Forest Policy Research

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Index:

–Canada: 1) Chignecto Game Sanctuary needs wilderness protection, 2) Sensitive forest secured in Lake Simcoe Region, 3) Nat-Geo on Muskwa-Kechika, 4) AbitiBowater to sell off 190,000 acres in Quebec, 5) Common ground in a pristine wilderness? 6) Logging plan will destroy critical woodland Caribou habitat, 7) Hundreds of protesters marched through to: “stop the tarsands,”

–Michigan: 8) Tree cutting for new airport

–Illinois: 9) RAN takes on ADM at shareholders meeting

–Indiana: 10) Relationship between critters and trees,

–Louisiana: 11) Save the Cypress forest!

–Massachusetts: 12) State policies encourage clearcutting,

–New York: 13) Phytoremediation: got a diesel spill, no problem just plant willow trees

–New Jersey: 14) New bill to protect private forests,

–Maryland: 15) $1.4 million in grants

–Vermont: 16) Town forest model featured woodlands magazine, 17) Gibbs lacks the background needed to run parks & forests,

–Pennsylvania: 18) Destroying a forest to pay for an environmental center, 19) Forestry for the Bay,

–North Carolina: 20) Study of forest impacts caused by global warming shutdown, 21) Regrowing Brosnan forest

–Alabama: 22) Condo builders clearcut trees without permission

–Kentucky: 23) Ancient forests in Harlan county

–Maine: 24) New trail thru ancient forest in south Portland

–USA: 25) Insect-and disease-caused tree mortality has quadrupled, 26) Link to deforestation and Biofuels not made according to EPA, 27) End an 8 year nightmare, time to dream anew, 28) Oppose national forest certification, 29) Save the last ancient forests, 30) Lame duck president may give away too much to corporations,

Articles:

Canada:

1) The list of groups calling on the province to upgrade the protection offered in the Chignecto Game Sanctuary is growing. On Thursday, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society became the latest organization to call on the province to declare the 22,092-hectare sanctuary a protected area as defined in the Wilderness Area Protection Act. “The province needs to step up now and make the designation as quickly as possible. They must act before we lose one of the few precious wilderness areas we have left in the province,” Chris Miller, the society’s national manager of wilderness conservation, said in a telephone interview from his Halifax office. “Until that’s done the sanctuary will remain vulnerable to clearcutting, open-pit mining and development.” The society joins Cumberland Wilderness, the Ecology Action Centre and a Facebook site called Don’t Drill for Oil at the Chignecto Game Sanctuary in urging the province to declare the site a protected wilderness area. With 20,000 members and 13 offices, the society is Canada’s leading grassroots, non-government wilderness conservation organization. Mr. Miller’s comments come two weeks after it was learned that Eastrock Resources of Calgary had received a permit to carry out seismic testing inside the park’s boundaries in a search for natural gas. The testing was allowed because the sanctuary’s protection level forbids certain types of hunting but does not protect habitat. Upgrading it to a protected wilderness area would prohibit forest harvesting, mining, road building and other types of development, Mr. Miller said. The society “has been scientifically examining the ecological significance of the Chignecto area for three years and concentrated on the park for the last year,” Mr. Miller said. “Our studies lead us to believe the Chignecto Game Sanctuary is nationally significant. Not only is it one of the few remaining strongholds for the endangered mainland moose, but it contains some of the best remaining examples of intact Acadian forest ecosystems (diverse tree types) in eastern North America.” The sanctuary is also significant for its large interior forest, old-growth forests and ecosystem diversity, he said. “It has one stand of old-growth sugar maples that are the best I’ve ever seen.” (Interior forests are large tracts of undisturbed forests populated by different species and aged trees while old-growth forests are generally made up of trees that are 100 years old or more.) The province has known for several years ago that the public wants game sanctuaries better protected, Mr. Miller said. “It’s time they acted on the Chignecto Game Sanctuary because it is one of our province’s last, best wilderness areas and must be protected,” he said. http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1089176.html

2) Two conservation easement agreements covering over 81 hectares (201 acres) of undisturbed environmentally sensitive forest were secured by the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority. These agreements will guarantee these ecologically sensitive areas in Georgina to be  preserved in perpetuity. The Deer Park (54.6 hectare and New Forest (26.7 hectare) properties are both within 300 metres of Lake Simcoe in the Roches Point area. The landowners have requested the two protected areas be jointly referred to as the Arnold C. Matthews Nature Reserve. “We wanted to protect these lands forever and encourage other landowners in the Lake Simcoe watershed to work with the LSRCA to take similar steps with their properties,” said Jack Gibbons, speaking for the owners of the Deer Park and New Forest properties. “We’re hoping that more landowners in the Roches Point area will sign easement agreements and add their lands to the Arnold C. Matthews Nature Reserve.” Authority representatives are pleased with these agreements and what they mean for the health of Lake Simcoe and its watershed, said Authority chairperson Virginia Hackson. “These agreements ensure that these lands will always provide habitat for wildlife, as well as vital forest cover needed to combat air and water pollution.” In a conservation easement, landowners retain ownership and responsibility for all maintenance and taxes, while the conservation authority is responsible for monitoring the restrictions set out in the easement. The agreements are a partnership between the fractional owners of the properties, the authority, the Nature Conservancy of Canada and the Regional Municipality of York. The properties are also designated as environmental protection areas under the Town of Georgina’s Official Plan. The conservation easements are together valued at almost $1.3 million. The landowner groups have also agreed to provide an endowment fund for each property towards the annual monitoring requirements. In recognition of their contribution to the environment in the Lake Simcoe watershed, the conservation authority honoured both ownership groups at its annual Conservation Awards ceremony last week. http://www.georginaadvocate.com/News/Georgina/article/83931

3) “There should be one place in the world where you have to find your own trail,” he says. “All it takes is a little guts.” The shale beneath our feet is slick with rain and offers about as much traction as a pile of broken china. It shatters under the weight of the horses’ hooves as they slip and grind, sending shards clattering into the gorge. A thousand feet below is the tree line, and a thousand feet above is the pass, threading its way between a pair of hulking 9,000-footers. In every direction glaciers loom, strangely luminous beneath a heavy gray sky. There are six of us and thirteen horses. But no one is riding because the trail is simply too steep—at times pushing 50 degrees. We lead our mounts by their reins knowing that if one of them loses its footing there is no way we’ll be able to stop it from tumbling into the boulder-filled cataract that plummets headlong to the valley floor. But it’s either get over the pass or take a hundred-mile detour. This is the Rocky Mountain divide, two degrees south of the 60th parallel and, just like the people in that plane, all we want to do is get across. We don’t know yet that the way down is almost as steep, which means we’ll still have to lead our thousand-pound horses, only this time they’ll roll right over us if their hooves fail to hold. This, I realize, is the price of admission into Sawchuk’s world. “I may have pissed away my twenties and part of my thirties,” he says of the rowdy, hell-bent years he spent logging, partying, and grizzly hunting in B.C.’s mountainous interior, “but now I’ve atoned for some of that.” Sawchuk’s atonement, if it can be called that, is on such a massive scale it makes one wonder at the sins that inspired it. In the early 1990s the B.C. government was under pressure to decide, once and for all, how to manage the vast resources of the province. Sawchuk and others recognized the conservation opportunity of a lifetime. Although he was still a logger at the time, he teamed up with George Smith, then national conservation director for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, to launch the Northern Rockies–Totally Wild campaign. They were joined by an unlikely group of fur trappers, guide outfitters, and biologists, all of whom understood a basic principle of conservation biology—that the best way to protect an ecosystem is to keep it intact. Named for two of the region’s biggest rivers, the Muskwa-Kechika, or M-K, is arguably the biggest well-kept secret in North America. Stretching southeastward from the Yukon-B.C. border, the M-K enfolds Canada’s northern Rockies in a 16-million-acre (25,000-square-mile) embrace. Encompassing mountains, meadows, rivers, and forests, its sprawling wilderness represents the largest intact wildlife habitat in the entire Rocky Mountain chain. Seven times the size of Yellowstone National Park, the M-K contains 50 undeveloped water­sheds and the greatest combined abundance and diversity of large wild mammals in North America. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/11/muskwa-kechika/vaillant-text/3

4) AbitibiBowater announced today that it intends to divest three forest units located in the Mauricie and Bas-Saint-Laurent regions in the Province of Quebec, Canada. These timberland assets include the Seigneuries of Perthuis, Nicolas-Riou and Lac Metis, which comprise a total area of approximately 76,724 hectares (or 189,508 acres) and have a timber inventory of over 7.7 million cubic meters. Scotia Capital Inc. has been retained as exclusive financial advisor for the sale process, and all inquiries or expressions of interest should be forwarded directly to their attention. AbitibiBowater produces a wide range of newsprint, commercial printing papers, market pulp and wood products. It is the eighth largest publicly traded pulp and paper manufacturer in the world. AbitibiBowater owns or operates 27 pulp and paper facilities and 34 wood products facilities located in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and South Korea. Marketing its products in more than 90 countries, the Company is also among the world’s largest recyclers of old newspapers and magazines, and has more third-party certified sustainable forest land than any other company in the world. AbitibiBowater’s shares trade under the stock symbol ABH on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange. http://thetimberlandblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/abitibibowater-to-sell-190000-acres-in.html

5) The general perception is all-terrain vehicle riders and environmentalists mix like oil and water, but they’ve found common ground in a pristine wilderness area on the Eastern Shore. The ATV club in Lake Charlotte, the provincial All-Terrain Vehicle Association of Nova Scotia and three environmental groups have jointly recommended to the Environment Department that ATVs and snowmobiles have access to a few existing corridors in the proposed Ship Harbour Long Lake wilderness area. They’re also asking that the province add 20 more parcels of land, totalling more than 2,000 hectares, to the roughly 14,000 hectares first proposed for protection last December. Lyn Ervin, vice-president of the Lake Charlotte ATV Association, said he went into the first meeting with the environmentalists with some “trepidation” but found more areas of agreement than he expected. “As I say, we were a little nervous about it because from past experiences and past perceptions of, you know — ATVers just want to go out and rape and pillage the area, and the environmental people want to preserve it,” he said. “Well, that couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s just that we see it from a different angle.” Mr. Ervin said most people who ride ATVs are devastated when they see environmental damage in the woods, and favour a sustainable use of forests. The shared love of nature was the basis for consensus, with give and take on both sides, they said. Raymond Plourde, the Ecology Action Centre’s wilderness co-ordinator, said the co-operation was in line with the “unusual bedfellows” who came together to get the area set aside for conservation in the first place. Area pulp mill owner Kimberly Clark had planned to cut in the proposed area early this decade, but held off after energetic protests by environmentalists. Neenah Paper bought the mill, in Abercrombie Point, Pictou County, in 2004 but sold it this past June to Northern Pulp Nova Scotia Corp. Several years of discussion led to last December’s announcement that the area would become a protected wilderness area, making it off limits for development and in most cases, vehicles. Mr. Plourde said he thinks it’s possible the type of dialogue and co-operation between the environmentalists and ATV groups could be a model for other areas of the province. He said he sees the potential for the template through protected areas consultation and ongoing work on a natural resources strategy. “Folks from different perspectives, you might even say traditional enemies, are dialoguing more than perhaps they ever have in the past. “And what’s emerging is that yes, there are definitely differences — some of them quite strong — but there are also areas of common ground that are maybe a little surprising to everyone, and I’d like to think that this model could be repeated,” Mr. Plourde said. http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1089791.html

6) The Ontario government has approved a controversial logging plan that will destroy critical woodland caribou habitat and undermine key conservation commitments by Premier McGuinty, say Greenpeace and Earthroots. Every tree logged in the Ogoki forest will be pulped to make toilet paper, junk mail, and other disposable paper products. “This move undermines everything the Premier has said about the value of Ontario’s Boreal Forest,” said Christy Ferguson, a forest campaigner with Greenpeace. “When it comes to forest conservation, Premier McGuinty is giving with one hand and taking with the other.” In July 2008, Premier McGuinty extolled the global significance of Ontario’s Boreal Forest and committed to protect at least 50 per cent of its northern reaches. This followed his government’s May 2007 announcement of a new Endangered Species Act for Ontario which included protection for woodland caribou. The newly approved forest management plan for the Ogoki Forest, northwest of Armstrong, allows logging company Buchanan Forest Products to log and build roads in one of the most ecologically valuable areas left in Ontario’s Boreal Forest. Because local sawmills have closed, one hundred per cent of what’s logged will be delivered to the Terrace Bay pulp mill for the manufacture of tissue and other disposable paper products. The size, location, and near pristine state of the one million hectare Ogoki Forest make it critical habitat for the threatened woodland caribou, while its carbon-dense trees and soils make it critical for mitigating climate change. In April 2008, environmental groups across the province requested that the Ministry of Environment conduct an individual environmental assessment to determine the plan’s impact on caribou before proceeding. The Ministry has denied the request, even while acknowledging in correspondence that the logging and road-building activities within the plan may impact woodland caribou populations. “This is just one example of the problems that persist in Ontario’s Boreal Forest,” said Carly Armstrong, a forest campaigner with Earthroots. “With logging companies exempt from the Endangered Species Act, no new protected areas in the managed forest, and the ongoing approval of plans like this one, it appears that little has changed.” An Earthroots assessment released today details many of the problems with the plan and with forestry in Ontario’s Boreal Forest as a whole, including the fact that the forest industry is currently exempt from the province’s Endangered Species Act. http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/November2008/17/c9473.html

7) The environment was front and centre for hundreds of protesters who marched through downtown yesterday afternoon shouting “stop the tarsands” at the top of their lungs. The demonstration, organized by the Council of Canadians - a left-leaning advocacy group - called on the province to put a moratorium on new developments in Alberta’s oilsands. “(It’s) dramatic devastation that’s been happening there in a very unrestrained way with very little oversight,” Council of Canadians spokesman Dylan Penner said. “People across the country are concerned about that. People see this not just as a Alberta issue, but something that’s impacting the country and, in fact, the world.” He said the “gold rush” in the Fort McMurray area is not sustainable either economically or environmentally and a hold on all new developments would “provide us with a real opportunity to look at this sanely and rationally and sustainably and choose a different path forward.” Supporters marched through downtown and down to the Legislature and shouted slogans like “public rights before corporate profits,” and “dirty fuel isn’t cool, Stephen Harper is a fool,” a crowd favourite. Reactions from passers-by ranged from a woman who honked and flashed a smile and a peace sign to a man in a pickup truck who told those in the march to get jobs as he drove by. “We’re not saying ‘stop it,’ “ said fourth-year political science student Dustin McNichol of the tarsands. “(We’re saying) let’s rethink, let’s get some better regulation, let’s have some sensible solutions to this.” During her speech on the steps of the Legislature, Maude Barlow - senior adviser on water issues with the United Nations and Council of Canadians chairman - recounted her experiences during a trip to the Fort McMurray area. “What we saw yesterday on our tour were absolute dead zones. Zones where no living creature can survive. We saw holding lakes for toxic water that, if it leaks into the Athabasca (River), could destroy the Athabasca for miles,” she said. Barlow also expressed her concern for the First Nations people of the region, who are reporting exceptionally high rates of cancer. Most people at the rally, like 78-year-old Louise Swift of the Raging Grannies, believe Premier Ed Stelmach and other politicians hold the solution to the problem. “The government has to be responsible for making laws about pollution,” she said. “Until they do that, there has to be a moratorium.” http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2008/11/02/7281366-sun.html

Michigan:

8) With the recent runway extension project at the Oakland County International Airport in Waterford about to take final shape, reports have surfaced of planned tree cutting from Williams Lake Road to the Pontiac Lake shoreline. Proposals calling for either the clear cutting of trees in that area or the cutting of a few trees targeted as being too tall and encroaching on flight paths are being considered. “As part of the project there, with the runway clear zone or the runway protection area, we have had in the past a substandard protection area,” said Oakland County Director of Central Services J. David VanderVeen. “That was 750 feet from the end of the runway, now we’re extending it to a 1,000 foot separation. There are some trees out there in that area that penetrate that safety area. “The further out from the airport you get, the higher the elevation is that is safe,” he said. “There are some trees that penetrate that area and we do have to take those down. We’re examining the process right now. There was one proposal we’ve talked about with the (Department of Natural Resources) where all the trees would be taken out, and replaced with prepared grass. But we’re studying another approach now and that’s likely the one we’ll use. That is just taking down those trees that are penetrating and leaving the other ones alone.” Last year, the county airport received a federal grant to extend the main runway roughly 300 to 350 feet at the west end of the airport. The extension reportedly will help outbound planes fill up with more fuel in order to get to their final destinations without stopping for refueling. Additionally, the runway safety area for the east-west runway will be improved, and that includes removing certain tall trees in the safety area. The airport was also given a $34,300 grant for the actual extension of the runway, as well as a $103,000 grant for the engineering, design and relocation of instruments and paths used to guide landing planes toward the main runway. A noise study was required before the work started, and VanderVeen said he’s gotten reports that the tree cutting won’t have a big impact on the amount of airport noise heard on nearby Pontiac Lake. “I think that’s the fear,” he said. “Our noise consultants say that’s not going to be necessarily so. With the proposal we’re looking at, there will be other trees left.” http://www.spinalcolumnonline.com/Articles-i-2008-10-29-56402.113117_Airport_officials_mulling_tree_cutting_options.html

Illinois:

9) Former Maui County Environmental Coordinator Rob Parsons joined protests by Rainforest Action Network (RAN) at the annual shareholders meeting of Archer Daniels Midland Co. in Decatur, Ill., on Nov. 6. Parsons, who serves as executive vice president of Maui Tomorrow Foundation Inc., obtained a shareholder’s proxy for the meeting in an effort to try and sway agri-business corporations like ADM away from imposing biofuel ventures in Hawaii and decimating rainforest lands associated with widespread mono-cropping of soybeans and palm oil for biofuels production. “We will remind them that soy and palm plantations are among the greatest threats to the world’s tropical rainforests,” Parsons said. “The expansion of these plantations spells a disaster for these biodiverse forest habitats, indigenous peoples’ rights and climate change.” Hawaii is the most petroleum-dependent of the 50 U.S. states, with more than 90 percent of the state’s energy needs coming from imported foreign oil. Despite abundant potential for solar, wind and hydropower, the Hawaiian Electric Co. (HECO) has spent the past two years supporting proposals to construct two biodiesel plants – one by Imperium Renewables Inc. on Oahu and another by BlueEarth Biodiesel LLC on Maui. http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=2983

Indiana:

10) MARTINSVILLE, Ind. - Wildlife biologists are counting acorns and salamanders and following rattlesnakes to their hibernation nooks at two Indiana parks for a wide-ranging study of the connection between trees and wildlife. Their project, planned to last 100 years, seeks to pin down the relationship between tree species and the animals they support to devise new forest management approaches. Cortney Mycroft, a Purdue University forest technician who’s overseeing the research, hopes it can find ways to counter the forces that are slowly altering the Midwest’s hardwood forests. Mycroft said different tree-cutting techniques will be used randomly in the logged areas. That includes cutting all trees in a particular area, cutting trees of a certain age or cutting only selected trees. Brian MacGowan, a Purdue Extension wildlife expert, said he and the other researchers are eager to see what impact the logging will have on a wide range of wildlife, including endangered species such as timber rattlesnakes, Indiana bats and Cerulean warblers. MacGowan has fitted 22 timber rattlesnakes and 25 box turtles with radio transmitters so he and others can track their movements and periodically catch them to assess their health. Previous research has shown that the size of an opening created by nature or man in a forest canopy dictates what tree species will eventually take hold there. Maples, for example, are well-suited to growing in shade and quickly take advantage of a new forest clearing. Mycroft said oak and hickory trees and the protein-rich nuts they produce are slowly being replaced in woodland areas by maple and beech trees with smaller seeds that support fewer wild turkeys, squirrels, grouse and other animals. The study enlisting Purdue scientists, state wildlife biologists and other researchers will use periodic tree-cuttings to try to boost the oak-hickory mix, and oaks in particular. “Our species composition is changing with our trees, so we definitely have an interest in maintaining oaks,” Mycroft said. “So many animals feed on acorns.” The study is unfolding in nearly 2,000 acres in southern Indiana’s Morgan-Monroe State Forest and nearby Yellowwood State Forest. The project started three years ago when the researchers began collecting data on the selected woodlands. One area in the Morgan-Monroe State Forest that’s being studied is a large tract that was leveled in 1990 by straight-line winds and later harvested by a lumber company. Nearly two decades later, that parcel of land is now filled with trees of varying heights and dense shrubbery that shed light on how forests recover from violent upheavals, said John Seifert, the head of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ forestry division. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-in-changingforests,0,22057.story

Louisiana:

11) The cypress forests of Louisiana have suffered much devastation from human development, coastal erosion, and exploitation by the lumber industry. Now, vast tracts are being clear cut for the production of cypress mulch. A new online campaign — saveourcypress.org — is seeking to reform the Louisiana cypress mulch industry. Cypress wetland forests are among the most productive wetland ecosystems in the world, but with no state laws in place to protect Louisiana trees, these forests are being logged without discretion, at a rate of 20,000 acres per year. In the mid-1800s, Louisiana boasted over two million acres of cypress-tupelo swamps; currently, fewer than half that number currently exist. Cara Leverett, of basinkeeper.org, reports that the cypress mulch industry is responsible for most cypress logging. “Most cypress forests that remain are between 80 and 100 years old. However, the trees still aren’t very big, which means that they are mostly suitable only for mulch.” Saveourcypress.org, a coalition of over 160 conservation groups, religious organizations, gardening clubs, and businesses, is working to promote awareness of the environmental damage caused by the cypress industry, as well as to encourage consumers to buy non-cypress mulch or mulch produced from sustainable tracts of cypress forest. They are also petitioning for the creation of state-sponsored conservation incentives for private landowners of cypress forests, as well as encouraging corporations to stop selling non-sustainable cypress mulch. Already, Wal-Mart has agreed to stop marketing mulch produced in Louisiana; Save Our Cypress is currently trying to persuade Lowes and Home Depot, among others, to follow suit. http://news.mongabay.com/2008/1105-morgan_cypress.html

Massachusetts:

12) How interesting that the boom in clearcutting on state land (Massachusetts) coincides with subsidies available for private owners to clearcut- both
practices supposedly to enhance biodiversity and wildlife- just when the state wants to increase biomass production. How convenient! We will soon see
far more clearcutting on private land if not state land (due to increasing public resistance). I recently talked to a procurement forester from the “far north” who said that up there in a few years there will be far less lumber being sawn- partly because the forests up there are wasted- and partly because the industry is learning how to make products from raw fiber, along with the increased market for pulp and wood energy. The industry in southern New England is on the ropes, dying fast- the ones that want to survive will join this “sea change”- they’ll high grade what they can (sending logs north), clearcut the rest and claim it’s all wonderful ecoforestry. The entire forestry establishment at all levels are pushing this change. What would make far more sense would be to use the new demand for pulp and wood energy to thin the forests intelligently based on great silviculture. It would help if the forestry establishment discouraged clearcutting! Any help given to the wood industry should be based on that industry thinning the forests, not clearcutting them. Huge grants have been given to some firms for biomass projects- firms with reputations for high grading! Go figure. Thinning the forests is far superior- resulting in removing low grade wood while enhancing future high value timber- in the interest of the forest owner, the profitability of the wood industry, creative work for licensed foresters and a far better forest ecosystem. I’ve uploaded my second video showing the difference between thinning
forests and massacring them. It’s all a bit ironic- one would think that the reality would be about private land being slaughtered while the state shows how to do it correctly, conservatively, ecologically intelligent, without damage to recreational and aesthetic values of OUR state forests- but alas. http://groups.google.com/group/alt.forestry/browse_thread/thread/7cdab37e39a50e25?hl=en

New York:

13) About 23,000 willow plants are cleaning up the site of a 164,000-gallon spill of fuel that has been spreading underground for more than 50 years at the Fort Drum military installation in New York state, US. Dr. Christopher Nowak, a silviculturist at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) in Syracuse, believes it is the largest phytoremediation effort - the process of using plants to remediate contaminated soils and groundwater - in North America. As explained in a SUNY press release, the trees are part of an aggressive cleanup strategy to remediate groundwater contamination caused by fuel that leaked from the tank farm along Fort Drum’s “Gasoline Alley”. The military installation, home to the Army’s 10th Mountain Division - Light Infantry, covers more than 107,000 acres. This year, the base is marking its 100th year as a military training site. No one knows exactly when the leaks began - perhaps as early as World War II - but they were discovered in 1988, when the petroleum, which had been spreading underground for many years, began to foul small creeks on the base. The plume has been flowing downhill under the Old Sanitary Landfill, which closed in the mid-1970s. It moved through the sandy soil and showed up in groundwater that surfaced as creeks in low-lying areas. The creeks were turning rusty brown with precipitated iron and bacteria as the petroleum surfaced in “seeps” that brought groundwater to the surface. Donald Beevers, the installation restoration project manager, who is employed with contractor Applied Services & Information Systems at Fort Drum, said roughly $1m (£500,000) has been spent on the remediation project. He estimated that constructing a treatment plant would have cost $8m (£4m). The goal is to develop a phytoremediation model that can be tailored for use at similar sites across the United States. “We want to transfer the technology,” Mr Beevers said. “This isn’t the only Department of Defense landfill.” Dr Nowak added: “This is just one military base of many, and it was clear that what we are doing here could be applied elsewhere. It’s tailored phytoremediation.” http://takecover08.wordpress.com/2008/11/03/willow-plantation-tackles-massive-fuel-leak/

New Jersey:

14) TRENTON – A bill sponsored by Senate Environment Committee Chair, Senator Bob Smith, which would establish a new forest stewardship program in the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to protect privately-owned forests in the Garden State was approved today by the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee by a vote of 9-0, with 4 abstentions. The bill, S-713, would direct the DEP to establish a forest stewardship program for the owners of forest land who develop preservation and forest sustainability plans that meet national forest stewardship guidelines, subject to approval by the Department. The program would offer financial incentives, including cost-sharing for stewardship activities listed under DEP-approved plans if funding is available, and property tax breaks similar to the current farmland assessment program established by the Farmland Assessment Act of 1964. As amended, the bill would also provide that revenue generated from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative auction that is dedicated to forest stewardship would go into a dedicated fund, to provide grants to people to assist in developing forest stewardship plans. “Through this bill, we want to give forest-landowners the support they need, in terms of technical expertise and financial incentives, to protect and preserve their forestlands,” said Senator Smith. “By directing the DEP to develop a forest stewardship program, we are setting up a system to share best practices and results-oriented techniques with the people on the ground, doing their part to preserve forests in the State.” Senator Smith noted that the bill is especially important given the high density of construction in the State, and the pressure to build on any open space in New Jersey. He added that New Jersey needs to provide financial incentives to private owners of forest land to relieve some of the pressure and stop the spread of suburban sprawl onto forest land. http://www.politickernj.com/jbutkowski/25429/smith-measure-protect-state-forests-approved-budget-committee

Maryland:

15) The three-person board consisting of Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, state Treasurer Nancy Kopp and state Comptroller Peter Franchot, announced more than $1.4 million in grants for forest and farm land preservation in Dorchester and Wicomico County through the Maryland Rural Legacy Program. The first of the approved grants included $709,571 to acquire a conservation easement on a 292-acre property in the Quantico Creek Rural Legacy Area. Since 2002, Wicomico County has received $3.1 million in grants for the acquisition of more than 1,400 acres. Of the acreage, more than 823 acres are found in the Quantico RLA. Rick Pollitt, Wicomico County executive, said the county has been interested in preserving areas from overdevelopment in order to maintain its rural way of life. “We’ve been identifying land all around the county we’d like to see preserved,” he said. “This was an area the property owners were interested in selling and we were able to make a deal.” Also approved was $731,000 for the acquisition of a conservation easement on 271 acres of farmland in Dorchester’s Nanticoke River Rural Legacy Area. According to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the Nanticoke RLA consists of 21,250 acres of land and contains over one-third of all the state’s wetlands. http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20081107/NEWS01/811070315/-1/newsfront2

Vermont:

16) An article in Northern Woodlands Magazine entitled, A Forest for Every Town, talks about the Vermont Town Forest Program, which aims to ensure common forestlands for municipalities in Vermont. The program’s idea has grown, in part, out of movements, such as the slow food movement, that strive to use local products. It sounds like the program is quite successful so far. From the article: Hinesburg’s forests exemplify town forest potential. They have recreation: world-class mountain biking trails, along with skiing, hiking, and horseback riding. They also serve as outdoor classrooms, both for local teachers and for the University of Vermont, whose students have conducted dozens of projects there. And the older forest also has active forest management: one recent harvest took out white ash, which was then milled and kiln-dried locally and installed to replace the floor of the Hinesburg Town Hall, which had been sanded so many times that the tongue of each tongue-and-groove board was exposed. All this at a total cost of $2.48 per square foot, about what you’d pay commercially. The great thing is, Hinesburg is only one of many Vermont communities with town forests. Some towns have had forests for years, while others are just now acquiring them – a task made easier by the assistance provided by the Vermont Town Forest Project and the federal Community Forest and Open Space Conservation Program, which will provide 50-50 matching grants for towns to acquire town forests. It’s encouraging to see support for this project at local, state, and even federal levels. This kind of institutional networking is woefully lacking in Japan, making it hard to institute programs like this. It’s a shame, because there is a lot of forestland out there that could be put to good use by local communities; and there are local communities that are struggling to survive. Seems a perfect match. http://otakimura.blogspot.com/2008/11/common-forests-rediscovering-good-idea.html

17) Gibbs worked in public affairs for Fletcher Allen Health Care and for Boston’s Public Affairs for the Central Artery/Tunnel Project – better known as the Big Dig – before starting to work for Douglas in his first campaign for governor. He is also the governor’s liaison to the National Governors Association, the Coalition of Northeastern Governors and the Agency of Natural Resources. “Secretary Wood and Governor Douglas believe I have the skills and the passion for Vermont’s natural resources to compliment the excellent team that already exists at Forests, Parks and Recreation,” Gibbs said. Some are not so sure. “I thought that Jason Gibbs was the governor’s spokesperson. I did not know he had any knowledge of what it would take to manage state forests and state parks,” said Christopher Kilian, director of Vermont office of the Conservation Law Foundation. “He will have to make actual, substantive decisions. That will put him in a new role.” “I can’t say I see a clear rationale to why the governor would appoint someone with that background to that post. I would expect he would want someone who has some actual expertise in this area,” Kilian added. Gibbs’ job will be to oversee the management of the state’s park system and management of its forests. Those aspects of the landscape – and the economic activity related to them – are important to the state, Gibbs said. “They are also a big part of who I am as an individual,” Gibbs said. “My focus will be on protecting and improving these resources and making as much of a contribution to the Forest, Parks and Recreation team as I possibly can.” “Jason is smart, energetic and experienced in the intricacies of policy and government,” Douglas said in a statement. http://www.timesargus.com/article/20081113/NEWS01/811130364/1002/NEWS01

Pennsylvania:

18) They’re marking trees at Governor Dick — up to 100 acres. In 2001 when they first proposed logging to fund their environmental center, many of us spoke out. We knew the threats. Trees eventually return, but many forest species do not. With each disturbance biodiversity is diminished. They’ve tried many excuses. They even claim they need to log the forest for money to preserve the forest. What? But they always return to a need to balance their budget, as they did at October’s board meeting. Their choice of forester says a lot about their intentions, too. He’s no naturalist. Instead, he defends his plan by talking about wood and paper products and saying damage caused by logging will be within government guidelines. The problem is they grew a $6,000 budget to $160,000. Their half-million-dollar environmental center sits relatively empty and unused. They squander money on extras like a new fireplace, hardwood floors and pavilions. Now they want the forest to pay. There’s no reason to manage Governor Dick for timber. It’s a preserve! All this money wasted could have been spent on actual preservation and education. Why isn’t it? Ask the trustees (www.governordick.com). Tell them people don’t visit Governor Dick for the hardwood floors. We come for the forest! http://www.ldnews.com/opinion/ci_10905687

19) To show how their well-managed woodlands can lead to cleaner streams and rivers, and the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources is encouraging private landowners to join the “Forestry for the Bay” program. “With nearly two-thirds of Pennsylvania draining into the Chesapeake, woodland owners from Lancaster to Bedford, and Potter to Susquehanna counties must realize their actions directly affect a national treasure hundreds of miles away,” said DCNR State Forester Daniel Devlin. “We welcome the chance to promote sound conservation practices and foster healthier waterways by participating in ‘Forestry for the Bay’ efforts.” The program is specifically geared to help small- and medium-size landowners promote sound conservation practices and increase vitality of the region’s woodlands. Membership in Forestry for the Bay is free and voluntary. “Whether someone owns 100 acres of hardwoods or a 2-acre lot of evergreens, the health of those woodlands directly affects the health of local streams, rivers and, eventually, the Chesapeake Bay,” Devlin said. “Forest stewards are increasingly challenged by fragmentation of large woodland tracts into smaller parcels with diverse ownership. While many educational and incentive programs are geared for owners of large tracts, Forestry for the Bay focuses on reaching owners of forests ranging from backyard woodlots to 25 acres or more.” The Web-based program was developed through collaboration among the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, USDA Forest Service and Chesapeake Bay Program. Besides Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Forestry, support also comes from the Maryland Forest Service and Virginia’s Department of Forestry. Program proponents hope to connect 900,000 woodland owners in the Chesapeake watershed region to a wealth of information about local resources, incentive programs, and technical assistance for proper management of their woodlands. http://br.sys-con.com/node/742124

North Carolina:

20) For more than a decade, the federal government has spent millions of dollars pumping elevated levels of carbon dioxide into small groups of trees to test how forests will respond to global warming in the next 50 years. Some scientists believe they are on the cusp of receiving key results from the time-consuming experiments. The U.S. Department of Energy, however, which is funding the project, has told the scientists to chop down the trees, collect the data and move on to new research. That plan has upset some researchers who have spent years trying to understand how forests may help stave off global warming, and who want to keep the project going for at least a couple of more years. “There has been an investment in these experiments and it’s a shame we are going to walk away from that investment,” said William Chameides, an atmospheric scientist at Duke University, where one of the experimental forests is located. “There is no question that ultimately we want to cut the trees down and analyze the soil. The question is whether now is the time to do it.” Ronald Neilson, a U.S. Forest Service bio-climatologist in Corvallis, Ore., said the experiments should continue because they still have potential to answer key questions about how rainfall and fertility affect how much carbon a forest will store long-term — essential to understanding how forests may soften the blow of climate change. But the Energy Department, following the advice of a specially convened panel of experts, believes that chopping down the trees and digging up the soil will allow the first real measurements of how much carbon the leaves, branches, trunks and roots have been storing, said J. Michael Kuperberg, a program manager with the agency. Ending the experiments will also allow the funding to be devoted to new research that will look at the effects of higher temperatures, changes in rainfall, and variations in soil fertility, Kuperberg said. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5itjv33F83HBx5I_LqkweBGMe3VYAD94CKRK80

21) The story begins in the 1830’s, when the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company (SCCRC) bought a 100,000 acre plot of longleaf pine forest near Dorchester, South Carolina. Timber from the forest was an essential element in SCCRC’s expansion, development and continued operation. Not only did timber provide material for cross-ties, trestles and bridges, but most of the then steam powered locomotives burned wood to heat their boilers. This meant a nonstop and insatiable demand for timber which the forest was unable to support. In 1920, the railway began replanting longleaf and loblolly pines for pulpwood production. Soon afterward, it began to construct a demonstration area for local landowners who were interested in reforesting their land. Southern Railway also opened up its land to forestry students from Universities all across the South. In 1968 the Forest was officially dedicated as the Brosnan forest. In 1999 the railway passed another milestone, and in the interest of the red cocka-ded woodpecker, it enrolled Brosnan forest in the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s safe harbor program. In August of 2008, Norfolk Southern Railway made the news when it announced that it would place 12,000 acres of the forest under conservation easement with the Lowcountry Open Land Trust (the largest such conservation easement by a corporation in South Carolina history). It took nearly a century of work, investment and commitment, but now, where there was once a nearly exhausted collection of small and shabby trees, their now exists a lush and thriving forest of proud and tall longleaf pines. The red cocka-ded woodpecker have also made a comeback and a thriving community of over 80 clusters can be found, spread throughout the forest. Thanks to Norfolk Southern Railways (renamed from Southern Railway in 1974) efforts, the Brosnan forest and the once endangered red-cockaded woodpecker population have been revitalized. http://inspiredeconomist.com/2008/11/12/deforestation-apparatus-turned-green-corporation-saves-forest-and-endangered-species/

Alabama:

22) SPANISH FORT — More than three months after officials here reprimanded developers of a Causeway condominium development for clear-cutting protected trees, the city has yet to receive a promised remediation plan and other requested items. The lack of response from developers of Shellbank Landing, a 57-unit condo project on 4.5 acres at the base of Spanish Fort’s bluff, prompted the city to send a letter asking that the plan be provided immediately. Designs also call for 7 wooded acres to remain undeveloped. The Nov. 4 letter, signed by Spanish Fort Mayor Joe Bonner, also states that the city has not received the requested section of trunk from the largest tree removed, which officials plan to use to set the standard for replacements. “Please be reminded that the city of Spanish Fort takes this violation very seriously,” the letter states. “You are hereby directed to provide a written response within 14 days of your re ceipt of this letter, outlining your response and proposed remediation plan.” Ray Hix, a company representative, said a landscape architect is working to establish “a sustainable landscape plan.” “I am sure they will be providing it to us and the city very shortly, and I am sure it will be in line with everything that we talked about with the city,” Hix said Wednesday. “We are going to do whatever we can to make it beautiful down there.” On July 24, Spanish Fort Building Official Bruce Renkert issued a stop-work order to Shellbank Development LLC after learning that the company removed 11 trees — two cypress and nine oaks — that were to be preserved under plans approved by city officials. When city officials investigated, they also learned that the site plan being followed by the contractor also strayed slightly from the one the city’s Planning Commission approved in October 2006. http://www.al.com/news/press-register/metro.ssf?/base/news/1226657727153890.xml&coll=3

Kentucky:

23) In the early 1990s, Marc Evans was looking at aerial photos of Eastern Kentucky when he saw something that made him think his eyes were playing tricks. There, on the side of Pine Mountain in Harlan County, was what appeared to be more than 2,000 acres of really big trees. Evans, then acting director of the Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission, had found an expanse of old-growth forest that somehow had been missed by chain saws and scientists. Many of the hemlocks, oaks, beeches, tulip poplars, maples, black gums and birches are hundreds of years old, and they form the largest old-growth woods left in what was once a wilderness. Evans persuaded the heirs of Grover Blanton to sell the land. Then, with Hugh Archer, he formed the Kentucky Natural Lands Trust to pay for it. On one fund-raising hike, someone kicked up ground-nesting wasps, and Evans assumed that he would get nothing from that group. But two girls on the hike persuaded their grandmother to give $500,000, anonymously, and the James Graham Brown Foundation of Louisville chipped in an equal amount. Then a neighbor gave $400,000 worth of land. Many more people contributed, and the state put up $1 million. Today, the trust owns more than 3,000 acres known as the Blanton Forest State Nature Preserve, and it has plans to preserve 6,700 acres. To learn more, go to www.knlt.org or http://www.naturepreserves.ky.gov/stewardship/blanton.htm

Maine:

24) The Maine Conservation Corps is completing a trail-blazing project this week in South Portland that carves a path through woods by Long Creek that have been undisturbed for more than 150 years. The one-mile hiking trail contains old-growth oaks and pines that tower five and six stories high. Yet the site is located in Maine’s busiest shopping hub. “It is a surprising and delightful place, right in the middle of the city,” said Richard Rottkov, president of the nonprofit South Portland Land Trust. Hidden in plain sight, the swath of woodland runs parallel to Long Creek and can be seen from a distance by motorists traveling on Interstate 295, near Exit 3 and the Maine Mall. Thanks to the efforts of the land trust, city of South Portland and developer Richard Berman, the woodland is being opened up for the first time for recreational use. Despite the rapid commercial growth of South Portland’s west end, City Councilor Tom Blake said the woods largely have been untouched since the state acquired the property in the 1800s. The land was part of the former Maine Youth Center and is now leased by Berman for the Brick Hill development of apartments and businesses. The trust gained an easement from Berman to use the property for public recreation. Blake noted that there was a barn for livestock, vegetable gardens and brick-making on the grounds of the Youth Center. Broken pieces of crockery, old bricks and other remnants of South Portland’s rural history are easily spotted along the trail. Most impressive to Blake are the stands of old-growth trees, some of which he estimates to be 150-200 years old. http://www.keepmecurrent.com/Community/story.cfm?storyID=60477

USA:

25) Drought-stressed trees can’t fend off pests and pathogens like healthy trees can, according to an August report by several federal scientists. The report said that from 1997 to 2003, insect-and disease-caused tree mortality quadrupled to 12.2 million acres in the United States. It also said the amount of forestland hit by bugs and disease each year is far greater than the amount that burns in wildfires. The national numbers have dropped since 2003, but they remain far above the levels reported in the late 1990s, according to the most recent federal data. Scientists said the effect of climate changes on forests is compounded by other factors, including decades of fire suppression that have left some forests too dense for the water available. “For as long as people have been looking at such things, we have never had the series of attacks on forest health all occurring at the same time that we are currently experiencing,” said Alex Woods, a forest pathologist in British Columbia. Of particular concern in the West are bark beetles, a large group of insects that includes some very aggressive species. “Several of the current bark-beetle outbreaks across North America are the largest and most severe in recorded history,” said Barbara Bentz, an entomologist for the Forest Service in Utah. In British Columbia, mountain pine beetles have infested more than 30 million acres. Bark beetles in Southern California reached epidemic proportions five years ago, when they killed drought-stressed trees across tens of thousands of acres and provided fuel for the catastrophic wildfires of 2003. Over the past six years, the number of invasive bark beetles detected in California has doubled to 20 species. Scientists expect the trend to continue as insects from Mexico and the Southwest spread north. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20081025-9999-1n25forest.html

26) At issue is whether the carbon dioxide released when faraway forests and savannas are converted to farmland should be included in the E.P.A.’s carbon footprint calculus for biofuel production in the United States. Biofuels supporters say the cause-effect relationship has not been established, and so those emissions ought not be considered until more research is done. Opponents say the science — and the law — is clear. “By law, E.P.A. must consider indirect land use change emissions,” Ms. McMahon writes (see her full comment here). “It is absurd that the biofuel industry, a year after this law was enacted, would turn around and try to strip away this fundamental environmental safeguard.” Responding to the letter sent to the E.P.A. by biofuels advocates, Friends of the Earth, along with the Clean Air Task Force and the Environmental Working Group, sent their own dispatch to the agency on Friday. Yet, a growing body of research is linking the production and consumption of biofuels to increased competition for land, water and agricultural commodities. Growing crops for energy in addition to food and feed requires the cultivation of additional land. In an increasingly globalized food market, the make-up food often will be grown where land and other agricultural inputs are the most inexpensive. The result is the conversion of forests, wetlands, grasslands and other areas in tropical countries — a process that typically leads to substantial releases of soil and plant carbon as land is cleared, drained and/or burned to make it suitable for farming or grazing. According to Alex Farrell and Michael O’Hare of the University of California at Berkeley, “There is no way around the effect unless we un-make the global economy.” http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/biofuels-debate-point-counterpoint/

27) It’s been a dismal eight years for the U.S. Forest Service. When the Bush administration took office, it immediately suspended a popular measure to protect 58 million acres of backcountry public forests from new roads. Instead, the agency became consumed by firefighting. Since 2001, stopping fire has grown from about 15 percent of the agency’s budget to nearly 50 percent today. Without forward-thinking leadership, the Forest Service agenda will continue to focus primarily on this one reactionary activity. Yet there is enormous potential for the agency and its 35,000 employees who manage public lands that exceed the size of Texas. Agency staffers could be turned loose to do good work on the ground.  The future of the agency — and the rural communities that depend on it — lies in its recognizing that more frequent fires are a symptom of a warming climate and an already stressed environment. And while fire fighting is essential, it is only one part of a long-term agenda. Scrape away eight years of languor perpetuated by the Bush administration, and the clear challenge of climate changes stands out. Here’s what the Forest Service could do to lead the way: 1) Protect the highest quality lands. In a warming climate, national forests, and particularly roadless areas, are thermal refuges. Protecting these lands protects fish and wildlife and also reduces the costs of filtering water for downstream communities. Private ranch-lands also harbor important big game habitats, many of which are threatened by development. It makes sense for the departments of Agriculture and Interior to work with landowners and provide incentives to those who help conserve high-value lands.  2) Reconnect landscapes. If fish and wildlife habitats are fragmented, they won’t survive floods, fire and drought predicted to increase with climate change. Identifying and protecting important wildlife corridors on public lands and allowing rivers to access floodplains are not only good for fish and wildlife, it’s good for communities. A healthy landscape will recharge and replenish underground aquifers that supply municipal drinking water, minimize the potential for downstream flooding, and improve soil productivity for farmers and ranchers.  3) Engage communities in restoration. Recovering the ability of our lands to withstand the effects of climate change is essential. Reconnecting people, children and communities to the landscapes that provide their food, energy resources, and recreation opportunities is important to our nation’s well being. Restoration activities such as tree planting, energy conservation, and thoughtful community planning bind us to the lands and waters that sustain us.  http://www.hcn.org/wotr

28) The US Forest Service is seeking comments on forest certification and its implications for America’s national forests. National forest certification would prioritize commodity extraction over non-market values such as old-growth forests, roadless areas, clean water, fish and wildlife habitat, biological diversity, and opportunities for recreation and solitude. Our national forests belong to all Americans and should be managed for these values. A letter has been sent to the Forest Service by 23 conservations groups from around the country opposing the certification of our national forests. Click here to read the letter. Take Action: Please take a moment to send a letter to the Forest Service opposing national forest certification. Comments are due Monday, November 17, 2008. Click here to send your comments. Certification is a system that promotes conservation on lands, private and state owned, which are already primarily dedicated to logging and whose managers have chosen to participate in certification. Applying certification to federal forests would undermine conservation efforts on those public forests where no such commercial imperative exists, to the detriment of efforts to give greater preference to biological diversity, ecological restoration, and recreation. The appropriate vehicles for ensuring proper management of national forests are federal procedures and laws. The Forest Service claims that they are looking at national forest certification as a way to help federal timber compete in a global market, and as other countries consider forest certification, the Forest Service wants to demonstrate that they have agreed to similar standards. The Forest Service is considering certifying the National Forest System using the two leading forest certification systems: the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the timber industry’s Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1158/t/140/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26218

29) Lost in the political excitement of the Presidential election cycle was the recent introduction of the largest and strongest nationwide forest protection bill in U.S. history, The Act to Save America’s Forests 2008. The Act, sponsored by Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and backed by the grassroots coalition, Save America’s Forests, is the latest attempt to change the US Forest Service from its former role as a handmaiden to the timber industry to a new role as caretakers of America’s public natural forest ecosystems. Among other things, the Act would prohibit clearcutting, preserve Ancient Forests and roadless lands, while mandating the agency protect and restore biodiversity. The Act would also transfer the Giant Sequoia National Monument from the Forest Service, which persists in logging in the sequoia groves despite its national monument status , to the Park Service which has a good track record on preserving the sequoias in the neighboring Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park. The Act also gained an innovative new section this year which requires the National Park Service to conduct a comprehensive study of all U.S. ecosystems to determine where holes exist in our ecological protection of natural landscapes, and to propose creation of new national parks in all these areas to correct this deficiency. The Act was first introduced into Congress in 1996 and has been reintroduced in each successive Congress since then, most recently this past September. With the new makeup of Congress and a new President in the Whitehouse, backers of this legislation feel the time is perhaps right to enact this sweeping legislation. Besides protecting over 60 million acres of “core areas” – riparian areas, Ancient Forests and Roadless areas, the bill specifically bans logging and road-building in over a hundred other specially designated “special areas” mostly in Eastern and Mid-Western national forests. These include areas with high biological value such as wildlife migration corridors, key habitat for rare species, rare habitats, and areas with high levels of biodiversity, among others. Other special areas include forests with high recreational, geologic, cultural, and/or scenic value. Even such things like opportunities for solitude that previously were not among the values given protection from logging impacts would be given consideration. http://wuerthner.blogspot.com/2008/11/act-to-save-americas-forests.html

30) The election is over, but the risk of corporate giveaways by an outgoing Bush Administration has never been greater. In fact, the Bush Administration is rushing out long-term plans that would convert the ancient forests of western Oregon, with their towering trees, rushing rivers, and superb wildlife habitat, to empty clearcuts. Under these plans, logging our public forests would dramatically increase, more than tripling the current level. More than a thousand miles of damaging logging roads would be built within the forests. Let them know we’re watching. Say NO to the Bush Administration’s attempt to sell off some of our last ancient forests to the timber industry.

http://action.wilderness.org/campaign/ognw/in8se64l38k3j3?

–Today for you 31 news articles about earth’s trees! (431st edition) http://forestpolicyresearch.org

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Index:

–Pacific Northwest: 1) Economic reality,

–British Columbia: 2) Fish Hearts fail due to lack of streamside shade, 3) Pine Beatle and carbon sequestration, 4) Illegal community forest planning, 5) Letter to Minister Bell regarding forest issues, 6) Corporations make money off REDD,

–Washington: 8) Logging in Mount Spokane Park,9) Lake Whatcom Landscape Plan,

–Oregon: 10) Misusing forest science to argue for logging old growth, 11) Cont. by Gerge Wuernther, 12) State board to rewrite plan for more logging, 13) Industry and enviros agree? 14) Economy a threat to small woodlot owners, 15) Senator-elect Jeff Merkley speaks, 16) Note scrawled on a loader leads to terror scare, 17) WOPR treesit protest in Salem, 18) BARK is in the news again,

–California: 19) Green Diamond plans for 5000 houses on forestland, 20) UCSC treesit celebrates one year of resistance,21) Cont. 22) Save the Redwoods this Christmas, 23) 20 acres of old growth protected, 24) New Land acquisition in Humboldt county, 25) More park bond measures, 26) State’s official recommendations regarding fires in Santa Cruz, 27) 235-acre Timber Harvest Plan

–Montana: 28) 9th Circuit rejects enviro challenge of first healthy forest restoration act timber sale, 29) State wildlife officials propose removing insect-damaged trees from Mount Haggi,

–Colorado: 30) Lynx plan will reduce logging

–Southwest: 31) Mexican Spotted Owl

Articles:

Pacific Northwest:

1) Thanks to the recent financial crisis, somewhat an encore of a very similarly structured one that followed the transPacific lending, logging, building boom of the 1980s, and one with a lot of similarity the financial crises for Japan and America in the 1990s. I’ve been putting together a primer and field guide for anyone seeking answers to Kipling’s classic questions of what, when, where, why, how, and who. The Economist once asked whether we make the same financial mistakes again and again, or is each unique? The answer in both cases, The Economist concluded, is yes. We make the same mistakes over and over again, and every encore is unique. I think that’s so. But I also think that the basic script, played out on stages on both sides of the North Pacific and beyond, is a persistently repeated and spectacle where the forests fall first, and the banks fall just later enough to make the connection from forest to finance extremely difficult for the casual observer to perceive. This drama is escalated to boom scale by massive infusions of capital from the lending industry, and brings down banks galore. Knowing what I know or think I know about this drama after the past couple decades of watching and taking notes, I thinks it’s good enough for everyday discourse to say that the forests may as well fall directly on banks. But we all know that the crushing consequences have never stopped there. As became especially clear to Americans with the collapse of U.S. President George W. Bush’s much-touted “ownership society,” the forests may as well have also fallen directly on the dreams of millions of homebuyers, would-be retirees who knowingly or otherwise pinned their aspirations on the financial economy, and the millions ultimately forced to bail out fractured financial systems.For some, the very idea of any important, potent connection from falling forests to failing banks will forever be preposterous. I’ve done no credible poll, but my strongest hunch is that logging industry chieftains will likely insist that they had no reason whatever to suspect that, first from 1981 through 1988, and then again circa 2001 through 2008, the wood they were selling was headed straight for a debt-financed construction binge, and that there were risks to the finances of nations lurking out there on the horizon. Now, a sawyer or feller-buncher out in the woods might have high credibility if denying guilty knowledge of home foreclosures and bank rescues coming down the road. Well, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the crème de al crème in the elite corner offices of logging empires attempt the same confession of ignorance. http://redstaterebels.org/2008/11/of-lending-and-logging/

British Columbia:

2) UBC study establishes formula for predicting climate change impact on salmon stocks University of British Columbia researchers have found a way to accurately predict the impact of climate change on imperilled Pacific salmon stocks that could result in better management strategies. The findings, among the first to quantify a relationship between river temperature and salmon mortality rate, are published in the current issue of the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology. While climate change and rising river temperatures have been linked to dwindling salmon stocks, other factors have made it difficult to measure the exact impact – these including diseases, fisheries and man-made structures such as dams and fish ladders. “Calculating the affect of climate change on animal fitness has been particularly challenging for scientists,” says lead author Tony Farrell, who is jointly appointed in the Dept. of Zoology and the Faculty of Land and Food Systems. “Animals have a thermal window, or high and low temperatures between which they are at their best for aerobic activities. Our study has shown that high temperatures push certain sockeye salmon stocks beyond their thermal window, resulting in cardiovascular failure and death,” says Farrell. Led by Farrell and Prof. Scott Hinch in the Dept. of Forest Sciences and the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, the UBC team has been studying Pacific salmon using biotelemetry trackers for a decade. They have identified the optimal thermal windows for several species of Pacific salmon, which coincide with the historic temperatures the fish would have encountered while migrating in the river. In 2004, unusually warm river temperatures and earlier entry into the Fraser River system contributed to the “disappearance” of 70 per cent of the Weaver Creek sockeye stock. “We analyzed river temperature data and the sockeye’s migration dates and found that almost half of the population likely experienced temperatures that would cause a complete collapse of aerobic scope,” says Farrell. “In contrast, the Gates Creek sockeye stock, which have a higher thermal window, experienced few problems with the same high river temperatures that year.” In further investigations, the UBC team captured and placed individual fish in holding tanks of varying temperatures to simulate traversing different river temperatures before releasing them simultaneously back to the migratory run. Fish released from a high holding temperature were half as successful as those from colder environments at reaching their spawning grounds. In a separate study, fish were intercepted during migration and implanted with biotelemetry trackers. None of the tracked salmon survived after release at river temperatures above the thermal window (at 19.5 degrees Celsius). Fish released at a cooler river temperature – one within the thermal window – later in the summer had much greater survival rates. “This study shows that an increase over the past 50 years of 1.8 degrees Celsius in the Fraser River’s peak summer temperatures is too much too fast for some salmon stocks,” says Farrell. Contact: Brian Lin brian.lin@ubc.ca 604-822-2234

3) For many decades, he and thousands of others in this part of central B.C. have drawn their livelihoods from the forests, but those forests are dying. With the mountain pine beetle killing off virtually all of the pine in the area, Mr. Long calculated that the annual allowable cut will drop by 50% in coming years. His business as a forest policy consultant was at risk of dying with the trees. He needed something new, and others in the area did, too. So Mr. Long teamed up with a small group of colleagues and competitors to look for ways to resurrect profit from the forest carnage. What they came up with makes them the latest in a small but growing group of Canadians to spot opportunity in global warming. With the help of Jeff Calvert, an MBA student who devised the plan, Mr. Long and eight other industry players — including foresters, tree-planters, auditors and consultants — formed Borealis Carbon Offsets Ltd. Their mission: to sell their trees’ ability to suck greenhouse gases from the atmosphere into the fast-growing voluntary offsets market. “If you look at the amount of sales in carbon it’s skyrocketing. It’s so bright you don’t have to wear shades. You gotta wear welding goggles,” said Duane Maki, a partner in Borealis who serves as CEO of tree-planting company Spectrum Resource Group. “So we see lots of opportunity. And we believe this is going to take right off.” Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc, the British maker of products like Lysol and Clearasil, paved the way with a similar project in the area — it plans to plant two million trees over 15 square kilometres. And Borealis is not the first Canadian company to attach its hopes to the multi-billion-dollar market, which has leapt to prominence as companies seek to escape carbon penalties and burnish their environmental images. North Vancouver-based Ecosystem Restoration Associates Inc., (ERA) which plants trees in the province’s Lower Mainland and sells offsets to Air Canada, rock bands and movie studios, is perhaps the best-known domestic competitor. Some carbon experts are skeptical of the claims made by those tree-planting for carbon — especially since the risk of fires and pests make it difficult to guarantee the carbon will really be sucked up over eight decades. http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/business/story.html?id=95da9282-1df2-4eff-bbee-2398c1c571c2

4) We would like to comment on a recent article in the Creston Valley Advance (Community Forest Gets License Upgrade) concerning the Creston Valley Forest Corporation. It concerns your administration’s issuance of a contentious 99-year community forest license agreement within the boundaries of four community watersheds and Watershed Reserves, a license which we have reported on, criticized, and objected to for ten years. Two and a half years ago, in your prior portfolio as Minister of Agriculture and Lands, you received a copy of our book, From Wisdom to Tyranny: A History of B.C.’s Drinking Watershed Reserves. You were the only Minister, aside the Ministers of Forests and Environment, who sent us a written reply: “The exhaustive amount of effort you have put into this work is admirable. I have forwarded it to staff in the ministry for their review and reference.” (June 28, 2006) Within the book are copies of old Forest Atlas and Legal Survey maps of the Watershed Reserves (pages 113, 114) that are now within this community forest license. These Reserves, numbered at over three hundred in the early 1980s, were to legislatively protect community drinking watersheds from all dispositions, the same legislation that protected and protects the provincial Ecological Reserves. In fact Arrow Creek, which now makes up the majority of the community forest license tenure, was, under the banner of “No Timber Sales”, fortified under three separate protections: a Watershed Reserve; a Game Reserve; and a Health District. Sometime in the 1960s the designations of Game Reserve and Health District, which prevented human access, mysteriously disappeared under the Social Credit administration. Much of the scandals and controversies regarding the invasion of the provincial Watershed Reserves established under the Land Act are detailed in Chapter 8 of the book, details which derive from Ministries of Forests’ and Environment records. In that chapter is also a discussion of the regional planning process behind the East and West Kootenay Boundary Land Use Plans conducted in the early 1990s, in which new logging objectives in all the affected and protected community watersheds were set, including those community drinking water lands now held by the Creston Valley Forest Corporation. We discovered that provincial government planners who sat at the Land Use planning tables, who were legally bound to bring all information forward, secretly kept some information from reaching the planning table, by failing to inform the public about the Watershed Reserves. What we infer from this neglect, intentional or otherwise, that it rendered the Land Use Plans and related management planning illegal, from the perspective of lands bounded by these Reserves. http://www.alternatives.com/bctwa

5) Old growth forests on the southern BC coast have already been reduced to below the minimum required to maintain biodiversity and keystone habitat, and everyone living in reality recognizes that by now, I hope. The trouble is, this has immensely increased the pressure to harvest the second growth forests at lower elevations long before they have reached maturity, and this is perhaps an even greater economic and ecological disaster than the dwindling old growth. Why? Because second growth forests are also the future source of potential old growth habitat at low elevations, and the quality of wood needed for value-added manufacturing, at least the kind of value-added manufacturing that employs skillful woodworkers, continues to plummet. It’s impossible to make traditional high-value wood furniture, windows, doors, boats,  etc. out of the sappy young wood now being harvested in immature plantations. Since I make my living with wood, I really do see that the state of our forests continues to be one of incremental decline: not only in the quality of wood being produced by younger forests, but also in the amount of carbon being sequestered and stored per hectare, a crucial factor in  combating the dangerous climate changes looming on the horizon. Young trees and understory vegetation simply do not absorb as much CO2 as more mature forests, in spite of what Rick Slaco or the BC Competition Council says. After all, that’s what the forestry term “culmination age” really means. This on average is at least around 125+ years in managed Douglas Fir, somewhere around 250+ in managed Red Cedar. But Industry is now chopping it all down at 60 or less, eliminating the very best years of tree growth entirely, disturbing and eliminating carbon sinks, and dismantling critical forest structure for biodiversity as well. This is a crime of immense proportions, inflicted against present and future generations. Until government and industry make a strong legal commitment to end this premature extraction, and grow more mature forests on longer ecological rotations, we will continue to go rapidly downhill, both economically and ecologically, until the once-great forests of coastal BC are as thin as green paint. David Shipway, Secretary - Cortes Ecoforestry Society - cortecos@island.net

6) Robert Falls, CEO of Ecosystem Restoration Associates Inc., says he believes that his firm will get a major boost from a September meeting in New York — Protecting Rainforest Communities and Our Climate, which focused on the impact of deforestation on global warming. “The initial thing that came out of this is that it’s finally recognized that greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation is larger than emissions from vehicles, aircraft, ships and trains combined,” Falls, who attended the two-day event, said in an interview. “And we’re in the business of restoring and protecting forest ecosystems. This is critical for our company.” Falls said the event, which gathered together many global leaders (including two Nobel laureates: former U.S. vice-president Al Gore and and Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement), reinforced the idea that in addressing the challenge of climate change, “forest restoration and forest protection play an essential role in climate change mitigation.” Essentially, Falls said, his company ERA provides a “truly green climate solution” by implementing a system that generates carbon offsets through ecosystem restoration for local governments or organizations. The process, he said, combines tree planting and other land-restoration measures to increase biodiversity, remove invasive species and restore water systems without using taxpayer dollars. ERA maintains their work is important because the United Nations estimates that deforestation accounts for about 20 per cent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. “The most viable way to remove large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere is through the photosynthetic action of healthy forest ecosystems,” Falls said. “ERA restores degraded forests and protects them for the long term.” http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=105d9ea2-4284-4b6b-89f6-6eb0cbe74fe5

Washington:

8) Forest “doctors” are using chainsaws this fall to improve the health of Mount Spokane State Park. The work is designed to enhance habitat while removing forest fuels that can cause dangerous wildfires. “We had a meeting up here Monday to show interested people what we were doing and that eased their fears,” said Steve Christensen, park manager. “They thought we were logging, but we’re just thinning, primarily small grand fir that’s taking over in some places.” Washington State Parks officials have been planning the forest health project in the 13,821-acre park since 2006, said Rob Fimbel, the agency’s chief of natural resource stewardship. Although only 50-60 acres will be treated this fall, plans call for thinning on about 1,000 acres primarily on the southwest side of the mountain, Fimbel said. “Most people won’t even know we’ve been in there,” Fimbel said. “Primarily, we’re removing small grand fir less than 5 inches in diameter that create a potential ladder for fire to climb into the forest canopy. “We’ll leave patches untouched with the goal to maintain or improve wildlife habitat as we go.” The planning effort surveyed 4,200 acres of the park, by about 75 percent of that area was considered too rugged or inaccessible to treat, he said. “Basically, we might cause more problems than we would solve by going in there,” he said. “In the future, we might prescribe small areas for fire.” First snow: Tuesday marked the first work day of the season for Mount Spokane State Park snow plows. “We had to get out and clear about three inches of snow off the roads,” Christensen said. Washington Sno-Park permits will be required on vehicles at park trailheads starting around Thanksgiving, he said. Nordic trail helpers: There’s still time to join volunteers meeting today at Mount Spokane starting at 9 a.m. and working into the afternoon for one last stab at clearing brush from the park’s cross-country ski trails before winter. The Spokane Nordic Ski Education Foundation has organized numerous work grips this fall to cut firewood and prepare the 30 kilometers of trails for snow-cat grooming. http://www.spokesmanreview.com/tools/story_pf.asp?ID=267214

9) In a more rational world, the Lake Whatcom Landscape Plan would be less controversial and no school district would have had to scramble for a slightly larger piece of a clearly inadequate pie. Nor would anyone try to tie the future of education - which seems likely to become more and more important - to the future of logging - which does not. The Lake Whatcom plan would be less controversial because. 1) Although the lands granted to Washington by the federal government must generate money for schools and other public institutions, I believe they don’t have to do so exclusively, to the detriment of environmental and other values. Article XVI of the Washington constitution states: “All the public lands granted to the state are held in trust for all the people.” That must mean something. Do you think the framers of our constitution really wanted the state to endanger a municipal water supply or the safety of its citizens in order to squeeze a few more bucks from timber that people of their era wouldn’t have bothered cutting? 2) The framers of the constitution did not expect those granted lands to produce maximum revenue. They received two petitions asking them to require maximum revenue. The framers of other state constitutions did. Ours didn’t. 3) Certainly, no one expects the granted lands to produce maximum revenue right now. A Chelan County Superior Court said unambiguously that “nothing in the law . . . requires the Department (of Natural Resources) to maximize current income.” 4) Forest board lands are a different story, of course - just not quite the story that some people assume. Net income from those lands must go to local government, but generating money for local government isn’t the purpose of the lands, The purpose is growing trees. You can look it up. The 1921 law allowing the state to take over forest lands from the counties said its purpose was to further the “acquirement [sic] and designation of lands . . . to be used for the development and growth of timber.” A similar law passed two years later referred to “the acquiring, seeding, reforestation and administering of lands for state forests.” Even in the good old days, the forests have never fully supported public schools. Washington’s forests made a lot of people rich, but they never made Washington public schools rich. And neither has anything else. This state has never managed to put its money where its mouth is. http://www.bellinghamherald.com/615/story/661798.html

Oregon:

10) Industry is misusing the Spies et al. paper for their agenda. No surprise. Bu the paper explicitly addresses only DRY forests and those dry forests in the NWFP are slivers of owl habitat on the east side of the Cascades and forests in Southern OR and N Calif - both areas that have had LOTS of fire. The thinning called for is important to owls who do not hunt easily in old stands packed with young trees. –Tom stumpsdontlie@googlegroups.com Threats to old-growth trees in the region’s federal forests have changed over the decade and a half since the Northwest Forest Plan went into effect in 1994. While logging of the big, old trees has dropped dramatically since the plan, wildfires are now consuming more acres of the valuable habitat. That switch, reinforced by numbers from a new study by U.S. Forest Service scientists and others, means forest managers need to take action across the landscape to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires, according to the authors. “There’s a widespread recognition of that need, but it needs to be repeated again and again, because there’s a lot of inertia,” said Tom Spies, a research forester with the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station in Corvallis. “It’s not enough to go out and treat a few acres here and a few acres there; it has to be done in a pretty broad, strategic way.” The study is part of the Northwest Forest Plan’s monitoring program, Spies said, to gauge the success of the plan, which outlined how federal forests should be managed for the protection of spotted owl habitat as well as timber production. The researchers, including people from other federal research stations and Oregon State University, used satellite images from between 1972 and 2002 to track what was happening to forests with trees bigger than 20 inches across. They found that loggers cut an increasing amount of large trees on federal lands from the late 1970s to the late 1980s, but then activity abruptly fell off after the late 1990s. In the East Cascade region, which includes the western slice of the Deschutes National Forest, the researchers didn’t find a big drop in harvest rates since there wasn’t much to start with, the study stated. But in that East Cascade region, as well as in Southern Oregon, there was a noticeable difference in the number of fires — especially with 2002’s Biscuit Fire in southwest Oregon. “There’s been a dramatic increase in fire in the last decade, both in absolute terms and in relation to areas lost to harvest,” Spies said. Before the plan, he said, the area of large trees lost to wildfire was a small fraction of that lost to logging on federal lands. But in the decade after the plan went into effect, that flipped and wildfires caused 2.2 times as many acres of big, old trees to be lost than chain saws did. “We’re looking at the landscape, trying to prioritize where our treatments should go,” Allen said. http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081112/NEWS0107/811120389/1041&nav_category=

11) To: kramsayer@bendbulletin.com Dear Kate: Saw your article reporting that fires are now burning up more old growth than logging. I wanted to provide you some perspective on this issue. I’m the editor of Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy and an ecologist. I disagree with the TNC representative about the fires. We NEED large fires. What we are finding now is not unusual.  The forests are readjusting to changed climatic conditions. When someone like the TNC person says crown fires are bad or not the way it used to be–she is looking in a rear view mirror. That WAS the way fires burned, but that is not the way forests are today. The new climatic conditions are changing fire regimes in the West. There are some ecologists today that will tell you that we don’t have enough fires. That we need more snags. More dead trees, and so on.The major value of “old growth” trees is not the age of the trees, but the ecological function of the forest. It is the large boles, the snags, etc. that are the prime value of old growth. So long as we don’t salvage log, we will still have most of this function intact. Plus the view that fires are killing more old growth is a consequence of our short term perspective. If you take a long term view, the fires are we are seeing today are not out of the ordinary according to many long term studies. We are stuck looking back a few hundred years for the most part, but if you take a longer view (using other techniques to look at forest/fire history) you find that large crown fires are actually the “norm” A second thing to keep in mind is that most fires do not kill all trees. They burn in a mosaic so while we are seeing more crown fires, it’s not like all the trees are being killed inside the bounds of any burn area. So in some ways that study is misleading and over estimates the impacts of fires. George Wuerthner wuerthner@earthlink.net

12) SALEM — Oregon’s Board of Forestry agreed Thursday to rework a blueprint for the Tillamook and Clatsop state forests that hasn’t provided near the logging revenue that strapped coastal counties and the timber industry expected when the board adopted it more than seven ye