfectly suited to this. He also showed his support of the woodlot licence program by announcing the release of new woodlot licenses and addressed some of their concerns on the administration of a licence. He was applauded when he stated, " We want to reduce the administrative burden. I trust you to manage. " Members of the Federation of BC Woodlot Association expressed reserved optimism at the announcement that up to seventy-five new woodlot licenses will be granted over the next few years to bring the total of licensed woodlots to 900 by the year 2011. " We're pleased to hear about new woodlots and adjustments to the paperwork, " said Harold and Shirley Turner of Kamloops after the October 4 announcement, " but our costs are three times what they used to be. We need a good market for the wood. " Minister Bell stated woodlot licensees in 2005 generated an estimated $183 million in economic activity in B.C. and harvested just over three million cubic metres of timber. http://www.bclocalnews.com/bc_north/lakesdistrictnews/news/31761169.html 4) The kits, BC Forest Products for the World, were produced by Forestry Innovation Investment Ltd., a B.C. Crown agency, and the Council of Forest Industries. They will be distributed to 400 secondary schools around the province and the learning outcomes are intended to help students: 1) describe what happens to harvested timber; 2) demonstrate the importance of the forest industry to the provincial economy; 3) demonstrate the importance to the provincial economy of marketing wood products around the world; 4) identify and evaluate international markets for B.C.'s wood products; and; 5) assess the opportunities and challenges in marketing of B.C.'s wood products internationally. - " Students can take pride in B.C.'s international reputation for producing world-class products from sustainably managed forests, " said Chris Lear, manager, Forest Education, Council of Forest Industries, Northern Operations. " Many are unaware of the forest sector's size and economic importance. Not only do these kits help demystify the sector, we hope they'll inspire the next generation to pursue careers in our industry and shape the future of forestry. " The kits build on the success of the mountain pine beetle educational kits distributed in 2006 and 2007. The resource kit, one year in the making, was developed in accordance with identified Ministry of Education learning outcomes, and has been endorsed by the Ministry of Education. It represents an investment in learning of almost $80,000 by Forestry Innovation Investment and the Council of Forest Industries. http://www.forest-destruction.info 5) Three hours of tramping in the woods is followed by a gourmet, mushroom-themed lunch in the Aerie's top-rated restaurant. For more than 10 years the Aerie Resort and Spa, a luxury Relais Chateaux property on the Malahat Pass, a 25-minute drive north of Victoria, has been organizing guided mushroom hunts every Saturday in September and October. Spots fill up weeks in advance for the popular outing. We are an eager group this Saturday. Each of us is hoping to expand our knowledge of how to successfully forage for fungi and come away with our bucket full of firm white or golden chanterelles, bright orange lobster mushrooms or even the elusive and highly prized pine mushroom -- which due to its spicy taste can fetch up to $80 a pound on the Asian market. But we have to find them first. And, to the untrained eye, picking out a chanterelle among the thick moss, ferns, decaying leaves and deadfall is a wee bit tricky. " Try looking in that spot over there, " says Brother Michael, a Benedictine monk and mushroom expert who is our guide for the day. His eyes are so well trained he can spot a potentially promising mushroom cache from more than 20 paces away. Sure enough, he has pointed me in the right direction. Soon I, too, see a tiny patch of creamy flesh poking through the green moss cover. I poke around with my knife and fingers, clearing off the mossy blanket. Underneath is a beautiful firm white chanterelle. Delicate gills run straight from the outside rim of its underside all the way down its stalk (called the stipe on a mushroom). It is at least the size of my palm. " Wow, that's a great one, " says fellow hunter Sam Beckers, whose bucket is already almost full to overflowing. Using my paring knife, I make a clean cut through the stipe as low to the ground as possible. The delicate fruity smell of the mushroom gently wafts on the air. I clean off fir needles, moss remnants and flecks of earth and place it in my bucket with a nice, satisfying thud. And my eyes then start searching anew among the ground cover for another bulge of gold or white, with a helpful nudge from time to time from Brother Michael to point me in the right direction. We had started our day at 9:30 a.m., meeting in the reception area of the Aerie Resort. It was lightly drizzling outside and we were clad in Gore-Tex, hiking boots and other rain gear. Brother Michael showed us a basket of edible mushrooms that we might encounter, which -- along with the ubiquitous chanterelles and lobster mushrooms -- included the elusive pine mushroom, the prized King bolete and the aptly named cauliflower mushroom. There are more than 2,000 varieties of fungi in the B.C. woods -- many of them poisonous -- but Brother Michael only concentrates on the edible and does not touch other varieties. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/383197_shorttrips16.html 6) VERNON – The Province is investing $12.5 million in research through the Forest Investment Account Forest Science Program to improve timber growth practices, respond to the impacts of climate change, and maximize the benefits from British Columbia's forest resources, Forests and Range Minister Pat Bell announced today. " Research is key to British Columbia's becoming a world leader in growing trees, " said Bell, while visiting the Province's Kalamalka Research Station in Vernon. " Not only does the Forest Science Program build on our reputation for sustainable forest management, it is the essential first step in adding value to our forest resources and unlocking new economic opportunities. " The Forest Science Program is funding 216 new and ongoing projects led by researchers at universities, First Nations organizations, provincial and federal government agencies, forest companies, and not-for-profit organizations throughout British Columbia. Timber research projects involve both stand management methods and the use of computer models to predict growth, volume and value of British Columbia's forests under different management strategies and climate conditions. Research on the forests' regeneration following the mountain pine beetle epidemic will help inform future timber management strategies and timber supply. Climate research projects include ecosystem studies on how weather and temperature conditions impact grasslands, high-elevation plant communities and the risk of wildfires. Additional projects support the adaptation of forest and range management practices to maximize resiliency and productivity as the climate changes. Other topics cover riparian area and fish habitat restoration, and research about watersheds, fertilizer, and species-at-risk recovery. The Forest Science Program, in partnership with the Provincial Forest Extension Program, also supports the distribution of research data and results to land managers, which serves as a link between research and forest management. The ongoing collection and distribution of data and results will help forest practitioners to make informed management decisions. http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news_releases_2005-2009/2008FOR0140-001556.htm 7) Population surveys over the past 20 years on the south coast show that olive-sided flycatchers are down 75 per cent, common nighthawks 72 per cent, barn swallows 80 per cent and red-eyed vireos 85 per cent. The list goes on. Birds that feed on insects seem especially hard hit, raising questions about whether they are yet another victim of climate change. Birds time their mating migrations based on hours of sunlight, whereas insects are governed by temperature. One theory is the birds are simply arriving too late. Whatever the reason - global warming, habitat loss or other factors - the declines could be part of a much bigger picture. " We have to be careful, " Butler says. " They could be setting off an alarm. This could be something fundamental. Even a small change in an ecosytsem could have a ripple effect. There is an awful lot we don't know. " Butler retired in January after 28 years as a federal researcher with the Canadian Wildlife Service, and is now both a scientist with Bird Studies Canada and coordinator of the B.C. Bird Atlas, the latter an effort to tap the talents of birders to produce a catalogue of nesting birds. Starting today, Butler also launches a blog on the The Vancouver Sun website entitled Bird Watch in which he seeks to turn readers on to the diversity and wonder of birds - and to care about their future. " I'd like to let people know about the fascination of birds, " says Butler, an author who has observed birds around the world. " They are a great introduction to nature - and conservation can come from that. " The global decline in bird populations, he argues, is cause for bird scientists everywhere to meet and discuss the problem, similar to the way researchers joined forces through the International Panel on Climate Change. While bird habitat everywhere is important to preserve, Butler notes, B.C. needs to devote special attention to four key areas in the Strait of Georgia: the lower Fraser River from Hope to Delta; the southern end of the Gulf Islands, where the plume of the Fraser River mixes with the waters from Juan de Fuca Strait; the northern end of the Gulf Islands, around the Discovery Islands; and the area around Baynes Sound and the Courtenay River estuary. He added that a growing human population in the region threatens to isolate protected areas, emphasizing the need for planners to consider the importance of connectivity in maintaining ecological integrity. http://www.vancouversun.com/birdwatch 8) The B.C. government approved the removal of over 4,000 hectares of private lands from a provincially regulated tree farm licence in the Kootenays Tuesday, in exchange for $6 million in benefits to regional communities. The Kootenays deal comes less than a year after a similar land deletion on Vancouver Island sparked widespread community protest because the government sought no compensation. Forests Minister Pat Bell said he had responded to critics of the previous deal, negotiating $6 million in benefits to the local community in exchange for allowing the lands to be removed from Tree Farm Licence 23. The private lands within the TFL are the last major assets owned by bankrupt forest company Pope & Talbot that have yet to be sold. Forest companies with private lands have been applying to have them freed from government forestry regulations, an arrangement that they entered into 40 years ago in exchange for greater access to Crown timber. In 2007, former forests minister Rich Coleman approved the removal of 28,000 hectares of land owned by Western Forest Products from its Vancouver Island tree farm licences, sparking a citizen protest that resulted in a scathing report from the Auditor General John Doyle. In his July 16 report, Doyle said the government had deleted the lands without sufficient information, consultation or attention paid to the public interest. Bell said Tuesday he took the Auditor General's comments into account in the TFL 23 decision. " I heard loud and clear from the Auditor General that his expectations are for a much higher level of community consultation. " he said in an interview. Bell said in exchange for approving the removal of the lands, loggers who were owed $4 million by the bankrupt forest company are to be repaid by the receiver, surety bonds placed by contractors are to be paid back, lands identified by the community as having recreational value are to be acquired for $1 by the province, $50,000 is to be donated to a local community forest, and public access to logging roads on the lands is to be assured. The entire package comes to $6 million, Bell said. He described it as an adequate compensation package. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=5ff864e4-53ce-416\ c-becc-69de73c1367d 9) VICTORIA -- One of Vancouver Island's largest logging companies has decided to stop cutting wood and start growing food on some of its Comox Valley land holdings. Citing factors such as high real-estate prices, plummeting lumber sales and growing demand for local agricultural products, TimberWest has applied to turn 166 hectares of former forest land just north of Courtenay into a series of medium-sized farms. " When you look at how the Island has changed over the last five or 10 years, you realize you can make way more money off this land than just growing trees on it, " TimberWest spokesman Stephen Bruyneel said. " We started looking at this three years ago, even before the downturn in the forest industry. " While the land has been earmarked for timber harvesting for decades, it lies within the Agricultural Land Reserve, limiting the chances of residential development but allowing for a range of agricultural uses, including organic farming, greenhouses, wineries and agricultural tourism. Market research conducted by TimberWest indicated a strong demand for locally grown agricultural products, in part to supply new restaurants catering to retiring baby boomers who have settled in the area in recent years, Mr. Bruyneel said. " If you look at Comox and the kind of boutique agriculture that's going on, we really think that's going to drive up the value of the land, " he said. The 166 hectares of land is made up of 11 parcels that TimberWest wants to subdivide into " different lot configurations " to facilitate drainage work aimed at improving the area's farming potential. " We have to prove to the land commission we are increasing the net agricultural value of the land, " Mr. Bruyneel said. John Watson, executive director of Invest Comox Valley, said an influx of fifty-something retirees in recent years and the popularity of eat-local concepts such as the 100-mile diet have created a niche for Comox Valley agricultural products " It's partly why we have one of the strongest farmers markets on the Island, " Mr. Watson said. But TimberWest's bid to liquidate its land assets extends far beyond a handful of farms in the Comox Valley. With about 325,000 hectares of private land, in addition to its 700,000 cubic metres of renewable Crown logging rights, TimberWest is Vancouver Island's largest private landowner. A 2007 study identified about 54,000 hectares of TimberWest land as capable of supporting " new, sustainable land management opportunities. " http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081014.BCTIMBER14/TPStory/Nat\ ional 10) Dear friends, I am appealing to you to help save a piece of land in the mid-island that is very near and dear to myself and many other people in this region. Moorecroft Camp in the Nanoose Bay area has been a camp dedicated to young people since the mid 1930. It has been owned and operated by the United Church since the 1950's but has also been well used by many local groups and individuals including schools, scouts, guides etc. This pristine 85 acre parcel represents part of the 1% intact coastal wilderness remaining in the mid-island region. It is rich in biodiversity and includes two tidal bays, cactus, wetlands, Garry oak meadows, arbutus, Douglas fir forest and coastal bluff ecosystems. This camp is important as a simple living retreat where our youngest citizens can experience the wonder and beauty of nature. Moorecroft played a significant role in shaping who I am today. I have posted a \ video on a youtube channel called moorecroftcamp that highlights the reasons to save this land from potential development TheThreat On October 18, the Comox-Nanaimo presbytery of the United Church is voting on a proposal to divide the camp and sell the northern waterfront portion. The Alternatives There are two alternative proposals that are being presented to presbytery. Both ask that a covenant be placed on the entire property that protects its environmental integrity and ensures it's continued use as a simple living retreat. 1) The Moorecroft Camp Society proposes that the United Church revisit it Camping Futures Project and continue to include Moorecroft in the camping ministry. 2) A broad based community coalition led by the Nanaimo Area Land Trust called the Moorecroft Campaign Coordinating Committee would like to negotiate the transfer of title to an Umbrella society or the Nanaimo Regional District to hold the property in trust for the purposes covenanted. I have posted a second video which outlines these two proposals at The url for the youtubechannel is http://www.youtube.com/user/moorecroftcamp Washington: 11) State Lands Commissioner candidate Peter Goldmark filed an ethics complaint this week, alleging a Republican consultant broke state law by working for an opposition campaign while serving on a state board that rules on logging permits. Goldmark's complaint to the state Executive Ethics Board says John Giese broke ethics laws by working as a paid consultant for the Committee for Balanced Stewardship. The political group, funded almost entirely by timber interests, is trying to defeat Democrat Goldmark in his bid to unseat two-term incumbent Republican Doug Sutherland. The lands commissioner runs the Department of Natural Resources, which oversees 5 million acres of state land, as well as logging on private timberland. Giese, who has been paid $9,000 by the political group, according to state records, also serves on a state board that acts much like a court, hearing appeals of permits issued by the state Department of Natural Resources. That, Goldmark said, means he could be ruling on cases in which the timber industry or Sutherland have a stake. " This clearly seems to violate the ethics rule that he remain neutral from the parties that come before him, " Goldmark said. Giese, however, said he has done work for the timber industry as a public-relations consultant in the past, and it has never been raised as an issue, including at his Senate confirmation hearing. He said a fellow board member, an attorney, has done work for environmental groups. Giese was appointed to the six-year post by Democratic Gov. Gary Locke in 2003, and his term is about to expire. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008276726_ethics17m.html 12) Hoping to reinvigorate legendary huckleberry fields in the middle of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, silviculturists are planning to thin 100 to 300 small trees later this month and then set them aflame next year. The Forest Service is proposing to conduct the work on about 2 acres of the Sawtooth berry fields just north of the Indian Heaven Wilderness Area. Jon Nakae, silviculturist for the Gifford Pinchot, said the idea is to lay down the trees so they spend the winter on the ground before the Forest Service sets a controlled fire next year. He said foresters want to test how to best stage a controlled burn, with the idea of expanding the treatment to broader areas. Huckleberries thrive at higher elevations and with plenty of sunlight, so the Gifford Pinchot is trying to cultivate productive fields by using a combination of logging and burning to clear away some of the encroaching overstory of firs and hemlock. The trick is to set a fire hot enough to scorch the trees, but not so hot that it destroys the underground rhizomes of the huckleberry plants. " The plant will sprout from that underground stem, " Nakae said. Members of the Yakama Nation have gotten exclusive use of part of the larger 1,200-acre Sawtooth huckleberry-picking area since 1932, when the tribal chief and supervisor of the former Columbia National Forest struck a handshake agreement. Tribal members get exclusive access east of Forest Road 24. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008276721_berryburn17.html 13) In November, Republican U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert could be unseated by challenger Darcy Burner in their suburban Seattle district. He might also hang on. Whatever happens, though, there's also a decent chance that Reichert's bill to designate a new swath of national forest as wilderness east of Seattle could prevail before year's end, says Nick Rahall, the Democratic chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. Speaking at the just-concluded annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists in Roanoke, Virg., Rahall said he fears what the Bush adminstration will do before Inauguration Day: There's going to be a lot of harmful things done. But at the same time, he said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have agreed to call a lame-duck session of Congress after Nov. 4. Part of it will be to deal with building " green infrastructure, " Rahall said. In addition, he said there's a good chance a bunch of bills already passed by the House to create Congressionally protected wilderness will finally win approval by, as Rahall calls the Senate, " the other body. " Recall that a wilderness designation means no mining, no road-buiding, no logging, no ATVs or other motor-powered transportation. A single senator, Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, has used the rules of " the other body " to clamp those wilderness bills into a closet. But after the election, with many of those wilderness bills sponsored by Republicans who are headed out of office -- and who won't have another shot at it -- Rahall said he thinks Republican pressure on Coburn will grow and Coburn will relent. Said Rahall: http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/environment/archives/151873.asp 14) State Rep. Sharon Nelson a letter to Public Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland: " Clarify your current plans for the issuance of the aquatic lands lease " to Glacier Northwest for the company's mining work on Maury Island. In the letter, Rep. Nelson says, " I recently learned that Glacier has communicated to King County's Department of Development and Environmental Services that your office [Department of Natural Resources] has given them [Glacier Northwest] assurances that their lease will be granted around the first week of November. " Republican Sutherland is locked in a tight reelection bid against Democrat Peter Goldmark, a left-leaning, environmentalist rancher from Eastern Washington. If Sutherland issued the controversial lease to Glacier in November, it would be a way to reward one of his biggest financial supporters—Glacier has given $50,400 to reelect Sutherland so far this year according to the most recent Public Disclosure Commission reports—without raising the ire of environmental voters who don't want to see Sutherland's DNR give the green light to strip mine expansion on Maury Island. Goldmark has already made a big deal out of quid pro quo campaign finance during this election season, asserting that Sutherland does the bidding of corporate donors like Weyerhaeuser. Sutherland fought a contentious battle in the state legislature earlier this year when environmental legislators, like Nelson and Senate Majority Leader Sen. Lisa Brown (D-3, Spokane), fought against Sutherland's plans to give Glacier the go ahead to expand its mining on Maury Island. The issue put the spotlight on Sutherland last session and caused him high-profile political headaches. Jim Chan, at King County's Department of Development and Environmental Services (DDES), told me the County met with Glacier last week to get the project on Maury started (DDES oversees the local permitting on the work). However, he said when DDES later learned that Glacier actually didn't have the required aquatic land lease from DNR, they called Glacier to say the planning was " premature. " Fran McNair, DNR's Aquatics Land Use Steward, says, " No decision has been made [on the lease]. " She reports that it's a " really high bar " to get the lease and there's " no estimated timeline " on when it might be granted because her staff is still in the fact-finding stage of reviewing the application. http://www.horsesass.org/?p=8454 15) The first truckload of Weyerhaeuser Co. logs arrived at the Port of Olympia's marine terminal Wednesday after years of court challenges on environmental issues delayed a plan to move a Tacoma-based log-export business here. " This is the beginning of a complete upward growth line for the marine terminal, " executive director Ed Galligan said. " Cargo begets cargo, and I'm anticipating continued growth above and beyond Weyerhaeuser. " Port Commissioner Bill McGregor said the arrival of the first logs " starts us on a very positive note for 2009. " Two ships have unloaded goods at the port this year, down from 12 for all of 2007, Galligan said. A third ship, delivering garnet, is expected next month, and then a Weyerhaeuser ship before the end of the year. Once the log-export business is under way, the port expects $1.5 million in annual revenue, up to 18 ships and 30 barges a year, and as many as 47 jobs, divided among longshoremen and Weyerhaeuser staff members. The lease was supposed to take effect in spring 2006 but was delayed by community activists challenging, in part, the thoroughness of the port's log-export environmental-review process. One of the first challenges was filed by Jerry Parker, a retired state Department of Ecology employee, and Jan Witt, a community activist. Neither could be reached Wednesday. Arthur West of Olympia, frequently critical of port operations, said the arrival of the first logs was " just for show. The real test is not the first log; it is moving the operation and operating out of this port, " he said. " They can bring a truckload of logs here, but if they're not shipping them out, what does that really mean? " http://www.theolympian.com/102/story/622609.html Oregon: 16) A new study led by the Pacific Northwest (PNW) Research Station addresses this critical information gap and represents the first direct evidence of the toll wildfire can take on forest soil layers. It draws on data from the 2002 Biscuit Fire, which scorched some 500,000 acres in southwest Oregon, including half of a pre-existing study's experimental plots, which had been studied extensively before the fire. The result was a serendipitous and unprecedented opportunity to directly examine how wildfire changes soil by sampling soils before and after a wildfire. The study appears in the November issue of the Canadian Journal of Forest Research. " Losing our experiment in the fire was hard, but the opportunity to better understand fire as a dominant ecosystem process has been very exciting, " said Bernard Bormann, a research forest ecologist with PNW Research Station and the study's lead investigator. " This study, covering over 300 acres, provided nearly 400 soil sampling points as well as extensive tree and understory plots to use in our analysis. " Bormann—along with study co-author and Western Washington University professor Peter Homann and colleagues from the PNW Research Station and Oregon State University—conducted chemical analyses on soil samples collected before and after the fire. They found that the combustion of the organic layer at the soil's surface, including woody debris, caused intense, 1,300 °F-plus temperatures, which, in turn, displaced considerable amounts of carbon and nitrogen from the underlying mineral soil layer and left mostly ash behind. What was more surprising to the researchers was how these organic materials may have been lost. Some carbon and nitrogen were lost as gases—consisting mostly of carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and water vapor—and some in an inch of fine mineral-soil particles, which disappeared and left behind a crust of rocks. " Altogether, we documented losses of more than 10 tons per acre of carbon and between 450 to 620 pounds per acre of nitrogen, " Bormann said. " The loss of topsoil and combustion of organic materials together led to losses that are higher than most previous estimates. " The loss of topsoil and carbon from soil can negatively affect a range of processes, Bormann said, including nutrient retention and water infiltration. In the absence of special nitrogen-fixing plants, which are capable of converting atmospheric nitrogen into nitrogen compounds for growth, losses of nitrogen in the order of what he and his colleagues documented would require at least a century to be reversed. " Our findings suggest that forest managers should carefully consider the effects of wildfire on soils when planning to reduce fuels, suppress future fires, and help trees and habitat recover after fire, " Bormann said. http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/ 17) Wallowa-Whitman National Forest managers say they aren't getting enough money from Congress to keep local lumber mills supplied, partly because of record spending on fighting forest fires. Wallow-Whitman has been dealing with declining timber budgets for eight of the past 11 years, said sales manager Carla Monismith. The timber budget set for this fiscal year — $1.77 million — is down from $2.15 million last year and the smallest it's been in 12 years. That means the 2009 target has been set at 22.7 million board-feet. That is down about 4 million from this year's target, which, even with a 1 million board-feet surplus, disappointed mill owners. " There's a lot of tension, " Monismith said. " The mill owners say they need more wood, but we only have so much money to do timber sales. " The funding crunch is due, in part, to the Forest Service's record-high bills for firefighting during the past decade, Monismith said. During a stop in Baker City this week, Congressman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said he's hoping to pass legislation that will help mitigate those firefighting costs. Walden, who represents Eastern and Central Oregon, said 52 percent of the Forest Service budget is spent each year on fighting fires. To that end, Walden is co-sponsoring the Flame Act, a piece of legislation that he said would separate the budget for fighting fires from the budget for forest management. Walden said he's also pushing for Congress to pass the Healthy Forest Restoration Act II, which recognizes that thinning overcrowded forests can help prevent severe fires. http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/news-27/1224662046100100.xml\ & storylist=orlocal California: 18) LandSource, the raw land and lot holding company owned by CALPERS and Lennar, has been a Chapter 11 debtor since June 2008. At the time of its bankruptcy filing, LandSource owed nearly $900 Million on a syndicated mortgage loan managed by Barclays Bank. Barclays and some of its syndicate members rolled up the loan into a $1+ Billion DIP loan due in June 2009. On 10/13/08 Barclays Bank, as lead lender for the participants in the DIP loan, filed a proposed Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization for LandSource. It is a liquidating plan, as was predicted on the record, in the Bankruptcy Court, by counsel for the Committee of Unsecured Creditors when the terms of the DIP loan were argued. In the Liquidating Plan, Barclays Bank proposes that a Plan Administrator be appointed, who would conduct an auction of all of LandSource's assets 120 days after the Court approved the Liquidating Plan. At the height of the real estate boom, LandSource's real estate was valued at $1.8 Billion. In open bankruptcy court, various parties have alleged that same real estate is now valued at $750 Million. Among the real estate proposed to be auctioned: 1) Newhall Land & Farming's remaining residential and commercial land in Valencia, 2) A brand new TPC golf course in Valencia, 3) Newhall Land & Farming's farm land in California's Central Valley and Ventura County, 4) Newhall Land & Farming's Newhall Ranch, which has conceptual planning approvals but no approved plat maps, no Army Corps permits and no California Fish & Game permits, 5) A huge, mountainous tract constituting the remainder of Lennar's Stevenson Ranch project, which has no water entitlements, 6) A high rise apartment building under construction in Marina del Rey, 7) The massive Bressi Ranch in San Diego County, 8) A large ranch in Moorpark, 9) Lennar's Mare Island military base redevelopment project on San Francisco Bay, a project with significant hazardous materials contamination yet to be remediated, http://rare-earth-news.blogspot.com/2008/10/with-some-big-builders-in-bankruptcy\ -is.html 19) " I come here every chance I get, " the 66-year-old fisherman from Round Mountain said as he helped his wife, Mary, into their motor boat as it bobbed amid the reeds on Big Lake, which laps up against the 6,000-acre Ahjumawi Lava Springs State Park. " It's the best trout fishing around. " The remote marshland - which, in addition to the rainbow trout, serves as the winter home to tens of thousands of migrating waterfowl - is a signature piece of one of the biggest, most elaborate public takeovers of hydropower lands in America. The Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council, a nonprofit foundation, is drawing up plans to protect 140,000 acres of land owned by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. The plan, which is part of PG & E's 2003 bankruptcy reorganization settlement, is to donate half of the land to public trusts, parks, wildlife agencies and tribal organizations by 2013 and protect it all through conservation easements. The deal includes green forests, rolling oak savannahs, many sources of the state's drinking water and some of the best fly-fishing rivers and streams in 22 counties across California from Mount Shasta in the north to the Carrizo Plain in the south. Added together, it is an area almost twice the size of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The amount of land going into public hands is shy of the largest open space transaction in California, but it is clearly the most spread out and diverse. PG & E has agreed to pay $100 million in ratepayer funds to the various agencies that are selected to manage the lands, which were deemed unnecessary for hydroelectric power generation. McArthur Swamp was selected by the Stewardship Council as one of the first four properties to be given away. The others are Bucks Lake, a popular reservoir in Plumas County; Doyle Springs, a forested 43-acre site in Tulare County; and Kennedy Meadows, a scenic 244-acre high sierra meadow in Tuolumne County. Hat Creek, just down the road from McArthur Swamp, is another site that will be donated in the near future. The first four transactions are scheduled to be completed by mid- to late 2009. By then, the Stewardship Council will have begun preparing eight to 10 other sites for transfer, said Ric Notini, the council's director of land conservation. " It is one of the most complex land conservation deals ever done in California, and the land is being donated to those organizations, " Notini said. " In this case, PG & E is providing millions of dollars to the parties that receive the land. " http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/19/MNB813B23A.DTL 20) Lend the Fish A Helping Hand - THANKS TO Traci Hukill for exposing the tragic decline of our local coho salmon. Santa Cruz County's San Lorenzo River Salmonid Enhancement Plan proposed solutions back in 2004. The Plan recommended increasing " the width of no-impact riparian buffers where appropriate to protect aquatic habitat from excessive sedimentation. There is a growing body of evidence that buffers that limit all land use activities from the riparian corridor protect aquatic ecosystems from potential disruption and degradation. All of these recommendations state that management activities such as logging, road building, clearing and construction are to be avoided within riparian zones with a horizontal width on both sides of the stream of one to two tree height lengths for the maximum expected tree height. " We should take heed, lend the fish a helping hand and curtail our damaging actions. Jodi Frediani, Forestry Task Force Chair, Sierra Club Ventana Chapter http://www.metrosantacruz.com/metro-santa-cruz/10.15.08/letters-0842.html 21) The Calavera area is the largest remaining contiguous native habitat in coastal North County. It is considered 'core' habitat in the North County regional Multiple Habitat Conservation Plan (MHCP). Some of the natural features found here are an extinct volcano, a lake, the main tributary of Aqua Hedionda creek and Coast Live Oak over two hundred years old! Hundreds of plants, lots of wildlife! What a gem…right in our backyard! Did I mention there are 15 developments in various planning stages that will impact this urban oasis? Enter Preserve Calavera, whose mission is to preserve and protect as much of the 3,000 acres as possible. While working diligently to help shape the 'footprint' of these developments, it became apparent that the linkages or corridors through these projects look good on paper but out in the dirt look tenuous at best. So, the Preserve Calavera Tracking Team was formed and transects set up to monitor movement through the proposed Wildlife Corridors. The data collected over the last four years will be used to assess the viability of the linkages as the projects move forward. In other words, we aim to make sure that line on paper translates to a veritable wildlife highway! http://www.preservecalavera.org/docs/Buena_Vista_Creek_valley_1.pdf - http://rare-earth-news.blogspot.com/2008/10/look-at-wildlife-trackers-in-north-s\ an.html 22) As many have said, the Evergreen pulp mill shut-down will reverberate through our local economy. In the Sept. 5th edition of the Times-Standard, Evergreen's Rex Bohn talked about how the company was installing new machinery to help them split and chip whole tanoak logs for pulp. Green Diamond was hoping to sell them Tanoak logs for which there has previously been little demand. Tanoaks have long been considered a pest by the timber industry after the industry ramapantly clearcut huge swaths of Humboldt forests following World War II and did next to nothing to help the land recover. The Tanoaks grew rapidly following the logging, in many areas they shaded out the formerly dominant Redwood or Douglas Fir. The Tanoaks are considered practically worthless by the industry and are usually burned, herbicided and/or cut and left to rot. " We're able to take logs that usually just stay in the forest, " said Rex Bohn with Evergreen Pulp. At the time of the article, Green Diamond Resource Company (GDRC)was negotiating a contract with Evergreen. " Green Diamond Resource Co. is working on a long-term contract to provide tan oak logs to Evergreen, " said company Vice President Neal Ewald. I'm wondering how much GDRC was banking on this. I believe they have logged so rapidly that they are depleting their inventory of large second growth Redwood trees and in doing so are gambling with the future of this county. The second growth was somewhat lower quality wood then the slow growing Old-Growth Redwood but passable as a lumber product. The rapidly grown third and fourth growth Redwoods are flimsy and the wood is not red. GDRC and their ilk are destroying Redwoods reputation on the lumber market as a high quality rot resistant wood. North Coast Journal 1/27/05: " The problem, according to (Michael) Evenson and others, stems from even-aged management, the practice of clearcutting many acres at once, replanting redwoods, then clear-cutting again as early as 40 years later. " With their relatively short [logging] rotations, these trees aren't getting that big, " says John Rogers, president of the Institute for Sustainable Forestry (ISF) " [The wood] has lots of knots [and the quality] is not that good. " -source I fear GDRC may be soon heavily reliant upon residential subdivisions to make ends meet as we saw in the final days of Pacific Lumber before the bankruptcy. http://saveancientforests.blogspot.com/2008/10/evergreen-diamond.html 23) " The trees are going to be ugly for a while because they're charred, but they're not killed by fire, " Boyd said. " The grasses will grow up quickly, " and from San Francisco, Angel Island " will look like a golf course. " " I'm not worried about the ecology on the island, " Boyd added. " The important thing is, it didn't burn any of the structures. " The fire, which started Sunday, burned 400 of the island's 740 acres but did not damage any of the historic Civil War, Immigration Station or other buildings. Wildlife - mostly deer that fled to safer ground - appeared unharmed. Boyd would have been extremely concerned had the state not removed about 80 acres of eucalyptus trees more than a decade ago. Although the clear-cutting of thousands of eucalyptus trees drew fierce criticism from campers, hikers and some park rangers, the move probably kept the fire from burning hotter and moving faster, Boyd said. " If those eucalyptus trees had been there, the effects of the fire would have been way, way more intense, " Boyd said, noting that pieces of the highly flammable " stringy bark " could have traveled on wind currents to Tiburon, causing spot fires. Angel Island's landscape consisted mostly of grasslands and stands of buckeye, bay and other native trees up until the 1800s. In the early 20th century, the U.S. Army planted eucalyptus trees, which are native to Australia, as windbreaks. Arguing that the trees posed immense fire danger to the island, the state hired a private logging company to cut down and remove thousands of trees by helicopter and barge beginning in 1990. Boyd said about 6 acres of eucalyptus remain. Eventually, those too might be removed, according to Suzanne Badenhoop, president of the Angel Island Association, a nonprofit that aims to preserve and restore the island and its landmarks. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/13/MNPN13GC1T.DTL Idaho: 24) COEUR D'ALENE -- The U.S. Forest Service is trying to salvage a proposal to log 950 acres of trees - and burn nearly 2,000 acres of vegetation - in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. A group that previously supported the proposal as a member of the Coeur d'Alene Forestry Coalition now has serious concerns about the plan. The coalition, an Idaho-based nonprofit that represents timber and environmental groups, has worked on the proposal for more than two years with the federal government. Logging and environmental groups were expected to benefit from the Forest Service proposal to remove and sell the 950 acres of timber and allow for the potential growth of ponderosa pine and western white pine trees, eventually improving habitat for sensitive species such as flammulated owls and pygmy nuthatches. The plan would also remove fire-prone trees near rural homes at the edge of the national forest in northern Idaho. But after a visit to the site earlier this year with other members of the Coeur d'Alene Forestry Coalition, the Lands Council of Spokane, Wash., is objecting to the removal of large Grand fir trees. The large firs, some measuring two feet in diameter, are some of the only big trees left in these areas after extensive logging, said Mike Petersen, executive director of the Lands Council. " Here's this island of native forest, and they're going to go in and mow it down, " Petersen told The Spokesman-Review. Randy Swick works for the Forest Service in Coeur d'Alene and said the removal of the large firs will allow for the growth of the pine trees, which are more resilient to fire and disease. Swick said he hopes the agency can reach an agreement with the groups that collaborated on the project. The Forest Service expects to implement the plan next year. " Everyone wants this to be a success, " Swick said. " It's a lengthy process, and when you hit a little bump, you continue on. " http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_id_timber_sale.html 25) Three months after a groundbreaking decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco denied an injunction filed by two conservation organizations, an advocacy group has sent Boundary County a check for fees incurred during the Mission Brush logging project. Boundary County Commissioners received $234.40 from the Spokane-based Lands Council for administrative costs that included filing fees, Xerox copies and other miscellaneous expenses the county had paid during the dispute. The verdict by the court - which ruled that it had made errors in an earlier decision - paved the way for removal of dead and dying timber. Commissioner Dan Dinning said the ruling could become a landmark for logging in national forests with ramifications leading to improvements in the health and safety of forests. He also called it a significant victory for Boundary County logging companies like Everhart Logging, which had to suspend its operations for more than a year in the 500-acre Mission Brush area of northern Boundary County. The dispute had been ongoing since 2004, when the U.S Forest Service first approved the project. If the U.S 9th Court of Appeals had not reversed its decision on the Mission Brush Project, many in Boundary County and other logging communities believe that it might have been extremely difficult for the Forest Service to ever offer another timber sale. The lawsuit filed by the Lands Council and Wild West Institute had alleged that the U.S. Forest Service failed to comply with the National Forest Management Act by approving the Mission Brush Project, along with other logging projects, that included selective logging of 3,829 acres in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. http://www.ruralnorthwest.com/artman/publish/article_9110.shtml 26) At the convention we were shown figures on the relative value of land kept in forestry versus converted to development. There is almost no place in the U.S. where the value of forestry consistently exceeds the opportunity cost of development. In some places, such as the Idaho panhandle near Coeur d'Alene, the opportunity cost for development exceeds the land's forestry value by a factor of six to one. Forests and farms provide ecological services that are immensely valuable but usually not valued in money terms. The stream that crosses my forest land exits cleaner than it was when it entered. What is the value of this clean water? Our fields and trees support wildlife, mitigate climate change, and provide beauty for everybody who sees them. Landowners are paid for the wood, crops, livestock of minerals their lands produce, but the value of the unpaid services may exceed these values. Of course, development is not as easy as maintaining the forest status quo, but the incentive es clearly go in the wrong direction. What can be done? A lot depends on economics. If profits from wood and pulp are good, there is more incentive to keep the land covered in trees. Many people who want to maintain green space often inadvertently work against their own goal when they regulate forestry activities into unprofitability. An easily overlooked aspect of forestry is the price of pulp used in paper and fiberboard. If prices for pulp are very low forest owners, who might have high net worth but cash flow problems, might not be able or willing to afford to do thinning. This leads to lower timber prices and creates greater danger of fires and bugs. There is also a kind of a herd effect. Raw timber is bulky and heavy. If the timber has to travel too far to get to a saw mill, it becomes cost prohibitive to do forestry. From the other side, saw mills need a steady supply of timber. If they cannot secure such a supply, they go bankrupt. If enough mills go out of business, you reach a tipping point where neither forestry nor saw mills are profitable in a given region. At that point, landowners look for other options. Goodbye pines and oaks, hello fast foods and parking lots. http://johnsonmatel.com/blog1/2008/10/old_foresters_green_infrastruc.html Montana: 27) The tag " restoration forestry " has caught on big among private landowners, and for Brook Blakeley, that's meant a whole new niche for his forestry services. Armed with a New Holland farm tractor and an arsenal of attachments, Blakeley founded Montana Forest Stewardship Services in 1996, tailoring his work to the small woodland owner who wanted more than a load of logs delivered to the mill. Although his clients frequently thin their woods, they request a good cleanup job so the forest is healthier after the work. Such services come at a cost, but practitioners of restoration forestry say a more careful job actually enhances value of a property in the long run. " My farm tractor is modified and it's the best tool for the work I do, " said Blakeley, who is based in Missoula and subcontracts to other forest restoration companies 90 percent of the time. " It's the best multi-purpose machine for our job because we work a lot around residences. " The tractor can switch out quickly between a log grapple, a chipper head and a Farmi winch. The combination allows the operator to be more agile in tight areas, winching trees out of ravines near houses, chipping limbs as necessary, and piling brush. Practicing a light touch on the land, Blakeley piles rather than pushes slash, with his rubber-tired machine going easy on soil compaction. Working often in tandem with other like-minded forestry companies, Blakeley has seen a number of newer landowners prefer the more sensitive approach. Many sign on to the concept of leaving behind a maximum of the dominant, fire-dependent species. Such trees depend on low-intensity natural fires for regeneration. In the past, the bigger trees were often the first to be logged because of their commercial value. Today they are seen as more valuable left standing where they contribute the best genetic stock for regeneration. Forest restoration concepts also include minimizing soil and water disturbance, and maintaining organic matter in the soil. Aesthetics, too, fall under Blakeley's radar as he piles brush and limbs and cleans up after a logging job. " On this particular job, we will leave 10 tons of slash per acre, then burn, " he explained at a recent Missoula job site that is a joint project of the Forest Service, the Sierra Club and the Society of American Foresters. " Sometimes in the past we've left tops whole that were up to three inches, with limbs attached. Other times we chip the materials into a van at the landing. " Giving an eye to wildlife habitat, practitioners such as Blakeley see the need to leave occasional thick patches of forest as wildlife cover, providing thermal density where a known wildlife migration pattern exists. The main idea is to leave the forest in better shape than it was. Blakeley acknowledges that his style of forest cleanup is growing in demand.http://www.capitalpress.info/main.asp?SectionID=67 & SubSectionID=782 & Artic\ leID=45391 & TM=56257 Wyoming: 28) The conference went on for five days and had many simultaneous presentations, featuring some of the latest insights into wildfire ecology and fire behavior. The following are some of the highlights. Weather and climate figured into many presentations for a variety of reasons. Many speakers from agency managers to wildfire ecologists emphasized over and over again the influence of drought, low humidity and wind on fire spread and behavior. The conclusion of speakers is that under severe weather conditions, some fires are unstoppable and we are already seeing such a trend in fires today. For instance, Yellowstone researcher Roy Renkin emphasized that fuel moisture is the primary determinant of fire severity. His research suggests that wind and drought must exceed the 97th percentile before one gets a stand replacement fire, and if it exceeds the 99th percentile nothing will stop a fire and it will burn through all fuel types, including thinned forest stands. In other words there are very predictable thresholds in fuel moisture and wind speed that creates the ideal conditions for fire spread. When these conditions are met, wildfires are large and unstoppable. Other speakers talked about the effect of wind on fire spread. Even in a dry year like 1988, the majority of fires are small without wind to drive them. For instance, Bob Mutch retired from the Missoula Fire Lab, found that out of 249 fires that started in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in 1988, the majority or 81% burned ten acres or less. Huge acreages of the forest were consumed during the few days when high winds prevailed. During a field trip, I talked to Penny Morgan of the U of Idaho who recently published a couple of papers on the fire history of the Northern Rockies. She found that a strong connection between climatic conditions and fire years. Of 11 years with significant acreage burned by wildfire between 1900 and 2003, six occurred prior to the 1940s and five have occurred since 1988. All were correlated with dry springs and hot summers. Proposed treatments like thinning, logging and other prescriptions are ineffective for many forest types under the new climatic conditions. For instance, Ronald Wakimoto of the U of Montana Forestry School suggested that thinning of lodgepole pine forests as is now occurring on Forest Service lands in the Northern Rockies is " fool management " not fuel management. Megan Walsh of the U of Oregon looked at charcoal remains for the past 1000 years to determine the fire history in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. For decades it was presumed that Native American fires maintained the valley grasslands and open oak woodlands. Her research suggests that valley fire activity responded primarily to climatic changes. http://wuerthner.blogspot.com/2008/10/notes-from-88-yellowstone-fire.html Utah: 29) America the Beautiful: The National Forests of Utah, is a wonderful montage of Utah's magnificant western terrain; from the dry desert ground to the grand peaks and mountaintops and the beautiful animals of the wild. A medley of spectacular footage featuring some of Utah's fifteen million acres of national forests that spread along the state's 53 million acres of land with inspiring views of many of the 48 species of trees that cover a third of the state. While being entranced by the lovely images moving across the screen, the background is set to the superb sounds of classical music by Rachmaninov, Gounod, Adam and other distinguished and renowned composers. The breathtaking scenes and delightful classical sounds are a pleasure for the eyes and ears. http://base.lt/eblog/runionblog4133/2008/10/17/america-the-beautiful-the-nationa\ l-forests-of-utah-what-everybody-ought-to-know-about-online-movie-downloading/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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