Ranchers have to pay to let their cows, sheep and goats eat plants on public land.
(Photo courtesy of the USDA)
The US Forest Service has
announced it will not increase
fees for ranchers who let their
animals graze on public lands.
Rebecca Williams reports that
makes some environmentalists mad:
Transcript
The US Forest Service has
announced it will not increase
fees for ranchers who let their
animals graze on public lands.
Rebecca Williams reports that
makes some environmentalists mad:
Ranchers have to pay to let their cows, sheep and goats eat plants on public land. This year, that monthly fee is staying put at $1.35 for each so-called “animal unit.” For example, that’s a cow and her calf, or five sheep.
Taylor McKinnon is with the Center for Biological Diversity. He says livestock grazing is one of the reasons species like the desert tortoise and Mexican gray wolf are in trouble. And he says taxpayers are subsidizing livestock grazing, and then paying to fix the damage it creates.
“We have the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service whose recovery programs are spending tremendous amounts of money to recover species who have been imperiled by livestock grazing.”
McKinnon says raising grazing fees would increase costs for ranchers.
No one at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association was available for comment.
Last year in Alabama, timber thieves stole more than a half million dollars
worth of trees.
(Photo by Randolph Femmer, courtesy of the National Biological Information Infrastructure)
The construction slump has meant
less demand for two-by-fours, but
trees are still worth big bucks.
An individual tree can be worth
anywhere from a hundred dollars
to thousands. And Tanya Ott reports timber theft is up
because of the economy:
Transcript
The construction slump has meant
less demand for two-by-fours, but
trees are still worth big bucks.
An individual tree can be worth
anywhere from a hundred dollars
to thousands. And Tanya Ott reports timber theft is up
because of the economy:
(sound of timber truck)
Timber is an important revenue stream for some areas. But from New York to
Washington State, forest managers say timber thieves have been pretty
active. Last year in Alabama, they stole more than a half million dollars
worth of trees.
State forester Linda Casey says landowners might have
earmarked that money to pay off the mortgage or send their kids to college.
“If they have timber stolen they just lost the only chance that
they have to achieve whatever goal that they had designated to use this
money for.”
Foresters say reckless timber thieves also damage wildlife habitats.
States
are cracking down. This month, Alabama will decide on tough new rules that
would make it a misdemeanor to even step on private forest land without
permission.
Forest researchers say cities need
to plant different kinds of trees.
Many cities plant only a handful of
species. (Photo courtesy of the US Forest Service)
Urban forest researchers say cities
need different kinds of trees. Having
too many of the same kind of trees
encourages pests. Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
Urban forest researchers say cities
need different kinds of trees. Having
too many of the same kind of trees
encourages pests. Lester Graham reports:
Pests have already wiped out native trees such as chestnuts, elms and now ash.
James Kielbaso is a forester with Michigan State University. He says native trees are great but, one of his students has found some cities are too reliant on them.
“An urban tree population should not consist of any more than ten or fifteen percent of any one species. He’s finding the trees that are most over-used tend to be our native trees.”
In some cases, maples make up 30% of a city’s trees. That means if a disease or a pest hits maples, a city could lose a third of its urban forest.
Kielbaso says people should plant tree species not already in the neighborhood and a few hardy foreign species could help diversify a city forest.
Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. (Photo courtesy of the National Park Service)
The US Forest Service has just released new
rules for managing the nation’s forests. Some
environmental groups say the new rules don’t do enough
to protect wildlife. They also believe it will mean more
logging on national forest land. Mark Brush reports:
Transcript
The US Forest Service has just released new
rules for managing the nation’s forests. Some
environmental groups say the new rules don’t do enough
to protect wildlife. They also believe it will mean more
logging on national forest land. Mark Brush reports:
The National Forest Service is required to draw up management plans for all 155
National Forests. Environmentalists say the new rules for drawing up these management
plans gut environmental protection standards.
The Center for Biological Diversity along with 13 other environmental groups have filed
suit against the Forest Service. They say the new rules will keep citizens in the dark.
Marc Fink is a lawyer for the Center.
“We’re talking about our public national forests. And I think it’s important to give the
citizens who are concerned about these forest the right to have meaningful standards to
hold their local officials accountable for when they’re proposing projects that might be
bad for the forests.”
Fink says, if the plan goes forward, logging could increase, or wildlife habitat could be
damaged without the public knowing about it.
The Forest Service says it’s just trying to take the red tape out of the forest planning
process.
Magazine publishers and other companies are thinking ahead and getting their paper from forests that have been certified. But what does this really mean? (Photo by Stanley Elliott)
Officials in the Midwest want to prove they’re not damaging their state forests. States that sell timber to paper companies are spending thousands of dollars to earn a certificate that says they’re managing the forests in a sustainable way. Paper producers are demanding that state foresters earn certification because officials want to stave off protests from consumers. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Celeste Headlee reports:
Transcript
Officials in the Midwest want to prove they’re not damaging their state forests. States that sell timber to paper companies are spending thousand of dollars to earn a certificate that says they’re managing the forests in a sustainable way. Paper producers are demanding that state foresters earn certification because officials want to stave off protests from consumers. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Celeste Headlee reports:
It’s lunchtime and employees on break from Compuware in downtown Detroit are browisng through the magazine racks at Borders. Melody Kranz says she reads three different magazines every month. She says she is an avid recycler and an impassioned environmentalist, but never considered what kind of paper was going into her magazines.
“I don’t know why I haven’t thought about it, I just haven’t. I will now. Because I’m a gardening nut, I love to garden. So yeah, I just never really thought about it.”
But executive David Refkin is betting that Franz and others like her would think twice before picking up Time Magazine if they thought a forest was demolished to make the paper. Refkin is the Director of Sustainable Development for Time Incorporated. He says he’s noticed a strong surge in environmental awareness over the past two or three years.
“We don’t want people looking at a magazine and feeling guilty that a stream has been damaged and the fish are dying in there, or that habitats aren’t being protected because people are practicing bad forestry practices.”
Refkin says his company wants to take action now, before consumer groups decide to boycott its magazines over ecological issues. Time uses more coated paper for its publications than any other company in the U.S. The company is asking that 80 percent of all paper products Time buys be certified by 2006.
To the average consumer, that may not seem like big news. But for paper producers and foresters, it’s earth shattering. Larry Pedersen is with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Pedersen says getting certified means years of work for state employees. The government has to prove to investigators that its management standards take into account issues such as biodiversity, water quality, soil erosion and wildlife habitat. Pedersen says the state is also required to provide records for each tree from the moments it’s planted or inventoried to the time it’s cut down and then made into planks or paper. But he says it’s worth the effort.
“A number of wood and paper-using companies brought it to our attention that they needed to have certified products because their consumers were demanding those. And with us having four-million acres of state forestlands, we saw the writing on the wall that we needed to jump on this.”
State forests in the region generate a lot of revenue. Wisconsin’s forests earn two and a half million dollars from timber sales and Ohio pulls in almost three million. Michigan’s forests bring in 30 million dollars annually. Earlier this year, Michigan’s Governor Jennifer Granholm announced that all state forests will be certified by January 1st of 2006. And the Great Lakes State is not alone… New York, Wisconsin, and Maine are also pursuing certification and Ohio and other states are considering it.
Andrew Shalit, with the environmental activist group Ecopledge, says he’s glad Time Warner is encouraging paper companies and state governments to get certified. But he says that doesn’t necessarily mean the paper is produced in an environmentally friendly way.
“It’s great to say that they’re going to get all of their paper from certified forests. The question is, who is certifying? And in the case of Time Warner, a lot of the forests are certified by a group called SFI, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, and their standards are so weak as to be almost meaningless.”
There’s a heated debate over just what certification means. There are currently two groups that certify forests in the U.S. The Sustainable Forestry Initiative, or SFI, was originally founded by the timber industry but is now an independent body. The Forest Stewardship council, or FSC, came out of the environmental movement… or more specifically, out of the effort to protect South American rainforests. Shalit says he doesn’t think SFI certification is as rigorous or as comprehensive as FSC.
“It really is a problem for the consumer because you see something in the store and it has a little green label on it with a picture of a tree and it says sustainably certified, and you think you’re buying something good. It’s hard for the individual consumer to keep up with that.”
Shalit says several states, like Michigan, have solved the dilemma of rival certification programs by getting dual certification. he says although the system has flaws, it will improve if consumers demand more stringent forestry regulations.
Executives at Time Warner hope they can avoid boycotts and pickets by taking action preemptively. The company is leading the push for forest certification in the U.S., and environmentalists say the federal government may have to bow to pressure eventually and get the national forests certified as well.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Celeste Headlee.
Stands of pine like this have been clear-cut to demonstrate an option that forest owners can take to manage their property. (Photo by Keran
McKenzie)
Most forests in the Great Lakes region are privately owned. That concerns the U.S. Forest Service because the agency says many forest owners don’t know how to properly manage their woodlands. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Grant reports that a new education project that demonstrates tree-harvesting techniques has angered some residents:
Transcript
Most forests in the Great Lakes region are privately owned. That concerns the U.S.
Forest Service because the agency says many forest owners don’t know how to properly
manage their woodlands. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Grant reports that a
new education project that demonstrates tree-harvesting techniques has angered some residents:
(sound of chain saws)
Workers are cutting down trees in a fifty-year-old pine crop. At the same time, state
foresters are leading a botanist, a private tree farmer, and a reporter through this forest
education site. One of the foresters, Rick Miller, is directing the chain saws to show what
needs to be cut for what’s called a “crop tree release.”
“This one here we selected out with the orange flags, the trees that show the best form and
dominance in the crown. They have a nice big healthy crown. And then what we’re doing is removing
any trees that are touching the crowns of those ones that are orange, and just opening it up
to give the crown more room up there to spread out and possibly increase their growth and their
vigor.”
A forest owner who wants to make money off his pine stand might do a crop tree release to
improve the quality of the remaining timber. The bigger the tree, the more money it’s worth
to a logging company.
Heading deeper in, a crop of pine trees lined up like soldiers trails to our right, and wilder
hardwoods shade us from the left. There are signs to demarcate different timbering techniques:
improvement cut, understory removal, selective cut. Project manager Frank Corona stops at one
section of oaks, maples and cherries.
“You have small trees, medium trees, some larger trees. Trees are probably selectively
harvested in here and you have all different ages of trees in this stand…”
The cool shaded path abruptly opens up. The lush canopy is replaced by harsh sunlight.
GRANT: “Oh wow, so this is the clear-cut…”
CORONA: “This is the clear-cut.”
The forest is gone… cut to the ground. All that remains are the 120 hardwood stumps on
the torn-up dirt. Botanist Steve McKee suports construction of the demonstration site.
But he also loves trees.
GRANT: “What do you think when you see that clear-cut?”
MCKEE: “Well, clear-cuts are never pretty, ya know? So, uh, I think the most shocking thing
for me is I’ve walked in this my whole life and it was surprising. But I knew it
was coming too, so…”
But some people in the community say they didn’t know the demonstration project would include
clear-cutting older trees. Anne McCormack hikes the Mohican nearly every day, clearing trails,
cleaning garbage, or enjoying the woods. The education site has been roped off from the public
during construction. But she found out there was a clear-cut demonstration in an old growth
section of the forest.
“So, I just was… I was just shocked. I mean I can’t say anything more. I just felt
terrible for… I felt terrible for the trees that stood there since before white settlers
were even in Mohican. And there they just were bulldozed and chain cut for education.
I mean, it doesn’t add up.”
McCormack’s not the only one who’s upset. A lot of people didn’t realize this is what
the Forest Service had in mind. Back at the clear-cut site, Corona says many trees suffer
from disease when they mature to 120 years. He says it’s a good age for private land owners
to consider the clear-cut option.
“This was a time where before they would rot out or anything and we see more damage, more
susceptibility health-wise in the entire stand, we could make a harvest in here and utilize
those trees and start this whole new cycle of growth in here.”
The foresters and forest owners say clear-cutting is a viable option, and just one of the
many examples at the demonstration project in the Mohican forest.
Tree farmer Scott Galloway says people need to understand that owning a forest is another
form of family farming. For instance, he got a call recently from a man who inherited 30
acres and needed money right away. He doesn’t know how to manage his tree crop.
“Where does he go? How do you make the right decisions quickly? The faster he can make
decisions, in his lifetime with his forest, the sooner he’ll be able to enjoy the benefits
of those decisions. It’s all about forestry, wildlife, natural resources. So the more education he
can get, the better those decisions will be and the better off all of us are environmentally because of it.”
The Forest Service says a demonstration project is needed because forest acreage is getting
cut up into smaller and smaller parcels. That means the forests are owned by more and more
people who need to know how to manage their timber. The Forest Service hopes this project
will help them make better decisions.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Julie Grant.
The emerald ash borer has been destroying ash trees in Michigan, Ohio, Ontario, Virginia and Maryland – and the bug is spreading. Now, agricultural officials in Michigan are developing an early warning system. By detecting the insects early, they hope to slow or even prevent their spread. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tracy Samilton reports:
Transcript
The emerald ash borer has been destroying ash trees in Michigan, Ohio,
Illinois, Maryland, and Ontario – and the bug is spreading. Now,
agricultural officials in Michigan are developing an early warning
system. By detecting the insects early, they hope to slow or even
prevent its spread. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tracy Samilton
reports:
Forestry agents will be designating a number of so-called trap trees in
every township in Michigan. The ash trees will act as sentinels. A
strip of bark will be removed from the trees, which stresses them and
makes them attractive to insects. A sticky substance called tanglefoot
will then be applied to the trees to catch the borers. Kara Bouchay is
with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
“Part of the struggle with having a borer that you can’t see most of
time because it’s underneath the bark, is when it’s in a low level
population, it basically flies under the radar. So the trap tree is a
way to bring it to a single location to detect it.”
If borers are found on a tree, all ash trees within a half-mile will be
destroyed to contain its spread. Bouchay says if the early detection
system proves itself, it will likely be implemented in other states as
well.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Tracy Samilton.
In some states in the Great Lakes region, it’s been a bad year for fruit trees. Some orchard owners are facing a devastating year. They’re trying to find some other source to bring in some money. One way farmers are choosing might hurt the environment and future income for the farmers. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
In some states in the Great Lakes region, it’s been a bad year for fruit
trees. Some orchard owners are facing a devastating year. They’re
trying to find some other source to bring in some money. One way
farmers are choosing might hurt the environment and future income
for the farmers. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham
reports:
Tart cherries are legendary in northwestern Michigan. There are cherry
festivals, cherry streets, and even some of the businesses are named in
honor of the surrounding cherry orchards.
But this year, the tart cherry crop was nearly wiped out.
(sounds of coffee shop)
On a recent Sunday morning at Barb’s Bakery in Northport, Michigan
the locals and the tourists gather for coffee and pastry. Paul Scott is
having a cup of coffee and looking through the newspaper. He’s a cherry
farmer who lives on the peninsula between Lake Michigan and Grand
Traverse Bay. He explains what happened this year to the cherry
trees…
“In early April, we had four or five days of exceptionally warm
weather. It got into the mid-80s and it pushed the vegetative growth of
the trees way past of where they should have been for that time of the
year. Subsequently, we had two devastating freezes, back-to-back, two
nights in a row.”
Compared to last year’s bumper crop, the tart cherry trees will only
produce about three-percent of the crop. Sweet cherry trees will do a
little better… with about 15 to 25-percent of the crop surviving. Scott
says farmers who still have to make their farm payments and survive
are looking for other ways to bring in some cash…
“And,
the first thing that — in a year like this — what your people do
is go look for an opportunity to sell timber if they really are jammed
and they have to have something, that’s what they’ll do.”
(truck sounds)
That’s exactly what Jim Von Holt thought about doing. Von Holt is a
fourth generation cherry farmer. As we drive on the bumpy dirt road
through his orchard, it’s hard to find a single cherry on the trees. We’re
headed to a 20-acre stand of timber, a small hardwood forest at the
back of his property…
“Maple’s predominant. Ash would be second. There’s
some cherry, beech, and a little poplin here. The maple’s what’s worth
the most.”
Von Holt says the trees here are high quality hardwoods. That could
mean some pretty good money…
“This year with absolutely, essentially no crop to sell, if
you wanted to bring the money in, this would be a good year to bring the
money in. So, yeah, it’s a money issue. I’ve always kind of looked at this
up here on this particular farm as this is just a little bit of an ace in the
hole. If times get tough — and times are tough — or get as bad as they are
this year, this was something we could come into and say ‘Now is the
time to go ahead and do this.'”
Von Holt hired a forester to help him determine which trees should be
cut now and which ones should be left standing to continue growing for
a future harvest and future income. The longer they grow, the more
valuable the trees can become.
Not everyone turns to a forester to help. The cherry farmers sometimes
just let the timber-buyer decide.
Rick Moore is the forester for the Grand Traverse and Leelanau
Conservation District. He says he encourages landowners to at least get
bids from more than one timber-buyer before agreeing to allow logging.
“Right now there are timber buyers who aware of the plight of
the cherry farmer. And there are people up here who are not so
reputable who are knocking on doors.”
And Moore says some of those loggers will take every tree that can be
harvested… especially the good maples… even if those trees should be
left standing for future harvests years down the road.
On top of that… timber-buyers are giving farmers much less for their
hardwood timber right now. Some hardwood prices have dropped to
nearly half of what they were just a few months ago. Timber buyers who
are cutting and buying trees now and then hold them until prices
rebound, could make a lot of money and leave the farmers with a lot
less income.
Jim Von Holt says that’s why he’s not cutting right now. By using a
forester to help ensure his timber stand will be around for future
selective cuts… he’s thinking about long-term income and the health of
the forest…
“So it has to be handled right. And, I’ve just watched too
many people, too many landowners in the area really take a bath on
letting just a logger come in and say ‘Hey, you know you need to cut this
place. All the 18-inch lumber needs to come out of here.’ And that’s
wrong. That’s just wrong.”
But, some of his neighbors are more worried about getting some quick
cash in a year when the tart cherry crop won’t bring in any money.
Some cherry farmers feel they just don’t have a choice.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
Foresters think they might be on the verge of eradicating a pest that destroys trees. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
Foresters think they might be on the verge of eradicating a pest that destroys trees. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports.
The Asian long horned beetle attacks maples and elms. The bug first appeared in 1996, after wood crates infested with the beetle were shipped to New York from China. A second infestation appeared in the Chicago area in 1998. Stan Smith is a manager of the tree nursery program for the Illinois Department of Agriculture. He says the Asian long horned beetle might be under control around Chicago.
“Our population, we feel, is small enough that it might be getting to the point where it might not be able to reproduce very well. Hopefully within four to five years we’ll have everything pretty well cleaned up. At least that’s what we think can happen.”
The beetle is more widespread in New York, but fortunately the insect can’t fly very far. That means it can’t spread quickly, giving foresters a better chance at eliminating the pest.
The recent announcement by the National Forest Service canceling a
cutting plan in New Hampshire’s White Mountains has Great Lakes Radio
Consortium commentator Don Ogden thinking about forestry issues we often
don’t hear about:
Ranchers have to pay to let their cows, sheep and goats eat plants on public land. (Photo courtesy of the USDA)
