A U.N. report indicates the planet is losing its forests. The U.S. and Europe have had net gains in forests, despite continued development. Poorer areas of the world are losing forests faster. (Photo by Lester Graham)
You might think that the countries with the most development are cutting down the most forests. But a new report by the United Nations shows that the United States and much of Europe are showing net increases in wooded areas. Julie Grant reports:
Transcript
You might think that the countries with the most development are cutting down the most forests. But a new report by the United Nations shows that the United States and much of Europe are showing net increases in wooded areas. Julie Grant reports:
It’s the countries where a lot of people are poor, or face conflict, where clear-cutting and uncontrolled fires are continuing deforestation. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization has just issued a report on the the world’s forests. It finds that about 32 million acres of woods are lost each year.
That meant a loss of 3% of the world’s forests between 1990 and 2005. One of the agency’s foresters says the net loss is actually lower than in the past, but he says the world is still losing woodlands at an unacceptable rate.
Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean are losing the most forests. The report says most of that land is being converted for farming. The study credits economic prosperity and careful forest management for forest gains in the US, East Asia, and much of Europe.
The pine marten is a member of the weasel family that makes its home in yellow birch trees. (Photo courtesy of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources)
Yellow birch trees can be used for lumber and paper, but they are also home to wildlife. (Photo courtesy of the Virginia Department of
Forestry)
Environmentalists and the U-S Forest Service often fight over the best way to balance between cutting timber for lumber and paper, and preserving wildlife habitat. Lately, the battle is over whether government just looks at each tract of land where it sells timber or whether it looks at the cumulative impacts of logging on National Forests. The GLRC’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:
Transcript
Environmentalists and the U.S. Forest Service often fight over the best
way to balance between cutting timber for lumber and paper, and
preserving wildlife habitat. Lately, the battle is over whether
government just looks at each tract of land where it sells timber or
whether it looks at the cumulative impacts of logging on National
Forests. The GLRC’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:
When some people look at a stand of trees they see lumber for a house or
wood for paper.
“Let’s go to the yellow birch.”
But when Ricardo Jomarron spots a stand of yellow
birch trees, he sees a valuable home for the pine marten – a member of
the weasel family. The marten is endangered in some states.
“The great thing about yellow birch is that it has a propensity to become
hollow while staying alive. So you have this wonderful den for pine
marten and other species to rear their young that isn’t going to blow over
in a windstorm.”
Jomarron is standing in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in
northern Wisconsin that’s near the border with Michigan. Last year,
Jomarron’s group, the Habitat Education Center won a federal court case
that has blocked timber sales on about 20-thousand acres in the million
and a half acre Chequamegon- Nicolet.
A judge ruled the Forest Service had violated the National
Environmental Policy Act by not considering the cumulative impact of
logging on other forest species. Logging not in just one place, but many
can have a larger impact on some wildlife that the judge said the Forest
Service didn’t consider.
But it’s not just the act of cutting down the trees that worries the
environmentalists. It’s the loss of shade that some plants need to survive
and new logging roads crossing streams where erosion damages trout
habitat.
The Chicago-based Environmental Law and Policy Center is representing the
Habitat Education Center. Attorney Howard Learner says the case is not
about banning logging in the national forests. He says it is about
restoring a system that he argues has gotten out of whack.
“In part because the Forest Service was looking at one timber sale and what the
impacts of that were, and then they’d look at another one and what the impacts of that were, and
they didn’t look at the overall impact – and what was the forest rather
than the trees.”
The Forest Service eventually decided not to appeal the judge’s rulings to
stop the disputed sales in this one forest. It’s taking another look at the
cumulative impact of the proposed deals, but the Forest Service says it
didn’t approve the timber sales without getting advice from state and
tribal experts on water and wildlife.
Chequemegon-Nicolet forest supervisor Anne Archie says her agency
has done a good job. She says if you really want to study the total effect
of forest management, look back a century when loggers cut everything
in sight.
“70 to 100 years ago there was no national forest. It was shrub land and
burnt over grassland. Now the National Forest is there that provides a
habitat for the species. So cumulatively in 70 to 100 years, we’ve been
growing the habitat for the species that Habitat Education Center…we’ll
we’re all concerned for those species.”
But Habitat Education Center and other environmental groups say the
Forest Service still isn’t doing a thorough job of determining the impact
that logging might have. The environmentalists and conservation groups
say the agency’s follow-up study on the Chequemegon-Nicolet is like
Swiss cheese with many more holes than substance. Depending what
happens at the end of the current comment period, the groups could ask
the judge to keep the lid on the timber sales.
Logging companies that cut and mill the trees from the forest are not
happy about the legal battles.
James Flannery runs the Great Lakes Timber Company. He says if you
want to look at the cumulative impact to the forest, you should look at
the cumulative impact to the economy of the area.
“Part of the money generated from forest sales comes back to
communities. If we have no forest sales and there’s thousands of acres of
forests land that we harvest I’m more worried about the income of these
communities, which will be zero.”
But the environmental groups argue the broad expanse of the forests
need to be protected from multiple timber sales that cumulatively could
cause wider ecological damage. They say ignoring the health of the
forest ignores another important industry of the area: the tourism that
brings a lot of money to the north woods.
Officials in Michigan, Ohio, and Ontario are all gearing up for another summer of fighting the emerald ash borer. The Asian insect burrows into and kills ash trees. The economic and the environmental costs of the invasive beetle are adding up. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Bill Poorman reports:
Transcript
Officials in Michigan, Ohio, and Ontario are all gearing up for another
summer of fighting the emerald ash borer. The Asian insect burrows
into and
kills ash trees. The economic and the environmental costs of the
invasive
beetle are adding up. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Bill
Poorman
reports:
Researchers first identified the emerald ash borer just a couple of years
ago. The small, metallic-green beetle has killed millions of ash trees,
especially in southeast Michigan where thirteen counties are under
quarantine. Paul Bairley is the city forester for Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The
city is spending millions of dollars fighting the emerald ash borer. But
Bairley says, losing the trees has a significant environmental cost, as
well. Larger ash trees can provide enough oxygen for a family of four
for a
year, and other benefits.
“That same tree will provide the cooling value of about twenty
room-size air conditioners, BTU equivalents…and probably most importantly, air filtration
of pollutants. A car driven 11-thousand miles per year, that tree could
absorb effectively, recycle the exhaust from that automobile.”
Researchers think the emerald ash borer first arrived in the mid 90s
aboard
packing materials for goods shipped from Asian countries. For the
Great
Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Bill Poorman.
The Sierra Club is suing the U.S. Forest Service to block logging of aspen in national forests in three Great Lakes states. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports:
Transcript
The Sierra Club is suing the U.S. Forest Service to block logging of aspen on national forests in three Great Lakes states. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports.
The lawsuit asks a federal court to force the Forest Service to stop cutting aspen on its land in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The Sierra Club’s Anne Woiwode says the Forest Service favors aspen production at the expense of a healthy forest, and a healthy economy.
“When they choose to keep aspen at very high levels, they choose not to bring back forests that may be of greater economic value, may actually produce many more jobs than aspen does for the amount of wood produced.”
Woiwode says clear cutting aspen prevents white pine and hardwood forests from growing back.
The Forest Service says it manages forests for a variety of types and ages of trees, and doesn’t try to encourage aspen where it would not grow naturally.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Stephanie Hemphill in Duluth.
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:
A coalition in the Chicago area is putting together a unique plan to
make the most of the remnants of the forests, prairies, sand dune
beaches, and other natural areas. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Lester Graham reports that other large cities are watching to see if
Chicago is successful in bringing back native plants and animals to a
largely urban area:
A 100-acre tract in the Superior National Forest is the latest battleground in the ongoing war over how public lands are managed. It’s been the subject of court rulings, blockades, and protest rallies. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports, the conflict is stirring up an emotional debate that so far has taken the usual line of jobs versus the environment:
A U.N. report indicates the planet is losing its forests. The U.S. and Europe have had net gains in forests, despite continued development. Poorer areas of the world are losing forests faster. (Photo by Lester Graham)
