Jun 2
BLM is notorious for rejecting natural habitat, natural pathogens, natural viable ecosystems. The removal of trees harmed by pathogens creates an ecosystem lacking in pathogens, which in turn attracts more pathogens. Please contact them and let them know that dwarf
mistletoe creates valuable habitat for many species, that dwarf
mistletoe is an essential charecteristic of a healthy eocsytem. Please let them know that removing infected trees is going to make the forest more vulnerable to more catastrophic disturbances. Issue previously posted about here --Editor, Forest Policy Research
The federal Bureau of Land Management is
seeking public comment on a plan to remove diseased trees in a 250-acre
area on BLM-managed lands in southern Blaine County. The project,
designed to restore an area of unhealthy forest, is specifically in and
around Sharp's Canyon, southeast of Bellevue. Restoration efforts
would consist of removing Douglas fir trees infected with dwarf
mistletoe, which robs the host tree of water and nutrients. When the
disease reaches severe levels, trees begin to decline and become more
susceptible to insect attacks and drought.
The proposed removal
of diseased trees includes options for removing salvageable timber
products and the use of prescribed fire. Salvageable material would be
removed from areas that can be feasibly reached via existing roads and
trails. Where removal is not feasible, prescribed fires would be used
to reduce fuel loading. After diseased trees are removed, areas with
limited chances for successful natural regeneration would be
hand-planted with seedlings.
For more details about this project, visit www.blm.gov/id/st/en/info/nepa.html
and access the Bell Mountain Public Information Document under the
Shoshone Field Office heading, or contact the Shoshone BLM at id_shoshone_fo@blm.gov or (208) 732-7204.
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Jun 2
Irving Woodlands LLC is seeking to “blackmail” the Maine Legislature and avoid collective bargaining with independent logging contractors by halting work Monday on the more than 1 million acres it owns in northern Maine, two state lawmakers charge. The J.D. Irving Ltd. subsidiary argued Friday that it is the only landowner affected by a 2004 state law allowing forest workers to bargain.
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http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/107404.html 
Read about all forest issues in Maine here:
http://forestpolicyresearch.org/category/north-american-tree-news/maine/“We are hoping for a resolution to this,” Mary Keith, vice president of communications for the New Brunswick-based corporation, said Monday. “The global market is fiercely competitive and we must do everything we can to ensure a cost-effective wood supply — not only for our own operations in the state but also to the 20-plus Maine mills that depend on our wood supply. “In the last year alone, wood prices paid to us by our customers in the state have fallen by up to 25 percent,” Keith added. Sen. Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, a logger who co-sponsored the law with state Rep. John L. Martin, D-Eagle Lake, doubted legislators would back down.
The law has never been enforced, as lawmakers have repeatedly suspended enforcement in response to Irving threats, they said. “I do think that the Irving employees should go file for unemployment this week because nothing is going to happen in the immediate future,” Martin said Monday.
“I am not going to operate from threats and from blackmail,” he added. “I am not willing to sit down and talk to them unless they are willing to put their employees back to work. They were never part of this, and now they are being used.”
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http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/107404.html Read about all forest issues in Maine here:
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Jun 2
Slaughtering the Amazon,
charges that major international companies are unwittingly driving the
deforestation of the Amazon rainforest through their purchases of
leather, beef and other products supplied from the Brazil cattle
industry. Greenpeace found that Brazilian beef companies are important
suppliers of raw materials used by leading global brands, including
Adidas/Reebok, Nike, Carrefour, Eurostar, Unilever, Johnson &
Johnson, Toyota, Honda, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada, IKEA, Kraft, Tesco
and Wal-Mart, among others.
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http://lougold.blogspot.com/2009/06/slaughtering-amazon-in-series-of-high.html
Brought to you by:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/slaughtering-the-amazonRead about all forest issues in Brazil:
http://forestpolicyresearch.org/category/latin-american-tree-news-2/brazil/
Clearly, the intention is to
sensitize major global consumers and the corporations that manufacture
and deliver beef-related products to bring pressure for real operative
conservation practices in Brazil. A few years ago a similar campaign
targeting soybean production resulted in an industry-led soy moratorium on planting in illegally logged areas
of the Brazilian Amazon. Similarly, consumer consciousness may be able
to reduce the linkage between ranching and future illegal
deforestation. As with the soy campaign the hope is that eco-sensitive
public opinion in the marketplace -- as in the EU -- might become a
leverage toward better practices.
Additionally, emerging global
climate policies such as REDD have been offering the possibilities of
new market incentives which are already producing something of a
rapprochement between antagonists like Minister of Environment Carlos
Minc and Soy King and Mato Grosso Governor Blairo Maggi who have agreed
to new policies intended to guide landowners into a new era of protecting the environment in exchange for payments for ecosystem services.
While there are high profile campaigns by world leaders -- such as Prince Charles and Wangari Maathai -- and cautious support for payments for avoided deforestation, there are many uncertainties and Greenpeace and several other environmental groups remain highly skeptical of using carbon offsets for avoided deforestation.
It's
definitely not going to be easy to birth a new era of harmony between
conservation and development, either for the global economy or for Amazônia
where the Brazilian Ministry of Environment is often sabotaged in
Congress by the more powerful Ministries of Agriculture, Energy and
Transportation. Indeed, Minister Minc is already facing many of the obstacles that drove his predecessor Marina Silva to her resignation.
As
politics and personalities and promises grab the headlines it is
important keep in view the pictures of what is happening on the ground
where we citizens of Planet Earth -- in Brazil and in the world -- may be losing the future of the Amazon forest.Please value the writer & producer of these words by paying a visit to:
http://lougold.blogspot.com/2009/06/slaughtering-amazon-in-series-of-high.html
Read about all forest issues in Brazil:
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Jun 1
Environmentalists were stunned to learn from Rahall's office May 15
that the EPA had given its blessing to 42 out of the 48 mine projects
it had reviewed so far -- including two dozen mountaintop removals. "It
was a big disappointment," said Joan Mulhern, a lawyer for
Earthjustice, an environmental law firm that has led court challenges
to mountaintop removal. "It's disturbing and surprising that this
administration, headed by a president who has expressed concern about
mountaintop removal, would let such a large number of permits go
forward without explanation." Mulhern charged that the EPA "blew off"
Jackson's earlier promises that
the agency would adhere to science and would conduct an open process.
Please value the writer & producer of these words by paying a visit to:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-mountaintop-mining31-2009may31,0,7589633.story
For all stories about Obama Forests:
http://forestpolicyresearch.org/tag/obama-forest/ The White House is "searching for a way to walk this tightrope," said
Phil Smith, a spokesman for the United Mine Workers of America. "They
have a large constituency of people who want to see an immediate end to
mountaintop removal, and an equally large constituency . . . whose
communities depend on those jobs." Shortly after his inauguration, Obama won praise from the green lobby
for taking a skeptical view of the mining process. And in March the EPA
announced it would review the mountaintop projects, breaking from the
Bush administration's practice of granting permits with little or no
scrutiny.
The EPA has the authority to block mountaintop removal under the Clean
Water Act. But if the agency raises no objections, the final decision
on projects is made by the Army Corps of Engineers, which historically
has approved mountaintop mining. The corps previously had indicated its
intention to approve 48 pending permits. Although environmentalists had expected the new administration to put
the brakes on mountaintop removal, Rahall and other mining advocates
have pointed out that Obama did not promise to end the practice and was
more open to it than his Republican opponent, Arizona Sen. John McCain. A review of Obama's campaign statements show that he had expressed
concern about the practice without promising to end it. On a West
Virginia visit, when asked about the impact of the mining on the
state's streams, he said he wanted "strong enforcement of the Clean
Water Act," adding: "I will make sure the head of the Environmental
Protection Agency believes in the environment."
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-mountaintop-mining31-2009may31,0,7589633.story
Jun 1
A
current proposal with the Oregon Board of Forestry would allow "maximum
profitable harvests"-- essentially clear cutting our state forests. The Board of Forestry is meeting on Wednesday to decide on a new
management plan for our state forests.
Please contact Governor Kulongoski and the Board of Forestry and
tell them not to clear cut our state forests.
Our state forests provide abundant habitat for fish and game as well as
recreation-- like hiking and mountain biking.
This new Forest
Management Plan would abandon the concept of balanced management on our state
forests and turn publicly owned treasures like the Tillamook and Clatsop State
Forests into commercial tree farms.
These forests already provide
income to the state each year. But our current management plan balances logging
with other uses such as clean water, fishery health, and recreation. Oregon's
public forests also serve as a carbon sink, removing global warming gases from
our atmosphere. This proposal to put timber harvest above all other uses will
inevitably cause environmental impacts that can't yet be predicted.
Tell the Board of Forestry and Governor Kulongoski to protect our
publicly owned forests by taking action at: action.sierraclub.org/stopORclearcutting
Increasing
timber harvests in our public forests would damage drinking water sources, harm
rich salmon fisheries, and degrade recreational opportunities on our publicly
owned state forest lands.
We need your help to convince Governor
Kulongoski and the Board of Forestry to protect our vital state forests.
Click here
to contact the Board of Forestry and Governor Kulongoski.
Jun 1
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack issued a temporary order yesterday (last thursday) governing development in "roadless" areas of national forests, requiring all new projects to be approved by him personally. Vilsack's order, which will be in effect for a year, is the latest turn in an eight-year-old battle over 58.5 million acres of pristine woods. President Bill Clinton made these areas off-limits in 2001, but President George W. Bush effectively reopened some in 2005. That led to a series of court cases that ultimately replaced the national policy with a patchwork of regional rules.
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Vilsack, whose purview includes the U.S. Forest Service, did what environmental groups had been urging: call a "timeout." Agriculture Department officials said that while the temporary order is in effect, the Obama administration and Congress will try to create a permanent policy on roadless regions. They said Vilsack's caseload is not expected to be large: Over the past eight years, one official estimated, 30 to 40 projects have been proposed in these areas. "We're raising the level of scrutiny," said Chris Mather, a spokeswoman for Vilsack.
"From this moment . . . we are going to make sure that our forests are protected in all projects we approve." In most of the country, USDA officials said, managers of individual forests have been deciding where to allow development. They did not permit much: One official said that about 70 miles of road had been built in these areas over the past eight years. And during that time, the official said, more miles of road were eliminated in these areas. Jim Matson of the Utah Forest Products Association said he is glad that the Obama administration is working on a national policy because years of limbo have made it hard for businesses to plan. "You've got communities and workers and capital tied up while -- basically, while the feds figure out what they want to be when they grow up," Matson said.
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visit to:
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Jun 1
After a meeting with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday last week, Minc told reporters that government ministers "are going behind his back to Congress, 'each with their little hatchets, pushing amendments that tear to pieces and disfigure environmental legislation,'" according to the AP. "I explained to President Lula that the (environment) ministry is under attack," he was quoted as saying by Reuters. "The environment is being attacked by Congress and society."
Please value the writer & producer of these words by paying a visit to:
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0601-brazil_politics.html
Read about all forest issues in Brazil:
http://forestpolicyresearch.org/category/latin-american-tree-news-2/brazil/Minc has taken an active
role in battling Amazon deforestation, reducing credit access to
illegal loggers and ranchers, seizing agricultural products and cattle
produced on illegally deforested lands, and pushing for new protected
areas. His efforts have angered powerful development interests and at
times have put his at odds with President Lula, who is promoting new
road and hydroelectric projects. Still Minc told reporters that Lula
supported him on "six of the eight issues he raised, including a ban on
sugar cane planting in the Pantanal," according to Reuters.
Last year President Lula unveiled an ambitious program to
reduce Amazon deforestation by 70 percent from a 1996-2005 baseline,
although bulk of the cuts are targeted for after he leaves office. Lula
hopes to finance the $21 billion plan by soliciting donations from
industrialized countries. To date only Norway has committed funds.
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http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0601-brazil_politics.html
